Contemplative Photography

The Practice in a Nutshell
The key to the practice of contemplative photography is to recognize that seeing and thinking are very different. Thinking relates to the world through ideas and mental images. Seeing perceives things directly, just as they are. Clear seeing is not covered over by thoughts of beautiful and ugly, good and bad, worthwhile and worthless.

We usually navigate our lives by thinking about where we are going, where we have been, what we are doing, what we hope for, and what we fear. This inner monologue overshadows most of our experience. Every now and then there are gaps in the flow of discursiveness where fresh perceptions shine through, but generally we gloss over them quite quickly. In contemplative photography, we call these fresh moments flashes of perception. Learning to recognize and value these moments of sense perception is the first part of contemplative photography practice.

Flashes of perception are simple, vivid, and direct experiences. They are clear seeing (or hearing, smelling, tasting, touching). In contemplative photography the power of the final photograph comes from joining clear seeing with simple, straightforward expression.

To communicate what you have seen powerfully and accurately, you need to be able to rest with the perception. The second part of this practice is called visual discernment. This is the way you maintain the contemplative state of mind: you stay with the perception in a soft, inquisitive way, without struggle. Although we call it discernment, this stage is not at all intellectual or analytical. You are not figuring things out, or evaluating the scene emotionally, nor are you reaching for your camera to capture anything.

The third part of the practice is forming the equivalent of the perception (this is the great photographer, Alfred Stieglitz’s term). The photograph and the perception are obviously different things, but our aim is to produce an image that is just the equivalent to what we see. We do not try to make the photograph more interesting, more dramatic, or anything else.

Source: Seeing Fresh

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Augenblick - Kolumne

27. November 2010

Überraschung

Ich sitze auf dem Sofa. Ich denke nach über den Aufsatz, den ich schreiben möchte. Einen Anfang finden. Ein Satz formt sich und verfliegt wieder... ich stehe auf, gehe in die Küche, setze Teewasser auf. Beim Griff zur Teedose sehe ich Licht auf der blauen Wand blitzen. Es ist die Sonne, reflektiert von einem Metalldeckel. Ich stehe still, genieße den Anblick. Meine Hand ruht auf der Teedose. Nach einer langen Weile hole ich meine Kamera und fotografiere was ich sehe.

Mit Tee und Kamera bewege ich mich zurück Richtung Aufsatz. Auf halbem Weg bleibt mein Blick hängen an einer halbierten Grapefruit, rosa das Fruchtfleisch, gelb die Schale und lila der Teller, auf dem ich sie zurück gelassen habe. Farbe pur.

Es ist einer dieser Tage an denen ich mich selbst überrasche. Mein Blick ist offen.

Ob ich frisch sehe, hat damit zu tun, was mit meiner Wahrnehmung auf dem Weg zum Gehirn blitzschnell geschieht. Lenke ich mich ab durch innere Dialoge oder Assoziationsketten? Beurteile ich mich selbst oder kann ich schlicht und mit Ruhe bei dem bleiben, was meine Augen sehen. An diesem Tag genieße ich meine Wahrnehmung. Mit der Kamera sehe ich neu in meiner gewohnten Umgebung.

Der Bücherstapel besteht plötzlich aus vielen Linien, das Spülmittel ist intensiv ultramarin, die Mülltüte leuchtet grün. Gläser werfen einen Schatten.

Hiltrud Enders

Düsseldorf

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August 13 2009

How often do I not see?

Suddenly I ‘wake up’ and realize I have been going from point A to point B, on my bike or in the train, and in the meantime I haven’t seen anything. What is left is a vague resonance, and just from memories I know how it looks like.

Suddenly I have arrived but completely on automatic pilot. Other times I am on my way to the supermarket and I have gone through the whole shopping about 3 times and prepared an elaborate delicious or an easy meal already before the actual shopping. And I haven’t seen anything.

Always and out of nowhere there is the moment of waking up, with a sort of shock. And then something happens; perception starts to take place. I start noticing, becoming curious about what is in front and around me - what is it that I see? Form, texture, colors, movement.

Often I feel challenged to consciously step into the wakefulness of looking and seeing; so many other things to do and all kinds of reasons to really do it later. First this and ‘o yes I still have to do that, let’s do that now’. And before I know it another day has passed. And at the end of the day somehow it doesn’t feel so good. Interestingly enough this o so familiar resistance seems like a struggle which dissolves as soon as I do set my intention: really looking.

A curtain carried by a breeze, unexpectedly around the corner of the street a plastic chair against a glorious colorful background, a shape of light striking the wall or the ground. Suddenly I am stopped and experience an absolute knowing that this is a fresh perception.

Giving myself this one hour a day to purely and only occupy myself with the intention of perception: to simply stand still when a fresh moment of perception occurs, discerning what it is I see, and then taking my camera and shoot, feels everytime like a great gift.

As with every discipline it is a matter of doing it frequently, and for myself I see it as a necessity to train myself in looking and seeing. In this way clear seeing becomes part of the day, en perhaps eventually part of my being.

In Miksang Photography there are 2 main obstacles which prevent us from seeing things as they are:

The ground of Miksang is to be present, in the open space of availability.  From this open space flashes of perceptions occur - fresh moments of clear seeing. Flashes of perception have a doubtless quality. You literally stand still, like when unexpectedly a drop of dew falls on your face, or when you sneeze. Because of the shock and suddenness for a moment there is nothing, just empty space.

In the book Dharma Art – teachings by Chögyam Trungpa on meditation, perception and artistic expressions - Chögyam Trungpa talks about that we are usually restless with our perception. It is very interesting how our mind works, how perception conducts our life. But we really don’t give in to it, we don’t let go completely. We reject things that are slighly offensive to us, we don’t like it at all. If we do like something, if there is a slight suggestion of promise, we like it so much we get right into it. The result is that usually we don’t really look at anything at all.

In the workshop Opening the Good Eye throughout the three days we work in the morning with visual exercisesand assignments. So we develop confidence in our ability to connect directly with what we see, to stay full present with the perception. The visual exercises bring us back to open space, and the assignments learn us to fully understand the qualities of fresh perceptions, so we can express our experience precisely with our cameras. In the group reviews in the afternoon we share our photos, experiences and delightful discussions.

If you feel drawn to experience this, please look under ‘Workshops’ when the next workshop is happening.

See you soon!

Hèlen Vink

Zandvoort, Netherlands

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                                                                                                                                        January 28 2009
The start

Finally and hurray! Launching my website www.miksang.nl
With much gratitude to Michael Wood. 

Although completed, at the same time it is the beginning and will be under construction and updated at any time, ever evolving.

Find out about the various possibilities that Miksang Photography offers. Enjoy looking at photos and learn about Miksang Contemplative Photography.
Learn about visual perception, about the process of looking and seeing, the teachers, when and where Miksang workshops are taking place and how you can reach me. In the column ‘One moment...’ I will write regularly about my Miksang experiences and thoughts. In this way anyone who wishes can stay in tune and join the amazement. And all news will be listed. An important point of departure was that the site would turn out to be a good reference for acquiring commissions and purchasing prints.

How to present all this in a magnetizing and simple way, which reflects the maximum benefit for all users?
This was and is a challenge, with many steps, changing and deleting, starting anew and furthering.  Has it worked out? I'd love to hear from you! Comments, information, invitations, appointments, purchasing or simply browsing, all are warmly welcome.

A fresh start, a fresh look.

Hèlen Vink

Amsterdam, Netherlands