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. Online Canadian 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 a reading of Tara Brach's book Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. In Chapter 2, we'll begin to explore how to awaken from the cages of unworthiness that seek to confine us. Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy in our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns. Entangled in the trance of unworthiness, we grow accustomed to caging ourselves in with self-judgement and anxiety, with restlessness and dissatisfaction
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Gloria, Marian, and Debbie for a period of silent meditation, followed by reading from Tracy Cochran's Presence: the Art of Being at Home in Yourself. As we continue the chapter, "Hessian Soldier," we'll pause periodically to allow time to share our thoughts about the reading. There's no need to be familiar with the book. Please join us.
Being in a human body offers us the chance to take a very special kind of journey from self-enclosed separation from others and the whole of life to a sense of belonging.
– Tracy Cochran
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi for an evening of contemplation and connection. We'll be reading an article by Murray Hidary titled "The Eight Pillars of Joy — A Mindful Foundation for a Joyful Life." His subject is The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with which Hidary outlines the Eight Pillars of Joy. With an awareness that feeling joy isn't always easy or accessible, we'll discuss these pillars and reflect on ways to engage joy in difficult times. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
These eight pillars are not rigid steps; they are interwoven qualities of being.
– Murray Hidary
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Ken to explore Terry Patten's book, A New Republic of the Heart, and to consider what "uncaused, unreasonable happiness" might be. Our session starts with a bit of hanging out, followed by 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.
Can I find in myself a no-matter-what commitment? Under the worst-case scenario, can I still tap into the well of uncaused, unreasonable happiness?
– Terry Patten
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Daniel to explore a Marc Lesser's article titled "How to Deal with Difficult People." When encountering interpersonal difficulties, can we "be curious, not furious"? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
A strange and rather pervasive human behavior pattern is that we tend to judge others by the impact their actions have on us. We judge ourselves by our intentions.
– Marc Lesser
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to explore a work by several authors titled, "Three Practices to Combat Climate Grief." Many of us feel despair at the climate situation. What are some ways to meet our grief mindfully? 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.
Palliative care offers a middle path towards healing between living and dying, where we can be with uncertainty, with each other, and with who and what matters most. We hold this space for others by being present, whether they agree with us or not.
– Three Practices to Combat Climate Grief
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Join Debbie as we read and discuss Pema Chodron's book, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. Can we see how we try to bring a fixed identity to a world in flux? We'll begin by sitting for 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
Life is like stepping into a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.
– Suzuki Roshi
At the end of the HBO series "Station Eleven", Jeevan and Kirsten reconnect after nearly twenty years. She is no longer the young girl Jeevan stumbled into saving, but a brave and capable woman. They have the following exchange as they approach a fork in the road:
Kirsten: I was never scared with you.
Jeevan: I was always scared. Then I met this girl. Said I’d walk her home. It was cold. She forgot her key.
Kirsten: You walked her home.
That last line, simple and poignant, speaks volumes about what they mean to each other. It echoes Ram Dass:
We’re all just walking each other home.
At home, we drop our future fears and fantasies, and our regrets and nostalgia of the past. At home, we dwell in this moment with clarity and love. At home, we are not separate, alone, unloved, or unknown.
Look around. We are all Jeevan or Kirsten at times. Let’s walk each other home.
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Image by Gerd Altmann 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
