Part three  - what I found

After spending time in England shooting brick walls and plant pots I returned to Halifax. While in England I had decided to pursue my photography more seriously and to understand why my style had changed. While looking through The Coast I came across an advertisement for a course on contemplative photography named Miksang. After reading ahout this approach to photography I was totally taken by it and decided to take the course which fortunately was based in Halifax. I have now completed two levels of Miksang and fully intend to pursue it further. I would like to take you through the idea behind Miksang so you can better understand and appreciate the changes that have occurred in my photography since Miksang has become a strong foundation of my photography.

 Michael Wood 2006, Halifax

The style of Miksang was developed by Michael Wood, based on the Shambhala art teachings of the late meditation master Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. It is a Tibetan word that translates into “Good Eye”. The ‘Good‘ refers to the simple fact that our world is rich and beautiful as it is. The ‘Eye’ refers to the fact that we can discover this richness and beauty through the practice of  contemplative  photography. There are three stages to the practice.

Stage One: Unconditional perception

 Imagine you are playing a game of basketball. You are totally engrossed in the game, following your players and the ball.  Suddenly the ball hits you in the face. At that precise moment in time everything seems to stand still and you are captured in a, albeit, brief moment of time. This is akin to the experience of a perception in Miksang. As one walks down an ordinary street something jumps out at you and stops you. This red sweet was one such perception. Brilliant red on grey stone I immediately stopped and looked.

These colourful cones against the drab grey pavement is another example. In these two examples it was the colour that stopped me and held me in place.

In this example, it was less colour and more textural; the warmth feel of the blankets. These blankets and matresses were on the side of a street and as I walked past I saw them and stopped.

So the perception, or the moment when one sees something that stops you is a very strong experience with elements of strong colour, rich texture; its an  intense moment, the preception is sharp, brilliant, clear and most importantly free from distraction. 

One is able to experience these perceptions through the practice of Miksang. During the instruction, one is taught to control the mind to free your ‘vision’ of distracting thoughts, judgements, labels, associations, memories, etc so that when one sees something one experiences the raw elements of the perception. For example, often when we see something we immediately label it, e.g. that is a bus, this is a car, that is a dog etc. We add judgements, e.g. I like that, I don’t like that. We associate what we see with other things and we recall moments when we saw something similar. Essentially, in no time at all we have a dialogue occurring in our mind based on what we saw and this pulls our attention and focus away from the image that stopped us. In Miskang, one is taught to stop this dialogue from occurring so that one develops and maintains a direct connection with the image; we are held there in this perception experiencing its raw elements. It is an unconditional perception.

Stage Two:  Visual discernment

So this process is very meditative. One is held in the moment connecting with the richness and beauty of the image. At some point one moves toward an analysis of the image, while remaining in the perception. One asks “which elements in this image stopped me. Which elements are clutter”. One removes any element in the image that was not involved in the perception. Through this process the image becomes very pure so that all of its elements played some role in the perception. Essentially, we are composing.

The process of visual discernment occurs without the distracting thoughts previously mentioned. The experience remains relaxed and meditative as though one is falling into the image. It becomes quite clear which elements are important and which ones are not.

Stage Three: Forming the equivalent

During this last stage, the camera arrives. Everything before this was done entirely through looking and connecting. But at some point one woudl like to capture the moment on ‘film’ and this is referred to as ‘forming the equivalent’. Here, your skill in using your equipment comes into play; which exposure should I use, how fast should I shoot, is this a vertical or horizontal shot. Once such matters have been worked out, one raises the camera to the eye and shoots.

  Helen, Halifax 2006

Although the process may appear lengthy, it all occurs quite quickly such that moments of richness and beauty that occur during the thinnest slices of time are captured.

As mentioned previously Miksang is based on the art teachings of the late Chogyam Trungpa and he provides a wonderful quote of this process:

Next week: Part Four - where I am

As I engaged in the art of Miksang, my photography began to change. Next week I will show my work from Sable Island and how the practice of Miksang has changed it. This is where I am.