Clear Sky Meditation Centre

Finding Ground: Meditation For Uncertain Times
2026-04-30 19:00 - 20:15 (America/Chicago) | Mountain View Therapeutics – Cranbrook, #204 14 A 13 Avenue South, Cranbrook, BC, V1C 2V3, Canada
Finding Ground: Meditation For Uncertain Times
with Duncan Cryle and Karen McAllister
Are you feeling stretched thin by the pace of modern life? Struggling to stay centered when the world feels unsettled?
Join us for a four-week evening series offering simple meditation practices and communication tools to help you find your ground and reconnect in these unsettled times. Through guided practices, we’ll learn to settle the body, come back to the breath, and draw on nature and community as sources of support.
Each session includes guided meditation, reflection, and time for questions. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, come as you are.
No experience necessary. Complete beginners welcome.
When: Thursdays 7:00-8:15 pm MST from April 9 – 30, 2026
Where: In-Person: Mountain View Therapeutics, 14 A 13 Ave S #204, Cranbrook, BC V1C 2V3
Cost: Pay-from-the-heart (Dāna). Suggested range $20-50 per class (and welcome regardless of what you are able to offer).
Curious? Before this series starts, you’re invited to enjoy our online guided meditations.
Register Now Questions?
Click To Contact Us (or call 250 429 3920)
About these Community Meditation Classes
These community classes help you develop a stronger meditation practice both on and off the cushion.
These classes run semi-regularly throughout the year at Clear Sky or locally in Cranbrook, interspersed with our other retreats and offerings.
Drop ins are welcome, and we also encourage you to attend all classes if possible.
Class Series Teachers
Karen McAllister
Through over 25 years of meditation practice in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, and more than a decade of teaching meditation and mindfulness, I’ve come to trust the importance of staying present with life as it is, especially in times of uncertainty. As a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004, I’m continually inspired by the power of intentional community as a place to deepen awareness, navigate challenges, and grow together. Alongside my teaching, I serve as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and lead the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. I’m also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where I support people to bring greater awareness and care to how they give, receive, and relate to resources, aligning their material lives with what matters most.
Duncan Cryle
Through 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.
Course Cost: Dāna
Register

We 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.”
Dāna 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.
Dāna 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.
For this course, we give a suggested range $20-50 per class (which would be $80-200 for the 4-week series). You are welcome regardless of what you are able to offer.

To help you choose an amount that feels right for you, we recommend this heart-based exercise from our friends at Planet Dharma.
Checking in with your heart
1) Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself. Spend a few moments to reflect on each of the below: the beauty and integrity of dāna practice; the value of receiving direct teachings from lineage holders in a recognized spiritual tradition; the reality of your financial situation.
2) Spend another few moments contacting a sense of health, strength and abundance. You have a healthy mind, a body, senses, the good karma to have heard the teachings, and conditions to support your practice of Dharma. Celebrate this!
3) Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration.
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.
Register Now
FAQ
Who leads the Meditation Circle?
The series is led by experienced meditation teachers Duncan Cryle and Karen McAllister, who specialize in integrating mindfulness into daily life and community practice.
What is the purpose of this meditation series?
The program helps participants find stability, grounding, and emotional balance during challenging or uncertain times through simple meditation and communication practices.
What practices are included in the sessions?
Each session includes guided meditation, reflection, breath awareness practices, and group discussion, supporting both inner calm and connection with others.
What can participants expect to experience?
Participants learn to settle the body, reconnect with the breath, and draw support from nature and community, creating a sense of steadiness and clarity.
Is prior meditation experience required?
No. The meditation circle is open to complete beginners as well as experienced practitioners.
How does this program support wellbeing during uncertain times?
The practices help reduce overwhelm by strengthening presence, emotional resilience, and grounded awareness, allowing participants to stay centered despite external stress.
Is this suitable for stress or anxiety relief?
Yes. The series is designed specifically for people feeling stretched, unsettled, or disconnected, offering practical tools for calm and stability.

Getting Centered: Connecting To Body Wisdom
2026-05-07 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Photo courtesy of Duncan Cryle
Getting Centered: Connecting To Body Wisdom
With Karen McAllister
Thursday May 7 2026
7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Pay-From-The-Heart
Session 1 of 6 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for other sessions in the series: Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times
For many of us, there’s a low-grade anxiety that never quite turns off. A sense of bracing for what’s next. Sleep that doesn’t fully restore. A quiet exhaustion from holding it all together.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And there are practices that help. This foundational session explores ways of getting centered by connecting to the wisdom of the body. The nervous system is the ground of all practice, learning to settle, to arrive, to trust the body as a place of refuge.
This is session 1 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details

Date: Thursday May 7, 2026
Time: 7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
Cost: By donation (Dāna)—everyone welcome regardless of financial circumstances

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
“You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.”
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker

Register Here

What We’ll Explore
This foundational session explores the nervous system as the ground of all practice. When we’re chronically activated—always slightly on edge, never fully settling—it’s hard to access our deeper resources. We stay reactive rather than responsive. We lose touch with our own steadiness.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

Why so many of us are carrying chronic low-grade activation
Simple practices to help the nervous system settle and regulate
How to trust the body as a place of arrival and support
Building a foundation for the deeper work of boundaries, communication, and resilience

You’ll leave with practices you can use immediately, and return to whenever you need to find your ground.
What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:

Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean

Register Here

Part of the 2026 Staying Whole Series
This session is the opening of Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times, a six-session online drop-in series running through 2026, offering practical tools for inner steadiness, relational resilience, and community belonging. Each session stands alone, so you’re welcome to join just this one. And if this resonates, the series continues on June 4 with Compassion Without Overwhelm: Feeling Without Collapsing
Learn more about the full series here

Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
… And special guest teachers from the Clear Sky onsite Sangha
Clear Sky’s onsite team have a rich diversity of experience and many years of deep spiritual practice. During this series we’ll benefit from bringing in other voices to add depth and range to the exploration.

“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

Register Here

Meditation for Hope and Healing Retreat
2026-05-08 17:00 - 2026-05-10 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Meditation for Hope and Healing
With Maureen Smith & Dean Nicholson
Do you find yourself stressed by all the troubling news that bombards us every day? Are you experiencing anger, anxiety or hopelessness, and not sure what you can do to make a difference?

REGISTER NOW

Then join us for a weekend retreat grounded in the time-honored compassion practices of the Himalayan Buddhist traditions. Compassion, for ourselves and for the world, is a powerful force that helps heal the hurts and wounds, and gives us the confidence that we can be agents of action for positive change. Set within the natural sanctuary of Clear Sky Retreat Center, the retreat offers space for deep meditation and inner renewal.
Through these ancient practices, we explore compassion not as an abstraction, but as a living force that transforms both ourselves and our world. Using traditional visualization techniques, we connect with the healing energy of loving-kindness, allowing it to permeate every aspect of our being.

This retreat is an invitation to discover how authentic compassion creates the world we long for—one rooted in hope and healing rather than division and despair. We will work with visualization, meditation, mantra and contemplative practices that have guided practitioners for centuries.
Whether you’re new to meditation or an experienced practitioner, this weekend offers precious time to step away from daily demands and reconnect with your innate capacity for kindness. Held by the natural beauty of this place and the support of community, you’ll discover how these time-honored practices illuminate a path toward genuine transformation—for yourself and all beings.

This retreat will be led by Maureen Smith (MSW, RCSW) and Dean Nicholson (MA, RCC), psychotherapists and Buddhist meditation practitioners.
They are devoted students of Catherine Sensei, cofounder of the Clear Sky Meditation Center, and they have made Clear Sky Meditation Center their home for 20 and 10 years respectively.
Both are experienced teachers who bring decades of clinical counselling experience together with deep personal practice.
Through their work at Alive Mindfully, they support people in living richer lives of meaning, joy and purpose, drawing on meditation, counselling, and connection to the natural world.
Their teaching is grounded in genuine practice and a commitment to awakening in relationship with community and the land.
Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road
Date: May 8 -May 10, 2026
Time: 5:00pm Friday -5:00pm Sunday MT
Cost: Premium Private Cabin – $576, Private Cabin – $546, Shared Room – $446, Tenting – $326

REGISTER NOW

FAQs
What is the Meditation, Hope & Healing Retreat?
The Meditation for Hope and Healing Retreat is a weekend program grounded in time-honored Himalayan Buddhist compassion practices. It offers guided meditation, visualization, mantra, and contemplative practices to cultivate hope, healing, and inner renewal in a supportive retreat setting.
Who is this retreat for?
This retreat is for anyone feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, angry, or hopeless due to current events or personal challenges. It is open to both new and experienced meditation practitioners seeking renewal and reconnection with compassion.
What can I expect to experience there?
Participants will engage in meditation, visualization, mantra, and compassion practices within the natural sanctuary of Clear Sky Meditation Center. The retreat provides space for deep reflection, inner healing, and supportive community connection.
How does meditation support healing?
Through traditional compassion and loving-kindness practices, meditation helps heal emotional wounds, build resilience, and reconnect participants with their innate capacity for kindness and positive action.
Will this retreat help with grief, loss, or burnout?
The retreat is designed to support those experiencing stress, anxiety, anger, or hopelessness. By cultivating compassion and inner stability, it offers tools that can help participants navigate emotional challenges with greater strength and clarity.
How long is the retreat?
The retreat runs from 5:00 pm Friday, May 8, 2026, to 5:00 pm Sunday, May 10, 2026 at Clear Sky Meditation Center.
Is prior meditation experience needed?
No. The retreat welcomes both beginners and experienced practitioners.
What results can I expect?
Participants can expect renewed hope, deeper compassion, emotional steadiness, and a stronger connection to their capacity for kindness and positive change.
How will this retreat support emotional well-being?
Through compassion-based meditation practices, supportive community, and time in nature, the retreat fosters emotional healing, resilience, and a sense of meaningful connection to oneself and the world.
Dean 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.
Gerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health
You 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.
Gareth WebbCounsellor, Youth Substance Use
As 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.
Ann Morin MSW, Invermere BC
Dean 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.
PK
I appreciated the longer meditations in all the senses.
Although I have been engaged in guided meditations fairly consistently for 2 years plus; having your support really helped me to ‘stretch out’.
Doug P.

Come to your Senses: A Day to Practice Deep Mindfulness
2026-05-16 11:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
A Clear Sky Course
with Dean NicholsonMay 16, 2026
11:00am – 3:00pm MDT
Life 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.

Register Now

In this four hour in-person retreat you will learn and practice ancient mindfulness techniques that will increase your ability to stay grounded and enlivened during work and at home. Learn to tune into your senses to stay calm, present and peaceful no matter where you are.
Course Details
What you can expect
Clear Sky’s 5 Principles are outstanding guiding principles helping us live in health and integrity. This program is an opportunity to practice them while being guided through a sense-based meditation retreat. If you are curious about the Clear Sky Center, or just feel the need for a guided afternoon retreat. Join us!
1.Honour your space In this 4 hour retreat you will join the select group of hundreds of people who have honored the space we call Clear Sky by bringing focused attention, sincere practice and aspiration thereby honoring the space we inhabit and our time together.
2.Structure and routine This practice day creates a ritual which is lacking in many of our lives. Ritual is helpful for creating a space beyond words in which we can relax.
3.Communication shapes the space where we meet We will guide you in meditating on the senses and you may be amazed at how being in a room with other people who are disciplined in their speech can create a healthy resonance in your being.
4.Cleaning up big areas of your life frees up energy means you know the priorities for having a healthy, sustainable, generative life and you are implementing them as best as you can. Together we can support each other in this important work.
5.It’s easier with others Join us for this afternoon retreat and discover the power of meditation and exploring the senses with others.

Meet your Teacher
Dean Nicholson
Dean has a Masters in Counselling Psychology and over 37 years clinical counselling experience in mental health care.
A meditation practitioner and resident at the Clear Sky Meditation Center, Dean is a student of Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Dean actively lives the healing practices he teaches his clients

Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center
Date: May 16, 2026
Time: 11:00am – 3:00pm MT
Cost: $69 CAD (includes lunch)

Register Now

Dean 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.
Gerard GregoireAkisqnuk First Nation Health
You 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.
Gareth WebbCounsellor, Youth Substance Use
As 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.
Ann Morin MSW, Invermere BC
Dean 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.
PK
I appreciated the longer meditations in all the senses.
Although I have been engaged in guided meditations fairly consistently for 2 years plus; having your support really helped me to ‘stretch out’.
Doug P.

Compassion Without Overwhelm: Feeling Without Collapsing
2026-06-04 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Compassion Without Overwhelm: Feeling Without Collapsing
With Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle
Thursday June 4 2026
7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Pay-From-The-Heart
Session 2 of 6 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for other sessions in the series: Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times
You care deeply. And it’s exhausting. Grief about the state of the world. The people around you that you see suffering. The troubles on the news.
If you’re someone who feels things deeply, you’ve probably learned to manage by numbing, distancing, or staying busy.
Compassion is an essential part of life and being human, a quality that is central to our spiritual growth. But without the resilience and perspective to go with it, it can tip into overwhelm, collapse, or burnout. This session offers practices for staying open without being swept away.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

The difference between empathy (feeling with) and compassion (feeling for)—and why it matters
Why highly sensitive and caring people are especially vulnerable to overwhelm
Practices for containment: allowing grief and care without drowning in them
How to stay connected to the world’s suffering without abandoning yourself

You’ll leave with tools you can use when the weight of the world feels like too much—and a clearer sense of how to care sustainably.
This is session 2 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details

Date: Thursday June 4, 2026
Time: 7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
Cost: By donation (Dāna)—everyone welcome regardless of financial circumstances

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
“You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.”
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker

Register Here

What We’ll Explore
When we care deeply, we often absorb more than we realize. Over time, the weight of others’ pain — and the state of the world — can leave us feeling depleted, numb, or caught in cycles of guilt and withdrawal. We lose access to the very compassion we value most.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

The difference between empathy and compassion — and why understanding this distinction can protect you from burnout
Why highly sensitive and caring people are especially vulnerable to overwhelm
Practices for staying open to suffering without being swept away by it
How to grieve, care, and stay connected — without abandoning yourself in the process

You’ll leave with tools you can use when the weight of the world feels like too much, and a clearer sense of how to care sustainably.
What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:

Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean

Register Here

Part of the 2026 Staying Whole Series
This session is the second of Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times, a six-session online drop-in series running through 2026, offering practical tools for inner steadiness, relational resilience, and community belonging. Each session stands alone, so you’re welcome to join just this one. And if this resonates, the series continues on June 25 with Boundaries As Stability: Protecting Energy Without Disconnecting
Learn more about the full series here

Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
… And special guest teachers from the Clear Sky onsite Sangha
Clear Sky’s onsite team have a rich diversity of experience and many years of deep spiritual practice. During this series we’ll benefit from bringing in other voices to add depth and range to the exploration.

“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

Register Here

Coming Home: Meditating in Nature
2026-06-19 17:00 - 2026-06-21 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
Coming Home: Meditating In Nature
With Duncan Cryle and Karen McAllister
Are you longing to reconnect with the natural world and discover a deeper sense of belonging? Do you sense that healing the separation between yourself and nature could transform your experience of life?
Join us for a weekend immersed in the mountains and meadows of Clear Sky, where we’ll explore natural meditation practices that awaken us to our intimate connection with all of life.

REGISTER NOW

Reconnecting with the Web of Life
Living in our modern world, it’s easy to forget that we are part of an ecosystem that is incredibly old and spans a whole planet. This forgetting has become so deep that it shapes our culture and institutions. Yet the separation we feel – from nature, from our bodies, from each other – is not the truth of how things are.
This retreat offers a path home.
Through simple yet profound practices done outdoors in Clear Sky’s stunning mountain setting, we’ll rediscover a natural connection with our breath, the earth, and the land around us. We’ll learn to see with fresh eyes, as if we were explorers encountering life for the first time.

Who This Retreat Is For
This retreat welcomes anyone who:

Feels disconnected from nature and longs to reconnect
Is new to meditation and wants an accessible entry point
Has meditation experience but wants to deepen their practice outdoors
Seeks healing from the stress and isolation of modern life
Is curious about Buddhist approaches to ecology and interconnection

No prior meditation experience is required. The practices we’ll explore are simple yet profound – suitable for beginners while offering depth for experienced practitioners.

REGISTER NOW

You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker

What You’ll Experience
Introduction To Breathing Meditation: Foundational accessible instructions in reconnecting to our breath, and using the breath as a natural anchor to support presence.
Breathing With Nature: A beautiful meditation practice that reconnects us with the ancient dance of giving and receiving between humans and nature. This simple practice rapidly brings calm and wellbeing while revealing that we truly belong to something much larger than ourselves.
Nature Contemplation: Guided explorations in Clear Sky’s forests, meadows, and along its mountain trails. We’ll practice seeing the interconnectedness that reveals itself wherever we look – discovering, as the early explorers did, how encountering the natural world transforms our sense of who and what we are.
Embodied Presence: Practices that bring us home to our bodies as living expressions of nature itself. We’ll learn to savor the breath as rare nectar and discover how attention to our embodied experience reconnects us to the larger body of life.

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About Your Guides
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation for over 20 years and is a senior teacher at Clear Sky. She is a contemplative leader and certified money coach who integrates embodiment, relational practice, and material life as a path of awakening. As Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky, Karen brings a deep commitment to aligning spiritual practice, community life, and the ethical flow of resources in service of collective flourishing.
Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, Fort Steele, BC, V0B 1N0
Date: Jun 19-21, 2026
Time: Arrive between 3-5 pm Friday, retreat finishes 4 pm Sunday MT
Cost: Premium Private Cabin – $576, Private Cabin – $546, Shared Room – $446, Tenting – $326

“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

REGISTER NOW

FAQs
Do I need meditation experience to attend this retreat?
No prior experience is needed. This retreat is designed to be accessible to complete beginners while still offering depth for those with an existing practice. The practices are simple, grounded, and done mostly outdoors — no background in Buddhism or meditation is required.
What does meditating in nature actually involve?
The retreat includes guided breathing meditation, outdoor nature contemplation walks through Clear Sky’s forests and mountain meadows, and embodied presence practices. Everything takes place on Clear Sky’s 300-acre property in the BC Rockies — the land itself is very much part of the teaching.
When and where is this retreat held?
The retreat runs June 19–21, 2026 (arriving Friday between 3-5pm to Sunday 4 pm MT) at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, 3567 Cockell Road, Fort Steele, BC. Clear Sky is about 40 minutes from Cranbrook International Airport and a four-hour drive from Calgary. See our Getting Here page for directions.
What does the retreat cost and what accommodation options are available?
Pricing is based on your accommodation choice: Premium Private Cabin ($576), Private Cabin ($546), Shared Room ($446), or Tenting ($326). All options include three organic, locally sourced meals per day prepared by our resident community.
We are pleased to also be able to offer scholarships to support attendance to this program.
For Clear Sky’s scholarship program, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
In addition, for members of Lighthouse Spokane, with much appreciation to the UUA New Communities Partnership Program for offering a partial scholarship to this program. Please contact the Lighthouse Spokane team for details.
Is this retreat suitable for people dealing with stress, burnout, or eco-anxiety?
Yes — this is one of the central intentions of the retreat. The practices are specifically designed to address the disconnection and overwhelm that come with modern life, including eco-anxiety. Participants regularly report feeling calmer, more grounded, and more connected after spending a weekend in nature with these practices.
How is this different from a silent meditation retreat?
Unlike a private silent retreat, this is a guided group experience with a set schedule, teacher-led sessions, and community meals. It’s a warmer, more supported entry point — ideal if you want structure and connection alongside your practice rather than extended solitude.

Boundaries As Stability: Protecting Energy Without Disconnected
2026-06-25 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Boundaries As Stability: Protecting Energy Without Disconnecting
With Karen McAllister, Michelle Heinz and Duncan Cryle
Thursday June 25 2026
7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Pay-From-The-Heart
Session 3 of 6 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for other sessions in the series: Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times
You want to be available. You want to be generous. You want to show up for the people in your life.
And yet—you’re running on empty. You say yes when you mean no. You give more than you have. You end conversations feeling drained, resentful, or vaguely guilty.
If boundaries feel like walls you don’t want to build, this session is for you.
What We’ll Explore
This session moves from internal steadiness to relational clarity. We’ll reframe boundaries—not as walls or defense, but as energy management. A form of self-care that actually supports connection.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

Why boundaries are essential for sustainable caring—not a failure of generosity
The difference between walls (disconnection) and boundaries (healthy containment)
How to recognize when your energy is being drained—and what to do about it
Practices for protecting your energy without shutting people out
How clear boundaries actually deepen trust and intimacy

You’ll leave with tools for staying connected to others without abandoning yourself—and a clearer sense of what’s yours to carry and what isn’t.
This is session 3 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details

Date: Thursday June 25, 2026
Time: 7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
Cost: By donation (Dāna)—everyone welcome regardless of financial circumstances

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
“You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.”
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker

Register Here

What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:

Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean

Register Here

Part of the 2026 Staying Whole Series
This session is the second of Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times, a six-session online drop-in series running through 2026, offering practical tools for inner steadiness, relational resilience, and community belonging. Each session stands alone, so you’re welcome to join just this one. And if this resonates, the series continues on June 25 with Boundaries As Stability: Protecting Energy Without Disconnecting
Learn more about the full series here

Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
Michelle Heinz
For this talk we are delighted to have Michelle join us. Michelle is a long-term resident and senior student. She is an Integral Master Coach, bringing a wealth of experience especially in somatic and emotional work.
“The consistent high-level perspective with which Michelle sees the world was just what I needed to help reframe and replace old ideas, beliefs, and conditioning that ultimately unleashed real growth.”
– Fran

“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

Register Here

Re-Generation Youth Program: Where Spirituality, Ecology & Community Meet
2026-06-29 - 2026-08-29 | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Re-Generation Youth Program: Where Spirituality, Ecology & Community Meet
Note: this is a special summer Youth Program – for our regular three month immersive program outside of the summer see here
Believe in Life Again
We think young people deserve better than what the world is currently offering. We’re willing to show up and see what we can do to generate wholesome impacts, together. Learn about yourself, the land and living in community together so that you are equipped to better make decisions and take action in life. This program is designed to help you develop skills to co-create a world you want to live in.
Join us from June 29 – August 29, 2026.
Questions? Please contact michelle@clearskycenter.org or (250) 429-3929. FAQ’s can be found at the bottom of the page.
Photo credit: Ava Maclean
Spend just two months in residence to remember that life can be meaningful, that you can be part of the solution, that connection is real, and that you have what it takes.

That’s what we’re really offering. Not a fix. Not a cure. A remembering that we can believe in life again.
This youth program is our way of saying: you’re not alone, the world isn’t hopeless, and there are people who care about your generation inheriting something worth having. Daily, we practice meditation together so that we can embody what we teach – what we fondly refer to as “a life worth living”. We do this by leveraging our shared vision and values to live well in community. We align around our quadruple bottom line: spiritual, environmental, social and financial well-being.
This is for you if:

You’re 21-35 and feeling lost
You’re tired of superficiality and want real connection
You want to counter your eco-anxiety with wholesome action
You want to be of service in a world that needs us, instead of feeling helpless
You want mentorship from elders who haven’t given up

Photo credit: Ava Maclean

Inquire Here

You don’t need to:

Be Buddhist (though we work in that tradition)
Have meditation experience (we’ll teach you)
Have your life figured out (literally no one does)

Photo credit: Ava Maclean
Ready To Get Real?
This is for you if you struggle to make commitments, be in community and want to try. You’ll be away from your usual distractions, working with your hands and real people. Living in a small community you’ll face yourself and it can be uncomfortable.
If you want to believe in life again, and you want to be part of the solution– instead of drowning in problems, this might be exactly what you need. Space to remember who you are.

This program is psychedelic and drug free, but we know this world. If you’ve had experiences with psychedelics and are trying to integrate them, we can support that work in a grounded, contemplative context.

Inquire Here

What You’ll Learn

How to meditate and practices that work including, relief from struggle (not bypassing it, actually working with it)
How to lead, follow, and work as a team in community (leading with a heart for service, not ego)
How to be a bodhisattva in the world (someone who acts, not just talks about it)
How to live sustainably with people, pressures and the planet

Our team includes Buddhist teachers and practitioners– our head teacher Catherine Sensei and long term students offer authentic spiritual teachings and practices in a modern day context, plus:

Entrepreneurs, coaches and career mentors who’ve built meaningful lives
Therapists who work with depression, addiction and trauma
Land lovers who know and care for the land intimately
Creative professionals (writers, filmmakers) who’ll help you tell your story

Photo credit: Ava Maclean

“As a Gen Z, I felt like I was giving up on life, and I wanted to find the peace and purpose that I felt was beyond my capacities. I found Clear Sky, and the teachers, teachings, and community showed me what I had been looking for: a way to wake up, and become the person I want to be—to learn how to listen to what life and the earth are speaking to me, and to march forward in our communal pursuit of the common good. I am ready now from this community’s support to love and serve on this planet as I was meant to, and I know that I am not alone. Full steam ahead!”
ERIKA R.

Inquire Here

The Nitty Gritty
Dates: June 29 – August 29, 2026
How much does it cost? We’re committed to making this accessible and decided to offer sliding scale pricing so that you can choose what is right for your situation. Additionally, we do offer payment plans.

$2000 CAD covers our costs for organic meals and accommodation.
$2500-$3500 CAD covers our costs for organic meals and accommodation plus some tuition
$3500 CAD and above allows us to cover our costs and pay some forward in scholarships

Are Scholarships available? Yes. We welcome all scholarship applications and prioritize those holding marginalized identities, including Black, Indigenous and other people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQIA+ people. We also recognize that those working in social justice, climate, public service, and education are historically underpaid — if that’s you, please apply here.
Apply early, as funds are limited and cannot cover every application.
How many participants? This will be a small group of 3-4 participants. This means real connection, individual attention and genuine community.
What about screens/phones? For this summer program we’ll be outside a lot. We use WhatsApp groups for communication and occasional wholesome social media posting, for the most part we encourage you to step back from your usual online life. We know this might seem difficult, but you’ll probably thank us. You’ll still be accessible for emergencies and necessary communication.
Is this program physically demanding?
We believe in taking action, not just talking about what we can do for the planet. This program is intentionally designed to enhance our practice of embodiment, eco-restoration and connection with the land. Expect to be active and engaged on the land daily. We balance activity with meditation, learning in community and one day of rest per week to integrate our learnings.
What if I don’t have outdoor skills? Perfect. You’ll learn them. That’s the whole point. Most of us grew up in cities or spent too much time inside. You’ll learn by doing, with patient teachers who remember what it’s like to be new at this stuff.
We’re still finalizing details and if you want to talk about whether this is right for you, reach out to michelle@clearskycenter.org
In the meantime:

Explore teachings on Planet Dharma
Check out our Clear Sky Website to get a feel for who we are
If you like more intensity, learn more about our three month intensive
Follow your gut. If something in you lit up reading this, pay attention and listen to that : )

Photo credit: Ava Maclean
Photo credit: Ava Maclean

Inquire Here

Meet Our Head Teacher

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, 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.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“Clear Sky is my favourite place to retreat. I am so grateful to find such an amazing place to study various meditation practices, walk in stunning nature and eat fresh food from the farm. I always enjoy going there for more.”
Maya L.

FAQs
What is the Re-Generation Youth Program?
It’s a two-month in-person immersion at Clear Sky Meditation Centre in BC, designed for young adults aged 21–35. You’ll live in community, practise daily meditation, work on the land through eco-restoration, and develop real-world life skills — all within a structured spiritual framework. It’s not a wellness retreat or a camp. It’s a meaningful alternative for those who want to believe in life again.
Do I need meditation or outdoor experience to apply?
Neither. You’ll be taught meditation from the ground up, and all land-based activities are guided by patient teachers who expect you to be new to this. What matters is an open heart and genuine willingness to engage — not what you already know.
How is this different from a regular summer program or gap year?
Most gap year programs focus on travel or skill-building. This one focuses on inner transformation alongside outer action — combining Buddhist meditation, ecological restoration, community living, and mentorship from experienced teachers. If you want something that actually changes how you see yourself and the world, this goes much further than a typical summer program.
Who is this program for?
Young adults aged 21–35 who are feeling lost, burnt out, or disconnected — whether from nature, community, or themselves. You don’t need to be Buddhist, spiritual, or have your life figured out. If you’re tired of superficiality and want real connection and purpose, this program was built for you.
How much does the program cost and is financial assistance available?
Pricing is on a sliding scale: $2,000 CAD covers accommodation and all organic meals; $2,500–$3,500 CAD covers costs plus some tuition; $3,500 CAD and above allows us to cover costs and contribute toward scholarships for others. If cost is still a barrier, scholarship support is available — complete a Scholarship Application and we’ll do our best to make it work.
What is dāna and how much should I budget for it?
Dana:
For attendance of retreats and events that are in addition to the program we do charge registration fees to cover the materials needed to offer the retreat/event. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
What does a typical day look like?
Days are full and intentional. Morning group meditation is followed by eco-restoration activities on the land, community meals, afternoon contemplation, and evening learning sessions. You’ll have one rest and integration day per week. Screens and social media are largely set aside — this is time to remember who you are without the usual noise.
What does the daily schedule look like?
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)

7:00- 7:45 AM: Group Meditation Practice and Contemplation led by Sangha
7:45- 9:00 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up
9:00 – 11:30 AM: Eco Activities led by Sangha
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Rest
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Contemplation led by Sangha
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Elective Projects
5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up
7:15 – 8:30 PM: Community Learning and Practices
8:30 – Beyond: Personal Care & bed

Where is the program held and how do I get there?
Clear Sky sits on 300 acres near Bull River in southeastern BC, 40–60 minutes from Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport (YXC). It’s a four-hour drive from Calgary and one hour from the US border (accessible from Spokane, Sandpoint, and Whitefish). Airport pickup is available — just notify us when registering. For full directions, visit our Getting Here page.
How many participants are accepted and when should I apply?
This is intentionally a small group of 3–4 participants to ensure real connection and individual attention. Applications close June 15th, 2026 for the summer intake (June 29–August 29). Apply as early as possible. If you’re drawn to a longer or year-round commitment, explore our Three-Month Karma Yoga Intensive which runs multiple intakes throughout the year.

Inquire Here

As the Spirit Moves (In-Person & Online)
2026-07-10 17:00 - 2026-07-12 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
As the Spirit Moves
“When the training is for the rest of your life — and all future lifetimes — that’s when it gets really fruitful.”
-Catherine Sensei
Expect the unexpected! How will the Spirit move? This weekend is an offering of raw Dharma from the Teacher. You get to show up and experience epic Dharmic teachings, without a particular predetermined subject. Be ready for anything and everything Dharma. Unforeseen, undetermined, unregulated. No seatbelts allowed.
Retreat Dates: July 10 – 12, 2026
Registration Closes: July 3rd

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

Buddhism
focus area
Guru Yoga
practice
Weekend
Duration
Advanced
Skill Level
In-Person & Online
format
As the Spirit Moves
In the past, people “showed up” for Dharma teachings, regardless of topic. The teachings given were inspired by the energy of the people there. Qapel, one of our founding teachers, used to say that he would go to a class of his Teacher, Namgyal Rinpoche, even if he were just reading a phone book! The Spirit of Dharma… it moves!
So, are you ready to join Catherine Pawasarat Sensei for an eclectic weekend of “old school” style Dharma teachings? Wisdom invites you to learn on the path of riding the dragon, come what may.
As you are well aware, life is a great big journey into the unknown, a Dharmic odyssey. This weekend is the same! Come to soak in Dharmic teachings from Catherine Sensei, have fun, and learn more about how to be the kind of being you want to be. As Bodhisattvas, we keep on diving into learning how to be of service and help alleviate the suffering of beings. It’s an amazing ride, and every opportunity to dive into the depth of Dharma is a precious one. How do we know what we need to hear—and when we hear it, will we listen? There’s only one way to find out.
Take a leap of faith. Join the Teacher. Join the spirit of integral evolution. We dare you!

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“I feel like a whole new world of understanding has opened up for me to explore. The teachings were interesting, vibrant, and so very relevant to our lives. Qapel and Catherine Sensei have done a wonderful job at distilling these vast teachings without oversimplying concepts. The teachings were visual, informative, and interactive. It was a great and lots of fun!”
Jenai L.
Course Details
Time and Location
As the Spirit Moves will be led by Catherine Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC.
An online option is also available to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants:

Dāna to the Teachers and
Accomodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.

Online Participants:

Dāna to the Teacher
Online administration fee of $150.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, 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.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Attend In-Person

Attend Online

“Clear Sky is my favourite place to retreat. I am so grateful to find such an amazing place to study various meditation practices, walk in stunning nature and eat fresh food from the farm. I always enjoy going there for more.”
Maya L.

FAQs
About Dāna
Dana:
Registration fees cover food, accommodation and the technology needed to offer the retreat online. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
Sample Daily Schedule
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up
8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers
10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk
10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice
5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up
7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers
8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Note: In the unlikely scenario that this retreat is cancelled, we recommend purchasing refundable travel fares.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, we are delighted to offer two options.
For Clear Sky’s scholarship program, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
In addition, for members of Lighthouse Spokane, with much appreciation to the UUA New Communities Partnership Program for offering a partial scholarship to this program. Please contact the Lighthouse Spokane team for details.
Cannabis, Psychedelics and Microdosing
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.

Communication & Repair: Staying Connected Without Self-Abandoning
2026-07-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Register Here

Communication and Repair: Staying Connected Without Self-Abandoning
With Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle
Thursday July 16 2026
7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Pay-From-The-Heart
Session 4 of 6 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for other sessions in the series: Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times
You want to stay connected. You want to work things out. You want to show up for the relationships that matter.
And yet somewhere in the conversation, you lose yourself. You over-explain. You collapse. You say what they want to hear. Maybe you shut down entirely. Or you shift into reaction, defense and opposition – battening down the hatches.
This session is about staying connected without abandoning your center and your heart.
Rupture and repair is an integral part of relationship and communication. We’ll explore how to stay present in difficult conversations without losing ourselves – and how to come back when rupture happens.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

Why we lose ourselves in difficult conversations and how to stay grounded
The difference between healthy compromise and self-abandonment
Keeping the heart open and speaking what is true without aggression or collapse
Practices for staying connected to your body while staying connected to another person
The art of repair: how to come back after rupture without over-apologising or shutting down

This is session 4 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details

Date: Thursday July 16, 2026
Time: 7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
Cost: By donation (Dāna)—everyone welcome regardless of financial circumstances

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
“You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.”
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker

Register Here

What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:

Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean

Register Here

Part of the 2026 Staying Whole Series
This session is the part of Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times, a six-session online drop-in series running through 2026, offering practical tools for inner steadiness, relational resilience, and community belonging. Each session stands alone, so you’re welcome to join just this one.
Learn more about the full series here

Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
… And special guest teachers from the Clear Sky onsite Sangha
Clear Sky’s onsite team have a rich diversity of experience and many years of deep spiritual practice. During this series we’ll benefit from bringing in other voices to add depth and range to the exploration.

“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

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Emotional Intelligence (Online)
2026-07-26 09:30 - 2026-08-16 11:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Emotional Intelligence: Four-Week Online Course
“The proof of our emotional intelligence is how much time we spend in the Brahma Viharas”
—Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Sensei Pawasarat
Have you ever said something and watched the other person’s face change—realizing they heard something completely different from what you meant? Or felt a wave of conflicting emotions arise, not knowing whether to suppress them, express them, or somehow transform them?
From one perspective, we could say that conflicting emotions are the source of all of our suffering. Difficult situations can arise, but if we don’t have conflicting emotions about them, we don’t suffer so much—or at all.
This course offers something rare: the chance to learn how – from the meditator and Dharma practitioner perspective – to work skillfully with emotional arisings. It aims to help you show up in kinder, more compassionate, and wiser ways in the world. And one of the side benefits? You’re generally a happier person.
July 26 – August 16, 2026
Sunday morning online classes 9:30-11:00am MT, july 26, Aug 2 and Aug 9
Saturday & Sunday August 15-16 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min)

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focus area
Buddhism
Psychology
practice
Course & Optional
Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Sundays from 9:30-11am MT
format
In-Person or
Online
Beyond Spiritual Bypassing

Here’s the truth many of us meditators need to hear: a lot of us use our meditation practices to bypass conflicting emotions, which is different than transcending them.
In this course, we’ll look at the difference between bypassing and transcending these emotions, and discover how to use conflicting emotions skillfully to propel us further on the path. What if those difficult emotions weren’t obstacles, but fuel?
The Year of Transformation

2026 is the year of transformation here at Planet Dharma. That means growth, skill development, transcendence.
Think about it: how many of your challenges right now trace back to a miscommunication? A text message that landed wrong? A conversation where you felt completely misunderstood?
We could likely say that 90% of our problems are related to misunderstandings in communication. Does that resonate?
Communication isn’t just a valuable skill—it’s vital. To be able to communicate something in a way where the other person hears what you mean, in a wholesome way, that’s a real, very high skill. Because they can hear something completely different.
When more of us are able to communicate that way, it will undoubtedly improve the quality of life for all beings on the planet. The more effectively and wholesomely we learn to communicate, the better off the Earth is.
So when we talk about emotional intelligence, we’re talking about the Bodhisattva vow—and an important aspect of ecological restoration for all.

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“In 10 years I have NOT missed a course with master teachers Qapel and Sensei! Every class reflects the light of oneness in prisms of direction and understanding and thus a lighter load to carry in the relative world and a lightness of being. If one aspires to be a bodhisattva and to benefit all beings, this one recommends the next one.”
Brendan R.
What is Emotional Intelligence, Really?
Emotional intelligence has a lot to do with being true to ourselves, having integrity, and being able to communicate in that integrity with others in skillful ways—and the ability to receive the same.
With the development of emotional intelligence of this kind, if someone behaves or speaks in a way that’s not so skillful, we’re able to receive it in a way that’s skillful. That is a form of wholesome transformation.
Think of it as sending skillfully and receiving skillfully, regardless of what the other person is doing. And of course, in our own development, we endeavor to support others to be or become skillful too.
Body, Speech, and Mind
In this course, we’ll look at working with emotions to help us with the Speech aspect of Body, Speech, and Mind. Using the Himalayan Buddhist perspective, the Body is located in the forehead, Speech in the throat, and Mind in the heart.
Emotions are located in the throat too, so they relate to wholesome speech and self-expression—which relates to creativity!
When we talk about the Body, Speech and Mind of the Buddha, the deity Vajrapani represents the Body, Chenrezi—the realm of compassion—represents Speech, and Manjushri represents Mind. Thus, the skillfulness of our compassion pertains very closely to our Speech.
Your Unique Line of Development
Here’s something liberating to consider: we can think of Emotional Intelligence as its own Line of Development in the Integral model.
You might be brilliant cognitively, advanced spiritually, or gifted artistically or somatically—but not so high in the Emotional Intelligence line. This course is meant to offer us all resources to grow in the Emotional Line of Development.
Conversely, someone might be high in the Emotional Line but not so high in the others. This course might give them a chance to shine and become more aware of growth edges!
What to Expect
Catherine Sensei will offer exercises for students to undertake with their Sanghas in the weeks between classes.
As you engage with the course materials, notice: What arisings are coming up for you? Is there emotional content? What kind of emotional content do you feel prepared to transform, to allow the arising to pass away? Do you have the skills to transform it into something generative?
The final weekend of the course will be a flash retreat that will include exercises for students. The flash retreat registration is a separate registration.
Deepening Your Learning
The course links beautifully to Catherine’s Sensei weekend retreat in September 2026 on the north and south nodes in AstroDharma. The nodes work reveals the deeper patterns at play, while emotional intelligence gives you the skills to navigate them skillfully. We strongly recommend taking them together for a complete approach to working with yourself and others.
Course Texts
We’ll draw on these texts and other sources:
Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? A scientific dialogue with the Dalai Lama Narrated by Daniel Goleman
Emotional Intelligence By Daniel Goleman

Course Schedule
July 26 – August 16, 2026
Class Times (Mountain Time)

Sunday July 26 – 9:30-11am
Sunday August 2 – 9:30-11am
Sunday August 9 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday August 15-16 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min)

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on Sundays, with a separate registration for the Saturday-Sunday flash retreat on the fourth weekend. Class times are estimates and may change slightly.
We encourage you to connect with Sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: August 15-16
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (August 15-16), offered by a separate registration, which will include exercises to engage in. This can be done at home, or with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre in Eastern British Columbia.
Formal group sessions will be held at these approximate times:

Flash Retreat morning session: 9:30am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon session: 2:30pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and universal spiritual tools including transpersonal astrology and Japanese arts.
She trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan from 1998 until his passing in 2024, in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage

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“The teachers have brought together ancient teachings with scientific findings that prove how and why Dharma teachings radically improve life, reduce pain and increase global peace. It doesn’t matter what you believe, you will embody a healthy new way of being. Because of their vast collective wisdom, you leave their presence radically altered for the betterment of humanity.”
Evangelos D.

FAQs
What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and why is it important?
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage your emotions while skillfully navigating others’. It is the “Speech” component of Clear Sky’s Body, Speech, and Mind framework. High EQ is essential for reducing stress, improving communication, and turning daily struggles into vitality.
How does this Emotional Intelligence course help my career?
This course builds high-performance leadership skills like self-regulation, empathy, and conflict resolution. By mastering these, you can handle high-pressure workplace scenarios with composure, lead teams more effectively, and align your professional actions with your personal values.
Who is this Emotional Intelligence course for?
It is designed for professionals, leaders, and spiritual seekers who want to bridge the gap between their inner growth and their external relationships. Whether you’re an executive or a student, this course is for anyone ready to transform how they interact with the world.
What makes the Clear Sky approach to EQ unique?
Our approach integrates Integral Buddhism with modern EQ frameworks. Led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, we focus on “waking up” and “growing up” simultaneously, using mindfulness to address the root causes of emotional triggers rather than just managing symptoms.
How is this course different from standard corporate Emotional Intelligence training?
While corporate training often focuses on productivity “scripts,” Clear Sky emphasizes authentic, generative change. We treat EQ as a holistic practice for your spiritual, social, and professional life, helping you maintain inner peace even in high-stress environments.
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart.” Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity.” With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No one is excluded for lack of funds. However, it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able.
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
If you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
About the Online Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, the costs of setting up good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online can be surprising.
Our admin fee changes based on the date of registration.
Register four + weeks prior: $80Register two to four weeks prior: $100Register less than two weeks prior: $120
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

High speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
Online class systems (Zoom)
Registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
Communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
Online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
Quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
Online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
Website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!

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The Fierce Heart of Now
2026-08-21 11:00 - 2026-08-28 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Dharma Centre of Canada, 1267 Galway Road, Kinmount, Ontario, K0M 2A0, Canada
The Fierce Heart of Now
Dharma, Interconnection & Spiritual Abundance
A weeklong in-person retreat in partnership between Clear Sky Center and Awaken in Toronto.
A weeklong retreat weaving The Work That Reconnects, Vajrayana practice, and spiritual abundance, inviting you to live awakening through every aspect of your life.
This retreat is designed for a time when many feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or unsure how to respond and are ready to meet life with greater clarity and courage.

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Agenda
Dates: August 21–28, 2026
Location: Dharma Centre of Canada, Kinmount, Ontario
Format: Weeklong residential retreat
Tuition:

Accommodation and meals: $996 (non-members) / $905 (members)
Teacher offerings are by dāna (generosity)
In a time of global uncertainty, choosing to remain present, connected, and responsive is a radical act of practice. This is what we mean by the fierce heart of now: the willingness to stay open, grounded, and engaged with life as it is, meeting this moment with clarity, compassion, and courage.
As we deepen into interconnection, we begin to sense that awakening is not separate from how we live, but expressed through our relationships, our actions, and our engagement with money and resources. This retreat invites you into that lived experience of dharma: where inner transformation naturally unfolds into wise, compassionate participation in the world.
This weeklong retreat brings together The Work That Reconnects, Vajrayana Buddhist practice, and the lived path of spiritual abundance, inviting you into a direct experience of interconnection, resilience, and courageous participation in the world.
A Shared Lineage, A Living Collaboration
Co-led by dharma teacher Karen McAllister and Lama Linda Hochstetler, this retreat arises from a shared ground of practice and decades of lived dharma.
Both teachers stand in the living lineage of Namgyal Rinpoche.
Karen undertook over two decades of close, one-to-one and sustained training with Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, working in-depth with the path of surrender and the integration of awakening into lived life. She continues her dharma path under the guidance of Catherine Sensei.
Lama Linda engaged deeply with his teachings, attending retreats and courses with both Rinpoche and later with Qapel Doug Duncan.
In the early years of Clear Sky Meditation Centre, Karen and Lama Linda served together on its first board under the guidance of Catherine Sensei.
Karen continued in a long-term leadership role for over a decade, helping to steward and stabilize the organization and community through its formative years. Their connection reflects a shared lineage, respect for one another’s path, and moments of collaboration over time.
They come together in this retreat as two established dharma teachers, each grounded in their own depth of practice and lived experience, meeting in a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration.
Together, their shared lineage, long-standing connection, and complementary ways of teaching create a uniquely integrated field where deep inner transformation and its expression in everyday life are held as a single path.

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What We Will Explore
Lama Linda will guide participants through The Work That Reconnects by Joanna Macy, leading the group through its four phases as a powerful collective process of transformation, supported by Vajrayana teachings, daily meditation, and the Vajrasattva Wongkur empowerment.
Through this arc, grief and overwhelm are gently transformed into clarity, resilience, and compassionate action.
As a dharma teacher, Karen supports how this unfolding process naturally expresses itself in the relational and material dimensions of life. Her work brings dharma directly into our relationship with money, energy, and resources, not as an abstract idea, but as a lived and often emotionally charged experience.
Rather than bypassing the emotional reality of money, Karen creates a grounded and compassionate space where people can move from a transactional mindset into a relational one. This includes gently facing the often complex and emotionally charged experiences people carry, patterns of scarcity, fear, self-worth, as well as feelings of betrayal, disconnection, or distrust in relation to money, others, and the systems we live within.
Working in a group field allows these patterns to be seen more clearly, not just as individual struggles, but as part of a shared human experience. Together, participants begin to uncover how money has come to hold collective projections that can separate and isolate us, and how, through awareness and connection, these patterns can be unraveled. What has felt stuck, confusing, or painful can begin to soften, opening the possibility for a more honest, connected, and life-affirming relationship with money and with one another.
In this way, money becomes a powerful vehicle for dharma, a place where awakening is practiced, where the heart is invited to open, and where our relationship to giving, receiving, and value can come into alignment with who we truly are.
The Spiral of the Retreat
Guided by the spiral of The Work That Reconnects, we will move through four phases:
Gratitude
Grounding in what sustains us and opening to connection.
Honoring Our Pain for the World
Allowing grief and overwhelm to move and transform.
Seeing with New Eyes
Recognizing interdependence and reorienting toward wise relationship with self, others, and resources.
Going Forth
Bringing this awareness into how we live, serve, and participate in the world.
What to Expect
Each day will include:

meditation practice and teachings
guided group process through The Work That Reconnects
time for reflection, integration, and rest
opportunities to explore how practice expresses in daily life

Who This Retreat Is For
This retreat is for spiritual practitioners, Buddhists, change-makers, caregivers, therapists, healers, leaders, and anyone longing to meet this moment with greater clarity, courage, and compassion.
It may be especially supportive if you are:

feeling the weight of the world and longing for a grounded, compassionate response
seeking to deepen and live your dharma practice more fully
wanting to align your inner life with how you relate, work, serve, and engage with resources
exploring your relationship with money, energy, purpose, and contribution
ready to participate in the world with more steadiness, generosity, and wise action
You Will Leave With

a steadier capacity to remain present and connected in uncertain times
tools to meet and gently unravel emotional patterns around money, fear, and self-worth
a more easeful and embodied relationship with money, energy, and resources
greater alignment between your values, your actions, and how you direct your life energy
a felt sense of connection and support that allows new ways of relating to emerge
renewed confidence to participate in the world with courage, care, and a sense of purpose

A Whole Path of Awakening
This retreat is an invitation to live awakening as a whole path, one that moves from presence into participation, from interconnection into action.
As insight deepens, it begins to shape how we relate, how we serve, and how we engage with the world, including our relationship with money and resources.
You are invited to return to your life with a fierce heart, a clear mind, and a grounded capacity to meet this moment with wisdom, compassion, and courage.

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Your Teaching Team

Karen Mcallister
Karen McAllister is a dharma teacher, co-executive director of Clear Sky Meditation Centre, and long-time student of Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in the lineage of Namgyal Rinpoche.
For over 25 years, Karen has followed a path of deep practice, including extensive retreat experience, close one-to-one training, and over 100 Vajrayana empowerments. Her practice integrates meditation, community life, leadership, and service as a continuous field of awakening.
Keep Reading
Karen’s teaching is grounded in a simple understanding: nothing is outside the path of dharma. The places that often feel most charged money, relationship, power, and purpose can become gateways to greater awareness, freedom, and compassion.
Her work brings dharma directly into our relationship with money, energy, and resources. Through individual coaching and group programs, she helps people explore patterns of fear, scarcity, self-worth, and disconnection, supporting a more conscious and relational way of engaging with money and life.
Karen has also played a central role in building Clear Sky Meditation Centre from its early days, helping steward its growth and serving in leadership for more than a decade, including as Board Chair and Director of Fund Development.
At heart, she is a spiritual seeker devoted to helping others discover how awakening can be lived fully in everyday life.

Lama Linda
Lama Linda (Linda Hochstetler) has explored consciousness and awakening for more than 30 years. She trained with Namgyal Rinpoche—the first Canadian-born Rinpoche—from 1995 until his passing in 2003, grounding herself in Theravada and Vajrayana Buddhist practices. She later continued her studies with Qapel (Doug Duncan), a successor in the Namgyal lineage, and received permission to teach under his guidance. She is the co-founder and leader of the Awaken in Toronto Sangha, where she teaches weekly online classes on consciousness and awakening principles, and leads retreats 4 times a year.
Keep Reading
A registered social worker specializing in illness, dying, and death, Lama Linda also maintains a thriving private psychotherapy practice, has presented widely at conferences, and has been interviewed extensively on end-of-life topics. In 2021 she published her first book, 21 Days to Die: The Canadian Guide to End of Life. A mother, wife, and friend to many, she encourages her students to use their relationships as gateways to love more deeply and explore dharma more fully. She is devoted to weaving Buddhist teachings with Western psychotherapeutic approaches to support transformative change. www.lindahochstetler.com
What is The Fierce Heart of Now retreat about?
A weeklong retreat blending The Work That Reconnects, Vajrayana practice, and spiritual abundance teachings to help you meet uncertainty with clarity and courage.
When and where is it held?
August 21–28, 2026, at the Dharma Centre of Canada, Kinmount, Ontario.
How much does it cost?
$996 (non-members) / $905 (members) for accommodation and meals. Teacher offerings are by dāna.
Who teaches the retreat?
Karen McAllister and Lama Linda Hochstetler, both in the Namgyal Rinpoche lineage.
Who is this retreat for?
Practitioners, caregivers, healers, and leaders seeking clarity, courage, and a healthier relationship with money and purpose.

Healing Body, Speech and Mind
2026-08-27 19:00 - 2026-09-17 20:15 (America/Chicago) | Mountain View Therapeutics – Cranbrook, #204 14 A 13 Avenue South, Cranbrook, BC, V1C 2V3, Canada
Healing Body, Speech and Mind
Thursdays 7 pm – Aug 27 to Sep 17; In Person in Cranbrook and Online via Zoom

Are you feeling out of touch with your body? Carrying tensions you can’t quite name? Struggling to express what you really feel—or even to know what you feel?
In these distracted, fragmented times—with too much screen time, too many demands, and not enough space—it’s easy to become disconnected. Our bodies hold stress we don’t notice. Our emotions go unexpressed. And underneath it all, unconscious beliefs quietly shape how we live.
Join us for a four-week evening series exploring a gentle, organic pathway to healing—moving from body, through emotions, to the deepest patterns of the mind.
No experience necessary—complete beginners welcome.
Register For In Person Register For Online
The Journey
Week 1: Healing the Body
It’s easy to live from the neck up. Our bodies carry the tension of our lives—stress, posture, rushing, worry—often without us realising. This first session invites us to come home to the body. Through simple, grounded practices, we’ll learn to reconnect with physical sensation, release what we’re holding, and rediscover the body as a place of refuge rather than something to manage.
Week 2: Healing Speech (Emotions)
Once we feel more settled in our bodies, we have space for what lives beneath the surface. Many of us were never taught how to acknowledge, process, or communicate our emotions. This session offers gentle approaches to emotional clearing and healing—inviting both deep honesty and self-compassion. We’ll explore how to feel fully without being overwhelmed, and how to allow acceptance where there has been resistance.
Week 3: Healing the Mind (Beliefs)
When our emotions become more peaceful, we can begin to see the deeper patterns—the mental views and beliefs that drive our stress and keep us stuck. Many of these are only partly conscious. This session brings gentle, penetrating awareness to these hidden structures, creating space for more liberating and life-giving beliefs to emerge.
Week 4: Integration and Practice
In our final session, we bring the three dimensions together. We’ll review the practices, address questions, and explore how to carry this healing work into daily life—not as a project to complete, but as an ongoing relationship with body, heart, and mind.
Register For In Person Register For Online
Details
Time: Thursdays, 7:00–8:15pm MT
Dates: August 27, September 3, 10, 17
In Person: Mountain View Therapeutics, 14A 13 Ave S #204, Cranbrook, BC V1C 2V3
Online option: join via Zoom; recordings available
Cost: Pay-from-the-heart (Dāna). Suggested range $20–50 per class. You are welcome regardless of what you are able to offer.
What to Expect
Each session includes:

Guided meditation and embodiment practices
Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice
Reflection and group dialogue
Tools designed to carry into daily life

The atmosphere is warm and welcoming—come as you are.
Register For In Person Register For Online
Your Guide
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to heal and to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organisations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Wise, compassionate, firm and funny 🙂 Grounded and well able to engage in difficult conversations, a rarity in this age 🙂 Kristen Wise, compassionate, approachable & effective Linda Your calming presence and anecdotes are exactly what’s needed to support an environment of compassion, loving kindness, equanimity and sympathetic joy Jenn Synergistic, compassionate, and attuned. Joyful to be around, font of wisdom which is experiential. Great at holding space for all emotions. ♡ Grace Register For In Person Register For Online

Meditating in Nature: A Day Retreat At Beautiful Clear Sky Center
2026-09-05 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
Meditating In Nature: A Day Workshop At Beautiful Clear Sky
With Duncan Cryle and Karen McAllister
Are you longing to reconnect with the natural world and discover a deeper sense of belonging? Do you sense that healing the separation between yourself and nature could transform your experience of life?
Join us for a day immersed in the mountains, forest, meadows and Food Forest at Clear Sky, where we’ll explore natural meditation practices that awaken us to our intimate connection with all of life.

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This is a great retreat to reset your nervous system, especially if you are stressed, overwhelmed or burnt out. Being in Nature and reminding ourselves of the teachings of nature was powerful. It was effective in going into deeper self-reflection and contemplation. A gift of rest and recharge everyone deserves.
LilianNonprofit leader
Reconnecting with the Web of Life
Living in our modern world, it’s easy to forget that we are part of an ecosystem that is incredibly old and spans a whole planet. This forgetting has become so deep that it shapes our culture and institutions. Yet the separation we feel – from nature, from our bodies, from each other – is not the truth of how things are.
This day retreat offers a path home.
Through simple yet profound practices done outdoors in Clear Sky’s stunning mountain setting, we’ll rediscover a natural connection with our breath, the earth, and the land around us. We’ll learn to see with fresh eyes, as if we were explorers encountering life for the first time.

Who This Retreat Is For
We welcome anyone who:

Feels disconnected from nature and longs to reconnect
Is new to meditation and wants an accessible entry point
Has meditation experience but wants to deepen their practice outdoors
Seeks healing from the stress and isolation of modern life
Is curious about Buddhist approaches to ecology and interconnection

No prior meditation experience is required. The practices we’ll explore are simple yet profound – suitable for beginners while offering depth for experienced practitioners.

This is a gentle retreat for people without meditation experience. It helps people to be attuned to their senses and become more aware of their feelings and emotions. This retreat welcomes people from all religious background.
Annie

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What You’ll Experience
Introduction To Breathing Meditation: Foundational accessible instructions in reconnecting to our breath, and using the breath as a natural anchor to support presence.
Breathing With Nature: A beautiful meditation practice that reconnects us with the ancient dance of giving and receiving between humans and nature. This simple practice rapidly brings calm and wellbeing while revealing that we truly belong to something much larger than ourselves.
Nature Contemplation: Guided explorations in Clear Sky’s forests, meadows, and along its mountain trails. We’ll practice seeing the interconnectedness that reveals itself wherever we look – discovering, as the early explorers did, how encountering the natural world transforms our sense of who and what we are.
Embodied Presence: Practices that bring us home to our bodies as living expressions of nature itself. We’ll learn to savor the breath as rare nectar and discover how attention to our embodied experience reconnects us to the larger body of life.
TThis was an amazing experience. The food, the weather, the slowing down, the quiet, the exercises to connect with self and nature. Staying in my tent… Bliss!!
Carolyn

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About Your Guides
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation for over 20 years and is a senior teacher at Clear Sky. She is a contemplative leader and certified money coach who integrates embodiment, relational practice, and material life as a path of awakening. As Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky, Karen brings a deep commitment to aligning spiritual practice, community life, and the ethical flow of resources in service of collective flourishing.
Course Details

Location: Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, Fort Steele, BC, V0B 1N0
Date: Saturday, September 5th 2026
Time: Arrive 9.30 am for a 10 am start; day retreat finishes 5 pm MT
Cost: Sliding scale pay-from-the-heart from $80 to $200

“The best! Such beautiful energy and gentle guidance.”
Carolyn
“Karen and Duncan create a womb of spiritual teaching, practice, and wisdom that support the student to look deeply and leap. A tender and yet sharp clarity that is a precious, priceless gift for those lucky to be taught and loved by them.”
ErikaWriter and Filmmaker
“Wise, compassionate, firm and funny 🙂 Grounded and well able to engage in difficult conversations, a rarity in this age :)”
KristenSchoolteacher
“So kind and gentle! I love that they are down to earth and eat and spend time with us”
Annie

REGISTER NOW

FAQs
Do I need meditation experience to attend this retreat?
No prior experience is needed. This retreat is designed to be accessible to complete beginners while still offering depth for those with an existing practice. The practices are simple, grounded, and done mostly outdoors — no background in Buddhism or meditation is required.
What does meditating in nature actually involve?
The retreat includes guided breathing meditation, outdoor nature contemplation walks through Clear Sky’s forests and mountain meadows, and embodied presence practices. Everything takes place on Clear Sky’s 300-acre property in the BC Rockies — the land itself is very much part of the teaching.
When and where is this retreat held?
The day retreat runs Saturday September 5th, 2026 from 10 am to 5 pm MT at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, 3567 Cockell Road, Fort Steele, BC. Clear Sky is about 40 minutes from Cranbrook International Airport and a four-hour drive from Calgary. See our Getting Here page for directions.
What does the day retreat cost?
Pricing is based on a sliding scale pay-from-the-heart approach from $80 to $200. This price includes lunch and coffee/tea/snacks.
We are pleased to also be able to offer scholarships to support attendance to this program. Contact us for information.
Is this day retreat suitable for people dealing with stress, burnout, or eco-anxiety?
Yes — this is one of the central intentions of the retreat. The practices are specifically designed to address the disconnection and overwhelm that come with modern life, including eco-anxiety. Participants regularly report feeling calmer, more grounded, and more connected after spending a weekend in nature with these practices.

Healing Love Healing Money - Free Intro Webinar
2026-09-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Join Wed 16 Sept 7-8 pm MDT

Join Thu 17 Sept 10-11 am MDT

Healing Love Healing Money: Free Intro Webinar
With Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle
We are offering two different date/time options you can join:
Wed 16th Sept 2026 7-8 pm MDT (6-7 pm PST)
Or
Thu 17th Sept 2026 10-11 am MDT (9-10 am PST)
You can join a session both as a standalone webinar as part of our 2026 drop-in series Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times, as well as a taster for our 4-day course Healing Love, Healing Money running October 1–4 in partnership with Tamera Peace Village.
You check your bank balance and feel your stomach tighten. You know your finances aren’t actually a crisis, but your nervous system doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. You find yourself avoiding the number, or obsessing over it—there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.
If money brings up more fear than facts, this session is for you.
What We’ll Explore
This session explores a simple but rarely examined question: what if our struggles with money are not primarily financial…but relational?
Economic uncertainty doesn’t just live in our bank accounts—it lives in the body. We’ll explore how fear around belonging, intimacy, security, and survival shapes both our relationships and our economic behaviour—and how meeting that fear with steadiness, rather than control or avoidance, opens a doorway into deeper spiritual practice.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:

Why money anxiety is rarely just about money—and what it’s often protecting
How scarcity and fear live in the nervous system, not just the spreadsheet
The surprising parallels between our wounds around money and our wounds around love
Simple practices for meeting financial fear with presence rather than avoidance
How healing trust—in ourselves and in community—may be essential for real change

You’ll leave with tools for meeting financial uncertainty with more presence, and a taste of the deeper territory we’ll explore together in the full course this October.
This is session 5 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details

When: Join either Wed 16th Sept 2026 7-8 pm MDT (6-7 pm PST) or Thu 17th Sept 2026 10-11 am MDT (9-10 am PST)
Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
Cost: Free

Join Wed 16 Sept 7-8 pm MDT

Join Thu 17 Sept 10-11 am MDT

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean
“You can read and try all sorts of things by yourself, but doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.”
Erika RasmussenWriter and Film Maker
What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:

Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion

Photo courtesy of Ava Maclean

Join Wed 16 Sept 7-8 pm MDT

Join Thu 17 Sept 10-11 am MDT

Going Deeper: The Full Course
This webinar is a taster for Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture—a four-day live online course (October 1–4) offered in partnership with Tamera Peace Village, a long-term intentional community in Portugal known for its decades-long exploration of trust, intimacy, and love.
Hosted by Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle from Clear Sky, together with Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera, the course goes deeper into the territory this session only begins to open: how fear around belonging, intimacy, security, and survival shapes both our relationships and our economic lives, and why healing trust at the community level may be essential for real change.
Watch: Karen and Duncan sat down with Monika and Benjamin for an unscripted conversation about why they created this course—watch it here (link to video once live).

Learn more about the full Healing Love Healing Money Course Oct 1-4

Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
“Duncan and Karen are wonderful instructors who help everyone, from beginners to people with more experience, practice meditation and self-care. As I joined remotely, I appreciated how the online participants were engaged through conversation and breakout rooms.”
Kristi

Join Wed 16 Sept 7-8 pm MDT

Join Thu 17 Sept 10-11 am MDT

AstroDharma: The Nodes & Your Planetary Purpose (In-Person & Online)
2026-09-18 17:00 - 2026-09-20 15:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
AstroDharma 2026: The Nodes & Your Planetary Purpose
Online or In-Person | September 18-20, 2026
“Astrology allows us to identify our unique challenges and strengths as individuals in order to more fully embody and live our spiritual awakening… Dharma empowers us to transcend our challenges, leverage our strengths and reduce the suffering within ourselves and those around us.”
-Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
What does the planet need from you? Who are you here to be? And how do you get there from here? These aren’t small questions. You sense there’s a unique contribution only you can make. A purpose that’s yours alone. But how do you find it? More importantly—how do you live it?
Join Catherine Sensei for a transformative weekend that helps you discover how to use your natural resources—your talents, your experiences, your unique energy—to be more generous in the world. This isn’t abstract spiritual philosophy. This is about finding your planetary purpose and learning how to actually embody it.
In-Person Registration Closes: September 4th
Online Registration Closes: September 11th

IMPORTANT NOTE: This retreat includes unique and transformative somatic exercises that can only be offered in-person. These exercises are not included for online participants.
To get the most out of the retreat, we strongly recommend attending in-person if possible.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

The nodes in your astrological chart hold the map. They show your path of spiritual progress in this lifetime. Your South Node reveals your karma—the familiar patterns you default to, the conditioning that keeps you stuck. Your North Node points to your Dharma—the direction your soul is being called to grow, the gifts you’re here to share with the world.
You Know That Feeling When…

You keep hitting the same walls, running the same patterns, and you know there’s a way through but you can’t quite see it
You sense you have gifts to offer the world, but you’re not sure what they are or how to share them
Your relationships keep triggering the same dynamics, and you wonder if there’s a deeper pattern at play
You’re ready to get unstuck from old conditioning and step into who you’re truly meant to be
You’re part of a spiritual community and you want to understand the energy dynamics that create harmony (or friction) between people
You feel called to something bigger but you’re not sure how to bridge the gap between where you are and where you need to be
If any of these resonate, this course is for you.

This course for you if:

You want to study an astrological Dharmic framework with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
You’re ready to learn how to get unstuck from your conditioning and discover where you want to acquire experience, knowledge, and skills to develop your unique Dharmic path
You’re seeking greater clues into finding your planetary purpose—who you’re here to be in this lifetime
You’re part of a Sangha and want to better understand one another’s patterns so you can transform interpersonal conflict into mutual support (this course is really good for Sanghas)
You want practical tools for recognizing energy dynamics in your relationships and shifting them in more wholesome ways
You’re ready to discover how to share your gifts with the world in a way that actually serves

The Astro Dharma retreat was transformative and surprising. I was very new to Astrology at this retreat and found Sensei’s integration of the wisdom of Astrology with the path to enlightenment to be so insightful for my practice. The most surprising aspect was the somatic practice where the group created each person’s natal chart and embodied each sign.
It allowed me to deeply connect with different signs and how their position in the houses causes them to manifest. I was surprised by the intensity of the energy I felt and others expressed and how it manifested so differently for each person’s chart. Its an experience you can’t recreate online so if you can attend in person you won’t regret it!

JimSpokane, WA
Why the Nodes Matter
The nodes describe how we can use our natural resources, our talents, to be more generous in the world. They show us where we get stuck and how to get unstuck. They reveal where we have gifts and where there’s potential for further growth.
The nodes were one of the parts of AstroDharma that our late teacher Qapel had the most interest in, and a key area Catherine Sensei focuses on in her AstroDharma teachings.
This course is especially powerful for developing community. Understanding one another’s AstroDharmic patterns—your natal horoscopes—can really help us take interpersonal conflict and look at the energy dynamics that are involved. Instead of the usual patterns of either engaging in interpersonal conflict or avoiding it altogether, you’ll learn how to understand these dynamics and shift them in more wholesome ways so you can really support one another.
The course links beautifully to the Emotional Intelligence course—the nodes work reveals the deeper patterns at play, while emotional intelligence gives you the skills to navigate them skillfully. We strongly recommend taking them together for a complete approach to working with yourself and others.

I attended in person and was part of a somatic live placement of planets and signs activity, which brought the learning literally alive. Seeing placement of entities made it “real” for me. I am looking forward to attending future courses to continue the learning which is vast, even pointing out potential strengths and weaknesses. So useful in the twenty-first century!

DanBloomington, MN
What You’ll Learn:
In this course, we’ll explore the nodes from multiple angles—what they portray astronomically and astrologically, how they show up in our lives, and specifically how they show up for you.
You’ll learn:

How the nodes reveal your path of spiritual progress in this lifetime
Where your conditioning keeps you stuck—and how to get unstuck
Where you want to acquire experience, knowledge, and skills to develop your unique Dharmic path
How to use your natural resources (talents) to be more generous in the world
Tools for understanding interpersonal dynamics and energy patterns within communities
How to bridge the gap from where you are to who you’re meant to be
For in-person participants: You’ll experience somatic AstroDharma mandalas (somatic constellations) to explore the nodes through your body. These are visceral, compelling experiences that bring the teachings alive in a whole new way. Lucky us!

Meet the Teacher – Catherine Sensei

Catherine Pawasarat
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. She has developed AstroDharma as a tool for transformation, synthesizing Buddhist teachings on spiritual awakening with transpersonal Western astrology based on the teachings of Carl Jung.
She trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan from 1998 until his passing in 2024 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West, and received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
Since the early 2000s, Catherine has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, she draws on generative living, transpersonal astrology, and Japanese arts. Catherine comes from a lineage of spiritual awakening that values the best of Eastern and Western philosophy—an ideal training for Westerners and an evolution of traditional teachings for the modern seeker.
https://youtu.be/mVLtG-aYkNw?si=YP46RrO-gEuCKJaX
Why AstroDharma
For spiritual seekers looking to grow, Catherine Sensei’s unique combination of Buddhism and Transpersonal Astrology speeds us up on our spiritual path.
Many of us in the West are raised to celebrate the individual self—to find our unique path and explore why we’re here on this planet. Yet Buddhist Dharma leaps over personalization by teaching that there is no inherent self, and that we must realize this to find spiritual awakening.
For many of us, that’s a big leap.
https://youtu.be/lnknXkUYi3g?si=gIHk1Xldy4KfNTVR
On the way, we may miss valuable lessons about how to compassionately show up in the world as unique individuals. AstroDharma bridges these two systems. Transpersonal Western astrology reveals individual patterns and influences—we get a window into the energies, the pushes and pulls of the psyche. Dharma expands the view beyond self, into a path of service to community, for the benefit of all beings.
Over time, with growing confidence and awareness, we can transcend our natal charts and awaken. But first, we work with what we’ve got.
We initially pursued AstroDharma because Namgyal Rinpoche also taught astrology. We’ve found it to be an effective tool for helping us explore our patterns. It’s unique for each person, and AstroDharma helps us unpack that uniqueness so you can use it better for yourself and for others.
Course Details
Time and Location
Led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. Available in-person or online.
Retreating at Clear Sky means you can participate in the in-person somatic AstroDharma constellation work—always a more grounded, supportive, communal experience.
Schedule / Class Times:
All listed in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), and will be 60-90 minutes in duration. Please clear your schedule for the entire weekend to focus on this work. The following class times are approximate:
Friday, September 18 — 7pm (arrive on-site at 3pm)Saturday, September 19 — 9am, 2pm, plus in-person somatic work at 7pmSunday, September 20 — 9am, 2pm, plus in-person somatic work at 4pm
Online participants are expected to attend classes live. We have arranged class times to be comfortable for most time zones. However we understand that some class times might occur after midnight in some regions; if this is the case for you, please let us know when you register. We can provide a recording so you can catch up on that particular class if it occurs in the middle of the night for you.What you’ll need: Your astrology chart with the Nodes, Chiron, and Eris, using Placidus house system. Detailed instructions provided upon registration.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants:

Dāna to the Teacher
Accomodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.

Online Participants:

Dāna to the Teacher
Online administration fee of $170 CAD.

Keen practitioner pricing: 5% savings on program fees available until February 14, 2025.
Important: The last day to register is one week prior to the retreat start date. Please register early.
Questions?
If you have questions about the retreat, please contact the Clear Sky Retreat Manager at 250-429-3929 (phone) or at bookings@clearskycenter.org (email).

I greatly appreciate the depth of knowledge and level of expertise that is shared by Sensei. Her teachings are always well prepared and transformative in my spiritual growth.It allowed me to deeply connect with different signs and how their position in the houses causes them to manifest. I was surprised by the intensity of the energy I felt and others expressed and how it manifested so differently for each person’s chart. Its an experience you can’t recreate online so if you can attend in person you won’t regret it!

MicheleTrail, BC

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, 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.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

Locally-grown organic food

Supportive meditation guidance

Stunning bedroom views

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

FAQs
About Dana
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
About the Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
—
Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
online class systems (Zoom)
registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Daily Schedule
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
PSYCHEDELICS/MICRODOSING
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.
SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online. We do not have paid staff.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, we are delighted to offer two options.
For Clear Sky’s scholarship program, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
In addition, for members of Lighthouse Spokane, with much appreciation to the UUA New Communities Partnership Program for offering a partial scholarship to this program. Please contact the Lighthouse Spokane team for details.

In-Person Registration

Online Registration

Healing Love, Healing Money (Online)
2026-10-01 10:00 - 2026-10-04 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture
A Four-Day Live Online Course in partnership between Clear Sky Center and Tamera.
Hosted by Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle from Clear Sky and Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera
October 1-4, 2026
10am–12pm MDT / 12–2pm EDT / 5–7pm BST / 6–8pm CEST
This course explores a simple but rarely examined question:
What if our struggles with money are not primarily financial…but relational?
And what if the way we’ve learned to love is shaping the way we earn, spend, give and receive?
Over four days, we explore how fear around belonging, intimacy, security, and survival shapes both our relationships and our economic behaviour and how healing trust at the community level may be essential for real change.

Why This Course?
This course emerged from two parallel inquiries that unexpectedly led to the same place.
Clear Sky Center is a Buddhist-inspired contemplative community and retreat centre in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Tamera is a peace research community of around 160 people in southern Portugal, with decades of experience exploring trust, love, and the foundations of a new culture through their Global Love School. Both communities have spent years asking how we might live, love, and organise ourselves more honestly. Both arrived, from very different directions, at the same territory.
Karen McAllister began exploring people’s relationship with money in 2010 while helping lead Clear Sky through significant financial challenges. What appeared to be financial issues often revealed something much deeper: wounds around safety, belonging, and power. Over time, this work expanded from individuals to couples, organisations, and communities. Again and again, the same pattern emerged. Money was rarely just about money. It revealed deeper questions:
Will I be okay? Do I belong? Do I have a voice?
In 2025, Karen and Duncan visited Tamera in Portugal to learn more about the Love School and its decades-long exploration of trust, intimacy, and community. There they had deep and generative conversations with members of Tamera around the striking parallels between the wounds people carry around money and the wounds they carry around love.
Both touch our deepest fears and longings. Both reveal where trust has been broken. Both invite healing.
This collaboration was born from a shared recognition that healing our relationship with money and healing our relationship with love are not separate journeys. They are part of the same movement toward greater trust, freedom, creativity, and service.
Who Is This Course For?
This course is for spiritual practitioners, community builders, coaches, healers, leaders, and thoughtful human beings who want to understand how survival, belonging, love, money, and power shape their lives. It is relevant for anyone seeking healthier relationships with themselves, with others, with money, and with the communities and cultures they participate in, whether those are families, workplaces, spiritual groups, or intentional communities.
If you are curious about trust, intimacy, community, and cultural healing and willing to explore your own patterns with honesty and compassion, you will likely feel at home here.

Register Now

Agenda
Oct 1st — The Roots of Fear
Why Money Anxiety Is Not Just About Money
We begin by exploring how:

fear of exclusion shows up as financial stress
scarcity responses live in the nervous system
collective trauma influences earning, saving and giving
money becomes a proxy for safety and belonging

Participants will:

start to map their early survival adaptations around both love and money
learn introductory groundwork to notice grasping, avoidance or control patterns
begin tracking somatic responses to financial and relational stress

Oct 2nd — Love, Possession & Power
The Hidden Economic Training Ground of Relationship
This session looks at:

ownership in love and ownership in the economy
jealousy, control and financial secrecy
how partnership becomes an economic unit
the influence of patriarchal conditioning on intimacy and livelihood

Participants will:

step into exploring communication patterns around money and intimacy
embark on identifying inherited relational and financial agreements
undertake the practice of truth-telling in a carefully held small-group setting

Oct 3rd — Trust as Infrastructure
Community as a Container for Healing
We examine why:

healing often fails when kept private
both love and money tend to isolate us
trust requires social structures, not just personal insight
new relational agreements create economic safety

Participants will:

work in small pods to explore feedback and witnessing
experiment with shared inquiry around resource and care
reflect on what supports transparency in both love and livelihood

Oct 4th — Ethical Livelihood
From Private Survival to Collective Sufficiency
We close by exploring:

what “enough” really means
purpose-aligned earning
generosity and reciprocity
livelihood as participation in cultural healing

Participants will:

set out on clarifying values around work and contribution
contemplate giving, receiving and sustainability
sow the seeds for creating a personal practice that aligns love, money and service

Register Now

Throughout the Course

short meditation practices
relational inquiry exercises
somatic awareness practices
buddy conversations
optional journaling prompts

The emphasis is on:

slow integration
shared learning
relational repair
and honest dialogue

Intended Outcomes

By the end of the four days, participants may notice:

less isolation around money or relationship struggles
increased capacity for truthful communication
clearer alignment between values and livelihood
greater ease in giving and receiving
a shift from private survival toward shared sufficiency

Where Might This Lead?
This pilot is intended as a beginning rather than a complete journey. Depending on participant interest and what emerges from our collaboration, future opportunities may include:

A longer 8–12 week course
A deeper exploration of healing love and healing money
Continued learning through Clear Sky’s programs and practice community
Opportunities to engage with Tamera’s work and offerings
New collaborative programs developed by the facilitators

These are possibilities rather than commitments, and we look forward to discovering what wants to emerge together.
Is This Course For Me?
Money and relationships are among the most emotionally charged areas of human life because they touch our experiences of safety, belonging, attachment, and power.
This course invites participants into meaningful personal inquiry. Strong emotions, familiar patterns, or old stories may arise as part of the process.
For this reason, we work slowly and with care, using meditation, somatic awareness, reflective exercises, and supportive dialogue practices.
Participants are always encouraged to honour their own pace and boundaries.
While this course is educational rather than therapeutic, it is designed with trauma-awareness and nervous-system sensitivity in mind.
Pricing

CAD $450 to CAD $550 – Pay-It-Forward
Helps make supported spaces possible for others and strengthens the collective container.
CAD $350 to CAD $450 – Full Contribution (Sustaining Rate) Reflects the true value of the course and supports the continuity of this work.
CAD $200 to CAD $350 – Supported Access
For those with limited income, in transition, or experiencing financial constraint at this time.

Note: for members of Lighthouse Spokane, with much appreciation to the UUA New Communities Partnership Program some scholarships to this program are available. Please contact your Lighthouse Spokane organizers for details.

Register Now

Your Teaching Team

Karen McAllister
Karen McAllister is a contemplative leader, senior meditation teacher, certified money coach, Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky Meditation Centre and co-founding member of Clear Sky Meditation Centre.
Keep Reading
For more than fifteen years she has explored how our deepest patterns around safety, belonging, worth, and power shape both our relationship with money and our relationships with one another. Her work began while helping lead Clear Sky through significant financial challenges and evolved into supporting individuals, couples, communities, nonprofits, and values-based organizations in transforming their relationship with money.
Alongside her professional work, Karen’s own life has been a laboratory for exploring trust, partnership, intimacy, and community. Living and practising within intentional community for more than two decades has shown her that many of the fears and attachments that emerge around money also emerge in love. Questions of security, freedom, honesty, belonging, and power often sit beneath both.
Her approach integrates meditation, somatic awareness, relational inquiry, and practical financial coaching, supporting people to move from survival-based patterns toward greater trust, authenticity, connection, and service.
Karen is passionate about helping people discover that money is not merely a resource to manage but a relationship that can become a path of awakening.

Duncan Cryle
Duncan Cryle is a co-founding member and Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky Meditation Centre. He brings together over twenty years of meditation practice, organizational leadership, systems thinking, and community development.
Keep Reading
While much of Duncan’s work has focused on financial stewardship, governance, and building resilient systems, his deeper interest lies in the relationship between transparency, trust, and human connection. Through decades of living, leading, and partnering within intentional community, he has explored how honesty, accountability, freedom, and mutual care can support both healthy relationships and healthy cultures.
Together with Karen, Duncan has spent many years examining how money, power, intimacy, and community influence one another. Their shared journey has revealed that healing often begins when difficult conversations become possible and when trust is supported by both personal practice and collective structures.
Duncan brings a grounded and practical perspective to the course, helping participants explore how relational insights can be translated into sustainable agreements, healthy systems, and meaningful cultural change.

Monika Alleweldt
Born 1954 in Giessen, Germany, M.Sc. (Agriculture), works for many years for and with the “Plan of Healing Biotopes”. Since 2001 she mainly lives in Tamera, Portugal.
Keep Reading
Until 2024 she was one of the owners of the publishing house Meiga. Since her early youth she aspired to a career in helping people in need all over the world. As a young student, she travels to Guatemala as part of her studies. The trip becomes a turning point in her life.
She realizes that help alone does not change anything. Symptoms can be alleviated, but the cause of the suffering is not eliminated. So what is the right approach? A serious illness forces her to return home early and leads her to an existential decision. She completes her studies but then leaves her professional career and sets out to find an answer that gives hope. She examines many paths, contacts different people and initiatives.
Finally she finds convincing answers in the work of Dieter Duhm. A cooperation begins that continues to this day. In 2021 she finishes her first book titled „Global Liberation from Fear and Violence“ (in German).
Today, she is joining with other women to bring forth a second book, provisionally titled Women’s Solidarity: The End of Collective Repression. The End of Patriarchy — a work that envisions a new feminine consciousness, and a deep reverence for, and love of, the masculine.

Benjamin von Mendelssohn
Born into a once-wealthy, culturally significant Jewish banking family in Germany, the issues of reconciliation, politics and money accompanied Benjamin from his early years.
Keep Reading
After a radical but frustrating period of political engagement in his youth, Benjamin started to explore holistic approaches to bringing about change. To this end he co-founded the Peace University at Potsdam and later researched into many social experiments and intentional communities.
Although he trained as a healer, dancer and choreographer Benjamin retained a focus on new models for living and a passion for complex synergies and systems theory. Creating syntheses of seemingly opposing forces is important to him – politics and spirituality; vision work and concrete manifestation; Eros and religion; free sexuality and deep, committed partnership; nature and technology and most critically inner and outer peace work.
Benjamin has been living and researching in Tamera since 1998 where he now serves as a next-generation leader. He has been co-leading The Global Love School since its inauguration in 2012 and was director of the Grace Foundation for Humanising Money for 15 years.

Tantra Practice Retreat
2026-10-09 15:00 - 2026-10-25 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
“Perhaps it is a more difficult path since we tend to get caught up in our desires that end up in attachment that is the source of suffering. But it is also a richer and more integrated path as we can use our full human potential and capabilities to rediscover wonderment without the clinging that causes suffering.”
Qapel (Acharya Doug Duncan)
Life as Tantra: Weaving Desire into Liberation – Blog
Deepen your relationship with the inner deity in this two-week tantra retreat. Whether it be a dance, an embrace, making love, or merely establishing an initial rapport, the deep archetypes of the mind beckon you to enter in communion. Led by Catherine Sensei, this retreat is an opportunity to dive deep into the tantric teachings and practices of a thousand-year-old lineage.
October 9 – 25, 2026
In-Person

Apply Here

Tantra
focus area
Meditation Retreat
practice
Two Weeks
Duration
Advanced
Skill Level
In-Person
format
Tantra Practice Retreat
A Practice Transmission
Join us for seventeen days of tantric meditation as we draw on classical texts and lineage wisdom.
You’ll journey through the four classes of Tantra, engaging deeply with creation stage (visualization of enlightened form) and completion stage (direct realization of ultimate reality) practices. This is training in how to enter, progress on, and complete the Vajrayana journey through all four classes of tantra, following the classical Kagyu and Gelug presentations.
You’ll establish or deepen the four preliminary practices essential to this path: contemplating impermanence and precious human birth, understanding karma, developing bodhicitta, and cultivating devotion to the lineage and guru. From this stable ground, we progress through systematic training in generation stage yoga—learning to visualize ourselves in enlightened form—and completion stage yoga, where we realize the ultimate nature of reality directly.
Throughout, we return to fundamental questions:

What truly brings happiness?
What is our actual motivation?
How much can our rational minds grasp, and where must we surrender to direct experience?

This is an advanced retreat and is offered upon approved application and requires an established meditation practice and completion of a significant portion of your foundation practices. If foundational practices are not complete, the applicant must be actively progressing in their foundation work.
While we believe any undertaking can be a vehicle for awakening, there’s no substitute for the power of profound direct experience gained through meditation. This is why meditation is one of the four foundational practices of our teaching.

Apply Here

“Qapel and Sensei teach in a light, but profound way – taking us on a brilliant journey of understanding with guile and humour.
Their male and female perspectives help balance with differing approaches to explaining a complex but genius system that holds all life understanding from religion, science, psychotherapy and wisdom traditions.”
Jonathan C. Shiatsu, Qigong & Meditation Teacher

What’s Expected of Me if I Come to This Retreat?

A strong foundation of parami and a willingness to see other dimensions and cultivate your mind, drug free.
The more extensive meditation experience you’ve had the better.
You are responsible for your own wellbeing.
To maximize your depth of practice, we ask that you refrain from reading, using the internet, phone or listening to music during the course.

Schedule
Arrival: October 9th at 3pm, MT
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation and Q&A with Sensei
Departure: October 25th at 2pm MT
*Daily schedule is subject to changes closer to the course date. Questions about the retreat? Phone 250-429-3929, or contact michelle@clearskycenter.org
In order to give enough time to rest from travel before the retreat starts, we recommend that domestic travellers arrive one day early, and long distance international travellers arrive two days early. After the retreat we also suggest staying for at least another day for integration, however you are also welcome to stay longer for one of our hybrid stay options.
Booking a flight? Airport pickups can be booked when you register for the retreat. On the rare chance that this retreat is cancelled or if unforseen global circumstances cause travel interruptions, we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance and modifiable tickets.

Meet the Teacher
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei

Catherine Pawasarat 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 Qapel Doug Duncan she co-founded of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.

Apply Here

About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, 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.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“This retreat centre is the REAL THING. It’s a modern monastery with people grounded in the present and practicing old and new methods of living in a spiritual community. This group walks the talk. I have made the trek from Ontario all the way to this remote corner of BC every year for the last 16 years to study with these teachers, interact with these fellow seekers, and bask in the beauty of this gorgeous property.”
Linda H.Dharma Teacher & Author

FAQs
What is Tantra practice in this retreat?
This retreat teaches Vajrayana Tantra as a path of transformation, using desire, perception, and human experience itself as means for awakening rather than sources of attachment and suffering.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up
8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers
10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk
10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice
5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up
7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers
8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
This retreat is offered on the basis of dāna (generosity).
Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”, and is the traditional way in which Buddhist teachings are offered. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. You may have come across this in the form of “pay from the heart”. 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.
You will be sent a link to offer “dana” to the teachers after registration.
For more information on dāna click here.
Pricing:
In addition to Dana to the Teacher, Clear Sky Meditation Centre provides an incredible space for your retreat. Situated on a beautiful 310-acre property in the Rocky Mountains, the center and its karma yogis provide you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation. Read more: Staying with us (Clear Sky Meditation Centre)
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the retreat.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
What will participants learn during the Tantra Practice Retreat?
Participants train through the four classes of Tantra, including creation stage visualization practices and completion stage meditation, progressing toward direct realization of ultimate reality.
Is prior meditation experience required?
Yes. This is an advanced retreat requiring an established meditation practice and active progress in Ngöndro foundational practices.
What makes Tantra a unique spiritual path?
Tantra is considered a richer and more integrated path because it works with full human potential—including desire and experience—transforming them into liberation instead of rejecting them.
What are the foundational practices emphasized in this retreat?
The retreat strengthens four key foundations:

Reflection on impermanence and precious human birth
Understanding karma
Cultivating bodhicitta (awakening motivation)
Developing devotion to teacher and lineage

What is expected from participants during the retreat?
Participants commit to disciplined practice, personal responsibility for wellbeing, maintaining a drug-free environment, and minimizing distractions such as phones, internet, reading, or music to deepen meditation experience.
Microdosing/Psychedelics
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.
What are states vs stages of consciousness?
States of consciousness are temporary meditation experiences such as clarity or bliss, while stages of consciousness represent stable developmental shifts achieved through sustained practice that transform perception and understanding permanently.

Apply Here

Integrating Mindfulness Fall 2026: Tools for Holistic Living (In-Person or Online)
2026-10-29 10:00 - 2026-11-19 12:00 (America/Edmonton) | Clear Sky Meditation Center, 3567 Cockell Road, PO BOX 19, Fort Steele, British Columbia, V0B 1NO, Canada
You’re Not Alone in This
You meditate. You work on yourself. Yet you still feel overwhelmed by everything you need to address—the habits draining your energy, the relationship dynamics you can’t quite navigate, the spaces that don’t support you, the routines that keep slipping away.
Maybe you’re working on all of this in isolation, not sure if others struggle the same way. Or you’ve “scratched the surface” of integration but haven’t found a way to bring it all together.
What if there was a container that could hold all of it?
This 4-week course offers that container—a sanctuary where you can pause, reflect, and reconnect with what truly matters. With heart-centered guides and a community of like-minded individuals, you’ll discover how to integrate mindfulness into every facet of your life: your spaces, routines, communication, relationships, and the big areas that hold you back.
We see you, and we walk this path with you.
Accessible sliding scale pay-from-the-heart from $200-500 CAD according to your financial means.

Attend Online (Register Here)

focus area
Meditation
& Daily Life
practice
Interactive
Workshop
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Thursdays, October 29, November 5, 12 & 19, 2026
10am-12pm MT,
Noon-2 pm EST
format
In-Person
or
Online by Zoom
Why integrating mindfulness?
Because having the pieces isn’t the same as knowing how they fit together.
You might have meditation apps, self-help books, therapy insights, and good intentions. But when it comes to actually applying these tools to your messy real life—your difficult conversations, your cluttered spaces, your draining routines, your money stress—it all feels scattered and overwhelming.
This course gives you a framework that makes everything fit together.
Using Clear Sky’s Five Principles, you’ll discover how to create a supportive container—not just for your meditation practice, but for your entire life. A container that can hold the overwhelm, the growth, the vulnerability, and the breakthroughs. With heart-centered guides and a small community of people who genuinely understand, you’ll move from working on this alone to being supported every step of the way.
A holistic approach
Integrating Mindfulness addresses the fullness of life—not just your meditation cushion, but your habits, relationships, environment, communication patterns, and the big areas you’ve been avoiding (yes, including money).
Here’s what makes this different:
Most mindfulness courses focus only on the practice itself. This course teaches you how to build a complete supportive container using Clear Sky’s Five Principles—so your practice can actually land at a deeper level and transform your daily life.
Through this course, you will:

Get clarity on what truly matters – and let go of what’s draining your energy
Create physical and energetic spaces that actually support your well-being
Build sustainable routines and structure – even during life transitions
Learn to communicate honestly – expressing your needs and listening deeply, even in difficult conversations
Address the “big areas” holding you back – relationships, money, career, habits
Experience the power of community – discovering you’re not alone in these struggles

The real transformation happens when these pieces work together. One participant described it as “an expansive embrace” that provides “a container that can hold all of it.” Another found it gave them “a solid anchor” during a major life transition.
We work with heart-centered guides and a small, intimate group of like-minded individuals, fostering genuine connection and belonging.
What Previous Students are Saying
There are big areas of my life I needed to look at… that I didn’t know I needed to. I am more aware of them now, and have perspective on how to bring daily mindfulness to them. Now I have a technique to structure my life and prioritize the things I actually want to do, and a dialogue technique that is helping in my relationships. Integrating Mindfulness allows you to think about issues in a different way (such as money!). Insightful and nourishing.
Daniel
Participating in the Integrating Mindfulness course has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It has helped me cultivate greater awareness and compassion and provided me with practical tools for managing stress and anxiety. I am deeply grateful for the Clear Sky community and support provided by the course.
Artin
“I’m so stressed out… I cannot see an end to it”—says everybody. I’m always considering options, and I had doubts around the authenticity of the Integrating Mindfulness programme, but I’m glad to report those doubts were completely unfounded. With this course, you learn to stop and breathe, and the teachers will show you that it is indeed possible—necessary, even—to put mindfulness at the very centre of your life. At first it might not seem there have been any changes, but on reflection the changes have been huge.
Pat
I wanted more clarity on which direction to go. In Integrating Mindfulness, I found fluidity and a variety of approaches to things I need, like scheduling, conversation, clearer speech, and language. In it, I also discovered a definite need for clearing and dissolution. The question of work and overall change remains, but I have moved forward on that journey.
Zoe

Attend Online (Register Here)

What’s inside the course?
Our four-week journey is rooted in Clear Sky Retreat Center’s Five Principles, offering a framework to create a mindful container for growth. These principles are:
Week 1 – Honor Your Space
Transform your physical and energetic surroundings into a supportive sanctuary. Learn how your environment directly impacts your meditation practice and emotional well-being.
Week 2 – Structure and Routine
Develop sustainable daily rhythms and rituals that ground you through life’s ebbs and flows. Discover how to prioritize what truly matters and let go of what drains you.
Week 3 – Communication
Deepen your connections through authentic, compassionate dialogue. Learn to express your needs clearly and listen with an open heart—even in difficult conversations.
Week 4 – Cleaning Up Big Areas & Community
Address the unresolved challenges that hold you back (money, relationships, career). Discover how transformation accelerates when supported by conscious community.
This course is a unique synthesis of practical tools and profound awareness practices, designed to address the whole of your life.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Mindful Container

Who is this course for?
This course is for those ready to step into their wholeness:

To learn skillful communication and healthy boundaries
To learn how to reduce distractions and bad habits that hold you back
To navigate life’s challenges with grace and ease.
To feel profoundly connected to themselves and others.
To embrace awareness as a catalyst for sustainable, heart-centered change.

Whether you join online or in person, this course meets you where you are and provides flexibility and tools to support and ignite your personal path and journey.
Not sure if this is right for you? Attend our free webinar From Resentment to an Open Heart first to experience our teaching style and get a feel for the Five Principles.
How much does it cost?
To make this course as accessible as possible, we offer a sliding scale pay-from-the-heart approach to let you pay according to your financial means.
Suggested range $200-500 CAD
Note: for members of Lighthouse Spokane, with much appreciation to the UUA New Communities Partnership Program, we are offering some scholarship to this program. Please contact the Lighthouse Spokane team for details.
Course details
When: Thursdays, October 29, November 5, 12 & 19, 2026
Time: 10am-12pm MT; Noon-2pm EST
Format: Interactive workshops via Zoom, or join us in-person at Clear Sky
What you’ll need: A quiet space, journal, and willingness to engage
Between sessions, you’ll have:

Simple daily practices to integrate what you’re learning
Access to our online community for questions and support
Optional office hours with Karen and Duncan

All sessions are recorded for online participants who need to miss a session.

Attend Online (Register Here)

Experience Our Teaching Before You Register
Not sure if this course is right for you? Watch our recent webinar “From Resentment to an Open Heart” where we introduce one of Clear Sky’s Five Principles: honest communication.
This 90-minute session gives you a real sense of:

Our teaching style and approach
The depth and practicality of the tools
How we create space for interactive learning
Whether this work resonates with you

The webinar focused on communication. The 4-week course takes you through all Five Principles with the same depth – plus time for personal integration and practice.

Meet The Teachers

Karen McAllister
Karen McAllister brings a wealth of wisdom as Clear Sky’s Chair of the Board and Director of Business Development. She founded The Mindful Money Coach and has helped hundreds of people better integrate and align their spiritual path and relationship with money. Her passion lies in nurturing spaces, structure, and communication to support awakening in everyday life. With her decades of spiritual leadership, Karen gently guides participants to uncover their innate wisdom and clarity.
Duncan Cryle
Duncan Cryle is a co-founding member of Clear Sky Center, Dharma teacher, and certified mindfulness instructor. He blends years of co-creating Clear Sky’s conscious community and dynamic team, with an international executive career. He has created and run mindfulness programs at major companies, including one of the creators of the IBM mindfulness community. Duncan’s compassionate and holistic approach invites participants to weave spiritual growth seamlessly into their lives, making profound insights accessible and transformative.

What Previous Students are Saying
Before Integrating Mindfulness, I had been struggling with consistent practice, conflicts within marriage about my practice, and finances. Now I have a dedicated space for my practice, am solidifying my need for sangha, and am reassessing myself and my blocks and shadows. I would encourage someone interested in this to be open to change, and know that change is always occurring—it doesn’t need to be a negative.
Leslie
Mindfulness is so much more than just truly enjoying my cup of tea! I was struggling to find balance with all the big life issues that are changing in my life; finding Integrating Mindfulness was serendipity. It is what I need in my spiritual toolbox to help me stay open and connected. I am more aware now when I am losing myself in grief, when I am handling difficult conversations, and in seeing how human differences are to be enjoyed, as I enjoy different flowers. There is so much more to discover about life. Integrating Mindfulness is about interactions with fellow travellers! If you want to take mindfulness deeper, you need this course.
Kirsty
I am doing a lot of other courses. They are all good—this one is special. Integrating Mindfulness provides a good foundation to support any other studies. People who express feeling unhappy, overwhelmed, lacking connection, would find an ideal fit here. Now, I am committed to being aware of my boundaries, and doing what it takes to maintain them, including clear communication to others. I’m going to continue working on my spiritual container and structure. I plan to come to Clear Sky for more!
Kim
Before Integrating Mindfulness, I was exploring many directions, and this was sapping my energy and making me ungrounded. I have been intending to discover a “middle way.” Through this course, I have been getting clearer on my core, non-negotiable values. I have gained confidence in asserting and communicating my boundaries and initiating conversations, whereas in the past I avoided conflict. My sense of self-worth is deepening and I am valuing my time and energy more. I am discovering solutions for meeting my basic needs, not subscribing to short-term gratification impulses, and being in communion with conscious community, all simultaneously.
Aila
Since Integrating Mindfulness, I’m beginning to see how mindfulness is a part of everything, and how much of my life I have let slip out of my hands by not being mindful. I’m seeing how much power I will regain as I learn to be aware of myself more constantly and expand my ability to actually choose what I want to choose in each moment. Talk about life-changing!
Integrating Mindfulness will give you the opportunity to peel back some of the daily veils put up around painful and confusing areas of your life. Doing it with a group, and with Karen and Duncan as wonderful teachers who really know what they are doing, will set you up to get closer to the direction and peace that you so deeply crave.
Erika
ready to transform?
Mindfulness is not just a practice; it’s a way of being that illuminates the path to wholeness and connection. This course offers a nurturing container where you can pause, reflect, and embrace the beauty of your journey.
This course stands apart because it combines mindfulness with real-world integration, creating a path for sustainable transformation.
Join us for Integrating Mindfulness, and together, we will uncover the power of awareness to create a life filled with intention, compassion, and deep fulfillment.

Attend Online (Register Here)

LEARN more about clear sky’s five principles
Based 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.
You can learn more about our Five Principles here and get our free pdf overview by clicking the link below.

FREE PDF – Five Principles of a Mindful Container

FAQs
What transformation can I expect from this course?
The course has been described as one of the most transformative experiences of many people’s lives. It helps cultivate greater awareness and compassion while providing practical tools for real-world integration of mindfulness into life and work, creating lasting transformation.
What will I learn and experience during the four weeks?
Each week invites you to develop embodied awareness and presence, cultivate heart-centered communication and compassionate listening, balance inner work with outer action, and live authentically aligned with your values. You’ll work with heart-centered guides and a community of like-minded individuals.
Who is this course designed for?
The course is for those ready to step into their wholeness, seeking deeper meaning, a fuller embrace of life, and a practice that nourishes both their inner world and connections to community. It’s ideal if you feel disconnected or struggle to bridge the gap between your intentions and daily challenges.
What makes this mindfulness course different from other programs?
This course uses a threefold approach that cultivates mindfulness, crafts a supportive container, and powerfully integrates mindfulness into all aspects of life and work. It addresses the fullness of life including habits, relationships, environments, and deepest aspirations, ensuring participants experience profound, tangible transformation.
What are the Five Principles the course is based on?
The course is rooted in Clear Sky Retreat Center’s Five Principles: Awareness, Communication, Balance, Authenticity, and Mindfulness/Meditation. These principles provide a framework to create a mindful container for growth, with each week building on the last.

Power in Tantric Traditions (Online)
2026-11-08 09:30 - 2026-11-29 17:00 (America/Edmonton) | Online
Power in Tantric Traditions: Four-Week Online Course
Do you feel empowered in your practice? In Buddha nature? Showing up authentically with both courage and vulnerability can support our sense of empowerment.
In these confusing contemporary times, such genuine empowerment is essential for tantric practitioners.
In this online series, Catherine Sensei and Right Use of Power and Authentic Leadership teacher Susan Skjei teach together about what power and empowerment mean in the context of tantric spiritual practices. This course aims to empower you to weave every moment with exactly the energy that is needed.
In this age of confusion about what we can believe and who we can trust, many of us may feel disempowered at times. Victim culture is often more supported than empowered culture. Uncertainty about the future of humanity and the planet can shake our confidence to its core.
And when scandals happen with spiritual leaders – often around money, sex, and power – it can leave tantric practitioners wondering: What does authentic empowerment actually look like? What is my power? How can I strengthen it? How can I ethically wield it? This course attends to these questions and issues, pressing ones for contemporary tantra practitioners.
November 8 – November 29, 2026
Sunday morning online classes 9:30-11:00am MT, Nov 8, Nov 15 and Nov 22
Saturday & Sunday November 28-29 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min)

Registration

focus area
Buddhism
Power
practice
Course & Optional
Home Retreat
Duration
Four
Weeks
Day/Time
Sundays from 9:30-11am MT
format
In-Person or
Online
The Path Forward: Your Practice Holds the Key to True Empowerment.
Do you feel strong and safe in your tantric practice? In your authentic presence? Do you have the resources you need to support others to feel empowered?
Primarily, our practice helps us become a person who is authentic and therefore trustworthy – for ourselves and for others. This is part of what non-duality is about. The confusion of our times and world leaders doesn’t have to lead to our disempowerment. This course shares how our practice helps us to weave authenticity, trustworthiness, personal power, and empowerment together.
As symbols representing the lower three chakras, authenticity related to money, sex, and power form the foundation of our being, energetically and in the material world. Catherine Sensei and her partner and teacher Qapel have taught that money and sex are often, the handmaidens of power, and that the spiritual path is a quest for the truest and most deep-rooted empowerment there is.
In this course, Catherine Sensei and Susan Skjei teach on what power and empowerment mean for tantric practitioners, drawing on tantric teachings, Authentic Leadership, and Right Use of Power to provide an important framework for understanding power in traditional and modern tantric traditions – empowering us to weave every moment with exactly the energy that is needed.

Register

“In 10 years I have NOT missed a course with master teachers Qapel and Sensei! Every class reflects the light of oneness in prisms of direction and understanding and thus a lighter load to carry in the relative world and a lightness of being. If one aspires to be a bodhisattva and to benefit all beings, this one recommends the next one.”
Brendan R.
What You’ll Learn
In Power in Tantric Traditions, you’ll discover:

How to be empowered as a tantric practitioner in uncertain times
How to feel strong in your tantric practice and tradition
A deeper understanding of tantra in the context of Buddhism
How to be trustworthy for yourself and others through non-dual practice
The resources to support others to feel empowered

This course weaves together the wisdom of tantric Buddhism with proven frameworks for Authentic Leadership and the Right Use of Power, giving you practical tools to embody empowerment in every moment.

Course Schedule
November 8 – 29, 2026
Class Times (Mountain Time)

November 8 – 9:30-11am
November 15 – 9:30-11am
November 22 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday November 28-29 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min)

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on Sundays, with a separate registration for the Saturday-Sunday flash retreat on the fourth weekend. Class times are estimates and may change slightly.
We encourage you to connect with Sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.
Flash Retreat Weekend: November 28-29
To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (August 15-16), offered by a separate registration, which will include exercises to engage in. This can be done at home, or with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre in Eastern British Columbia.
Formal group sessions will be held at these approximate times:

Flash Retreat morning session: 9:30am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon session: 2:30pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

Meet the Teachers

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and universal spiritual tools including transpersonal astrology and Japanese arts.
She trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan as his attendant and consort from 1998 until his passing in 2024, in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
More About Sensei | About the Lineage
Susan Skjei, Ph.D
Susan Skjei, Ph.D. has been a practitioner and Senior Teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist Community for the last 30 years. She has taught many programs and led retreats in the US, Canada and Europe. She studied with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche as well as other Tibetan Buddhist and Zen teachers. Susan is also a leadership coach and organizational consultant. She has been a catalyst for positive change for leaders, executive teams and boards of nonprofit organizations, businesses, and government agencies for over 25 years. She enjoys creating energetic and high trust learning environments that accelerate practical organizational results while building strong, collaborative relationships. Formerly Susan was a Vice-President and Chief Learning Officer in the technology industry, a co-founder of the ALIA Institute, and the founding Director of the Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University. She loves being in nature and enjoys hiking, biking and watercolor painting.

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“The teachers have brought together ancient teachings with scientific findings that prove how and why Dharma teachings radically improve life, reduce pain and increase global peace. It doesn’t matter what you believe, you will embody a healthy new way of being. Because of their vast collective wisdom, you leave their presence radically altered for the betterment of humanity.”
Evangelos D.

FAQs
What is the main focus of the Power in Tantric Traditions course?
This 4-week series explores what empowerment means within Tantric Buddhism. It teaches practitioners how to navigate money, sex, and power using proven frameworks from Authentic Leadership and the Dharma.
Who are the teachers for this course and what are their backgrounds?
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, a contemporary Dharma teacher, collaborates with Susan Skjei, Ph.D., an Authentic Leadership coach. Together, they bridge ancient Buddhist wisdom with modern, ethical leadership and empowerment frameworks.
How does this course help me feel more empowered during uncertain times?
The course provides practical tools to move beyond victim culture. By strengthening your spiritual practice and understanding non-duality, you will develop the internal resources needed to remain resilient.
Why does the course focus specifically on money, sex, and power?
These foundational energies are often the “handmaidens of power.” Understanding them through a spiritual lens helps practitioners build trustworthiness and prevents the scandals often seen in modern spiritual communities.
Is this course suitable for beginners in Tantric practice?
Yes, the course is open to any practitioner with an open mind. It is designed to deepen your understanding of power, whether you are new or highly experienced in spirituality.
How does non-dual practice help me become more trustworthy for others?
Non-dual practice clarifies confusion, helping you become a more reliable person. By aligning your actions with your practice, you provide a stable, empowered presence that supports yourself and the community.
What practical resources will I gain from participating in this series?
You will discover how to feel strong in your tradition, understand Tantra within Buddhism more deeply, and gain leadership resources to support the empowerment of those around you.
Dana and Pricing
Dana:
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart.” Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity.” With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No one is excluded for lack of funds. However, it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able.
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
If you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
About the Online Admin Fee
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, the costs of setting up good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online can be surprising.
Our admin fee changes based on the date of registration.
Register four + weeks prior: $80
Register two to four weeks prior: $100
Register less than two weeks prior: $120
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via registrar@planetdharma.com so we can support you to attend.
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Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:

High speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
Online class systems (Zoom)
Registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
Communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
Online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
Quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
Online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
Website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.

We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!

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Vipassanā Meditation Retreat (In-Person & Online Retreat)
2027-03-19 - 2027-03-28
Vipassana Meditation Retreat
“The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
Namgyal Rinpoche
Vipassanā is ideal for those new to meditation because it introduces you to the foundations needed to build a strong meditation practice and is a doorway to profound insight and realization.
If you have a background in Vipassanā retreats and are interested in doing something that is similar but a next step, with a live teacher, then this retreat may be for you.
Led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, this retreat gives an opportunity for more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice.
We’ll practice a balanced meditative approach using the foundations of mindfulness from the Annapanasati Sutta.
with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei | March 19-28, 2027
Registration Deadlines:
In-Person Retreat registration deadline: March 12th, 2027
Online retreat registration deadline: March 12th, 2027
Early Bird Deadline:
In-person retreat Early Bird deadline: February 21st, 2027
Online retreat Early Bird deadline: February 28th, 2027
We recommend in-person retreats as the best way to get the most out of your experience. That said, we recognize that travel is inhibitive for some people and are offering an online option to people living outside of Western Canada.

Registration (In-Person)

Registration (Online)

focus area
Buddhist Foundations
practice
Vipassanā
(Insight)
Duration
Ten Days
Skill Level
All
format
In-Person & Online
A Life Changing Experience
At this retreat, the practice itself is awakening, life-changing and healing. And most importantly, you will reap great benefit from the rare in-person guidance of an accomplished meditation teacher and wisdom holder, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. Sensei’s teaching is radical, down to earth, and one-of-a-kind.
If you have a background in Vipassanā retreats and are interested in doing something that is similar but a next step, with a live teacher, then this retreat may be for you. You will receive more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist satipatthana sutta, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice. This is priceless.
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.

Register for In-Person

Register for Online

“I feel like a whole new world of understanding has opened up for me to explore. The teachings were interesting, vibrant, and so very relevant to our lives. Qapel and Catherine Sensei have done a wonderful job at distilling these vast teachings without oversimplying concepts. The teachings were visual, informative, and interactive. It was a great and lots of fun!”
Jenai L.
Ten Day Vipassanā Meditation Retreat
While 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.
Another of our foundation practices is learning.
A guiding text for this retreat is the Ānāpānasati Sutta, or Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. In it, the Buddha describes 16 steps of practice divided into four areas of mindfulness.
This simple yet powerful framework will extend your meditation experience to everything from subatomic particles to the vastness of space, and all that’s between. It includes practice in all four postures—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down. Experience will transform. And, finally, we will offer support for bridging the gap between retreat and daily life when you get home.

Schedule
For those traveling short distances, please arrive by 3pm on the start day. For those coming from international or longer distance travel, please plan to arrive 1-2 days early to allow time to rest and acclimatize before the start of retreat.
Sample brief daily schedule:
9am Class with Teacher
11am Group Meditation led by a Senior Student
12:30pm Lunch
3pm Group Meditation with Teacher
6pm Dinner
7:30 pm Meditation led by a Senior Student
Departure:
Departures will begin from 2pm MT, after lunch on the final day of the retreat, however we also recommend adding some extra nights to your stay for a more easeful transition from retreat to daily life.
*Daily schedule is subject to minor changes closer to the course date

Register (In-Person)

Register (Online)

Meet the Teacher

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.
For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.
Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
About Clear Sky
Located in the BC rocky mountains, we offer over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature.
Founded by Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, 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.
In adherence with our quadruple bottom line, we source our food as local and organic as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.

“Clear Sky is my favourite place to retreat. I am so grateful to find such an amazing place to study various meditation practices, walk in stunning nature and eat fresh food from the farm. I always enjoy going there for more.”
Maya L.

FAQs
Costs
The teaching itself is offered in the traditional Buddhist way on the basis of Dāna, Please see the section About Dāna below.
The costs below cover the accommodation, food and program/admin fees for Clear Sky to operate the retreat.
In person cost including meals and accommodation.

Shared Room – CAD $1,557.00
Private Cabin – CAD $2,007.00
Orion Private Cabin – CAD $2,142.00
Tenting – CAD $1,017.00

Online

CAD $450.00 – Online Course Fee

Early bird discount available (see below).

About Dāna
Dana:
Registration fees cover food, accommodation and the technology needed to offer the retreat online. The Teachings are freely given on the basis of dāna.
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
Scholarship Application
We aim to make our retreats as accessible as possible.
As a centre run entirely by Karma Yoga (selfless service), retreat fees only cover food, accommodation and the equipment required to offer them online.
The teachings themselves are offered on the basis of Dāna (pay-from-the-heart).
For some, this is still a barrier of entry.
If you are seeking financial assistance to attend a retreat, please complete a Scholarship Application form.
Detailed Daily Schedule (Long retreats)
Specific times may change – this is a rough guide (MST)
6:30 – 7:30 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:15 AM: Breakfast: Prepare, eat, clean up8:15 – 8:45 AM: Walk &/or Personal Practice9:00 – 10:00 AM: Class with Teachers10:00 – 10:30 AM: Walk10:30 – 11:30 AM: Group Practice led by Sangha11:30 – 12:30 PM: Personal Practice12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch: Prepare, eat, clean up1:30 – 3:00 PM: Personal Practice3:00 – 4:00 PM: Group Practice led by Sangha4:00 – 5:30 PM: Personal Practice5:30 – 7:00 PM: Dinner: prepare, eat, clean up7:00 – 7:30 PM: Walk &/or Personal Practice7:30 – 8:30 PM: Group Practice and Q & A with Teachers8:30 – Beyond: Personal Practice & bed
Food, Weather, Accommodation and How to Get Here
Click here for details on how to get here, what to bring and what to expect.
Note: In the unlikely scenario that this retreat is cancelled, we recommend purchasing refundable travel fares.
Cannabis, Psychedelics and Microdosing
We recognize and respect plant medicine as an important part of some people’s spiritual paths.
Please note, the meditation practice on this retreat is very powerful. Consuming mind-altering substances will detract from your experience and could cause negative side-effects.
We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.
Early Bird & Registration Deadlines
IN-PERSON: Please register as early as possible so we can plan for the retreat. Save 10% on fees until February 21, 2027. Registration deadline for in-person retreatants is April 9th, 2027.
ONLINE: We encourage early registration. Save $100 on the online fees until February 28th, 2027. April 16th is the final online registration deadline.

Register for In-Person

Register for Online
