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Summer Meditation Retreat: Breathing (Online)
July 9, 2021 - July 16, 2021
Summer Meditation Retreat: Breathing
Meditation Retreat ONLINE | July 9-16, 2021A one week meditation retreat on powerful breathing meditation practice.
Please note that registration closes July 4th 2021.
The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.
Summer Meditation Retreat: Breathing
Breathing. You can’t beat it, for life, and as a meditation practice. Breathing meditation is suitable for all types of people. It develops, concentration, calm, bliss and insight – altogether leading to awakening and healing.
This meditation retreat will be led by Achariya Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC, and will now held online, with participation possible from anywhere in the world.
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.
A guiding text for this retreat will be the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, or discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which has been described as the most profound discourse the Buddha ever gave on mental development.
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.
Online Retreat Option
Can’t fly here? Do the retreat where you are.
It most likely won’t be possible to retreat at Clear Sky this year. Instead, join us from wherever you are in the world.
Basic requirements to do the retreat online:
- Block out the week and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
- Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
- Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
- Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
- If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
Retreat schedule:
(Time Zone: MST, subject to change)
- [Personal Meditation / Breakfast]
- 9:30am – 11am: Class with Teachers
- [Personal Meditation / Lunch]
- 2pm – 3 pm: Group Practice and Q&A with the Teachers
- [Personal Meditation / Dinner]
Meet the Teachers
Catherine Pawasarat
Doug Duncan
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre, BC, Canada. Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humourous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state. Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
What Do Previous Retreatants Say?
This retreat was right on the mark, a perfect blend of focused inner work along with space for reflection in a trusting and comfortable setting. The teachers were wonderful, insightful, humorous, and extremely attentive to our individual needs for understanding. This unique experience cultivated a bond within the group and fostered an energy that amplified each lesson.
Ancient teaching that I feel is important to understand if someone was serious about meditation practice. I appreciate the teachers, Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat, unrelenting perseverance to teach about the roots and traditions of these rich practices. These practices are life changing, so it is great that we can have teachers that will explore the rich history with us, and deliver the material in a very understandable and relevant way.
I feel so lucky to have received this precious Dharma-teaching. Your presence, your compassion and your wisdom is as infinite as its effectiveness. Thank you so much, to get us out of the mud again and again and again. You are needed in many places on this planet.
Course Fees & Requirements
All Retreatants: A Dāna Based Retreat
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.
For Online Retreatants: Admin Fees & Requirements
In order to bring you this retreat at home, there is an additional pay by the heart, sliding scale admin fee* of $200-$700. The admin fee is to cover the costs of running these online courses – for equipment and software to provide you the teachings online.
If you are taking this retreat online, we require that you devote your full attention to the retreat for the entire week.
Requirements include:
- Block out the week and be focused on the retreat for this entire period, using this time and participating in the retreat as if you were at Clear Sky in person. This includes a rigorous, full, daily meditation schedule.
- Participate in all of the daily classes and group practices via online streaming.
- Set up a quiet space or location where you can focus on the Meditation Retreat, and not need to engage in conversation or work with others.
- Put away your phone, digital devices and other distractions.
- If there are enough people in the same time zone as you, you could also make a cohort to meet to do a group practice throughout the retreat.
- Note: full details/ requirements will be sent to you after registering
About the administrative 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. Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
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.
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.
May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
We welcome any questions. Please feel free to contact [email protected].
Retreatants at Clear Sky: Lodging Fees & Covid 19 Protocols
In addition to Dana to the teachers, 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 provides you nourishing daily meals and comfortable accomodation.
Please go to the retreat registration page for this retreat for details of the all inclusive fee for the two week retreat.
Covid-19 Protocols
Please note, we are taking measures to keep us all healthy during this retreat, including:
- You must have experienced no symptoms associated with covid-19 in the past 14 days.
- You have not travelled outside of Canada in the past 14 days.
- Physical distancing (2m) amongst all visiting retreatants will be observed during this retreat.
- Please bring your own face mask(s) that you will feel comfortable wearing. When physical distancing is not possible during this retreat, you will be asked to wear a mask.
- Sanitation and hand washing procedures will be explained when you come and must be followed.
Detailed Daily Schedule
Specific times may change (MST)
| RETREAT DAILY SCHEDULE | |
| 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 lead 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 lead 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 |
Ready to Register?
Please click on the buttons below to register for either retreat option. If you If you have questions about the retreat, please phone 250-429-3929, or contact [email protected].
Please note that registration closes July 4th 2021.
*This retreat is currently offered online and in some cases in person. If Covid-19 restrictions change prior the retreat we may be able to run the retreat in person as well. Please register for the waitlist if you would like to be contacted should this be possible.
The course went beyond my expectations, I feel I learned a lot of new things or new ways of seeing things. The teachers have an incredible way of presenting the themes in a way that makes it easy to understand. They also make the teachings fun and suggest exercises so that you can apply them in your life.
I was expecting to get pearls of wisdom and I always get far far more. The teachings always speak directly to me. It is uncanny. It is like hearing a language that I spoke in some other life-form and suddenly it rings a bell. And bell after bell. Like a universal language that we all used to speak but have forgotten, and now as if a new pathway in the brain has opened up and the signals coming in are making sense! Directly from the cosmos via Doug and Catherine Sensei.
The teachers of Planet Dharma [Retreat] aim to provide opportunities to learn from age old teachings while including modern information as they are examples of continuing to learn about the fascinating, yet troubled world we live in. They help one to develop ideas how to help out society, live in society and contribute to themselves and others.