Clear Sky First Retreat at Clear Sky September 2005 Dear Friends in the dharma, We had quite a summer at Clear Sky! Please allow me to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about what we got up to at our first retreat at our new meditation center. First, our most recent great news is that the Clear Sky Meditation and Study Foundation has been awarded charitable status by the Canadian government! This was no mean feat, and I send heartfelt thanks to Edmund for all his work on this, and to our sister organizations at the Dharma Centre of Canada at Kinmout, Crystal Staff in Ottawa and Crystal Mountain in Vancouver/Galiano Island for their kind and indispensable support. For those of you unfamiliar with charitable status, in mundane terms, it means that now donations made to Clear Sky are tax deductible, and Clear Sky also gets refunds on GST paid. [We're still working out the fine print, particularly regarding donations from the U.S., E.U. or Japan; if you have information on such details, any pointers would be much appreciated.] Back to our summer. Doug Duncan Sensei took up residence for all of July and August, and students, friends and supporters came and went throughout that time, so that residential numbers varied from a half dozen (first week of July) to thirty (most of August). I think it's fair to say that many if not most visitors found the beauty and splendor of the property to be breathtakingly stupendous. We are working on getting some more photos on the website so that people who couldn't make it out this summer may still enjoy some images of Clear Sky. All summer there were daily and twice-daily meditations, with some formal teachings by Doug Sensei. The majority of our time was spent doing service, a.k.a. karma yoga. It was truly a joy to witness people sharing a wealth of skills and talents [carpentry, accounting, painting, chain-sawing, planning] and developing new ones [carpentry, accounting, painting, chain-sawing, planning, plus witches'-concoction-brewing -- making enviro friendly household cleaners -- and the occasional horse wrangling]. In addition to completing construction of the main building (yes!), much impressive work was done on the land itself, fireproofing the areas around the main buildings, removing invasive weeds, creating maps of the property, mending fences, and the like. Then there were the all-important ongoing jobs, like cleaning, meal planning and cooking, and compost orchestration. Everyone's enthusiasm and dedication was truly inspirational. It was a tremendous opportunity to generate merit for the benefit of other beings. The support provided by the regional district of the East Kootenays, the government of British Columbia, and non-profit organizations was very impressive, and very appreciated. We welcomed government and non-profit specialists to Clear Sky to share their expertise with us on such diverse and useful topics as land and wildlife management, forestry and fire prevention, invasive weed control, water resource management, native plants and permaculture - all free of charge. Makes paying taxes to the Canadian government almost a pleasure, I can tell you! Such on-site visits mean that groups of us got first-rate educations in the many aspects of how to make Clear Sky more sustainable as a center, so that future generations of beings - people, animals, plants, the unseen -- may benefit from it as much as we are able to. As mentioned in previous updates, Doug Sensei envisions Clear Sky as a "working center," like medieval monasteries in Europe, which supported themselves in part with cottage industries like winebrewing or cheesemaking. We don't see wine and cheese on the horizon, but have been investing time and energy into exploring what kind of small "industries" might contribute to a micro-economy at Clear Sky or in the general area of Cranbrook. Wouldn't it be great if Clear Sky could partly support itself, and even offer some income opportunities for meditators? If your synapses are popping with good ideas, please feel free to send them our way. What's next for Clear Sky? The next major retreat currently planned is the second part of a Six Yogas of Naropa retreat, lead by Doug Sensei at Clear Sky in February and March. The first part will be over Christmas/New Year's in Izu, Japan. To learn more about Clear Sky, please see its new website: www.clearskycenter.org To learn more about Doug Sensei's teaching and travel schedule (including information about the sangha in Japan), please see: www.dharma-japan.org. As a thumbnail sketch, here is a brief glimpse of Sensei's upcoming activities:  October 2005-Feb. 1, 2006: Japan  Feb. 1 - March 20, 2006: Retreat at Clear Sky  March 20-April 1, 2006: Mexico  April, 2006: retreat at the Dharma Centre of Canada, Kinmount, Ont.  May, 2006: Tuscany & Umbria, Italy  June, 2006: England, Wales, Ottawa, The Barn (Wakefield, Quebec)  July, 2006: Winnipeg  July-August, 2006: Clear Sky  September, 2006: Vancouver  October, 2006: Japan  May, 2007: southwestern U.S. and Colorado River rafting trip **Please see the schedule at www.dharma-japan.org for details. We're pleased that individuals and teachers from our extended sangha have contacted us about using Clear Sky for retreat work, and welcome you all to this newest bead in the precious rosary of dharma centers extending around our planet. May Clear Sky and all centers unfold as a place of study and contemplation for the benefit of all beings. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. Thanks for your support. In service to the Triple Gem, Catherine akasa@gol.com PS. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you'd like to have your name removed from the mailing list for Clear Sky updates. All you need to do is hit "reply" and write "remove" in the subject line.