Weekend Retreat
New Dates: Feb 18-20 2022
This weekend online course focuses on how to properly practice vajrayana methodologies of mantra and visualisation. Learn how to participate in Empowerments and how to use a sadhana. This weekend course and retreat includes a Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal empowerment. It is offered in-person at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, as well as online from your home.
*IMPORTANT*
- Due to travel restrictions, this retreat is available In-Person at Clear Sky or Online as a Home Retreat.
- Please consider flight insurance when booking for this retreat. We welcome you to spend additional nights at Clear Sky, especially if traveling from afar.
COVID-19 RESPONSE
Our main priority is to offer a retreat that is accessible and supports your health and safety.
We currently intend this retreat to be offered in person assuming the January COVID situation allows people to travel. We will keep reviewing this – if travel is still not possible we will offer online alternatives.
Understanding Arising Yoga Practice
In Vajrayana Buddhism, “Arising Yoga” is the practice of bringing together mantra and visualization to engage with various archetypes. These archetypes are represented by deities such as Vajrasattva (emotional purification), Chenrezi (compassion), Green Tara (mother nature principles), or Medicine Buddha (healing).
Initiations, empowerments, or wongkur (Tib. དབང་, wang) are considered the spring from which all blessings flow. More literally, these are ritual celebrations in which a specific teaching is transmitted from Teacher to student that enables the student to practice a new form of “Arising Yoga.” Part of this weekend online course focuses on how to properly participate in wongkur.
The other part of this course focuses on how to use a sādhana, which is a unique set of mantra and visualization instructions for each deity. Putting the wongkur and sādhana work together, this class will then focus on how to approach the foundation work of Vajrayana Buddhism, which can appear daunting to new students.
In addition to the teachings above, a very special wongkur empowerment will be given:
- Guru Rinpoche /Yeshe Tsogyal combined wongkur (Saturday Feb 5th 8am MST).
This weekend course is available online as well as in-person. Video recordings will also be available for one week after each class.
Meet the Teachers
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Doug Qapel Duncan
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, 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.
Course Details
Time and Location
Important: The dates for this retreat have changed. Originally scheduled for Feb 4-6th, the retreat dates are now Feb 18-20th, 2022. Please also review new class times below.
It is possible to attend the course in these ways:
- Online Retreat
- In-Person Retreat at Clear Sky
Each of the classes in this retreat will be held live at Clear Sky Meditation Centre. There will also be a video streamed live for online participants. The current class schedule is as follows.
- Friday Feb 18th: 7:30pm MST
- Saturday Feb 19th: 9am / 3pm / 7:30pm MST
- Sunday Feb 20th: 9am Empowerment / 3pm / 7:30pm MST
We have arranged class times to be comfortable for most time zones. However we understand that some class times might occur after midnight in some regions, so please contact us if that is the case for you, and we will provide a recording so you can catch up on that particular class.
What Does the Course Cost?
This course is offered based on the unique combination of 1) dāna and 2) a course/administrative fee. For online participants the Online Admin fee is $100 USD. Click here to learn more about dāna, and see below to learn more about the online admin fee. Accommodation and meal fees are separate if retreating at Clear Sky Center.
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, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online.
*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 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!c
Retreating in person at a retreat center is the best way to retreat – why?
- You can’t beat live interaction with the course Teachers. Being in the same space with clear beings ‘tunes’ you to more wholesome states.
- We create a welcoming environment and follow a supportive retreat schedule, based on decades of hosting successful retreats worldwide.
- Wholesome and delicious food is provided so you don’t have to spend time cooking for yourself.
- Breath-taking and restful, natural environment puts your body and mind at ease and resets your nervous system.
- Retreating at our center gets you out of your usual home environment and routines – they can be distracting.
- Retreating with others (your co-retreatants) is incredibly supportive and energy building.
And, we work hard to support the online retreat experience.
- We have been delivering online offerings since 2014, always optimizing your experience.
- You will be provided with recommendations for making your retreat supportive and generative at home, where there are usually many distractions.
- Classes are live-streamed with recordings available for a certain time.
- Group sits with your co-retreatants are streamed to support your practice routine.
- HD cameras providing high quality streamed video.
- Professional audio equipment providing you better sound.
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature. Founded by Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat, 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.
Here are some FAQs on how to get here, what to bring, and what to expect.
To help you get acquainted with us, some community members made this short video during our 2019 Buddhas in Action retreat. To learn more about us and our incredible community, click here!
FAQs
Dana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity, or Dāna. The retreat fee covers the cost of food and accommodation, whereas the Teachings are offered by generosity. Learn more about Dāna here.
Pricing: 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.
Arrival is Friday, February 4 at 4pm. We highly recommend arriving a few days earlier if you are traveling from abroad.
Departure is Sunday, February 6 after dinner.
Airport pickups can be booked when you register for the retreat. On the rare chance that this retreat is cancelled, we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance.
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.
Travel Restrictions, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation.
Our retreats comply with current BC Covid-19 Health Orders. Please refer to those provincial guidelines as well as the Canadian federal travel guidelines, especially if you are planning to travel to Clear Sky Center in person.