Community Meditation is non-profit network of meditation groups. We bring mindfulness and wellness into people’s lives through courses, meditation sittings and group discussions, both in-person and online. By sharing the benefits of meditation and mindfulness, we support the evolution of a wise, caring, and healthy world.
Our network has existed for over a decade and although our roots are Buddhist, we draw on many wisdom traditions as well as contemporary wellness, psychology, and neuroscience. Community Meditation is completely volunteer-based and guided by a council of experienced teachers.
Community Meditation is a Canada Revenue Agency Registered Charity No. 73107 5719 RR0001.
Your donations, either one-time or with a monthly subscription, help us to pay rent, insurance and other basic expenses. We are a volunteer organization and all of our costs are covered by donations and course fees. Oline donors will receive an annual tax receipt for the full amount of their donations in each calendar year.
One-Time Donation Monthly Donation
NOTE: For monthly donations, use the Qty button to adjust the amount in units of $5. For example, a Qty of "3" is 3 x 5 = $15.
All online sessions, except our short morning sessions, include a 20-minute silent meditation. New to meditation? Instruction is available.
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Click here to join on Zoom @ 8:45 AM ET
Looking for a mindful start to your day? We're launching silent group meditations from 8:45 to 9 AM ET, Monday to Friday. There is no meditation instruction available in these sessions–if you'd like instruction, email hello@communitymeditation.net.
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Brenda, Gordon, and Jim for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by our reading of Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up by Koshin Paley Ellison. This is a new book for Monday night, so we'll begin with the Introduction. No need to have or be familiar with the book–everyone is welcome!
There’s no state of perfection to achieve, no perfect person to become. If there is a goal, it is to rest in being perfectly imperfect.
– Koshin Paley Ellison
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Gloria, Kaye Lee, and Marian for 20 minutes of meditation followed by the reading and discussion from the first section of Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself by Tracy Cochran. There's no need to be familiar with the book, and everyone is welcome!
As an experiment, notice how it feels to stop and be still in the midst of the rushing stream of life. Allow yourself to remember the depth and extent of your life. If you wish, tell about it.
– Tracy Cochran
Click here for directions
IN-PERSON – MISSISSAUGA
Join us on Wednesday to gather in person to explore a book or article and discuss what arises. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
If we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world.
– Sri Chinmoy.
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
You're invited to join Adam, Lauren, and Sandi to read and discuss Mark Nepo's book, You Don't Have To Do It Alone. Tung-Shan says, "If you look for the truth outside of yourself, it gets farther and farther away." So, how do we uncover our true nature? We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
More than being led or taught, we need to be held and incubated by love till we mature into all of who we are.
– Mark Nepo
Click here to visit our Meetup
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Wayne for 35 minutes of sitting meditation and walking meditation, followed by a group discussion.
Try to find pleasure in the speed that you're not used to.
― Paulo Coelho
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Debbie to read and discuss the Tricycle article "Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions" by Sharon Salzberg. How can we use mindfulness to relate to difficult emotions so that we act more wisely and skillfully? There's no need to be familiar with the book, and the session is open to all. We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Mindfulness practice isn’t meant to eliminate thinking but aims rather to help us know what we’re thinking when we’re thinking it, just as we want to know what we’re feeling when we’re feeling it.
– Sharon Salzberg
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to read and discuss an article about pain and suffering by Nikayla in the Blue Planet newsletter. How are pain and suffering defined? Is it possible to experience pain without much suffering? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Friday EcoDharma sessions are designed for those experiencing anxiety or grief relating to environmental issues. The aim is to bring mindfulness and Buddhist practices to our distress, and to build community.
Recall the Buddha’s teaching on the two arrows: the first arrow is fired by some unknown cause, giving rise to immense pain in the body, and the second arrow is our reaction to the first, giving rise to immense pain in the mind.
– Nikayla
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
Join Debbie this Sunday as we read the "Fall From the Garden" chapter from Michael Singer's book Living Untethered. How does it happen that we live in our minds rather than in the moment? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
Resistance is the beginning of what can be considered "the fall from the garden."
– Michael Singer
I've been thinking about how we take something for granted, meaning to expect it or to fail to appreciate it. A trivial example: We replaced our noisy and incontinent dishwasher with a sleek new one about a year ago. The change was dramatic; how I appreciated having that magical machine wash my dishes! Two months in? Meh. I noticed I was taking it for granted.
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
The challenge is that the list of things that are granted to us in this life is, depending on how you look at it, exceedingly short. You could go so far as to say that there's nothing on that list. The future isn't granted, because it hasn't arrived yet, and the past has left the station. It's tempting to feel like you've been granted a past, but all that remains are the echoes of what once was.
That leaves now. Or, as Eckhart Tolle likes to put it, "the Now." When we fail to notice and deeply appreciate the Now, we're taking it for granted. This is what's known in Buddhism as delusion. When we recognize and honour the Now, we're on a road whose endpoint is Awakening or Love.
Do dishwashers reside in the Now? Hmmm. 🤯
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by RDNE Stock project.
We started this meditation network to help you bring more clarity, balance, caring and joy to your life and your community.
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer.
― Thomas Merton
