Emma JM. Ates
Emma has been a contemplative practitioner and meditator for many years. She took refuge in the Tibetan Mahayana lineage in 1999 in France and continues her Buddhist studies and practice in Canada with Gaden Choling for the West and the Paramita Center in Toronto. She has continued regular multimodal Dharma Art practices with Miksang contemplative photography and Zen Art practices with Jody Hojin Kimmel Sensei from the Zen Mountain Monastery since 2022.
For over ten years, she has been a contemplative arts practitioner. I was trained with Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography (level I, II, III, Absolute Eye & Maitri Space Awareness) with John McQuade. I am trained in Shambhala Art with Steven and Anne Saitzyk and in Brushwork and Big Brush Mind with Barbara Bash. I was also introduced to Ikebana, E-Tegami with Sachiko Hata Pereklita, and Sumi-E (brush painting) with Hiroshi Yamamoto (Hakuho) at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center of Toronto.
What is Miksang Contemplative Photography?
Miksang is a Tibetan word that means "good eye." The "good" refers to our world, just as it is, is inherently rich and vivid. The "eye" reference is that we can tune into these qualities of our world by working with contemplative photography.
There is a Miksang “way,” called in Japanese “Sha Shin Ki Do”: what the eye sees, the heart knows the way to join the two.
This cannot be imitated because it is not based on a conceptual formula. It can be felt directly by the mind, the heart, and the eye.
"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.
