Ordinary Magic

To me beauty appears when one feels deeply.
Dorothea Lange 

Week #52

Looking In

Well I've completed another year of the my 52 week photo challenge. Looking back on these 102 pictures, I can see how I have progressed in my ability to "see" what is around me and in my ability to capture it with my camera. 

One of the elements that I love about photography is that there is always something new to learn. One of the photographer/teachers that I owe much of my growth to is Miriam Hall. Miriam is my instructor for my Nalanda Miksang classes.  Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as "good eye." It is a form of contemplative photography that brings together the art of photography, the discipline of meditation and the Dharma Art teachings of the meditation master and scholar Chogyam Trungpa. Miriam is wise and gentle and has been instrumental in my inner growth as a photographer.

Week #24

Kicking Back On Sunday Morning

This was the last week of my Nalanda Miksang Level II class. In our final week we looked at people and other sentient beings. Here I captured the play of light on the legs - lots of lines and colors.

I have so enjoyed the class and have learned a lot along the way. I want to thank  Miriam Hall and my fellow classmates who shared the journey with me. Miriam has once again created a space to learn, reflect, and grow. Naland Miksang is a practice that will continue to influence my photography and life as I move forward.

Week #23

Impressions

To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.

Claude Monet

This week in class we looked at Monet and Impressionism in the context of looking at the phenomenal world as the way of the contemplative mind. We studied Monet and the way he used light, water, and nature to capture the the contemplative aesthetic. Monet had a fascination with water and it's reflective properties. My guiding questions for this week was - how does water reflect the world around me and in my photography practice, how does my mind reflect the images I take?

Week #22

Spring Flowers

"When we see things as they are, they make sense to us: the way leaves move when they are blown by the wind, the way rocks get wet when there are snowflakes sitting on them. We see how things display their harmony and their chaos at the same time. So we are never limited to beauty alone, but we appreciate all sides of reality properly."

Chogyam Trungpa - Shambhala The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Week #21

Sun Ray

"When you are able to look at things without saying, "This is for me or against me," "I can go along with this," or I cannot go along with this," then you are experiencing the state of being of the cosmic mirror, the wisdom of the cosmic mirror. You may see a fly buzzing; you may see a snowflake; you may see ripples of water; you may see a black widow spider. You may see anything, but you can actually look at all of those things with simple and ordinary, but appreciative, perception."

Chogyam Trungpa - Shambhala - The Sacred Path of the Warrior

So week three of Level II Miksang has been about the Ordinary Personal World or OPW. The baseline concept is the everything is ordinary and everything is magical. An object does not need to do anything to be this way, it just is. We focused on our personal environment working on how to take a "truer" picture that delivers to the viewer what we experienced in our flash of perception. At the same time incorporating into the experience or creating vs. letting it happen.

Week #20

Roses and Rain

"It is obvious. We see something. But here's the where it's profound: the contemplative practice is to transform the obvious, ordinary experience into an appreciation of the ordinary as extraordinary, the appreciation of it for what it is - the ordinary magic of being alive. It turns out that seeing itself is ordinary and yet completely miraculous."

Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography

 - John McQuade and Miriam Hall

Class assignment this week was flowers and weeds. Seemed easy at first but really trying to capture "what caught my eye" and not my preconceived image of a flower turned out to be quite the challenge. 

Week #19

Man From Above

"Nalanda Miksang's heart is the level two opening of the phenomenal world: the world of sense and sensibility, the world of ordinary magic and everyday beauty. Dot is space simultaneously reveals this resonance. It is the play of surface and depth, or event and space. Dot in space reveals this as it moves from our simple level one experiences into the many expressions of level two."

Looking and Seeing: An introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography - John McQuade and Miriam Hall

Week #18

Tree and Wall

"Our life is not average. It is unique and sacred and worth fully appreciating. Deep down we know this. Contemplative photography is a way to connect with our contemplative mind, the mind that knows this - the heart that knows this."

Looking and Seeing - Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography - Miriam Hall and John McQuade

I am looking forward to starting Level II of Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography with Miriam Hall this week. I took Level I of Nalanda Miksang last year and have been hoping to have the opportunity to take level II. Contemplative photography is a lifelong pursuit and I feel so blessed to have found such a gifted teacher in Miriam.

Week # 43 Photo Challenge

Chair Outside of Store, Murphys CA

I've been in Murphys California this weekend with my family celebrating my son's birthday. My husband I and I were out having lunch and doing some shopping on Main Street when I saw this beautiful old bench.  The colors, lines and textures grabbed my eye.

"To see in a thousandth of a second what indifferent people come close to without noticing - that is the principal of photographic reportage. And in a thousandth of a second that follows, to take a photo of what one has seen - that is the practical side of reportage."

Martin Munkaski

Week #37 Photo Challenge

Window Light

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence."

Ansel Adams

Week #36 Photo Challenge

Bark

"It is through the everydayness of such (unremarkable art) that we are blessed to experience the ordinary mind as a portal to transcendence and liberation."

Charles R. Johnson - Taming the Ox, Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture and Spiritual Practice

Week #35 Photo Challenge

Trapped

"When we practice dharma art, there's a quality of freedom in the artistic process.  Our art becomes something we discover rather than create. When we see ourselves and the world as transitory, we begin to relax, to look at what is happening with curiosity about where it leads. We don't have to try so hard. We let go. Now the real artisan begins to come out."

Steven Saitzyk 

Week #34 Photo Challenge

Sunlight 

"Light was my first love."  Sir John Herschel

Week # 33 Photo Challenge

White Flower

"Then you might see something, which is second stage. The more you look the more inquisitive you are, the more you are bound to see.  Your looking process is not restrained because you are genuine, you are gentle, you have nothing to lose and nothing to fight against ... you can see so beautifully. In fact, you can feel the warm of red and the coolness of blue and the penetrating quality of green - all at once.  You appreciate the world around you.  It is a fantastic new discovery of the world.  You would like to explore the entire universe."

            Chogyam Trumpa Rinpoche, Shambhala Sacred Path of the Warrior

Week #32 Photo Challenge

Reflections In the Lily Pond

One eye sees, the other eye feels. - Paul Klee

Week #31 Photo Challenge

Reflections at the Marina

                    You don't take a photograph. You ask quietly, to borrow it.

                                                            

                                           Unknown

Week #30 Photo Challenge

Texture and Lines

I have been slowly working through a wonderful book - Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography by John McQuade and Miriam Hall. This week I learned that Mariam Hall will be offering an online class on level 

1 Nalanda Miksang. I have already signed up for the class and look forward to engaging with a broader community of those practicing  contemplative photography. If you are also on this path I hope you will think about joining the class too!

Week #28 Photo Challenge

Curved Lines

The bells and stones have voices but,

unless they are struck, they will not sound.

- Chuang-Tzu

Week #27 Photo Challenge

Trees In The Park

I've been thinking lately about why I like to use my camera to "see" the world. I am definitely about the process of photography. Through my practice of Nalanda Miksang and contemplative photography I am learning how to carefully observe the world around me and in turn, learning at a much deeper level about this wonderful world. Observing, looking, seeing, feeling, appreciating the experience of the phenomenal world.