“My body, every possession and all goodness, past, present and future, without remorse I dedicate to the well-being of the world.”
–Shantideva, in Bodhicaryavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva)
What is the Path or Way of the Bodhisattva? We will explore guidance on the Bodhisttva’s way of life via the historical teachings of Shantideva and the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. And, most imporantly, how does that historical path of the Bodhisattva look today, for us now, in the fourth turning of the wheel of Dharma?
Vajrayana
Buddhism
focus area
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
practice
Five
Weeks
Duration
All
Levels
Skill Level
Online or
In-Person
format
The Bodhisattva Vow:
“However innumerable beings are, I vow to met them with kindness and interest.
However inexhaustible the states of suffering are, I vow to touch them with patience and love.
However incomparable the mystery of being is, I vow to experience it fully.
From this moment forth, with wisdom and compassion as my lamp and staff, I dedicate all my life energy to the welfare of all beings.”
How does the Bodhisattva vow manifest in your life in the world?
Many of us are familiar with, or recite the Bodhisattva vow regularly. It may even be our lifelong vow. And yet, you may be asking yourself how does this profound vow translate to various complex situations in life?
Take heart, the way of the Bodhisattva is an actual path that beings have been journeying on for more than a millenia. Shantideva, a prince that gave up the throne, is one noble example. In this course we will learn from these experiences and apply them to our modern context.
Just like Shantideva in the 8th century, we are all asking how our practice can be meaningful when there’s so much suffering in the world. And there’s different variations of how we relate to the varying cultural and generational forms of struggle – like social justice, climate change and war. We can study the path of the Bodhisattva to help us skilfully answer these questions. They are still applicable today. And may be more applicable than ever.
Course Learning Goals:
- What is the historical path of the Bodhisattva (inspired by Shantideva from the 8th century).
- Do I wish to take such a vow, and if so, what does that actually mean?
- How can I approach the many forms of suffering in the world – war, environmental disaster, social injustice from the perspective of the Bodhisattva path?
- How does Bodhisattva activity translate to the various situations and contexts of modern life?
- Where does the Bodhisattva path sit within the Theravadin, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism?
Course Schedule
November 12th – December 10th, 2023
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time
- Sunday, November 12th – 9:30-11am Class
- Sunday, November 19th– 9:30-11am Class
- Sunday, November 26th – 9:30-11am Class
- Sunday, December 3rd – 9:30-11am Class
The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on four Sundays. There will be a live group class in the morning (9:30-11am MT). We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: December 8-10th
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (December 8-10th). This can be done at home, or together with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia. We highly recommend clearing your schedule over the weekend to focus on the retreat. Formal group sessions will also be held at these times:
- Flash Retreat morning group workshop time: 9:30-10:30am
- Flash Retreat afternoon group workshop time: 2:30-3:30pm
If you’d like to join the Flash Retreat from Clear Sky, please contact ava@clearskycenter.org.
Meet the Teachers
Doug Qapel Duncan
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humorous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be video streamed live at 9:00am MST. The recording will be available for one week after each class.
In addition to the classes there will be Q&A / participatory style workshop sessions at 3pm MST each Sunday. Finally the course ends with a Flash Retreat on June 3-4th, 2023.
What Does the Course Cost?
This course is offered based on the unique combination of 1) dāna and 2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee. Register four + weeks prior: $80 | Register two to four weeks prior: $100 | Register less than two weeks prior: $120.
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we are home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
FAQs
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.
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.
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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!
