Integral Evolution: Waking Up & Growing Up

Online Event Only

REPEATING SCHEDULE: Weekly
START DATE: Sunday, January 12, 2025
END DATE: Sunday, February 2, 2025

ORGANIZATION: Planet Dharma
TEACHER: Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
EMAIL: registrar@planetdharma.com
WEBSITE

Waking Up and Growing Up

The stage of growing up that you are at is incredibly important because it will determine your waking up experience.

— Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness

As we go deeper into the 21st-century we are seeing a new turning of the Wheel of Dharma – a radical evolution of Buddhism and spiritual teachings. The last major evolution in Buddhist Dharma was more than 1,000 years ago with Vajrayana, the third turn of the wheel. Now with psychology, Integral spirituality, and science, something new is emerging.

In addition to awakening, “waking up,” we also need to work on growing up, both individually and collectively. How do we integrate our awakening state in our modern world? What do we need to do with our shadow? Which stages of human development do we need to be aware of, and work through? The days of meditating in a cave for decades are over. We have to grow up and integrate into the fold of an evolving global ecosystem that needs our commitment, together.

Join us for this trailblazing four-week course. Together we will explore the emerging elements of a fit and dynamic vehicle for 21st-century awakening, and beyond—a spiritual vehicle which must evolve as rapidly as evolution itself. We must learn how to keep up!

Integral Spirituality

Integral Spirituality was coined by Ken Wilber, an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stages of human development. In his many books, he writes that traditional Buddhist teachings themselves suggest an ongoing evolution leading toward a more unified, holistic, and interconnected spirituality. He describes the ways in which the tradition has been open to the continuous unfolding and expansion of its own teachings, and he suggests possible paths toward an ever more Integral approach.

We agree!

In this course, we are excited to be taking this work forward and translating it practically, based on our lineage’s working experience of modern spiritual community.

Integral Spirituality by Wilber is a prerequisite read for the course. Please start by reading the Appendix as we have found it is clearer this way.

Why Grow up?

As spiritual seekers we might feel that waking up is enough – that experiencing absolute truth will solve all our problems and we will be bright shiney beings without problems or interpersonal issues. The thing is, we also live in the relative world. Spending time on cleaning up and growing up increases our range and freedom – it is how we can genuinely cultivate the art of living. How do we live in more integrated, generative way?

Application

This course will be about the application of integral so we can actually work with it and evolve with it. We know that the ‘map’ or theory is not the territory or real work, so we’ll use this course to keep it real and explore the terrain. Think of it as a virtual dharma trip as we travel some shared lands and keep the teaching real.

This also means shining light onto shadow aspects of our consciousnessess – what aren’t we seeing? How can we help each really meet our current stage of development and do the work required in that stage?

Working with the shadow

“It’s important that we are clear and honest: by its very nature, shadow work is not fun or pretty. It takes courage and fortitude to see parts of our being that are not like we wish them to be, and to dedicate one’s energy to transforming that.”

-Qapel & Sensei on Integrating the Shadow

Course Schedule

January 12 – Feb 2, 2025

Class Times (Mountain Time)

Sunday January 12 – 9:30-11am
Sunday January 19 – 9:30-11am
Sunday January 26 – 9:30-11am
Saturday & Sunday February 1-2 – 9:30am and 2:30pm (approx 60-90 min)

The formal and participatory teachings for this course will occur on Sundays with a Saturday-Sunday flash retreat on the fourth weekend. Class times are estimates and may change slightly.

We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.

Flash Retreat Weekend: February 1-2

To deepen and integrate your experience, the final (fourth) weekend during the course will also be a Flash Retreat (Feb 1-2). This can be done at home, or with us at Clear Sky Meditation Centre, in Eastern British Columbia. We highly recommend clearing your schedule over the weekend to focus on the retreat. Formal group sessions will be held at these approximate times.

Flash Retreat morning session: 9:30am MT
Flash Retreat afternoon session: 2:30pm MT
Sessions will be 60-90 mins in length.

Course Details

Time and Location

Each of the weekly classes in this online course will be streamed live at 9:30-11am MST. We ask participants to attend live whenever possible. The recording of each class will be available for one week after each class. We encourage you to connect with sangha outside of class times to discuss and deepen your learning of the material.

The course culminates with a Flash Retreat on February 1-2, 2025, with formal group session times held at approx 9:30am and 2:30pm Mountain Time on Saturday and Sunday, with a 60-90 minute duration.

What Does the Course Cost?

This course is offered based on the unique combination of:

1) dāna, and
2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee:

Click on the tabs below to learn more:

You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart.” Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity.” With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. 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.

The dharma has been built on generosity. No one is excluded for lack of funds. However, it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able.

Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.

As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.

If you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.

We’re delighted to share that we created a short online course so that you can learn more about the practice of dāna here.

COST: 1) Dāna, and 2) a $80-120 USD administrative fee

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