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Breathing Retreat 2024
May 24, 2024 - June 2, 2024
Breathing
Summer Meditation Retreat | May 24- June 2, 2024This breath will change your life. Join Catherine Pawasarat Sensei in an eight-day breathing meditation retreat. This practice is suitable whether you are a newbie or seasoned meditator, or have always wanted to do a vipassana or longer retreat. Gift yourself the in-person guidance of an accomplished meditation teacher and a balanced meditative approach of the four classical meditation postures.
The meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.
A Life Changing Experience
Eight Day Breathing Meditation Retreat
It’s with you every moment of your life. It is the universe, alive. And it is a tool for liberation, free and always, every second, readily available. The breath.
Over and over again, we hone our attentiveness to the breath until calm, clarity and wisdom emerges. And it always emerges.
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 Vipassana 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 suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice. This is priceless.
In the words of our Teachers’ Teacher, the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, “meditation on Mindfulness of Breathing is not only suitable for all beings, it is also the direct way to enlightenment.”
An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make 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.
Another of our foundation practices is learning. A guiding text for this retreat is the Ānāpānasati Sutta, or Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. It is an incredibly powerful methodology. In it, the Buddha describes 16 steps of practice divided into four areas of mindfulness: body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. It is a guide to liberation.
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.
Meet the Teacher
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. Anapanasati Breathing meditation is a much loved practice for Sensei, a central focus of her 2023 one month meditation retreat. It is also connected with one branch of our lineage’s roots in the Burmese Theravadin tradition through the meditation master Venerable Sayadaw U Thila Wunta.
She 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.
The Self Falls Away: How Meditation Works
A video of Sensei teaching on meditation:
What Did Last Year’s Breathing Retreat Meditators Say?
What’s Expected of Me?
- An open mind and heart, and a spirit of adventure are excellent things to bring!
- It’s human to have some apprehensions about doing something new, meeting new people, or going to a new place. Particularly when all three happen together. We try to make this as supportive as possible.
- When exploring our growth edges, it’s natural to feel uncertain and awkward. And it’s very fruitful to transform that emotional tension into creative energy by drawing on your own inner resources – such as inquiry, going with the flow, and self-reflection, just a few of the many kinds of constructive engagement.
- To maximize your retreat experience, we ask that you refrain from reading, using the internet, phone or listening to music during the course.
- Students are expected to be silent during the silent parts of the retreat, and participate in all classes, group meditations, activities, and discussions.
- We ask that you refrain from microdosing or consuming mind-altering substances during this retreat and in the days immediately following it.
The Location – Clear Sky Center
- Located in the BC rocky mountains, Clear Sky offers over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature. Founded by Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, the center is home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
- How to get there, what to bring and other FAQ about Clear Sky
- Our teachings and Clear Sky operate based on the ancient tradition of dāna or generosity. As generosity is the basis upon which all spiritual practice flourishes, we recommend that you learn more about this profound practice before you register.
The Anapanasati Meditation Group
The power of continued community meditation practice:
Following Catherine Sensei’s excellent Breathing retreat at Clear Sky and online in June 2022, a group of students from Dharma Europe and Japan started a morning zoom meeting to help continue the practice. Meeting at 8am UK time six days a week, we take turns to lead/hold space – usually with a reading, sometimes an exercise, we meditate on the breath for 45 minutes and then share our experiences. The group has grown to include more European Sangha as well as Movement Shiatsu practitioners who didn’t attend the retreat but are committed to developing their practice.
“It’s great to have the contact of the group – we learn so much from experiencing how the different parts of ourselves – individually and as a group perceive and receive the (phenomenal) world. ”
-Jonathan Clifford
“The daily contact with awakening beings uplifts and encourages me in a practice that has been very solitary for me for many years. The daily discipline reminds me of a monastic order, where the task of gathering at an appointed hour to sit in silence together IS a practice in itself.”
-Renata Drtina
“The morning sits and Anapanasati practice are an opportunity to explore and build sangha in a different way and for us to strengthen and deepen our practice together.”
-Zoe Moores
“The Anapanasati group is an anchor – both to steady practice and being part of a group. It helps me to be in contact when I don’t feel like it. To practice speaking in front of a group even when it’s not comfortable. To practice leading a group. And silently this group has reinforced and supported daily practice and helped me to experience contact with the experience of breathing.”
-Brigid Maclachlan
Course Fees & Requirements
Arrivals and Departures
For those traveling short distances, please arrive by 3pm on May 24th. 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.
Departures will begin on June 2nd, however we also recommend adding some extra nights to your stay for a more easeful transition from retreat to daily life.
All Retreatants: A Dāna Based Retreat
For Online Retreatants: Admin Fees & Requirements
Retreatants at Clear Sky: Lodging Fees & Covid 19 Protocols
Detailed Daily Schedule
Micro-dosing / Psychedelics
Ready to Register?
If you have questions about the retreat, please phone 250-429-3929, or contact bookings@clearskycenter.org.
Early bird registration rate for Online retreatants is available until May 3. After that the admin fee increases.
IN-PERSON: Registration deadline for in-person retreatants is May 11th 2024.
ONLINE: Online retreat fees increase by 20% after May 3 in order to encourage early registration, with May 18 2024 being the final online registration deadline.
