The founders of the The Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography have produced numerous publications to provide guidance and inspiration to students and practitioners of Miksang. Proceeds from these books are used to support the work of the Institute and the development of additional tools for those who wish to practice Miksang.
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Georgetown: An Exploration of Our Everyday Visual World
by Brian Sano
“There’s nothing to see there.” That’s what Brian Sano used to think of the Georgetown area in Washington, DC. Over time, his view changed. His Miksang Contemplative Photography practice helped him see this neighborhood – and life – in a more curious and intimate way, with fresh eyes and an open mind.
Over four years, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic, with his camera, mask, and the mindset he learned from Miksang, he walked around Georgetown, practicing almost every weekend, resulting in hundreds of photos.
Reflecting on what he learned, Brian wrote, “Visual perceptions, like those I’ve shared here, can happen anywhere – they are always appearing – always available. In our own neighborhood, our office, our car, our home, our bathroom, or even our kitchen sink.”
We hope you enjoy Brian’s story and experience.
PDF 108 pages, with images
Seeing Quiet Moments
by Julie DuBose and Michael Wood
When we become able to see our world directly in a continuous way, with a mind that is still and receptive, our experience is soft and gentle. We feel delicately suspended within the experience of seeing as we encounter elements of our visual world coming together, being together, and changing form, as one unified experience of perception. And we witness this, quietly, gently, appreciating. We know, we feel, that this is a delicate visual formation that cannot and will not survive its existence.
Quiet Moments can be seen when we are quiet and still in our minds. Quiet on the inside, quiet on the outside. We cultivate an inner environment of receptivity and openness and then we pay deep attention to the subtleties of our world. There is a deep resonance that occurs when our quiet mind encounters a delicate visual formation. If our mind is still and receptive, we will feel the qualities of these Quiet Moments. Once we become familiar with the quality of this experience, we become able to recognize it in our own visual world.
PDF Book 75 pages with photographs.
A Walk On The Wild Side
Twelve Years of Christmas Day Walks
in Downtown Toronto by Michael Wood
Introduction by Julie DuBose
For 12 years beginning in 2006, Michael sent out a letter to his Miksang students talking about his visual adventures walking through a deserted Toronto downtown on Christmas day. He would include a gallery of images of what he saw on his walk. For us it always meant an opportunity to see what a Miksang Master sees when he is wide open in a strange land. No color, texture, no assignments, nothing we had ever seen before or thought we would photograph before. It was always freeing for us to be shown that truly the final stage of Miksang practice is no practice at all, just shooting what meets our untethered mind. In the situation of the Christmas Day Walk what meets an open, receptive mind is outside the boundaries of what we could ever strategize or imagine we would see.
After years of students’ requests for Michael to put this book together, here it is. We hope you enjoy this testament to the deep pleasure of spontaneously meeting chaos in the visual world.
Julie DuBose
PDF Book. 108 Pages
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Miksang Life with Julie DuBose – VOLUME 1: 2009-2015
These 23 short pieces were written in response to student questions and to clarify different aspects of Miksang practice. As a fellow student as well as teacher, she shares her personal perspective and inspiration from her own experiences during her twenty five year journey practicing and teaching Miksang.
PDF Book 113 pages with photographs.
$20.00 USD
The Seven Insights In Miksang Photography:
Developing Visual Awareness By Julie DuBose
This book is a presentation of the Seven Key Insights and discoveries that arise as a result of the study and practice of Miksang. It is a description of the essential aspects of this practice and how they change how we are and how we see. Each insight is a mark on our Miksang Journey, a discovery that opens a door into further depth and expansion of visual awareness.
PDF Book 50 pages with photographs
$20.00 USD
Opening the Good Eye: A Path to True Seeing
Opening the Good Eye is a compilation of key instructions, guidance, and photographic examples that Miksang founder, Michael Wood, has provided to students and practitioners over the last thirty-two years. It contains the overview and foundational principles of Miksang Practice and is essential reading before participating in the first Miksang course, “Opening the Good Eye:The Mechanics of Seeing”. Opening the Good Eye is accessible to all, regardless of previous photographic experience.
PDF Book 129 pages with photographs
$25.00 USD
Effortless Beauty: Photography as an Expression of Eye, Mind, and Heart
Winner of the Nautilus Book Award, Effortless Beauty: Photography as an Expression of Eye, Mind, and Heart by Julie DuBose brings a new perspective to photography, providing the reader with a fresh way to experience our visual world and express our perceptions through our photographs.
This book is a roadmap for taking a different kind of photograph which might lead to a different kind of living; direct living through direct seeing.
“This is our world. It has a heart beat and our blood runs through it, like a river of life and feeling, with qualities of hard, soft, wet, smooth, full, empty, lovely, and joyful. We can express the experience of direct living with our camera. We may not be sure what our expressions mean, but they will be real, the genuine article. The photograph will carry within it our heart, our mind-the blood of our experience.” Julie DuBose
PDF Book 228 Pages with photographs
$25.00 USD
Attracting Awareness: The Motif in Miksang
This book introduces a new way to pay attention to how our world changes, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. It inspires the reader to pay attention to our world in a deeper way, to discover how it changes constantly in a myriad of delightful ways.
PDF Book 53 Pages with Photographs
$19.95 USD
Opening the Good Eye Book Companion
This companion for Opening the Good Eye: A Path to True Seeing book offers students and practitioners of Miksang Contemplative Photography (and anyone) additional guidance and understanding of key aspects of the actual practice of Miksang. Many photographic examples are included.
PDF Book with 78 Pages
$39.95 USD
