From her month long writing retreat on the Gion Festival, Dharma Teacher Catherine Pawasarat Sensei shares her insights and blessings amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

She shares how the festival started 1,150 years ago in Japan as a ritual to overcome plague, and the importance of balance in our lives. Read more here:

From the Dharma perspective, this time of COVID-19 is a wake up call. Perhaps it gives us an opportunity to rethink how we live and orientate in our world.

Click below to read Dharma Teacher Doug Duncan Sensei’s thoughts on how we can find some sanity and perspective in this time of uncertainty:

Do you want to live in a thriving, conscious community that values people, spiritual growth and care for the earth? Here are five tips that you can apply.

Buddha Nature, the transcendent experience, in itself has no distinguishing qualities. “With words it cannot be described, but without words it can’t be expressed” is how Daoists shared this concept.

To experience Buddha Nature, how must you focus your energy? How can you discover something that has the quality of having no qualities?

Read about mirror like consciousness, in this new excerpt from live teachings by Doug and Catherine Sensei:

Welcome to our Meditative Moment series. Once or twice a month, we’re sharing our most recent or favourite blogs, videos and podcasts that address spiritual awakening in the modern age.

All of our content is developed with the aspiration of benefitting all beings. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love hearing from you. Simply respond to this email or say hi on Facebook (linked at the bottom).

Continue reading for our latest offering:

‘Seed, Stalk, Flower: Be the Master of Your Fate’ – One of the oldest meditations is on seed, stalk and flower. Where your attention goes, what your mind is on about, what your aspiration is, will determine what kind of flower (karma) you have.

Read about how to be master of your fate in this new blog article from Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.

You will experience in your spiritual life some degree of physical discomfort in the process of realizing your Buddha-body. The practice of movement meditation is to become aware of, and then relax or release the tension and pain. Enjoy this month’s read!

In order for you to have wisdom, one of the first things required is some space between you and your objects. We call that emptiness.

Do you struggle in meditation? Does your mind wander? Here are some tips for improving your meditation practice, including becoming like a stubborn toddler.

You are ‘conscious’ and your human consciousness has vast potential. The spiritual journey and meditation is the key to leaving the ‘basement’ to explore the great ‘palace’ above.

What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?  While they may be related, they are not the same thing. With mindfulness, the ego still remains in place. With meditation you witness the mind that witnesses the phenomenon.

Watch this video to remember why it’s worth going much deeper with meditation, beyond mindfulness and the ego itself:

Would you like to find peace in a F’d up World? 

Thankfully, there are time tested spiritual tools you can practice for transformation and wisdom. Watch this video to hear Doug and Catherine Sensei share their thoughts on why we struggle and what we can do to find true peace:

How do we want to wake up? We do this by meditating on the Common Foundations – Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind from Samsara to Nirvana.

Want to get more motivated on your spiritual path? Watch this video to hear Doug and Catherine Sensei describe four undeniable reasons to wake up:

How do we realize our true nature?  By seeing through the illusion of a separate self.  In this video, Doug Duncan shares the essence of the Diamond Sutra, (which he and Catherine Sensei will also be teaching on in January 2020).

Watch the video to discover how to find ‘naked’ awareness behind the ‘clothing’ of self identity:

Carl Jung stated the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality.
What does the Shadow have to do with spiritual awakening? A lot.

Find out what Dharma Teachers Doug and Catherine Sensei say about the Shadow from a meditation and Dharma perspective. Watch their re-published Enlighten-Up livestream video below:

Chögyam Trungpa described “crazy wisdom” as an innocent state of mind that has the quality of early morning—fresh, sparkling, and completely awake.

What do Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat call Crazy Wisdom? What is its role in liberating the shadow and catapulting students into states of epiphany? Find out, by watching the newly published video below:

Discover how to go beyond simple mindfulness and truly become a work of art. This month’s Enlighten-Up is a recording of a special live class that was broadcasted from Calgary.

Join Doug and Catherine Sensei to explore six aspects of consciousness that have been refined by Buddhist practitioners for more than two thousand years. These six aspects are called the Paramis (perfections) in Sanskrit, and they are the blueprint to becoming your own inner and outer work of art.

Welcome to our Meditative Moment series. Once or twice a month, we’re sharing our most recent or favourite blogs, videos and podcasts that address spiritual awakening in the modern age.

All of our content is developed with the aspiration of benefitting all beings. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love hearing from you. Simply respond to this email or say hi on Facebook (linked at the bottom).

Continue reading for our latest offering:

‘What is Awakening?’ – That is the billion dollar question, one that defies words.

Hear about awakening from Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan & Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in this installment from their monthly Enlighten-Up video series.

What is the ‘shadow’ and why is shining light on it so important for spiritual awakening? Find out in this candid talk on ‘monsters in the closet’, with Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. This was recorded live on April 13th, 2019, at Enlighten-Up, their monthly facebook livestream event. Watch now:

If you want to get wiser, it takes knowledge as well as experience. How can we balance both? In this video, Doug & Catherine Sensei examine the value of physical and emotional experience, alongside information based knowledge.