What you'll learn
- A view of women and their role in Buddhism, throughout history.
- Diverse cultural perspectives on the role and leadership of women today and in the future.
- How to reflect on one's own cultural conditioning.
- The feminine aspects of Buddhism that compliment the masculine aspects.
Requirements
- No experience necessary
Description
In this course, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei generously offers illuminating lectures on a variety of subjects on women in buddhism. The subjects range from the hidden influence of ancient Tibetan female teachers to the present day challenges and blessings of being a spiritual practitioner in the modern world. Catherine Sensei has lived in various cultures including the US, Japan, Brazil and Canada. She brings her cross-cultural wisdom to shed light on beliefs that we might otherwise overlook. She guides us to explore how our own family and cultural upbringing shapes (and limits) our views, and how we might broaden them to be more inclusive of others. She speaks candidly about her personal transformations as a female practitioner as well as her 20 year relationship with her spiritual teacher, Qapel. She also offers insights from her experience on becoming a teacher and co-founder of the Clear Sky Meditation Center in British Columbia, Canada.
Some of the topics that weave in and out of her lectures are:
*Male and female energies and how to use them in your practice.
*Transgender deities in Buddhism
*Spiritual awakening in a female body.
*Cultural conditioning regarding women's roles, and how they look different in different cultures.
Sensei helps us to investigate our own cultural conditioning that influences our thinking/actions by drawing on her own experience. She invites us to incorporate these issues into our spiritual practice. Along the way we might notice fixed views we have been holding that no longer serve us, resulting in greater liberation, and therefore greater compassion for ourselves and all beings.
Who this course is for:
- Men and Women at any level of a contemplative practice with an interest in the subject.
Instructor
- 4.8 Instructor Rating
- 20 Reviews
- 842 Students
- 4 Courses
Planet Dharma is the virtual teaching vehicle for dharma teachers, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug Qapel Duncan.
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is co-founder and resident teacher (with Qapel Doug Duncan) at Clear Sky Retreat Center in the British Columbia Rockies. At Clear Sky, Catherine Sensei has spearheaded an innovative and sustainability-oriented culture and organization, specializing in conscious community. Together, Qapel and Catherine Sensei teach through a virtual vehicle, Planet Dharma. In 2018 they wrote the best-selling book, Wasteland to Pureland.
Catherine Sensei is an expert in traditional Japanese culture, and the author of the first comprehensive English guidebook to Kyoto’s 1150-year-old Gion Festival, a gigantic living collection of diverse spiritual rituals. She also teaches and advocates for the unique role and experiences of Women in Buddhism.
In the 1990s, she was a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments. Living in Kyoto, Japan for 20 years, she worked as an advocacy photojournalist specializing in environmental and human rights, and edited sustainability-related publications for various United Nations bodies. She also studied traditional Japanese arts.
Since 1998 she has trained daily with Buddhist teacher Achariya Doug Duncan (Qapel) in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that’s rare in the modern West. Transmitted from the remarkable Namgyal Rinpoche, they are both lineage holders of these teachings.
Qapel (Achariya Doug Duncan) (1949-2024)
Doug Duncan studied with the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche from 1974 until the latter’s passing in 2003. Doug received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. He also received teachings from the 16th Karmapa and other Tibetan Rinpoches, as well as from the Ven. Sayadaw U Thila Wunta, and from a Master of the Western Mystery School. In addition, Doug has undertaken numerous three-month solitary meditation retreats.
Doug has been leading retreats, teaching and training in universal practices of spiritual unfoldment since 1985, helping thousands of students in numerous countries liberate themselves from suffering. His teaching also draws on contemporary psychology and science. In 2004 he co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies where he is resident teacher along with Catherine Sensei.
Growing up in Saskatchewan was a pretty “flat” experience, so Doug caught the travel bug early. As a small child he wandered, such that the local police often had to bring him home. This desire to see the world and understand it more fully has led him ever since. He passed away in October 2024.