Clear Sky Meditation Centre

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.

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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

FREE WEBINAR: Integrating the Money Shadow in your Spiritual Life
2024-09-25 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Wednesday, September 25 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm MT
Struggling in your relationship with money, values and spiritual beliefs
This class is for spiritually-focused people whose spiritual aspiration is the most important thing in their lives, yet they struggle with their relationship with money and values.
Many spiritually-focused people feel that their spiritual life is hindering their ability to earn enough money. Or they know they have money issues but do not know what those issues are. They feel confused, lost, and have a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it leads to fear and dissociation.

Register Now

Are you in a fear-state around money and don’t feel capable of earning, receiving, or managing money? Perhaps you feel like you’re in survival mode, disconnected from money or like you work too much and yet you never feel like you have enough. Perhaps you are living in total overwhelm and fear about addressing your debt issues or feel defeated by money and future prospects. Or perhaps you may defer completely to your partner in financial matters and do not know how to discuss your fears and concerns with them in a productive, generative manner.
In all of these situations, the view around money is the problem. And this webinar will help you see where your limiting beliefs are.
Imagine having a spiritual life and your income stable, having success in repaying your debts or having money in your savings for retreats. Imagine valuing yourself more, making solid business decisions or increasing your rates with ease. Understanding your interior money landscape is the first step.
This webinar will help you begin the journey to get to a place where your ability to earn money is actively supporting your spiritual life. It’s an opportunity to transform unhelpful money habits in a supportive, non-judgmental community. It will help you realize that you are not alone. Money troubles come from past and present conditions and are not related to a personal deficiency.
This free webinar will help you see the way that our society has programmed us to feel stressed around money—which is the complete antithesis of living in alignment with the universe.

Register Now

Meet your Teacher

Karen McAllister
Karen has worked with clients to transform their money issues, helping them become more effective, professional, and satisfied with their financial situation, and growing a sense of abundance. She brings knowledge and experience of financial issues from the practical, behavioral, and emotional perspectives. Her real magic and superpowers come from studying with her spiritual teachers, Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, for over 20 years. Her teachers specialize in helping their students transcend their issues around money, sex, and power. And she is a beautiful example of the fruits of this work, known in Buddhist philosophy as the bodhisattva path.
Karen studied Economics in her degree and has been certified by Deborah Price of the The Money Coaching Institute as a Certified Money Coach, a Couples Money Coach, and a Business Archetype Coach. She studied with Lynne Twist from the Soul of Money Institute, including Mastering your Money and Transforming your Life, and Lynne’s Fundraising from the Heart program.
Further, Karen has made use of that training through her own role as a founding member at Clear Sky, which operates with a quadruple bottom line. Karen has been Board Chair since 2014 and is leader of Fund Development. Her passion for this arises out of her deep desire to awaken more fully and make the world a better place. She’s seen many amazing spiritual explorers and transformational change agents who want to make a difference yet don’t have the funds they need to truly fulfill their missions–despite the millions of dollars floating around in the economy. And she has also seen the other side. Many spiritual explorers with money who have tried to help others experience more abundance and feel that their efforts have been rejected; or their efforts to be generous have left them feeling taken advantage of or dismissed. Karen’s work is designed to change this.
Karen wants you to show up as an integrated and whole human being. She’ll help you direct and attract financial resources in meaningful ways, steering away from greed and fear and towards love, generosity, collaboration, and reciprocity.

Working with Karen helped me understand that you need to have a vision and to know your values first, and then in that lens, we can start to work for money, save it, invest it. We have never had real conversations about our relationship to money! Until we understand and heal our thoughts/feelings/beliefs around money, we will continue to loop the same patterns, think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings and stay in the same financial situation. It is difficult to recognize these things within ourselves. Karen’s coaching helped me spot what to work on quicker, and more effectively. I haven’t found anything else like what she does.
Thank you Karen.
Serena
I had been feeling stress and a lack of safety around money, in an ongoing state of not feeling enoughness. After working with Karen in Money and Spirituality, I have vision on how to use my money to benefit the world, and know I want to work with people who share the same vision. This course is a great stepping stone for me to dive deeper into spirituality, opening up new chapter in my practice. Karen has helped me to begin unknotting the fears that are extremely intertwined with capitalism. I think everybody who has the motivation to free their unhealthy habits and patterns around money should take the course. You will realize you don’t live for money; you use money as a tool to create the life you desire!
Karen offered us deep insights on many levels and the generosity of her time, both inside and outside the sessions. She invested as much in the process as we did. The benefits that it brings are significant – on an interpersonal as well as financial level.
Trinh
I couldn’t find my blind spots which block me from seeing the root of my Money and Spirituality problems. This course give me more clarity and insight, particularly around the need to work internally on my first three chakras. If you want to educate yourself and make more conscious financial decisions, this course if for you.
Iris
I knew that I have money issues, but not what those issues were. I was confused, lost, and had a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it led to fear and dissociation. In this course with Karen, I learnt that my approach to money is mostly from a victim and innocent archetype position, and that issues with money, life, and my business are connected with my relationship to my mother and father. This was groundbreaking for me. I understand which areas of my life I need to heal and work on, and I also see how these shadows don’t allow me to grow and transform. Karen has such knowledge and wisdom, and so generously created a safe container where I felt heard, seen, and held throughout the program.
Marina
I have been living in a survival mode of circular thinking. For so long, I have been disconnected from money, operating with a scarcity mindset. Karen taught me a new language. I am now empowered to take up the responsibility of creating change. The Money and Spirituality course helped me get clear on my intention, motivation, and needs, which I now can practice communicating. And, the reminder that our beliefs and habitual patterns are shaped from our early years was huge for me; we must have the awareness that they’re not our fault, but also that we have the responsibility to do something about them. I am practicing becoming my own Great Mother!
Sue

Register Now

Money & Spirituality: Integrating Spiritual and Material (Online)
2024-10-09 17:30 - 2024-10-30 19:00 (America/Chicago)
A Four-Week Online Course with Karen McAllister and in partnership with Awaken in Toronto
Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th October
Wednesdays at 5.30 pm MT – 7 pm MT

Click here to see your timezone –
This course is about healing the split between money and spirituality and integrating your vision and calling into your everyday work. Through this course, you will come to a place of peace, power, and care in your heart in your relationship with money.
It is about integrating the spiritual with the material, or the material with the spiritual, depending on where your journey begins.
What this means for you
Working with your relationship with money is more than just seeing your patterns and recurring behaviours around it.
Money is a nexus that is the doorway into greater integration. All of us have some sort of knot around money. By going into that knot, we can attend to all of these bigger things like the shadow, dreams, vision, values, priorities, and awakening.
We are inviting you to join us to release these complicated and layered knots around money and allow yourself to let go the dam of resistance, shame, guilt, superiority, privilege, and fear. To have the courage to look at your projections onto money and be on your way to a place of integration between the material and the spiritual.
We want you to be lighter, brighter and to give and attract the amount of money you need to manifest your purpose.

REGISTER NOW

Do any of these 8 knots sound like you?

You might be very passionate about your work as an artist, teacher, healer, in business, or as a transformational change agent. Yet you seem to repel the very resources that you need. Somehow embracing the money thing is felt as inauthentic to your values or being evil on some level. Is it truly noble to be a starving artist or a martyr?
Perhaps you feel money is elusive and you never seem to have it, or when it comes in it leaves very quickly. You may feel that you and money just don’t seem to have any relationship at all. Or you don’t feel you are good with it. You might be looking for that Prince Charming, or a protector to turn up and make it all better for you. Or maybe, you feel that money should just come because you are devoting your life to a worthy cause or to your awakening. Shouldn’t I just trust in the universe that the money comes? Yet, it doesn’t.
Perhaps you over give, undervalue yourself in your organization, non-profit or in partnerships, either in marriage or in business. You might expect others to read your mind and know how to support you, and they don’t. You might have the experience of feeling unseen, burnt out, with health and money issues calling for your attention.
Or your family may have money but you don’t, giving you mixed experiences of privilege and scarcity; you may try to help others experience more abundance and feel that your efforts are rejected; or your efforts to be generous may leave you feeling taken advantage of or dismissed.
You might be a person with wealth and/or worldly success. In spite of this, you might feel ostracized by the very people you want to help. You might not feel so cared for or maybe even feel like an outsider by those in the spiritual or transformational world or with a mission-based business. What is this about?
You may have mixed feelings about having money, as a spiritual explorer. Perhaps you have come into money without being introduced to the skills to handle it skillfully, both practically and psychologically.
Or perhaps you feel overwhelmed with fear of losing money, even though you have enough of it. Your fear of loss might keep you paralyzed and stuck from making decisions that are more in alignment with your heart and your own awakening.
You might feel guilty about having money and find that trusting yourselves and others is an ongoing challenge. You might not like the distance that money causes between you and others.

These knots can be undone.
What are some of the main patterns that spiritual types have around money? Dissociation and overgiving are two examples.
Karen McAllister, Certified Money Coach and Board Chair of Clear Sky Meditation Centre, shares some of her insights in the main money patterns experienced by spiritual seekers, artists and those in the non-profit sector.

What Previous Participants Have Said

I wanted to better understand myself with and around money. The benefits of this course? Take a closer look at your relationship with money. When, why, what, who, with money. Now I understand why I do what I do. The next step is taking action, and knowing when to take that action. I think everyone would benefit from looking into their money relationship, especially anyone saying money is evil, or “I don’t seem to have enough.”
Fred
​​Before Money and Spirituality, I was unhappy with money in my life but I didn’t know why. After the 4 weeks, I now know the direction I need to head in to change that. It is now clear how my childhood has been driving my financial decisions as an adult in his 30s. I didn’t realize how much inner healing still needed to be done, and addressing money brought those issues to light. I am excited to step more into my power. This class is perfect for the “odd balls” who never felt like they fit into society—artists, spiritual types, creatives, and healers—there’s nothing wrong with you or money itself. The view is the problem, and this class will help you see clearly.
Mike
​​I was living in total overwhelm and fear about addressing my debt issues. I was deferring almost completely to my partner in financial matters and did not know how to discuss my fears and concerns with him in a productive, generative manner. I did not have much understanding of how my past money trauma may be affecting me today. When I saw the course was being offered this year, it still scared me but I knew it was an important part of my work to do it. After taking Money and Spirituality, I am more empowered, positive, and hopeful, and my Warrior archetype is becoming activated. It’s an opportunity to transform unhelpful money habits in a supportive, non-judgmental community. It will help you realize that you are not alone, that money troubles come from past and present conditions and are not related to a personal deficiency. There are ways to understand a person’s interior money landscape, and steps one can take to heal it.
Jennifer
I was stuck in a backlog of taxes, missing day-to-day financial structures and education, and feeling scarcity around money. Understanding my archetype as well as my beliefs and behaviors around money through this course with Karen were a huge relief. I understand sufficiency and generosity better, which has made it easier for me to give and to receive. I also brought attention to my own abundance which shifted things and made me see how much I have to offer. I am amazed how big of an impact these seemingly little shifts have. I recommend this to friends; people who spend too much or have shopping addictions, people who struggle with purpose, people whose money and work are influenced by others too much, people who feel they can’t sustain their business. Free yourself from false beliefs about money, the learned and inherited behavior.
Maike
I want to do good in this world. This course has helped me to make business decisions knowing my voice is confident and kind. Learning with Karen gives the gift of a deeper understanding of how you can relate to money and awakening. We can all do it together.
Kerry
I have struggled with what vision I wish to have and invest money in, for my personal growth and for the future of others. I felt ignorant in regard to global economy and the notion of a positive future for me and others. The course with Karen forced me to grow up and see the reality of what I can really afford to have in my life, to go beyond the scarcity mind into more trusting and loving, to take care of my body and my mind and therefore be in service to others to do the same. There comes clarity of vision, understanding creative stress vs. emotional tension, and knowing the future can be positive if our mindset is right and we learn from leaders like Karen what can be if we do something about our life and take up our responsibility for our Earth. I needed inspiration to move out from a limbo I’ve created for myself. As far as I see, Karen offers one of the most evolved programs there is on the planet. It brings very conscious humans together to learn and ask really great questions.
Maya
I was in a fear state around money. I felt restrictive in my being and that I wasn’t capable of earning, receiving, or managing money. As a result of my work in the Money and Spirituality course, my income has been stable, I’m repaying my debts and have money in my savings! Karen helped me see the way that our society has programmed us to feel stressed around money—which is the complete antithesis to living in alignment with the universe. I now trust that the universe is supporting me, and that I have the tools and capabilities to manage my money. Instead of feeling like my spiritual life is hindering my ability to earn enough money, this course helped me get to a place where my ability to earn money is actively supporting my spiritual life. I’d especially recommend this course to spiritually-focused solopreneurs and anyone whose spiritual aspiration is the most important thing in their life.
Ava
What to Expect
The course structures itself according to Clear Sky’s Five Principles, which name the qualities of a supportive space for human flourishing. We apply these principles to help you come to a place of peace, ease and clarity around your relationship with money. This course falls under the Fourth Principle, which is, “Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy.” The course structure follows each of the other four principles.
Session #1: Honor your space. Metaphorically speaking, we open the door and take a look inside your financial room. For many of us, it is a room full of cobwebs, things not in their place, and dust bunnies running amok. The curtains are closed, and there is a stale, musty smell in the room. How did this room get this way? By applying principle #1, we honor your space, we face the mess and start cleaning it up. We start revisiting the past to see what was not acknowledged and owned around money in the family system and culture.
Session #2: Structure and routine are your friends. We look at the money habits that you currently have and write them all down. What do you need to let go of, and what new habits do you need to take on? How are you going to build them into your structure and routine? We will use the cue, routine and reward from “The Power of Habit” to help you work new routines around your money life. We will share all the apps, budget tools, and a ton of resources for you to guide you in finding the right tool for you around your finances.
Session #3: Communication shapes the space where we meet. We look at building gratitude and generosity practices to help you overcome the fear and scarcity mentality that takes root in our beings because it is the very water of capitalism that we swim in. A model that promotes a chronic sense of not-enoughness in the being. We will learn to become very mindful of the scarcity we feed ourselves and get really good at cutting these dialogues off skillfully and kindly, with fierce discernment.
Session #4: It’s easier with others. What are your relationships with money like with your spouse, your colleagues, and your friends? Do you end up feeling betrayed or tight around money with others, or do you stick your head in the sand and not take responsibility? We will study money and relationships through the lens of the eight money archetypes. Archetypes are powerful teachers and allies, since they inform us of where we need to grow.

I was suffering from chronic not-enough syndrome, and it was drowning out my reality. When I saw Karen’s Money and Spirituality course, my whole body was singing, “yes!” And, while the course’s primary focus appears to be money, it has opened so many other doors to personal healing. I now recognize that my relationship with money is just a reflection of my relationship with other things, everything being linked, so clearing up one space has an impact on others. I feel less anxious about money; I feel curious excitement for more openness; and I feel I can shift my relationship with money, power, and sex even further. Karen’s teaching on gratitude has become a strong spiritual practice for me, and in the way it has grounded me, I feel more ready to commit to generosity. I so enjoy Karen’s deeply rooted personal spirituality—it shines in her teachings and I know she walks her talk. It helps me take her and the material seriously. I trust her as a teacher.Thank you Karen.
Sally
I was feeling scared about selling my house, sad to be giving up the garden, and frustrated that I couldn’t find other people who would like to explore co-housing. Thanks to Karen and the Money and Spirituality group course, I am owning my choice, and trusting that the timing is right and all will unfold as it is meant to. I feel more trust in the opening up of new possibilities.
Debi
I was skint, and also in a passive, fatalistically desperate state of mind about it—things had reached an absolute nadir, and I’d thrown the towel in. Following the Money and Spirituality course, there is a shift in attitude. I’m focused and proactive. I’m holding the space, including sitting with the not-knowing, without the previous despair and cynicism. And, my next steps are setting up a conscious wellness business! I wanted to before, but I feel affirmed in it now. There is a greater sense of clarity and hope. Thank you.
Myriam
I was working too much, never had enough, feeling defeated by money and my future prospects; a total scarcity mindset. This class with Karen shone a light into the darkness. Her Money and Spirituality course provides empowerment, hope, community, and healing; things shifted almost immediately for me as a result of doing this work. I have a plan for repayment of debt, I am valuing myself more, and I have an understanding of my archetypes and how they impact my views and actions around money. Interestingly enough I have had an influx of requests for services and people are happily paying my raised rates. I think every person on the planet would benefit from taking this course.
Jenn
Money has always been a struggle. Now having taken the Money and Spirituality course, I am able to question my decisions, thoughts, and spending patterns through a different lens. If anyone is struggling with their relationship with money and their values and spiritual beliefs, then they should look at this course. I believe it is much like therapy. The individual has to want to take the course to deepen their understanding around their relationship with money in their spiritual life. There are many blind spots around money, and taking the course has the power to illuminate them.
Dana
Meet your Teacher

Karen McAllister
Karen has worked with clients to transform their money issues, helping them become more effective, professional, and satisfied with their financial situation, and growing a sense of abundance. She brings knowledge and experience of financial issues from the practical, behavioral, and emotional perspectives. Her real magic and superpowers come from studying with her spiritual teachers, Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, for over 20 years. Her teachers specialize in helping their students transcend their issues around money, sex, and power. And she is a beautiful example of the fruits of this work, known in Buddhist philosophy as the bodhisattva path.
Karen studied Economics in her degree and has been certified by Deborah Price of the The Money Coaching Institute as a Certified Money Coach, a Couples Money Coach, and a Business Archetype Coach. She studied with Lynne Twist from the Soul of Money Institute, including Mastering your Money and Transforming your Life, and Lynne’s Fundraising from the Heart program.
Further, Karen has made use of that training through her own role as a founding member at Clear Sky, which operates with a quadruple bottom line. Karen has been Board Chair since 2014 and is leader of Fund Development. Her passion for this arises out of her deep desire to awaken more fully and make the world a better place. She’s seen many amazing spiritual explorers and transformational change agents who want to make a difference yet don’t have the funds they need to truly fulfill their missions–despite the millions of dollars floating around in the economy. And she has also seen the other side. Many spiritual explorers with money who have tried to help others experience more abundance and feel that their efforts have been rejected; or their efforts to be generous have left them feeling taken advantage of or dismissed. Karen’s work is designed to change this.
Karen wants you to show up as an integrated and whole human being. She’ll help you direct and attract financial resources in meaningful ways, steering away from greed and fear and towards love, generosity, collaboration, and reciprocity.
Course Details

Location: Online (Zoom)
Dates: Oct 2 – Oct 23, 2024
4 x 90 minute sessions + 2 Individual 30 minute sessions
Time: 5.30 pm – 7 pm MT
Dana: $200CAD – $500CAD recommended range.
Please chat with us if you have concerns about the cost. Part of taking the money out of the shadow is stepping forward and having a pricing conversation with us.

This course is Dana based. We understand that your income might be effected due to COVID either negatively or positively. We do not want to turn away anyone and we are always looking for ways to help you cultivate your generosity practise. Because of this, we are giving you the opportunity to give the lower rate if you are earning less currently, or we encourage to give the higher rate if your business is actually more profitable due to COVID. Many people feel guilty because they are doing well. We encourage you to think about paying it forward.
There is also an opportunity to give to the scholarship fund, as another opportunity to practice a heart of openness and giving.

Working with Karen helped me understand that you need to have a vision and to know your values first, and then in that lens, we can start to work for money, save it, invest it. We have never had real conversations about our relationship to money! Until we understand and heal our thoughts/feelings/beliefs around money, we will continue to loop the same patterns, think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings and stay in the same financial situation. It is difficult to recognize these things within ourselves. Karen’s coaching helped me spot what to work on quicker, and more effectively. I haven’t found anything else like what she does.
Thank you Karen.
Serena
I had been feeling stress and a lack of safety around money, in an ongoing state of not feeling enoughness. After working with Karen in Money and Spirituality, I have vision on how to use my money to benefit the world, and know I want to work with people who share the same vision. This course is a great stepping stone for me to dive deeper into spirituality, opening up new chapter in my practice. Karen has helped me to begin unknotting the fears that are extremely intertwined with capitalism. I think everybody who has the motivation to free their unhealthy habits and patterns around money should take the course. You will realize you don’t live for money; you use money as a tool to create the life you desire!
Karen offered us deep insights on many levels and the generosity of her time, both inside and outside the sessions. She invested as much in the process as we did. The benefits that it brings are significant – on an interpersonal as well as financial level.
Trinh
I couldn’t find my blind spots which block me from seeing the root of my Money and Spirituality problems. This course give me more clarity and insight, particularly around the need to work internally on my first three chakras. If you want to educate yourself and make more conscious financial decisions, this course if for you.
Iris
I knew that I have money issues, but not what those issues were. I was confused, lost, and had a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it led to fear and dissociation. In this course with Karen, I learnt that my approach to money is mostly from a victim and innocent archetype position, and that issues with money, life, and my business are connected with my relationship to my mother and father. This was groundbreaking for me. I understand which areas of my life I need to heal and work on, and I also see how these shadows don’t allow me to grow and transform. Karen has such knowledge and wisdom, and so generously created a safe container where I felt heard, seen, and held throughout the program.
Marina
I have been living in a survival mode of circular thinking. For so long, I have been disconnected from money, operating with a scarcity mindset. Karen taught me a new language. I am now empowered to take up the responsibility of creating change. The Money and Spirituality course helped me get clear on my intention, motivation, and needs, which I now can practice communicating. And, the reminder that our beliefs and habitual patterns are shaped from our early years was huge for me; we must have the awareness that they’re not our fault, but also that we have the responsibility to do something about them. I am practicing becoming my own Great Mother!
Sue

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Hamster Wheel or Heaven? The Wheel of Dependent Origination (In-Person and Online)
2024-10-18 17:00 - 2024-10-20 15:00 (America/Edmonton)
Hamster Wheel or Heaven: The Wheel of Dependent Origination

Everything depends on everything else. An Ecosystem is pure and simple, the way things are. Would you like to look closer at the nature of our mind-body continuum?
What makes you “you”? How does everything “you” perceive arise? Why does this matter? Together we’ll study a powerful map of consciousness: the wheel of dependent origination. This is a foundational philosophical doctrine shared by all schools of Buddhism, recommended for students of all levels. It directly correlates to suffering, and how to become free, wise, and compassionate.
October 18-20th, 2024
Offered in-person and online.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

October 18 – 20th
Date
Buddhism
focus area
Meditation
Practice
All
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format

(Inter)dependent Origination: Paṭiccasamuppāda
Ask yourself—what makes up a human? The 12 elements of the wheel of dependent origination teach us to look at the basic building blocks of the human being. The result of this understanding? Suffering goes down. Wisdom and compassion go up. This is the power of what it is to know thyself.
All schools of Buddhism share this fundamental teaching of the wheel. It is a highly recommended foundational perspective that has deep repercussions on how you see and experience your life, the body-mind continuum, and the world around you.
The focus of Buddhadharma is to become free of being subject to suffering. There is necessary suffering (sickness, old age, diseases, joint pain, babies—that which is part and parcel of living), and unnecessary suffering (our personal dramas, relationship pains, self-image). If you look at the nature of suffering, you see how nature pushes itself forward because of suffering. The purpose of the wheel of dependent origination is to help us ask, “What is necessary, and what isn’t?”
In your life, what is necessary, and what isn’t?

This course for you if:

You’d like deeper foundational understanding of core Buddhist philosophy.
You want to learn a 2000 year old science of consciousness
You’d like to deepen your spiritual understanding in modern language and practical applications, with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You want greater ability to apply your meditation insights in your daily life.
You want inspiration and motivation to change your life according to what is possible through conscious awareness.

“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
This weekend retreat will be led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. This course is offered online or in-person.
Schedule / Class Times: lFor onsite retreatants, please arrive in good time for orientation at 5 pm Mountain Time on the Friday. The first class will be at 7 pm Mountain Time. The retreat will formally end at 3 pm Mountain Time on the Sunday. 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.
Keen practitioner pricing: 10% savings on all fees available until September 13th, 2024.
Important: The last day to register is one week prior to the retreat start date. Please register early.
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).

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat (Sensei)
Catherine Pawasarat was a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s. Living in Kyoto, Japan for 20 years, she worked as an advocacy photojournalist specializing in environmental and human rights, and edited sustainability-related publications for various United Nations bodies. She also studied traditional Japanese arts.
Since 1998 she has trained daily with Buddhist teacher Achariya Doug Duncan (Qapel) in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that’s rare in the modern West. Transmitted from the remarkable Namgyal Rinpoche, they are both lineage holders of these teachings.
With Qapel, she is co-founder and resident teacher at Clear Sky Retreat Center in the British Columbia Rockies. There Catherine Sensei has spearheaded an innovative and sustainability-oriented culture and organization, specializing in conscious community. Together Doug and Catherine also teach through a virtual vehicle, Planet Dharma. In 2018 they wrote the best-selling book Wasteland to Pureland.
More About Sensei | 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.

Locally-grown organic food

Supportive meditation guidance

Stunning bedroom views

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.
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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

Understanding The Power of Sangha & Group Guru
2024-11-10 09:30 - 2024-12-01 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
The Power of Sangha & Group Guru
“If you think your Sangha isn’t your Lama, you’ve missed the whole understanding of Sangha.” -Qapel
Sangha are the people working alongside you to wake up. Group Guru is the network of the Awakened Mind showing up in teams and conscious community. We can—and must—use each other to pull ourselves out of the mires of suffering. In this modern approach to sangha and group guru, we will look at the interplay between the collective, the individual and liberation.
November 10 – December 1st
Sundays at 9:30am MT
Online

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focus area
Sangha &
Conscious Community
practice
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Skill Level
All
Levels
format
Online or
In-Person
The Power of Sangha & Group Guru
The Buddha’s beloved student Ananda asked, it seems good friends are perhaps half of the path? And the Buddha responded, No, Ananda. Good friends are the whole path.
Is conscious community a preference, or a necessity? How do we develop powerful spiritual communities that bring us forward in a meaningful way? In this modern course we will explore just this, looking at the power of sangha and group guru.
There is interplay between the collective and the individual when it comes to liberation. Let’s explore it here, together.
We each get trapped in our own bias. Our lineage Teacher the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche said it is hard for Westerners to awaken because the self, the great individual, is such an important part of the game. In the West, we tend to avoid community, avoid surrendering to collective needs, or mistrust that we will be subsumed by ignorant ‘group think’.
And yet, sangha is something that nature knows intimately. Community is at the root of the great flourishings of humanity. Spiritual communities in the East have worked in community in the monastery setting; community is a hallmark of all time-tested spiritual tradition and practice. Today’s question is, how do we also honor the role and uniqueness of the individual, within a collective approach to awakening and healing?

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Power of Sangha
Do you want to be part of thriving, conscious community that values people above profit? Does living and working with people who also value spiritual growth and awakening sound appealing? We think it’s wonderful, and beyond that, what humanity is destined for.
And, it’s not easy. We need seriously effective tools to help integrate our spiritual ideals with the real world. Everyday life—including people, and their personalities—are always human. They require grit.
Course Learning Goals
For what reason was Sangha (Spiritual Community) highlighted as one of the Triple Gems alongside the Buddha (Teachers of Awakening) and Dharma (The Teachings and Practices of Liberation)?
What are our common challenges and fears around collective and community today?
What are ways we can better contribute, grow and develop effective spiritual communities that we actually want to be a meaningful part of?
Recommended Reading
We Started Our Own Conscious Community 20 Years Ago, Here’s Our Advice.

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“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 10th – December 1st, 2024
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time

Sunday, November 10 – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, November 17 – 9:30-11am Class
Sunday, November 24 – 9:30-11am Class
Flash Retreat*: Saturday & Sunday Nov 30-Dec 1 – 9:30am and 2:30pm

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: Nov 30th-Dec 1st
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (Nov 30-Dec 1). 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. Group sessions will be held at 9:30am and 2:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, with sessions approximately 60-90 mins in duration.
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 co-created this course with Sensei prior to his passing on October 5th, 2024. Since his passing, we have witnessed the invaluable role that Sangha plays in supporting each other through challenging times. In honour of Qapel, we are choosing to move ahead with this course so that we may support each other more deeply and feel connecting to his teachings during this time.
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei 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 Nov 30-Dec1, 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.

“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

Body, Speech & Mind eBook Launch Celebration (Online)
2024-12-08 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Edmonton)
“All of your search for a special practice is in vain. You are making dead fantasy when the absolutely miraculous life is all around you. You are immersed in the undying body of manifestation, the Nirmāņakāya. See the glory that is the reality. See the infinity of the complexity of manifestation.”
Join us in celebrating the launch of Namgyal Rinpoche’s seminal work, Body, Speech & Mind in eBook format!
Seasoned meditator and Namgyal Lineage Teacher, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, will share about what makes this book a pivotal resource for all contemporary Buddhist practitioners, guide a brief meditation from the book, lead a Q&A session, and share her thoughts on Namgyal’s legacy and the future of Dharma.
This online event takes place on Bodhi Day — the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, experienced enlightenment. Join us in celebrating this pivotal work that is not only an essential foundation for 21st century awakening, but also takes us forward towards the next turning of the wheel.
Sunday, December 8th at 9am MT
Online

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Body, Speech & Mind is a collection of profound discourses by Namgyal Rinpoche on several important themes for the development of enlightened body, speech and mind.
Namgyal Rinpoche compassionately and skilfully illuminates the precious path of awakening for all who seek liberation from suffering and the attainment of the sacred happiness and peace of transcendence.
These include in-depth teaching on the Foundations of Mindfulness (from the Satipatthana Sutta); the practice of purification (Vajrasattva); the transmutation of negative states (Chenresi); Mindfulness of Breathing (Anapanasati); as well as a wide variety of classic and contemporary meditations, exercises and teachings on, for example, the elements, colour, bioenergetics, communication, relationships, nutriment, obstacles on the path, dream yoga, awareness in daily life, mantra, and much more.
Join Catherine Sensei as we celebrate the next chapter of these universal and eclectic teachings of awakening.

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Namgyal Rinpoche was born Leslie George Dawson in 1931, October 11, and raised in Toronto, Canada by parents of Irish and Scottish descent.
Leslie George Dawson awakened through the Western Mysteries while living in London, where he met the visiting teacher Sayadaw in 1958. Dawson moved to Burma and studied under U Thila Wunta and Mahasi Sayadaw in Bodh Gaya, Rangoon (where he was ordained as Ananda Bodhi), Bangkok and Sri Lanka.
Ananda Bodhi left the East in 1962, teaching at the London Buddhist Vihara and founding Johnstone House in Scotland, which he gave to Chögyam Trungpa who renamed it Samye Ling.
Anandabodhi returned to Canada and founded the Dharma Centre of Canada outside Toronto. His teaching methods included international travel with students; in 1968 and 1971 he traveled with about a hundred students to India and Sikkim, where they met the Tibetans. He was recognized by the 16th Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche, Sakya Trizin Rinpoche and others as an embodiment of Namgyal Rinpoche, and received transmissions of the Karma Kargyu lineage.
Over the years he included the Western Mysteries, science, psychology, art, music, exercise, travel and other methods in his teaching repertoire, becoming one of the main voices of Tibetan Buddhism in North America along with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Some of Namgyal’s students started centers in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Central America as well as Canada and the US. His modern and eclectic approach is carried on throughout the world, with Clear Sky embodying this multiversal vision as well.
He continued to teach until his death in Switzerland on October 22, 2003, having empowered a number of senior students to continue his work.

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Listen: The Life of Namgyal Rinpoche
In this interview with Wisdom Podcast, Qapel and Catherine Sensei discuss the life, pioneering teachings and legacy of Namgyal Rinpoche:

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei 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.
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.

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Sangha Christmas Retreat
2024-12-22 - 2025-01-04
“Each one of us is a unique reflection of the universe.”
-Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Join us this holiday season for two weeks of Teachings with Sensei, time with Sangha and an eight-day Foundation Work retreat.
Two-Week Retreat: December 22nd – January 4th
Optional Arrival/Departure Day (for a one-week retreat): December 28th
Registration Deadline: Sunday, December 8th
Note: This retreat is open to existing Sangha only. Prerequisite: In the past two-years, you have attended at least one in-person retreat with Catherine Sensei.

Registration Closed

Foundation Work & sangha Retreat
The best gift that we can give our Teacher is ‘doing the work.’
In light of Qapel’s passing, Catherine Sensei had the beautiful idea of spending this holiday season working on our Foundation Practice together in community.
Already finished your Foundation work? No problem! You’re welcome to use this time focusing on your current practice.
The retreat also includes an End of Life Celebration for Qapel, a New Year’s Celebration and some days enjoying time in community.

Schedule
Here is our schedule (some details may be adjusested slightly).
Sunday, Dec. 22nd: Main arrival day
Monday, Dec. 23rd: Community Sangha Time
Tuesday, Dec. 24th: Community Sangha Time
Wednesday, Dec. 25th – Saturday, Dec. 28th: Foundation Practice
Saturday, Dec 28th: Optional Arrival or Departure Day (everyone staying continues with Foundation Practice)
Sunday, Dec. 29th- Wednesday, Jan 1st: Foundation Practice
Thursday, Jan. 2nd: Community Sangha Time & New Year’s Celebration
Friday, Jan. 3rd: Community Sangha Time
Saturday, Jan. 4th: Main Departure Day

Meet our Teacher

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
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
About Dāna
Dana:
Registration fees cover food, accommodation and the technology needed to offer the retreat online. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
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.
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.
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.
Note: In the unlikely scenario that this retreat is cancelled, we recommend purchasing refundable travel fares.
Cannabis, Psychedelics and 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.
Registration Deadline
Registration Deadline is Sunday, December 8th.
Questions? Please contact maureen@clearskycenter.org

Qapel: Life and Teachings Christmas Celebration
2024-12-24 14:30 - 16:00 (America/Edmonton)
“Each person is a replica of the entire cosmos.”
-Catherine Sensei
Join us for a special online party on Christmas Eve to celebrate Qapel’s life and teachings, including sharings of archive photos from early days in Japan and beyond from Catherine Sensei.
Tuesday, December 24th at 2:30pm MT
Online

Register Now

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei 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.

Waking Up & Growing Up: Integral Evolution (Online)
2025-01-12 09:30 - 2025-02-02 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
Waking Up, Growing Up: Integral Evolution
“One of the most significant contributions of Integral Spirituality and Theory is that the difference between states and stages is clarified. As meditators we get skilled with states but have remained ignorant of stages. This is not in our best interest. You can meditate forever and still be at a low stage of human development.” —Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Along with the work of waking up—cultivating an enlightened state—we also need to do the work of growing up. This means learning to integrate the clear state into the world through doing our shadow work, developing our communication, and diving into critical developmental growth to be a fully integrated human being. In this course we explore the elements of a fit and dynamic vehicle for 21st-century awakening, and beyond.
Note: Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber is a pre-requisite for the course. Please start by reading the Appendix as we have found it is clearer this way.

January 12 – February 2, 2025
Sunday morning online classes 9:30-11:00am MT

Registration

focus area
Integral
Spirituality
practice
Course and optional
weekend home retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Sundays from 9:30-11am MT
format
In-Person or
Online
Waking Up and Growing Up
As we go deeper into the 21st-century we are seeing a new turning of the Wheel of Dharma – a radical evolution of Buddhism and spiritual teachings. The last major evolution in Buddhist Dharma was more than 1000 years ago with Vajrayana. Now with psychology, integral spirituality and science, something new is emerging.
Along with the work of waking up– cultivating an enlightened state – we also need to do the work of growing up. This means learning to integrate a clear state in the world through doing our shadow work, developing our communication skills and working through the critical human development stages – individually and collectively.
Join us for this exciting four week course, together we will explore the emerging elements of a fit and dynamic vehicle for 21st-century awakening, and beyond.

Register

“In 10 years I have NOT missed a course with master teachers Qapel and Sensei! Every class reflects the light of oneness in prisms of direction and understanding and thus a lighter load to carry in the relative world and a lightness of being. If one aspires to be a bodhisattva and to benefit all beings, this one recommends the next one.”
Brendan R.
Integral Spirituality
Integral Spirituality was coined by Ken Wilber, an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development. In his many books, he writes that traditional Buddhist teachings themselves suggest an ongoing evolution leading toward a more unified, holistic, and interconnected spirituality. He describes the ways in which the tradition has been open to the continuing unfolding and expansion of its own teachings, and he suggests possible paths toward an ever more Integral approach.
We agree! In this course, we are excited to be taking this work forward and translating it practically, based on our lineage’s working experience of modern spiritual community.
Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber is a pre-requisite for the course. Please start by reading the Appendix as we have found it is clearer this way.

Schedule
Sundays, January 12 – February 2, 2025
Class Times (Mountain Time)

Sunday January 12 – 9:30-11am
Sunday January 19 – 9:30-11am
Sunday January 26 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday February 1-2 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 minutes)

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

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 co-created this course with Sensei prior to his passing on October 5th, 2024. In his final public teaching before his passing, Qapel shared that he believed Integral Evolution was the future of Dharma. In honour of his vision, we are offering this course so that we may continue his legacy.
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.

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“The teachers have brought together ancient teachings with scientific findings that prove how and why Dharma teachings radically improve life, reduce pain and increase global peace. It doesn’t matter what you believe, you will embody a healthy new way of being. Because of their vast collective wisdom, you leave their presence radically altered for the betterment of humanity.”
Evangelos D.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
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. However, 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.
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 Online 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, the costs of setting up good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online can be surprising.
Our admin fee changes based on the date of registration.
Register four + weeks prior: $80Register two to four weeks prior: $100Register 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

FREE WEBINAR: Integrating the Money Shadow in your Spiritual Life
2025-01-25 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Saturday, January 25 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am MT
Struggling in your relationship with money, values and spiritual beliefs
This class is for spiritually-focused people whose spiritual aspiration is the most important thing in their lives, yet they struggle with their relationship with money and values.
Many spiritually-focused people feel that their spiritual life is hindering their ability to earn enough money. Or they know they have money issues but do not know what those issues are. They feel confused, lost, and have a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it leads to fear and dissociation.

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Are you in a fear-state around money and don’t feel capable of earning, receiving, or managing money? Perhaps you feel like you’re in survival mode, disconnected from money or like you work too much and yet you never feel like you have enough. Perhaps you are living in total overwhelm and fear about addressing your debt issues or feel defeated by money and future prospects. Or perhaps you may defer completely to your partner in financial matters and do not know how to discuss your fears and concerns with them in a productive, generative manner.
In all of these situations, the view around money is the problem. And this webinar will help you see where your limiting beliefs are.
Imagine having a spiritual life and your income stable, having success in repaying your debts or having money in your savings for retreats. Imagine valuing yourself more, making solid business decisions or increasing your rates with ease. Understanding your interior money landscape is the first step.
This webinar will help you begin the journey to get to a place where your ability to earn money is actively supporting your spiritual life. It’s an opportunity to transform unhelpful money habits in a supportive, non-judgmental community. It will help you realize that you are not alone. Money troubles come from past and present conditions and are not related to a personal deficiency.
This free webinar will help you see the way that our society has programmed us to feel stressed around money—which is the complete antithesis of living in alignment with the universe.

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Meet your Teacher

Karen McAllister
Karen has worked with clients to transform their money issues, helping them become more effective, professional, and satisfied with their financial situation, and growing a sense of abundance. She brings knowledge and experience of financial issues from the practical, behavioral, and emotional perspectives. Her real magic and superpowers come from studying with her spiritual teachers, Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, for over 20 years. Her teachers specialize in helping their students transcend their issues around money, sex, and power. And she is a beautiful example of the fruits of this work, known in Buddhist philosophy as the bodhisattva path.
Karen studied Economics in her degree and has been certified by Deborah Price of the The Money Coaching Institute as a Certified Money Coach, a Couples Money Coach, and a Business Archetype Coach. She studied with Lynne Twist from the Soul of Money Institute, including Mastering your Money and Transforming your Life, and Lynne’s Fundraising from the Heart program.
Further, Karen has made use of that training through her own role as a founding member at Clear Sky, which operates with a quadruple bottom line. Karen has been Board Chair since 2014 and is leader of Fund Development. Her passion for this arises out of her deep desire to awaken more fully and make the world a better place. She’s seen many amazing spiritual explorers and transformational change agents who want to make a difference yet don’t have the funds they need to truly fulfill their missions–despite the millions of dollars floating around in the economy. And she has also seen the other side. Many spiritual explorers with money who have tried to help others experience more abundance and feel that their efforts have been rejected; or their efforts to be generous have left them feeling taken advantage of or dismissed. Karen’s work is designed to change this.
Karen wants you to show up as an integrated and whole human being. She’ll help you direct and attract financial resources in meaningful ways, steering away from greed and fear and towards love, generosity, collaboration, and reciprocity.

Working with Karen helped me understand that you need to have a vision and to know your values first, and then in that lens, we can start to work for money, save it, invest it. We have never had real conversations about our relationship to money! Until we understand and heal our thoughts/feelings/beliefs around money, we will continue to loop the same patterns, think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings and stay in the same financial situation. It is difficult to recognize these things within ourselves. Karen’s coaching helped me spot what to work on quicker, and more effectively. I haven’t found anything else like what she does.
Thank you Karen.
Serena
I had been feeling stress and a lack of safety around money, in an ongoing state of not feeling enoughness. After working with Karen in Money and Spirituality, I have vision on how to use my money to benefit the world, and know I want to work with people who share the same vision. This course is a great stepping stone for me to dive deeper into spirituality, opening up new chapter in my practice. Karen has helped me to begin unknotting the fears that are extremely intertwined with capitalism. I think everybody who has the motivation to free their unhealthy habits and patterns around money should take the course. You will realize you don’t live for money; you use money as a tool to create the life you desire!
Karen offered us deep insights on many levels and the generosity of her time, both inside and outside the sessions. She invested as much in the process as we did. The benefits that it brings are significant – on an interpersonal as well as financial level.
Trinh
I couldn’t find my blind spots which block me from seeing the root of my Money and Spirituality problems. This course give me more clarity and insight, particularly around the need to work internally on my first three chakras. If you want to educate yourself and make more conscious financial decisions, this course if for you.
Iris
I knew that I have money issues, but not what those issues were. I was confused, lost, and had a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it led to fear and dissociation. In this course with Karen, I learnt that my approach to money is mostly from a victim and innocent archetype position, and that issues with money, life, and my business are connected with my relationship to my mother and father. This was groundbreaking for me. I understand which areas of my life I need to heal and work on, and I also see how these shadows don’t allow me to grow and transform. Karen has such knowledge and wisdom, and so generously created a safe container where I felt heard, seen, and held throughout the program.
Marina
I have been living in a survival mode of circular thinking. For so long, I have been disconnected from money, operating with a scarcity mindset. Karen taught me a new language. I am now empowered to take up the responsibility of creating change. The Money and Spirituality course helped me get clear on my intention, motivation, and needs, which I now can practice communicating. And, the reminder that our beliefs and habitual patterns are shaped from our early years was huge for me; we must have the awareness that they’re not our fault, but also that we have the responsibility to do something about them. I am practicing becoming my own Great Mother!
Sue

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Money & Spirituality: Integrating Spiritual and Material (Online)
2025-02-15 10:00 - 2025-03-08 12:00 (America/Chicago)
A Four-Week Online Course with Karen McAllister
February 15 & 22, March 1 & 8
Saturdays at 10am MT – 12 pm MT
Click here to see your timezone
This course is about healing the split between money and spirituality and integrating your vision and calling into your everyday work. Through this course, you will come to a place of peace, power, and care in your heart in your relationship with money.
It is about integrating the spiritual with the material, or the material with the spiritual, depending on where your journey begins.
What this means for you
Working with your relationship with money is more than just seeing your patterns and recurring behaviours around it.
Money is a nexus that is the doorway into greater integration. All of us have some sort of knot around money. By going into that knot, we can attend to all of these bigger things like the shadow, dreams, vision, values, priorities, and awakening.
We are inviting you to join us to release these complicated and layered knots around money and allow yourself to let go the dam of resistance, shame, guilt, superiority, privilege, and fear. To have the courage to look at your projections onto money and be on your way to a place of integration between the material and the spiritual.
We want you to be lighter, brighter and to give and attract the amount of money you need to manifest your purpose.

Do any of these knots sound like you?

Struggling with Authenticity:
You’re passionate about your work—be it as an artist, teacher, or healer—but find it hard to embrace money without feeling inauthentic. Is the notion of the “starving artist” really noble?

Elusive Money:
You might feel that money is always just out of reach, coming and going without establishing a real relationship with you. Do you find yourself waiting for a “Prince Charming” to rescue you financially, or believing that your worthy cause should automatically attract support?

Giving Too Much:
Are you overextending yourself—whether in your organization, relationships, or community? You might feel unseen or burnt out, with health and financial concerns needing attention.

Mixed Experiences of Wealth:
If you come from a background of privilege but still struggle financially, you may find yourself feeling conflicted about abundance. Your generosity might sometimes feel unrecognized or taken for granted.

Feeling Isolated:
If you’ve achieved financial success but still feel disconnected from the very people you wish to help, you might feel like an outsider in both spiritual and transformational spaces.

Navigating New Wealth:
If you’ve recently come into money without the tools to manage it effectively, you may feel overwhelmed. Fear of losing what you have could keep you from making heart-aligned decisions.

Sense of Not Enoughness:
You may feel overwhelmed with fear of losing money, even though you have enough. Fear of losing what you have could keep you from making decisions that are more in alignment with your heart and awakening.

Guilt and Trust Issues:
You might wrestle with feelings of guilt around money and find it difficult to trust yourself and others. The distance money creates can be challenging.

Transactional Mind-states:
Mainstream motivation comes with expectations of a transaction—”I will give you this if you give me that”—rather than embracing a more generous, open-hearted approach like Dāna practice.

We can undo these knots, together!

REGISTER

What are some of the main patterns that spiritual types have around money? Dissociation and overgiving are two examples.
Karen McAllister, Certified Money Coach and Board Chair of Clear Sky Meditation Centre, shares some of her insights in the main money patterns experienced by spiritual seekers, artists and those in the non-profit sector.
https://youtu.be/BwOnDegzXIw
What Previous Participants Have Said

I wanted to better understand myself with and around money. The benefits of this course? Take a closer look at your relationship with money. When, why, what, who, with money. Now I understand why I do what I do. The next step is taking action, and knowing when to take that action. I think everyone would benefit from looking into their money relationship, especially anyone saying money is evil, or “I don’t seem to have enough.”
Fred
​​Before Money and Spirituality, I was unhappy with money in my life but I didn’t know why. After the 4 weeks, I now know the direction I need to head in to change that. It is now clear how my childhood has been driving my financial decisions as an adult in his 30s. I didn’t realize how much inner healing still needed to be done, and addressing money brought those issues to light. I am excited to step more into my power. This class is perfect for the “odd balls” who never felt like they fit into society—artists, spiritual types, creatives, and healers—there’s nothing wrong with you or money itself. The view is the problem, and this class will help you see clearly.
Mike
​​I was living in total overwhelm and fear about addressing my debt issues. I was deferring almost completely to my partner in financial matters and did not know how to discuss my fears and concerns with him in a productive, generative manner. I did not have much understanding of how my past money trauma may be affecting me today. When I saw the course was being offered this year, it still scared me but I knew it was an important part of my work to do it. After taking Money and Spirituality, I am more empowered, positive, and hopeful, and my Warrior archetype is becoming activated. It’s an opportunity to transform unhelpful money habits in a supportive, non-judgmental community. It will help you realize that you are not alone, that money troubles come from past and present conditions and are not related to a personal deficiency. There are ways to understand a person’s interior money landscape, and steps one can take to heal it.
Jennifer
I was stuck in a backlog of taxes, missing day-to-day financial structures and education, and feeling scarcity around money. Understanding my archetype as well as my beliefs and behaviors around money through this course with Karen were a huge relief. I understand sufficiency and generosity better, which has made it easier for me to give and to receive. I also brought attention to my own abundance which shifted things and made me see how much I have to offer. I am amazed how big of an impact these seemingly little shifts have. I recommend this to friends; people who spend too much or have shopping addictions, people who struggle with purpose, people whose money and work are influenced by others too much, people who feel they can’t sustain their business. Free yourself from false beliefs about money, the learned and inherited behavior.
Maike
I want to do good in this world. This course has helped me to make business decisions knowing my voice is confident and kind. Learning with Karen gives the gift of a deeper understanding of how you can relate to money and awakening. We can all do it together.
Kerry
I have struggled with what vision I wish to have and invest money in, for my personal growth and for the future of others. I felt ignorant in regard to global economy and the notion of a positive future for me and others. The course with Karen forced me to grow up and see the reality of what I can really afford to have in my life, to go beyond the scarcity mind into more trusting and loving, to take care of my body and my mind and therefore be in service to others to do the same. There comes clarity of vision, understanding creative stress vs. emotional tension, and knowing the future can be positive if our mindset is right and we learn from leaders like Karen what can be if we do something about our life and take up our responsibility for our Earth. I needed inspiration to move out from a limbo I’ve created for myself. As far as I see, Karen offers one of the most evolved programs there is on the planet. It brings very conscious humans together to learn and ask really great questions.
Maya
I was in a fear state around money. I felt restrictive in my being and that I wasn’t capable of earning, receiving, or managing money. As a result of my work in the Money and Spirituality course, my income has been stable, I’m repaying my debts and have money in my savings! Karen helped me see the way that our society has programmed us to feel stressed around money—which is the complete antithesis to living in alignment with the universe. I now trust that the universe is supporting me, and that I have the tools and capabilities to manage my money. Instead of feeling like my spiritual life is hindering my ability to earn enough money, this course helped me get to a place where my ability to earn money is actively supporting my spiritual life. I’d especially recommend this course to spiritually-focused solopreneurs and anyone whose spiritual aspiration is the most important thing in their life.
Ava
What to Expect
The course structures itself according to Clear Sky’s Five Principles, which name the qualities of a supportive space for human flourishing. We apply these principles to help you come to a place of peace, ease and clarity around your relationship with money. This course falls under the Fourth Principle, which is, “Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy.” The course structure follows each of the other four principles.
Session #1: Honor your space.Metaphorically speaking, we open the door and take a look inside your financial room. For many of us, it is a room full of cobwebs, things not in their place, and dust bunnies running amok. The curtains are closed, and there is a stale, musty smell in the room. How did this room get this way? By applying principle #1, we honor your space, we face the mess and start cleaning it up. We start revisiting the past to see what was not acknowledged and owned around money in the family system and culture.
Session #2: Structure and routine are your friends.We look at the money habits that you currently have and write them all down. What do you need to let go of, and what new habits do you need to take on? How are you going to build them into your structure and routine? We will use the cue, routine and reward from “The Power of Habit” to help you work new routines around your money life. We will share all the apps, budget tools, and a ton of resources for you to guide you in finding the right tool for you around your finances.
Session #3: Communication shapes the space where we meet. We look at building gratitude and generosity practices to help you overcome the fear and scarcity mentality that takes root in our beings because it is the very water of capitalism that we swim in. A model that promotes a chronic sense of not-enoughness in the being. We will learn to become very mindful of the scarcity we feed ourselves and get really good at cutting these dialogues off skillfully and kindly, with fierce discernment.
Session #4: It’s easier with others. What are your relationships with money like with your spouse, your colleagues, and your friends? Do you end up feeling betrayed or tight around money with others, or do you stick your head in the sand and not take responsibility? We will study money and relationships through the lens of the eight money archetypes. Archetypes are powerful teachers and allies, since they inform us of where we need to grow.

I was suffering from chronic not-enough syndrome, and it was drowning out my reality. When I saw Karen’s Money and Spirituality course, my whole body was singing, “yes!” And, while the course’s primary focus appears to be money, it has opened so many other doors to personal healing. I now recognize that my relationship with money is just a reflection of my relationship with other things, everything being linked, so clearing up one space has an impact on others. I feel less anxious about money; I feel curious excitement for more openness; and I feel I can shift my relationship with money, power, and sex even further. Karen’s teaching on gratitude has become a strong spiritual practice for me, and in the way it has grounded me, I feel more ready to commit to generosity. I so enjoy Karen’s deeply rooted personal spirituality—it shines in her teachings and I know she walks her talk. It helps me take her and the material seriously. I trust her as a teacher.Thank you Karen.
Sally
I was feeling scared about selling my house, sad to be giving up the garden, and frustrated that I couldn’t find other people who would like to explore co-housing. Thanks to Karen and the Money and Spirituality group course, I am owning my choice, and trusting that the timing is right and all will unfold as it is meant to. I feel more trust in the opening up of new possibilities.
Debi
I was skint, and also in a passive, fatalistically desperate state of mind about it—things had reached an absolute nadir, and I’d thrown the towel in. Following the Money and Spirituality course, there is a shift in attitude. I’m focused and proactive. I’m holding the space, including sitting with the not-knowing, without the previous despair and cynicism. And, my next steps are setting up a conscious wellness business! I wanted to before, but I feel affirmed in it now. There is a greater sense of clarity and hope. Thank you.
Myriam
I was working too much, never had enough, feeling defeated by money and my future prospects; a total scarcity mindset. This class with Karen shone a light into the darkness. Her Money and Spirituality course provides empowerment, hope, community, and healing; things shifted almost immediately for me as a result of doing this work. I have a plan for repayment of debt, I am valuing myself more, and I have an understanding of my archetypes and how they impact my views and actions around money. Interestingly enough I have had an influx of requests for services and people are happily paying my raised rates. I think every person on the planet would benefit from taking this course.
Jenn
Money has always been a struggle. Now having taken the Money and Spirituality course, I am able to question my decisions, thoughts, and spending patterns through a different lens. If anyone is struggling with their relationship with money and their values and spiritual beliefs, then they should look at this course. I believe it is much like therapy. The individual has to want to take the course to deepen their understanding around their relationship with money in their spiritual life. There are many blind spots around money, and taking the course has the power to illuminate them.
Dana
Meet your Teacher

Karen McAllister
Karen has worked with clients to transform their money issues, helping them become more effective, professional, and satisfied with their financial situation, and growing a sense of abundance. She brings knowledge and experience of financial issues from the practical, behavioral, and emotional perspectives. Her real magic and superpowers come from studying with her spiritual teachers, Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, for over 20 years. Her teachers specialize in helping their students transcend their issues around money, sex, and power. And she is a beautiful example of the fruits of this work, known in Buddhist philosophy as the bodhisattva path.
Karen studied Economics in her degree and has been certified by Deborah Price of the The Money Coaching Institute as a Certified Money Coach, a Couples Money Coach, and a Business Archetype Coach. She studied with Lynne Twist from the Soul of Money Institute, including Mastering your Money and Transforming your Life, and Lynne’s Fundraising from the Heart program.
Further, Karen has made use of that training through her own role as a founding member at Clear Sky, which operates with a quadruple bottom line. Karen has been Board Chair since 2014 and is leader of Fund Development. Her passion for this arises out of her deep desire to awaken more fully and make the world a better place. She’s seen many amazing spiritual explorers and transformational change agents who want to make a difference yet don’t have the funds they need to truly fulfill their missions–despite the millions of dollars floating around in the economy. And she has also seen the other side. Many spiritual explorers with money who have tried to help others experience more abundance and feel that their efforts have been rejected; or their efforts to be generous have left them feeling taken advantage of or dismissed. Karen’s work is designed to change this.
Karen wants you to show up as an integrated and whole human being. She’ll help you direct and attract financial resources in meaningful ways, steering away from greed and fear and towards love, generosity, collaboration, and reciprocity.
Course Details

Location: Online (Zoom)
Dates: Feb 15 – March 8, 2025 (Saturdays)
4 x 2 hour sessions + 2 Individual 30 minute sessions
Time: 10am – 12 pm MT
Dana: $200CAD – $500CAD recommended range.
Please chat with us if you have concerns about the cost. Part of taking the money out of the shadow is stepping forward and having a pricing conversation with us.

This course is Dana based. We understand that your income might be effected due to COVID either negatively or positively. We do not want to turn away anyone and we are always looking for ways to help you cultivate your generosity practise. Because of this, we are giving you the opportunity to give the lower rate if you are earning less currently, or we encourage to give the higher rate if your business is actually more profitable due to COVID. Many people feel guilty because they are doing well. We encourage you to think about paying it forward.
There is also an opportunity to give to the scholarship fund, as another opportunity to practice a heart of openness and giving.

Working with Karen helped me understand that you need to have a vision and to know your values first, and then in that lens, we can start to work for money, save it, invest it. We have never had real conversations about our relationship to money! Until we understand and heal our thoughts/feelings/beliefs around money, we will continue to loop the same patterns, think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings and stay in the same financial situation. It is difficult to recognize these things within ourselves. Karen’s coaching helped me spot what to work on quicker, and more effectively. I haven’t found anything else like what she does.
Thank you Karen.
Serena
I had been feeling stress and a lack of safety around money, in an ongoing state of not feeling enoughness. After working with Karen in Money and Spirituality, I have vision on how to use my money to benefit the world, and know I want to work with people who share the same vision. This course is a great stepping stone for me to dive deeper into spirituality, opening up new chapter in my practice. Karen has helped me to begin unknotting the fears that are extremely intertwined with capitalism. I think everybody who has the motivation to free their unhealthy habits and patterns around money should take the course. You will realize you don’t live for money; you use money as a tool to create the life you desire!
Karen offered us deep insights on many levels and the generosity of her time, both inside and outside the sessions. She invested as much in the process as we did. The benefits that it brings are significant – on an interpersonal as well as financial level.
Trinh
I couldn’t find my blind spots which block me from seeing the root of my Money and Spirituality problems. This course give me more clarity and insight, particularly around the need to work internally on my first three chakras. If you want to educate yourself and make more conscious financial decisions, this course if for you.
Iris
I knew that I have money issues, but not what those issues were. I was confused, lost, and had a very scattered relationship to money—the thought of it led to fear and dissociation. In this course with Karen, I learnt that my approach to money is mostly from a victim and innocent archetype position, and that issues with money, life, and my business are connected with my relationship to my mother and father. This was groundbreaking for me. I understand which areas of my life I need to heal and work on, and I also see how these shadows don’t allow me to grow and transform. Karen has such knowledge and wisdom, and so generously created a safe container where I felt heard, seen, and held throughout the program.
Marina
I have been living in a survival mode of circular thinking. For so long, I have been disconnected from money, operating with a scarcity mindset. Karen taught me a new language. I am now empowered to take up the responsibility of creating change. The Money and Spirituality course helped me get clear on my intention, motivation, and needs, which I now can practice communicating. And, the reminder that our beliefs and habitual patterns are shaped from our early years was huge for me; we must have the awareness that they’re not our fault, but also that we have the responsibility to do something about them. I am practicing becoming my own Great Mother!
Sue

REGISTER

Meditation Circle: The Dance of Generosity, Reciprocity and Collaboration
2025-03-13 - 2025-04-03
The Dance of Generosity, Reciprocity and Collaboration
with Karen McAllister
In beginning your meditation journey, your orientation is all-important.
Generosity was often the first practice given by the Buddha to beginner practitioners.
Generosity is about opening our hearts to learn.
As we restart our meditation circle series, we decided to begin with generosity. What could be more fulfilling than living and engaging in life with generosity, reciprocity and collaboration?
Join Karen McAllister and community in this four week Meditation Circle series on joyful interaction and engagement with yourself and others.
Karen works with groups and individuals on abundance, generosity and healthy communication and collaboration. She will share the latest from her personal and professional explorations on the topic.
March 13th – April 3rd
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7:30-8:30 pm MST
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Excited? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

About these Community Meditation Classes
These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice both on and off the cushion.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:30-8:30pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This series, the Dance of Generosity, Reciprocity and Collaboration, runs from Thursday, March 13th – April 3rd and is lead by Karen McAllister.
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 Michelle via email or phone:
michelle@clearskycenter.org | (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

“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.
Attend In-Person Attend Online
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 In-Person Attend Online

Dharma in the Stars: Integrating Saturn
2025-03-21 17:00 - 2025-03-23 15:00 (America/Edmonton)
Dharma in the Stars: Integrating Saturn
Online or In-Person | March 21-23, 2025
“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
As spiritual explorers, we want breakthroughs. We want liberation, freedom, and the ability to manifest our most profound vision for this lifetime. And ironically, the only way to bring these spiritual aspirations to fruition—and to break away from our timeworn, “stuck” patterns—is to embrace discipline, which builds the supporting structures for breakthrough. Astrologically, this means working with Saturn. Join Catherine Sensei, a wisdom teacher who has developed AstroDharma as a tool for transformation, in a weekend ripe for life-altering insights.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

As spiritual explorers, we can lean on the idealized notion of being a “free spirit.” This aspiration can lead to chafing around boundaries and authority, two of the hallmarks of Saturn. It’s easy to project these qualities onto someone or something else, as our disowned shadow. Integrating these qualities in ourselves is key to true spiritual growth. Drawing on AstroDharma as a resource can help us get there.
Historically, Saturn was associated with the Grim Reaper or Father Time, and it’s still known as the Lord of Karma. Wherever we have Saturn in our natal astrological chart, we are likely to experience restrictions or obstacles. Integrating our Saturn involves learning to dismantle these constraints, and upcycling the resources thereby acquired as foundations upon which to build the rest of our lives. In this way, we begin to participate in the conscious shaping of our karma.
The planet Saturn is the doorway to working consciously with more transpersonal and universal energies. After all, it is the gatekeeper from the personal inner planets to the transpersonal or generational outer planets. In AstroDharma, the outer planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—offer the transformative energy we need for breakthroughs, through their mighty forces of revolution, dissolution, and destruction, respectively. Accessing and working consciously with these powerful energies requires discipline and self-mastery: in other words, integration (vs. projection) of Saturn. An untrained, undisciplined warrior cannot navigate these stormy forces of change. Instead, karmic tempests repeatedly knock us sideways. Saturn’s authority and responsibility are the keys to breaking through the locks of our conditioned karma to our greater potential—and rising to the challenge of our total transformation.

This course for you if:

You’d like to study an astrological Dharmic framework for spiritual understanding with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You’d like to explore where you fall subject to projections—those aspects of yourself which have been forced into the unconscious, thus cast onto others—and learn to own them as a more integrated human being.
You’d like to transform challenges in your life by leveraging unseen strengths and talents.
You’d like greater clues into the particular shapings of gestating in your mother’s womb, and how your womb experience is impacting your life.
You’d like insights into how you can best connect with awakening states of unity.
You want to understand the patterns of others, as well as your own, to be a more skilled and compassionate being in the world.

In other words, we must integrate Saturn to become what we truly want to be.
In AstroDharma, we refer to our North Node as our “Dharma,” our Dharmic path. Learning to manifest our North Node is the most challenging path we can undertake because it involves swimming upstream against the heavy current of our South Node’s familiar and habitual Karma. However, we cannot work with our North Node, our true potential, unless we work with Saturn.
Mastery requires incredible discipline. An Olympic figure skater lands that quadruple axle on the ice because they’ve invested thousands of training hours towards achieving this potential.
Over the course, we will show you how to examine your natal chart, and look at participants’ charts together, focusing on Saturn, its ruler, Capricorn, and the associated 10th house. We also encourage you to bring burning questions arising from your life—particularly related to challenges around blocks and authority themes—so we can study how they show up in your chart astrolodharmically. Think about specific questions which will be of particular benefit to you, and which will help you towards being of benefit to others.
For those attending in person, Catherine Sensei will lead us in somatic AstroDharma mandalas to embody our Saturn together. These mandalas can be a compelling, visceral experience.

“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
What You’ll Learn:

A review of AstroDharma and how it is unique.
How to examine and map your own astrological natal chart’s placements, particularly Saturn, its ruler, Capricorn, and the related 10th house.
What happens with Saturn, Capricorn, and the 10th house? Why are they considered difficult? How can we access their potential wisdom and mastery?
Tools for recognizing and working with reality as it is, mapping karma and potential.
How to work with obstacles, authority, and discipline, toward the growth of your greater potential.

About AstroDharma
“AstroDharma” is what Catherine Pawasarat Sensei calls her unique synthesis of Buddhist teachings on spiritual awakening (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, better-integrated lives. Furthermore, we can also more deeply understand the patterns of those around us, and support the potential in others, which is key to Buddhist practitioners’ bodhisattva vow.
Saturn relates to what we’d like to manifest in the world, the areas of life we’d like to master and teach to others. It’s a rare and significant achievement to integrate both external authority and our inner tyrant into self-discipline and skilled judgment. Working with our Saturn, over time and with conscious effort, we gradually learn to take responsibility for shaping our own karma. This is easier said than done.

Meet the Teacher – Catherine Sensei

Catherine Pawasarat
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.
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.
https://youtu.be/mVLtG-aYkNw?si=YP46RrO-gEuCKJaX
Course Details
Time and Location
This weekend retreat will be led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. This course is offered online or in-person.
Schedule / Class Times: For onsite retreatants, please arrive in good time for orientation at 5 pm Mountain Time on the Friday. The first class will be at 7 pm Mountain Time. The retreat will formally end at 3 pm Mountain Time on the Sunday. 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 $170 CAD.
Keen practitioner pricing: 5% savings on program fees available until February 14, 2025.
Important: The last day to register is one week prior to the retreat start date. Please register early.
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).

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

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.

Locally-grown organic food

Supportive meditation guidance

Stunning bedroom views
Bonus Gift for Course Participants
Online AstroDharma Course INCLUDED
Catherine Sensei also offers an online Intro to AstroDharma course which you will be able to access at the end of this course. This will help you continue your studies.
Access to the self-study course is available upon request for participants who complete the retreat.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

“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
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.
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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

Community Meditation Night: On the Quest for Clear Minds
2025-04-10 19:30 - 2025-05-01 20:30 (America/Edmonton)
Community Meditation Night
“The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
-Namgyal Rinpoche
Join us for Thursday night online drop-in meditations.
These 60-minute classes are at 7:30pm MT and include a breathing meditation followed by an opportunity for Q&A to ask about how to support your meditation practice.
These classes are open to those who have already attended a class or retreat with us. If you’re new, we invite you to join our next Meditation Circle series.

Join In-Person

Join Online

it’s Easier with Others
Whether you’re new to meditation and looking for guidance or a long-time meditator seeking the support of community, these classes will help you build a strong, enriching and consistent practice.

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Join Online

Program Schedule
Classes are offered every Thursday at 7pm MT except the dates shown below.
There are no Classes on the Following Dates:

March 13th (Meditation Circle)
March 20th (Meditation Circle)
March 27th (Meditation Circle)
April 3rd (Meditation Circle)

June 12th (Vipassana Retreat)
June 19th (Vipassana Retreat)

July 10th (As the Spirit Moves Retreat)

August 21st (Clear Sky Closed for a Dharma Trip)
August 28th (Clear Sky Closed for a Dharma Trip)
September 4th (Clear Sky Closed for a Dharma Trip)
September 11th (Clear Sky Closed for a Dharma Trip)
September 18th (Clear Sky Closed for a Dharma Trip)

October 30th (Dharma & Sex Retreat)

Meet the Teachers

Karen McAllister

Michelle Heinz

Duncan Cryle

Dean Nicholson

Maureen Smith

Ava MacLean

Join In-Person

Join Online

Cost
Dāna:
These classes 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 these classes, 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.
For more information on dāna click here.

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 space for awakening in our modern world.
As a charitable organization, we strive to adhere with our quadruple bottom line of being Spiritually, Environmentally, Socially & Financially generative for our planet and all its inhabitants.

“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.

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Joy! Fuel for Awakening (Online)
2025-04-13 09:30 - 2025-05-04 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
Joy! Fuel for Awakening Four-Week Online Course
“If you want to live a life of joy, live as if you are on a roller coaster. Ride the dragon of sheer awe and ongoing question, rather than the merry-go-round of safety and fixed answers.”
—Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Sensei Pawasarat (“The Mystical Life: Right View” webinars)
The spiritual path is the hardest—yet most worthwhile—path one can undertake. To walk the path and meet our challenges, we need serious sustenance. Joy is a vital treasure that can feed us and put the air under our wings.
In what can be seen as a dark time for our whole planet, joy is vital to cultivate for ourselves and for each other, in our aspiration to benefit all beings. This online course with teacher Catherine Pawasarat Sensei throws open the door to joy, and revitalizes it as a resource for the journey of awakening.
April 13 – May 4, 2025
Sunday morning online classes 9:30-11:00am MT

Registration

focus area
Buddhism
Psychology
practice
Course & Optional
Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Sundays from 9:30-11am MT
format
In-Person or
Online
Fueling our Awakening
What’s the seeming catch-phrase of our 21st century? “I’m so busy!” Between juggling a million balls, and everything going on in our world today, many of us struggle giving ourselves permission to take the time to nurture joy.
On top of what seems like a faster and busier pace of life, it’s a common experience to feel inundated with bad news and strife. It seems most people these days have some experience of chronic anxiety or depression; around the globe, people are struggling.
Unfortunately, what may commonly happen with this struggle is inaction—sitting on the couch, watching videos, and diving deeper into despair and fear. But sitting on the couch isn’t going to make anything better. The same old patterns won’t work. True self-care is much deeper.
The good news is that joy is ever-present as an antidote to suffering. Joy is a matter of choice.
So what is the joy that you can choose, create, nourish? How do you choose joy?
With utmost delight, we invite you to embark on this adventure together in a 4-week course on bliss, and discover how to cultivate joy as that universal antidote to suffering.

Register

“In 10 years I have NOT missed a course with master teachers Qapel and Sensei! Every class reflects the light of oneness in prisms of direction and understanding and thus a lighter load to carry in the relative world and a lightness of being. If one aspires to be a bodhisattva and to benefit all beings, this one recommends the next one.”
Brendan R.
Dive into the Joyful Mystery
Here at Clear Sky, we have a lot of fun. Our lineage, through Namgyal Rinpoche’s empowerment, offers Buddhist insights on joy and bliss, which go back centuries and millennia—and our lineage is all about expansion, exploration, and the cutting edge. These online classes weave the traditional and the modern together, for a grounded, reliable, kickass take on nourishing your well-being and enlightenment.
Learning with a master meditation teacher about joy is priceless. So is communing in a community to learn about deepening and expanding our joy, collaboratively. We don’t necessarily need to be with others for our joy, but it can be more fun with others—and often, others have thought of ways of having fun that we would never have thought of. You might even learn to stop being embarrassed about something that gives you joy, and lean all the way into it. Engaging in the study and practice of joy together will create the space for something totally new in one’s own life.
It’s an ode to joy!

Course Schedule
Sundays, April 13 – May 4, 2025
Class Times (Mountain Time)

Sunday, April 13 – 9:30-11am
Sunday, April 20 – 9:30-11am
Sunday, April 27 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday May 3-4 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 minutes)

*Daily schedule is subject to minor changes closer to the course date.
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 3-4
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be an optional at home Flash Retreat (May 3-4). 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 session: 9:30am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon session: 2:30pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

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

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“The teachers have brought together ancient teachings with scientific findings that prove how and why Dharma teachings radically improve life, reduce pain and increase global peace. It doesn’t matter what you believe, you will embody a healthy new way of being. Because of their vast collective wisdom, you leave their presence radically altered for the betterment of humanity.”
Evangelos D.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
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. However, 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.
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 Online 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, the costs of setting up good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online can be surprising.
Our admin fee changes based on the date of registration.
Register four + weeks prior: $80Register two to four weeks prior: $100Register 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

Integrating Mindfulness Spring 2025: Tools for Holistic Living (In-Person or Online)
2025-04-19 15:00 - 2025-05-17 17:00 (America/Denver)
The Integrating Mindfulness course has been described as one of the most transformative experiences of many people’s lives.
It has helped individuals cultivate greater awareness and compassion while providing practical tools for real-world integration of mindfulness into life and work. This is not just another mindfulness course—it is a groundbreaking approach to creating lasting transformation.
This course is an invitation to those seeking deeper meaning, a fuller embrace of life, and a practice that nourishes both their inner world and their connections to the community around them.
NOTE: This course can be attended online or in-person at Clear Sky.

Attend Online (Register Here)

focus area
Meditation
& Daily Life
practice
Interactive
Workshop
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
April 19, 26 and May 10, 17
3-5pm MT; 2-4 pm PST
format
Online
Why integrating mindfulness?
In a world that feels increasingly uncertain, many of us struggle with pressures and distractions that pull us away from our center. Even with a meditation or mindfulness practice, you may feel disconnected or that your efforts aren’t bridging the gap between your intentions and your daily challenges.
This course is your sanctuary—a refuge to breathe deeply, reflect intentionally, and reconnect with what truly matters. Together, we create a supportive space for you to flourish, offering tools and practices to integrate mindfulness into every facet of your life.
Our unique approach addresses not only your inner world but also the external environments, relationships, and systems that influence your well-being.
We see you, and we walk this path with you.
A holistic approach
Integrating Mindfulness addresses the fullness of life—our habits, our relationships, our environments, and our deepest aspirations.
Unlike other mindfulness or personal development programs, we use a threefold approach: cultivating mindfulness, crafting a supportive container, and powerfully integrating mindfulness into all aspects of life and work.
This synergy ensures that participants experience profound, tangible transformation.
Through this course, you will:

Strengthen your mindfulness or meditation practice to bring more calm, clarity, and presence to your days.
Build meaningful connections that inspire and uplift you.
Transform your environment and routines into a sanctuary of growth and intention.
Create lasting change by addressing areas that drain your energy or hold you back.

We work with heart-centered guides and a community of like-minded individuals, fostering a circle of belonging that nurtures transformation.
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
Previous
Next

Attend Online (Register Here)

What’s inside the course?
Our four-week journey is rooted in Clear Sky Retreat Center’s Five Principles, offering a framework to create a mindful container for growth. These principles are:

Honor Your Space: Transform your surroundings into a supportive and nurturing environment.
Structure and routine: Develop rituals that ground and stabilize you through life’s ebbs and flows.
Communication: Deepen your connections by cultivating authentic and compassionate dialogue.
Cleaning Up Big Areas: Reclaim your energy by addressing unresolved challenges in key areas of your life.
It’s Easier with Others: Community and transforming our relationships with others.

Each week builds on the last, inviting you to:

Create space for growth.
Transform habits with intention.
Quiet the monkey mind and invite clarity.
Free energy by resolving areas where you feel stuck.
Integrate mindfulness into lasting, transformative tools.
Strengthen your sense of belonging and connection.

This course is a unique synthesis of practical tools and profound awareness practices, designed to address the whole of your life.
Who is this course for?
This course is for those ready to step into their wholeness:

To deepen their mindfulness practice.
To navigate life’s challenges with grace and ease.
To feel profoundly connected to themselves and others.
To embrace awareness as a catalyst for sustainable, heart-centered change.

Whether you join online or in person, this course meets you where you are and provides flexibility and tools to support and ignite your personal path and journey.

What Previous Students are Saying
I was hesitant to commit 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
Karen McAllister brings a wealth of wisdom as Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development. She founded The Mindful Money Coach and has helped hundreds of people better integrate and align their spiritual path and relationship with money. Her passion lies in nurturing spaces, structure, and communication to support awakening in everyday life. With her decades of spiritual leadership, Karen gently guides participants to uncover their innate wisdom and clarity.
Duncan Cryle
Duncan Cryle is a co-founding member of Clear Sky Center, Dharma teacher, and certified mindfulness instructor. He blends years of co-creating Clear Sky’s conscious community and dynamic team, with an international executive career. He has created and run mindfulness programs at major companies, including one of the creators of the IBM mindfulness community. Duncan’s compassionate and holistic approach invites participants to weave spiritual growth seamlessly into their lives, making profound insights accessible and transformative.

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
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. 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. 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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ready to transform?
Mindfulness is not just a practice; it’s a way of being that illuminates the path to wholeness and connection. This course offers a nurturing container where you can pause, reflect, and embrace the beauty of your journey.
This course stands apart because it combines mindfulness with real-world integration, creating a path for sustainable transformation.
Join us for Integrating Mindfulness, and together, we will uncover the power of awareness to create a life filled with intention, compassion, and deep fulfillment.

Attend Online (Register Here)

LEARN more about clear sky’s five principles
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

Meditation Circle: Sīla - Bringing Relief and Coolness for the Mind
2025-05-08 - 2025-05-29
Meditation Circle: Sīla – Bringing Relief and Coolness for the Mind
with Maureen Smith
What could be more refreshing than Sīla – the feeling you get when you come across a tall shady Aspen tree on a scorching hot summer day?
Along the path of your meditation journey there are moments when we find ourselves as if walking across burning hot sand, bare foot. As we apply ourselves to our practice- again and again, we begin to discover moments of coolness and relief. We come to know that we can navigate towards the shade and like a salve, it brings relief. Come, get refreshed with us as we explore Sīla, coolness for the mind!
Maureen is a senior practitioner in our lineage, which in light of our topic, makes her very cool ; )
She is the founder of Alive Mindfully, certified with MBSR and will share the latest from her personal and professional explorations on the topic.
May 8th – May 29th
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7:30-8:30 pm MST
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Excited? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

About these Community Meditation Classes
These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice both on and off the cushion.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:30-8:30pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This series, Sīla – Bringing Relief and Coolness for the Mind, runs from Thursday, May 8th – May 29th 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 Michelle via email or phone:
michelle@clearskycenter.org | (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

“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.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

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 In-Person

Attend Online

Come to Your Senses: A Spring Renewal Retreat
2025-05-30 17:00 - 2025-06-01 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 night, three 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.

REGISTER NOW

Course Details
A weekend residential retreat at Clear Sky Meditation Center (click here for details)
What you can expect
This weekend 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 Meditation Foundations. We are offering Come to Your Senses, a weekend 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 Center.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 weekend 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.

Dean Nicholson
Dean is a psychotherapist, educator and meditation practitioner. He has a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology and over 35 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.

Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road
Date: May 30 -June 1, 2025
Time: 5:00pm Friday -5:00pm Sunday MT
Cost: Premium Private Cabin – $576, Private Cabin – $406, Shared Room – $356

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.

Vipassanā Meditation Retreat
2025-06-13 - 2025-06-22
“Our problems are noisy, but our breakthroughs are quiet. All great mystics are born of solitude and silence.”
-Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Many first-time meditators choose Vipassanā for their first retreat.
This practice is ideal for those new to meditation because it introduces you to the foundations needed to build a strong meditation practice.
Regardless of one’s experience level, this practice is a doorway to profound insight and realization.
Join Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in an eight-day Vipassana meditation retreat, where we will practice a balanced meditative approach using the foundations of mindfulness from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei | June 13-22nd, 2025
Registration Deadline: May 30th in person, June 6th online
Early Bird Ends: April 13th in person, April 20th online!
We recommend in-person retreats as the best way to get the most out of your experience. That said, we recognize that travel is inhibitive for some people and are offering an online option to people living outside of Western Canada.

Registration (In-Person)

Registration (Online)

focus area
Buddhist Foundations
practice
Vipassana
(Insight)
Duration
Nine Days
Skill Level
All
format
In-Person & Online
A Life Changing Experience
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 satipatthana sutta, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice. This is priceless.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.

Register for In-Person

Register for Online

“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.
Eight Day Meditation Retreat
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 Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, or Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness. It is an incredibly powerful methodology. In it, the Buddha describes four foundations 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.

Schedule
For those traveling short distances, please arrive by 3pm on June 13th. 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 with Teacher
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation led by a Senior Student
Departure:
Departures will begin on June 22nd, 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 minor changes closer to the course date.

Register (In-Person)

Register (Online)

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
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.

“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.

FAQs
About Dāna
Dana:
Registration fees cover food, accommodation and the technology needed to offer the retreat online. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
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.
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.
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.
Note: In the unlikely scenario that this retreat is cancelled, we recommend purchasing refundable travel fares.
Cannabis, Psychedelics and 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.
Early Bird & Registration Deadlines
IN-PERSON: Please register as early as possible so we can plan for the retreat. Save 10% on fees until April 13, 2025. Registration deadline for in-person retreatants is May 9th 2025.
ONLINE: We encourage early registration. Save $100 on the online fees until April 20, 2025. June 6th is the final online registration deadline.

Register for In-Person

Register for Online

As the Spirit Moves (In-Person and Online)
2025-07-11 17:00 - 2025-07-13 17:00 (America/Edmonton)
“When the training is for the rest of your life — and all future lifetimes — that’s when it gets really fruitful.”
-Catherine Sensei
Show up for teachings from Sensei and find out what she’ll teach. It will be eclectic and sure to inspire. In the spirit of Guru Yoga – unorganised, undetermined, unregulated. No seatbelts allowed.
July 11 – 13, 2025

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Guru Yoga
practice
Weekend
Duration
Advanced
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
As the Spirit Moves
Join Catherine Sensei 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 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.
Course Details
Time and Location
As the Spirit Moves will be led by Catherine Sensei 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

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
More About Sensei | 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

“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.

FAQs
About Dāna
Dana:
Registration fees cover food, accommodation and the technology needed to offer the retreat online. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
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.
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.
Note: In the unlikely scenario that this retreat is cancelled, we recommend purchasing refundable travel fares.
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.
Cannabis, Psychedelics and 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.

Attend In-Person (Coming Soon)

Attend Online (Coming Soon)

Meditation Circle: Kṣānti
2025-07-17 - 2025-08-07
Meditation Circle: Kṣānti – Building Resilience and Strength for Challenging Times
with Duncan Cryle

In this series we continue our exploration of the six paramis (perfections) in Mahāyāna, exploring Kșānti, or patience.
The path of meditation and spiritual growth is a long one, with many twists and turns. We can easily get knocked out of our own center by difficult situations.
Kșānti, or patience, is about developing a strong inner balance and resilience in ourselves so that we have the strength to persevere. It’s a vital resource to support us making the journey towards a heart of peace and compassion.
Note this is a standalone series and you don’t need to have come to the earlier ones.
Duncan is a senior practitioner in our lineage, with 35+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness. He is the Co-Executive Director for Clear Sky. He has also created and led global mindfulness programs at major corporations.
July 17th – August 7th
Online or In-Person at Clear SkyThursdays 7:30-8:30 pm MST
—
Excited? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.

About these Community Meditation Classes
These community classes at Clear Sky Center help you develop a stronger meditation practice both on and off the cushion.
Join us for Meditation Circle, Thursday nights (7:30-8:30pm MST) at Clear Sky Center.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
This series, runs from Thursday, July 17th – August 7th and is lead by Duncan Cryle.
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 Michelle via email or phone:
michelle@clearskycenter.org | (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

“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.
Attend In-Person Attend Online
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 In-Person Attend Online

Integrating Mindfulness Fall 2025: Tools for Holistic Living (In-Person or Online)
2025-10-11 10:00 - 2025-11-01 12:00 (America/Edmonton)
The Integrating Mindfulness course has been described as one of the most transformative experiences of many people’s lives.
It has helped individuals cultivate greater awareness and compassion while providing practical tools for real-world integration of mindfulness into life and work. This is not just another mindfulness course—it is a groundbreaking approach to creating lasting transformation.
This course is an invitation to those seeking deeper meaning, a fuller embrace of life, and a practice that nourishes both their inner world and their connections to the community around them.
NOTE: This course can be attended online or in-person at Clear Sky.

Attend Online (Register Here)

Attend In-Person (Register Here)

focus area
Meditation
& Daily Life
practice
Interactive
Workshop
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
October 11, 18, 25 & November 1, 2025
10am-12pm MT; 9-11am PST; 6-8 pm CET
format
In-Person
or Online
Why integrating mindfulness?
In a world that feels increasingly uncertain, many of us struggle with pressures and distractions that pull us away from our center. Even with a meditation or mindfulness practice, you may feel disconnected or that your efforts aren’t bridging the gap between your intentions and your daily challenges.
This course is your sanctuary—a refuge to breathe deeply, reflect intentionally, and reconnect with what truly matters. Together, we create a supportive space for you to flourish, offering tools and practices to integrate mindfulness into every facet of your life.
Our unique approach addresses not only your inner world but also the external environments, relationships, and systems that influence your well-being.
We see you, and we walk this path with you.
A holistic approach
Integrating Mindfulness addresses the fullness of life—our habits, our relationships, our environments, and our deepest aspirations.
Unlike other mindfulness or personal development programs, we use a threefold approach: cultivating mindfulness, crafting a supportive container, and powerfully integrating mindfulness into all aspects of life and work.
This synergy ensures that participants experience profound, tangible transformation.
Through this course, you will:

Strengthen your mindfulness or meditation practice to bring more calm, clarity, and presence to your days.
Build meaningful connections that inspire and uplift you.
Transform your environment and routines into a sanctuary of growth and intention.
Create lasting change by addressing areas that drain your energy or hold you back.

We work with heart-centered guides and a community of like-minded individuals, fostering a circle of belonging that nurtures transformation.
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

Attend Online (Register Here)

Attend In-Person (Register Here)

What’s inside the course?
Our four-week journey is rooted in Clear Sky Retreat Center’s Five Principles, offering a framework to create a mindful container for growth. These principles are:

Honor Your Space: Transform your surroundings into a supportive and nurturing environment.
Structure and routine: Develop rituals that ground and stabilize you through life’s ebbs and flows.
Communication: Deepen your connections by cultivating authentic and compassionate dialogue.
Cleaning Up Big Areas: Reclaim your energy by addressing unresolved challenges in key areas of your life.
It’s Easier with Others: Community and transforming our relationships with others.

Each week builds on the last, inviting you to:

Create space for growth.
Transform habits with intention.
Quiet the monkey mind and invite clarity.
Free energy by resolving areas where you feel stuck.
Integrate mindfulness into lasting, transformative tools.
Strengthen your sense of belonging and connection.

This course is a unique synthesis of practical tools and profound awareness practices, designed to address the whole of your life.
Who is this course for?
This course is for those ready to step into their wholeness:

To deepen their mindfulness practice.
To navigate life’s challenges with grace and ease.
To feel profoundly connected to themselves and others.
To embrace awareness as a catalyst for sustainable, heart-centered change.

Whether you join online or in person, this course meets you where you are and provides flexibility and tools to support and ignite your personal path and journey.

What Previous Students are Saying
I was hesitant to commit 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
meet the teachers

Karen McAllister
Karen McAllister brings a wealth of wisdom as Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development. She founded The Mindful Money Coach and has helped hundreds of people better integrate and align their spiritual path and relationship with money. Her passion lies in nurturing spaces, structure, and communication to support awakening in everyday life. With her decades of spiritual leadership, Karen gently guides participants to uncover their innate wisdom and clarity.
Duncan Cryle
Duncan Cryle is a co-founding member of Clear Sky Center, Dharma teacher, and certified mindfulness instructor. He blends years of co-creating Clear Sky’s conscious community and dynamic team, with an international executive career. He has created and run mindfulness programs at major companies, including one of the creators of the IBM mindfulness community. Duncan’s compassionate and holistic approach invites participants to weave spiritual growth seamlessly into their lives, making profound insights accessible and transformative.

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
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. 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. 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
ready to transform?
Mindfulness is not just a practice; it’s a way of being that illuminates the path to wholeness and connection. This course offers a nurturing container where you can pause, reflect, and embrace the beauty of your journey.
This course stands apart because it combines mindfulness with real-world integration, creating a path for sustainable transformation.
Join us for Integrating Mindfulness, and together, we will uncover the power of awareness to create a life filled with intention, compassion, and deep fulfillment.

Attend Online (Register Here)

Attend In-Person (Register Here)

LEARN more about clear sky’s five principles
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

21st Century Tantra (Online)
2025-11-09 09:30 - 2025-11-30 11:00 (America/Edmonton)
21st Century Tantra
“Tantra means weaving, and it’s about the weaving of energies in our life. The human organism and all of the cosmos is operating on these waves, flows, particles of energy— it’s learning to be able to sense that, perceive that, visualize that, and work with that consciously.”
—Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Are your divine feminine and divine masculine on good speaking terms? This four-week course is for people who want to understand the role of Tantra in Vajrayana, the role of sexuality in spiritual practice, and the spiritual aspects of sexuality in daily life. We invite you to dive in with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, a lineage teacher who has been practicing Tantra nearly three decades, for this one-of-a-kind exploration of Tantra in 2025.
November 09 – November 30, 2025
Sunday morning online classes 9:30-11:00am MT

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focus area
Vajrayana
Buddhism
practice
Course & Optional
Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Sundays from 9:30-11am MT
format
In-Person or
Online
21st Century Tantra
Our modern moment calls for integration and balance in ourselves, our relationships, our communities, and our planet. For the benefit of all beings, our 21st-century labor is a labor of love, a labor for the reintegrated health of this entire Earth and cosmos. That’s what 21st-century Tantra is all about.
Tantra is many things. Similar to Daoism, it’s an interweaving of our inner feminine and inner masculine natures. This work can be done alone, with a tantric partner, or with tantric partners, and that choice is yours. The key is to actively explore the energies without being distracted by attachment, aversion, or confusion. In this four-week course, we’ll explore the roots of Tantra in what is now modern day Pakistan, Tantra’s adoption and evolution in Tibetan Buddhism, some of the challenges of translating Tantra to our contemporary cultures, and how we can approach the practice today.
Our cultural conditioning can make understanding and integrating Tantra practice challenging. This course is also for those who would like to understand and their Vajrayana practice with the conditioning around sexuality and relationship they received from the tradition they were raised in.

Registration Coming Soon

“In 10 years I have NOT missed a course with master teachers Qapel and Sensei! Every class reflects the light of oneness in prisms of direction and understanding and thus a lighter load to carry in the relative world and a lightness of being. If one aspires to be a bodhisattva and to benefit all beings, this one recommends the next one.”
Brendan R.
What You’ll Learn
Spiritual awakening is a series of questions, and in this course, we’ll explore a myriad of tantric questions together.
Twenty-first century living and practice: How does Tantra relate to my daily life in the contemporary world? What does Tantra mean for contemporary Vajrayana practitioners? How do we incorporate Tantra into our practice, and what different kinds of ways are there to do so?
Sexuality and Tantra: Do we get to have sex? Do we have to have sex? How does Tantra integrate with healthy sexuality? What does “healthy sexuality” mean?
Masculinity and Femininity: Are your divine feminine and divine masculine speaking to one another? What if you’re non-binary?
And, what does it take to be qualified to do this practice?
This Course if for you if:

You would like to get greater clarity about the nature of Tantra in historical and contemporary practice.
You would like to get clarity about the role of sexuality in spiritual practice.
You would like to integrate your sexuality more.
You would like to cultivate healthier relationships.
You would like to better understand the causes of sex scandals in Buddhism, and how we can empower ourselves and our Sanghas to better equip ourselves.
You would like to explore integration of the shadow around the first three chakras. – Checkout Money Sex Power free chapter/webpage
You’d like to grow stronger contact with the divine feminine and divine masculine.
You’d like to feel more comfortable with your non-binary sexuality in Buddhism’s heteronormative tradition.

Course Schedule
Class Times (Mountain Time)

Sunday, November 9 – 9:30-11am
Sunday, November 16 – 9:30-11am
Sunday, November 23 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday, November 29-30 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 minutes)

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

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: November 29-30
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be an optional at home Flash Retreat . 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 session: 9:30am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon session: 2:30pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

Meet the Teacher

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

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“The teachers have brought together ancient teachings with scientific findings that prove how and why Dharma teachings radically improve life, reduce pain and increase global peace. It doesn’t matter what you believe, you will embody a healthy new way of being. Because of their vast collective wisdom, you leave their presence radically altered for the betterment of humanity.”
Evangelos D.

FAQs
Dana and Pricing
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. However, 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.
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 Online 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, the costs of setting up good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online can be surprising.
Our admin fee changes based on the date of registration.
Register four + weeks prior: $80Register two to four weeks prior: $100Register 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.
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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!

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