Coming Home: Meditating in Nature
With Duncan Cryle and Karen McAllister
June 19 - 21, 2026
Are you longing to reconnect with the natural world and discover a deeper sense of belonging? Do you sense that healing the separation between yourself and nature could transform your experience of life?
Join us for a weekend immersed in the mountains and meadows of Clear Sky, where we’ll explore natural meditation practices that awaken us to our intimate connection with all of life.
Reconnecting with the Web of Life
Living in our modern world, it’s easy to forget that we are part of an ecosystem that is incredibly old and spans a whole planet. This forgetting has become so deep that it shapes our culture and institutions. Yet the separation we feel—from nature, from our bodies, from each other—is not the truth of how things are.
This retreat offers a path home.
Through simple yet profound practices done outdoors in Clear Sky’s stunning mountain setting, we’ll rediscover a natural connection with our breath, the earth, and the land around us. We’ll learn to see with fresh eyes, as if we were explorers encountering life for the first time.
What You’ll Experience
Introduction To Breathing Meditation Foundational accessible instructions in reconnecting to our breath, and using the breath as a natural anchor to support presence.
Breathing With Nature A beautiful meditation practice that reconnects us with the ancient dance of giving and receiving between humans and the plant kingdom. This simple practice rapidly brings calm and wellbeing while revealing that we truly belong to something much larger than ourselves.
Nature Contemplation Guided explorations in Clear Sky’s forests, meadows, and along its mountain trails. We’ll practice seeing the interconnectedness that reveals itself wherever we look—discovering, as the early explorers did, how encountering the natural world transforms our sense of who and what we are.
Embodied Presence Practices that bring us home to our bodies as living expressions of nature itself. We’ll learn to savor the breath as rare nectar and discover how attention to our embodied experience reconnects us to the larger body of life.
Who This Retreat Is For
This retreat welcomes anyone who:
- Feels disconnected from nature and longs to reconnect
- Is new to meditation and wants an accessible entry point
- Has meditation experience but wants to deepen their practice outdoors
- Seeks healing from the stress and isolation of modern life
- Is curious about Buddhist approaches to ecology and interconnection
No prior meditation experience is required. The practices we’ll explore are simple yet profound—suitable for beginners while offering depth for experienced practitioners.
About Your Guides
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage and holds a PhD in philosophy. He combines deep contemplative experience with twenty years in senior organizational roles where he pioneered workplace mindfulness programs reaching tens of thousands. As Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky, Duncan brings a unique perspective on integrating awakening practices with everyday life.
Both Duncan and Karen have studied extensively with Clear Sky’s founding teachers and are devoted to making the path of awakening accessible and relevant to modern practitioners.
The Setting
Clear Sky Meditation Center offers over 300 acres of pristine Rocky Mountain wilderness—the perfect environment for practices that reconnect us with nature. You’ll have opportunities to walk forest trails, sit by mountain streams, and practice meditation surrounded by the very green plants with whom we share our breath.
Locally sourced, organic meals nourish the body while supporting our environmental values.
About the Leaders
Duncan Cryle
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil ("Awakening in Brazil"), and through […]
Learn more about Duncan Cryle
Karen McAllister
Karen has worked with over 150 clients, helping them untangle their money issues and to become more effective in their work because of it. To do this, Karen has studied financial issues extensively from both the practical, behavioural, and the emotional perspectives. This is all great, yet her real magic and super power comes from […]
Learn more about Karen McAllister