Clear Sky Meditation Centre

Creating a Supportive Womb for Spiritual Growth (Free Webinar)
2023-02-18 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Edmonton)
“Navigating the complexities of today’s world requires more than just feeling good on retreat, or using a daily mindfulness app. We have to learn how to embody mindfulness while thinking about our planet’s future or navigating the pressures of daily life.”
-Karen McAllister & Duncan Cryle
In our busy and distracted world it’s hard to keep supportive structures and routines for your well-being, spiritual growth, and resilience. Integrating mindfulness is an online program for anyone who meditates or is on a spiritual journey that teaches how to integrate the healing power of awareness into your daily life, and to build positive conditions to support your clarity, kindness, and wisdom.

Register Now

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Workshop
practice
1.5 Hours
Duration
February 18th
5-6.30pm UK time / 10-11:30am MST
Day/Time
Online
format
Creating the Container for Spiritual Growth
Like many of us you are probably dealing with uncertainty, disconnection, frustration, and grief in these difficult and transforming times. Integrating mindfulness is an online program for anyone who meditates or is on a spiritual journey that teaches how to integrate the healing power of awareness into your daily life, and to build positive conditions to support your clarity, kindness, and wisdom.
Just as a baby needs the support of a womb to grow, you need supportive conditions in your life to truly grow. We call these supportive conditions the spiritual container. It is a way to bring the healing and magic of a retreat center and community into your own daily life.
This container – or womb – strengthens your meditation, and supports you to go deeper on your spiritual path. It helps you simplify your life, develop more compassion, and build calm and resilience. Healing your own womb of supportive conditions lets you come with fullness, strength and abundance to serve our planet Gaia, and to better foster connection with others and community.
Join us for a free introductory webinar to explore how to let go and shift unhelpful patterns and habits, to create new supportive structures in your life, and better align your time with the values, community connection and contribution you aspire too.
This webinar will introduce you to the foundational principles in our flagship course, Integrating Mindfulness.

Register Now

This workshop is based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles of a Supportive Container.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Spiritual Container

“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”.
Duncan Cryle

“Deep transformational growth is really supported by having a container, a supportive structure around us. I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that this is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”
Karen McAllister

Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

What Previous Students Are Saying

“I think this course is a beautiful, utterly grounded and relevant way of making the spiritual life very real and integrated with how we are living every day of our lives. It lays an important foundation for a meditation practice that can actually go somewhere and lead to a well-rounded and truly fulfilling life.”
Ruth – Embodied in Motion

“It’s really, really brought me back home to myself. I found myself in the past very scattered and would put off all the important things, the spiritual aspects of life, the mindfulness and so on, just to blast through my day and get things done, but now I am really taking pause. I still don’t get everything done, but I don’t get everything done in a much more calm and soulful way.”
Emmanuel – ActionAid Brasil

Register Now

Supportive Habits for Resilience & Growth (Free Webinar)
2023-03-04 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Edmonton)
“Navigating the complexities of today’s world requires more than just feeling good on retreat, or using a daily mindfulness app. We have to learn how to embody mindfulness while thinking about our planet’s future or navigating the pressures of daily life.”
-Karen McAllister & Duncan Cryle
In our busy and distracted world it’s hard to keep supportive structures and routines for your well-being, spiritual growth, and resilience. Integrating mindfulness is an online program for anyone who meditates or is on a spiritual journey that teaches how to integrate the healing power of awareness into your daily life, and to build positive conditions to support your clarity, kindness, and wisdom.

Register Now

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Workshop
practice
1.5 Hours
Duration
March 4th
5-6:30pm UK time / 10-11:30am MST
Day/Time
Online
format
Creating the Container for Spiritual Growth
Perhaps you want to strengthen your meditation practice, but find you never quite build consistency. Or you feel your time is too often scattered or wasted, and not spent on what truly matters to you.
Just as a baby needs the support of a womb to grow, you need supportive conditions in your life to truly grow. We call these supportive conditions the spiritual container. It is a way to bring the healing rhythms and the magic of a retreat center and community into your own daily life.
One of the key principles of the spiritual container is creating consciously chosen structures, habits and routines that support your growth.
Join us for a free introductory webinar to explore how to let go and shift unhelpful patterns and habits, to create new supportive structures in your life, and better align your time with the values, community connection and contribution you aspire too.
This webinar will introduce you to the foundational principles in our flagship course, Integrating Mindfulness.

Register Now

This workshop is based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles of a Supportive Container.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Spiritual Container

“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”.
Duncan Cryle

“Deep transformational growth is really supported by having a container, a supportive structure around us. I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that this is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”
Karen McAllister

Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

What Previous Students Are Saying

“I think this course is a beautiful, utterly grounded and relevant way of making the spiritual life very real and integrated with how we are living every day of our lives. It lays an important foundation for a meditation practice that can actually go somewhere and lead to a well-rounded and truly fulfilling life.”
Ruth – Embodied in Motion

“It’s really, really brought me back home to myself. I found myself in the past very scattered and would put off all the important things, the spiritual aspects of life, the mindfulness and so on, just to blast through my day and get things done, but now I am really taking pause. I still don’t get everything done, but I don’t get everything done in a much more calm and soulful way.”
Emmanuel – ActionAid Brasil

Register Now

Integrating Mindfulness: Tools for Holistic Living (In-Person or Online)
2023-03-18 10:00 - 2023-05-06 12:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Flourishing in our distracted and difficult world relies on bringing awareness to the people and things that nourish us, letting go of what doesn’t, and creating a container to protect our happiness and life-energy.”
-Karen McAllister & Duncan Cryle
With all that’s happening in the world, how do we collectively come up for air?
This course is for those who want to find meaning and embrace their life fully. It is to help integrate and apply mindfulness in your life, for your own sustainability and happiness. To be able to be of better service to those around you and to our planet.
NOTE: This course can be attended online or in-person at Clear Sky.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Interactive
Workshop
practice
Six Weeks
No Class April 8 & 15
Duration
March 18th – May 6th
10:00am-12:00pm MT
Day/Time
In-Person
Online
format
Bring Mindfulness to all areas of your life
Navigating the complexities of today’s world requires more than mindfulness apps.
We have to learn how to embody mindfulness within the pressures of daily life.
Flourishing in our distracted and difficult world relies on bringing awareness to the people and things that nourish us, letting go of what doesn’t, and creating a container to protect our happiness and life-energy. The course will teach you how to create a supportive container for your mindfulness practice and year-round growth.
This course will help you integrate mindfulness into your daily life – to transform your environment; your habits and use of time; how you listen and speak; areas of life where you may be stuck such as money, health, food, or life vision; and how you relate to others and build community.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“Deep transformational growth is really supported by having a container, a supportive structure around us. I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that this is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”
Karen McAllister

Join Karen and Duncan for an interactive six-week course and learn how to:

Strengthen your mindfulness or meditation practice to experience more calm and clarity
Create supportive structures that help you stay balanced, protect your happiness and support your year-round growth.
Apply the power of awareness to:

Develop a supportive environment, and healthy consciously-chosen structures and routines in your daily life;
Cultivate more meaningful conversations and connections in your relationships and community;
Bring awareness and transformative change to big areas of your life that may be draining energy – concerns about your future, money, time management, food and health.

4. Integrate and weave mindfulness into your all aspects of your daily work and life.

Three interwoven approaches
This course supports you to:
• cultivate your mindfulness practice;
• craft a supportive environment;
• powerfully integrate mindfulness into all aspects of our life and work.

Based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles, Integrating Mindfulness helps you build a sustainable meditation practice that permeates your body, career, relationships and all other areas of your life.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Mindful Container

“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”.
Duncan Cryle

A supportive structure
Using our five principles of creating a supportive container for mindfulness and growth, this course teaches you how to apply mindfulness across all areas of your life, and to create an environment that supports you physically, mentally and emotionally. The course includes meditations, exercises and community check-ins.
• Week 1: Creating a supportive space for your growth;
• Week 2: Transforming habit and making friends with structure;
• Week 3: Quieting the monkey mind and creating generative conversations;
• Week 4: Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy;
• Week 5: The power of mindfulness for real and lasting change;
• Week 6: Community and transforming our relationships with others.
Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

What Previous Students Are Saying

“I think this course is a beautiful, utterly grounded and relevant way of making the spiritual life very real and integrated with how we are living every day of our lives. It lays an important foundation for a meditation practice that can actually go somewhere and lead to a well-rounded and truly fulfilling life.”
Ruth – Embodied in Motion

“It’s really, really brought me back home to myself. I found myself in the past very scattered and would put off all the important things, the spiritual aspects of life, the mindfulness and so on, just to blast through my day and get things done, but now I am really taking pause. I still don’t get everything done, but I don’t get everything done in a much more calm and soulful way.”
Emmanuel – ActionAid Brasil

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Going, Going, Gone: Teachings of Nagarjuna (In-Person or Online)
2023-04-09 19:00 - 2023-04-15 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Just as it is known
That an image of one’s face is seen
Depending on a mirror
But does not really exist as a face,
So the conception of “I” exists
Dependent on mind and body,
But like the image of a face
The “I” does not at all exist as its own reality.”
― Nagarjuna
Join Qapel Doug Duncan for an eight day meditation retreat on the deep emptiness teachings of Nagarjuna. In it we will study, reflect and meditate on the nature of emptiness – both ultimate and approximate.
Registration Deadline:
IN-PERSON – March 24, 2023 ONLINE – March 31st, 2023

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Mahayana
Buddhism
focus area
Meditation
Retreat
practice
One
Week
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
In-Person
or Online
format
Going, Going, Gone: Teachings of Nagarjuna.
How deeply do you understand emptiness? In this retreat we will study the pinnacle teachings of the Mahayana Madhyamika tradition that analyse the different levels of emptiness.
This meditation retreat will be led by Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. Rigourous study, meditation and reflection is expected of participants in this powerful retreat.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.
While we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening, there’s no substitute for the power of one’s own profound experience of truth, gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching.
Recommended texts for this course:
The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika (Garfield).
The Adornment of the Middle Way: Shantarakshita’s Madhyamakalankara (Shambala).

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Attend Online

“Clear Sky is my favourite place to retreat.
I am so grateful to find such an amazing place to study various meditation practices, walk in stunning nature and eat fresh food from the farm.
I always enjoy going there for more.”
Maya L.
Meet the Teacher
Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan)
Qapel studied with the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche from 1974 until the latter’s passing in 2003. Doug received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. He also received teachings from the 16th Karmapa and other Tibetan Rinpoches, as well as from the Ven. Sayadaw U Thila Wunta and from a Master of the Western Mystery School. In addition, Doug has undertaken numerous three-month solitary meditation retreats.
Doug has been leading retreats, teaching and training in universal practices of spiritual unfoldment since 1985, helping thousands of students in numerous countries liberate themselves from suffering. His teaching also draws on contemporary psychology and science. In 2004 he co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies where he is resident teacher along with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.
More About Qapel | About the Lineage

Schedule
Arrival: Sunday, April 9th at 3pm, MT
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation and Q&A with Qapel
Departure: Saturday, April 15th at 3 pm
*Daily schedule is subject to changes closer to the course date. Questions about the retreat? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact maureen@clearskycenter.org.

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About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing: As a charitable organization, we strive to provide locally sourced organic meals and comfortable accommodations at an affordable price. Fees vary depending on your accommodation choice and early bird pricing.
Online Retreatants: Admin Fees & Requirements
In order to bring you this retreat at home, there is an additional admin fee* of $150 CAD. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
If you are taking this retreat online, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week.
Requirements include:

Block out the retreat duration and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
Note: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering

About the administrative fee*
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online.
The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood. Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
The admin fee goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online.
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and videos after the Teachings)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up
8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers
10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk
10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice
5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up
7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers
8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

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Come to your Senses: A Day to Practice Deep Mindfulness
2023-04-29 13:30 - 16:30 (America/Chicago)
An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean NicholsonApril 29, 2023
1:30pm-4:30pm MDT
Click here to see your timezone
Life is busy. From the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, you face demands from work, family, finances, health. While navigating through life’s daily challenges it can be difficult to pause and take a breath, to smell the roses, to rest in the moment. Give yourself a gift and join us at the Clear Sky Meditation Center to take time to reset.

Register Now

We are delighted to share this course that is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully.

Whether you work in the healthcare field or the business world, whether you are self-employed or work in a large organization, whether you are part of a family or are living alone, finding ways to slow down and rest in the moment can be a challenge. If you want to learn simple meditation skills to feel calm and focused where ever you are, this 3 hour in-person retreat is for you. Taking place at the beautiful Clear Sky Meditation Center, learn how to release tension in your system and develop calm through focused concentration.

Course Details
What you can expect
In this course you will:
Learn ancient and effective meditation practices that use the senses of taste, touch, sight and sound. These are simple practices you can use anywhere to tune into your senses and develop Deep Mindfulness.
Meet and practice with others who also want to learn how to stay grounded and centered in the busyness of life.
Become more aware of how to maintain health and wellbeing in yourself, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.

Meet your Teachers

Maureen Smith
A Registered Clinical Social Worker, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care. She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher.
Since 2005, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center. For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry. Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings.
During her time-out relaxation moments, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches, hiking, creating art and reading.
Dean Nicholson
Dean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology and over 35 years clinical counselling experience in health care. Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups, is an educator and popular speaker.
A meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients.

Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center
Date: April 29, 2023
Time: 1:30pm -4:30pm MT
Cost: $50 CAD

Register Now

Dean is a very skilled, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.
Gerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health
You are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.
Gareth WebbCounsellor, Youth Substance Use
As I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.
Ann Morin MSW, Invermere BC
Dean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.
PK
I appreciated the longer meditations in all the senses.
Although I have been engaged in guided meditations fairly consistently for 2 years plus; having your support really helped me to ‘stretch out’.
Doug P.

Western Enlightenment: The Path of Kabbalah (Online)
2023-05-07 09:30 - 2023-06-04 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
“The Tarot represents a system of complete liberation for Westerners.” -Namgyal Rinpoche
What is it you are seeking? Make deeper contact with wider dimensions of wisdom. With spirit rooted in the earth and form opened to the heavens, the path of Kabbalah gives us a worthy bridge between form, formless and ultimately wonder.
Using ancient maps from our wisdom traditions, we will explore how practices from the Western Mysteries can be woven into our daily lives to push our spiritual expression outwards.
This online course is also the pre-requisite for the Movement of the Mandala retreat in 2024.

Register Now

Western
Mysteries
focus area
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
practice
Five
Weeks
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
Online or
In-Person
format
What is the Kabbalah?
Discover how the Kabbalah and tarot are designed to cultivate dormant aspects in ourselves so we may reach our highest potential. This course builds on the Tree of Life and is a pre-requisite for the Movement of the Mandala interactive tarot retreat in 2024.
We’re all familiar with Eastern spiritual traditions, but did you know the West also has a legitimate path for spiritual awakening? This path provided the philosophical and mystical underpinnings upon which the Judeo Christian religions formed. You could say it is the inner, spiritual partner to the outer ‘religious’ face that we see in Western culture today.
Kabbalah also guides one through the terrain of the psychological and emotional transformations that are possible in the psyche. The Kabbalah is like an early map of western psychology from which science and philosophy developed. Additionally, as with Satori, Nirvana and sunyata in Eastern traditions, the Kabbalah points us to the realisation of ‘God’, described as the limitless, infinite Ain Soph Aur.
What about the tarot?
The Kabbalah is the framework upon which the Tarot, particularly the profound symbology of the major arcana, sits. This course will teach aspects of the tarot and will also describe the Tree of Life as a chakra system.

Register Now

This course for you if:

You’d like to study a framework for spiritual understanding with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You’d like to make contact with deeper wisdom and discover what is truly important.
You’d like to leverage new tools for compassionate manifestation in the world.
You’d like to explore the kabbalah as a framework for deeper realisation of the dialogue between form, subtle energy and the void.
You want to understand the building blocks of the consciousness and your part in it.

The Movement of the Mandala Retreat
The Movement of the Mandala retreat is scheduled for August 2024, has limited enrolment and requires this Kabbalah course as a pre-requisite.
Qapel’s first retreat with his Teacher Namgyal Rinpoche was on the ‘Movement of the Mandala’, an embodied initiation into the Tarot’s archetypes. Together with Catherine Sensei, he would like to pass on an in-depth transmission of the Western spiritual teachings.

Namgyal Rinpoche, then Ananda Bodhi Bhikkhu in 1969 at the Dharma Centre of Canada.
In fact, the Western Mysteries was the path by which our lineage’s founder, Namgyal Rinpoche, awakened. Rinpoche was a Master of the western spiritual tradition before becoming a Buddhist monk.

“I have yet to encounter another setting where I grow as much as I do while at Clear Sky. The balance of support, genuine care and challenge is rare and precious.
When it comes to spiritual transformation, Clear Sky is a place and group of people that is not only talking-the-talk but actively walking-the-walk.”
Ruth L.
Course Schedule
May 7th – June 4th, 2023
All Kabbalah Teachings will be on Sundays
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time

Sunday May 7th – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday May 14th – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday May 21st – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday May 28th – 9:30-11am Class

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on four Sundays. There will be a live group class in the morning (9:30-11am MT). We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: June 3-4th
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (June 3rd – 4th). This can be done at home, or together with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia. We highly recommend clearing your schedule over the weekend to focus on the retreat. Formal group sessions will also be held at these times:

Flash Retreat morning group workshop time: 9:30-10:30am
Flash Retreat afternoon group workshop time: 2:30-3:30pm

If you’d like to join the Flash Retreat from Clear Sky, please contact ava@clearskycenter.org.

Register Now

Meet the Teachers

Doug Qapel Duncan

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.

Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be video streamed live at 9:00am MST. The recording will be available for one week after each class.
In addition to the classes there will be Q&A / participatory style workshop sessions at 3pm MST each Sunday. Finally the course ends with a Flash Retreat on June 3-4th, 2023.
What Does the Course Cost?
This course is offered based on the unique combination of 1) dāna and 2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
Online Participants & Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!

Register Now

Meditation Circle: Community Classes for Inner Well-Being (Online or In-Person)
2023-06-08 19:00 - 2023-07-06 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Weekly Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run throughout the year except for when we are closed for group retreats. This current series will be on ‘Awakening through the Body’, and runs for five weeks: Thursday, June 8th to July 6th. Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!

Registration – In Person Class

Registration – Online Class

Questions?
Contact Cara via email or phone:
cara@clearskycenter.org | 250-421-8280

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”

Duncan Cryle

Series Overview: Positively Awakening

with Karen McAllister
How would you like to avoid and solve problems? Or let go of disturbing emotions and mental states. Perhaps empower yourself to be of the best help to others.
This 5-week series as part of Clear Sky’s Meditation Circle classes is for anyone looking to train to develop positive attitudes and to reach the far shore of the ocean of our problems.
This is an introduction to the 6 important mental states that we need to develop if we want to reach any of our positive goals in life.
These six far-reaching attitudes are states of mind that lead the way to liberation and enlightenment. As antidotes to some of our biggest mental obstacles – anger, greed, jealousy, laziness and so on – the six attitudes work together, enabling us to deal with everything that life throws at us. By developing these attitudes, we can slowly but certainly realize our full potential, bringing the highest benefit to ourselves and others.
In this series, in each session, we’ll meditate together, and explore:

Generosity

Ethical Self-Discipline

Patience

Perseverance

Mental Stability (Concentration)

Discriminating Awareness (Wisdom)

“I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”

Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist at Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in Asian philosophy. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.

Registration – Online Class

Registration – In Person Class

Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.

Register Now – Online Class

Register Now – In Person Class

Dharma in the Stars: AstroDharma Basics (In-Person or Online)
2023-06-16 19:00 - 2023-06-18 16:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Astrology allows us to identify our unique challenges and strengths as individuals in order to more fully embody and live our spiritual awakening.
“Dharma empowers us to transcend our challenges, leverage our strengths and reduce the suffering within ourselves and those around us.”
-Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Connect with a wisdom teacher who has developed Dharmic astrology as a tool for transformation and for benefitting beings. If you are indeed a modern day bodhisattva with the aspiration for a more compassionate world, this weekend of AstroDharma fundamentals will help you better understand and transform your own patterns and potential, and also understand and help the people around you.
Join Catherine Sensei for a weekend retreat and learn how to interpret your astrological chart and integrate its insights with the teachings of Dharma to create a personalized roadmap for growth and self-transcendence.
Important:
In-Person Registration Closes: Friday, June 9th
Online Registration Closes: Friday, June 16th

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Astrology
Dharma
focus area
Retreat &
Workshop
practice
Two Night
Weekend Retreat
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
In-Person &
Online
format
Dharma in the Stars: AstroDharma Fundamentals
Dharma in the Stars is for those who wish to study a powerful tool to benefit beings: AstroDharma. If you are a modern day bodhisattva with the aspiration to increase clarity and compassion in this world, this weekend of AstroDharma fundamentals is for you.
“AstroDharma” is what Catherine Pawasarat Sensei calls her unique synthesis of Buddhist teachings on spiritual awakening (called “dharma”) and transpersonal Western astrology, based on the teachings of Carl Jung.
These two powerful tools help us better understand ourselves and the patterns we manifest in our lives. The more we know about ourselves, the more choices we have. Then we can make better choices so that we may lead healthier lives. Furthermore, we can also more deeply understand the patterns of those around us, and support the potential in others.
This weekend of study focuses on the fundamentals of astrodharma, with the aim to give you the building blocks for what is a vast and lifelong study. We want you to feel comfortably oriented around an astrological natal chart.
What You’ll Learn: AstroDharma Fundamentals

Read the fundamentals of your own astrological birth chart.
Become familiar with the 12 zodiacal signs and their most important characteristics.
Start to identify the planets and other celestial bodies, and their major qualities.
Gain clarity on the functions and main characteristics of the twelve astrological houses.

Over the course, we will show you how to find your chart and we will look at participant charts together. You are also encouraged to bring burning questions from your life right now – so we can study how this is reflected astrologically.
We will also learn how to use astrodharma to transform challenges and discover new strengths or hidden resources in our lives. Come all, look within, look to the stars!
This course for you if:

You’d like to study a framework for spiritual understanding with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You’re wondering “what should I be doing in this lifetime to make a positive impact”?
You’d like to transform challenges in your life by leveraging unseen strengths.
You’d like to use transpersonal astrology for deeper realisation.
You want to understand the patterns of others, as well as your own, to be a more skilled and compassionate being in the world.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and level of expertise that is shared by Sensei. Her teachings are always well prepared and transformative in my spiritual growth.”
Michele C.Astrologer
Course Details
Time and Location
Dharma in the Stars will be led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. This course is offered online or in-person, with optional Somatic AstroDharma sessions in person only.
Schedule / Class Times: All listed in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), and will be 60-90 mins in duration.

Friday 7pm (please arrive on-site by 3pm at the latest)
Saturday 9am, 2:30pm and 7pm
Sunday 9am and 2:30pm*

*The course officially finishes after the 2pm class (approx 3:30pm). However, bonus somatic sessions will be offered to on-site retreatants who wish to stay for these:
Somatic AstroDharma (Sunday June 18th)

Sunday 4:30pm: AstroDharma with Social Presencing Theater
Sunday 7:30pm: Dialoguing with your Chart – Shifting AstroDrama to AstroDharma

(The somatic sessions will be offered in-person only.)
Online participants are expected to attend classes live. We have arranged class times to be comfortable for most time zones. However we understand that some class times might occur after midnight in some regions, so if this is the case for you, please let us know when you register. Then we can provide a recording so you can catch up on that particular class.
What you will need: Your astrology chart (based on your time of birth or by dowsing). More details will be given upon registration.

Questions?
If you have questions about the retreat, please contact the Clear Sky Retreat Manager at 250-429-3929 (phone) or at bookings@clearskycenter.org (email).
Why Retreat In-Person?
Retreating in person at a retreat center is the best way to retreat – why?

You can’t beat live interaction with the course Teachers. Being in the same space with clear beings ‘tunes’ you to more wholesome states.
We create a welcoming environment and follow a supportive retreat schedule, based on decades of hosting successful retreats worldwide.
Wholesome and delicious food is provided so you don’t have to spend time cooking for yourself.
Breath-taking and restful, natural environment puts your body and mind at ease and resets your nervous system.
Retreating at our center gets you out of your usual home environment and routines – they can be distracting.
Retreating with others (your co-retreatants) is incredibly supportive and energy building.

And, we work hard to support the online retreat experience.

We have been delivering online offerings since 2012 and are always looking for new ways to optimize your experience.
You will be provided with recommendations for making your retreat supportive and generative at home, where there are usually many distractions.
Classes are live-streamed and some recordings are available for a certain time.
Group sits with your co-retreatants are streamed to support your practice routine.
HD cameras and professional audio equipment provide high quality video streaming.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and universal spiritual tools including transpersonal astrology and Japanese arts.
She has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Bonus Gift for Course Participants

Online AstroDharma Course INCLUDED
Catherine Sensei also offers an online Intro to AstroDharma course which you will be given access to at the end of this course. This will help you continue your studies.
AstroDharma Blog
Articles by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on AstroDharma:

Use AstroDharma to Increase Joy and Integrate the Shadow.
The Three Most Important Parts of Your Chart.
Turbo Charge Your Freedom: AstroDharma.

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
Dana and Course Cost
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants: 1) dāna to the Teachers plus 2) accomodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.
Online Participants: 1) dāna to the Teachers 2) online administration fee of $150.
Online Course Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Sample Daily Schedule
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Meditation Circle: Community Classes for Inner Well-Being (Online or In-Person)
2023-07-13 19:00 - 2023-08-03 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Weekly Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run throughout the year except for when we are closed for group retreats. This current series will be on ‘The Art of Conscious Living’, and runs for four weeks: Thursday, July 13th to August 3rd. Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!

Registration – In Person Class

Registration – Online Class

Questions?
Contact Richard via email or phone:
richard@planetdharma.com | 250-429-3929

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”

Duncan Cryle

Series Overview: The Art of Conscious Living

with Duncan Cryle
Once you can reach some kind of calm and clarity in your daily meditation, what does it look like to apply it? What kind of a person do you show up as? For this meditation circle series, we will explore character traits you can bring to your life, work and relationships that are based on a clear loving meditative state. Drawing from contemporary studies, we’ll look at seven core ways of showing up from embracing personal responsibility, to authentically communicating and relating with integrity. These seven ways can be seen as how the meditative mind of openness and peace moves in the world. Learning and cultivating these offer a way to bridge between your inner life and your life in the world.
Along with this study, we’ll continuing building the foundation of breathing meditation practice together. And we’ll continuing coming together as a virtual community to share and learn together.
“Living consciously is a state of being mentally active rather than passive. It is the ability to look at the world through fresh eyes … Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant and unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them … it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding both of the world external to self and of the world within”
–Nathaniel Branden

“I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”

Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist at Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in Asian philosophy. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.

Registration – Online Class

Registration – In Person Class

Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.

Register Now – Online Class

Register Now – In Person Class

As the Spirit Moves (In-Person and Online)
2023-07-21 17:00 - 2023-07-23 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“If you want truth, it costs all of you.” -Qapel
Show up for teachings from Qapel and find out what he’ll teach. It will be eclectic and sure to inspire. In the spirit of Guru Yoga – unorganised, undetermined, unregulated. No seatbelts allowed.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Guru Yoga
practice
Weekend
Duration
Advanced
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
Section Headline
Join Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) for an eclectic weekend of ‘old school’ style dharma teachings. In the past, people ‘showed up’ for dharma teachings, regardless of topic. The teachings given were inspired by the energy of the people there.
In the spirit of Guru Yoga this course will be relatively unorganised, undetermined and unregulated. So, think of this weekend like a challenge – what will happen if you have no idea what will be taught, where the teachings might flow, how the spirit will move?
In tantrayana, guru yoga is considered the pinnacle practice – and our Western egos tend to have a hard time with this. So, throw down the glove! Are you willing to take this leap of faith. Can your ego handle it?

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“I have yet to encounter another setting where I grow as much as I do while at Clear Sky. The balance of support, genuine care and challenge is rare and precious.
When it comes to spiritual transformation, Clear Sky is a place and group of people that is not only talking-the-talk but actively walking-the-walk.”
Ruth L.
Course Details
Time and Location
As the Spirit Moves will be led by Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants: 1) dāna to the Teachers and 2) accomodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.
Online Participants: 1) dāna to the Teacher and 2) online administration fee of $150.

Meet the Teachers

Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan)
Qapel studied with the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche from 1974 until the latter’s passing in 2003. Doug received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. He also received teachings from the 16th Karmapa and other Tibetan Rinpoches, as well as from the Ven. Sayadaw U Thila Wunta and from a Master of the Western Mystery School. In addition, Doug has undertaken numerous three-month solitary meditation retreats.
Doug has been leading retreats, teaching and training in universal practices of spiritual unfoldment since 1985, helping thousands of students in numerous countries liberate themselves from suffering. His teaching also draws on contemporary psychology and science. In 2004 he co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies where he is resident teacher along with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.
More About Qapel | About the Lineage
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing: As a charitable organization, we strive to provide locally sourced organic meals and comfortable accommodations at an affordable price. Fees vary depending on your accommodation choice and early bird pricing.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Breathing 2.0 Meditation Retreat
2023-08-11 15:00 - 2023-08-20 15:00 (America/Edmonton)
“The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
Namgyal Rinpoche
Breathing practice is suitable whether you are a new or seasoned meditator.
If you have a background in Vipassana retreats and are interested in doing something that is similar but a next step, with a live teacher, then this retreat may be for you.
Led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, this retreat gives an opportunity for more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice.
In-person and Online options available.
In-Person Registration Deadline: July 28th
Online Registration Deadline: August 4th

Attend In-Person (Registration Closed)

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Meditation Retreat
practice
Ten Days
Duration
All Levels
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
Breathing Meditation Retreat
The 2022 Breathing Retreat was so powerful for participants that we just had to push the 2.0 ‘repeat’ button.
Repetition for mastery is what meditation is all about. Whether you are a new or a seasoned practitioner, we continually hone our attentiveness to the breath until calm, clarity and wisdom emerges.
At this retreat, the practice itself is life changing, profound and healing. And most importantly, you will benefit from the rare in-person guidance of an accomplished meditation teacher and wisdom holder – Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.
Breathing meditation is suitable for all types of people. It develops concentration, calm, bliss and insight – altogether leading to awakening and healing.
If you have a background in Vipassana retreats and are interested in doing something that is similar but a next step, with a live teacher, then this retreat may be for you. This retreat gives an opportunity for more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.
While we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening, there’s no substitute for the power of one’s own profound experience of truth, gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching.
A guiding text for this retreat is the Ānāpānasati Sutta, or Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. In it, the Buddha describes 16 steps of practice divided into four areas of mindfulness.
This simple yet powerful framework will extend your meditation experience to everything from subatomic particles to the vastness of space, and all that’s between. It includes practice in all four postures – sitting, walking standing and lying down. Finally, we will also offer support for bridging the gap between retreat and daily life when you get home.

Attend In-Person (Registration Closed)

Attend Online

What Do Previous Retreatants Say?
“I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and level of expertise that is shared by Sensei. Her teachings are always well prepared and transformative in my spiritual growth.”
Michele C.Astrologer
Schedule
Arrival: August 11th at 3pm, MT
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation and Q&A with Qapel
Departure: August 20th at 3 pm
*Daily schedule is subject to changes closer to the course date.

Questions about the retreat? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact maureen@clearskycenter.org.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center.
She has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage

Ready to Register?
If you have questions about the retreat, please phone 250-429-3929, or contact bookings@clearskycenter.org.
Registration details are coming very soon. In the meantime, you can also use the above contact details to pre-register for the retreat.

Attend In-Person (Registration Closed)

Attend Online

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
In-Person Attendance: Dana and Cost
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In addition to Dana to the Teacher, Clear Sky Meditation Centre provides an incredible space for your retreat. Situated on a beautiful 310-acre property in the Rocky Mountains, the center and its karma yogis provide you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation. Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the retreat.
Online Attendance: Dana, Cost and Requirements
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In order to bring you this retreat at home, there is an additional admin fee* of $350 CAD. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
If you are taking this retreat online, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week.
Requirements include:

Block out the retreat duration and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
Note: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering

About the administrative fee*
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online.The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood. Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
The admin fee goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online.
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and videos after the Teachings)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact us so we can support you to attend.
We welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact Ava@clearskycenter.org.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.

Attend In-Person (Registration Closed)

Attend Online

Meditation Circle: Community Classes for Inner Well-Being (Online or In-Person)
2023-09-07 19:00 - 2023-09-28 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Drop-Ins Welcome
Weekly Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run throughout the year except for when we are closed for group retreats. This current series will be on ‘The Art of Conscious Living’, and runs for four weeks: Thursday, September 7th to 28th. Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!
Registration – In Person Class Registration – Online Class
Questions?
Contact Richard via email or phone:
richard@planetdharma.com | 250-429-3929

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”
Duncan Cryle

Series Overview: Inner and Outer Awareness
with Karen McAllister
Having a daily meditation practice expands our awareness and ability to hold the good, the bad, and the ugly with expansiveness and compassion.
Meditation explores self-awareness (what’s going on with me?) and self management (how do I manage what’s going on with me?)
Then, there’s the interpersonal (the inner and outer world at play), social awareness (what’s going on around me?) and relationship management (how do I manage what’s going on with us?)
In this series, we will dig deeper into how our meditation practice can inform our compassionate action out in the world and vice versa.

“I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”
Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist at Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in Asian philosophy. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.
Registration – Online Class Registration – In Person Class
Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
Registration Coming Soon – Online Class Registration Coming Soon – In Person Class

Integrating Mindfulness: Weekend Retreat (In-Person & Online)
2023-09-16 08:00 - 2023-09-17 15:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Participating in the Integrating Mindfulness course has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion and provided me with practical tools for managing stress and anxiety. I am deeply grateful for the Clear Sky community and support provided by the course.” – Artin
Taking a pause out of the busyness of life is essential for healthy balance and growth.
If you are struggling to integrate your meditation practice with the constant distractions and challenges of daily life, this weekend retreat may be for you.
Based on Clear Sky Center’s Five Principles of a Mindful Container, learn how to manage your time and energy, develop supportive habits and build a regular meditation practice.
Many people do a meditation retreat to handle burn out, but then go back home quickly end up being overwhelmed again. What’s unique about this retreat is it offers a middle way. It combines restorative meditation time, with time to reflect on what changes you could make to manage your energy better and for long term sustainability.
Note: This retreat can be attended onsite or online. We encourage onsite participation where possible so you can enjoy additional meditation and grounding exercises in nature on Clear Sky’s beautiful 310 acres..
Registration Deadline:
In-Person: Saturday, September 9th, 2023
Online: Friday, September 15th, 2023

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Interactive
Workshop
practice
Weekend
Retreat
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
In-Person
& Online
format
Bring Mindfulness to all areas of your life
In our post-COVID world, people are struggling with time management, distraction and feeling pulled in several directions.
Attention deficit disorder is the name of the day. Despite having a meditation or mindfulness practice, you find yourself being pulled here, there and everywhere.
The new normal is a frazzled, distracted, cut-down, fractured state.
Along with this, we also hear people struggling with isolation and loneliness. It is hard to make meaningful connections when we are all constantly running and primarily interacting online.
Taking a pause out of the busyness of life is an essential part of healthy balance.
We all need a supportive environment to gain new insights and growth. We all need space to step back, reconnect with ourselves and our meditation practice, and take time to reflect on how we spend our time and energy. By examining your structures and routines, you can make specific changes to help you integrate more spaciousness in your life.
It’s especially healing to do this with experienced guides and like-minded people so we can benefit from the support of group connection.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

There are big areas of my life I needed to look at that I didn’t know I needed to. I am more aware of them now, and have perspective on how to bring daily mindfulness to them. Now I have a technique to structure my life and prioritize the things I actually want to do, and a dialogue technique that is helping in my relationships. Integrating Mindfulness allows you to think about issues in a different way (such as money!). Insightful and nourishing.” – Daniel
“I was hesitant to commit to another course when things are already so busy, but thankfully I committed and encountered incredible wisdom! Now I have an increased awareness of the healing power of community. I’m cleaning up my money relationship, building better habits, and learning how to deal with blind spots. Integrating Mindfulness provides teachings and practical opportunities for application: anyone wanting to take up the spiritual path would benefit” – Ben
Using Clear Sky’s Five Principles of a Mindful Container, this retreat will help you craft a life more in line with your vision and values.
By focusing on creating healthy structures and routines, you will have the opportunity to identify where your time and energy leaks away.
Meditations and exercises will help you reconnect with your core values and design structure and habits in your life to support them.
We are here for you. We care deeply for your state. We want you to be held, focused and have the experience of being in a clear, aware, blissful and loving state.
We want to help you understand what you need and to take care of yourself. A depleted mind and body cannot be of service to the world. Only through healing yourself can you truly be of service to others.

What to Expect:

The weekend will be a mixture of group and individual meditation time, instructional classes/Q&A, breakout groups, practical exercises to explore, and free time to reflect and enjoy nature.
Group meditation sits will help you reconnect / strengthen your meditation practice
Breakouts/group discussion allow you to make connections, build community, and share and learn with like-minded people.
If attending at Clear Sky Center: along with wholesome local organic food, you can expect personalized meditation guidance (eg. posture), time to explore our 300-acres of walking trails and healing exercises and meditations outside.
If you cannot come in person: we will give you guidelines to craft a supportive home retreat, based on the same five principles we use here at Clear Sky to create an amazing space for transforming struggle and embracing vitality.

Join Karen and Duncan for a weekend retreat and:

Understand how to create a supportive container in your life for your daily meditation
Reconnect and deepen your meditation practice
Gain a very clear picture of your blocks around time management and how to shift these
Create good habits to better manage your energy and time to go to what you value the most
Learn how to integrate meditation and stillness into your daily life

What is really important, what is not? I’ve been running round in circles and always end up the same: no direction, but stress! In Integrating Mindfulness, I realized things that aren’t my highest priorities have been taking up a lot of time and money, and I was missing a daily, intentional structure. With these teachers, you’ll get clarity about what you do, why you do it, and how you can change to something better.
Jutta
Mindfulness is so much more than just truly enjoying my cup of tea! I was struggling to find balance with all the big life issues that are changing in my life; finding Integrating Mindfulness was serendipity. It is what I need in my spiritual toolbox to help me stay open and connected. I am more aware now when I am losing myself in grief, when I am handling difficult conversations, and in seeing how human differences are to be enjoyed, as I enjoy different flowers. There is so much more to discover about life. Integrating Mindfulness is about interactions with fellow travellers! If you want to take mindfulness deeper, you need this course.
Kirsty
I am doing a lot of other courses. They are all good—this one is special. Integrating Mindfulness provides a good foundation to support any other studies. People who express feeling unhappy, overwhelmed, lacking connection, would find an ideal fit here. Now, I am committed to being aware of my boundaries, and doing what it takes to maintain them, including clear communication to others. I’m going to continue working on my spiritual container and structure. I plan to come to Clear Sky for more!
Kim
Based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles, Integrating Mindfulness helps you build a sustainable meditation practice that permeates your body, career, relationships and all other areas of your life.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Mindful Container

“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”.
Duncan Cryle

Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

The key word is integrating—not compartmentalizing, but establishing a wholeness. I was looking to ground, focus, and develop a formal practice, one in which I could develop commitment to self. I have found that I am deep in shadow, and am struggling with subtle traumas that need to be nurtured with loving kindness. Going forward, it’s small steps to reach out to community and allow myself to be vulnerable.
Jennifer
Before Integrating Mindfulness, I had been struggling with consistent meditation practice. Now I have a dedicated space for my practice. I am solidifying my need for community. And I am reassessing myself and my blocks and shadows.
Leslie
What is really important, what is not? I’ve been running round in circles and always end up the same: No direction, but stress! In Integrating Mindfulness, I realized things that aren’t my highest priorities have been taking up a lot of time and money, and I was missing a daily, intentional structure. With these teachers, you’ll get clarity about what you do, why you do it, and how you should do it to feel and think better.
Jutta
Guided Meditations with Karen and Duncan
https://youtu.be/ct6k3BeP7NMhttps://youtu.be/9pBmztHyOFY
Body Scan with Karen McAllister (10 minutes)
Transforming Difficult Emotions with Duncan Cryle (9 minutes)
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

FAQs
In-Person Attendance: Dana and Cost
Pricing:
The base price of the course includes accommodation at Clear Sky, lunch and dinner on Saturday 16th June, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday 17th June, as well as a course fee to cover the basic costs of running the course.
Accommodation is available in shared rooms or in a private cabin. The base price is between $199 to $247 CAD depending on the accommodation option selected. There is a 10% early bird discount on this for those booking before August 27th.
You are also welcome to arrive instead on Friday night to start the retreat fresh, and/or stay an extra night on the Sunday to give yourself time to integrate before leaving. You can select these options on the booking page, as well as booking a pick up/drop off from the airport if you need one.
Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Dana / Pay-from-the-heart
The base price covers the cost to run the retreat, and does not include any fees to the teachers. The teachers offer their time and guidance on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay d the heart”. It’s the teachers joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match their time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The booking form includes a box for offering dana. We suggest a range from $60-300 CAD according to your means.
For more information on dāna click here.
Online Attendance: Dana, Cost and Requirements
Dana / Pay-from-the-heart:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
We suggest a range of $120-360 CAD. And we request a minimum contribution of $120 to recognize the administrative/logistic costs and support for running the retreat.
For more information on dāna click here.
If you are taking this retreat online, we will provide guidelines to help you create a supportive environment and structure.
In general, we request you devote your full attention to the retreat for the weekend, including:

Block out the retreat duration from appointments and activities, so you can be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.
Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming (class recordings will be available on pre-agreement for those in a time zone where live attendance is not feasible)
Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
Set aside your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
We welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact duncan@clearskycenter.org.

Daily Schedule
Specific times may change but the below gives an initial guide to the expected schedule. Times are in MST Mountain Standard Time.
Saturday 16th:
9.30 am – Welcome / intro class
10.30 am – Group meditation
11.00 am – Break
11.15 am – Class and group exercises / Q&A
12.15 pm – Break
12.30 pm – Lunch , time for rest, walking, individual meditation
2.30 pm – Afternoon class and exercises/Q&A
3.30 pm – Group meditation
4-6 pm – Open time for exploring exercises, or onsite / land activity
6 pm – Dinner
7.30 pm – Q&A/short class and group meditation
Sunday 16th:
7.30 am – morning group meditation
8.30 am – breakfast
9.30 am – class and exercises/Q&A
10.30 am – Group meditation
11.00 am – break
11.15 am – Free time for exploring the exercises and individual meditation
12.15 pm – break
12.30 pm – lunch, rest, walking, individual practice
2.30 pm – Afternoon class and exercises
3.30 pm – Group meditation
3.30- – 4pm – Closing circle
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Spiritual Awakening, Healing & Ecological Restoration: A Buddhist Mystic Perspective
2023-09-24 15:30 - 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Each person is a replica of the entire cosmos.”
-Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
What’s the connection between Buddhist-style enlightenment and the environment?
Join Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at the 39th annual Women & Spirituality Conference in Minnesota US, Sept 23-24th, 2023. She will be presenting on September 24th, 2:30pm Central Time.
Online or In-Person tickets to the conference are available.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Women & Spirituality Conference
Location
3:30-5:30 MDT
Duration
All Levels
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
Spiritual Awakening, Healing & Ecological Restoration: A Buddhist Mystic Perspective
What’s the connection between Buddhist-style enlightenment and the environment? The historical Buddha experienced enlightenment while sitting beneath a bodhi tree, while some Buddhist sects still emphasize the value of practicing in forests.
How does Buddhist enlightenment connect with healing, ecology, and nature mysticism? Other spiritual traditions?
Learn from Catherine Sensei’s experiences and have an opportunity to share your own in small groups.
Catherine Sensei will be at the conference the Women & Spirituality conference for the whole weekend, Sept 23-24th. She will be joined by Karen McAllister and Dan O’Brien, representing Clear Sky Meditation Centre. They will be at a combined Planet Dharma and Clear Sky Meditation Centre booth. Come say hi!
Presentation: Sunday 24th, 2:30-4pm (Central Daylight Saving Time).
How to attend: In Person Tickets and Online Tickets are available.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and level of expertise that is shared by Sensei. Her teachings are always well prepared and transformative in my spiritual growth.”
Michele C.Astrologer

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center.
She has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage
About the Conference
This presentation by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is part of the 39th Annual Women & Spirituality Conference in Rochester Minnesota, USA.
The Women and Spirituality Conference is a two day multi-faith gathering celebrating diversity, inclusion, spiritual experience and healing. Register now for two days of interactive, experiential workshops with engaging leaders and speakers.
Registration
To attend, please register via the buttons below. The online option is $69 and the in-person ticket is $149 (USD). These tickets give access to the whole conference and speakers, including Catherine Sensei’s presentation. We also invite you to practice generosity, or Dāna to Catherine Sensei directly here: Offer Dāna

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Personal Coaching (Online) Ongoing
2023-09-28 08:00 - 2026-12-31 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Are you ready to unfold?
Given Covid-19 and the big life-changes many of us are experiencing, this is a perfect time to receive support in areas that may need deep care or are holding us back. We can use this unique time to nurture what is seeking our attention or we might not have prioritized before.
Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are offering live group coaching to a smaller group, exclusively to graduates of the Integrating Mindfulness course.
REGISTER HERE
For those looking to go deeper

Our personal coaching program is for you if after completing our 6 week Integrating Mindfulness Online Course, you want to go deeper. As we only had a little time on each principle during the course, 1:1 coaching supports you to take a deep dive into one or two areas in your life that are calling for your attention. Many people join our group coaching sessions after Integrating Mindfulness, but you might find group-work triggers more protectiveness in you than it does vulnerability, being real, and exploring what you really need right now.
Maybe life is calling you to change. What used to work, no longer does. You’re ready to answer the call to change. You want to wake up more deeply and step more fully into your power. You now have clarity and strength to be with and explore past hurts, patterns, relationships and or beliefs that are holding you back. You may have tried new routines with meditation and yoga, new diets and even explored how to improve your relationships with yourself, others, money, and time. The thing is, often we can’t shift habitual patterns without understanding what’s holding them in place and why. The reason these may not have worked is that you may have lacked support from someone with experience to see behind the appearance to what is driving the behaviour you want to shift.
About the Program
We have seen that personal coaching with Karen and Duncan frees up energy and has led to the following:

Deeper involvement in spiritual teachings, relationships and service with community
More emotional honesty
More relaxation and joy
A career path plan that is in alignment with your vision and values
Improved relationships
A new business
Improved finances
Better time management

Here is what we can offer you:

15 mins free consultation (to connect and see if a coaching program could support you)
Four 1:1 personal coaching sessions for anyone who has attended Integrating Mindfulness.
Pay from the heart min $75 max $250/hr

Logistics:

Register and commit to a series or one session
Book your first call on the calendar link provided in the registration confirmation email
Set time aside prior to your first call to get clear on what it is that you want to work on.
Calls will be over zoom and we recommend that you set aside 15-60 minutes before and after for prep and integration.
Set aside a minimum of 2 hours per week to work on this.

Meet Your Coaches
Karen and Duncan have both been on their spiritual paths for over 20 years working closely with highly accomplished teachers, Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, while also living in and supporting conscious community the entire time. They have been through many personal transformations themselves and led many others along the way. They are gifted at holding a beautiful and safe space for you as you peel back the layers.
Experienced and professionals in their careers, Karen is a certified coach and Duncan a former IBM executive. They can provide guidance, mentorship, and structures for you to dig more deeply and be accountable to yourself without being fooled by your own stories. If you are willing to share what’s really going on by being emotionally honest, listening, receiving and following through on feedback, you can benefit from working with a coach that is walking their talk, a coach that has addressed their own challenges and deeper issues around aspects of the spiritual container in their lives. For this reason, they can give real live, experiential guidance and mentorship in these areas.

Karen McAllister
After meeting our founding teachers in Japan, I managed the meditation centre there for many years while serving simultaneously as part of the Clear Sky Board. In 2003, I helped search for a site for Clear Sky, looking at around 30 properties until we found our current location in the magical Kootenays.
I’m now Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development. I’m passionate to be teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky, as the centre went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture, and art books.
Talk with Karen
Duncan Cryle
I’m the former Clear Sky Chair, a certified Mindfulness teacher, Dharma teacher, and a member of senior management at a dynamic award winning international software firm.
Through 15 years of teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrated spiritual path. With a Ph.D. in philosophy in my pocket, I was gung ho to join a monastery until I met my root teachers Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in Japan in 2001, who turned my views upside down and encouraged me to grow and contribute at the busy end of life!
A founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power that working together in compassionate service has for enriching and widening spiritual growth. Combined with a dynamic relationship and a challenging career, I have fun with a wide-ranging and holistic approach to spiritual growth.
Email me at Duncan [at] clearskycenter.org to ask about personal coaching with me.
Contact Duncan “I am at the point now where I feel ready to apply for school, to change direction in my career, and better understand how my relationship with my father has created this. I have stopped hanging on to some of the past to protect the hurt, which has made me feel more ready to move on.” Kyle “Karen is both knowledgeable and kind. Not only is she wise and helpful with Buddhist teachings, but when she shares it is from the heart with incredible tenderness.” Kakoom REGISTER NOW
Latest News

The Mind’s Cutting Edge: 12 Manjushris Meditation Retreat
2023-10-06 08:00 - 2023-10-22 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Without signs and words, transmission happens in the deepest silence.”
-Qapel Doug Duncan
Do you wish to embrace wisdom and its different manifestations? Manjushri is the Vajrayana Buddhist archetype of wisdom. In this retreat we will focus on developing cognitive intelligence, discrimination, clarity and rigor in terms of thinking. Our methodology will be the Twelve Manjushri deity yoga practice from the Vajrayana tradition.
Hail to the wisdom that is ripening!
Registration Deadline: September 22nd
Super Early Bird ends August 6th!

Register Now

Vajrayana Buddhism
focus area
Meditation Retreat
practice
Two Weeks
Duration
Intermediate
Skill Level
In-Person
format
12 Manjushri Meditation (Retreat)
Manjushri, or Mañjuśrī (Sanskrit: मञ्जुश्री) is associated with prajñā (wisdom) in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Our deity yoga work with this particular aspect of the awakened mind will relate to the development of cognitive intelligence.
While Manjushri is most commonly depicted alone, this Twelve Manjushri practice is a particular deity yoga practice with 12 emanations of Manjushri in one sadhana.
Manjushri’s name means “Gentle Glory” in Sanskrit – and this practice of twelve manjushris will be 12 times that!
Prerequisites/Preparation: to be announced.

Register Now

“Qapel and Sensei teach in a light, but profound way – taking us on a brilliant journey of understanding with guile and humour.
Their male and female perspectives help balance with differing approaches to explaining a complex but genius system that holds all life understanding from religion, science, psychotherapy and wisdom traditions.”
Jonathan C. Shiatsu, Qigong & Meditation Teacher

What’s Expected of Me if I Come to This Retreat?

Pre-requisites/Preparation: to be announced.
A strong foundation of parami and a willingness to see other dimensions and cultivate your mind, drug free.
The more extensive meditation experience you’ve had the better. For beginners to meditation, we suggest the Breathing Retreat in August.
You are responsible for your own wellbeing.
To maximize your depth of practice, we ask that you refrain from reading, using the internet, phone or listening to music during the course.

The 12 Manjushri Empowerment (Wongkur)
During this retreat, a tantric initiation or empowerment (Wongkur) will be given by Qapel and Sensei. This provides the foundation for the meditation practice and reflection throughout the retreat.
What is Wongkur? (Vajrayana Empowerments)
Initiations, empowerments, or wongkur (Tib. དབང་, wang) are considered the spring from which all blessings flow. More literally, these are ritual celebrations in which a specific teaching is transmitted from Teacher to student that enables the student to practice a new form of “Arising Yoga” or “Deity Practice”.
For more information about wongkur, we recommend reading ‘What is Wongkur’, which includes ‘A Western Psychological Orientation to Deity Yoga’ by the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche and ‘A Traditional Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist View’ by His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin. It is extensive article, published by Wesley Knapp. Visit and support his archival work at the Sakya Namgyal Archive.

Download PDF – What is Wong Kur?

Schedule
Arrival: October 5th at 3pm, MT
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation and Q&A with Qapel
Departure: October 22nd
*Daily schedule is subject to changes closer to the course date. Questions about the retreat? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact maureen@clearskycenter.org.

In order to give enough time to rest from travel before the retreat starts, we recommend that domestic travellers arrive one day early, and long distance international travellers arrive two days early. After the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration, however you are also welcome to stay longer for one of our hybrid stay options.
Booking a flight? Airport pickups can be booked when you register for the retreat. On the rare chance that this retreat is cancelled or if unforseen global circumstances cause travel interruptions, we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance and modifiable tickets.

Meet the Teachers

Doug Qapel Duncan

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.

Register Now

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In addition to Dana to the Teacher, Clear Sky Meditation Centre provides an incredible space for your retreat. Situated on a beautiful 310-acre property in the Rocky Mountains, the center and its karma yogis provide you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation. Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the retreat.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
Microdosing/Psychedelics
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.

Register Now

Warriors of the Heart: The Bodhisattva Path (Online)
2023-11-12 09:30 - 2023-12-10 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
“My body, every possession and all goodness, past, present and future, without remorse I dedicate to the well-being of the world.”
–Shantideva, in Bodhicaryavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva)
What is the Path or Way of the Bodhisattva? We will explore guidance on the Bodhisttva’s way of life via the historical teachings of Shantideva and the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. And, most imporantly, how does that historical path of the Bodhisattva look today, for us now, in the fourth turning of the wheel of Dharma?

Register Now

Vajrayana
Buddhism
focus area
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
practice
Five
Weeks
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
Online or
In-Person
format
The Bodhisattva Vow:
“However innumerable beings are, I vow to met them with kindness and interest.
However inexhaustible the states of suffering are, I vow to touch them with patience and love.
However incomparable the mystery of being is, I vow to experience it fully.
From this moment forth, with wisdom and compassion as my lamp and staff, I dedicate all my life energy to the welfare of all beings.”
How does the Bodhisattva vow manifest in your life in the world?
Many of us are familiar with, or recite the Bodhisattva vow regularly. It may even be our lifelong vow. And yet, you may be asking yourself how does this profound vow translate to various complex situations in life?
Take heart, the way of the Bodhisattva is an actual path that beings have been journeying on for more than a millenia. Shantideva, a prince that gave up the throne, is one noble example. In this course we will learn from these experiences and apply them to our modern context.
Just like Shantideva in the 8th century, we are all asking how our practice can be meaningful when there’s so much suffering in the world. And there’s different variations of how we relate to the varying cultural and generational forms of struggle – like social justice, climate change and war. We can study the path of the Bodhisattva to help us skilfully answer these questions. They are still applicable today. And may be more applicable than ever.

Register Now

Course Learning Goals:

What is the historical path of the Bodhisattva (inspired by Shantideva from the 8th century).
Do I wish to take such a vow, and if so, what does that actually mean?
How can I approach the many forms of suffering in the world – war, environmental disaster, social injustice from the perspective of the Bodhisattva path?
How does Bodhisattva activity translate to the various situations and contexts of modern life?
Where does the Bodhisattva path sit within the Theravadin, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism?

Recommended Course Reading:
The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva

“I have yet to encounter another setting where I grow as much as I do while at Clear Sky. The balance of support, genuine care and challenge is rare and precious.
When it comes to spiritual transformation, Clear Sky is a place and group of people that is not only talking-the-talk but actively walking-the-walk.”
Ruth L.
Course Schedule
November 12th – December 10th, 2023
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time

Sunday, November 12th – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, November 19th– 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, November 26th – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, December 3rd – 9:30-11am Class

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on four Sundays. There will be a live group class in the morning (9:30-11am MT). We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: December 8-10th
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (December 8-10th). This can be done at home, or together with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia. We highly recommend clearing your schedule over the weekend to focus on the retreat. Formal group sessions will also be held at these times:

Flash Retreat morning group workshop time: 9:30-10:30am
Flash Retreat afternoon group workshop time: 2:30-3:30pm

If you’d like to join the Flash Retreat from Clear Sky, please contact ava@clearskycenter.org.

Register Now

Meet the Teachers

Doug Qapel Duncan

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be video streamed live at 9:00am MST. The recording will be available for one week after each class.
In addition to the classes there will be Q&A / participatory style workshop sessions at 3pm MST each Sunday. Finally the course ends with a Flash Retreat on June 3-4th, 2023.
What Does the Course Cost?
This course is offered based on the unique combination of 1) dāna and 2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
Online Participants & Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!

Register Now

Meditation Circle: Community Classes for Inner Well-Being (Online or In-Person)
2023-11-16 19:00 - 2023-12-07 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Drop-Ins Welcome
Weekly Meditation Classes: Simplify and Renew
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run throughout the year except for when we are closed for group retreats. This current series theme is “Simplify and Renew”, with Maureen Smith, and runs for four weeks: Thursday, November 16th to December 7th. Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!

Registration – Attend In-Person

Registration – Attend Online

Questions?
Contact Cara via email or phone:
cara@clearskycenter.org | (250) 421-8280

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”
Duncan Cryle

Series Overview: Simplify and Renew
with Maureen Smith
Increase joy, calm and energy in your life. Reduce upset and stress by using more effectively what you have available to you right at your fingertips.
Using the senses, we will explore how they are always available to support, stabilize and uplift.

I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.’
Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist at Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in Asian philosophy. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.

Registration – Attend Online

Registration – Attend In-Person

Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.

Registration – Attend Online

Registration – Attend In-Person

Meditation Circle: Body, Speech & Mind - Liberating Stuck Patterns
2024-02-08 - 2024-02-29
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Drop-Ins Welcome
Community Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This Series Topic: Body, Speech & Mind Liberating Stuck Patterns
The next series runs from Thursday, February 8th to 29th, 2024 and is with Duncan Cryle – see below for details.
Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Questions?
Contact Cara via email or phone:
cara@clearskycenter.org | 250-421-8280

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”
Duncan Cryle

Next Series: Body, Speech & Mind: Liberating Stuck Patterns
with Duncan Cryle
From the time we are born and all through our formative years, traumas and conditioned patterns and blocks get laid down in our bodies. They get deeply ingrained in habitual tensions and postures. Likewise deep emotional and communication patterns are laid in from a young age, as well as imbibing many unconscious mental views. Meditation is a powerful tool for bringing these shapings in body, speech and mind to consciousness, and letting them shift and ease. Along with our regular core breathing practice together we’ll explore other meditative exercises to open up, and have space to share with each other our explorations.
Excited? In the meantime, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.’
Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist and owner of Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in healing internalised prejudices and biases. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.

Attend Online

Attend In-Person

Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.

Attend Online

Attend In-Person

Creating Supportive Structures for Resilience & Growth (Free Webinar)
2024-03-07 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Edmonton)
“Participating in the Integrating Mindfulness course has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion and provided me with practical tools for managing stress and anxiety. I am deeply grateful for the Clear Sky community and support provided by the course.” – Artin
Finding a refuge in the struggles and distractions of our lives is essential for healthy balance and spiritual growth.
We all get into funks from time to time, or hit moments of anxiety or despair. What holds us when the s@#t hits the fan? Do you have in your life somewhere you can truly take refuge? And if not, how can you access one, or create one?
Central to a supportive container is cultivating healthy structures, routines and boundaries. These help you live in line with your vision and values.
Join us for a free introductory webinar to explore how to let go and shift unhelpful patterns and habits, to create new supportive structures in your life, and better align your time with the values, community connection and contribution you aspire too.
Note: Recording will be emailed after the class.

Register Now

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Workshop
practice
1.5 Hours
Duration
March 7th, 2024
5-6:30pm UK time / 10-11:30am MST
Day/Time
Online
format
Creating the Container for Spiritual Growth
Supportive structures and routines increase your well-being, spiritual growth, and resilience. They help you integrate the healing power of awareness into your daily life, and build a regular meditation practice. They build positive conditions to support your clarity, kindness, and wisdom.
With so many struggles and distractions pulling at our attention, we need well-defined and consciously chosen boundaries in order to truly thrive.
Using Clear Sky Center’s Five Principles of a Mindful Container, learn how to explore how to manage your time and energy, develop supportive rituals, and craft healthy boundaries in your life.
Join us for free introductory webinar to explore how to creating supportive structures in your life, and better align your time with the values, community connection and contribution you aspire too.
This webinar is also an opportunity to find out more about our foundational course, Integrating Mindfulness.

Register Now

This workshop is based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles of a Supportive Container.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Spiritual Container

I am doing a lot of other courses. They are all good—this one is special. Integrating Mindfulness provides a good foundation to support any other studies. People who express feeling unhappy, overwhelmed, lacking connection, would find an ideal fit here. Now, I am committed to being aware of my boundaries, and doing what it takes to maintain them, including clear communication to others. I’m going to continue working on my spiritual container and structure. I plan to come to Clear Sky for more!
kiM

There are big areas of my life I needed to look at that I didn’t know I needed to. I am more aware of them now, and have perspective on how to bring daily mindfulness to them. Now I have a technique to structure my life and prioritize the things I actually want to do, and a dialogue technique that is helping in my relationships. Integrating Mindfulness allows you to think about issues in a different way (such as money!). Insightful and nourishing.
Daniel

Before Integrating Mindfulness, I had been struggling with consistent meditation practice. Now I have a dedicated space for my practice. I am solidifying my need for community. And I am reassessing myself and my blocks and shadows.
leslie

What is really important, what is not? I’ve been running round in circles and always end up the same: no direction, but stress! In Integrating Mindfulness, I realized things that aren’t my highest priorities have been taking up a lot of time and money, and I was missing a daily, intentional structure. With these teachers, you’ll get clarity about what you do, why you do it, and how you can change to something better.
JUTTA

Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

What Previous Students Are Saying

“I think this course is a beautiful, utterly grounded and relevant way of making the spiritual life very real and integrated with how we are living every day of our lives. It lays an important foundation for a meditation practice that can actually go somewhere and lead to a well-rounded and truly fulfilling life.”
Ruth – Embodied in Motion

“It’s really, really brought me back home to myself. I found myself in the past very scattered and would put off all the important things, the spiritual aspects of life, the mindfulness and so on, just to blast through my day and get things done, but now I am really taking pause. I still don’t get everything done, but I don’t get everything done in a much more calm and soulful way.”
Emmanuel – ActionAid Brasil

Register Now

The Five Stages of Emptiness Meditation Retreat (In-Person or Online)
2024-03-08 19:00 - 2024-03-17 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“We really should say that reality is an infinite universe of empty, but we need words to wrap our cognitive brains around it.”
― Qapel Doug Duncan
Are you ready to deepen your meditation practice? Perhaps you’ve heard of ’emptiness’ or shunyata, but would like more experiential contact with it. In this retreat, we will study how we construct reality from false views and learn how to penetrate through this illusion into greater clarity, freedom and joy.
Join Qapel Doug Duncan & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei for a week long insight meditation retreat on the deepening of the stages of emptiness.
Registration Deadline:
IN-PERSON – February 23rd, 2024
ONLINE – March 1st, 2024

Attend In-Person – Registration Closed

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Meditation
practice
One Week
Duration
Intermediate
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
The Five Stages of Emptiness
How deeply do you understand emptiness? This retreat focuses on the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness. We will study, reflect and meditate on the spacious potentiality behind all phenomena. The aim here being to gain experiential, first hand physiological contact with the intellectural descriptions of emptiness from Buddhist philosophy or quantum physics.
This retreat is led by Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. We invite retreatants who wish to embark on a week of earnest study, meditation and reflection.
While we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening, there’s no substitute for the power of one’s own profound experience of truth, gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world. However, online participants must attend in a retreat like setting in their own locations – in silence and free from distractions including work or family duties.
Texts for this course:

Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche (Author), Lama Shenpen Hookham (Translator)

Attend In-Person – Registration Closed

Attend Online

“Clear Sky is my favourite place to retreat.
I am so grateful to find such an amazing place to study various meditation practices, walk in stunning nature and eat fresh food from the farm.
I always enjoy going there for more.”
Maya L.
Meet the Teachers

Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humourous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
Arrivals and Departures
For those traveling short distances, please arrive by 3pm on March 8th. For those coming from international or longer distance travel, please plan to arrive 1-2 days early to allow time to rest and acclimatize before the start of retreat.
Departures will begin on March 17th, however we also recommend adding some extra nights to your stay for a more easeful transition from retreat to daily life.
If you have questions about the retreat, please phone (250) 429-3929, or contact bookings@clearskycenter.org.

Attend In-Person – Registration Closed

Attend Online

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

What’s Expected of Me?

An open mind and heart, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!
It’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new, meeting new people, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.
When exploring our growth edges, it’s natural to feel uncertain and awkward. And it’s very fruitful to transform that emotional tension into creative energy by drawing on your own inner resources – such as inquiry, going with the flow, and self-reflection, just a few of the many kinds of constructive engagement.
To maximize your retreat experience, we ask that you refrain from reading, using the internet, phone or listening to music during the course.
Students are expected to be silent during the silent parts of the retreat, and participate in all classes, group meditations, activities, and discussions.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances in the days before this retreat, during, and in the days immediately following it.

https://youtu.be/5sOJTUdKqG8?si=prw6wQBO4hE8yVxj

“I feel like a whole new world of understanding has opened up for me to explore. The teachings were interesting, vibrant, and so very relevant to our lives. Qapel and Catherine Sensei have done a wonderful job at distilling these vast teachings without oversimplying concepts. The teachings were visual, informative, and interactive. It was a great and lots of fun!”
Jenai L.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing: As a charitable organization, we strive to provide locally sourced organic meals and comfortable accommodations at an affordable price. Fees vary depending on your accommodation choice and early bird pricing.
Online Retreatants: Admin Fees & Requirements
In order to bring you this retreat at home, there is an additional admin fee* of $350 CAD. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
If you are taking this retreat online, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week.
Requirements include:

Block out the retreat duration and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
Note: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering

About the administrative fee*
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online.The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood. Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
The admin fee goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online.
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and videos after the Teachings)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Sample Daily Schedule
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
PSYCHEDELICS/MICRODOSING
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances in the days before this retreat, during, and in the days immediately following it.
SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online. We do not have paid staff.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.

Attend In-Person – Registration Closed

Attend Online

Integrating Mindfulness: Tools for Holistic Living (In-Person or Online)
2024-03-23 10:00 - 2024-04-27 12:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Participating in the Integrating Mindfulness course has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion and provided me with practical tools for managing stress and anxiety. I am deeply grateful for the Clear Sky community and support provided by the course.” – Artin
With all that’s happening in the world, how do we collectively come up for air? How do we create a refuge in our lives where we can recharge and flourish?
This course is for those who want to find meaning and embrace their life fully. It is to help integrate and apply awareness in your life, for your own sustainability and happiness. To be able to be of better service to those around you and to our planet.
NOTE: This course can be attended online or in-person at Clear Sky.

Attend Online (Register Here)

Attend In-Person (Register Here)

Meditation
& Daily Life
focus area
Interactive
Workshop
practice
Six Weeks

Duration
Mar 23-Apr 27, 2024
10:00am-12:00pm MT
Day/Time
In-Person
Online
format
Bring Mindfulness to all areas of your life
In our post-COVID world, we are all struggling with unprecedented psychological and economic pressures. Myriads of distractions pul us in different directions. It seems that the new normal is a frazzled, distracted, cut-down, fractured state.
Despite having a meditation or mindfulness practice, you may find yourself being inconsistent, or feeling that your meditation is disconnected from the rest of your life, or just somehow not helping you meet your challenges in the way you would like.
Along with this, we also hear people struggling with isolation and loneliness. It is hard to make meaningful connections when we are all constantly running, and interacting more and more online.
We all need a supportive environment to gain new insights and growth. We all need space to step back, reconnect with ourselves and our meditation practice, and take time to reflect on how we spend our time and energy.
Flourishing in our distracted and difficult world relies on bringing awareness to the people and things that nourish us, letting go of what doesn’t, and creating a container to protect our happiness and life-energy. The course will teach you how to create a supportive container for your mindfulness practice and year-round growth.
This course will help you integrate mindfulness into your daily life – to transform your environment; your habits and use of time; how you listen and speak; areas of life where you may be stuck such as money, health, food, or life vision; and how you relate to others and build community.
It’s especially healing to do this with experienced guides and like-minded people so we can benefit from the support of group connection

Attend Online (Register Here)

Attend In-Person (Register Here)

“Deep transformational growth is really supported by having a container, a supportive structure around us. I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that this is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.'”
Karen McAllister

Join Karen and Duncan for an interactive six-week course and learn how to:

Strengthen your mindfulness or meditation practice to experience more calm and clarity
Create supportive structures that help you stay balanced, protect your happiness and support your year-round growth.
Apply the power of awareness to:

Develop a supportive environment, and healthy consciously-chosen structures and routines in your daily life;
Cultivate more meaningful conversations and connections in your relationships and community;
Bring awareness and transformative change to big areas of your life that may be draining energy – concerns about your future, money, time management, food and health.

4. Integrate and weave mindfulness into your all aspects of your daily work and life.

Three interwoven approaches
This course supports you to:
• cultivate your mindfulness practice;
• craft a supportive environment or refuge;
• powerfully integrate mindfulness into all aspects of our life and work.

What Previous Students are Saying
There are big areas of my life I needed to look at… that I didn’t know I needed to. I am more aware of them now, and have perspective on how to bring daily mindfulness to them. Now I have a technique to structure my life and prioritize the things I actually want to do, and a dialogue technique that is helping in my relationships. Integrating Mindfulness allows you to think about issues in a different way (such as money!). Insightful and nourishing.
Daniel
Participating in the Integrating Mindfulness course has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion and provided me with practical tools for managing stress and anxiety. I am deeply grateful for the Clear Sky community and support provided by the course.
Artin
“I’m so stressed out… I cannot see an end to it”—says everybody. I’m always considering options, and I had doubts around the authenticity of the Integrating Mindfulness programme, but I’m glad to report those doubts were completely unfounded. With this course, you learn to stop and breathe, and the teachers will show you that it is indeed possible—necessary, even—to put mindfulness at the very centre of your life. At first it might not seem there have been any changes, but on reflection the changes have been huge.
Pat
I wanted more clarity on which direction to go. In Integrating Mindfulness, I found fluidity and a variety of approaches to things I need, like scheduling, conversation, clearer speech, and language. In it, I also discovered a definite need for clearing and dissolution. The question of work and overall change remains, but I have moved forward on that journey.
Zoe
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Based on Clear Sky’s Five Principles, Integrating Mindfulness helps you build a sustainable meditation practice that permeates your body, career, relationships and all other areas of your life.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Mindful Container

“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”.
Duncan Cryle

A supportive structure
Using our five principles of creating a supportive container for mindfulness and growth, this course teaches you how to apply mindfulness across all areas of your life, and to create an environment that supports you physically, mentally and emotionally. The course includes meditations, exercises and community check-ins.
• Week 1: Creating a supportive space for your growth;
• Week 2: Transforming habit and making friends with structure;
• Week 3: Quieting the monkey mind and creating generative conversations;
• Week 4: Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy;
• Week 5: The power of mindfulness for real and lasting change;
• Week 6: Community and transforming our relationships with others.
What Previous Students are Saying
I was hesitant to commit to a six week class when things are already so busy, but thankfully I committed and encountered incredible wisdom! Now I have an increased awareness of the healing power of community when trying to heal deep, sticky, collective traumas. I’m cleaning up my money relationship, building better habits, and learning how to deal with temptation and blind spots. The next plan is to create a meditation room. Integrating Mindfulness provides teachings and practical opportunities for application; anyone wanting to take up the spiritual path would benefit.
Ben
Seeing two sides of a story, being still more often, and listening are principles I’m taking with me. I have a lot of friends who need to take time to take Integrating Mindfulness and see things differently. You will see things clearer.
Yvette
What is really important, what is not? I’ve been running round in circles and always end up the same: No direction, but stress! In Integrating Mindfulness, I realized things that aren’t my highest priorities have been taking up a lot of time and money, and I was missing a daily, intentional structure. With these teachers, you’ll get clarity about what you do, why you do it, and how you should do it to feel and think better.
Jutta
The key word is integrating—not compartmentalizing, but establishing a wholeness. I was looking to ground, focus, and develop a formal practice, one in which I could develop commitment to self. I have found that I am deep in shadow, and am struggling with subtle traumas that need to be nurtured with loving kindness. Going forward, it’s small steps to reach out to community and allow myself to be vulnerable.
Jennifer
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Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
I’m the former Clear Sky Chair, a certified Mindfulness teacher, Dharma teacher, and a member of senior management at a dynamic award winning international software firm.
Through 30 years of study with my root teachers Qapel and Sensei, 15 years of teaching meditation and mindfulness, and an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrated spiritual path. With a Ph.D. in philosophy in my pocket, I was gung ho to join a monastery until I met my root teachers Qapel (Doug Duncan) and Sensei (Catherine Pawasarat) in Japan in 2001, who turned my views upside down and encouraged me to grow and contribute at the busy end of life!
A founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power that working together in compassionate service has for enriching and widening spiritual growth. Combined with a dynamic relationship and a challenging career, I have fun with a wide-ranging and holistic approach to spiritual growth.

What Previous Students are Saying
Before Integrating Mindfulness, I had been struggling with consistent practice, conflicts within marriage about my practice, and finances. Now I have a dedicated space for my practice, am solidifying my need for sangha, and am reassessing myself and my blocks and shadows. I would encourage someone interested in this to be open to change, and know that change is always occurring—it doesn’t need to be a negative.
Leslie
Mindfulness is so much more than just truly enjoying my cup of tea! I was struggling to find balance with all the big life issues that are changing in my life; finding Integrating Mindfulness was serendipity. It is what I need in my spiritual toolbox to help me stay open and connected. I am more aware now when I am losing myself in grief, when I am handling difficult conversations, and in seeing how human differences are to be enjoyed, as I enjoy different flowers. There is so much more to discover about life. Integrating Mindfulness is about interactions with fellow travellers! If you want to take mindfulness deeper, you need this course.
Kirsty
I am doing a lot of other courses. They are all good—this one is special. Integrating Mindfulness provides a good foundation to support any other studies. People who express feeling unhappy, overwhelmed, lacking connection, would find an ideal fit here. Now, I am committed to being aware of my boundaries, and doing what it takes to maintain them, including clear communication to others. I’m going to continue working on my spiritual container and structure. I plan to come to Clear Sky for more!
Kim
Before Integrating Mindfulness, I was exploring many directions, and this was sapping my energy and making me ungrounded. I have been intending to discover a “middle way.” Through this course, I have been getting clearer on my core, non-negotiable values. I have gained confidence in asserting and communicating my boundaries and initiating conversations, whereas in the past I avoided conflict. My sense of self-worth is deepening and I am valuing my time and energy more. I am discovering solutions for meeting my basic needs, not subscribing to short-term gratification impulses, and being in communion with conscious community, all simultaneously.
Aila
I needed to feel some faith again. Since Integrating Mindfulness, I’m beginning to see how mindfulness is a part of everything, and how much of my life I have let slip out of my hands by not being mindful. I’m seeing how much power I will regain as I learn to be aware of myself more constantly and expand my ability to actually choose what I want to choose in each moment. I’m more able to notice where I focus on the negative to find more balance and look for the positive, as my relationship and perspective with life have become quite one-sided in the negative. Even minor shifts towards expanding to view life as potentially perfect helps me to feel more peace; less frantic about myself and the state of all existence. Talk about life-changing!
Integrating Mindfulness will give you the opportunity to peel back some of the daily veils put up around painful and confusing areas of your life. With that opportunity comes the chance to begin to understand yourself more deeply, and with the support of others, to care for yourself and your own life with the intentionality you need to live a sort of life that you genuinely want to live. You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.
Erika
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From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Walking the Eightfold Noble Path (Online)
2024-04-14 09:30 - 2024-05-05 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
The Eightfold Noble path is about methodology—walking the talk. And what is the talk that this Buddhist wisdom ennobles us to walk? Freedom. Compassion. Wisdom. As applicable now as 2,500 years ago, when the Buddha first taught it.
Walking the Eightfold Noble – and Ennobling Path
We want peace and harmony—well-being? Wholeness? What about… emptiness? Whatever we think and say we want—which at our core is all the same—how do we put all the talk and philosophy into place in a meaningful, practical, and grounded way in our lives?

Register Now

Theravadan
Buddhism
focus area
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
practice
Four
Weeks
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
Online or
In-Person
format
8 steps of the eightfold path:

Right View: sammā-diṭṭhi
Right Intention: sammā-saṅkappa
Right Speech: sammā-vācā
Right Action: sammā-kammanta
Right Livelihood: sammā-ājīva
Right Effort: sammā-vāyāma
Right Mindfulness: sammā-sati
Right Concentration: sammā-samādhi

Though the word ‘sammā’ is often translated as “right,” the original Pali could be better translated as “complete” or total. The Western mind is quite steeped in notions of “good” and “bad,” “right” and “wrong”—but this idea of “complete” is more about wholeness. The eightfold path is something we practice and develop over time for an ever more complete understanding or embodiment of that quality—from Complete View to Complete Concentration. We like to use the image of a mandala as an example: your being is a mandala, but you’re most likely only seeing and manifesting certain, fragmented parts, where the Eightfold Path gets you to the whole picture.
Our thinking and perceptions get us stuck. Through this study, the practice of this Path, and by really seeing the stuckness of our patterns, we will begin to loosen our tight sense of who we are. The results? Greater freedom, compassion, and clarity. From ordinary to extraordinary. It’s a win-win.
Complete Living:
Living in accordance with truth means living by the laws of nature. The human task of awakening is to realign with nature and its laws. To do so, we have to work with our views, our livelihood, and our speech.
By seeking the best state of being, and the best supporting conditions for that state of being, we can see through what the consumer marketplace usually offers: second-rate goods dressed up to be shiny and appealing. The best life we can live is one that is complete, in its integrity.

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In this talk, Qapel and Sensei explore the topic of Right Effort, from the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. They explain that wholesome effort is when we are in the moment and not distracted by conflicted emotions or primitive thinking.

“I have yet to encounter another setting where I grow as much as I do while at Clear Sky. The balance of support, genuine care and challenge is rare and precious.
When it comes to spiritual transformation, Clear Sky is a place and group of people that is not only talking-the-talk but actively walking-the-walk.”
Ruth L.
Course Schedule
April 14th – May 5th, 2024
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time

Sunday, April 14th – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, April 21st– 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, April 28th – 9:30-11am Class
Saturday & Sunday, May 4th-5th – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min classes)

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on Sundays with a Saturday-Sunday flash retreat on the fourth weekend. Class times are estimates and may change slightly.
We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: May 4th-5th
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (May 4 – 5). This can be done at home, or with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia. We highly recommend clearing your schedule over the weekend to focus on the retreat. Formal group sessions will be held at these approximate times.

Flash Retreat morning group workshop time: 9:30 am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon group workshop time: 2:30 pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

If you’d like to join the Flash Retreat from Clear Sky, please contact ava@clearskycenter.org.

Register Now

Meet the Teachers

Doug Qapel Duncan

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be streamed live at 9:30-11am MST. We ask participants to attend live whenever possible. The recording of each class will be available for one week after each class. We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
The course culminates with a Flash Retreat on May 4-5, 2024, with formal workshop times held at approx. 9:30-10:30am and 2:30-3:30pm Mountain Time on Saturday and Sunday.
What Does the Course Cost?
This course is offered based on the unique combination of 1) dāna and 2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
Online Participants & Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!

Register Now

Come to Your Senses: A Spring Renewal Retreat
2024-05-11 09:00 - 2024-05-12 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
With Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson
Life is busy. It is easy to get caught up in the everyday demands and worries of work, family, finances and social media. Do you find it hard to slow down, pause, connect with yourself and rest in the moment? Do you long for a chance to feel refreshed and rejuvenated?If this sounds like you, then take a much needed break, and join us for this two day in-person retreat of self-discovery and renewal. Tune into your senses and experience the wonder and beauty of everyday moments. Learn and practice simple mindfulness techniques that will increase your ability to stay grounded, calm and enlivened at work and at home.

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Course Details
A 2-day residential retreat at Clear Sky Meditation Center (click here for details)
What you can expect
This two-day retreat is an opportunity to unplug from your devices and rejuvenate in nature while being guided in sense-based meditations. Through the profound exploration of the senses we learn to be more conscious, slow down and taste the beauty of what life is meant to be for each of us. Perhaps you are looking for an opportunity to learn and grow at Clear Sky Retreat Center, or you want to connect with your inner wisdom or gain sustainable skills for living well – if any of these scenarios apply to you, come and join us!As local meditation teachers and counsellors we embrace the complexity of modern life and see the benefit of combining our passions. You may know us as counsellors through our private practice business Alive Mindfully. You may have meditated with us at Meditation Circle or Start Your Morning with Calm. We are offering Come to Your Senses, a two day residential retreat, as meditation teachers with Clear Sky Retreat Center. However you know us, or if we haven’t met before, we welcome you to join us in exploring nature, the senses and Clear Sky.In this retreat we will be giving you a taste of Clear Sky’s 5 principles which are designed specifically to support you to live in health and integrity.This weekend we invite focused attention, sincerity and aspiration thereby honoring the space we inhabit and our time together. The carefully crafted structure and routine of this weekend will create a health-focused retreat, in a space beyond words in which we can relax.Starting when you first arrive we will gently and skillfully guide you into a weekend retreat community focused on health, inner peace and respect. Using thoughtful communication we will shape the space where we meet. You may be amazed at how being in a room with other people who are disciplined in their speech can create a healthy resonance in your being.Being present in the moment with our senses means we are focused, calm, and concentrated. This frees up energy and affords us the opportunity to clean up big areas of our life, which in turn frees up more energy.Together we will support each other in this powerful opportunity to unwind and reconnect with our essential human birthright of joy and compassion.Join us for this two day residential retreat and discover the power of meditation in nature with others.

Meet Your Teachers

Maureen Smith
A Registered Clinical Social Worker and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor since 2011. Initially drawn to social work in order to support folks in Hospice and Palliative Care, she is also a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher.
Since 2005, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center. The year 2000 was when Maureen began studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Qapel (Doug Duncan) and Sensei (Catherine Pawasarat). Maureen believes life is a delicately woven tapestry. Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings.
During her time-out relaxation moments, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches, hiking, creating art and reading.
Dean Nicholson
Dean is a psychotherapist, educator and meditation practitioner. He has a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology and over 34 years of clinical counselling experience in the mental health and substance use field. He provides individual counselling in-person and virtually through www.alivemindfully.ca. Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups and leads meditation classes and retreats.
Dean is a resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center, and studies meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Qapel (Doug Duncan) and Sensei (Catherine Pawasarat). Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients.
For fun Dean enjoys music, film and literature, and exploring the natural wonders of the East Kootenay area.

Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road
Date: May 11-12, 2024
Time: 9:00am -5:000pm MT
Cost: Private Cabin – $365 Shared Room – $314

REGISTER NOW

Dean is a very skilled, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.
Gerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health
You are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.
Gareth WebbCounsellor, Youth Substance Use
As I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.
Ann Morin MSW, Invermere BC
Dean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.
PK
I appreciated the longer meditations in all the senses.
Although I have been engaged in guided meditations fairly consistently for 2 years plus; having your support really helped me to ‘stretch out’.
Doug P.

Breathing Meditation Retreat
2024-05-24 15:00 - 2024-06-02 15:00 (America/Edmonton)
“The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
Namgyal Rinpoche
Summer Meditation Retreat | May 24 – June 2, 2024
This breath will change your life. Join Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in an eight-day breathing meditation retreat. This practice is suitable whether you are a newbie or seasoned meditator, or have always wanted to do a vipassana or longer retreat. Gift yourself the in-person guidance of an accomplished meditation teacher and a balanced meditative approach of the four classical meditation postures.
In-person at Clear Sky Center. An online option is so available for those not in Western Canada.
In-Person Registration Deadline: Saturday, May 11th
Online Registration Deadline: Saturday, May 18th (Early bird admin fees available until May 3rd only)

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Buddhism
focus area
Meditation Retreat
practice
Ten Days
Duration
All Levels
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
A Life Changing Experience
Eight Day Breathing Meditation Retreat
It’s with you every moment of your life. It is the universe, alive. And it is a tool for liberation, free and always, every second, readily available. The breath.
Over and over again, we hone our attentiveness to the breath until calm, clarity and wisdom emerges. And it always emerges.
At this retreat, the practice itself is awakening, life-changing and healing. And most importantly, you will reap great benefit from the rare in-person guidance of an accomplished meditation teacher and wisdom holder, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Sensei’s teaching is radical, down to earth, and one-of-a-kind.
If you have a background in Vipassana retreats and are interested in doing something that is similar but a next step, with a live teacher, then this retreat may be for you. You will receive more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice. This is priceless.
In the words of our Teachers’ Teacher, the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, “meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.
While we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening, there’s no substitute for the power of one’s own profound experience of truth, gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching.
Another of our foundation practices is learning. A guiding text for this retreat is the Ānāpānasati Sutta, or Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. It is an incredibly powerful methodology. In it, the Buddha describes 16 steps of practice divided into four areas of mindfulness: body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. It is a guide to liberation.
This simple yet powerful framework will extend your meditation experience to everything from subatomic particles to the vastness of space, and all that’s between. It includes practice in all four postures—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. Experience will transform. And, finally, we will offer support for bridging the gap between retreat and daily life when you get home.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

What Do Previous Retreatants Say?
“I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and level of expertise that is shared by Sensei. Her teachings are always well prepared and transformative in my spiritual growth.”
Michele C.Astrologer
Schedule
Arrival:
For those traveling short distances, please arrive by 3pm on May 24th. For those coming from international or longer distance travel, please plan to arrive 1-2 days early to allow time to rest and acclimatize before the start of retreat.
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation and Q&A with Qapel
Departure:
Departures will begin on June 2nd, however we also recommend adding some extra nights to your stay for a more easeful transition from retreat to daily life.
*Daily schedule is subject to changes closer to the course date. Questions about the retreat? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact maureen@clearskycenter.org.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. Anapanasati Breathing meditation is a much loved practice for Sensei, a central focus of her 2023 one month meditation retreat. It is also connected with one branch of our lineage’s roots in the Burmese Theravadin tradition through the meditation master Venerable Sayadaw U Thila Wunta.
She has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage
What’s Expected of Me?

An open mind and heart, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!
It’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new, meeting new people, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.
When exploring our growth edges, it’s natural to feel uncertain and awkward. And it’s very fruitful to transform that emotional tension into creative energy by drawing on your own inner resources – such as inquiry, going with the flow, and self-reflection, just a few of the many kinds of constructive engagement.
To maximize your retreat experience, we ask that you refrain from reading, using the internet, phone or listening to music during the course.
Students are expected to be silent during the silent parts of the retreat, and participate in all classes, group meditations, activities, and discussions.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances in the days before this retreat, during, and in the days immediately following it.

https://youtu.be/5sOJTUdKqG8?si=prw6wQBO4hE8yVxj

Ready to Register?
If you have questions about the retreat, please phone 250-429-3929, or contact bookings@clearskycenter.org. Register via the appropriate button below:

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
In-Person Attendance: Dana and Cost
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In addition to Dana to the Teacher, Clear Sky Meditation Centre provides an incredible space for your retreat. Situated on a beautiful 310-acre property in the Rocky Mountains, the center and its karma yogis provide you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation. Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the retreat.
Online Attendance: Dana, Cost and Requirements
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.

Pricing:
In order to bring you this retreat at home, there is an additional admin fee* of $350 CAD, with registration at least three weeks or more before the retreat. Registrations three weeks or less from the the retreat start date will incur a $450 admin fee.The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
If you are taking this retreat online, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week.
Requirements include:

Block out the retreat duration and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
Note: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering

About the administrative fee*
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online.The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood. Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
The admin fee goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online.
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and videos after the Teachings)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact us so we can support you to attend.
We welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact Ava@clearskycenter.org.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
Psychedelics/Microdosing
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances in the days before this retreat, during, and in the days immediately following it.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Meditation Circle: Living the Body Electric
2024-06-13 - 2024-07-04
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Drop-Ins Welcome
Living the Body Electric
with Cara Conroy-Lau
“I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.”
— Walt Whitman

Live the body electric with Cara Conroy-Lau and community in this four week meditation circle series. Through breathing meditation and other somatic body awareness practices, we will deepen our connections to the unified field of the bodymind – observing the layers of what makes us human, and within it, pure life-force and potentiality.
Grounding and somatic awareness practices from our meditation tradition and The Wakeful Body by Willa B Milla will be introduced.
—
Excited? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

About these Community Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This series, Living the Body Electric, runs from Thursday, June 13th to July 4th, 2024 and is with Cara Conroy-Lau.
Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!

Attend Online

Attend In-Person

Questions?
Contact Cara via email or phone:
cara@clearskycenter.org | 250-421-8280

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”
Duncan Cryle

I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.’
Karen McAllister

Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist and owner of Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in healing internalised prejudices and biases. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.

Attend Online

Attend In-Person

Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.

Attend Online

Attend In-Person

Razor's Edge: The Dance of Absolute & Relative Truths (In-Person and Online)
2024-07-12 17:00 - 2024-07-14 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“If you want truth, it costs all of you.” -Qapel
One weekend. One Teacher. Two truths… in one. Step onto the Razor’s Edge: the paradoxical and joyous dance of Absolute and Relative. It’s the only truth there is.
Early Bird Ends: June 7th!
Registration Closes: July 5th

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

Buddhism
focus area
Guru Yoga
practice
Weekend
Duration
All
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
Razor’s Edge: The Dance of Absolute & Relative Truths
The Razor’s Edge is the line between wisdom and ignorance—and it lives inside of you. A paradoxical, joyous, and pristinely aware place, the edge of is finer than any other.
This weekend course is a precious opportunity to study with meditation master and Namgyal lineage teacher Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan). He will share fundamental Buddhist teachings on the nature of absolute and relative truths, and how we can best dance between, within and amidst the two. This is a priceless chance to learn with one who has danced on the Razor’s Edge for decades, and dedicated his life to the welfare of all beings by sharing how to do so.
What You’ll Learn: How to Dance the Razor’s Edge!

What is absolute truth? What is relative truth?
What does the relationship between these truths have to do with you, and your life?
How can you dance with and integrate these two seemingly paradoxical points of view?
How might you live and dwell on the “razor’s edge” of this form of wisdom and compassion?
How can you do this dance with others? What is your role in bringing this dance into our world?

This course for you if:

You’re wondering how to truly transform suffering and struggle in your life.
You’d like to study fundamental Buddhist philosophical understandings of the nature of reality with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You’d like to bridge the gap between meditative realizations and every day challenges.
You have a strong curiosity into the nature of reality.
You have the burning question inside of you which has led you to this webpage in the first place.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

“I don’t find meditation easy, but I do find it worth it. I would not have dreamed that a 3 day online retreat could resolve complicated matters that I have wrestled with for years. Yet it did. Thank you, Sensei. Thank you each one of you at Clear Sky.”
Kakoom B.
Course Details
Time and Location
The Razor’s Edge weekend will be led by Qapel Doug Duncan at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. This course is offered online or in-person.
Schedule / Class Times: Classes will be 60-90 mins in duration, with classes in the morning and evening and possibly the afternoon each day (Mountain Time) – the exact schedule to be confirmed. Please ensure you are available for the whole weekend to focus on the course material and attend classes live.
Online participants are expected to attend classes live. We will arrange class times to be comfortable for most time zones. However we understand that some class times might occur after midnight in some regions, if this is the case for you, please let us know when you register. Then we can provide a recording so you can catch up on that particular class.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants: 1) dāna to the Teacher plus 2) accomodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.
Online Participants: 1) dāna to the Teacher 2) online administration fee of $150 CAD.
Questions?
If you have questions about the retreat, please contact the Clear Sky Retreat Manager at 250-429-3929 (phone) or at bookings@clearskycenter.org (email).

Meet the Teachers

Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan)
Qapel studied with the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche from 1974 until the latter’s passing in 2003. Doug received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. He also received teachings from the 16th Karmapa and other Tibetan Rinpoches, as well as from the Ven. Sayadaw U Thila Wunta and from a Master of the Western Mystery School. In addition, Doug has undertaken numerous three-month solitary meditation retreats.
Doug has been leading retreats, teaching and training in universal practices of spiritual unfoldment since 1985, helping thousands of students in numerous countries liberate themselves from suffering. His teaching also draws on contemporary psychology and science. In 2004 he co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies where he is resident teacher along with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.
More About Qapel | About the Lineage
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

“I feel like a whole new world of understanding has opened up for me to explore. The teachings were interesting, vibrant, and so very relevant to our lives. Qapel and Catherine Sensei have done a wonderful job at distilling these vast teachings without oversimplying concepts. The teachings were visual, informative, and interactive. It was a great and lots of fun!”
Jenai L.

FAQs
About Dana
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
About the Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Daily Schedule
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
PSYCHEDELICS/MICRODOSING
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.
SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online. We do not have paid staff.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

Meditation Circle: Summer of the Spotless Mind
2024-08-01 - 2024-08-22
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7-8pm MST
Drop-Ins Welcome
Summer of the Spotless Mind
with Maureen Smith
The best summer vacation experience ever is actually the spotless mind. Join Maureen Smith and community in this four week meditation circle series on stepping into the brightness of your life.
Through breathing meditation and therapeutic tools we will learn how to self regulate through life’s difficult experiences. Maureen will share from her exciting explorations from EMDR, psychology and Buddhist approaches to healing, insight and wisdom.

—
Excited? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

About these Community Meditation Classes
How do you grow your inner well-being? These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:00-8:00pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This series, Summer of the Spotless Mind, runs from Thursday, August 1-22, 2024 and is lead by Maureen Smith.
Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
There are two ways to attend – in person or online. Just click the appropriate button to register. See you soon!
Attend In-Person Attend Online
Questions?
Contact Cara via email or phone:
cara@clearskycenter.org | 250-421-8280

“Meditation is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies, emotions, mind, workplaces, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes.”
Duncan Cryle

I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that meditation is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body, you’re part of my day.’
Karen McAllister
Meditation Circle Teachers

Karen McAllister
As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development, I’m passionate about teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors – like honor your space, structure, and communication – that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky as the center went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”
In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture and art books.
Duncan Cryle
Through 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected. Alongside. my Clear Sky work, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees. I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement. I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together, and be of better service in the world.

Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) is a therapist and meditation teacher. Passionate about what she does, she will guide you to a more alive, aware and mindful path of living.
Maureen is a well-respected Cranbrook-based therapist and educator. She works with individuals and couples in the public sector in addictions and mental health. Not only was Maureen the first acting caretaker at Clear Sky Meditation Center in BC, she has studied numerous meditation practices intensively for over 10 years. She has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Clinical Social Worker in British Columbia.
Cara Conroy-Lau
Cara brings a joyful East meets West approach to meditation and holistic health.
As a New Zealand-born citizen of the world, she grew up in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. Cara has trained in mind-body integrative health for over 18 years. She is the founding acupuncturist and owner of Cranbrook Acupuncture Clinic.
Cara has been training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy since her early 20’s, and has a particular interest in healing internalised prejudices and biases. She is a long time resident at Clear Sky Centre, and was the Centre’s first farm and food forest manager from 2009-2012.
Attend Online Attend In-Person
Course Cost: Dāna

We offer this course on the basis of dāna. If you’re not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.”
Dāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.
Dāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
Attend Online Attend In-Person

The Movement of the Mandala
2024-09-07 08:00 - 2024-09-22 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“The Tarot represents a system of complete liberation for Westerners.”
-Namgyal Rinpoche
Join us for a two-week somatic retreat that helps us weave archetypal energies into our lives in beautiful and healthy ways.
It’s creative, it’s powerful, it’s magic.
Registration is by invite only.

Western Mysteries
focus area
Interactive
practice
Two Weeks
Duration
Intermediate
Skill Level
In-Person
format
Embodying principles of unfoldment through spiritual theatre
The Movement of the Mandala is a powerful embodied retreat on the Tarot’s archetypes, inspired by the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche’s teachings.
The retreat was first offered by the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche 50 years ago at the Dharma Centre of Canada in 1974, Qapel’s first retreat as a new student. A master of both Eastern and Western mystical tradition, Rinpoche’s innovative course will be offered by Qapel and Catherine Sensei for the first and last time in Qapel’s lifetime.
Why the Tarot?
We’re all familiar with Eastern spiritual traditions, but did you know the West also has a legitimate path for spiritual awakening?
How are the Emperor and Empress manifesting your life? Are they wise rulers or are they tyrants? Or are they living in another kingdom altogether?
Western archetypes are a powerful resource for spiritual awakening. They reveal and help us cultivate dormant aspects in ourselves so we may reach our highest potential.
In modern times, Tarot is often mistaken as ‘woo woo’ fortune telling, yet it has offered a profound path for spiritual awakening for hundreds of years. In fact, the Western Mysteries was the path by which Namgyal Rinpoche awakened.

“Qapel and Sensei teach in a light, but profound way – taking us on a brilliant journey of understanding with guile and humour.
Their male and female perspectives help balance with differing approaches to explaining a complex but genius system that holds all life understanding from religion, science, psychotherapy and wisdom traditions.”
Jonathan C. Shiatsu, Qigong & Meditation Teacher
The History of the Movement of the Mandala Retreat, as first offered by Namgyal Rinpoche
Qapel’s first retreat with his Teacher Namgyal Rinpoche was on the ‘Movement of the Mandala’ in 1974, an embodied initiation into the Tarot’s archetypes. We asked him to explain more about the retreat and its history.

A Somatic Retreat
Why this retreat? – Embody the Tarot’s principles of universal unfoldment.
As archetypes and meditations, the symbolism of the Tarot is incredibly transformative. The Tarot offers a powerful, concise path of liberation drawing on universal life experiences to invite us into deeper understanding of the mystical life.
In this retreat we will enact and embody the major arcana, through spiritual somatic theatre. This form of enriching “passion play” helps us gain a deep imprint of the tarot’s archetypal meanings, catalytic for spiritual transformation.
Each Tarot card contains symbolism through which transformation can occur.
Drawing on Western archetypes, aspects that exist within each of us, this retreat helps us:

Discover which archetypes are stronger and weaker in our being;
Learn how to integrate all the archetypes into our daily lives;
Use art, music and movement to contact the patterns of our being through sensing, feeling and insight.

What Can I Expect?

An open mind and heart and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!
Roll up your sleeves and jump into spiritual theatre. You will be asked to prepare sets and costumes before the retreat.
Become deeply familiar with the 22 Tarot cards of the major arcana and their main characteristics.
Embark on somatic group theatre (and therapy) using the Tarot cards.
Reveal and relate deeper patterns from within our being to the major archetypes.
Explore techniques in loosening patterns of thought and action.
Expect long days of Western Mysteries practice and exploration.
Enjoy the surrounding wilderness at Clear Sky Center.
It’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new, meeting new people, or going to a new place – particularly when all three happen together. Knowing this, we try to make our retreats as supportive as possible.

Meet the Teachers

Doug Qapel Duncan

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC Rocky Mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Questions? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact maureen@clearskycenter.org.
In order to give enough time to rest from travel before the retreat starts, we recommend that domestic travellers arrive one day early, and long distance international travellers arrive two days early. After the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration, however you are also welcome to stay longer for one of our hybrid stay options.
Booking a flight? Airport pickups can be booked when you register for the retreat. On the rare chance that this retreat is cancelled or if unforseen global circumstances cause travel interruptions, we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance and modifiable tickets.

For your Listening Pleasure: On the Tarot
Enjoy Qapel and Sensei’s episodes on the Tarot from their podcast channel, Dharma if you Dare:

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In addition to Dana to the Teacher, Clear Sky Meditation Centre provides an incredible space for your retreat. Situated on a beautiful 310-acre property in the Rocky Mountains, the center and its karma yogis provide you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation. Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the retreat.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up
8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers
10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk
10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice
5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up
7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers
8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Clear Sky's 20th Anniversary Celebration!
2024-09-21 09:30 - 2024-09-22 20:30 (America/Edmonton)
“Happiness can’t arise for me if it doesn’t arise for you.”
—Qapel and Sensei, co-founding Teachers of Clear Sky
Hello, friends! Join us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our beloved Clear Sky Meditation Center.
We’d love to have you for quality time with the Teachers and community.
We’ll get merry together, learn about the past, present, and future of Clear Sky—and we’ll also be very lucky to receive the Chenrezi empowerment followed by a blessing of the future temple site!
September 21-22nd, 2024

Online Registration

NOTE: If you’d like to come celebrate in person, contact Ava MacLean at ava@clearskycenter.org

Weekend Celebration Schedule
Party with us online via Zoom or here at Clear Sky!
If you’d like to come celebrate in person, contact Ava MacLean at ava@clearskycenter.org.
Saturday, September 21

9:30am: The History of Clear Sky with Catherine Sensei
12:30pm: Lunch
3pm: The Future of Clear Sky (and the Temple!) with Qapel

Sunday, September 22

9:30am: Chenrezig wongkur (in-person only)
10:30: Blessing at the future Temple site (in-person only)

*Daily schedule is subject to minor changes closer to the date.

Celebrating The Teachers

Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are the Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.

Online Registration

Note: If you’d like to come celebrate in person, contact Ava MacLean at ava@clearskycenter.org
Cherishing Clear Sky
Located in the B.C. Rocky Mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.

FAQs
Dana – Generosity
Dana:
This celebration and the wongkur are offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.

If you’d like to come celebrate in person, contact Ava MacLean at ava@clearskycenter.org

Online Registration
