Dharma If You Dare

In this soundbite taken from his Enlightened Archetypes talk, Doug Qapel Duncan outlines the three levels of refuge. For many of us, just getting to the point where we are taking refuge in the buddha, dharma and sangha can feel like our biggest challenge, but it is important to be aware that in a way this is just the first step in the taking-refuge process.  Right now there are lots of things goin...

In today’s talk, Doug Qapel Duncan introduces the topic of archetypes. He gives an overview of what archetypes are, how they operate in our lives and explains how to harness their power by making them conscious. In the talk, Qapel touches on the topic of refuge and its connection to how we relate to archetypes. He also briefly talks about samadhi, states of absorption, which you can hear more abou...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan on the three forms of meditative absorption: kamma samadhi, upacara samadhi & appana samadhi.    If you are looking to incorporate more activities into your life to support contemplation and introspection, I recommend our weekly reflection series called ‘52 Reflections’. Sign up for free and once a week you’ll receive a short passage and fo...

In today’s talk, Doug Qapel Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei go over 4 secrets that make up a core part of how we orient ourselves in the world. Drawing on material from their bestselling book, Wasteland to Pureland, Sensei and Qapel explain each secret, how they operate in our lives and what possibilities open up when we integrate them into our conscious awareness. Today’s episode covers ide...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan on how to support loved ones through the dying process. For an extended look at death, dying and rebirth, check out Episode 7 from this season, about 5 recordings back in the podcast feed. You can also watch that talk as a video on your YouTube channel at youtu.be/rzgLkJ1Yxxk . If you are finding the teachings of Planet Dharma resonate and...

In today’s talk, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei explores the topic of Women in Buddhism. She talks about her early years as a feminist, becoming an attendant for her male teacher, shifting views in the buddhist world around female rebirth & elevating female tantric deities, among other subjects.   Wisdom Publications has just published an interview with Catherine Sensei and Qapel on their Wisdom Podca...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on the difference between states and stages - models from Integral Spirituality - and the roles meditation work and ego work play in developing the stages of development that we have access to. Have you checked out our Patreon page yet? By becoming a micropatron you can help us upgrade our equipment, expand ou...

In today’s talk, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan explore the topic of Buddhanature. They look at the various terms that are used to describe it and highlight the challenge of talking about Buddhanature in a way that doesn’t fall into a conceptual trap that actually separates us from it. Qapel and Sensei also discuss switched off and switched on potential, how Buddhanature gets o...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on how Buddhism worked with the shadow before modern psychology existed to name this aspect of our psyche.  And a note of clarification: In the talk, you’ll hear Qapel and Sensei reference Passionate Enlightenment, which is a book by Miranda Shaw on the history of women in Tantric Buddhism. Today’s bonus recor...

Today’s recording is a talk that Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan gave recently on the topic of death, dying and the bardos. In the talk, he explores how we really experience a death in every moment, and describes in detail the steps in the death process and how consciousness finds its way to its next rebirth. If you are looking to incorporate more activities into your life to support contemplation and introsp...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on how to access higher states of consciousness through clearing the lower 3 chakras. Today’s bonus recording covers ideas that Qapel and Sensei explore in detail in their bestselling book, Wasteland to Pureland. The third section of the book is entitled 'Crazy Wisdom' and covers a wide variety of topics, incl...

In this interview, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei talks about the impact our views of connection with - or disconnection from - our natural environment have on the quality of our lives moment to moment. She highlights the centrality of natural laws in the very essence of the meaning of ‘dharma’. She also talks about her own journey of fully connecting with her ecosystem and reflects on what we can do...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on the folly of assigning happiness to objects and how happiness is actually a result of being in a good state. This bonus episode marks the 100th upload to the podcast feed! How many of the recordings have you listened to? If you’ve benefited from these teachings, one of the best ways to honor that is to pay...

In this episode, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan explore parts of our natal charts that are particularly connected to spiritual and personal transformation, including Chiron, Saturn, and North and South Nodes. They explain how these lenses can help us get unstuck, transform challenges into tools, and take things in our lives less personally. This includes how to use astrology to...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug ‘Qapel’ Duncan on the Buddha’s allegory of the ego being like a house on fire, inviting us to orient from the awakened state rather than the objects in our lives. If you find these teachings resonate and are wondering how to explore them further, visit planetdharma.com/events to see the variety of online and in-person offeri...

In today’s talk, Doug 'Qapel' Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei explore the topic of 'Spiritual Energy Traders' in more detail. (Season 3 Episode 22 introduces this material.) They look at the unwholesome aspects of capitalism and how it reinforces negative patterns both in our individual lives and in our collectives: our communities, countries and corporations. They outline suggestions for ho...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug Qapel Duncan on the importance of actually seeing ourselves as an integrated part of our ecosystems. If you are looking to incorporate more activities into your life to support contemplation and introspection, we recommend our weekly reflection series called ‘52 Reflections’. Sign up for free and once a week you’ll receive a...

Today we are introducing the first of what we hope will become a regular addition to this podcast: interviews with Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat.  Given the pace at which the teachings can evolve and change, we thought it would be helpful to check in periodically about what is happening with our two root teachers so they can speak to a topic that’s currently at the fore for them. Our first i...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug Duncan on how we can best support loved ones through the death process. If you are finding the teachings of Planet Dharma resonate and are wondering how to explore them further, try the free online course called Wake Up: 4 Paths to Spiritual Awakening. This self-study course gives an introduction to the main approaches that Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawas...

In order to truly understand what drives our unconscious behaviour we have to understand the core fears of the ego. If we don’t, we are doomed to repeat behaviour that we may even realize is unwholesome as we are impacted by the invisible hand of these forces. In today’s talk based on the section of their book Wasteland to Pureland entitled “The Pearl Without Price”, Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawa...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat on creating a harmonious relationship between absolute and relative truths through the cultivation of both a clear view and training. Did you know that Planet Dharma also has a library of articles covering a wide variety of topics? We have over 100 blog posts on our website offering dharmic perspectives on all sorts of issue...

In today's episode, Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat speak about what form the teachings will likely take in the 21st Century. Given how teachings of spiritual liberation have evolved through the millennia to speak to the cultural contexts in which they found themselves, in what ways will the expression of timeless wisdom evolve and adapt in the coming years? They also discuss ways that we can...

Season 4 is launching soon! Today producer Christopher Lawley takes the opportunity to introduce himself and to talk a bit about how Planet Dharma operates. For more on karma yoga, visit www.planetdharma.com/what-is-karma-yoga/ For more on the practice of dana, visit www.planetdharma.com/what-is-dana/ And, as always, for more content from the cutting edge of spiritual awakening, including books, b...

In this talk Doug and Catherine discuss how the current capitalist paradigm that is so focused on the individual creates all sorts of conditions in our psyches that lead to suffering. They explore how a shift in view and behaviour would allow us to build a society that will work for everyone, not just a handful of people.   The ideas in today’s talk are explored in detail in the chapter entitled '...

We hope you enjoy this soundbite from Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat on why retreat work is unparalleled in its transformative potential: it allows us to access higher states of consciousness, to see the interconnectedness of our world and to live our lives more fully.   Have you checked out any of Planet Dharma’s online offerings? We have a range of options available to you on the Planet Dha...