An Online Course
February 12th – March 12th, 2023
Sundays: 9:00-10:30am MDT *Click here to see your timezone
* Recordings available for those who cannot attend live
* Includes: Sunday Afternoon Master Classes & a Weekend Home Retreat
“We don’t think full liberation is possible any more without an understanding and an integration of the stages”
–Qapel and Sensei
Whether or not you’ve heard of Integral Spirituality, perhaps you’re realizing that being in a good state isn’t enough. For compassionate action we also need to work on our stages of development for how we show up in the world.
Join us for Integral Spirituality II – a participatory workshop series to share our latest work mapping key areas of spiritual growth – and to work together co-creating the next iteration.
Applying Integral Theory to modern spiritual practice.
Once we understand the theory of Integral Spirituality – and the importance of developing our stages as well as our states – what next? How do we apply that directly in our lives in a way most relevant for meditators and spiritual seekers?
This four week interactive and participatory workshop is to share our explorations and co-creations for an invaluable integral spirituality map for Dharma practice and 21st century awakening. Both for our individual journeys, and for those of us who teach or help others, a map of the territory of spiritual growth reveals the work to be done for unfoldment.
In this course, we’ll share insightful and fascinating pieces of the maps we’ve created so far, and draw on group wisdom to further explore.
What are the key areas of growth for Dharma practitioners to develop outside of meditation? There are many fascinating areas to explore – to name but a few:
- Common stages of spiritual unfoldment
- Dana and relationship to money
- Integration of action, career and Dharma
- Interpersonal development and sexual relationship
- Level of maturity how we relate to Sangha
- Stages of growth of Sangha / community health
- Steps on the journey from guru to group guru
Picking some of these themes to work with, we’ll explore some of the typical stages of growth and development, and work together to enrich these. What are the patterns of growth in ourselves and others? How can we support others to grow? These are the kind of questions we’ll dig into together.
"Only death would have prevented me from attending this course, and even then, my consciousness would most likely have been eavesdropping from another realm/bardo." -Brendan R.
States and Stages: Why Study Integral Spirituality?
Meditation is essential – but there are parts of us, such as, how we show up with others, that aren’t touched by this alone. Meditation can help us get in a good state but doesn’t necessarily lead us to higher stages of maturity. Stages reflect hard-won growth of understanding, emotional and social range and depth, integration and functionality in the world, and incorporation and transformation of the shadow. Without transformative work that touches every part of our lives, our spiritual growth and our capacity for compassion is incomplete.
Only by working on our stages, in parallel to developing a clear radiant meditative state, can we truly blossom on our spiritual paths. This means learning how to recognize how stages are ingrained in the subtleties of our lives, bodies, language and behaviors, so that we can highlight the areas for development. Ultimately the stages work presented in integral spirituality helps us find the strength and wisdom we need to flourish in difficult times, to be of service to the world.
Integral spirituality is a comprehensive approach of transformation working with body, mind, spirit and shadow. Planet Dharma’s training path consisting of the 4 pillars of karma yoga/meditation-in-action, study (of Dharma, science, psychology, etc), meditation, and shadow – embodies this integral approach.
Qapel and Sensei’s 30+ combined years of training work with students shows the great power of this work of developing stages, both for deepening a student’s Dharma practice, as well as their functionality and flourishing in life.
Course Learning Goals
- Learn our latest working mapping 21st century awakening around key areas of transformation in your work, money, relationships, intimacy/sex, the shadow, and other areas of life.
- Work together to co-create a framework for integrating your meditation/spiritual practice with your everyday life.
- Deepen your knowledge of how to skilfully combine traditional wisdom teachings with the latest discoveries in science and psychology, to foster a well rounded spiritual practice suited for the complexities of the 21st century.
- Explore and share real-life examples of the integral path of spiritual training and learn how to place these on our evolving map
Case Study on States and Stages – Duncan Cryle
Much of my life I’ve been a nice guy on the surface, and aggressively competitive underneath. On one hand, I wouldn’t like to hold people accountable or get into conflict. And on the other hand I would roll over people to get what I wanted. Working with the Teachers and inside the melting pot of sangha at our meditation centre, I eventually hit a point where this ego strategy simply stopped working.
Despite having a strong meditation practice and experiencing clear meditative ‘states’ I had to finally witness these blind ‘stages’. I started to see the huge cost this was having to me and others. This was immensely healing as I began to see how these unseen ‘stage’ related patterns drove so many unhelpful and unhappy patterns in my life.
Video: The Fourth Turning (Integral Spirituality and Integral Buddhism)
Ken Wilber, the founder of integral theory, describes the ‘fourth turning of the wheel’ for the world’s great spiritual traditions, including Buddhism.
Wilber describes the need to make a new spirituality – one that transcends and includes the old traditions, while also adding new material. These new additions should be compatible with the old, but brings paths like Buddhism up to date in the modern and post-modern world.
"World class teachings from world class people! Doug and Catherine Sensei are the real deal and they ultimately want one thing for you - to guide you toward awakening with totality and intelligence." -Nishta M.
Meet Your Teachers
Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei 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
Qapel Doug Duncan
Course Details
Time and Location
Each of the four weekly classes in this online course will be video streamed live on Sundays from 9:00-10:30am 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 weekend Flash Retreat following the final Monday class.
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.
All Integral Teachings will be on Sundays – with a new format of two 90 minute sessions per week
- Sunday Feb 12th: Class 9-10:30am, Workshop 3-4:30pm MST
- Sunday Feb 19th: Class 9-10:30am, Workshop 3-4:30pmMST
- Sunday Feb 26th: Class 9-10:30am, Workshop 3-4:30pm MST
- Sunday March 5th: Class 9-10:30am, Workshop 3-4:30pm MST
The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on four Sundays. There will be a formal class in the morning (9-10:30am MT), followed by personal time for reflection and study and then a participatory workshop in the afternoon (3-4:30pm).
Flash Retreat
March 10-12, 2023
Flash Retreat Weekend: March 11-12th
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final weekend during the course will be a Flash Retreat (Saturday and Sunday, March 11-12th). This can be done at home, or together with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia.
During the flash retreat you will focus on reflection, investigation and study of the integral content. Formal class/workshop times will also be held at 9:30-10:30am, 11-12pm and 2-3pm Mountain Time.
NOTE: There is just one course registration which includes all classes, workshops and the flash retreat.
Questions about attending the Flash Retreat from Clear Sky? Contact Ava@clearskycenter.org.
Why We Study Integral Spirituality
We use and study integral theory and spirituality because it is our lineage’s mandate to take the teachings of awakening to new places.
Namgyal Rinpoche was known for incorporating diverse teachings of awakening, and we continue to do so – whether from traditional Buddhism, western mysteries, psychology, science and even business management.
We aim to co-create a universalist and 21st-century framework for international students of Dharma. Planet Dharma’s four pillars and five principles for bringing depth practice into every aspect of life – embodies a very integral approach. Our home meditation center, Clear Sky, is a living lab for integrating the spiritual path into every aspect of life: community, shadow work, and functionality. In short, integral spirituality is not a textbook to us, but something we are actively embodying every day.
Sangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.