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Ignite Your Spiritual Life – Spring 2017

April 19, 2017 @ 6:00 pm - May 31, 2017 @ 7:30 pm UTC-6

This course has finished.

How the critical lost art of the spiritual container can make you feel more alive in every moment.

There are ways to feel fully alive and engaged, with enough space to reconnect more deeply with your heart, and with other people, even on the busiest days.

How? By learning how to live your everyday life more like you’re in a retreat. And no, we’re not talking about living in silence, or renouncing the world.

The magic of a retreat

Imagine moving in a space where you’re calm and bright enough to notice the beauty around you. Where, if something happens, you’ve got the energy and space to deal with it. Simple chores feel joyful. Imagine moving from task to task with ease, feeling like whatever happens, things are happening just as they should. Picture yourself being compassionate, joyful, and confident with other people.

This can be true for you when you’re at work, home, school, or you’re traveling the world.

However, you won’t be able to do that consistently unless you acknowledge what you’re missing.

The reality of our daily lives

You’d like to be feeling a sense of genuine, ongoing transformation. Yet somehow, you still see your habits strongly in place – holding you back – while your aspirations get buried in the busyness of life.

So, what isn’t working in your daily life? Why, even with a spiritual practice, and when you’re a good person trying to make a difference in the world, do you sometimes feel disheartened, stuck, or lost?

What’s missing? Attention to the outer supports you need

While the inner work is indeed essential, it could be that you’ve skipped over the importance of having the outer conditions to support you.

Once you set up these outer supports, you’ll have a better container for holding the energy, focus, and joy you need.

Outer support: The Five Principles of a good spiritual container

From years of running a retreat centre, and applying what we learn to our own lives, we’ve rediscovered five ancient principles that help create the right outer conditions that we’re talking about:

  1. Honor your space
  2. Structure and routine are your friends
  3. It’s easier with others
  4. Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy
  5. Conversations shape the space where we meet

These are the factors that have made Clear Sky work, as a place that wakes people up and supports their practice. And these same principles can transform and support our daily lives, too.

That’s why we created this course. Starting April 19th, we’ll share with you the insights and learning we’ve had from creating Clear Sky – a physical and virtual centre for awakening – in the form of these five simple, yet empowering principles that have actually been time-tested over centuries.

Try the quiz!

See how you’re doing in terms of the Five Principles, and get simple tips for using them to free up energy

 

A Short Video Introduction to the Course:

Like to hear more?

Learn more about the five principles in this 40-minute, edited recording from a live webinar, on March 29, 2017:

Ready to register? Click here now

 

“Learning about the five principles has been quite a twist. Although they seem like simple guidelines for a wholesome life, if deeply studied they can lead to quite a big positive transformation. I’ve recently realized how after the course I’ve been shaping my life around the five principles in every way.
My environment has changed, the way I organize my activities, my communication and trust in others … Applying those principles can hold love and clarity for even big groups, creating a genuine awakening field.”
Emmanuel Ponte

 

Further Information – Click to read more

Details of what we'll be teaching you.

Since this course is about establishing a consistent meditation practice (the inner) and getting your life (the outer) more in line with your spiritual aspirations, we’ve made each session a balance of this inner and outer work.

We start with a guided meditation or mindfulness practice to support a deepening daily reflective practice, and then give fresh practical tips for integrating it into your daily life.

Turning to the outer, each session then focuses on one key principle for creating what we call a “spiritual container.” The container is the outer supportive conditions you can set up in your life to support your inner practice, reconnect with your heart, and help you break through old patterns that are holding you back. (See our How it Works page for more information on the 5 key principles of a spiritual container)

Each session is lively and interactive, including breakout sessions for discussion in groups, sharing via the chat function, and time for Q&A. We offer home “play” exercises (we prefer this to home “work” as the exercises are designed to be exploratory and fun!) for trying outside of the weekly sessions to explore and integrate the topics.

Week 1:   Creating a supportive space for your growth

  • Three supports for being more mindful and present in daily life.
  • The missing element. Understand what a spiritual container is, why it’s often forgotten, and why it’s so important to achieving your goals.
  • Contacting that “aaahh” feeling that a well-created space can instantly create
  • Six key aspects for creating a space to support your growth.

Week 2 :  Transforming habit and making friends with structure

  • Fresh awareness - tools for getting out of auto-pilot mode.
  • Loosening and transforming unhelpful habits.
  • Consciously choosing structures and routines so that you’re free to explore.
  • Harnessing the power of ritual.

Week 3:   Quieting the monkey mind

  • Calming internal dialog and chatter.
  • Cleaning up draining conversations and speech patterns.
  • The power of forgiveness.
  • Establishing healthy and generative communication

Week 4:    Part 1: Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy

  • Identifying big areas in your life that drain your energy.
  • Beginning to ease the common drain and tension around money.
  • Exploring your vision and purpose.

Week 5:   Part 2: Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy

  • Working with distractions and overload.
  • Getting off the “hamster wheel”.
  • Developing a healthy relationship with time.
  • Learning to “do nothing” - the importance of making space to play.

Week 6:   The power of community

  • Meditations to strengthen kindness and compassion.
  • Embracing healthy relationships.
  • The power of community to support your growth.
  • Bringing it all together - how a  strong spiritual container is a launchpad for your growth.
The people who'll be teaching you

Your hosts for this course have all experienced life-changing growth and unfoldment through their involvement with Clear Sky and its founding teachers.  Between us, we bring years of studying and practicing in the lineage, of teaching and meditating around the world, and of governance and management of Clear Sky Centre.

Here, we’ve brought together the fruits of all our learning into the five principles, offered here for the first time publicly as an online course.

Main Hosts:


KarenKaren McAllister
 

After meeting our founding teachers in Japan, I managed the meditation centre there for many years while serving simultaneously as part of the Clear Sky Board. In 2003, I helped search for a site for Clear Sky, looking at around 30 properties until we found our current location in the magical Kootenays.

I'm now Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development. I'm passionate to be teaching the much-ignored principles of nurturing the factors - like honor your space, structure, and communication - that create the conditions we need to wake up more in daily life. I see how I learned and embodied these principles in my different roles at Clear Sky, as the centre went from self-starter to second-stage growth. This is what I call “the hands-on way of doing an MBA with a spiritual bottom line!”

In my free time, I love travelling, speaking Portuguese and reading history, architecture, and art books.

duncan-cryleDuncan Cryle

I'm the former Clear Sky Chair, a certified Mindfulness teacher, Dharma teacher, and an IBM Executive in Toronto.

Through 15 years of teaching meditation and mindfulness, alongside an active career working all over the world, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrated spiritual path.  With a Ph.D. in philosophy in my pocket, I was gung ho to join a monastery until I met my root teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat in Japan in 2001, who turned my views upside down and encouraged me to grow and contribute at the busy end of life!  

A founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m amazed at the power that working together in compassionate service has for enriching and widening spiritual growth.  Combined with a dynamic relationship and a challenging career, I have fun with a wide-ranging and holistic approach to spiritual growth.  The spiritual container is a key aspect to this and I’m delighted to teach and share this course.

All of that made me more energetic, active and with the will of exploring this big world. Not only that, but gave me the strength to transform my daily practice making it more consistent. The changes and insights keep coming up and the Sangha has a giant role in maintaining my spiritual growth.
I deeply thank the teachers Karen and Duncan for not giving up on guiding us through this wonderful path.
   Tamires Low
The course has introduced complementary concepts that supported me on constructing a more consistent and deep practice, which has contributed significantly for me to see the values that are really important to me, and also gave me strength to keep them and go ahead, no matter what the external circumstances may be.
I can only give thanks for having the opportunity of being part of this group. Deep gratitude for the teachers that offered the course, to the team that created it and to the Sangha that participated on the first group, for allowing ourselves to be together on this learning.
Ana Paula Ueti

Your Other Hosts:

Photo credit: Brian ClarksonMichelle Heinz

I began studying with the founding teachers and community of Clear Sky in 2003. With them I re-ignited that spark for life I'd been desperately missing and seeking.

I love plunging into things and that’s exactly what I did with Clear Sky. Visiting Clear Sky every summer, I started by developing the farm and land, and then joined the Board of Directors. I then moved from Japan to live at and run the centre for 8 years. I still thrive on connecting with and bringing all kinds of people and events to Clear Sky.

Now based in Nelson B.C., I'm part of a wakeful and innovative team. I help run a co-working space where I'm delighted to say that meditation, mindful collaboration and teamwork are an integral part of my work day. 

Fun for me includes punning with friends, finding new ways to eat sea buckthorn berries and getting outside whenever I can.

Photo credit: Brian ClarksonAndy Rogers

I first got interested in meditation through a school friend of mine who went on to become a monk in Thailand. I left the UK 20 years ago, ending up in Japan for several years where I met Clear Sky's founding teachers through one of their students - and a founding member of Clear Sky - John Munroe.

I've lived at Clear Sky for long periods since 2009 and also served as Treasurer and Board Member for five years. I now offer a weekly meditation and dharma class in nearby Kimberley.

Living or spending time at Clear Sky puts you in all kinds of roles. I've cooked for 30 people, presented at AGMs, written blogs and created budgets, pulled weeds and repaired fences. And I can now see clearly that where I thrived and where I've struggled can be directly related to each of our new principles in some way. Can't wait to share them with you!

I'm now Clear Sky's head copywriter and an active member of the Business Development team - the creators of this course! I love playing golf here in the picturesque Rockies, though the golf season is painfully short! When I'm not pounding the magnetic dartboard in the Clear Sky office, I also earn a living as a copywriter.

Maryline_HeadshotMaryline Fortier

I was introduced to Clear Sky through joining the Karma Yoga program (a 3-month service stay). I was instantly seduced by a new way of life - a way that my depth was seeking. I found a place, a community where people work together and accompany yogis like me in the awakening process.

There, I discovered what I'm passionate about: diving deeper inside, understanding what it is to be a wholesome, spiritual being - a being that is participating in the creation of an abundant life and that believes in the powerful ideal of service for the benefit of all. What an incredible journey!

Originally trained as a social work educator, my eight years of work with youth in schools have convinced me to find a better, deeper way to teach life skills to our next generation. I am now in a 3-year university course and I intend to start my own business in the fields of life skills and second-language teaching

Now, I am on the Clear Sky Sales and Business Development teams - and soon joining our Board of Directors - and my love for our offerings to the world is constantly increasing. I see how what we can provide to people is peaceful and loving states of mind. Working to support that? That's really a life worth living!

What's included

What's Included

By joining this course, you’ll get:

Green on orange tick       Six, 90-minute interactive live webinars covering the five principles, PLUS view access to recordings.

Green on orange tick       Exercises to give you an understanding of the principles of a spiritual container and how they affect your energy.

Green on orange tick       Reflections and meditations to help you stay grounded, calm, and centred.

Green on orange tick       The following tools and support:

Weekly meditations:

Guided meditations uploaded once a week during the course. This 15-minute offering is designed to help you quickly re-focus on the week’s principle between webinars, helping you apply it directly in your day and providing some welcome supportive structure.

Facebook Group

Join us and fellow participants in a private Facebook group focused on the principles. Providing you with an online community to support you between webinars was high on our list. Share about your insights, explorations, and discoveries and enjoy mutual support plus extra feedback from course teachers. We’ll also have fun practising and modeling for each other the 5th principle: discover how clear conscious communication creates a space for us to meet and share ideas.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Am I a good match for this course?

Are you open to growth and an honest look at your patterns with a heart for changing what isn’t working for you any more? This course could be for you. You should also know that we’re more casual than formal, more direct than politically correct or touchy feely. We hope that you’ll ask questions and engage with the material to get the most you can from the course.

Will you try to convert me to Buddhism?

Nope. These principles support your growth, whichever tradition or system you’re working with. And at the same time, we’d like you to know that we’ll be referencing or using wisdom from various sources, and will offer guided meditations and reflections as we go. We encourage you to explore anything you hear with an open heart and discerning mind, and take the opportunities to ask questions.

Do I need to have or start a meditation practice to do your course?

It helps if you have done some meditation. But don’t worry if you’ve never meditated, had difficulty establishing a consistent practice, or even if you feel you’re a “bad” meditator. This course is very much about giving you the support and understanding for an alive and regular meditative practice.

How practical is this course?

We’ll be looking at the practical, everyday areas of our lives that – when in better alignment with our inner aspirations – can support our path. So we’ll be inviting and helping you to take ongoing, practical action in your day-to-day life, including things like your work, family, and relationships with other people.

What interaction will I have with the instructors and other participants?

To enrich your learning, we encourage participants to engage and share with each other in the private Facebook group. Clear Sky’s 3rd principle is about finding and engaging with others on the path, and this course is one place to truly connect with others. We’ll also open space during the live sessions for questions and answers, and we welcome your engagement and questions.

Do you offer any more advanced level courses on this material?

This material is incredibly rich. We are developing deeper dives into each principle as well as material on applying the five principles at work, at home, and even at an organizational level for heart-centred groups and social enterprises. Look for future announcements via our emails and blogs.

What is the cancellation policy?

We’d love to offer refunds, yet because this series of webinars and the bonus offerings represent hours of dedicated work and we are offering it for a very low minimum offering, there is a zero-refund policy on this course. We encourage you to register with a clear mind and heart, and in a spirit of generosity.

 

Early Bird Bonus Webinar

Sign up by April 5th to attend a special pre-course webinar on Wednesday, April 12th on this key topic of how to create conditions conducive to your spiritual growth where we spend a third of our day – at work.

Wondering how to align your working time more closely with your inner goals, without turning your working space into a mini-monastery or feeling like the office weirdo?

Whether you have a lot or little control over your working environment or you work from a home office, this special webinar will give you practical tips on making it into a sacred container.

“The course had a big impact on me. It not only helped me to organize my life in different aspects, like the respect towards my personal living spaces or the way I relate to others and with time, I also understood the power meditation can have in my life and how it can contribute to making more assertive choices.
I understood the impact my feelings can have over me and how not letting myself be blindly led by them. Since I am in charge, everything I need for having an awakened life is within me, everything that needs to be done is to improve key attitudes and behaviors that exist in me.
I had a very strong empowering sensation of conscience expansion and  learned how to better deal with my emotions, specially my anxiety, throughout the meditation on spaciousness. Now, I understand I am a better person and for that I’m very grateful.”
Lemuel Simis

Cost of the Course

The course is offered on the basis of dāna.  If you are not familiar with dāna, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay-from-the-heart.” Dāna is a Sanskrit term that is translated as generosity in English. It’s radically different from the transactional way we normally interact in the world – where we give in order to get something back, either a service or thing. Instead, 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.

Equivalent, high-quality, and live courses we believe are likely to be offered for between $150 and $375 CAD.  We suggest that you offer something in this range.  An exercise we highly recommend is taking some time to check in with your heart on an amount that feels good. Find the amount that you feel balances and honors your aspiration for this course, the energy we are giving to deliver the course, and what is financially sustainable for you.

If you feel in an abundant and solid financial situation, feel free to offer more.  If you are struggling financially, you can offer less.  Since we do have expenses such as the hosting platform used for the classes, and we are investing significant amounts of our own time and experience, after much reflection we are setting a minimum amount of $90 CAD.

Why do you use dāna?heart-1394204_960_720

The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage, teachings have always been taught on the basis of dāna, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West.  Dāna is also a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism, which our planet would really benefit from. We all know there must be something better than capitalism or its hungry cousin, consumerism. We maintain that, together, we can offer a financial model that is based in life-affirming mutual support. Please join us in co-creating this promising economic alternative.

 

“With this course we learned how to strengthen our practice taking care of our meditation space, creating wholesome habits, exchanging and strengthening the practice with the support of the Sangha and so on. The outside is not separated from the inside. That is why taking care of the outside with attention, generosity and joy, we meet the clarity within us.”
Rita Chirata
“When I was making my list of aspirations and plans for 2017, I realized that I was structuring it from the five principles learned in the course “Outer Clarity.” The learnings served as a good medicine for doubts about how to lead transformations I want in my life. A valuable framework that allowed me to have the clarity and to better organize the change of some bad habits around disorganization, lack of discipline, judgments around the way people communicate, just to name a few.
All the principles have reinforced for me that it is necessary to water the outside garden very carefully, with attention and presence, so that the flowers of compassion and love can flourish inside and in my relations. Thank you, dear Karen, Duncan, and Sangha.”
LuanaLuana Messena

 

Click here to go back up the page and see Further Information about the course

 

Not sure? Fill out this online form and we’ll get back to you.

Details

Start:
April 19, 2017 @ 6:00 pm UTC-6
End:
May 31, 2017 @ 7:30 pm UTC-6
Event Category: