BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Clear Sky Meditation Centre - ECPv6.17.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Clear Sky Meditation Centre X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Clear Sky Meditation Centre REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20190310T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20191103T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20200308T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20201101T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20210314T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20211107T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20220313T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20221106T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20230312T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20231105T070000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Edmonton BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20200308T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20201101T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20210314T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20211107T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20220313T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20221106T080000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20200807T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20200821T140000 DTSTAMP:20250823T080917Z CREATED:20200717T175448Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250823T080917Z UID:8741-1596816000-1598018400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Event Template DESCRIPTION:Mastering the 16 Stages of Insight\nFind out for yourself why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching. Take advantage of Acariya Doug Duncan Sensei’s mastery of insight in this powerful and rare two-week insight meditation retreat. Your experience of your mind will never be the same. Held at our home retreat centre\, the model of innovative awakening in the 2000s\, Clear Sky\, in the Rocky Mountains of BC. \n\n\nRetreat at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n\n \nCOVID-19 RESPONSE\nOur main priority is to offer a retreat that is accessible and supports your health and safety. In response to COVID-19\, we are offering two options for attending this retreat. \nOnline Retreat from Home \nIt might not be possible to get to Clear Sky\, we invite you to join us from wherever you are in the world instead. \nBasic requirements to do the retreat online: \n\nBlock out the two weeks and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.\nParticipate in the daily classes and group practices.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\nNote: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering \nDaily Retreat Schedule \n(Time Zone: MST\, subject to change) \n\n9am – 10am: Class with Teachers\n10:30am – 11:30am: Group Practice lead by Sangha\n3pm – 4 pm: Group Practice lead by Sangha\n7:30pm – 8:30pm: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers\n\nRetreat at Clear Sky \nIn order to attend this retreat in person\, we require that you are able to meet our COVID-19 pre-screening requirements. We also have through health and safety requirements that must be upheld for the duration of your retreat. More details about these requirements will be provided here soon. \nWhy Practice the Sixteen Stages of Insight?\nIn life there is repetition – we do many things over and over again\, but we tend to do them the same habitual way because we stop paying attention after the first few times. The path of insight is about looking again and again\, and this is the literal meaning of the word ‘vipassana‘. \nScientists look again and again to analyse the data of an external experiment to see the principles at work in that situation. In insight meditation\, we look again and again at the arisings within the mind in order to uncover the patterns within. \nThese patterns are called karma. By liberating the unconscious nature of the patterns\, we liberate karma from neurotic habitual repetition. We make way for Buddha karma – becoming a manifestation of compassion\, loving kindness\, empathetic joy\, and equanimity in the world. \n \nWhat can I expect?\nIn this retreat\, we are mastering the sixteen stages of insight through the practice of the foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana sutta). This is a fundamental text in Buddhism that establishes the strong foundation of mindfulness upon which the stages of insight can rest. \nDaily Schedule: Here is a sample schedule of what you can expect at this retreat. \nWhat’s Expected of Me?\n\nThis will be an intensive meditation retreat\, with many hours of practice per day. Therefore some experience\, especially with insight meditation\, is recommended but not mandatory.\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new\, meeting new people\, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nThis is a silent retreat. To deepen your meditation\, we ask that participants refrain from reading\, using the internet or phone\, or listening to music during the course.\nLastly\, our teaching and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of dāna or generosity. Please learn more about this profound practice before you register.\n\n\n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nDoug Duncan &\nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\nDoug 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. \n\nRetreat at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n \nDāna\, Fees and Travel\nDana and In-Person Retreat Pricing \nDana: 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. \nPricing: 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. \nDana and Online Retreat Pricing \nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nPricing: In order to bring you this retreat at home\, there is an additional pay by the heart\, sliding scale admin fee* of $200-$700. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online. \nHow Much to Give? A short exercise: \n\nTake a few quiet breaths and center yourself.\nSpend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health\, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)\nOffer an aspiration (using the below\, or your own words).May this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.\nMay this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.\nMay this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.\nThis gift\, myself the giver\, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously\, for the benefit of all beings!\nNow check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation\, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember\, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.\nNow simply\, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening\, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life\, enter the amount you choose to offer.\n\nAbout the administrative fee \nIn 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. \nWe’ve tried to recreate this approach online.\nThe 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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here. \nThe 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. \nBelow are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting: \n\nhigh speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)\nonline class systems (Zoom)\nregistration / admin systems (Eventbrite\, Basecamp)\ncommunication systems to keep everyone informed\, share connection details\, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)\nonline 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)\nquality 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.\nonline calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews\nwebsite hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses\, teachings\, blogs and other resources.\n\nMay all our efforts be sustainable\, abundant and for the benefit of all beings! \nWe welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact michelle@clearskycenter.org \nOnline Retreat Requirements \nIf you are taking this retreat online\, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire two weeks. \nOnline Retreat Requirements: \n\nBlock out the two weeks and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\nCOVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \nArrival & Departure \nArrival is Friday\, August 7 at 4pm. \nDeparture is Friday\, August 21st at 12:00pm. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nIn 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. \nAfter the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nHere are some FAQs on how to get here\, what to bring and what to expect.  \nTo 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! \n\n\nRetreat at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat at Home (Online) URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/event-template/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/palm-eye.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20200927T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20200927T170000 DTSTAMP:20251209T094756Z CREATED:20200906T175747Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T094756Z UID:8922-1601218800-1601226000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Contemplating 400 Years of Inequality (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Interactive Seminar with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei\nSeptember 27\, 2020\n3:00-5:00pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei is hosting a conversation that focuses on the past 400 years of American structural inequality towards Blacks\, Indigenous\, women and other minority groups. This seminar invites us to see our own implicit biases and cultivate new ways of being more compassionate and loving beings through the scope of Dharma\, race and liberation. \n\nRegister Now\n\n \nThere has been unprecedented acceleration of change since the Industrial revolution. Along with it\, we see a greater number of fracturing in people’s psyches and a greater number of inequality in wealth distribution. According to a study from Harvard university\, most of the wealth in the US is in the top 20% of the population. This unequal distribution of wealth particularly affects black\, indigenous\, and people of colour. \nOur international sangha is about growing people to be compassionate and loving beings and welcoming all beings to the banquet as guests. As we teach compassionate communication\, it is important we do our own work around Social Justice as awakening beings. Particularly if we are coming from a position of privilege. \nThe teachers have taught about the importance of the quadruple bottom line (spiritual\, social\, environmental and financial) at Clear Sky\, in our urban sanghas and in ourselves. \nSo\, how are we as an International spiritual community responding with compassion to the rapid social\, financial and environmental changes happening on a global stage? \n\n \nCourse Details\nDoug and Cata Sensei began teaching the Fifth Discipline in 2013\, which focused on managing and leading change\, building adaptive organizations that can cope with an increasingly connected and volatile world. Little did we know that they were preparing us for the world we live in today\, whether we are in Canada\, Japan or Germany. \nTo help you respond to these times\, Catherine Sensei is offering a contemplative session cultivating presence and supporting the global sangha with understanding structural inequality through a mindfulness-based and contemplative approach. To better be of service to more people\, it also gives us an opportunity to study our implicit bias in a system that favours a certain group or groups over others. \n \nMeet your Teacher\n \nCatherine Pawasarat is a Dharma and meditation teacher who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, with her partner\, Achariya Doug Duncan. Catherine Sensei has trained daily with Doug Sensei 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. \nCatherine Sensei met Dr. Angel Acosta last year at a conference called Timeless Wisdom\, Timely Action. Dr. Acosta works to bridge the fields of leadership\, social justice & mindfulness. Catherine really enjoyed the person he is and his work\, and studied with him on how to use the 400 timeline of Inequality effectively. Catherine has lived and worked as a journalist internationally for over 25 years\, which gives her a unique and global perspective on social justice. \nFees and Dana\nThis course is offered based on the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. \n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: Sunday\, September 27\, 2020\nTime: 3-5:00pm MDT\n\n\n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/400-years-of-inequality/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses,Special Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-18-at-10.33.15-AM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201003T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201004T163000 DTSTAMP:20251206T091936Z CREATED:20200906T165108Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251206T091936Z UID:8895-1601717400-1601829000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Crouching Ego\, Hidden Buddhas (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Online Course\nOctober 3-4\, 2020\nClasses at 9:00-10:30am and 3:00-4:30pm MDT on both days  \nClick here to see your timezone \nYou may have tried applying mindfulness and meditation techniques in the past\, and find them helpful for ordinary problems\, but not tough enough for the big problems\, like climate change\, inequality and all the change that comes with this global pandemic. Although humans are remarkably adaptable\, this pandemic has brought greater isolation\, deeper financial woes (for many)\, and a challenge to our core values. \nAt the same time\, when our state is off\, it’s no fun for anyone. The thing is\, we don’t have to be part of an emotional plague\, we can learn to cultivate wholesome emotional states that feel good. We can turn uncomfortable emotions around and tap into boundless love\, compassion\, joy and equanimity. \n\nRegister Now\n\n \nWhat You’ll Learn\nThrough four live streamed talks and meditations\, Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei will share four sustainable\, positive states\, and how to spend more time in them going forward. These four states are called the Brahma Viharas in Buddhism. \nThe Brahma Viharas are sometimes known in Buddhism as the four sublime abidings or the four immeasurables. We’ll learn how to:  transform anger into loving kindness for self and other\, – channel our energy to act and speak our truth for the benefit of self and others\, – experience empathetic joy for others\, – and be unmoved in the face of ongoing and sometimes extreme change. We can leverage these four tools in everyday life\, ultimately training ourselves and others how to be in a state of grace 24/7. \nOver this weekend we’ll learn more about these four sustainable\, positive states\, and how to spend more time in them going forward. We also expect to explore Mudita more deeply\, (one of the lesser known Brahma Viharas) and how we can further develop this emotional state through our connections with community/ Sangha. \n\n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nDoug 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. \nCourse Details\nFees and Dana \nThis course is offered by the Teachers based on the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. If you would like to learn more about this profound ancient practice\, click here. \n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: Saturday October 3rd & Sunday October 4th 2020\nTime: 9-10:30am and 3-4:30pm MDT both days\n\nNote: Video recordings will be available to those who are unable to make the live teachings starting on Monday\, October 5th in the morning. They will be accessible until end of the day Friday October 6th. You must register before the event in order to access these recordings. \n\n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/crouching-ego-hidden-buddhas/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses,Special Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Clear-Sky-Crouching-Ego-Main.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201012T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201102T210000 DTSTAMP:20260310T102606Z CREATED:20200910T032602Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T102606Z UID:8823-1602531000-1604350800@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Eye of the Storm: Navigating the Modern World (Online) DESCRIPTION:Eye of the Storm: Online Course for Spiritual Growth & Awareness\nAn Online CourseOctober 12 – November 8\, 2020Mondays: 7:30pm-9:00pm MDT *Click here to see your timezone Recordings available for those who cannot attend liveIncludes 3 Master Classes on Sundays and a Flash Retreat November 6-8 \nFor 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. \n \n \n Register Now\n \n \nEye of the Storm\nDo 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.   \nAs 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.   \nBased 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. \nFor 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.   \nNote: 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.   \nClass 1 – Monday\, October 12\, 2020\nIn 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.  \n  \nClass 2 – Monday\, October 19\, 2020\nIn 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”.  \n  \nClass 3 – Monday\, October 26\, 2020\nThe 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. \nClass 4 – Monday\, November 2\, 2020\nClass 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. \n \n \n \n\nStudy and Meditation Electives\nMaster Classes – Three Sundays\nThere 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: \n\nSun. Oct 18\nSun. Oct 25\nSun. Nov 1\n\nYou can elect to attend all three or individual dates. \nRegistration & Dana links for Master Classes will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n \nFlash Retreat\nNovember 6  – November 8\, 2020\nElect 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. \nThe retreat will include instructions\, online check ins\, and a Master Class on Sunday\, August 30. \nWe 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. \nRegistration and Dana links for the Flash Retreat will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n \n \n Register Now\n \n  \nSangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.  \nMeet Your Teachers\nDoug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine 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. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nDoug Duncan Sensei\nCourse Details\nTime and Location\nEach 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. \nStudy 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. \nWhat Does the Course Cost?\nWe 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. \nFor 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. URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/eye-of-the-storm/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/aerial-view-atmosphere-clouds-cold-front-76969-e1585193414265.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201027T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201117T203000 DTSTAMP:20251209T090122Z CREATED:20200913T181920Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T090122Z UID:9028-1603825200-1605645000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Rediscovering the Joys of Your Work (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Online Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nOctober 27 – November 17\, 2020\nTuesdays at 7:00-8:30pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \nMore than ever\, working in the healthcare field means heavy work loads\, cumbersome bureaucratic systems\, and increasingly complex clients.  In order to meet these new challenges\, you are looking for ways to feel grounded and nourished so that you connect to the passion you have for the work. \n\nRegister Now\n\n \nThis course gives you the opportunity to connect with others who understand the trauma and stress of the work you do.  Grasp this opportunity to remember\, rekindle and strengthen the fire you have for your work. Even when your work feels like you’re just putting out fires we will help you make lasting positive shifts.  Working with people demands our best creativity and flexibility.  We will help you be proactive rather than reactive  by building on your natural capabilities and developing new areas for growth. We will demonstrate and practice how to realign with the why that brought you to the work you do.  Discover how to ensure your work continues feeding you in healthy and positive ways. \n \nCourse Details\nWho This Course is For: \nHealth care professionals who are feeling frustrated and challenged.  They would like to connect with others in the field.  They would like to learn skills to build on the passion and belief they have for your work. \nWhat Can I Expect? \n\nThe support of like minded colleagues struggling with similar concerns who aren’t willing to give up on their dream of enjoying work.\nTo clearly acknowledge the suffering in ourselves and the world while not being subsumed by it.\nTo become more aware of our inner views and habits that we keep in place even as we say we want to change and grow.\nTo decrease our unconscious reactions which drive our thinking and behaviour.\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n \nMaureen Smith \nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\,  and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: October 27 – November 17\, 2020\nTime: Tuesdays from 7-8:30pm MDT\nCost: $350 CAD\n\n\n\nRegister Now\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/rediscovering-the-joys-of-your-work/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Rediscovering-Joys.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201204T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201219T140000 DTSTAMP:20201109T054948Z CREATED:20200905T170047Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201109T054948Z UID:8818-1607097600-1608386400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Winter Meditation Retreat: The Kasinas DESCRIPTION:In-Person and Online Meditation Retreat\nKasina meditation is a concentration meditation (samatha\, jhana) intended to settle the mind and create a foundation for liberation.  \nTake advantage of Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei’s mastery and wisdom in this powerful and rare two-week meditation retreat. Held online and at Clear Sky\, in the Rocky Mountains of BC. \n*IMPORTANT* We welcome you to spend additional nights at Clear Sky. When booking additional nights and flights\, note that flights booked December 21-23 require personal transportation to the airport.  \nRegistration ends November 20\, 2020 \nThis is a two week retreat and the Teachers have added a one week option. The Teachers recognize that circumstances may make it difficult for some people to attend both weeks. Attending the full two weeks is ideal. \nIf you choose to take the one week option it is the first week\, December 4 – 12\, 2020. \nThe teachers will be offering a Chenrezi Wongkur at the beginning of the first week. This empowerment will be streamed live\, enabling both online and onsite participation. (Exact time and date to be announced.) \n \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (1 Week)\n \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (2 Weeks)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 1 Week (Online)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 2 Weeks (Online)\n \n \nCOVID-19 RESPONSE\nOur main priority is to offer a retreat that is accessible and supports your health and safety. In response to COVID-19\, we are offering two options for attending this retreat: In person at Clear Sky or (for those unable to travel)\, online from home.  \nSee our FAQ section below for more details about our covid policy and requirements for attending online and in person.   \n  \nSettling the Mind\, Cultivating Concentration\nThe ten kasina are part of the forty kammatthana: objects of meditation. They are described in detail by Buddhaghosa in the meditation section of the Visuddhimagga. \nKasina meditation is a concentration meditation (variously known in different traditions as samatha\, dhyana\, or jhana meditations)\, intended to settle the mind of the practitioner and create a foundation for further practices of meditation. In the early stages of kasina meditation\, a physical object is used as the object of meditation\, being focused upon by the practitioner until an eidetic (after-image) image of the object forms in the practitioners mind. In more advanced levels of kasina meditation\, only a mental image of the kasina is used as an object of meditation. \nExperience Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei’s meditation experience in this strengthening\, mind settling and concentration building retreat. \nHeld online\, and at our home retreat centre\, Clear Sky\, a 21st-century model for innovative awakening\, situated in the beautiful B.C. Rocky Mountains. \n \n \nWhy Meditate on the Kasinas?\nThis winter meditation retreat focuses on the kasinas\, part of the 40 classical Buddhist meditations. \nBy focusing on ten kasinas as mind objects we developing concentration\, calm and bliss.  As we deepen our focus\, we develop and strengthen our absorption\, the jhanas. This provides a platform for awakening. \nThere are ten kasiṇa described in the Visuddhimagga\, which are also mentioned in the Pali Tipitaka:[1] \n\nearth पठवी कसिण (Pali: paṭhavī kasiṇa\, Sanskrit: pṛthivī kṛtsna)\nwater आपो कसिण (āpo kasiṇa\, ap kṛtsna)\nfire तेजो कसिण (tejo kasiṇa\, tejas kṛtsna)\nair\, wind वायो कसिण (vāyo kasiṇa\, vāyu kṛtsna)\nair\, wind वायो कसिण (vāyo kasiṇa\, vāyu kṛtsna)\nblue\, green नील कसिण (nīla kasiṇa\, nīla kṛtsna)\nyellow पीत कसिण (pīta kasiṇa\, pīta kṛtsna)\nred लोहित कसिण (lohita kasiṇa\, lohita kṛtsna)\nwhite ओदात कसिण (odāta kasiṇa\, avadāta kṛtsna)\nenclosed space\, hole\, aperture आकास कसिण (ākāsa kasiṇa\, ākāśa kṛtsna)\nconsciousness विञ्ञाण कसिण (viññāṇa kasiṇa\, vijñāna kṛtsna); in the Pali suttas and some other texts; bright light आलोक कसिण āloka kasiṇa according to later sources\, such as Buddhaghosa‘s Visuddhimagga.\n\nThe framework we’ll use is the classical teachings on the Kasinas from Buddhaghosa’s 5th-century text Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification). \n  \n \n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nDoug Duncan & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei\nDoug 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. \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (1 Week)\n \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (2 Weeks)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 1 Week (Online)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 2 Weeks (Online)\n \nWhat can I expect?\nOur teachings and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of Dāna or generosity. As generosity is the basis upon which all spiritual practice flourishes\, we recommend that you learn more about this profound practice before you register. \nDaily Schedule: Here is a sample schedule of what you can expect at this retreat. \nFood: Our food is sourced as organically and locally as possible. Expect to be nourished with three wholesome meals a day.  \nAccommodation: Shared and private accommodation options are available.  \nWhat’s Expected of Me?\n\nThis meditation retreat consists of many hours of consecutive practice each day. Therefore some experience\, especially with insight meditation\, is highly recommended.\nNOTE: If this is your first two-week retreat\, advance permission from the teachers is required.\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new\, meeting new people\, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nThis is a silent retreat. To deepen your meditation\, we ask that participants refrain from reading\, using the internet\, phone or listening to music during the course.\n\n \n \n \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nHere are some FAQs on how to get here\, what to bring and what to expect.  \nTo 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! \n \n \n \nFAQs\n Dana and In-Person Retreat Pricing \nDana: 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. \nPricing: 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. \n Dana and Online Retreat Pricing \nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nPricing: In order to bring you this retreat at home\, there is an additional pay by the heart\, sliding scale admin fee* of $200-$700. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online. \nHow Much to Give? A short exercise: \n\nTake a few quiet breaths and center yourself.\nSpend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health\, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)\nOffer an aspiration (using the below\, or your own words).\nMay this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.May this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.May this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.This gift\, myself the giver\, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously\, for the benefit of all beings! \n\nNow check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation\, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember\, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.\nNow simply\, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening\, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life\, enter the amount you choose to offer.\n\nAbout the administrative fee \nIn 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. \nWe’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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here. \nThe 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. \nBelow are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting: \n\nhigh speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)\nonline class systems (Zoom)\nregistration / admin systems (Eventbrite\, Basecamp)\ncommunication systems to keep everyone informed\, share connection details\, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)\nonline 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)\nquality 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.\nonline calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews\nwebsite hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses\, teachings\, blogs and other resources.\n\nMay all our efforts be sustainable\, abundant and for the benefit of all beings! \nWe welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact michelle@clearskycenter.org \n Online Retreat Requirements \nIf you are taking this retreat online\, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire two weeks. \nOnline Retreat Requirements: \n\nBlock out the two weeks and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule. \nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\nClasses and group sits will be recorded. Attendees from previous online retreats found it optimal to attend live where time zones support this.\n\n COVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \n Arrival & Departure \nArrival is Friday\, December 4 at 4pm. \nDeparture is Saturday\, December 19th at 12:00pm. \n Booking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nIn 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. \nAfter the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation.  \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (1 Week)\n \n \n Retreat at Clear Sky (2 Weeks)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 1 Week (Online)\n \n \n Retreat at Home – 2 Weeks (Online) URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/kasina-retreat/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Clear-Sky-Winter-retreat-kasinas.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201220T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201224T140000 DTSTAMP:20200914T025939Z CREATED:20200725T235646Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200914T025939Z UID:8774-1608480000-1608818400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Sangha Christmas Package 2020 DESCRIPTION:Sangha Christmas Package 2020\nLooking to make the holidays a little more clear and bright? You’re invited to celebrate this Christmas in awakening community! \n\nJoin the teachers\, your sangha\, Sonora\, Duke and other furry friends for celebration\, group meditation\, and an abundant turkey dinner. \n*IMPORTANT* Airport pickup and drop-offs are only available on the first and last day of this retreat. Flights booked December 21-23 require personal transportation to the airport. \n\n\nWrap Up Your Registration\n\n\n \nCOVID-19 RESPONSE\nThis offering is available to people who have not experienced symptoms associated with COVID-19 for the two weeks prior to December 19\, 2020. You will be asked to take an online assessment prior to your stay\, to bring your own mask and to follow our physical distancing requirements while on site. \nLearn more about our COVID policy here.  \nSpend quality time with the teachers and community and enter 2021 feeling supported\, grounded\, rejuvenated. \nThis package is a fantastic reintegration for Winter Retreat participants\, as well as a recalibration for local sangha looking to spend the holidays with Clear Sky family. \nAs the family that we get to choose\, we’d love celebrating Christmas with you too. \nLooking to spend even more time at Clear Sky? Special options are available for additional stay (including working and studying remotely from Clear Sky). Contact Dean@ClearSkyCenter.org for details. \n \nWhat can I Expect?\n1. Group Meditation \n\nEmbrace the Triple Gem! Group meditations with our incredible Teachers and Sangha\n\n2. Karma Yoga \n\nDishes and cooking\n1.5 hours per day of group Karma Yoga\n\n3. Festivities \n\nTime to connect with the Teachers and community\nA Christmas Feast\nSinging\, dancing and an intergalactic murder mystery\n\n\n\n\nRegister Now\n \nDāna\, Fees and Travel\nDana and In-Person Retreat Pricing \nDana: 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. \nPricing: 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. \nCOVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \nArrival & Departure \nArrival is Sunday\, December 20th at 4pm. \nDeparture is Thursday\, December 24th at 1:30pm. \n*IMPORTANT* Airport pickup and drop-offs are only available on the first and last day of this retreat. Flights booked December 21-23 require personal transportation to the airport. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \n*IMPORTANT* Airport pickup and drop-offs are only available on the first and last day of this retreat. Flights booked December 21-23 require personal transportation to the airport. \n\nRetreat at Clear Sky URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/sangha-christmas-package-2020/ LOCATION:BC ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/sanghachristmas.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210101T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211231T170000 DTSTAMP:20260310T102413Z CREATED:20200613T163314Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T102413Z UID:8634-1609488000-1640970000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Personal Coaching (Online) DESCRIPTION:Personal Spiritual Coaching with Karen McAllister & Duncan Cryle \n Are you ready to unfold?\n \n Given Covid-19 and the big life-changes many of us are experiencing\, this is a perfect time to receive support in areas that may need deep care\, or are holding us back. We can use this unique time to nurture what is seeking our attention or we might not have prioritized before.  \nKaren McAllister and Duncan Cryle are offering live group coaching to a smaller group\, exclusively to graduates of the Ignite Your Spiritual Life course. \n \n REGISTER HERE\n \n \n \n For those looking to go deeper \n \n Our personal coaching program is for you if after completing our 6 week Ignite Your Spiritual Life Online Course\, you want to go deeper. As we only had a little time on each principle during the course\, 1:1 coaching supports you to take a deep dive into one or two areas in your life that are calling for your attention. Many people join our group coaching sessions after Ignite Your Spiritual Life\, but you might find group-work triggers more protectiveness in you than it does vulnerability\, being real and exploring what you really need right now.  \nMaybe life is calling you to change. What used to work\, no longer does. You’re ready to answer the call to change. You want to wake up more deeply and step more fully into your power. You now have clarity and strength to be with and explore past hurts\, patterns\, relationships and or beliefs that are holding you back. You may have tried new routines with meditation and yoga\, new diets and even explored how to improve your relationships with yourself\, others\, money and time. The thing is\, often we can’t shift habitual patterns without understanding what’s holding them in place and why. The reason these may not have worked is that you may have lacked support from someone with experience to see behind the appearance to what is driving the behaviour you want to shift.  \n About the Program \n We have seen that personal coaching with Karen and Duncan frees up energy and has led to the following:  \n\ndeeper involvement in spiritual teachings\, relationships and service with community\nmore emotional honesty\nmore relaxation and joy\na career path plan that is in alignment with your vision and values\nimproved relationships\na new business\nimproved finances\nbetter time management\n\nHere is what we can offer you:  \n\n15 mins free consultation (to connect and see if a coaching program could support you)\nFour 1:1 personal coaching sessions for anyone who has attended Ignite Your Spiritual Life.\nPay from the heart min $75 max $250/hr \n\nLogistics: \n\nRegister and commit to a series or one session\nBook your first call on the calendar link provided in the registration confirmation email\nSet time aside prior to your first call to get clear on what it is that you want to work on.\nCalls will be over zoom and we recommend that you set aside 15-60 minutes before and after for prep and integration.\nSet aside a minimum of 2 hours per week to work on this.\n \n \n \n Meet Your Coaches \n Karen and Duncan have both been on their spiritual path for over 20 years working closely with highly accomplished teachers\, Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei\, while also living in and supporting conscious community the entire time. They have been through many personal transformations themselves and led many others along the way. They are gifted at holding a beautiful and safe space for you as you peel back the layers.  \nExperienced and professionals in their careers\, Karen is a certified coach and Duncan a former IBM executive\, they can provide guidance\, mentorship and structures for you to dig more deeply and be accountable to yourself without being fooled by your own stories. If you are willing to share what’s really going on by being emotionally honest\, listening\, receiving and following through on feedback\, you can benefit from working with a coach that is walking their talk. A coach that has addressed their own challenges and deeper issues around aspects of the spiritual container in their lives. For this reason\, they can give real live\, experiential guidance and mentorship in these areas.  \n \n Karen McAllister \n 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. \nI’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!” \nIn my free time\, I love travelling\, speaking Portuguese and reading history\, architecture\, and art books. \n \n Talk with Karen\n \n Duncan Cryle \n I’m the former Clear Sky Chair\, a certified Mindfulness teacher\, Dharma teacher\, and a member of senior management at a dynamic award winning international software firm. \nThrough 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! \nA 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. \n \n Talk with Duncan\n \n \n “I am at the point now where I feel ready to apply for school\, to change direction in my career\, and better understand how my relationship with my father has created this. I have stopped hanging on to some of the past to protect the hurt\, which has made me feel more ready to move on.” \n Kyle \n “Karen is both knowledgeable and kind. Not only is she wise and helpful with Buddhist teachings\, but when she shares it is from the heart with incredible tenderness.” \n Kakoom \n \n REGISTER NOW\n \n Latest News URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/personal-coaching/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Coaching ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-13-at-10.49.12-AM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210111T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210203T210000 DTSTAMP:20260507T134759Z CREATED:20201115T191834Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260507T134759Z UID:9214-1610393400-1612386000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:The Abhidhamma: A Study of Consciousness (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Online Course\nJanuary 11-February 7\, 2021\nMondays: 7:30pm-9:00pm MDT *Click here to see your timezone \nRecordings available for those who cannot attend live\nIncludes 3 Master Classes on Sundays and a Flash Retreat February 5-7 \nStudy one of the most profound ancient ‘sciences’ of consciousness – the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This ‘basket’ of teachings brings detailed analysis to mental and physical phenomena. \n\nRegister for Online Course\n\n\nRegister for Study Group\n\n \nCredit: Burmese-Pali Manuscript. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) \nThe Studying the Abhidhamma\nThe Abhidhamma Pitaka is the third division of the Buddhist Tripitaka\, the Three Baskets. The seven books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka give an extraordinarily detailed analysis of the basic natural principles that govern mental and physical processes. \nAs human beings\, our consciousness is built to awaken.  Our awakening is supported by the universe – the Abhidhamma Pitaka gives us an understanding of the mind and body in a profoundly detailed manner. \nClass 1 – Monday\, January 11\, 2021\nIn this first class\, we will introduce the Abhidhamma – what is it and what can we learn from it? \nThen we will begin to investigate the four different types of consciousness: Sensing\, form blisses\, formlesses blisses\, and transcendent. We will cover a definition of abhidhamma terms and discuss the roots of different types of consciousness. What happens in a thought process? How would we ascertain if they are ethical\, neutral or unethical? \nFinally\, what factors are present in the blisses? Is there only one type of transcendent consciousness\, or is there many? \nClass 2 – Monday\, January 18\, 2021\nIn class two\, we will observe how in each of the consciousnesses\, there are different factors. What are they? What factors are present in what consciousness? \nHow does feeling relate to consciousness? Do different consciousnesses have different feelings? What are feelings? What are the functions of mind? How do they work? How do the senses connect to consciousness? \nClass 3 – Monday\, January 25\, 2020\nClass three covers Karma. We will explore how many kinds of karma exist and where do they operate? How does karma affect rebirth consciousness? What is death? \nClass 4 – Monday\, February 1\, 2020\nIn the final class of the series we will look at the nature of form and transcendence. Using the laws of dependent origination we can study dependent arising\, causal relations and attainments – what are these? \nWhat is Mental Culture – how do you cultivate your mind? \n\n\n\n \nStudy and Meditation Electives\nMaster Classes – Three Sundays\nThere 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: \n\nSun. Jan 17\nSun. Jan 24\nSun. Jan 31\n\nYou can elect to attend all three or individual dates. \nRegistration & Dana links for Master Classes will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n \nFlash Retreat\nFebruary 5-7\, 2021\nElect 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. \nThe retreat will include instructions\, online check ins\, and a Master Class on Sunday\, February 7th. \nWe 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. \nRegistration and Dana links for the Flash Retreat will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n\nRegister for Online Course\n\n\nRegister for Study Group\n \nSangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.  \nMeet Your Teachers\nDoug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine 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. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nDoug Duncan Sensei\nCourse Details\nTime and Location\nEach 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. \nStudy and Meditation Opportunities in addition to the classes include Master Classes on three Sundays at 3pm MST\, and a Flash Retreat on February 5-7\, 2020. \nWhat Does the Course Cost?\nWe 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. \nFor 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. \n \nBonus Course: Abhidhamma Study Group\nTuesdays at 3pm MST\, February 16- April 6th \nFollowing this four-week series\, Doug Sensei is offering an eight-week study group for those who would like to go deeper with the Abhidhamma study. \nPrerequisite: To attend the Study Group\, you must complete the four-week Abhidhamma online series. \n\n\nRegister for Online Course\n\n\nRegister for Study Group URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/the-abhidhamma/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Abhidhamma-Feature.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210126T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210216T203000 DTSTAMP:20251205T091345Z CREATED:20201128T201347Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251205T091345Z UID:9278-1611687600-1613507400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Beyond Coping (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nJanuary 26 – February 16\, 2021\nTuesdays at 7:00-8:30pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nHealthcare work is challenging – the Covid pandemic\, heavy work loads\, cumbersome systems and increasingly complex clients. While managing the daily challenges it can be difficult to feel rejuvenated and connected to the passion you have for your work. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share that this course is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully. \n \nBeyond Coping gives you the opportunity to connect with healthcare workers who understand the daily challenges and stresses of the work you do. Take this opportunity to ground\, remember\, rekindle and strengthen the fire you have for your work. \nIn this course you will explore the deeper reasons that you are both enlivened and challenged in your work. You will learn simple and sustainable mindfulness tools to leverage your natural capabilities developing new areas of growth. You will discover how to remain committed to work you do in a way that is sustaining and nurturing. \n \nCourse Details\nWho This Course is For: \nIf you are a counsellor\, nurse\, social worker or someone working in the broad healthcare field\, and you want to learn skills to be sustained and nurtured in the work you do\, this 4 week online course is designed for you. \nWhat Can I Expect?\n\nIn this course you will learn essential tools to develop Deep Mindfulness.\nYou will have the support of like minded colleagues who share similar concerns and challenges and want to stay engaged and enlivened in their work.\nTo become more aware of the perspective and habits that we keep in place even as we try to change and grow.\nTo decrease our unconscious reactions which drive our thinking and behaviour.\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith \nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: January 26 – February 16\, 2021\nTime: Tuesdays from 7-8:30pm MDT\nCost: $195 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/beyond-coping-online-course/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Beyond-Coping.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210313T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210313T160000 DTSTAMP:20251209T100805Z CREATED:20210220T192718Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T100805Z UID:9744-1615626000-1615651200@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Come to your Senses: A Day to Practice Deep Mindfulness (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nMarch 13\, 2021\n9:00am-4:00pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nLife is busy.  Every day you face demands from work\, family\, finances\, health.  While navigating through life’s daily challenges it can be difficult to pause and take a breath\, to smell the roses\, to rest in the moment. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share this course that is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully. \n \nWhether you work in the healthcare field or the business world.\nWhether you are self-employed or work in a large organization.\nWhether you are part of a family or are living alone.\nIf you want to learn skills to be sustained and nurtured in the work you do\, this one day\, 7 hour online retreat is for you.  In one day you will learn how to release tension in your system and gain calm through focused concentration.\n \nCourse Details\nWhat you can expect\nIn this course you will:\n\n\nLearn ancient and effective practices that use the senses of taste\, touch\, sight and sound.  Practices you can use anywhere to tune into your senses and develop Deep Mindfulness.\n\n\nBe with others who share similar concerns and challenges and who also want to stay centered within themselves.\n\n\nBecome more aware of how to maintain health and wellbeing in yourself.\n\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith \nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDate: March 13\, 2021\nTime: 9:00am – 4:00pm MT\nCost: $100 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/come-to-your-senses/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/come_to_your_senses_feature.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210403T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210508T110000 DTSTAMP:20251209T101746Z CREATED:20201109T051751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T101746Z UID:9106-1617444000-1620471600@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Money & Spirituality: Integrating Spiritual and Material (Online) DESCRIPTION:A Six-week Online Course with Karen McAllister\nApril 3 – May 8\, 2021 \nSaturdays at 10:00am MT \nClick here to see your timezone \nThis course is about healing the split between money and spirituality and integrating your vision and calling into your everyday work. Through this course\, you will come to a place of peace\, power\, and care in your heart in your relationship with money. \nIt is about integrating the spiritual with the material\, or the material with the spiritual\, depending on where your journey begins. \nWhat this means for you\nWorking with your relationship with money is more than just seeing your patterns and recurring behaviours around it. \nMoney is a nexus that is the doorway into greater integration. All of us have some sort of knot around money. By going into that knot\, we can attend to all of these bigger things like the shadow\, dreams\, vision\, values\, priorities\, and awakening. \nWe are inviting you to join us to release these complicated and layered knots around money and allow yourself to let go the dam of resistance\, shame\, guilt\, superiority\, privilege\, and fear. To have the courage to look at your projections onto money and be on your way to a place of integration between the material and the spiritual. \nWe want you to be lighter\, brighter and to give and attract the amount of money you need to manifest your purpose. \n\nRegister Now\n\n\n\n \nDo any of these 8 knots sound like you?\n\nYou might be very passionate about your work as an artist\, teacher\, healer\, in business\, or as a transformational change agent. Yet you seem to repel the very resources that you need. Somehow embracing the money thing is felt as inauthentic to your values or being evil on some level. Is it truly noble to be a starving artist or a martyr?\nPerhaps you feel money is elusive and you never seem to have it\, or when it comes in it leaves very quickly. You may feel that you and money just don’t seem to have any relationship at all. Or you don’t feel you are good with it. You might be looking for that Prince Charming\, or a protector to turn up and make it all better for you. Or maybe\, you feel that money should just come because you are devoting your life to a worthy cause or to your awakening. Shouldn’t I just trust in the universe that the money comes? Yet\, it doesn’t.\nPerhaps you over give\, undervalue yourself in your organization\, non-profit or in partnerships\, either in marriage or in business. You might expect others to read your mind and know how to support you\, and they don’t. You might have the experience of feeling unseen\, burnt out\, with health and money issues calling for your attention.\nOr your family may have money but you don’t\, giving you mixed experiences of privilege and scarcity; you may try to help others experience more abundance and feel that your efforts are rejected;  or your efforts to be generous may leave you feeling taken advantage of or dismissed.\nYou might be a person with wealth and/or worldly success. In spite of this\, you might feel ostracized by the very people you want to help. You might not feel so cared for or maybe even feel like an outsider by those in the spiritual or transformational world or with a mission-based business. What is this about?\nYou may have mixed feelings about having money\, as a spiritual explorer. Perhaps you have come into money without being introduced to the skills to handle it skillfully\, both practically and psychologically.\nOr perhaps you feel overwhelmed with fear of losing money\, even though you have enough of it. Your fear of loss might keep you paralyzed and stuck from making decisions that are more in alignment with your heart and your own awakening.\nYou might feel guilty about having money and find that trusting yourselves and others is an ongoing challenge. You might not like the distance that money causes between you and others.\n\nIntegrating Spiritual and Material\nWhat to Expect: \n\nAs a global human being\, get an overview of our history with money;\nUnderstand what spirituality means in the workplace and in your relationships;\nExplore what integrating the spiritual and material would look like for you;\nName your particular patterns around money\, at work\, in your personal finances or in partnership;\nUnderstand what a healthy relationship to money looks like;\nCreate an action plan to change self-sabotaging patterns;\nLearn how to be a role model of financial maturity for others;\nFeel more open\, empowered\, and confident in your relationship with money.\n\n\n \nMeet your Teacher\n \nKaren McAllister \nKaren has worked with clients to transform their money issues\, helping them become more effective\, professional\, and satisfied with their financial situation\, and growing a sense of abundance. She brings knowledge and experience of financial issues from the practical\, behavioral\, and emotional perspectives. Her real magic and superpowers come from studying with her spiritual teachers\, Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei\, for over 20 years. Her teachers specialize in helping their students transcend their issues around money\, sex\, and power. And she is a beautiful example of the fruits of this work\, known in Buddhist philosophy as the bodhisattva path. \nKaren studied Economics in her degree and has been certified by Deborah Price of the The Money Coaching Institute as a Certified Money Coach\, a Couples Money Coach\, and a Business Archetype Coach. She studied with Lynne Twist from the Soul of Money Institute\, including Mastering your Money and Transforming your Life\, and Lynne’s Fundraising from the Heart program. \nFurther\, Karen has made use of that training through her own role as a founding member at Clear Sky\, which operates with a quadruple bottom line. Karen has been Board Chair since 2014 and is leader of Fund Development. Her passion for this arises out of her deep desire to awaken more fully and make the world a better place. She’s seen many amazing spiritual explorers and transformational change agents who want to make a difference yet don’t have the funds they need to truly fulfill their missions–despite the millions of dollars floating around in the economy. And she has also seen the other side. Many spiritual explorers with money who have tried to help others experience more abundance and feel that their efforts have been rejected; or their efforts to be generous have left them feeling taken advantage of or dismissed. Karen’s work is designed to change this. \nKaren wants you to show up as an integrated and whole human being. She’ll help you direct and attract financial resources in meaningful ways\, steering away from greed and fear and towards love\, generosity\, collaboration\, and reciprocity. \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: April 3 – May 8\, 2021\nTime: 10:00am MT\nDana: $450CAD – $900CAD recommended range.\nPlease chat with us if you have concerns about the cost. Part of taking the money out of the shadow is stepping forward and having a pricing conversation with us.\n\nThis course is Dana based. We understand that your income might be effected due to COVID either negatively or positively. We do not want to turn anyone anyway\, and we are always looking for ways to help you cultivate your generosity practise. Because of this\, we are giving you the opportunity to give the lower rate if you are earning less currently\, or we encourage to give the higher rate if your business is actually more profitable due to COVID. Many people feel guilty because they are doing well. We encourage you to think about paying it forward.\nThere is also an opportunity to give to the scholarship fund.\n\n\nRegister Now\n\nKaren is such a talented guide. She has the ability to see what you are not seeing and to sense that\, what is not spoken. I felt very safe with her\, to go deep into unexplored areas of my life. She is picking you up\, where you are and takes you on an adventurous journey that is life changing.\nThank you Karen.\nAndreaGermany\nI signed up for a series of Money Coaching sessions with Karen last year along with a team of people I work closely with. I truly believe this was the best thing we could have done. The sessions with Karen provided us with a clear\, safe and supportive place to talk\, open up and work through what was coming up for each of us.\nKaren offered us deep insights on many levels and the generosity of her time\, both inside and outside the sessions. She invested as much in the process as we did. The benefits that it brings are significant – on an interpersonal as well as financial level.\nZoeEngland URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/money-spirituality-online/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Coaching,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/money-and-spirituality-feature.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210517T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210607T210000 DTSTAMP:20251209T095123Z CREATED:20210102T192934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T095123Z UID:9216-1621279800-1623099600@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Discovering Your Buddha Nature: Teachings of Gampopa (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Online Course\nMay 17 – June 7th\, 2021\nMondays: 7:30pm-9:00pm MDT *Click here to see your timezone \nRecordings available for those who cannot attend live\nBonus: Optional Master Class Q&A on Sundays and a Flash Retreat May 28 – 30 \nThe Jewel Ornament of Liberation was written by Gampopa (1074-1153 C.E.).  He shares how all beings have the same essence of Buddha Nature.  How does one realize this? He shares a path. \n\nRegister Now\n\n \nGems of Dharma\ne Gampopa\, Dagpo Rinpoche\, Sonam RinchenSource: Dakini Translations \nGampopa named this contradiction: we both dwell in an amazing human existence with enlightened essence\, while also wandering through the worlds of struggle and suffering. \nWhat is the path through this paradox\, then? In this course\, we will study realities of samsara and nirvana\, based on Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation. \nWe also learn that to be more than who we currently are\, we need to understand more than we currently do. How do we understand cause and effect? What is the role of loving kindness and compassion? \nGampopa with 1st Karmapa\, Dusum Khyenpa. Source: Dakini Translations \nCourse Schedule\nStarts May 17\, 2021\nPLEASE NOTE to deepen and integrate your experience\, we are offering three optional weekly Master Classes during the course and an at-home Flash Retreat at the end. See below for more details. \nClass 1 – Monday\, May 17\, 2021\nHow do we get enlightened? Why wouldn’t we? Gampopa explains different kinds of potential for enlightenment\, and the features of how exactly a precious human existence is the fertile ground for awakening. With this cause and basis for enlightenment\, we look at what a practitioner needs next: a guide. What are the reasons for having a mentor\, and what’s the nature of this relationship?. \nClass 2 – Monday\, May 24\, 2021\nWe review Gampopa’s (and our) perspective on some of the most fundamental aspects of our path: the nature of karma\, the importance of loving kindness and compassion\, and the essential nature of proper refuge. What do these look like in our practice and in our daily lives? We also explore bodhicitta\, the innate potential of a human being to awaken. Sometimes it’s called the desire to awaken: how can we cultivate this? Lastly\, what is the Bodhisattva Vow\, and how do we practice it? \nClass 3 – Monday\, May 31\, 2021\nThe meditations on the Paramita—Six Perfections or Buddhist Virtues—are easily summarized\, but their practice involves a lifetime of living each one more deeply. We look at Gampopa’s descriptions of each Parami (translated here as generosity\, right conduct\, forbearance\, diligence\, meditation\, and wisdom)\, and describe how we can practice them meaningfully in our contemporary lives. This helps us to both awaken further and benefit all beings more. \nClass 4 – Monday\, June 7\, 2021\nOur spiritual paths have different phases: what are they and how do we recognize the road signs? Since we’re practicing the bodhisattva path\, we’ll enrich our experience by getting to know its 10 levels\, and what lies beyond those: Buddhahood. How does a Buddha show up in the universe\, in the different realms? As practitioners we make efforts to benefit all beings; how do Buddhas do it? \n\n \nStudy and Meditation Electives \nMaster Classes – Three Sundays\nThere 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: \n\nSun. May 23\nSun. May 30\nSun. June 6\n\nYou can elect to attend all three or individual dates. \nRegistration & Dana links for Master Classes will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n \nFlash Retreat\nJune 11-13\, 2021\nElect 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. \nThe retreat will include instructions\, online check ins\, and a Master Class on Sunday\, May 30. \nWe 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. \nRegistration and Dana links for the Flash Retreat will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \n\n\nRegister Now\n \nSangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.  \nMeet Your Teachers\nDoug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine 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. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nDoug Duncan Sensei\nCourse Details\nTime and Location\nEach 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. \nStudy and Meditation Opportunities in addition to the classes include Master Classes on three Sundays at 3pm MST\, and a Flash Retreat on June 11-13\, 2021. \nWhat Does the Course Cost?\nWe 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. \nFor 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. \n\n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/discovering-your-buddha-nature/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Discovering-your-Buddha-Nature-feautre.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210527T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210527T180000 DTSTAMP:20251205T084805Z CREATED:20210415T154712Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251205T084805Z UID:10129-1622134800-1622138400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Buddhist Women in the 2020’s (Introduction) DESCRIPTION:Stepping into greater awakening potential\nA Free Online Talk\nMay 27\, 2021\n5:00pm-6:00pm MDT  \n*Click here to see your timezone \nWhile there may be frustration\, grief and rage about historical gender inequity in Buddhism\, we can use Buddhist methodologies to transform these conflicting emotions into greater compassion and wisdom. \nJoin Catherine Pawasarat Sensei for this talk\, hosted by Menla\, on how we can adapt and shift our traditional perceptions of gender as Buddhist practitioners. \nImage: Thangka of Yeshe Tsogyal\, fully awakened consort of Padmasambhava.  © C. Pawasarat \n\n\nRegister Now\n \nPhoto © D. Steinbock\nGender Perceptions in the Buddhist World in the 2020’s\nJoin Catherine Pawasarat Sensei for this one hour class\, a prelude to her weekend course Buddhist Women in the 2020’s. \nclassic Buddhist teachings emerge in the global mainstream\, it adapts to cultures where women enjoy relative equality with men. In such contexts many practitioners may naturally feel that women and men have the same opportunities to awaken. \nHistorically\, however\, birth in a female body was considered the result of bad karma\, and the lowest and youngest monks enjoyed greater formal status than the most realized nun. Western women and men are unlikely to embrace this part of Buddhist tradition. \nThis confluence of cultures presents a transition ripe with opportunity. While there may be frustration\, grief and rage about historical gender inequity in Buddhism\, we can use Buddhist methodologies to transform these conflicting emotions into greater compassion and wisdom. \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\, a contemporary dharma teacher\, attendant\, consort\, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center shares her unique views\, experience\, and practices regarding this contemporary and planetary Triple Gem. \nTime: 5-6pm MST / 7-8PM EST\nLocation: Online \nMeet Your Teacher\nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\nCatherine Pawasarat was a student of metaphysics\, Western spiritual traditions\, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts in Kyoto\, Japan for 20 years. \nSince 1998 she has trained daily with Buddhist teacher Achariya Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that’s rare in the modern West. Transmitted from the remarkable Namgyal Rinpoche\, they are both lineage holders of these teachings. \nWith Doug\, she is co-founder and resident teacher at Clear Sky Retreat Center in the British Columbia Rockies. There Catherine has spearheaded an innovative and sustainability-oriented culture and organization. Together Doug and Catherine also teach through a virtual vehicle\, Planet Dharma. In 2018 they wrote the best-selling book Wasteland to Pureland. \nCatherine has recently written and published the first English guidebook to Kyoto’s famous Gion Festival\, a gigantic collection of ancient and diverse spiritual rituals. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nCourse Details\nFees and Dāna\nThis talk is hosted by Menla Online free of charge. \nWe also invite you to practice generosity\, or Dāna  to Catherine Sensei directly here: Offer Dāna  \nRegistration\nTo attend\, please register via the button below. This free talk and the full course\, Buddhist Women in the 2020’s (June 4-6\, 2021)\, are both hosted by Menla Online. \n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/buddhist-women-2020s-menla-talk/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-05-08-at-5.24.24-PM.png ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210604 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210607 DTSTAMP:20251209T090726Z CREATED:20210415T161214Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T090726Z UID:10174-1622764800-1623023999@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Buddhist Women in the 2020’s (Online Course) DESCRIPTION:NOTE: These recordings can still be accessed as a self-paced course. Links below.\nStepping into greater awakening potential\nWhile there may be frustration\, grief and rage about historical gender inequity in Buddhism\, we can use Buddhist methodologies to transform these conflicting emotions into greater compassion and wisdom. \nJoin Catherine Pawasarat Sensei for this course\, hosted by Menla\, on how we can adapt and shift our traditional perceptions of gender as Buddhist practitioners. \nImage: Thangka of Yeshe Tsogyal\, fully awakened consort of Padmasambhava.  © C. Pawasarat \n \nA Menla Online Course \nBuddhist Women in the 2020’s\nStepping into greater awakening potential\n\nRegister Now (Recordings)\n \nPhoto © D. Steinbock\nGender Perceptions in the Buddhist World in the 2020’s\nAs classic Buddhist teachings emerge in the global mainstream\, it adapts to cultures where women enjoy relative equality with men. In such contexts many practitioners may naturally feel that women and men have the same opportunities to awaken. \nHistorically\, however\, birth in a female body was considered the result of bad karma\, and the lowest and youngest monks enjoyed greater formal status than the most realized nun. Western women and men are unlikely to embrace this part of Buddhist tradition. \nThis confluence of cultures presents a transition ripe with opportunity. While there may be frustration\, grief and rage about historical gender inequity in Buddhism\, we can use Buddhist methodologies to transform these conflicting emotions into greater compassion and wisdom. \nFurthermore\, we can re-examine how different Mahayana and Theravadin practices—from Tantra to celibacy—can foster healthier sexuality. We can use sex scandals and discrimination as part of our practice\, to cultivate more integrated views and relations among all genders. Along the way\, we co-create what global spiritual awakening looks like in the 20th century. \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\, a contemporary dharma teacher\, attendant\, consort\, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center shares her unique views\, experience\, and practices regarding this contemporary and planetary Triple Gem. \nMeet Your Teacher\nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\nCatherine Pawasarat was a student of metaphysics\, Western spiritual traditions\, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts in Kyoto\, Japan for 20 years. \nSince 1998 she has trained daily with Buddhist teacher Achariya Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that’s rare in the modern West. Transmitted from the remarkable Namgyal Rinpoche\, they are both lineage holders of these teachings. \nWith Doug\, she is co-founder and resident teacher at Clear Sky Retreat Center in the British Columbia Rockies. There Catherine has spearheaded an innovative and sustainability-oriented culture and organization. Together Doug and Catherine also teach through a virtual vehicle\, Planet Dharma. In 2018 they wrote the best-selling book Wasteland to Pureland. \nCatherine has recently written and published the first English guidebook to Kyoto’s famous Gion Festival\, a gigantic collection of ancient and diverse spiritual rituals. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nCourse Details\nFees and Dāna\nThis course is offered by the Menla. There are three price tiers:  Sponsor – $150\, Individual – $108 and Reduced – $78. \nRegistration\nTo attend\, please register via the button below. This course and the Buddhist Women in the 2020’s – Introduction (May 27\, 2021) are both hosted by Menla Online. \nDates & Times (Note: all recordings are now available as a self-paced online course)\nFri.\, June 4: 5-6pm MST (7-8pm EST) \nSat.\, June 5: 9-10:30am MST (11am-12:30 EST) \nSat.\, June 5: 2-3:30pm MST (4-5:30pm EST) \nSun.\, June 6: 9-10:30 MST (11am-12:30 EST) \nSun.\, June 6: 2-3:30 MST (4-5:30pm EST) \nLocation: Online \n\nRegister Now (Recordings) URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/buddhist-women-2020s-menla-course/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-05-08-at-5.21.50-PM.png ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210619 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210626 DTSTAMP:20251209T095821Z CREATED:20210102T201811Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T095821Z UID:9346-1624060800-1624665599@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Exploring the Bardo of Now (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Online Meditation Retreat\nJune 19-25\n \nBardos relate to both living and dying\, creating and dissolving.  In 2020\, we collectively had the rug pulled out from underneath us by the COVID-19 virus. During this retreat\, we will investigate the bardos and what they can teach us about life and impermanence. \n* Due to the ever-changing travel restrictions\, globally and in Canada\, this course will now be offered online. \n\nRegister Now\n\n \nExploring the Bardo of Now\nDuring this retreat\, we will investigate the bardos and what they can teach us about ordinary life. We’ll draw on Vajrayana Buddhism\, contemporary psychology and modern exploration practices to learn how to make peace with the bardos and live more fully in the present moment. \nCourse Overview\nWhy a meditation retreat on the Bardos?\nBardos relate to both living and dying\, creating and dissolving.  Bardos can appear at any time\, and may make us feel we have lost all of our stability and reference points. However\, they also offer us an opportunity to explore what is dying and prepare for a new birth. \nBardo study is relevant to people of all ages\, regardless how old they are or how close to dying they are. \nWho is this retreat ideal for?\nThis retreat is ideal for relatively new students who are interested in exploring Buddhist principles that include both Eastern and Western views of death and impermanence. It will appeal to students of the Positive Death movement. Is is also ideal for AIT students who cannot travel to BC as often as they like to\, given the pandemic situation. \nWhat’s expected of me?\n\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new\, meeting new people\, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nWhen exploring our growth edges\, it’s natural to feel uncertain and awkward. And it’s very fruitful to transform that emotional tension into creative energy by drawing on your own inner resources – such as inquiry\, going with the flow\, and self-reflection\, just a few of the many kinds of constructive engagement.\nTo maximize your retreat experience\, we ask that you refrain from reading\, using the internet\, phone or listening to music during the course.\nStudents are expected to be silent during the silent parts of the retreat\, and participate in all classes\, group meditations\, activities\, and discussions.\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister Now\n \nSangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person sangha group to support one another during the course. \nMeet Your Teachers\nDoug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine 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. \nLama Linda (Linda Hochstetler) has studied both mindfulness meditation and Vajrayana Buddhism for more than 20 years. She trained in mindfulness meditation with Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 90’s\, and studied under Namgyal Rinpoche (the first Canadian-born Rinpoche) from 1995 until his death in 2003. She received permission to teach in the Namgyal lineage in 2014\, and currently studies Vajrayana Buddhism with Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. Silent meditation retreats are a central part of her study and practice\, and since 1995\, she has completed retreats of between 1 week and 2 months in length every year. \n \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\n \nDoug Duncan Sensei\n \nLinda Hochstetler\nCourse Details\nClass and Group Meditation Schedule\nMore details coming soon. \nWhat Does the Course Cost?\nThis course is run based on the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. \n\n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/exploring-the-bardo-of-now/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screen-Shot-2021-01-02-at-11.55.40-AM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210619T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210619T160000 DTSTAMP:20251208T065449Z CREATED:20210416T220228Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251208T065449Z UID:10136-1624093200-1624118400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Come to your Senses: A Day to Practice Deep Mindfulness (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nJune 19\, 2021\n9:00am-4:00pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nLife is busy.  Every day your senses are bombarded with a constant stream of incoming data as you face the demands of work\, family\, finances and health.  While navigating through life’s daily challenges it can be difficult to pause and take a breath\, to smell the roses\, to rest in the moment.  Join this one day online retreat and develop deep mindfulness practices to stay grounded in the midst of life’s busyness.\n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share this course that is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully.\n \nWhether you work in the healthcare field or the business world.\nWhether you are self-employed or work in a large organization.\nWhether you are part of a family or are living alone.\nIf you want to learn skills to be sustained and nurtured in the work you do\, this one day\, 7 hour online retreat is for you.  In one day you will learn how to release tension in your system and gain calm through focused concentration.\n \nCourse Details \nWhat you can expect\nIn this course you will:\n\n\nLearn ancient and effective practices that use the senses of taste\, touch\, sight and sound to develop calm and focus.  These are practices you can use anywhere to tune into your senses and develop Deep Mindfulness.\n\n\nPractice with others who share similar concerns and challenges and who also want to stay centered within themselves.\n\n\nBecome more aware of how to maintain health and wellbeing in yourself even in the midst of life’s busyness.\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith\nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher.\nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings.\nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading.\nDean Nicholson\nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDate: June 19\, 2021\nTime: 9:00am – 4:00pm MT\nCost: $100 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/come-to-your-senses-a-day-to-practice-deep-mindfulness-online/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-05-08-at-5.26.59-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210709 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210717 DTSTAMP:20251209T100002Z CREATED:20210117T013556Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T100002Z UID:9386-1625788800-1626479999@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Summer Meditation Retreat: Breathing 2021 DESCRIPTION:Summer Meditation Retreat: Breathing (Online)\nBreathing. You can’t beat it\, for life\, and as a meditation practice. \nBreathing meditation is suitable for all types of people.  It develops\, concentration\, calm\, bliss and insight – altogether leading to awakening and healing. \nThis meditation retreat will be held online and led by Achariya Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei from the Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. \n\n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n\n \nCOVID-19 RESPONSE\nOur main priority is to offer a retreat that is accessible and supports your health and safety. Due to current  COVID-19 health restrictions\, we are offering  this retreat online from our home to yours. \nSee our FAQ section below for more details about our covid policy and requirements for attending online. \nSettling the Mind\, Cultivating Concentration\nA guiding text for this retreat will be the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta\, or discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness\, which has been described as the most profound discourse the Buddha ever gave on mental development. \nThis simple yet powerful framework will extend your meditation experience to everything from subatomic particles to the vastness of space\, and all that’s between. \nWhile we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening\, there’s no substitute for the power of one’s own profound experience of truth\, gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching. \nBasic requirements to do the retreat online: \n\nBlock out the week and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\n\n\n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nAchariya Doug Duncan Sensei & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei has trained daily with Achariya 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. \n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n \nWhat can I expect?\nOur teachings and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of Dāna or generosity. As generosity is the basis upon which all spiritual practice flourishes\, we recommend that you learn more about this profound practice before you register. \nWhat’s Expected of Me?\n\nThis meditation retreat consists of many hours of consecutive practice each day. Therefore some experience\, especially with insight meditation\, is highly recommended.\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new.  We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nThis is a silent retreat. To deepen your meditation\, we ask that participants refrain from reading\, using the internet\, phone or listening to music during the course.\n\n\n\n \nRetreat schedule:\n(Time Zone: MST\, subject to change) \n\n6:00 – 7:00am: Group Meditation (optional)\n9:30am  – 11am:  Class with Teachers (there will be a Prajnaparamita empowerment at this time on Friday\, July 16th)\n2:00 – 3:00pm: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers\n\nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nTo 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! \n\n\n \nFAQs\nDana and Online Retreat Pricing \nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nPricing: In order to bring you this retreat at home\, there is an additional pay by the heart\, sliding scale admin fee* of $200-$700. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online. \nHow Much to Give? A short exercise: \n\nTake a few quiet breaths and center yourself.\nSpend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health\, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)\nOffer an aspiration (using the below\, or your own words).May this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.\nMay this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.\nMay this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.\nThis gift\, myself the giver\, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously\, for the benefit of all beings!\nNow check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation\, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember\, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.\nNow simply\, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening\, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life\, enter the amount you choose to offer.\n\nAbout the administrative fee \nIn 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. \nWe’ve tried to recreate this approach online.\nThe 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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here. \nThe 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. \nBelow are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting: \n\nhigh speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)\nonline class systems (Zoom)\nregistration / admin systems (Eventbrite\, Basecamp)\ncommunication systems to keep everyone informed\, share connection details\, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)\nonline 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)\nquality 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.\nonline calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews\nwebsite hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses\, teachings\, blogs and other resources.\n\nMay all our efforts be sustainable\, abundant and for the benefit of all beings! \nWe welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact michelle@clearskycenter.org \nOnline Retreat Requirements \nIf you are taking this retreat online\, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week. \nOnline Retreat Requirements: \n\nBlock out the one week and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\nArrival & Departure \nThe retreat starts at 9:30am MT on Friday\, July 9th and ends at 3pm MT on Friday\, July 16th. \n\nRetreat at Home (Online) URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/summer-meditation-retreat-breathing/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screen-Shot-2021-01-16-at-5.19.11-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210806 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210813 DTSTAMP:20210417T222216Z CREATED:20201114T234048Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210417T222216Z UID:9219-1628208000-1628812799@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Tantric Deep Dive: A Week of Empowerments DESCRIPTION:**COVID 19 UPDATE: The Tantric Deep Dive retreat will be modified for online empowerments\, due to travel restrictions. And\, the 16th Anniversary celebrations will be held online.\n  \n \nIn Vajrayana Buddhism\, initiations\, empowerments or wongkur (Tib. དབང་\, wang) are considered the spring from which all blessings flow. Join us for a week of twelve initiations\, followed by a weekend of joy to celebrate our 16th anniversary. \n  \nA week of Vajrayana Initiations and Clear Sky’s 16th Anniversary\nNot only is 2021 Doug Duncan Sensei’s 71st year\, it is also our 16th anniversary!  To celebrate\, we invite you to join us for a week of rarely given vajrayana initiations / empowerments\, followed by a weekend of sangha celebrations. \n  \nRegister for Tantric Deep Dive\n  \nRegister for Tantric Deep Dive + 16th Anniversary Celebration\n  \n \nWhat are Vajrayana Empowerments\, Initiations and Wongkur?\nNamgyal Rinpoche\, our lineage root guru\, put it best: \nIn the depth of the psyche lie all possibilities in a state of unrealized potential. In every being there exists the possibility of experiencing transcendental consciousness\, which when the student is ready\, the Teacher(s) can make accessible to him or her via empowerment\, initiation\, or wongkur. \nOne should regard Wongkur as an event in which the Lama sows the seed of transcendental consciousness in the depth of the student. The seed will lie in the unconscious until the student brings it to realization in the practice of meditation. \nWhy a Week of Empowerments?\nDetails about the new online schedule will be coming soon. \nDoug and Catherine Sensei will be offering a total of twelve empowerments during this celebration week.  They have chosen to do so\, to honour lineage\, and to sow the seeds for future realization.  Many of the initiations given will be rare empowerments that they have not given recently. \nThere will be two empowerments a day\, with practice time in between. It will be a busy\, bustling\, engaging\, immersive and quite frankly incredible week. \n  \nMeet the Teachers\n \nDoug 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. \n \nCourse Details\nFees and Dāna\nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nCost: 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. More information about cost is coming soon. \nDaily Schedule\nMore specific details about the new online schedule are coming soon. \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nHere are some FAQs on how to get here\, what to bring and what to expect.  \nTo 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! \n \nRegister for Tantric Deep Dive\n  \nRegister for Tantric Deep Dive + 16th Anniversary Celebration\n  URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/tantric-deep-dive-a-week-of-empowerments-2021/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/dharma-10anniversary-CS-crop.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210813 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210816 DTSTAMP:20251209T085656Z CREATED:20210123T185007Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T085656Z UID:9227-1628812800-1629071999@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Clear Sky's Sweet 16 & Tantric Empowerments DESCRIPTION:Celebration & Tantric Empowerments\nThree Vajrayana Empowerments\nIt’s time to pull off our masks\, give each other a hug and come together in celebration. \nCountless hands have contributed to building our incredible center. It is with deep gratitude that we invite you to join us in celebration\, connection and growth. \nJoin us for a weekend of Tantric Empowerments and community connection as we celebrate our past\, present and future. \nImportant Note: \nRegistration closes August 3rd for people staying at Clear Sky. \nRegistration closes August 10th for people joining online. \n\n \nThree Ways to Attend\nIn-Person Weekend Celebration \nWe’re open again – join in-person at Clear Sky! \nThe weekend includes: \n\nThree Wong Kur Empowerments at 4pm MT on Friday\, Saturday and Sunday;\nSpecial presentations from Qapel and Sensei on our Past\, Present and Future;\nJapanese cocktail party;\nDance Party;\nQuality time with our Teachers and community.\n\n\n\nIn-Person Registration Closed\n \nOnline Weekend Celebration \nIf you’re unable to travel\, we are using an interactive online platform to help you feel part of the festivities. \nThe weekend includes: \n\nThree Online Wong Kur Empowerments at 4pm MT on Friday\, Saturday and Sunday;\nSpecial presentations from Qapel and Sensei on our Past\, Present and Future;\n24-hour Online Shrine Room to practice with our global community;\nOnline Dance Party and Cocktail Party.\n\n\n\nRegister for Online Weekend\n \nOnline Empowerments Only \n\nRegister for one or all three of the Wong Kur Empowerments held at 4pm MT on Friday\, Saturday and Sunday.\n\n\nGreen Tara Empowerment\n\n\nAmitayus Empowerment\n\n\nVajrapani Hayagriva Garuda Empowerment\n\n \nWeekend Schedule\nThe following activities are available in-person and online.  Note: Some times may be subject to slight changes.  \nFriday\, August 13th \n\nArrival time: 11am Friday August 13th (onsite participants)\n4pm Green Tara Empowerment\n7:30pm Anniversary Opening and Japanese Cocktail Party with the Teachers.\n\nSaturday\, August 14th \n\n9:30am-11:30am MST: Catherine Sensei presenting on the History of Clear Sky\n4pm Amitayus Empowerment\n7:30pm: Community Sharing Open Mic\n8:30pm: Dancing\n\nSunday\, August 15th \n\n9:30-11:00am: Looking to the Future – Community visioning and temple update.\n4pm Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda Empowerment\nCelebrations officially end with the wongkur on Sunday afternoon. There is also the option to stay for dinner.\n\nOnline Participants Wongkur Orientation \n\n2pm MST (Tentative. Time to be confirmed) before each wongkur on Friday\, Saturday and Sunday.\n24 hour online practice rooms will be available.\n\nParticipants coming onsite for empowerments only \n\nPlease register online and arrive by 3pm MST before each empowerment. Please also call 250-429-3929 to confirm we have received your registration.\n\nWhat is a Wong Kur Empowerment?\n“In the depth of the psyche lie all possibilities in a state of unrealized potential. In every being there exists the possibility of experiencing transcendental consciousness\, which when the student is ready\, the Teacher(s) can make accessible to him or her via empowerment\, initiation\, or wongkur.” -Namgyal Rinpoche \nEmpowerments give you an energetic blessing\, and access to practice mantra and visualisation of different transcendental archetypes from the Himalayan schools of Buddhism. \nThis retreat will empower you to practice: \n\nGreen Tara (Friday\, August 13 at 4pm MT);\nAmitayus (Saturday\, August 14 at 4pm MT);\nVajrapani Hayagriva Garuda (Healing Triad) (Sunday\, August 15 at 4pm MT)\n\nWhat if I Haven’t Attended an Empowerment Before? \nThese are special ceremonies that are best experienced in person\, therefore we welcome new people to join us in person. \nHowever\, if you can only attend online\,  we ask that you have attended events with us in the past\, or have some experience with vajrayana deity practice. \nWe also ask that you read the following text before your arrival: What is Wong Kur?  \n\n \nOur Founding Teachers\nDoug 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. \n\n \nFAQs\nDana and In-Person Retreat Pricing \nDana: 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. \nPricing: 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. \nArrival & Departure \nArrival is Friday\, August 13th at 11:30am. \nDeparture is Sunday\, August 15th at 7:30pm. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \nDaily Schedule \nDetails coming soon. \nAbout Us\nLocated 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. \nHere are some FAQs on how to get here\, what to bring and what to expect.  \nTo 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! URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/sweet-sixteen-and-tantric-empowerments/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Sweet-Sixteen-Square.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210821 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210901 DTSTAMP:20251209T094422Z CREATED:20210702T232120Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T094422Z UID:11330-1629504000-1630454399@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Dzogchen Meditation Retreat: Online DESCRIPTION:Opening to the Clear Light of the Mind\n(Online Retreat / In Person At Clear Sky / UK Residential)\nBeneath the confusion and distraction of our minds\, the Mind itself is empty\, spontaneous\, and compassionate. The practice of Dzogchen helps us cut right through the confusion to this original\, pure\, and luminous nature of Mind. \nThis retreat\, with meditation masters Acharya Doug Duncan And Catherine Pawasarat Sensei\, is for any meditator looking to go deeper to the essence of practice. \n\n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n \nThis retreat is a collaboration between the dedicated teams at Planet Dharma\, Dharma Europe\, and Clear Sky. \nOrganiziers Dharma Europe invited our founding teachers Doug and Catherine Sensei to teach\, and due to travel restrictions the retreat became an online offering\, streaming live from Clear Sky. \nYou can also attend in person at Clear Sky and do a residential retreat in the UK\, please see below for more information. \n** See our FAQ section below for more details about our covid policy and requirements for attending online. \nDzogchen –\nThe Natural State\nThe direct teachings of Dzogchen offer a refreshing clarity amidst the confusion of our times\, when a myriad of teachings and techniques surround us. \nThe Core Texts\n\n Three Words that Strike the Vital Point offer one of the principal teachings of the practice of Dzogchen\, the Great Perfection.\nPatrul Rinpoche’s Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King\, with commentary\, is treasured as one of the most crucial instructions in the practice of Dzogchen. It’s pith teachings give simple yet deeply profound guidance on directly recognizing the mind’s innate purity and clarity\nFrom daily life to Dzogchen can be a sudden step\, so as well as the teachings of the Three Words\, the Teachers will draw on another key text: the ‘Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness\,’ a treatise by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche\, to help gain a deeper understanding.\n\nWhy do a Retreat on Dzogchen?\nRelaxing the mind\, dropping words\, the practice leads us towards an experience of profound openness. New perspectives can arise from this place of clarity and origin. We gain confidence\, founded on our own direct experience that wisdom and compassion are possible\, and in fact an inherent part of our nature. \nAs we learn to rest more and more in this inherent nature of mind\, we bring this experience of openness into every moment\, transforming how we live and act. \nDrawing on decades of personal practice and teaching experience\, Acharya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei will lead you with practical experiential exercises and humour\, and explore the nature of Mind beyond the surface confusions. \n\n \nAttend the Retreat Online (from home)\, or in Person in Canada or in the UK\n1) Online Attendance\n        Basic requirements to do the retreat online from home:\n\nBlock out the 10 days and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\n2) Residential Retreat in the UK\n        Attending in person at Maitreya House\n\nMaitreya House is a beautiful retreat centre located in the golden valley\, a remote part of Herefordshire\, near the Welsh border in the United Kingdom.\nLearn more about the retreat location: Maitreya House.\nThere will be appropriate Covid 19 protocols followed on this retreat – with numbers limited to 12 people at Maitreya House.\nThe retreat is hosted by Dharma Europe.\nThe teachers and Dharma Europe operate on the basis of the ancient tradition of dāna or generosity. Please learn more about this profound practice before you register.\n\nFor UK and general enquiries contact Jonathan Clifford\,\ndharmaeurope@outlook.com +44 7891 621865 \n3) In Person at Clear Sky\nIf you are local to Clear Sky in BC\, Canada you may also choose to be onsite in person\, where the teachers are.  We invite you to book a personal retreat cabin for the duration of the retreat.  See here for details.  Or contact us the Clear Sky team to discuss other options. \n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nAchariya Doug Duncan Sensei & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei has trained daily with Achariya 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. \n\nRetreat at Home (Online)\n \nWhat can I expect?\nOur teachings and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of Dāna or generosity. As generosity is the basis upon which all spiritual practice flourishes\, we recommend that you learn more about this profound practice before you register. \nWhat’s Expected of Me?\n\nThis meditation retreat consists of many hours of consecutive practice each day. Therefore some experience\, especially with insight meditation\, is highly recommended.\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new.  We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nThis is a silent retreat. To deepen your meditation\, we ask that participants refrain from reading\, using the internet\, phone or listening to music during the course.\n\n\n \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nTo 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! \n\n\n \nFAQs\nDana and Online Retreat Pricing \nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nPricing: \n\nOnline Retreatant Admin Fee: CA$250\nUK Residential Admin Fee CA$250 (Approx £150) plus\nUK  Residential Fees £550 (Inc. Food & Accommodation)\n\nTeachers receive no income from these administration fees. They offer their teaching on the basis of generosity\, or Dāna\, which you will have an opportunity to give when you register. \nHow Much to Give? A short exercise: \n\nTake a few quiet breaths and center yourself.\nSpend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health\, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)\nOffer an aspiration (using the below\, or your own words).May this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.\nMay this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.\nMay this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.\nThis gift\, myself the giver\, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously\, for the benefit of all beings!\nNow check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation\, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember\, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.\nNow simply\, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening\, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life\, enter the amount you choose to offer.\n\nAbout the administrative fee \nIn 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. \nWe’ve tried to recreate this approach online.\nThe 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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here. \nThe 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. \nBelow are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting: \n\nhigh speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)\nonline class systems (Zoom)\nregistration / admin systems (Eventbrite\, Basecamp)\ncommunication systems to keep everyone informed\, share connection details\, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)\nonline 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)\nquality 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.\nonline calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews\nwebsite hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses\, teachings\, blogs and other resources.\n\nMay all our efforts be sustainable\, abundant and for the benefit of all beings! \nWe welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact michelle@clearskycenter.org \nOnline Retreat Requirements \nIf you are taking this retreat online\, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire two weeks. \nOnline Retreat Requirements: \n\nBlock out the full period of retreat and be focused on the retreat for this entire time\, participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\nCOVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nIn 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. \nAfter the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \n\nRetreat at Home (Online) URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/dzogchen-meditation-retreat-aug-2021/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-Events-Square-Graphics.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210911T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211016T120000 DTSTAMP:20251209T100257Z CREATED:20210725T234655Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T100257Z UID:11727-1631354400-1634385600@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Integrating Mindfulness: Tools for Holistic Living (Online or In-Person) DESCRIPTION:A Six-Week Course (Online or In-Person at Clear Sky)September 11 – October 16\, 2021Saturdays: 10:00am-12:00pm MDT *Click here to see your timezone Recordings available for those who cannot attend live \n Register Now \nThere may have been a time when mindfulness apps\, guided meditations or regular yoga classes were relaxing. Yet for many\, those are not enough anymore.     \nWith all that’s happening in the world\, how do we collectively come up for air?   \nThis course is for those who feel exhausted\, distracted or disconnected; those who want to find meaning and embrace their life fully.  It is to help integrate and apply mindfulness in your life\, for your own sustainability and happiness.  To be able to be of better service to those around you and to our planet.   \nNOTE: This course can be attended online or in-person at Clear Sky. \n \nNavigating the complexities of today’s world requires more than just feeling good at a yoga class or in a meditation retreat. \nIn order to maintain a sense of purpose and connection\, we have to learn how to embody mindfulness while spending eight hours on the computer\, while thinking about our planet’s future or while navigating the pressures of daily life.  \nIntegrating Mindfulness helps you apply the power of awareness to your life\, and to cultivate a supportive container for personal sustainability.  Then you can live the change you wish to see. \n Register Now \nMindfulness\, Integrated\nBy mindfulness\, we mean the natural power of awareness we all have\, and the approaches that help us cultivate this in daily life. \nMindfulness helps to slow down racing thoughts\, distractions and negative emotions.  Becoming more present and aware is like turning on a light so we can see better.  And when we really start seeing what is happening in our bodies\, emotions\, minds\, relationships and environment\, we have the freedom to make transformative change. \nFlourishing in our distracted and difficult world relies on bringing awareness to the people and things that nourish us\, letting go of what doesn’t\, and creating a container to protect our happiness and life-energy. \nThis course helps with: \n\nStrengthening your mindfulness or meditation practice;\nApplying the power of awareness to:\n\nExperience more calm and clarity;\nDevelop a supportive environment\, and healthy consciously-chosen structures and routines in your daily life;\nBring awareness and transformative change to big areas of your life that may be draining energy – concerns about your future\, money\, time management\, etc;\nCultivate more meaningful conversations and connections in your relationships and community.\n\n\nIntegrating mindfulness into your life to create supportive structures that help you stay balanced\, protect your happiness and support your year-round growth. \n\nBased on Clear Sky’s Five Principles\, Integrating Mindfulness helps you build a sustainable meditation practice that permeates your body\, career\, relationships and all other areas of your life.  \nYou can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below. \n Get the pdf now – Five Principles of a Mindful Container \n\n“Mindfulness is like turning on a light in a dark room. The power of awareness lets us see what is there – in our bodies\, emotions\, mind\, workplaces\, homes and relationships. Seeing what is there gives us the freedom and the courage to make deeply impactful changes. I’ve found it helps craft our lives\, environment and structures in a way that deeply supports connection and growth”. \nDuncan Cryle\n\nCourse Outline\nUsing the Five Principles\, Integrating Mindfulness teaches you how to apply mindfulness across all areas of your life\, and to create an environment that supports you physically\, mentally and emotionally. The course includes meditations\, exercises and community check-ins. \nWeek 1: Creating a supportive space for your growth; \nWeek 2: Transforming habit and making friends with structure; \nWeek 3: Quieting the monkey mind; \nWeek 4: Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy; \nWeek 5: The power of mindfulness for real and lasting change; \nWeek 6: Community and transforming our relationships with others. \n \n\n“Deep transformational growth is really supported by having a container\, a supportive structure around us. I feel like we’re so disembodied today in our technological culture that this is my little kindness to myself in saying ‘hello body\, you’re part of my day.'” \nKaren McAllister\n\nMeet the Teachers\n \nKaren McAllister\nAs Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development\, I’m passionate about 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 center 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!” \nIn my free time\, I love travelling\, speaking Portuguese and reading history\, architecture and art books. \nDuncan Cryle\nThrough 30+ years of personal practice and 15+ teaching meditation and mindfulness\, alongside an active career working all over the world\, I’ve learnt a lot about an integrating mindfulness into daily life.  As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004\, I’m amazed at the power of a beautiful\, natural and dedicated space for supporting people to deepen their meditation and feel more connected.  Alongside. my Clear Sky work\, I hold a director position at a large software company where I also run a volunteer global mindfulness program to 1000s employees.  I was formerly one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness movement.  I’m passionate about how mindfulness-based approaches can transform how we live and work together\, and be of better service in the world. \n Register Now \nWhat Previous Students Are Saying\n \n\n“I think this course is a beautiful\, utterly grounded and relevant way of making the spiritual life very real and integrated with how we are living every day of our lives. It lays an important foundation for a meditation practice that can actually go somewhere and lead to a well-rounded and truly fulfilling life.” \nRuth – Embodied in Motion\n\n \n\n“It’s really\, really brought me back home to myself. I found myself in the past very scattered and would put off all the important things\, the spiritual aspects of life\, the mindfulness and so on\, just to blast through my day and get things done\, but now I am really taking pause. I still don’t get everything done\, but I don’t get everything done in a much more calm and soulful way.” \nEmmanuel – ActionAid Brasil\n\nCourse Cost\n \nWe offer this course on the basis of dāna.  If you’re not familiar with dāna\, you may have come across related approaches such as “pay from the heart.” \nWithin this model\, we are offering this course on a sliding scale from $120-360 CAD. \nDāna is a Sanskrit term that translates as “generosity” in English. The practice of generosity is central to spiritual unfoldment\, whatever path you follow. In our own Buddhist lineage\, teachings have always been given on the basis of dāna\, and we are committed to this practice and its development in the West. \nDāna is a radical and – we believe – viable economic alternative to capitalism. 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. \n \n \nTo help you choose an amount that feels right for you\, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.  \nIt’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. \n Register Now [wufoo username=”5principles” formhash=”ze64plr0w2w6oi” autoresize=”true” height=”786″ header=”show” ssl=”true”] URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/integrating-mindfulness-tools-for-holistic-living-online/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Coaching,Group Retreats,Integrating Mindfulness,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Integrating-Mindfulness-Feature.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210918T133000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210918T163000 DTSTAMP:20251212T073443Z CREATED:20220305T235441Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251212T073443Z UID:14886-1631971800-1631982600@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Come to your Senses: A Day to Practice Deep Mindfulness DESCRIPTION:A Clear Sky Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nMay 14\, 2022\n1:30pm-4:30pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nLife is busy.  Every day you face demands from work\, family\, finances\, health.  While navigating through life’s daily challenges it can be difficult to pause and take a breath\, to smell the roses\, to rest in the moment.  Join us live and in-person at the Clear Sky Meditation Center to reset. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share this course that is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully. \n \nWhether you work in the healthcare field or the business world.\nWhether you are self-employed or work in a large organization.\nWhether you are part of a family or are living alone.\nIf you want to learn skills to feel calm and focused at work and at home\, this 3 hour in-person retreat is for you.  Taking place at the beautiful Clear Sky Meditation Center\, you will learn how to release tension in your system and develop calm through focused concentration on the body’s five senses.\n \nCourse Details\nWhat you can expect\nIn this course you will:\n\n\nLearn ancient and effective meditation practices that use the senses of taste\, touch\, sight and sound.  These are simple practices you can use anywhere to tune into your senses and develop Deep Mindfulness.\n\n\nBe with others who share similar concerns and challenges and who want to learn how to stay centered within themselves.\n\n\nBecome more aware of how to maintain health and wellbeing in yourself regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.\n\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith\nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Clear Sky Meditation Center\nDate: May 14\, 2022\nTime: 1:30pm -4:30pm MT\nCost: $50 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK\nI appreciated the longer meditations in all the senses.\nAlthough I have been engaged in guided meditations fairly consistently for 2 years plus; having your support really helped me to ‘stretch out’.\nDoug P. URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/come-to-your-senses-a-day-to-practice-deep-mindfulness-2/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Group Retreats ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Come-to-Your-Senses-Crystal-Ball.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Alive Mindfully":MAILTO:dean@alivemindfully.ca END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210925 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20211003 DTSTAMP:20251206T090513Z CREATED:20210806T032248Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251206T090513Z UID:12039-1632528000-1633219199@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Seven Rays of Healing with Medicine Buddha (Online + CS & Germany Residential) DESCRIPTION:Seven Rays of Healing with Medicine Buddha\n(Online Retreat / In Person At Clear Sky / Germany Residential)\n**Covid-19 Update: This retreat now has three retreat options – live at Clear Sky\, live in Germany\, or as an online retreatant \nThis retreat is an opportunity\, for any meditator\, of any level\, to go deeper to the essence of healing. Through the Seven Rays of Healing (from the Western Mysteries traditions) and sense based meditations\, discover how to experience deeper foundations of vitality and health. \n\n\nRegister Now\n \nThis retreat is a collaboration between the dedicated teams at Planet Dharma\, Dharma Europe\, and Clear Sky. \nOrganiziers Dharma Europe invited our founding teachers Doug and Catherine Sensei to teach\, and due to travel restrictions the retreat became an online offering\, streaming live from Clear Sky. \nYou can also attend in person at Clear Sky or do a residential retreat in Germany\, please see below for more information. \n** See our FAQ section below for more details about our covid policy and requirements for attending online. \nSeven Rays of Healing with Medicine Buddha\nHow can we heal? How can we feel healthy and whole? \nEvery wisdom tradition around the world holds that true healing comes through an understanding of the nature of reality. Part of this entails learning to discern between—and dance together with—both absolute reality and relative reality. \nThe true challenge of a human life is to be able to live\, work\, love\, and dance in both relative and absolute reality at the same time. One or the other takes the foreground or background as appropriate. The system of the Seven Rays of Healing helps us understand the true nature of relative reality\, while bridging to absolute reality. Then we are ready to experience absolute reality\, primarily through the methodology of meditation. \nWhat Are The Seven Rays of Healing?\nThe Seven Rays of Healing use the chakra system of ancient India combined with aspects of Theosophical philosophy. This system helps us understand the different ways we manifest in the world. Moreover\, it helps us learn how to reorient our approach and engagement with the parts of our lives represented by the seven rays\, to embody greater love\, compassion and understanding. In other words\, it helps us learn to realize our spiritual essence. \nUsing meditation\, creative\, and somatic exercises\, we’ll bring relative and absolute realities together within one’s own being\, to manifest the heart and mind of spiritual realization. \nMedicine Buddha Empowerment\nOn the last day of the retreat\, there will also be a special Medicine Buddha empowerment given. According to Mahayana teachings\, the Medicine Buddha cures all diseases\, including those of ignorance. Its function is to free living beings from the three mental poisons\, hatred\, greed and confusion. \nThis is your opportunity to meet and study with Dharma Teachers and Spiritual Mentors\, Qapel and Sensei. \nThis retreat will be held in the heart of Germany\, in Schannenbach\, 60km from Frankfurt and Heidelburg\, as well at our magnificent Clear Sky Retreat Centre\, Canada and Online. \n\n\n\n \nAttend the Retreat Online (from home)\, or in Person in Canada or in Germany\n1) Online Attendance\n        Basic requirements to do the retreat online from home:\n\nBlock out the 8 days and be focused on the retreat for this entire period\, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\n2) Residential Retreat in the UK\n        Attending in person at Maitreya House\n\nThe retreat in Germany will be held at a lovely place called “Haus Sonnentau” which means “House Sundew”\nThere will be appropriate Covid 19 protocols followed on this retreat.\nThe retreat is hosted by Dharma Europe.\nThe teachers and Dharma Europe operate on the basis of the ancient tradition of dāna or generosity. Please learn more about this profound practice before you register.\n\nTo register for the in person retreat in Germany please email Andrea Netscher at andreaomtare@me.com. \n3) In Person at Clear Sky\nIf you are local to Clear Sky in BC\, Canada you may also choose to be onsite in person\, where the teachers are.  We invite you to book a personal retreat cabin for the duration of the retreat. \nIf you are interested to join this retreat in person at Clear Sky Centre\, Click here to contact Michelle or call 1-250-505-6366 \n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nAchariya Doug Duncan Sensei & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre\, BC\, Canada. \nAchariya 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. \nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei has trained daily with Achariya 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. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWhat can I expect?\nCourse Details\nDāna\nThis course is offered by Qapel & Sensei based on the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. 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 their joy to offer this course\, and we trust you’ll match their time\, energy\, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy. \nDaily Schedule\n\nDaily Class & Teachings: 5pm in Germany\, 9am MST\nMeditation (Q&A) : 10.00pm in Germany\, 2.00pm MST\n\nFees\n\nOnline Retreatant Admin Fee: CA$200 (approx € 135)\nGermany Residential Fee: €695 (includes Food\, Accommodation & technical support).\nClear Sky Residential Fees (Incl. Food & Accomodation – please contact Clear Sky via the registration button below.\n\nTeachers receive no income from these administration fees. They offer their teaching on the basis of generosity\, or Dāna\, which you will have an opportunity to give when you register. \n\n\n \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nTo 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! \n\n\n \nFAQs\nDana and Online Retreat Pricing \nDana: This course is offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity\, or Dāna. Learn more about Dāna here. \nPricing: \n\nOnline Retreatant Admin Fee: CA$200 (approx € 135)\nGermany Residential Fee: €695 (includes Food\, Accommodation & technical support).\nClear Sky Residential Fees (Incl. Food & Accomodation – please contact Clear Sky via the registration button below.\n\nTeachers receive no income from these administration fees. They offer their teaching on the basis of generosity\, or Dāna\, which you will have an opportunity to give when you register. \nHow Much to Give? A short exercise: \n\nTake a few quiet breaths and center yourself.\nSpend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health\, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)\nOffer an aspiration (using the below\, or your own words).May this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.\nMay this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.\nMay this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.\nThis gift\, myself the giver\, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously\, for the benefit of all beings!\nNow check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation\, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember\, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.\nNow simply\, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening\, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life\, enter the amount you choose to offer.\n\nAbout the administrative fee \nIn 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. \nWe’ve tried to recreate this approach online.\nThe 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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here. \nThe 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. \nBelow are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting: \n\nhigh speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)\nonline class systems (Zoom)\nregistration / admin systems (Eventbrite\, Basecamp)\ncommunication systems to keep everyone informed\, share connection details\, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)\nonline 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)\nquality 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.\nonline calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews\nwebsite hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses\, teachings\, blogs and other resources.\n\nMay all our efforts be sustainable\, abundant and for the benefit of all beings! \nWe welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact michelle@clearskycenter.org \nOnline Retreat Requirements \nIf you are taking this retreat online\, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire two weeks. \nOnline Retreat Requirements: \n\nBlock out the full period of retreat and be focused on the retreat for this entire time\, participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person.  This includes a rigorous\, full\, daily meditation schedule.\nParticipate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.\nSet up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat\, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.\nPut away your phone\, digital devices and other distractions.\nIf there are enough people in the same time zone as you\, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.\n\nCOVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nIn 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. \nAfter the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/seven-ray-of-healing/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Seven-Rays-of-Healing-Feature.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20211005T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211026T203000 DTSTAMP:20251212T072610Z CREATED:20210805T130624Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251212T072610Z UID:11795-1633460400-1635280200@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Beyond Coping (Online and In-Person) DESCRIPTION:An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nOctober 5 – 26\, 2021\nTuesdays at 7:00-8:30pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nAs workers in the caregiving professions\, we all face the challenges of heavy work loads and increasingly complex demands. While managing the daily challenges it can be difficult to feel rejuvenated and connected to the passion you have for your work. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share that this course is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully. \n \nBeyond Coping gives you the opportunity to connect with others who understand the stresses of the work you do. Take this opportunity to ground and strengthen yourself while creating a new and generative passion for your work. \nIn this course you will explore the deeper reasons that you are both enlivened and challenged in your work. You will learn simple and sustainable mindfulness tools to leverage your natural capabilities developing new areas of growth. You will discover how to remain committed to the work you do in a way that is generative and nurturing. \n \nCourse Details\nWho This Course is For: \nIf you are in a caregiving profession and you want to learn skills to be generative and nurtured in the work you do\, this four week course is designed for you. \nWhat Can I Expect?\n\nIn this course you will learn essential tools to develop Deep Mindfulness.\nYou will have the support of like minded colleagues who share similar concerns and challenges and want to stay engaged and enlivened in their work.\nYou will become more aware of perspectives and habits that you keep in place even as you try to change and grow.\nYou will learn how the Freedom Tree training is your key to decreasing the unconscious reactions driving your thinking and behaviour.\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith \nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in health care.  Dean has facilitated hundreds of therapy groups\, is an educator and popular speaker.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nFor fun Dean enjoys music\, film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: October 5 – 26\, 2021\nTime: Tuesdays from 7-8:30pm MDT\nCost: $200 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/beyond-coping-online/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Beyond-Coping-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20211025T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211115T210000 DTSTAMP:20251209T102732Z CREATED:20210124T010228Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T102732Z UID:9445-1635190200-1637010000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Zen Online Course DESCRIPTION:Zen Online Course\nMondays: 7:30pm-9:00pm MDT\n \nOctober 25-November 15\, 2021 \n\nRecordings available \nIncludes optional Master Classes and a Home Flash Retreat  \nA Four Week Online Course| Starts October 25\, 2021\nZen-style spiritual realization enters the land of paradoxes. Have you noticed that the ego doesn’t like paradoxes?  Join us for the third online course of 2021\, on Zen. \n\n\nRegister Now\n\n \nZen – An Online Course\nSpiritual awakening consists of the embodied realization that the ego—our sense of a personal self—is overlaid on top of our direct experience of things as they are. And as such distorts our perception of reality. In fact\, with awakening we realize that the ego isn’t necessary for happiness and can often obstruct it. \nIt sounds so simple. And teachings about it fill thousands of volumes of texts. \nBut the Buddha himself tried to share with his students this very simple\, direct path that goes from ego struggle to its release\, awakening. \nHow did the Buddha describe it? He merely held up a lotus flower\, in silence. \nWhile most of the attending students waited patiently for the Buddha to begin teaching\, the arahat Mahākāśyapa smiled. He was the only one who understood that the flower was the teaching. As a result of his direct perception\, he’s considered the first patriarch of Zen. \n \nMeet the Teachers\n\n \nAchariya Doug Duncan Sensei & 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. \n\nRegister Now\n \nCourse Schedule\nPLEASE NOTE to deepen and integrate your experience\, we are offering three optional weekly Master Classes during the course and an at-home Flash Retreat at the end. See below for more details. \n*We also highly recommend you consider participating in the full Zen Meditation Retreat in December 2021 at Clear Sky Center. \nClass One: October 25th \nClass Two: November 1st \nClass Three: November 8th \nClass Four: November 15th \n\n \nStudying Zen\, Experiencing Zen\nThe Buddha used a simple flower as a teaching of the profound nature of things as they are: so uncomplicated\, so immediate\, and so very difficult to explain. \nSo\, you might ask\, why bother explaining? Why study this? When instead we could just realize it ourselves\, like Mahākāśyapa? \nWe explain because our conventional minds are clouded by ego clinging. This often manifests as conflicting emotions and prejudicial views\, both considered forms of ignorance or confusion about reality. \nFor centuries Zen masters having been holding up flowers and students have been caught in this confusion\, asking questions like\, “What’s that flower got to do with me? Or awakening?” \nThus\, the famous saying about awakening: “With words it cannot be described\, without words it cannot be expressed.” \nYou’ve probably noted that holding up a flower doesn’t use words. \nWe can see how Zen-style spiritual realization enters the land of paradoxes. Rinzai Zen has made these famous with their ko-an mind-bending teachings. Have you noticed that the ego doesn’t like paradoxes? \nAnd spiritual awakening is the ultimate paradox\, described this way:\n“You can see it\,\nBut it is not there!” \nWe invite you to join us for these four online classes on Zen: Monday nights at 19:30 MT\, Oct 25\, Nov 1\, 8\, 15\, followed by a weekend-long flash retreat on Sat and Sun\, Nov 20 and 21. \nStudy and Meditation Electives\nMaster Classes\nThree Sundays\nThere 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: \n\nSun. October 31\nSun. November 7\nSun. November 14\n\nYou can elect to attend all three or individual dates. \nRegistration & Dana links for Master Classes will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \nFlash Retreat\nNovember 19-21\, 2021\nElect 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. \nThe retreat will include instructions\, online check ins\, and a Master Class on Sunday\, November 21st. \nWe 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. \nRegistration and Dana links for the Flash Retreat will be accessible to you when you register for the course. \nSangha power – consider organizing or joining regional in-person or online sangha groups to support one another during the online courses and Flash Retreats.  \nCourse Details\nTime and Location\nEach 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. \nStudy and Meditation Opportunities in addition to the classes include Master Classes on three Sundays at 3pm MST\, and a Flash Retreat on November 19-21\, 2021. \nWhat Does the Course Cost?\nWe 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. \nFor 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. \n\n\nRegister Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/zen-online-course-2/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats,Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Zen-online-course.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20211028T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211028T103000 DTSTAMP:20260310T102315Z CREATED:20211021T171001Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T102315Z UID:12913-1635411600-1635417000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Conscious Awakening Community - Presented by Humanity Rising DESCRIPTION:Conscious Awakening Community Panel Discussion with Clear Sky Teachers\nA Panel Discussion with the Residents of Clear Sky Meditation centerOctober 28th\, 2021 \n9am MT \nClick here to see your timezone \nA Model of Transformation and Healing For Our Times\n\n“In this post-modern world the hunger to belong has rarely been more intense\, more urgent. With many of the ancient\, traditional shelters now in ruins\, it is as if society has lost the art of fostering community.” – John O’Donohue\,Irish poet\, author\, priest\, and Hegelian philosopher.    \nCommunities come and go. What is the secret to sustaining them for 400 years and beyond? What are the aspects and components of a community that fosters human renewal\, supports the best in the human spirit\, and increases resilience to future challenges?  How does a conscious and awakening community offer a model of transformation and healing for ourselves\, our societies and our organizations? \nClear Sky is a “living lab” and training center for conscious awakening community. Home to founding teachers Qapel and Catherine Sensei\, and students\, it is a supportive space for meditation\, study\, service and liberating the shadow.  We co-create cutting edge approaches to spiritual practise community\, money and the environment. Our lineage can be traced back to the Buddha\, from teacher to student\, and with strong roots in both Vajrayana Buddhism and Western spiritual traditions.  Drawing on this legacy we are evolving new universalist forms of depth teachings that are fit to meet the global challenges we all face. \nCOVID-19 has highlighted for us how resilient our approach is proving to be.  We are practising sustainability across dimensions: spiritual\, financial\, environmental and social.  It’s working in beautiful and exciting ways.  Let us share our secret sauces\, so that it might create fresh inspirations\, thoughts\, mindforms and attitudes that you can adapt to your life and work.  \nIn this talk\, members of Clear Sky share real visceral stories and learnings on questions including: \n \nWatch the Livestream from 9am-10:30am Mountain Time\n \n Watch the LiveStream Here\n \n \n \nWhat will the panel talk about?\n  \n\n\nWhat is conscious awakening community and why does it matter? \n\n\nWhat practices can sustain us in challenging times? \n\n\nHow can the path of service and generosity help us both as a profound learning\, and as a generative model for working together? \n\n\nHow do training and mentors fit with depth transformation? \n\n\nWhat are some skillful ways to integrate the shadow around money\, sex and power? Why is this important? \n\n\nWhat kind of models can we co-create to for generative growth\, healing and community? \n\n\n  \nPresenters: \n\nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei has trained daily with Acariya Doug Qapel Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. With Qapel she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies\, as well as their international virtual monastery Planet Dharma.  She is also the world’s foremost English speaking expert on Japan’s Gion Matsuri Festival. \n\n  \n\nKaren McAllister is a founding member of Clear Sky. She is Director of Fund Development & Board Chair. She co-teaches Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and serves the community in helping them clean up their relationship with money. She is the founder of Mindful Money coaching and is passionate about building the bridge between spirituality and money. She believes that our current relationship with money reflects a spiritual crisis in the human race. \n\n  \n\nDuncan Cryle is a founding member of Clear Sky\,  and was Board Chair from 2008 to 2014\,. He co-teaches Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and 3 month residential intensive programs. He is a Senior Director at a global software company where he also leads a company-wide mindfulness program\, and was previously one of the pioneers of IBM’s mindfulness community.\n\n  \n\nMaureen Smith co-manages Clear Sky Retreat Center\, teaching awakening programs and meditations. She has lived in the Center’s conscious community since 2005\, and leads the Body Team\, responsible for operations\, infrastructure and care of the 310 acres in rural Canadian Rocky Mountains. \n\n  \n\nCara Conroy-Lau\, originally from New Zealand\, has been training and contributing at Clear Sky since 2007. She served as Clear Sky’s food forest and farm manager from 2009-2012\, and since moving back to the center in 2018\, now manages online course technologies.  She is a Registered Acupuncturist\, providing meditation and acupuncture services to the local community.  \n\n  \n\nAva McLean\, since 2016\, resides at Clear Sky and serving as Marketing and Community Manager. Founder of Awakening Lovers: Somatic Sex & Relationship Coaching. \n\n  \n\nRichard Nathaniel Jr. is the assistant manager of personal retreats\, and assists with training participants in Clear Sky’s Three Month Intensive Program. He moved to Clear Sky from Tokyo after graduating from Temple University Japan in November 2018.\n\nConvener:\n\n\n\nJim Garrison\, President\, Ubiquity University\n\n\n\nTo make a voluntary contribution to support the partner organizations and the Humanity Rising team\, please see our contribution form.  \nEach Zoom live webinar will have a maximum capacity of 500 participants. If you are not able to join on Zoom\, we will be live streaming here on the UbiVerse and on: \nUU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UbiquityUniversityOnline \nUU YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/UbiquityUniversity \nAwakeTV: https://www.awaketvnetwork.live/humanity-rising-channel URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/conscious-awakening-community/ LOCATION:Clear Sky Meditation Center\, 3567 Cockell Road\, PO BOX 19\, Fort Steele\, British Columbia\, V0B 1NO\, Canada CATEGORIES:Online Courses,Special Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/humanity-rising-day-349.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Clear Sky Center":MAILTO:contact@clearskycenter.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20211217T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211231T140000 DTSTAMP:20251209T093938Z CREATED:20210311T191942Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T093938Z UID:9129-1639756800-1640959200@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Zen Meditation Retreat 2021 DESCRIPTION:Early Bird Ends: Nov 16th \nOnline Registration Ends: December 3rd \nIn-Person Registration Ends: December 10th \nWinter Meditation Retreat – Zen\nZen is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyana\, which is often translated as ‘absorption’.  Rigorous self-restraint\, sitting meditation practice and insight into the nature of mind are central to Zen practice. \nHistorical context \nZen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China\, where it was known as the Chán School. It later spread east to Japan and became known as Japanese Zen. \nZen emphasises direct understanding through disciplined spiritual practice and interaction with accomplished masters. In the early traditions of Chán\, there was no fixed method or formula for teaching meditation.  Instead\, instructions were used to point to the true nature of mind (Buddha-nature). \n*IMPORTANT*  \n\nDue to travel restrictions\, this retreat is available In-Person at Clear Sky or Online as a Home Retreat.\nPlease consider flight insurance when booking for this retreat. We welcome you to spend additional nights at Clear Sky\, especially if traveling from afar.\n\n\n\nRetreat In-Person at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat Online\n\n \nCOVID-19 RESPONSE\nOur main priority is to offer a retreat that is accessible and supports your health and safety. \nWe currently intend this retreat to be in person assuming by December the COVID situation allows people to travel. We will keep reviewing this – if travel is still not possible we will offer online alternatives. \nWhy this Retreat?\nThis winter meditation retreat focuses on Zen. Join this retreat to experience the wisdom of this direct\, ancient and powerful meditation practice. \nWhat makes the retreat topic particularly special is that Teachers Catherine Sensei and Qapel (previously know as Doug Sensei) lived in Japan for decades. Students call the teachers Sensei reflecting the strong Japanese influence of these two masters. \nQapel’s teacher\, Namgyal Rinpoche\, taught him in the Zen style\, and asked him to bring Zen teachings to the West. \nWhat will you learn?\nDhyāna is a Sanskrit word translated as training the mind or meditation\, with the purpose being to increase awareness and equanimity. You might call this “perfected mindfulness”.  This also reduces one’s  reactive and unconscious ways of living. \nThis retreat will help you realize: \n\nthat to understand the nature of mind we must make effective the effort of relaxation.\nwhen tranquility through practice is firmly established in your being\, you do not turn your back on everyday life.  On the contrary this way of being allows us to be completely available to ourselves and others in a sustainable way.\nwe are not the conscious and elective craftsperson of our thoughts and feelings. They are only phenomena which happen to us.\nthat higher consciousness must be built up in ourselves by means of a special inner effort.\n\nA woman once asked\, “Not being taken in by various things – what is it like”?\nThe Teacher replied\, “It is\, of course\, how it should be.”  \n(From ‘Radical Zen – The Sayings of Joshu’ – Translated with a commentary by Yoel Hoffmann) \n\n \nWhat Can I expect with this Retreat?\nThe Course \n\nThis meditation retreat consists of many hours of consecutive practice each day. Therefore some experience\, especially with sitting meditation\, is highly recommended.\nNOTE: If this is your first two-week retreat\, advance permission from the teachers is required\nAn open mind and heart\, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!\nIt’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new\, meeting new people\, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.\nThis is a silent retreat. To deepen your meditation\, we ask that participants refrain from reading\, using the internet\, phone\, or listening to music during the course.\n\nThe Location – Clear Sky Center \n\nLocated in the BC Rocky Mountains\, Clear Sky offers over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature. Founded by Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat\, the centre is home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.\n\n\nHow to get there\, what to bring and other FAQ about Clear Sky\nOur teachings and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of dāna or generosity. As generosity is the basis upon which all spiritual practice flourishes\, we recommend that you learn more about this profound practice before you register.\n\n\n \nMeet the Teachers\n \nDoug Duncan &\nCatherine Pawasarat Sensei\nDoug 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. \n\n\nRetreat In-Person at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat Online\n \nAbout Clear Sky\nLocated 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. \nHere are some FAQs on how to get here\, what to bring and what to expect.  \nTo 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! \n\n\n \nFAQs\nDana and In-Person Retreat Pricing \nDana: 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. \nPricing: 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. \nCOVID-19 Policy \nPlease note\, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat\, including: \n\nYou must have experienced no symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the past 14 days and will be required to take an online assessment prior to your stay.\nYou have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.\nPhysical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.\nPlease bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat\, you will be asked to wear a mask.\nSanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.\n\nLearn more about our COVID-19 Policy here. \nArrival & Departure \nArrival is Friday\, December 10 at 4pm. We highly recommend arriving a few days earlier if you are traveling from abroad. \nDeparture is Saturday\, December 31st at 12:00pm. \nBooking a Flight? \nAirport 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. \nIn 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. \nAfter the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration. \nTravel Restrictions\, COVID-19 Policy: Please contact us – Email michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929 for details/options for local participation. \n\nRetreat In-Person at Clear Sky\n\n\nRetreat Online URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/zen-meditation-retreat-2021/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Group Retreats ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sixteen-buddha-body.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20220101T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20221231T170000 DTSTAMP:20260310T101731Z CREATED:20200530T175040Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T101731Z UID:8562-1641024000-1672506000@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Small Group Coaching (Online) DESCRIPTION:Mindfulness Small Group Coaching Program with Karen McAllister \n Nourish Yourself To The Core \n Given Covid-19 and the big life-changes many of us are experiencing\, this is a perfect time to receive support in areas that may need deep care\, or are holding us back. We can use this unique time to nurture that which may be seeking our attention or which we might not have prioritized before.  \nKaren is offering live group coaching to a smaller group\, exclusively to graduates of the Integrating Mindfulness course. \n \n Register Here\n \n \n \n The Change You Seek \n \n The coaching program gives you an opportunity to work on each principle more deeply\, learn additional tools\, and benefit from the support and insights of the coach and other participants.  This will help you make deep positive changes in your life\, and create new wholesome friendships with people that are going through a similar journey.  \nWith many shifts in our life and work-styles\, changes in income and social distancing\, this is undoubtedly a time of major transition. Transitions are potent times to make big shifts in our lives. Transitions offer us openings for big changes to happen. \nWe’re limiting the group to six people so that Karen and the group can connect with each other in a real way. \n About the Program \n \nPrerequsite: completed Integrating Mindfulness\nThis course is for you if you’d like to get to focus on specific areas that are holding you back\, and regular and direct feedback from Karen and your fellow participants over an extended period.\n\nWhat you can expect: \n\nThe support to build or strengthen an alive and consistent daily spiritual or mindfulness practice\, over several months;\nLearn how to communicate in a way that let’s you be heard and express yourself in a way that’s true to yourself;\nBe able to listen to others and hear what they’re actually saying;\nHelp to mitigate fear in your system as the next wave of Covid-19 unfolds;\nA wealth of tools and practices related to each principle that you can apply at your home and work – the ultimate in self-nurturing DIY!\nPractical\, authentic advice from a coach who has extensively worked with Clear Sky’s five principles to strengthen their spiritual container;\nA safe forum to have real conversations about the issues in your life;\nAn improvement in your relationships\, your issues around money\, your time management\, and other big rocks.\n\nWhen will it run\, and what would your commitment be?\n\nThe exact starting date\, the time of the calls\, and any scheduled breaks will be agreed between the coach and participants.\nYou’ll attend two\, 90-minute live sessions per month. These will be scheduled for six months\, with an option to continue for another three months.\nYou’ll do buddy check-ins with other participants in rotation over the course;\nYou’ll do one weekend retreat near the end\, or after the program – either at Clear Sky\, at home\, or at a center of your choice.\n\nPricing\nLike Integrating Mindfulness\, we’ll also offer this program on the basis of dana or “pay-from-the-heart\,” with a minimum commitment. \nIt will be our joy to dive deeper with a small group\, sharing more directly the benefits of our own practice. We trust you’ll match our time\, energy and passion for this body of work by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us. \nThis program includes two monthly live coaching calls with Karen McAllister\, a supportive buddy system and other resources. We invite you to look over the following sliding scale\, starting at $175 per month: \n\n$150 per month if you are struggling financially;\n$175 per month lets Clear Sky continue to be dedicated to offering quality programs like this;\n$200 per month helps Clear Sky further develop Clear Sky programs\, resources and our community of teachers;\n$250 per month helps us supply these offerings to others\, who may not be able to afford the minimum price.\n\n \n \n \n \n Register Now\n \n Our Five Principles \n Each of Clear Sky’s five principles are an in depth study on their own\, and we have limited time to cover each in the online course.  Each principle is also a highly personal exploration that can unfold over weeks and months. \n \n Meet Your Facilitator \n \n Karen McAllister \n As Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development\, I’m passionate about 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!” \nIn my free time\, I love travelling\, speaking Portuguese and reading history\, architecture\, and art books. \n “Karen is both knowledgeable and kind. Not only is she wise and helpful with Buddhist teachings\, but when she shares it is from the heart with incredible tenderness.” \n Kakoom \n “I am at the point now where I feel ready to apply for school\, to change direction in my career\, and better understand how my relationship with my father has created this. I have stopped hanging on to some of the past to protect the hurt\, which has made me feel more ready to move on.” \n Kyle \n \n Register Now URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/small-group-coaching/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Coaching ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/small-group-coaching.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20220111T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20220201T203000 DTSTAMP:20251208T070941Z CREATED:20211111T205753Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251208T070941Z UID:13043-1641927600-1643747400@www.clearskycenter.org SUMMARY:Beyond Coping (Online) DESCRIPTION:An Alive Mindfully Course with Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson\nJanuary 11 – February 1\, 2022\nTuesdays at 7:00-8:30pm MDT \nClick here to see your timezone \n \nChoosing to work in the caregiving professions is a wonderful opportunity to be of service and an agent of wellness. \nThe increasing work loads and complex demands of people-focussed work have made this work more challenging.  It can be difficult to maintain our own health and wellness while navigating these pressures.  This course gives you the opportunity to connect with others who understand these challenges. \nTake this opportunity to ground and strengthen yourself while learning practical mindfulness approach for engaging with your work and personal life. \nLearn how to feel grounded\, rejuvenated and connected to the passion that brought you into the caregiving field.  Discover how to remain engaged in the work you do in a way that is generative and nurturing. Learn how to move from coping to Beyond Coping. \n\nRegister Now\n \nWe are delighted to share this course that is being offered in collaboration with our friends at Alive Mindfully. \n \nJoin with other caregivers who want to enjoy their work and no longer cope by shutting down\, numbing out or closing off.  In this course you will gain an understanding of the deeper reasons that you are both enlivened and challenged in your work.  Join us to learn simple and sustainable mindfulness tools that will help you to leverage your natural capabilities to maintain health and balance. \n \nCourse Details\nWho This Course is For: \nIf you are in a caregiving profession and you want to learn skills to be generative and nurtured in the work you do\, this four week course is designed for you. \nWhat Can I Expect?\n\nIn this course you will learn essential tools to develop Deep Mindfulness.\nYou will have the support of like minded colleagues who share similar concerns and challenges and want to stay engaged and enlivened in their work.\nYou will  learn how to recognize and overcome perspectives and habits that can keep you stuck even as you try to change and grow.\nYou will learn a specific mindfulness approach to decrease unconscious patterns and increase your ability to actively choose thoughts and behaviours that generate well-being.\n\n\n\n \nMeet your Teachers\n\n \nMaureen Smith \nA Registered Clinical Social Worker\, Maureen has been a Mental Health and Substance Use Counsellor for over 9 years and previously worked in Hospice and Palliative Care.   She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and meditation teacher. \nSince 2005\, Maureen has been a resident and co-manager of the Clear Sky Retreat Center.  For over 20 years Maureen has been studying meditation and mindfulness with awakening masters Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.   Maureen gets excited finding ways to blend her spiritual and professional work life in a delicately woven tapestry.  Her life’s purpose is exploring consciousness and gaining wisdom into human nature in order to support people to grow into fully developed human beings. \nDuring her time-out relaxation moments\, Maureen enjoys gazing at the sky through leaves on tree branches\, hiking\, creating art and reading. \nDean Nicholson \nDean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.  He is the Executive Director of East Kootenay Addiction Services Society with over 30 years clinical counselling experience in the mental health care field.  Dean’s areas of interest and expertise include depression and anxiety\, trauma\, addictions and spiritual growth.   He has supported thousands of people through individual and group therapy.   He has also conducted cutting edge research on substance use and trauma\, and has presented at national and international conferences. \nA meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center\, Dean is a student of Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients. \nIn his quieter moments Dean enjoys film and literature\, and exploring the natural history of the East Kootenay area. \n \nCourse Details\n\nLocation: Online (Zoom)\nDates: January 11 – February 1\, 2022\nTime: Tuesdays from 7-8:30pm MDT\nCost: $200 CAD\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\nDean is a very skilled\, knowledgeable and interactive presenter. He delivered a two day introductory Counselling Skills Training for the Akisqnuk First Nation Health and Administrative staff which was very well received and beneficial to all participants.\nGerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health\nYou are never quite sure how the unknown is going to be\, but mindfulness will exceed your expectations and open your eyes to how beautiful the mind really is. Maureen’s warm personality and patience helped ease us into it\, especially for those of us in unfamiliar waters. Her delivery\, tone and pace were perfect for me to digest.\nGareth WebbCounsellor\, Youth Substance Use\nAs I mentioned I have some experience (but don’t have a structured daily practice except in times of Crisis). The wording that Maureen used was very clear and could easily be understood and added to my knowledge. Also she made it very easy to incorporate into everyday life. The second best thing was the profound peace that I felt by the end of the second day. I left feeling absolutely lovely and this state lasted the rest of the weekend. Thank you.\nAnn Morin MSW\, Invermere BC\nDean is a professional with an amazing ability to understand what I couldn’t. Dean never did the work for me and he always seems to know what to say to help guide me towards making up my own mind and figuring out my issues. Having Dean as a counsellor is like having a caring knowledgeable friend help you through hard times.\nPK URL:https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/beyond-coping-online-2/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Online Courses ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.clearskycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Beyond-Coping-1.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR