When KTD Monastery (Karma Triyana Dharmachakra) was being built, they did not have the ability to do mail order business. KTD members Michael & Margaret Erlewine, along with translator Ngodup Burkhar and calligrapher/ artist Sange Wangchuk and his wife Tseten built a complete dharma goods business run out of the Heart Center KTC dharma center in Big Rapids, Michigan. It was called KTD Dharma Goods, and it ran for many years until KTD was able to take it back in-house. Here is their original catalog.

Here are the covers of some of the our publication “Astro*Talk,” a periodical newsletter that reached out to something like 14,000 readers every so often as part of my company Matrix Astrological Software, a company still going strong today, although no longer under my direction. I thought some of you astrology buffs might like to wander through the past a bit. I am amazed that I published these in linen stock and in full-color and sent it through the mail. I know it that it cost a small fortune. Somewhere in the 1990s it became too expensive to do. Design credits to Michael Erlewine, Tom Erlewine, and Martin Machnowski 

Back in the 1980s, the fledgling computer software company Matrix Software, the home of the first astrology software to all comers, Matrix had a weekly dinner every Firday night. Here are some of the menus from that time, just for fun.

Sacred Images: The Dharma Art of Sange Wangchug, 

Volume 3: Detailed artwork for creating Tibetan-style Pecha Sadhanas

These images were hand-drawn by Sange Wangchug for Sacred Dharma use, and to be shared only with those who will treat  them with respect. This, the second volume is more decorative. The first volume contains the deity images. Please enjoy, but read the stipulations 

These images were hand-drawn by Sange Wangchug for Sacred Dharma use, and to be shared only with those who will treat  them with respect and not alter them.

The “Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind Toward the Dhama,” also called the Common Preliminaries and the Four Reversals are considered by many as the place to begin understanding, learning, and practicing the Dharma. Not some scholarly doctrine or list of imperatives, the Four Thoughts are already familiar to most people as part of their deepest inner sense of reality.

A series of easy-to-read and understand articles on how get started practicing dharma, where and how to begin.

Michael Erlewine has studied Buddhism since the 1950s, and practiced it for last forty years, running the Heart Center for meditation instruction since the 1980s. Trained in the Karma Kagyu system of Tibetan Buddhism, Erlewine has worked practiced Mahmudra Meditation for  27 years under the guidance of Karma Kagyu teachers.

Here are a series of nineteen articles written in 2015 by Michael Erlewine, all focused on Tibetan Buddhist mind-training methods, and geared for the beginning and intermediate practitioner. They are easy to read and understand and are based on hands-on practical experience rather than abstract theory.

THis ia an album of photos taken in a large garden of friends.

The folk and blues music scene in Ann Arbor, Michigan (and some jazz) as told by Michael Erlewine, founder of the All-Music Guide, historian for the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, and author of the award-winning book on the first two Ann Arbor Blues Festivals and much more.

Mind-Training, using the mind to look at the mind, is not just for meditators anymore, but is going secular. Tibetan Buddhist methods of mind training are useful to anyone willing to learn them. Here is a series of very-short, easy-to-read, articles on training the mind, many of which can be used at any time in our busy work schedule, and not just on the cushion.  

Mind-Training, using the mind to look at the mind, is not just for meditators anymore, but is going secular. Tibetan Buddhist methods of mind training are useful to anyone willing to learn them. Here is a series of very-short, easy-to-read, articles on training the mind, many of which can be used at any time in our busy work schedule, and not just on the cushion.  

Mind-Training, using the mind to look at the mind, is not just for meditators anymore, but is going secular. Tibetan Buddhist methods of mind training are useful to anyone willing to learn them. Here is a series of very-short, easy-to-read, articles on training the mind, many of which can be used at any time in our busy work schedule, and not just on the cushion.  

Mind-Training, using the mind to look at the mind, is not just for meditators anymore, but is going secular. Tibetan Buddhist methods of mind training are useful to anyone willing to learn them. Here is a series of very-short, easy-to-read, articles on training the mind, many of which can be used at any time in our busy work schedule, and not just on the cushion.  

A personal account of learning Mahamudra Meditation through close-up photography.

The Illustrated Guide to Dharma Stuff is a series of free e-books, each of which is devoted to a particular type of dharma paraphernalia, in this cases “Rupas” or statues used for deity practice and other practices.

This version is for viewing on the web in the correct order.

This version is best for creating a Tibetan-style pecha-format booklet of the lineage.

This is an extensive and fully-illustrated handbook to close-up and macro photography, including panoramas and focus-stacking, with photographer Michael Erleiwne from MacroStop.com.

A variety of close-ups and macro photography images, including focus-stacking, by photography Michael Erlewine. 

A variety of close-ups and macro photography images, including focus-stacking, by photography Michael Erlewine.

A variety of close-ups and macro photography images, including focus-stacking, by photography Michael Erlewine.

The majority of the plant world is green, offering some of the most subtle and lovely colors of them all. This album is filled with gentle green plant images. 

An album of close-up focus-stacking with photographer Michael Erlewine. Many hi-res images with text and comment introduce various concepts of focus-stacking, and discuss some of the important lenses used in this technique.

Most of these photos were taken at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery (KTD) in the mountains above the city of Woodstock, N.Y.  KTD Monastery is one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in North America, the seat of His Holiness the 17^th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje.

In you live in the area or travel to upstate New York, take time to visit KTD Monastery and take in all of the incredible painting, artwork, statues, and traditional buildings there. 

An in-depth introduction to retouching stacked-photos in Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and Zerene Stacker. Forty pages of text with copious hi-res illustrations and diagrams by well-known photographer Michael Erlewine.

“Micro-contrast” is a very popular term considering it has no formal definition that I can find. Some even claim it doesn’t exist. Nevertheless it has become increasingly important in my photography work. Perhaps I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.

What follows are some thoughts I have been having about local satisfaction -- micro-contrast. It seems that everything these days is going local, locally grown foods, and so on. And this even extends to photography and what has been called local contrast, more frequently termed micro-contrast.

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of large images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of Echinacea. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com 

The New Zeiss APO Lenses for Close-up Work

This is a look at the new Zeiss APO lenses, the Zeiss Otus 55mm APO, the Zeiss 135mm APO, and the Zeiss Otus 85mm APO as the can be used for close-up photography. Lots of images and detailed discussion, as well as comments on using these lenses for stacking focus or one-shot photos. With Photographer Michael Erlewine from MacroStop.com.

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series tutorials on photography. In this album, imagines and explanation about the Nikon CRT Nikkor-O lens is presented.

Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of large images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of various flowers. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of large images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of various critters. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of pure images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of the plant Calla Lilies in flower. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of pure images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of the plant Cyclamen in flower. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com

Well known close-up and macro photographer Michael Erlewine offers a series of pure images, "Small Worlds," this e-book are hi-res images of the plant Cyclamen in flower. Free tutorials, e-books, and video tutorials on photography can be found at MacroStop.com