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 @ 5:00 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee for our new Mondays @ 5 PM exploration of Dharma Art, which is a way of approaching creativity from a place of deeper awareness or mindfulness. Together, we'll learn what Dharma Art is. and through discussion, readings, and creative shares, how to move our creativity through that place of awareness.
We will begin by reading True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art, by Chogyam Trungpa. Our reading list will expand with other viewpoints as we explore this path. Our art shares will be voluntary and can be whatever we feel we want to contribute, visual, written, performed, you name it. Our aspiration is that, as creatives, we inspire each other to explore this deeper awareness or knowing from many different angles. Everyone is welcome.
The whole philosophy of art is that you don’t try to be artistic but you just approach the objects as they are, and then the message comes automatically.
– Chogyam Trungpa
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. This week, we'll read and discuss a section from Chapter 2, "Discovering the Freedom of Radical Acceptance." Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book.
There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee, Gloria, and Marian for 20 minutes of silent meditation. We'll follow that by continuing to read and discuss the "A Shared World" chapter in Tracy Cochran's Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself. There's no need to be familiar with the book, and all are welcome.
Tell them we are meant to live in a shared world, he said.
– Tracy Cochran
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to continue reading Murray Hidary's beautiful 5-part exploration called "The Nature of Joy." In Part 4, he dives into wonder and how we might experience its simplicity. Is it as simple as remembering how to "see?" Bring your curiosity, and we'll explore together. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Joy is not hidden in faraway places. It lives in plain sight — in the curve of a leaf, the rhythm of footsteps on sand, the warmth of light on the skin. The challenge is not to find joy, but to notice it.
– Murray Hidary
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
Join Wayne this week for sitting and walking meditation, followed by a shared reading and discussion.1
Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie, Stephanie, and Daniel as we read an Aura Glaser article in Tricycle magazine. We'll look at our tendency to avoid facing our difficult emotions, and how turning towards them can be transformative. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
One of the essential elements of such a life is the understanding that everything we encounter–fear, resentment, jealousy, embarrassment—is actually an invitation to see clearly where we are shutting down and holding back.
– Aura Glaser
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie as we explore "Awakening from Climate Slumber" by Linda Heuman. Can we take a deeper look at why we don't respond appropriately to the climate crisis? 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.
Humanity faces an environmental crisis so critical that our survival on Earth is in peril. Yet we have another even more urgent problem: most of us go on living as though nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
– Linda Heuman
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Join Debbie to read the "Pleasure and Pain" chapter in Ethan Nichtern's book Confidence. As we often say, everything begins with noticing. So...how do we relate to pain? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
In terms of the winds blowing [us] around, pleasure and pain are the most visceral forces of our lives, because they're experiences we all have many times a day.
– Ethan Nichtern
The actor Matthew Perry passed away recently. Perry achieved tremendous fame thanks to his role on the show Friends but battled alcohol addiction for much of his life. He eventually converted his former mansion into a sober living facility for men and wrote a play titled The End of Longing, a fictionalized portrayal of his struggles.
...as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people.
– Matthew Perry
The phrase "the end of longing" echoes the craving we discuss and work with in meditation practice. It also resonates with *Scarcity Brain*, a book I just finished reading. In it, author Michael Easter dives into our evolutionary wiring, specifically our seeking to survive and what happens when that drive collides with a world of relative abundance (for a large majority of humans).
Easter, himself a recovered alcoholic, lays out the "scarcity loop" and it works like this:
Opportunity -> Unpredictable Outcome -> Rapid Repetition
Slot machine gambling illustrates the loop perfectly. There is a chance you might win (opportunity) but you can’t know how it will turn out (unpredictable outcome) and you can try again relatively quickly. It turns out this aligns with our distant ancestors who covered miles daily in search of food (opportunity) without knowing if they would find any (unpredictable outcome) and tried again at least daily.
Not a gambler? How about watching sports? Social media scrolling? Googling for the best restaurant/diet/yoga studio? All of these and many more can activate scarcity brain, triggering the excitement of the hunt (especially the near-miss, but that’s another story).
Can you identify a scarcity loop in your life? If so, does it serve a meaningful purpose or is it simply a habitual cycle of reward seeking?
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Tine Ivanič on Unsplash
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
