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Miksang 1 - Seeing From The Heart

Your introduction to Miksang Photography in 3 days


Discover the everyday beauty & improve your pictures

Meditation in Action

Align your heart & mind with visual exercises and photographic assignments

Photographic Art

Always successful pictures, with and without much photography experience

Mindful in Action

Learn how to be in the here and now with looking, seeing and photographing
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Relaxation 

Learn to open your heart and calm your busy mind with open-minded looking and fresh seeing. Discover how seeing from the heart is the way in to deep relaxation.
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Looking & Seeing

Looking and seeing always takes place in the NOW. Not later or soon. And only in the now you experience joyful direct vivid perceptions. In the here and now.

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Focus Now

From inner stillness you focus and from still focus you strengthen calmness. Focus with gentleness towards yourself, others and everything around you.
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Fresh Eyes

Looking without mental filters, with zero photographic ambition and seeing with fresh eyes is how you discover the everyday beauty that is always and already present.
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Slowing Photography

Slowing down starts with coming to a full stop. Taking a picture means first and for all discerning what's in and what's out. Slowing down with the Miksang Method 5+1 steps..

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Poetic Pictures

Easily improve your pictures with the Miksang method. In a practical manner with mindful photography. In now-time & no-time you learn genuine poetic photography ;-)
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As designed by Hèlen Vink

How do you bring more stillness and beauty into your life with creative photographic expression?

I have designed the 3-day Miksang Introduction Module in a way so you easily get introduced to the ins & outs of Miksang Photography and experience a full Miksang experience over the course of 3 days.

In 2006 I was introduced into Miksang Photography, in Cologne where I coordinated the first Miksang workshop in Europe. At that time I didn't really know what Miksang was up until the introductory talk: I immediately understood the accessibility of this young artistic discipline based on the Buddhist mindfulness approach and the principles of Dharma Art teachings about the process of perception and spirituality within the creative process. This encounter was a fusion of my experiences of photographic art and mindfulness-meditation. Instantly it gave me a sense of calm and relaxation about my creative purpose. It opened the richness of ordinary beauty in my daily life. Inspired I followed all Miksang classes in the US and Canada and subsequently brought Miksang Photography to the Netherlands.

From that moment on I designed the Miksang Photography Training Program

Today, my Miksang Photography Training Program in the Miksang Academy has been followed by more than 330 students and many regularly follow the live and online Masterclasses.

Your introduction to Miksang Photography

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€ 595
€ 495 | Now with Early Bird discount: €445

3-day Retreat Miksang 1 | April 3-5, 2025

Start your Miksang Photography experience with the introductory 3-day Miksang Retreat.
Experience how Miksang Photography can change your looking, seeing and outlook on life itself.


• Discover the beauty of the ordinary world with an open heart, a calm mind & awake eyes aligned.

• Wake up to the delight of your everyday world with visual exercises and photographic assignments.

• Learn how to photograph in a simplified manner, with the Miksang Method and practical instructions for you and your camera.


• Location: Zandvoort, Netherlands | Google Maps >

• Pre-requisite: online talk

• Program price is exclusive accommodation, meals and travel

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€ 595
€ 495 | Now with Early Bird discount: €445

3-day Retreat Miksang 1 | Belgium, Meditation Center | Dates Autumn 2025 TBA

Start your Miksang Photography experience with the introductory 3-day Miksang Retreat.
Experience how Miksang Photography can change your looking, seeing and outlook on life itself.


• Discover the beauty of the ordinary world with an open heart, a calm mind & awake eyes aligned.

• Wake up to the delight of your everyday world with visual exercises and photographic assignments.

• Learn how to photograph in a simplified manner, with the Miksang Method and practical instructions for you and your camera.


• Location: Belgium TBA

• Pre-requisite: online talk

• Program price is exclusive accommodation, meals and travel

Program

You will be introduced step-by-step to the Miksang basics, the process of pure perception and how to Miksang photographing.With a series of visual exercises and playful photographic assignments you will come to an embodied understanding of the dynamics of uninhibited looking, direct seeing and seeing from the heart. Each day you set out with a new photographic Miksang assignment from the open space within.
This is an unique opportunity to experience how photography, uninhibited seeing, fresh seeing and mindfulness-meditation-in-action fuses elegantly, while providing a doorway to improve your pictures. 

With talks, Q&A, exercises, examples, photographic assignments.
Each each day concludes with the image review.

Slowing down & learning pure photography
Over the course of the four days I learned to slow down and walk with an open mind, discovering and noticing what strikes me visually. And then photographing this as pure as possible, filling the whole frame. Peaceful and just lovely.
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Yvonne van Sprang 
Seeing from my heart
Again, as it turns out, it starts and ends with yourself. I rediscovered my peacefulness and was touched by everything that is already present around me. My enthusiasm to photograph the simplicity of beauty has returned and even deepened. Great set up of the daily classes, study material and online talks. I enjoyed the immersion and time for reflection. Four days in a row may seem like a long time, but it immediately set me right on track.
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Conny van Ryn
I feel touched...
I tremendously enjoyed our days together in the Miksang training. Coming to a full stop and standing still for a flash of perception, expressing what has stopped me, so many beautiful images around us, Hèlen's view of Miksang, and the many rounds of the exercise 'human camera'...
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Caroline

The Miksang Program

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Miksang 1 - Day 1 

Your introduction to the Miksang basics: what is looking and how do I look? what is seeing and what do I see? how do I recognize seeing from the heart ?

With grounding exercises and visual exercises you align your eyes, mind and heart; settling into a still mind, open heart and awake eyes. You will experience the difference between seeing from your heart and thinking about what you see. Your lightning-fast thinking is - often unconsciously - destructive to real connection, and now you discover the gaps in which you are able to connect directly and genuinely.

From the open space within yourself you set out with the 1st Miksang photo assignment. You will learn to photograph from your heart with a practical intention. Ascending from a busy head, into your heart with fresh eyes and your camera as a medium to express.

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Miksang 1 - Day 2 

Now that you have experienced the joy of seeing from the heart and the simplicity of mindful photography, you are able to more consciously let go of what you (already) know about it is that you see, or what you want to photograph. You will land further in to the not-knowing, your intuitive knowing. In the Buddhist teachings this is the real knowing; knowing from inner source, which you feel as a bodily sensation. In this spacious and sometimes uncomfortable space of not-knowing, free of reference, you relax. The emphasis is on being with what you see directly and unexpectedly, what resonates and recognizing 'fresh'.

Also, you will now encounter new obstacles; like seeing too much, or not enough, photographing too quick, too thoughtful or shying away. The exercises easily transmute obstacles, in a playful more precise manner and you go out and about with a new Miksang photo assignment.

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Miksang 1 - Day 3

Practicing the Miksang Method: how do you do that with more precision and calm mind and with gentle confidence?

Step-by-step you dissolve the veil between 'this' & 'that', between 'I' and 'everything around me'. Feeling more appreciating for things as they are. We will explore the Miksang Method in-depth.

This is a day of slowing down while looking, seeing and contemplative photographing. Letting fully in what resonates and taking your time while taking one picture at a time with the 5+1 helpful steps and further Miksang instructions.

Miksang Calendar 2025

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11-13

OCTOBER 11-13 2024

09:00 -18.00 hrs.

3-day Miksang 1 Introduction

Zandvoort, Netherlands
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Dates

TBA in Autumn 2025
09:00 - 18.00 hrs.

3-day Miksang 1 Introduction

Belgium

Corona proof

Miksang Photography is Corona-proof partly because we are outside most of the day. The morning program takes place in the training room in the chateau: the 1.5 meters is guaranteed and all necessary measures are taken.

For risk reduction, there is an air purifier with a HEPA filter, VC lamp and ionizer (ozone-free).

If the COVID-19 guidelines change and the training cannot continue, you will receive your money back and we will plan a place for you at the next Miksang Photography program.

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Sometimes a training is able to completely change the way you experience and perceive things. The introduction 'Seeing from your heart' is such a training that more than fulfills its promise. Hèlen Vink expertly guides you through the basics of the `Miksang process. During the training I learned to really see the world around me in a different way. There is now more room for wonder, creativity and inspiration…


As a photographer just starting out, it was also a very good introduction to photography and the possibilities of my camera. It is now a few months after training and I still regularly go out to do miksang photography. I am very happy with the photos I took and that leaves me wanting more…

Remy van Gelder - Mindfulness trainer | www.praesence.nl/mindful-fotografie
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Refresh your state of Seeing, Being, & Photographing