Our Social Bottom Line

Our community began in Kyoto, Japan.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, many international students from across the world found their way to Yumedono temple or a retreat where they found Qapel and Sensei. We hadn’t really expected to find each other. Our community, forged in practice, training and group projects became the seed of what is now Clear Sky.

We started the centre so that we could do long retreats together- and we innovated early, building capacity for hosting online retreats and courses well before the world was forced to catch up. When COVID arrived, we were already there. 

With a mandate for planetary healing, Qapel and Sensei founded Clear Sky on the principle of supporting healthy people and communities. Today, under Sensei’s guidance, that founding vision continues to unfold and deepen. 

Community, for us, is not a single thing– it takes shape in multiple distinct and interconnected circles. As Catherine Sensei says “It’s not just easier with others, it’s impossible without others”. 

Here at Clear Sky Centre, we are a living community centred around Sensei’s vision and grounded on the land where we embody our practice moment to moment. Resident practitioners run the centre and steward the land together, while cultivating strong relationships and partnerships locally, regionally and globally; as we co-create a world we want to live in. That world extends beyond humans as we are also passionate about horses and the precious wildlife and ecosystems we are blessed to live in. We are so grateful to feed many birds with one hand. For example, our fire prevention activities with our local community has enabled us to collectively care for and even liberate elk in trouble.

Planet Dharma serves a different circle: a global, largely virtual community of practitioners who join the Clear Sky Community for in person and online retreats with Sensei. We have lineage centres around the world as well as satellite centres who meet in person and online.

From these two streams, a diverse Sangha has emerged- one that supports people through modalities including the application of integral theory, money coaching, consent and communication, addictions counselling, career coaching, ecstatic dance, freeing your natural voice, death and dying, and much more. It really is easier with others!

Together, these circles point toward what we believe a modern monastery can be: hubs and places where people come together to practise and bring the teachings to life. We offer a living network of communities in relationship with one another actively working together to be of service.

And we don’t want to do this alone. We envision a future where more people are living in communities like ours. And where those communities are connected and supporting each other. If you are crafting a conscious community, we invite you to visit and learn what has worked for us so that you can take it home and apply it wherever you live.

If we thanked everyone we have partnered with over the years, this would be a long page however to give you a sense of the range of partnerships, here are a few across all four bottom lines. 

VanCity, Columbia Basin Trust, Retreat Center Collaboration, ICON (Integral Conference of North America), Tamera, Rocky Mountain Trench Society, The Dharma Centre of Canada, Lighthouse Spokane and so many more. Be sure to check out our food page to learn more about the amazing organic and sustainable food producers we like to work with. If you are an organization interested in partnering with us and eager to learn more about what we do, just reach out.