Toronto photographer Maxine Sidran - a teacher in the Miksang Society of Contemplative Photography - is featured in a recent Shambhala Times interview, I am Miksang.

Maxine recounts how she first learned about Miksang:

I first saw the word Miksang on a calendar at the Toronto Shambhala Center. My response was to the word that followed it: photography. I have practiced photography my entire adult life, and the fact that it had showed up at a meditation center was exciting.

Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as “good eye.” The Miksang Society of Contemplative Photography offers a number of programs in Toronto. As a contemplative school of photography, it joins photography together with the discipline of meditation and the Dharma Art teachings of the meditation master and scholar Chögyam Trungpa.

This spring, the Miksang Society is offering two courses at the Toronto Shambhala Centre: Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Contemplative Photography on Saturday May 9 and Ordinary Magic and the Way of Seeing on Saturday and Sunday June 13 and 14.

Be sure to check out Maxine’s Flickr website.

Eva Wong, renowned author and translator of 12 books on the Taoist arts of health, meditation and qigong, will be introducing traditional Chinese qigong in a weekend program offered in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday April 18 and 19.

Qigong (also spelled Ch’i Kung) is a system of exercises that cultivates strength of body and calmness of mind. In this weekend program, Eva Wong will be presenting levels one and two of her nine level training program.

Eva Wong is the holder of two unique lineages of qigong: The Pre-celestial Limitless Gate School (Xiantianwujimen) and the Yiquan School. Xiantianwujimen was founded in the Song dynasty (circa 10th to 12th centuries) by Taoist sage Chen Xiyi, who is recognized as “the father of qigong.” The Yiquan School was founded by Wang Xiangzhai in the early 20th century. Yiquan is most well-known for its standing qigong postures called Zhangzhuan.

Eva Wong says of her own background in the traditional Taoist culture: “My experience with Taoism began in my childhood in Hong Kong, when my grandmother told me stories of Taoist immortals, those enlightened beings who had attained union with the Tao. At fourteen, I learned feng-shui, the Taoist art of terrestrial divination, from my granduncle, and T’ai-chi Ch’an, a form of Taoist martial arts, from my uncle. Later I was introduced to the Taoist arts of longevity.”

For more information about this weekend program, visit the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Toronto website.

Support your sitting practice and buy a meditation cushion from the bookstore at the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Toronto.

Known as “gomdens,” these meditation cushions were designed originally by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of Shambhala. They are constructed with a firm foam core to support a comfortable and simple cross-legged posture.

Made locally by Judith Gostick of Silk Dream Designs, they are available in red, burgundy, blue, royal blue, and black for $85.

Other types of meditation cushions, brocades, shrine and practice items, and custom fabric designs can be ordered directly from Silk Dream Designs at silkdreamdesigns@yahoo.ca.