The preface makes no bones about the authors' focus: "...we are really talking about Enlightenment."
The purpose of Miksang is not just to make pictures, but to reorient vision in order to wake up to the world beyond things. "The most direct way to spontaneous creativity [is] not in “breaking the rules,” [but] in making contact with the world before there are rules at all.” This can be accomplished, the authors believe, with just a short shift of orientation, or Enlightenment by a few degrees. They compare the mind to a ship, whose destination can be radically altered by a course change of just a few degrees.
The authors are students of Sakyong Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan refugees of the early exodus to settle and build a Buddhist community of westerners within the United States, and of his disciple, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
This text promises to be the first of three outlining the practice of Miksang, a Tibetan word meaning "good eye." While the authors feel Miksang is best taught, or transmitted, in face-to-face encounters, they realize as well the value of texts in being able to provide more detail than available in workshops, seminars, or lectures.
Contemplative photographic practice uses the camera to produce an equivalent of the moment of perception before the intrusion of words, names, thoughts, and ideas. It is equivalent because no piece of technology can capture an exact copy of the phenomenal world as we experience it.
“The contemplative view is simply that you cannot be more creative than creation.” That is, there is no need to dress up reality. It is already wonderful enough, if we take the time to see it and experience it as it presents itself.
If this amazing reality is always there with us, why do we need a practice or form in order to be able to access it? “The drag of our patterns and the speed of conventional life obscure and block our appreciation of and our access to this naturally relaxed vision. We find ourselves caught in an overwhelming vortex of demand and distraction.” And therein lies the paradox: “...even though true perception is an ongoing given, most of us need to engage a way, a path, to overcome the momentum of pattern and connect with things as they are.”
“The practical view of Nalanda Miksang is that we do not have to become creative. We just need to relax and work with the natural creativity of things as they are. We don’t create the world, but we can tune in to its power of creativity when we realize we are already artists. This is the way of contemplative art.”
What follows is a series of exercises and brief explanations of the philosophy and approach underlying the practice. Unlike many books that explore spiritual or psychological approaches to photography, this one offers practical exercises and assignments.
In the Miksang tradition, vision is broken down into constituent elements - color, light, texture, and space - each practiced in isolation. There is minimal instruction in photographic technique and the exercises can be done with any kind of camera. The point is not so much to produce beautiful images, or even technically proficient images, but to learn how to see. The photographs are a record of exploration.
This is not a book to rush through. It probably helps if you come to this with some experience of meditation, or some idea of how to slow the mind. The photographic practice outlined here seems to work best by beginning with a short period of quiet in order to allow concerns and tensions to settle. It also seems to work best in familiar locations. In new environments, there are too many things you want to see, even need to see as a matter of safety. Shooting in the neighborhood, you have a chance to work slowly and look deeper at overlooked details.
The biggest weakness of this book is the lack of opportunities for feedback. There are hundreds of online photography forums, but only one dedicated to Miksang, and it is sparsely populated and not terribly active. There are other communities where practitioners can share photos, but there seems to be little feedback or discussion. Author Miriam Hall has been offering six-week Miksang courses online for those unable to travel to the relatively few face-to-face workshops offered each year. The next online course is scheduled for September 2016. Check Shambala Online for future offerings.
Anyone who has done Karr and Wood’s The Practice of Contemplative Photography will find much of the contents of this book familiar, perhaps even repetitive. Those authors are also students of Miksang and present largely the same program offered here, though McQuade and Hall are more upfront about their spiritual intentions and speak at a bit more length about the philosophy of the practice.
Nalanda Miksang as currently envisioned contains three levels of practice. Looking and Seeing is Level 1. Future volumes have been scheduled for January and Fall 2016, but as of this writing publication is behind schedule and the next volume is now slated for Fall 2016.
For those interested in exploring new understandings of photographic practice, Looking and Seeing offers an accessible and programmatic approach to an alternative way of seeing and shooting not typically encountered in photography schools, workshops, or festivals.
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