We generally recommend not re-opening old topics (we don't charge extra for you to create a message
thread of your own!
), but, since it's open now, here's your answer:
Use the "binding" attribute on a container element. Backing bean code can also just get the UIViewRoot from the FacesContext and run down it manually, but it's usually simpler to provide a more direct link to the part of the view you want to customize.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.