Michael Wood
Miksang Founder and Instructor -
All Levels - Canada and Europe
After receiving a traditional education in photography
from Sheridan College School of Visual Arts in
Canada, Michael worked as an award winning commercial
photographer in Toronto for 18 years. In 1979,
while becoming increasingly frustrated with the
manipulation of perception involved in conventional
photography, he began to combine his photographic
training, meditation experience and the Dharma / Shambhala Art Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa.
For the next three years he synthesized these
into what for him was a new way of looking and
seeing and a fresh body of work. These exercises
and assignments formed the basis for the Miksang Contemplative
approach, which shows us how to synchronize our
eye and mind, so that perception is free from
pre-conceived ideas, therefore direct and unfabricated. From 1982 until his death in 1990, Michael worked closely with the Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin, the Dharma heir of Trungpa Rinpoche developing the Miksang teachings. In 1982 Michael was given the Buddhist Refuge Name, Chökyi Miksang (Good Eye of Dharma) by Ösel Tendzin.
In 1983 Michael developed a series of assignments
and visual exercises based on the Dharma / Shambhala Art teachings
and his own exploration, which became the first
Level One and Two Miksang Courses.
Michael moved to Halifax Nova Scotia in 1989,
he has continued developing and teaching Miksang
Courses in Canada and Europe. For ten years was the Audio Visual
Producer for Parks Canada, producing and directing
documentary films. In 2004 two documentaries were made about Miksang and Michael's Journey with The Practice of Contemplative Photography: 'CBC Sunday', and a segment of 'Quiet Mind: Meditation for Real Life" which can be viewed on this site as well as at the Miksang Facebook Page.
For the past 13 years Michael has worked closely with Julie DuBose to refine, expand and further develop the Miksang teachings and ciriculum, which are now presented as 'Miksang Training'.
Michael is, with Julie DuBose a co-founder of the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography in Canada and the USA.
Michael is the co-author with Andy Karr of the book, 'The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes', published by Shambhala, April, 2011
Michael's Miksang Gallery
See as Slideshow
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