Nalanda Miksang

Contemplative Photography

2024 offerings:

Introduction to Nalanda Miksang aka Level I

Enter into the world of Miksang Contemplative Photography with senior teacher Miriam Hall. Become playfully familiar with the basic elements of visual perception, and rejuvenate your connection to everyday magic.

We will have four live dates, all Sundays, from 1-3 pm Central US Time: 2/11, 2/25; 3/10, 3/24. There will be assignments in between. Also, between the live dates, there will be ample chances to connect on Mighty Network.

The link below leads you to a chance to join Miriam's private Mighty Network to register; if you prefer to not join the Mighty Network, just email Miriam at miriam@herspiral.com to register another way.

https://herspiral.mn.co/share/GaZTQFyw6wOwDloU?utm_source=manual

$US100-500 Sliding Scale

Color Plus/Plus: Introduction to Found Modern Art

In Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography, our first assignment/exploration is “color as color”. “Color as Color” is the first step in making direct contact with the basic elements or features of the visual world/experience: color, then also, light, texture, pattern, space, and dot in space. These are the “visual chords” that become the basis of the Nalanda Miksang “visual music”.

At the same time, each of these visual elements has its personal dimension and aesthetic. For instance, when we photograph color as color, it can spontaneously open to abstract color.  This goes beyond the context, like a “red fire engine” but even beyond “fire engine red” and into red as red, red as the ways of red.

This kind of abstract color has its own aesthetic, and resonates with the abstraction of some American Modern Art, the Color Field school in particular. This school includes what we call “color as color” but also goes beyond. These Color Field artists include Ellsworth Kelly, Barnet Newman, Kenneth Noland, and more.

In Color Plus/Plus, we will practice photographing, but we will also study and contemplate these Color Field artists. Through this study and practice, you will become Color Field artists. Your images will be forms of found Color Field abstract art.

Two groups available: 

Wednesday evenings, 6:30-8:30 Eastern Time (Toronto)

4/10, 4/24; 5/8, 5/22; 6/12, 6/22

OR

Sunday afternoons, 2-4 pm Eastern Time (Toronto)

4/14, 4/28, 5/12, 5/26, 6/9 and 6/23

$US100-500 Sliding Scale

To register, please email Miriam Hall at miriam@herspiral.com.

More than an art form, Miksang is a vehicle for realization of the here and now.

For more information, scroll down, visit the main Nalanda Miksang website, or the Facebook Nalanda Miksang Group, or buy our books in my store.

Level II

Level II, “Heart of Photography,” is where we study the “Fields of Perception.” These are content-oriented topics, such as Flowers and Weeds, Landscape, Impressionism, People and Sentient Beings and more. However, due to our training from Level One, the images and practice of Level II bear a contemplative mark in both aesthetic and process.

Miksang testimonials:

In 2009 I attended Miriam’s "Miksang I" weekend workshop of contemplative photography. That weekend changed my life. Although I wouldn't know it for a while. What I do know is that through the miksang process, Miriam gave me the tools to my own creative path of seeing and creating. It just happened to be with a camera. When I returned home I began going on frequent photo walks, following the light and a logic I couldn't articulate. Once I began to see, I couldn't (and didn't want to) turn it off - I make photographs all the time in my head, whether there's a camera in my hands or not. Miksang practice encourages us to perceive color, light and shadow, texture, space, form - in other words, the basics of composition - and this practice has informed my work ever since, even when I'm not shooting in a strictly miksang way. A decade after Miksang I I'm a full-time photographic artist. Many wonderful things in my life have cascaded from knowing this really inspiring human, and I'm very glad to still know her.

- HN James

I still carry things from my Miksang course with you; I'll be walking around a say to myself "Ah 'Dot in space'" or notice a color or pattern. I find it both relaxing and comforting and it helps me deal with my anxiety and bouts of depression. I take photos of the moon and the sunrise all the time just for myself.

- Caroline Couture

Studying Miksang with Miriam quite literally changed how I look at everything. At one level, having never studied photography before, I suddenly became aware of color, texture, light, shadow, objects, and space in ways that I never was before and (thankfully!) haven't been able to turn off since. Beyond that, learning to stayed attuned to the "flash of perception" moments when the phenomenal world calls to my heart and spirt has both increased my wonder and appreciation for the world around me AND made it easier and surprisingly more joyful to stay fully present in that world. I now reach for the camera function on my phone when I need to settle myself even more quickly than I reach for social media, and it doesn't even matter if I share the pics with anyone.

- KL Dunkle

I've known Miriam for years now and I've always known her as an excellent and kind teacher. Miksang is a wonderful and profound practice that changed my life and has given me a path to connect my practice of meditation to my creativity.

- Jessica Sarapoff

I never thought of myself as a visual artist until I took Miriam Hall’s Miksang workshop. Her wise and supportive instruction helped me look at the world with new eyes and see the beauty in ordinary things I had overlooked all of my previous life.

- Louise Reid Ritchie

I came to Miksang to explore the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and to get creative! Along the way I have fallen in love with the world around me and opened my eyes and heart. Miriam holds the Miksang teachings with great wisdom, kindness, gentleness - and always a lot of fun.

-Nicole Lionnet

MIKSANG CLASSES COMING UP:

All courses are sustainable price $350; Pay from the heart $100-$600 for five-six live meetings, and private online group for feedback between meetings

I will be offering a Color + course with John McQuade the second quarter of 2024, with two separate times:

Sunday 1-3 pm CDT

5/12, 5/26, 6/9, 6/16, 6/23, 6/30

or

Wednesday 6-8 pm CDT

4/10, 4/24; 5/8, 5/22; 6/12, 6/22

Register by sending an email to miriam@herspiral.com and letting me know which time slot and how much you’d like to pay.