Clear Sky’s co-founding teachers Qapel (Acharya Doug Duncan) and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, blessing the temple site.
Photos by: Tony Asimokoupolis, Okada Earthscapes, Mandala Homes, Ava MacLean, Catherine Pawasara

By Duncan Cryle

Clear Sky Retreat Center, a 310-acre “living lab” for embodying dharma in southeastern British Columbia, is forging ahead with its multiphase temple construction project. Designed as a beacon to help future generations discover dharma, it also honors and builds on the legacy of Clear Sky founder, Qapel (Acharya Doug Duncan), who passed away in October, 2024.

The completed temple complex will be an 8,000-square-foot building, designed to serve current and future generations of practitioners. It will include a meditation hall seating 70 to 100 people, along with accommodation, a library, and a kitchen — all thoughtfully integrated to support deep retreat, study, and community living.

Clear Sky has partnered with Mandala Homes, an innovative design-build company based in Nelson, B.C., known for their distinctive circular architecture and commitment to the highest standards of sustainability. These design choices reflect Clear Sky’s long-standing dedication to environmental stewardship and to creating sacred, regenerative spaces.

A lighthouse for 21st century awakening

As Clear Sky moves forward with the temple complex, lead teacher Catherine Pawasarat Sensei, and the residential and international sangha, are deeply committed to a long-term vision. They aim to build on Qapel’s legacy, and the teachings and lineage of Qapel’s primary teacher, the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche.

Catherine Pawasarat Sensei envisions the temple as central to Clear Sky’s role as an international refuge and model during these troubled times, a place where contemporary manifestations of spiritual awakening can incubate and emerge. When asked what the dharma of the future looks like, residents readily admit that the specifics of the future cannot be known. As Catherine Sensei said, “You can’t put a pin in awakening … there’s a difference between enlightenment in the 4th or 19th century, and in the 21st century. And today, we want a 21st-century awakening.”

Qapel said the temple should be understood as a refuge, and as a beacon for humanity and life on earth over the next 400 years. He said:

 “Here at Clear Sky, we’re trying to establish a refuge for this work to provide a light for seekers who want to forge into the unknown and make their spiritual practice wider and broader. We hope and intend to provide a reference point, a beacon, a light, a satellite, a place to rejuvenate and be inspired. We need a lighthouse that can be seen from inner space, and we’re calling that lighthouse our new temple.”

Blessing the Temple Site

Just two weeks before Qapel passed, he blessed the temple site with his partner and co-teacher,  Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. At that time Qapel emphasized the importance of a physical reference point like a temple as a psychic and spiritual anchor, as new forms of dharma organically emerge.

During that blessing ceremony a colorful maypole was planted at the exact center of the temple complex, with 50 local and international sangha members present. The maypole had just been created at the end of a rare Western Mysteries retreat, which focused on enacting the 21 archetypes of the major arcana in the Tarot.

Along with this blessing, the international sangha has raised over Can $500,000 for the first two of five phases in the temple complex’s planning and construction. This blessing launched a bold 10-year vision — a temple complex designed as a spiritual lighthouse for the 21st century. The budget for completion is Can $3.7 million, with the complex to be completed by 2030.

A local green building with Japanese-inspired design

Clear Sky was founded in 2004 with the support of a sangha that had formed around Qapel, when he was teaching in Japan in the late 1990s. Catherine Sensei lived in Japan for nearly 20 years, including in-depth studies of traditional Japanese arts. This Japanese and international heritage will be reflected in the building design, which incorporates meditation walkways and a Japanese-style central garden.

The garden has been designed in partnership with Okada Earthscape, a Japanese gardening firm that created the Japanese garden at Vancouver International Airport. Clear Sky’s Japan-inspired garden will feature plants native to the region, in line with the center’s years of ongoing ecological restoration.

Qapel’s primary teacher, the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, was born in Canada in 1931. He awakened in Europe through the Western Mysteries, and received monastic ordination as Ananda Bodhi from meditation master Sayadaw U Thila Wanta in Myanmar in 1958. In the early 1970s he was spontaneously recognized as Namgyal Rinpoche by H.H. 16th Karmapa, of the Tibetan Karma Kagyu lineage.

Rinpoche focused on adapting and evolving the dharma for Westerners. He taught frequently that community and group guru is a key to the dharma of the future. With the founding of Clear Sky in 2004, Qapel, Sensei and the sangha began a journey to develop and embody the center and community as an illustration of these teachings.

An invitation to be part of the light

The Clear Sky Sangha see the temple as more than a building – it’s a beacon for a brighter future, calling forth seekers, pioneers, and visionaries committed to inner and outer transformation. As we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, Clear Sky’s new temple invites seekers to find their place in a living legacy – to contribute their presence, heartfelt practice, and compassion to something timeless.

In Catherine Sensei’s words, “Together we can build a refuge that supports and uplifts generations to come, a beacon of light that can comfort and call to us from afar, as well as from the deepest inner realms.”

The Clear Sky sangha warmly invites other centers to connect, share, learn and engage together on this great joint adventure of 21st century dharma and sangha. Visit ClearSkyCenter.org to find out more, explore Qapel and Sensei’s virtual monastery at Planet Dharma.com, or email contact@clearskycenter.org