A Karma Yoga Retreat | August 9-24, 2019

Create an unshakeable spiritual practice in our busy modern world.

We all need to earn a living and deal with day-to-day pressures. We want to relate meaningfully with those around us, but we often feel unfulfilled. Work just leaves us feeling worn out and slightly empty. And sometimes the space between self and other feels like a tremendous gap.

When we’re in the middle of modern samsaric busy-ness, the spiritual life can feel out of reach. The wonderful news is that we can use contemporary spiritual practices at work and in relationship to feel fulfilled while doing so. These different parts of our life can support one another in beautiful ways, leading to great feelings of meaningfulness, balance, and connection.

This retreat gives you the building blocks to apply awareness, compassion, wisdom, and strength to each moment. The result is greater fulfillment amid daily life and meaningful connection with others and the world around you.

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Why Practice Karma Yoga?

We’ve spent the last 14 years adapting this tradition of awakening through action to our modern lives, at home, in offices, in conversations, at our desks, in meetings, in bed and in the field. This profoundly practical application can help you find greater joy, fulfillment, and calm amidst your busy daily life.

By learning the principles of karma yoga (awakening through action), you can apply awareness and wisdom to everything you do. Cultivating this practice allows you to transform your work, home and city life into a connective field of monastic or yogic practice. Your home becomes your monastery, while your co-workers become your fellow yogis and yoginis.

Our experience shows that blending study, meditation, and what we call “awakening through action”, profoundly integrates spiritual practice with day-to-day demands.

“Karma yoga has made me aware of how to streamline my energy to a sustainable, smooth level of work. It has given me invaluable practice on focusing my attention on the task at hand.” – Lisa Feder

Please note that this retreat and Clear Sky welcome people of all religious backgrounds and beliefs. This retreat is also open to all experience levels.

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Meet the Teachers of this profound retreat

Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Center.

Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humourous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.

Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.

What is Karma Yoga?

We’ve received some questions about the practice of awakening through action or Karma Yoga. Here is a short video which dives deeper into what you can expect on this retreat.

Who are we?

To help you get acquainted with us, some community members made this short video during our 2017 Buddhas in Action retreat. To learn more about us and our incredible community, click here!

Daily Schedule

This is an active meditation retreat. There will be a combination of silent meditation and active exercises to help integrate your meditation into daily life. The exercises focus on body, speech (communication & feelings) and mind (your heart) and will be practiced in pairs and in groups. There will be a daily morning classes and evening meditation with Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat.

In order to focus on your meditative work, we ask that participants put away your cellphone, books and digital technologies for the duration of the retreat. That said, some speech exercises may invite you to use your cellphone or laptop as a way of practicing a wholesome relationship with technology.

Creating a strong discipline for your practice will make the retreat highly immersive, focused and profound.

Dāna

This course is offered by Doug & Catherine Sensei based on the ancient principle of generosity, or Dāna.  You may have come across this is 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 their joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match their time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy.

Location

Clear Sky is a 300-acre meditation cushion nestled in the Canadian Rocky mountains. We are 30 minutes from Cranbrook International airport in Cranbrook, B.C.

Fees

As a charitable organization, we strive to provide locally sourced organic meals and comfortable accommodations at an affordable price.  Fees vary depending on your accommodation choice and early bird pricing. You can find more information on the course registration page.

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