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 #17

Airport Reflection

"There is no way, no method, no technique which you or I can use to come into accord with the Tao, the Way of Nature, because every how, every method implies a goal. And we cannot make the Tao a goal any more than we can aim an arrow at itself."

Alan Watts

 My 52 week photo challenge started out as a way to hold myself accountable to working on my photography each week. I made rules up like I had to post every Sunday morning and it could only be a image taken that week. Over the past several months I have noticed that the "goals" of this challenge had not only overtaken the process but left me feeling constricted and not particularly very creative. So in response I think that I will shake things up a bit. I am going to post when I feel like I have something to say - this could be daily or weekly - time will tell. I just know that I want to focus more on the process than the outcome so the goals and rules need to be put aside so that I can stay more aligned with the now.

Week #16

Dancing Trees

"Alterness is the hidden discipline of familiarity."

David Whyte

I listened to another wonderful interview from Krista Tippett. This time she interviewed David Whyte, a poet and philosopher, who looks at how language shapes both our work world and our everyday world. I found that his thoughts regarding the discipline of alertness relates directly to the creative discipline that I embrace in my photography - seeing the world with "beginner's eyes". I urge you to take the time to listen to his profound words and I know that your heart and soul will be fuller for the time spent.