Wooden retreat house with mountain view and lush greenery in the background.

Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center

Logo of the Foundation for Intentional Community with interconnected circles.
  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Mature
  • English
  • Spiritual
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2005

What we do

Clear Sky is a Buddhist-lineage conscious community based on 310 acres in the Canadian Rockies, on the traditional homelands of the Ktunaxa First Nations.

Since 2005, Clear Sky has been growing and offering retreats and training for people with a heart for spiritual exploration who want to awaken more quickly and fully. 

From around 2012, we evolved into a conscious metamodern-informed community, exploring new ways of living an engaged spiritual life in modern times. 

Our offerings include meditation retreats and a training program, online courses and webinar series, meditation cabins, a one-acre food forest, and hosting our founding teachers’ retreats and teachings. In 2026 we are also collaborating with Tamera Healing Biotope in Portugal on a course exploring how healing money and healing love go together.

The name Clear Sky represents the mind of blissful, non-clinging awareness – the still, clear mind always present behind the ever-shifting clouds of everyday thoughts and emotions. This is the mind that pays attention to the right details and is alert, awake, conscious, and kind.

Our Vision

Vision: We are creating a revolutionary center that inspires and supports awakening.

Values: We are creating a conscious center that is: 

  • Spiritually generative
  • Environmentally generative
  • Socially generative
  • Financially generative

Our Mission

We empower you to transform struggle and embrace vitality.

Our aspiration and common purpose is wake ourselves up and help others do the same. We are increasingly Integral and metamodern informed, and aim not just to wake up, but to grow up, clean up, and show up.

  • Purpose
  • Spiritual
  • Ecological
  • Languages
  • English
  • Japanese
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Spanish
  • Community type
  • Commune
  • Land-Based Communities
  • Spiritual Retreat Centers
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • Networking

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2005
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2008
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 25 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
  • Open to volunteers
Total
15

How to join

You do not need to be a member to stay at Clear Sky. Membership as such is purely for voting rights at our annual board meetings. Becoming a long-term resident involves first coming to a program such as our 3 month immersive program.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

For staying onsite, we ask you to first visit for one of our programs or attend our three month residential program.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Elected Representatives

A board, council, or committee chosen by members makes decisions on behalf of the community.

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Founder/Leader-led

Primary authority rests with the community’s founder(s) or designated leader(s).

Conflict resolution approach

As a small community, major decisions are generally discussed as a group amongst the full-time residents. Day to day operations are largely governed in a sociocracy style of circles or domains. As a teacher-led Buddhist lineage center, in spiritual matters we are largely led by our head spiritual director. We are experimental in that we are trying to combine both authentic spiritual direction in a lineage tradition, while in parallel evolving conscious community structures for how we live together.

Economic model

  • Work Exchange Programs

Members contribute labor instead of or in addition to monetary payments for housing and community participation.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

As a charity there is no individual ownership. Residents contribute both some rent, and contribute to the running of the center and community.  We try to work generatively where resident income (for example through teaching) is directly linked and synergistic to the goals and vision of the community / organization. Dana (Sanskrit for generosity) is a key part of our practice. Additionally, working on money shadow and our patterns around money, to develop healthier mental models around finances is a key part of our work. 

Vehicle accessibility

  • There are one or more community vehicles

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Kitchen, Meditation Room, Garden(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • Approximately all meals

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Growing our own
  • Locally sourced

Nature of social activity

  • People in the community regularly socialize together

Community activities and engagement

  • Work together on the land, and with horses
  • Lead community meditation classes in town
  • Some members are local counsellors and therapists in the local town
  • Socially on site, activities like karaoke, weekly fun night

Educational and retreat offerings

We offer a variety of courses and retreats ranging from:

– Buddhist lineage based retreats

– Online course around money and spirituality, creating supportive conditions/container for meditation and growth, and meditation tools for fragemented times

– Residential programs such as our 3 month program

– Personal cabin retreats

Local connectedness

  • We have strong relationships with our local community

Friendliness of people and local government

  • There is a moderate amount of connection and collaboration between people and local government

Pet policy

  • No pets are allowed

Substance use culture

  • Substance use occurs in peripheral / discrete / only in personal or private spaces

Practiced relationship models

  • Monogamy
  • Polyamory / Open relationships / Ethical Non-Monogamy (ENM)
  • Celibacy

Member support features

  • Social / emotional support available on-site or locally
  • Religions
  • Buddhist
  • Spiritual Practices
  • Astrology practice and readings
  • Holistic health approaches
  • Mantra Chanting
  • Meditation
  • Mindfulness
  • Philosophy discussions
  • Tantra workshops
  • Tarot and oracle readings

DEI and anti-oppression training

  • Yes, some individuals

Series on indigenous learning (four seasons of learning program)

Group training on the wheel of consent

Some individuals have done specific DEI programs through their workplaces

 

 

Level of LGBTQIA+ inclusion

  • Somewhat - we have some LGBTQIA+ members

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Racial / ethnic demographics

  • Moderately diverse (3-4 different backgrounds)

Socioeconomic and wealth composition

  • Moderately diverse (some economic variety)

Diversity representation

  • Neurodiverse (ex. autism, ADHD, sensory processing etc.)
  • Learning disabilities (dyslexia, down's syndrome)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Community Land Trust or some other kind of nonprofit

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Commune

    Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities

  • Land-Based Communities

    Communities centered around shared land stewardship, sustainable agriculture, or connection to specific natural environments.

  • Spiritual Retreat Centers

    Residential communities focused on providing space for meditation, spiritual practice, and personal growth retreats.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Energy sources used

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Over 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Food forest
  • Land area size
    310 acres

Our Upcoming Events

  • Promoted
  • Events
2 hours ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00

Guest Book

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Location

  • British Columbia, Canada

Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
  • Events
2 hours ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
3 weeks ago

Beautiful 3+ Bed, 2.5 Bath Townhome in Established West Emerald CoHousing, Seattle

A rare home is available at West Emerald Cohousing, an established all-ages intentional community in West Seattle. For those considering a move to the Pacific Northwest—or hoping to join a mature community rather than one still in the forming stages—West Emerald offers decades of community life, beautiful gardens, shared resources and a peaceful setting within the city in a convenient location since 1999. This unit has a unique floor plan that is ideal for co-buying, co-living, or for one household. The home itself offers a flexible 3+ bedroom, 2.5 bath layout: Garden-level room with a separate exterior entrance and half bath—ideal for a home office, studio, guest space or client-facing business Main-level bedroom and full bath, laundry, making one-level living possible Open great room with large windows overlooking gardens filled with birdsong Well-designed kitchen with generous storage and pantry Two additional light-filled spacious bedrooms and a full bath upstairs Thoughtfully maintained and updated Located at the end of a common pathway for added privacy and garden views, Just feet from parking, which is out of view West Emerald community amenities include: Common House with gathering and activity spaces Community meals and events Mature gardens and shared outdoor spaces Workshop/maker spaces and bike barn Exercise room EV charging opportunity Excellent Metro access to Downtown Seattle just minutes away Nestled into a dell, it’s Seattle’s best-kept secret South Seattle College and lifelong learning, NW Wine Academy, the Seattle Chinese Garden are nearby, with easy access to Alki Beach, Lincoln Park, magnet schools, ferries, and the shops and restaurants of the West Seattle Junction. 6000 17th Ave SW, Seattle, WA Is a wonderful opportunity to have your own comfortable, private home while becoming part of a vibrant and well-established Seattle all-ages cohousing community. For more information contact the friendly Realtor at 206-579-9066, or at ki**********@**********te.com who will be happy to meet you there or do a facetime tour.
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
4 months ago

Do you feel called to help co-create a small, newly forming eco-spiritual community?

Old structures are crumbling. New ways of living are calling. We are answering that call. Wild Grace is an eco-spiritual community located in the Sierra foothills 30 minutes from Grass Valley, California. We recently completed new homes for those who feel called to our vision. Currently there are four of us living on this sacred 80 acres of land although we are a hub for an expanded neighborhood community. Many join us weekly for potlucks, expressive dance, Qi Gong, monthly musical gatherings, and seasonal celebrations in our temple, as well as tending to our orchard. We are excited to welcome others to join us on the land who are dedicating their lives to spiritual growth and ready to live in a more focused and intimate heart-centered lifestyle. Might that be you or someone you know? The fundamentals are simple. Spirit. We listen personally and collectively together most mornings, usually starting with a musical offering, a prayer, or a short reading, followed by about 40 minutes of what we call “sacred silence.” Heart Circles. About once a week we gather to share and listen. We are informed by authentic and compassionate communication practices. Nature. The land itself—an 80-acre oasis of field and forest perched above the wild and scenic South Yuba River—calls for our stewardship in the gardens, orchard, greenhouses, and general care. In turn, nature feeds us abundantly, both literally and spiritually. Interbeing. We join with others to share inspiration and connection as we host monthly gatherings of song, story and prayer that draws from the larger community in addition to other events we share with our closer neighbors. As we attend to these fundamentals, Grace flows to and through us—often in “Wild” or unexpected ways. Grace catalyzes through us, but is not something we possess. Because we all are connected, we feel that Grace actively transforms n
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
3 weeks ago

Unit C-2, Woodard Lane Cohousing — Olympia, WA

We are looking for renters and buyers who truly want to participate fully in a community living situation; to collaborate, share meals, attend meetings, share stewardship of our grounds and buildings, socialize, and share spaces including the Common House, guest rooms, tools, Center Green, vegetable garden, and more. Unit C2 is available for rent or for sale. Unit C2 Unit C2 has functioned as two units since its beginning. The lower level is currently occupied. It’s ideal if you desire ground floor ease of entry — as owner, you can live comfortably in half and rent out half. C2 For Rent (ground level) — $1,900/month Short term rental agreement with 90-day notice; includes utilities. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 925 square feet One bedroom One bathroom Bonus room/office with loft bed Open kitchen, dining room, living room Deck view of forest Front yard garden C2 For Sale (entire unit) — $630,000 Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 1,904 square feet total (each level is 952 SF with a full kitchen and private entrance) 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room Ground floor entry with no steps Two back decks that face a wooded ravine The upstairs living space is an open kitchen, dining room, and living room The lower level has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and a separate entry Upstairs has a large bedroom with closets, and a bonus room with a full-sized loft bed Monthly dues are currently $799.00, including all utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage) plus a healthy contribution to the reserves fund See flyer for more details

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