Planet Dharma

        Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat teach meditation and act as spiritual mentors to students internationally and at their retreat center in BC, Canada.  Having lived overseas for many years and traveled extensively, Doug and Catherine draw on intercultural and trans-cultural experience to broaden the range and depth of their understandings of liberation that they share with others.       

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Spiritual Journey: Mandala Tarot Retreat and Eastern Wisdom

The Movement of the Mandala Tarot Retreat is a transformative experience focused on the archetypes of the Tarot, inspired by the teachings of the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche. This unique retreat, first offered by Rinpoche 50 years ago at the Dharma Centre of Canada, was Qapel’s first retreat as a new student. Rinpoche, a master of both Eastern and Western mystical traditions, created this innovative course that Qapel and Catherine Sensei will offer for the first and last time in Qapel’s lifetime.

Why the Tarot? While Eastern spiritual traditions are well-known, the West also offers a legitimate path for spiritual awakening. The Tarot's archetypes, such as the Emperor and Empress, reflect aspects of our lives, showing us whether they manifest as wise rulers or tyrants. These Western archetypes are powerful tools for spiritual growth, helping us cultivate dormant qualities within ourselves to reach our highest potential.

In contemporary times, Tarot is often misunderstood as mere fortune-telling. However, it has provided a profound path for spiritual awakening for centuries. The Western Mysteries, including the Tarot, was the path through which Namgyal Rinpoche achieved enlightenment. Join this retreat to explore these archetypes and awaken to your highest potential.

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Be a Stubborn Toddler and Other Tips for Meditation

The Wandering Mind Blues Every meditator gets frustrated by the wandering mind. Don’t worry. Your mind is used to being busy and active, and when you start to meditate, you’re forcing it to a stop.

You have your whole life of non-stop action. So don’t expect to sit down and immediately achieve a state of calm and bliss. It takes time and patience.

Tips to Improve Your Meditation

Concentrate First, concentrate! Your mind will wander, but you can’t let it. Bring it home. You will fail and fail again, and most people will want to quit.

Become Like a Stubborn Toddler Be like a stubborn toddler. Have you ever seen kids giving up on walking because they fell? No. You’ve forgotten your childhood stubbornness to learn how to walk. That is what you need. Recover your inner child’s enthusiasm, energy, determination, and focus to sit still in meditation.

Getting Wiser Helps Wisdom is received by being concentrated, energetic, and having faith. To have the faith to meditate, you need the wisdom to see the end result of all your actions.

Objects Aren’t Happiness Recognize that you won’t find lasting happiness in acquired objects. Happiness lies within the state of mind you are in when with those objects.

Impermanence This is not a denial of the body or the world. It is a recognition that material things are impermanent and subject to change and loss. There can be no peace in something that is subject to change and loss.

Awareness Awareness is the point of meditation. It combines with concentration, faith, and wisdom. Awareness is seeing the nature of your consciousness as it is in the moment.

Calm, Clarity, and Bliss are the Reward As you develop your meditation practice, your awareness becomes more pervasive, leading to greater calm and clarity. Bliss expands and spreads. You get wiser.

Hang in there. Build your concentration. Develop your wisdom and awareness. Have faith that it will get easier the more you practice.

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Human Consciousness is a Palace | Planet Dharma

Human Consciousness is Vast

What is the most salient fact of your existence? You are “conscious.” This is what makes you a human being. You are a human being because you are conscious. Imagine a huge palace sitting atop your awareness – the human potential for a conscious exploration of the universe, both inner and outer. This palace is full of vast experiences waiting to be explored. Yet, most people don’t get much past the basement of socialization and cultural conditioning.

There are dimensions beyond dimensions. Eleven dimensions in physics are just the beginning of the possibilities. Human consciousness can entertain or experience these vast explorations directly. But most people never leave the basement! Why? Because you are conditioned not to leave the basement. It is as simple as that.

Your human consciousness holds vast potential. Think of it as a huge computer or a massive generating plant, where you are using only a tenth of 1% of the available energy. There are experiences available to you that are not only blissful but peaceful, invigorating, calm, powerful, and amazing. All these are available to you.

Your human consciousness is vast. You have to make some effort to get out of the little room that you are in.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/human-consciousness-is-a-palace/

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How to Find Peace in a F’d Up World

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. Practice the Perfections (Paramis) The Paramis, also known as the perfections, are specific practices that lead one out of suffering towards the shore of awakening. It is on that shore, that one is no longer subject to the struggles of the world.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/finding-peace-fd-up-world-video/

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Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind from Samsara to Nirvana

How do we get moving on the spiritual path? In this talk, Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat introduce the Four Common Foundations, also known as the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind from Samsara to Nirvana.

These Buddhist foundations motivate and inspire us to practice the path of awakening.

The monthly livestream session with Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. These candid talks on spirituality and awakening are to enliven and enlighten you, as the world spins in challenging times.

Know more:- https://www.planetdharma.com/common-foundations-four-thoughts-video/

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Diamond Sutra Course for Wisdom

The Diamond Sutra is a powerful text that explains how we can realize our true nature – by seeing through the illusion of a separate self. This ‘self’ can be compared to the clothes we put on top of our nakedness.

History of the Diamond Sutra:- The Diamond Sutra is a Mahayana text dating from between the 2nd and 5th Centuries. The Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, roughly translated as ‘The Perfection of Wisdom Text that Cuts Like a Thunderbolt’.

Mahayana is one of three ‘vehicles’ in Buddhism – one of its differentiating marks is its concern with helping those in the world. Mahayana teachings focus heavily on compassion.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/diamond-sutra-video/

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Beautifully Bent Trees and the Forest of Emptiness: Rediscovering your True Nature

One of my most powerful childhood memories is when my family moved from our old house with a leaky roof and corners that didn’t quite meet to a brand-new house in suburbia. The message blinking across my mother’s forehead was, “We made it!” I was about six years old at the time. One day as she was unpacking boxes, I found my crayons and started drawing on her new walls with purple, red, and blue. I was ecstatic! But when she came in and saw my work of art, all hell broke loose. The experience taught me that it’s wrong to draw on walls and that bliss can be interrupted. Gradually, I learned to downplay bliss because I experienced over and over again that events that brought me great joy never lasted.

Know more:- https://www.planetdharma.com/dharma-if-you-dare-book/

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The Dance of Absolute & Relative Truths: Razor’s Edge

Online or In-Person | July 12-14, 2024

The Razor’s Edge is the line between wisdom and ignorance—and it lives inside of you. A paradoxical, joyous, and pristinely aware place, the edge is finer than any other. This weekend course is a precious opportunity to study with meditation master and Namgyal lineage teacher Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan). He will share fundamental Buddhist teachings on the nature of absolute and relative truths, and how we can best dance between, within, and amidst the two. This is a priceless chance to learn with one who has danced on the Razor’s Edge for decades and dedicated his life to the welfare of all beings by sharing how to do so.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/event/absolute-relative-truths/

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Buddha Nature is a Mirror-like Consciousness

Mirror-like consciousness:- When we talk about Tathagatagarbha or Tathagata-garbha, we refer to a Mahayana Buddhist teaching that Buddha Nature is within all beings. In other words, all beings may realize enlightenment because this seed, or potential exists in all of us.

To awaken:- All of your energy and all of your being must be focused on one point. That focal point is called Buddha-nature or universal mind, which is fundamentally transcendent to object addiction or consciousness (thoughts). For a meditator with a propensity towards bliss, you transcend sensual attachments or object addictions. For a meditator with an inquiring mind, you transcend analytical intellect or thoughts. In both cases, you are transcending the conditioned base of your experience.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/buddha-nature-mirror-like-consciousness/

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What is Crazy Wisdom?

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

Crazy Wisdom is also known as energetic wisdom or innocent wisdom.

Having an ego can be traumatizing so we require an energetic technology to break through the isolation of the ego. This wisdom/teaching can quickly guide us to break through into an altered field of bliss, clarity, and non-clinging awareness.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/what-is-crazy-wisdom-video/

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Becoming a Work of Art with the Pāramīs

Every meditative practice in our tradition eventually leads back to the Pāramī, also known as “The Six Perfections”. They offer a flawless path that carries us straight to spiritual enlightenment. It’s a simple, beautiful, and powerful path that offers a refuge in these busy, information-heavy times.

Enlighten-Up is a monthly Planet Dharma Facebook livestream session with Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. These candid talks on spirituality and awakening will enliven and enlighten you, as the world spins in challenging times.

Know more:- https://www.planetdharma.com/becoming-a-work-of-art/

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The seed we are talking about is karma. Where your attention goes, your mind and your aspiration will determine what kind of flower (karma) you have.

The root nature of your consciousness in this lifetime is your early childhood conditioning. The seeds that go into early childhood conditioning are aimed principally at non-transcendent goals.

We aim to get an education and learn how to live in society. These are not bad seeds by any means, but they are not transcendent seeds.

By age 20, your life is obsessed with transient, impermanent, and unsustainable goals, which will all vanish when you die.

Transcendent seeds (such as Buddha-nature) are with you forever because the transcendent seeds do not depend on what happens in this lifetime.

Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/seed-stalk-and-flower-be-master-of-your-fate/

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What is Awakening and Enlightenment | Planet Dharma

What is awakening and why is it?

This is the billion-dollar question, one that defies words.

Doug and Catherine Sensei discuss awakening and what difference it can make in your life. They have committed a lifetime of study, teaching, and being a living embodiment of “awakening.”

Enlighten-Up is a Planet Dharma Facebook livestream session with Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. These candid talks on spirituality and awakening are to enliven and enlighten you, as the world spins in challenging times.

Know More about Awakening:- https://www.planetdharma.com/video-what-is-awakening/

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The Role of the Ego in Self-Transcendence

The Ego: A Necessary Brat Most of us cherish our independence and our freedom to decide our values, goals, and other life choices. At the same time, we want to feel connected, valued, and that we belong. How do we resolve this problem? Perhaps the first step is to understand the ego’s role.

What is the Ego? The ego is the mechanism by which we manage our lives. It determines how we work and play with others. It makes evaluations and decisions and it weighs choices. It also acts like a lens; what we focus on is how it gets put to use. It’s a management tool that allows us to engage with each other and the world in a meaningful way. In fact, without the ego, we don’t exist in this world of action, interaction, and relating.

In terms of our evolutionary development, it’s the ego that allows us to know that we exist as seemingly separate and independent beings. With this comes the knowledge that we will die. The implication is that we are, therefore, also alone, alone inside our heads and bodies.

Know More about Ego:- https://www.planetdharma.com/the-ego-a-necessary-brat/

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Exploring the Journey to Awakening: Wasteland to Pureland Book

Honest, edgy, and accessible, Wasteland to Pureland is for anyone ready to shed limiting beliefs and wake up to reality's vibrant, creative nature.

Rooted in Buddhist philosophy and modern psychology, these teachings emerge from decades of practice and study by master teachers Acariya Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat.

Wasteland to Pureland addresses very typical events in a person’s life – including relationships and career, creativity and pain, and loss and trauma. It also talks about practices you can use, such as tantras, meditations, therapies, and psychological approaches that open doors where we get stuck.

Grounded in the belief that awakening is available to everyone, Doug & Catherine teach us how to reunite with our gifts, to become agents of compassion and transformation, personally, interpersonally, and globally.

The book is a contemporary guide to integrating spiritual practice with everyday life. Know More:- https://www.planetdharma.com/pureland/

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Embrace the Path of Self-Discovery with book Dharma If You Dare

Qapel [Doug Duncan’s] pithy book, Dharma if you Dare, offers an empowering starting point for addressing our desire for ‘something more’.

Humorous and accessible, discover how to explore your feelings of longing and dissatisfaction with practical tools – based on the Tibetan Karma Kagyu lineage and other wisdom traditions – helping to free your mind.

Know more about Dharma:- https://www.planetdharma.com/dharma-if-you-dare-book/

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Empowering Women: The Impact of Their Contribution in Buddhism

Interest in the role of women in Buddhism is experiencing a renaissance. And while there may be frustration, grief, and rage about historical gender inequity in Buddhism, we can use Buddhist methodologies to transform these challenging emotions into greater compassion and wisdom.

Learn about the empowering journey of women in Buddhism and their valuable contributions - as told through the personal experiences of Catherine Pawasarat Sensei.

Know More about Women and Buddhism:- https://www.planetdharma.com/insights-for-women-in-buddhism/