Ten Day Vipassana Retreat (based on the Ānāpānasati Sutta)

Namgyal Rinpoche

Ten Day Vipassanā Meditation Retreat

Vipassanā is ideal for those new to meditation because it introduces you to the foundations needed to build a strong meditation practice and is a doorway to profound insight and realization.

If you have a background in Vipassanā 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.

Led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, this retreat gives an opportunity for more detailed instructions based on the Buddhist suttas, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice.

We’ll practice a balanced meditative approach using the foundations of mindfulness from the Annapanasati Sutta.

with Catherine Pawasarat Sensei | March 19-28, 2027

Registration Deadlines:

In-Person Retreat registration deadline: March 12th, 2027

Online retreat registration deadline: March 12th, 2027

Early Bird Deadline:

In-person retreat Early Bird deadline: February 21st, 2027

Online retreat Early Bird deadline: February 28th, 2027

We recommend in-person retreats as the best way to get the most out of your experience. That said, we recognize that travel is inhibitive for some people and are offering an online option to people living outside of Western Canada. 

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 Vipassanā 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 satipatthana sutta, and opportunities for asking questions and receiving feedback on your practice. This is priceless.

An online option is also available for those not in Western Canada, to make participation possible from anywhere in the world.

Ānāpānasati Sutta Practice

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.  In it, the Buddha describes 16 steps of practice divided into four areas of mindfulness.

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 began her spiritual practices in earnest in her early 20s, when she struggled to make sense of and overcome personal suffering and international environmental and social justice challenges. She became a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s.

For 26 years Catherine Sensei trained daily with Qapel Doug Duncan in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.

With Qapel she co-founded Clear Sky Retreat Center and Planet Dharma and is a lineage holder for these teachings. She supports the spiritual underpinnings of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship for spiritual practitioners. She worked as an advocacy photojournalist and studied traditional Japanese arts (including koto, shamisen, kyogen) in Kyoto for 20 years, culminating in her landmark work GionFestival.org.

Since the early 2000s Sensei has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Qapel and on her own. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Sensei also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.

COST: See web page for details

SOME CITIES CLOSE BY: Kelowna, BC