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.
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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, Jim, and Sharon for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by our ongoing discussion of Pema Chödrön's Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World. Tonight we'll read Chapter 15, "Birth and Death in Every Moment," and we'll discuss how contemplating impermanence, and the cycles of birth and death, offer opportunities to experience life with a sense of newness and potential. There's no need to have or be familiar with the book and everyone is welcome. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
In each new moment, one lifetime ends, and another begins. This means you always have another chance. You can never be stuck.
– Pema Chödrön
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Gloria, Kaye Lee, Marian, and Caitlin as we continue exploring We Were Made for These Times, a book by Kaira Jewel Lingo. We'll carry on with Chapter 7, "Calmly Facing the Eight Worldly Winds". Our focus will be on the four pairs of opposites, those things we both hope for and fear. There's no need to have read the book and everyone is welcome. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
I cannot add more days to my life, but only more life to each day.
– Plum Village song
Click here for directions
IN-PERSON – MISSISSAUGA
What would it mean to be fully present, feel your heart, and greet the next moment? Join Tammy for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by a look at making peace with the inevitable uncertainty and change that arises in life. We'll be drawing on Pema Chodron's book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. We'll begin with 20 minutes of meditation and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
Having connected with what is, with love and acceptance, you can go forward with curiosity and courage.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Sandi, Lauren, Adam, and Stephanie to read and discuss Mark Nepo's book You Don't Have To Do It Alone. When we realize how fragile life truly is, we may fear losing this precious gift. Avoiding intimacy will not protect us; we need each other to court wisdom and face fear. We'll begin with 20 minutes of meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
No one person can experience or understand everything, which is why we have stories and need to listen to each other, in order to piece together the Whole of Life.
– Mark Nepo
Click here to visit our Meetup
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Is it possible we're motivated by fear without even realizing it? Join Ken to read and discuss a Tiny Buddha article that explores this question and its implications. Our session will include 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.
Fear is the opposite of love. Love is the absence of fear. Whatever you do out of fear will create more fear. Whatever you do out of love will create more love.
— Osho
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
How can we be immersed in the life we have, rather than always thinking about and preparing for a future life? Please join Debbie and Darina to read and discuss the chapter titled "Stop Being So Kind to Future You" in Oliver Burkeman's book, Meditations for Mortals. 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.
...if you see [everything] as leading up to some future point when real life will begin, or when you can finally start enjoying yourself, or feeling good about yourself -- then you'll end up treating your actual life as something to 'get through' until one day it will be over, without the meaningful part ever having arrived.
– Oliver Burkeman
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
This week, after 20 minutes of silent meditation, join Debbie to read and discuss the Earth Day newsletter from One Earth Sangha. We can reflect on where we are, and what questions we could ask ourselves.
Friday EcoDharma sessions are for those experiencing anxiety or grief about environmental issues. The aim is to bring mindfulness and Buddhist practices to our distress, and to build community.
On our long list of priorities, the Earth is often last. The urgencies are real, and they are neither separate from one another nor separate from Earth.
– Earth Day newsletter
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
When we perceive something, who is doing the perceiving? Join Debbie this Sunday to dive into "The Conscious Receiver" a chapter in Michael Singer's book Living Untethered Together. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
We are slowly peeling back the onion to see what it's like to be you.
– Michael Singer
I appreciated this line from Sharon Salzberg's Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions article on Tricycle (subscription required):
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.
At Community Meditation, we like to point out that our basic meditation practice is not about getting rid of thoughts. Yes, thinking will typically lessen over time, but the practice is more concerned with cultivating an awareness of thoughts. It's said that awareness itself is curative and in my experience that's true. As we begin to see our thinking, its solid, monolithic quality starts to dissipate.
Working with emotions is similar. With practice, we become aware of their ever-shifting nature. We discover that, while emotions are visceral, powerful, and even a form of intelligence, they're only one aspect of our experience. They do not define us.
We don’t have to attach so much meaning to what arises, and we also don’t have to identify with our emotions so strongly. All we need to do is allow ourselves to experience the energy—and in time it will move through you.
– Pema Chodron
Thought and emotion are usually entangled. A single thought can kick off an emotional rollercoaster, and an emotion can trigger a cascade of thoughts. One way to work with a strong emotion is to "drop the story and find the feeling", as Pema Chodron puts it. Using the awareness we've been developing, we begin to recognize the looping stories we tell ourselves as bundles of thought and emotion. Instead of being enthralled by a story, we notice it, shift our attention to the body, and scan for a felt sense, or energy, of the emotion. To the extent we can stay present with the bare energy of an emotion, we can ride its wave instead of being knocked off our surfboard.
Know what you're thinking when you're thinking it. Know what you're feeling when you're feeling it. Thank you, Ms. Salzberg–great advice!
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Image by Alexandra Haynak from Pixabay
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
