A special mini edition issued by INDEXG. Colour chromogenic print printed on 7.5 x 5.5 inches. 30 editions, with Edition Stamp and numbered on verso.



Jarek Michalski is a documentary photographer based in Toronto. Native of Poland, he moved to Canada in 1989. He has been working as a freelance photographer since 1996. He is the recipient of Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants for his work on Poland. His commercial clients include National Geographic. Based on his real experience living the life of a Monk, he wrote the following:



"I have spent four winters meditating at Panditarama, Hse Main Gon Monastery in Burma. For two periods of these I was ordained as a monk.



The rigorous training consisted of 18 hours of meditation daily with a vow of silence throughout the whole period, with only two meals a day (the last one served at 10:30 a.m.) and in the case of monks of constantly observing 227 rules of conduct. We were supposed to keep unbroken mindfulness of all, even the tiniest psycho- physical activities starting from the first and ending with the last breath of the day.



The whole system is designed in such a way as to bring you safely to the realization of a series of insights concerning the nature of reality, crowned with the total purification of the mind of three groups of defilements: greed, hatred and delusion. Although the realization happens in an instant the whole process might take months, years or even lifetimes. For many people, particularly in Asia, entering monk-hood becomes an expression of a lifetime commitment to this very process.



Although being unable, for personal reasons, to make this kind of commitment I enjoyed the opportunity a temporary ordination provided me. This experience proved to be not only one of the most demanding but the most gratifying of my life.



Right after I disrobed I was asked to make a series of photographs, some for the meditation center's website and some for their fund raising. I gladly agreed. I spent a few days retracing my everyday routines, this time with my camera. I ended up with a series of photographs, which acquired another meaning after the recent crack down on democratic protests by monks in Burma. The sense of meditative stillness and beauty was brutally disrupted by the actions of the military."