The Power of Sangha & Group Guru
“If you think your Sangha isn’t your Lama, you’ve missed the whole understanding of Sangha.” -Qapel
Sangha are the people working alongside you to wake up. Group Guru is the network of the Awakened Mind showing up in teams and conscious community. We can—and must—use each other to pull ourselves out of the mires of suffering. In this modern approach to sangha and group guru, we will look at the interplay between the collective, the individual and liberation.
November 10 – December 1st
Sundays at 9:30am MT
Online
focus area
Sangha &
Conscious Community
practice
Online Course &
Weekend Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Skill Level
All
Levels
format
Online or
In-Person
The Power of Sangha & Group Guru
The Buddha’s beloved student Ananda asked, it seems good friends are perhaps half of the path? And the Buddha responded, No, Ananda. Good friends are the whole path.
Is conscious community a preference, or a necessity? How do we develop powerful spiritual communities that bring us forward in a meaningful way? In this modern course we will explore just this, looking at the power of sangha and group guru.
There is interplay between the collective and the individual when it comes to liberation. Let’s explore it here, together.
We each get trapped in our own bias. Our lineage Teacher the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche said it is hard for Westerners to awaken because the self, the great individual, is such an important part of the game. In the West, we tend to avoid community, avoid surrendering to collective needs, or mistrust that we will be subsumed by ignorant ‘group think’.
And yet, sangha is something that nature knows intimately. Community is at the root of the great flourishings of humanity. Spiritual communities in the East have worked in community in the monastery setting; community is a hallmark of all time-tested spiritual tradition and practice. Today’s question is, how do we also honor the role and uniqueness of the individual, within a collective approach to awakening and healing?
Power of Sangha
Do you want to be part of thriving, conscious community that values people above profit? Does living and working with people who also value spiritual growth and awakening sound appealing? We think it’s wonderful, and beyond that, what humanity is destined for.
And, it’s not easy. We need seriously effective tools to help integrate our spiritual ideals with the real world. Everyday life—including people, and their personalities—are always human. They require grit.
Course Learning Goals
For what reason was Sangha (Spiritual Community) highlighted as one of the Triple Gems alongside the Buddha (Teachers of Awakening) and Dharma (The Teachings and Practices of Liberation)?
What are our common challenges and fears around collective and community today?
What are ways we can better contribute, grow and develop effective spiritual communities that we actually want to be a meaningful part of?
Recommended Reading
Course Schedule
November 10th – December 1st, 2024
With a new format: Morning (9:30am Class) Mountain Time
- Sunday, November 10 – 9:30-11am Class
- Sunday, November 17 – 9:30-11am Class
- Sunday, November 24 – 9:30-11am Class
- Flash Retreat*: Saturday & Sunday Nov 30-Dec 1 – 9:30am and 2:30pm
The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on Sundays with a Saturday-Sunday flash retreat on the fourth weekend. Class times are estimates and may change slightly.
We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
*Flash Retreat Weekend: Nov 30th-Dec 1st
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (Nov 30-Dec 1). This can be done at home, or 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. Group sessions will be held at 9:30am and 2:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, with sessions approximately 60-90 mins in duration.
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 co-created this course with Sensei prior to his passing on October 5th, 2024. Since his passing, we have witnessed the invaluable role that Sangha plays in supporting each other through challenging times. In honour of Qapel, we are choosing to move ahead with this course so that we may support each other more deeply and feel connecting to his teachings during this time.
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei 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 streamed live at 9:30-11am MST. We ask participants to attend live whenever possible. The recording of each class will be available for one week after each class. We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
The course culminates with a Flash Retreat on Nov 30-Dec1, 2024, with formal workshop times held at approx. 9:30-10:30am and 2:30-3:30pm Mountain Time on Saturday and Sunday.
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.
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!
