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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At Community Meditation, one of our favourite books to read together and learn from is The Road Home, by Ethan Nichtern. We've also been dipping into his new book, Confidence, which is equally filled with wisdom and insight.
Ethan will join Community Meditation Dec 13th at 7pm for an online gathering. The topic will be "Confidence in Dark Times". From personal experience, we know he is a great teacher, so please join in! Pay what you can (including zero :-)
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 an ongoing exploration of Bhante Gunaratana's book Mindfulness in Plain English. You don't have to be familiar with the book and everyone is welcome!
The practice of mindfulness is not about achieving a specific state of mind, but rather about cultivating a way of being that allows us to be present and aware in all situations.
– Bhante Gunaratana
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Gloria and Ryan to continue reading and discussing Jack Kornfield's book, The Wise Heart. After 20 minutes of silent meditation, we'll explore the section titled "The Unconscious Roots of Suffering".
The purpose of spiritual life is not to create some special state of mind but to reveal the true nature of the mind.
– Jack Kornfield
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Both kindness and pain can open us if we don't run. Join Sandi, Lauren, and Adam to read and discuss the "The Stilling of Our Pain" chapter of Mark Nepo's book, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen. Everyone is welcome, and you don't have to be familiar with the book. We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
When we can still our pain enough to experience our feelings, in their connectedness, their depth and oneness ground us and make us resilient.
― Mark Nepo
Click here to visit our Meetup
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
After 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation, join Ken to consider two important and intertwined slogans from the Tibetan Lojong teachings. First, how incredibly rare it is to be alive as a human being, and second, that a human life cannot go on forever. The more deeply we grasp these truths, the more we can appreciate what it means to be alive and how we might choose to live each day.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
― Annie Dillard
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
All of us feel shame and vulnerability, and realizing that helps us to connect nonetheless. Join Debbie to watch and discuss Brené Brown's humorous and insightful TEDx talk, "The Power of Vulnerability". This session is open to all and will start with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Vulnerability is not weakness, it's our most accurate measure of courage.
― Brené Brown
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
How can our mindfulness practice connect us to the environmental crisis? This week, Debbie explores Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Bells of Mindfulness" chapter from the book Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. The session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
We must learn to live in a way that is sustainable and harmonious with the Earth, and to cultivate a sense of wonder, awe, and reverence for the natural world.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
As we become more present, we will inevitably encounter our dark sides. How can we relate to that skillfully? This Sunday, Debbie draws on Jon Bernie's book The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is to explore this question. We'll begin the session with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
When you begin to open spiritually, the light of awakening is very bright, but that shadow is also enormous and powerful, and can become much more visible in ways you don't expect.
― Jon Bernie
Note: This article was originally published on April 11th, 2022:
Ramana Maharshi was an Indian sage born in 1895. He is best known for his teachings on self-inquiry ("atma-vichara" in Sanskrit) to clear away delusion and rest in awareness. The excellent Your Skillful Means website has a page on this practice, the core of which can be distilled into two steps:
To start practicing self-inquiry, begin as you would for mindfulness meditation, e.g., settle into a comfortable seated position, notice your body and mind, welcome them as they are, and bring your awareness to the body breathing. Next, move on to the two steps above...which, on closer inspection, raise some questions 🧐
First, what do we mean by the inner feeling of "I"? Consider how it's expressed in our language: I am sitting on a cushion, I need a vacation, I want an apple. Maharshi suggests we pay careful and sustained attention to that subject, to the I, that feels separate from the cushion, the vacation, and the apple.
Second, how do we respond to "Who am I"? Who is thinking this thought? Just pop the question without trying to analyze it or generate an answer. Instead, let the act of asking nudge your attention away from the thought and toward to the sense of "I".
With practice, self-inquiry builds our capacity to hold our awareness of "I" for longer durations. At a certain point, a kind of figure-ground switch takes place, and the "I" that has always felt itself to be the centre turns out to be just another object in an awareness. Maharshi refers to the latter as the "I-I".
It's worth noting that Maharshi recommended this not only as a sitting practice but as an ongoing, everyday activity.
Self-enquiry should not be regarded as a meditation practice that takes place at certain hours and in certain positions; it should continue throughout one's waking hours, irrespective of what one is doing.
I like to think of self-inquiry as a kind existential aikido 🥋 that uses the energy of the ego to reveal its emptiness 😊 Let the questions begin!
Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.
― Ramana Maharshi
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Ken & the Community Meditation Team
Image by Lars Nissen 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
