An Online Course
October 12 – November 8, 2020
Mondays: 7:30pm-9:00pm MDT *Click here to see your timezone
Recordings available for those who cannot attend live
Includes 3 Master Classes on Sundays and a Flash Retreat November 6-8
For all meditators and spiritual practitioners, this course explores how we can more fully support the mind of awakening to manifest in our lives – for our own benefit, and for positive transformation in the world. Learn how to create space and strength to navigate the storms of the modern world.
Eye of the Storm
Do you struggle to keep momentum with your spiritual practice? It is easy to feel one’s energy get drained away and get lost in the struggles and distractions around us. More than ever we need a strong supportive environment to help us navigate the storms of the modern world, and to shine forth with clarity and compassionate minds to help the planet.
As human beings, our consciousness is built to awaken. Our awakening is supported by the universe – we just need to learn to recognize and tap into this deep support structure.
Based on 15 years of hosting deep retreat work, our home meditation center Clear Sky uses five tried and tested principles of creating a supportive container. These principles nurture and uncover this universal support for awakening. The same principles can be used throughout our lives – at home, at work, and on the road – to create space for our awakening to flourish.
For all meditators and spiritual practitioners, this course gives fundamental and creative ways to more fully support the mind of awakening to manifest in our lives – for our own benefit, and for positive transformation in the world.
Note: for past participants of Clear Sky’s Ignite Your Spiritual Life, this course will be a whole new approach to Clear Sky’s 5 principles, uncovering the depth philosophy and Dharma behind the principles.
Class 1 – Monday, October 12, 2020
In this class we introduce the idea of a “spiritual container” and how the universe supports the mind of awakening. Starting with the principle “honor your space” we explore the nature of space and spaciousness, and how this provides a ground for the awakened consciousness.
Class 2 – Monday, October 19, 2020
In this class we explore two principles: how consciously chosen structures and routines can support us, and the importance of communication. The universe is highly ordered – from atoms to chemistry to stars. Likewise our brains and our consciousness are highly ordered. There is a natural order to unfolding and awakening built into us. Similarly, everyone and everything in the universe is related and interpenetrating – in constant communication. If we can learn to be silent, to deeply listen, and to get out of the way, we can let this natural order carry us to “God”.
Class 3 – Monday, October 26, 2020
The fourth principle is that cleaning up and liberating big areas of our lives frees up energy. Energy is never lost and just changes form – but it can get stuck. Unconscious habits and shadow elements can weigh us down. Liberating these frees up enormous energy we can channel into our spiritual growth and compassionate service to the world. Learning to simplify and focus how we spend our precious energy keeps our minds spacious and not worn out from overload.
Class 4 – Monday, November 2, 2020
Class 4 explores the fifth principle “It’s easier with others”. Our culture often celebrates the great individual, but in reality almost everything is done in collaboration with others. Healthy and conscious community is becoming a lost art that we need to rediscover. Group guru – teams of awakened beings working together as a community to teach and train – will be the platform for future teachings of awakening.
Study and Meditation Electives
Master Classes – Three Sundays
There are weekly Master Classes (akin to online Q&A Office Hours) during this online course to support your deepening learning and practice, on the following dates at 3pm MST:
- Sun. Oct 18
- Sun. Oct 25
- Sun. Nov 1
You can elect to attend all three or individual dates.
Registration & Dana links for Master Classes will be accessible to you when you register for the course.
Flash Retreat
November 6 – November 8, 2020
Elect to deepen your practice via a Flash Retreat during the last weekend of this course. The retreat provides practitioners a valuable opportunity to integrate and seal the learnings from the online course, in a format well suited for our contemporary lives.
The retreat will include instructions, online check ins, and a Master Class on Sunday, August 30.
We encourage you to attend this weekend retreat at Clear Sky Centre, or together with your local sangha, or if those not available to you, in your home.
Registration and Dana links for the Flash Retreat will be accessible to you when you register for the course.
Sangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.
Meet Your Teachers
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre, BC, Canada.
Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humourous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state.
Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Duncan Sensei
Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be video streamed live at 7:30pm MST. The recording will be available for one week after each class.
Study and Meditation Opportunities in addition to the classes include Master Classes on three Sundays at 3pm MST, and a Flash Retreat on November 6-8, 2020.
What Does the Course Cost?
We offer this course on the basis of dāna, as well as an admin fee of $100 (USD). The admin is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
For our teachings itself – 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 our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us. We suggest a range between $120 and $500 for this four week course.
