Welcome to Community Meditation

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.


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Neurodiversity and Meditation

Sunday November 3rd, 7–8:30 PM

We're excited to host a conversation and meditation experience with Craig Mollins, a seasoned mindfulness teacher of over 25 years who lives with Tourette syndrome. Join us on a journey to celebrate the incredible diversity of the human brain! Neurodiversity is all about recognizing and valuing the unique perspectives and experiences that make each of us who we are. 

Register

What We're Up To

All online sessions, except our short morning sessions, include a 20-minute silent meditation. New to meditation? Instruction is available.
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Daily Morning Meditation Mon-Fri (NEW TIME)

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

Mon, Oct 28 – The Activities of Mindfulness

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 reading of Bhante Gunaratana's book Mindfulness in Plain English. This week, we'll discuss the activities of mindfulness as a reminder of what we're supposed to be doing, and as a way of seeing the true nature of phenomena. No need to be familiar with the book and everyone is welcome!

Mindfulness creates its own distinct feeling in consciousness. It has a flavor–a light, clear, energetic flavor.
– Bhante Gunaratana

Tue, Oct 29 – Storehouse Consciousness

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET

Kaye-Lee and Marian will be hosting this Tuesday. We'll draw on Jack Kornfield's book The Wise Heart to explore the Buddhist concept of storehouse consciousness. You do not have to be familiar with the book.  

To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them, and from this deep gesture, we discover that all life is workable. 
– Jack Kornfield

Wed, Oct 30 – The Endless Search

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET

Our yearning to belong is constant and often bewildering. Join Adam, Lauren, and Sandi to read and discuss "Three Ways to Search" from 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.

The search for belonging–in our own skin, with each other in the world, and even in the history of life–is probably our most persistent and confusing urge, because belonging is a tangled gift.
― Mark Nepo

Thu, Oct 31 – Navigating Difficult Emotions

Click here to visit our Meetup
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Ken this week to explore how we experience, interpret, and work with strong emotions. Our session will start with 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.

Is this anxious story I’m telling myself accurate and helpful right now, or just overwhelming? Once we name it, we can work with it.
― Dr. Chris Willard

Thu, Oct 31 – Unbelievable Happiness

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
NEW! ONLINE
Join Debbie for a dive into the wisdom of Jon Bernie's book, The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is. We'll start with 20 minutes of silent meditation and everyone is welcome. 

When the veil of the knower falls away the creative force of discovery guides your way–each moment is revealed as new.
― Jon Bernie

Fri, Nov 1 – Love and Compassion

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET

Join Debbie (who was away last week due to illness) to consider how can we cultivate compassion and love for ourselves and others, drawing on Tara Brach's teachings. The session will start with 20 minutes of silent meditation.

Whether we call it compassion, kindness or just love, it is an essential part of the path to a happy, fulfilling life and a better world.
― Tara Brach

Sun, Nov 3 – Vulnerability and the Present Moment

Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET

In The Road Home, author Ethan Nichtern examines the relationship between vulnerability and this moment. After 20 minutes of silent meditation to start the session, join Debbie to read and discuss this through Nichtern's writings.

Meditation is not a means of making your mind quiet, it's a means of entering into the quiet that's already there.
― Ethan Nichtern

News You Can Choose

If you search Google Trends for the phrase "breaking news", you'll find it's been growing in popularity since 2004. It peaked in March 2020–surprising exactly no one–but as of today, it's still more than twice as common as it was in 2012.

A little unpleasantness in the moment, perhaps, is the price we pay to be informed citizens. But over time, little burdens can accumulate, particularly with news outlets reporting more negative stories and using more negative words.
– Lisa Feldman-Barrett

Breaking news is intended to mean "urgent and incomplete", but this morning I saw it in a new light: The news is breaking my peace of mind. Sometimes that's worth it; if there's a tiger loose in downtown Des Moines, where I live, I want that breaking news right now! Thanks to our phones, however, we can quickly be overwhelmed with negative and distressing news from around the planet, leaving us feeling fragile and often powerless.

Things come and go in the news cycle like waves of fever.
– Adam Curtis

What to do? A recent study shows that mindfulness can help, concluding that just two weeks of MBSR reduced the participants' stress and negative emotions when reading about global climate change.

Here are a few other ways to improve your digital life, courtesy of the Center for Humane Technology:

  • Turn off unnecessary notifications on your phone
  • Learn how to use focus mode on your phone
  • Remove addictive, distracting apps from your phone and limit them to your computer; not having these in your pocket or purse is revolutionary
  • Unfollow intentionally provoking social media accounts and groups
  • Create tech-free blocks of time; first thing in the morning and again before bedtime are prime opportunities
  • When choosing to seek out news, consider resources like AllSides and Ground News to get opinions from across the spectrum and avoid the echo chamber problem

PS. Want to meditate regularly but haven't quite made it happen? Try this: commit to meditating for just two minutes every morning for the next two weeks. If that works, make it three minutes for the next couple weeks. Still good? Keep adding a minute every two weeks until your heart and mind have found their sweet spot 🧘‍♀️

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Ken & the Community Meditation Team

Image by Sewupari Studio from Pixabay

Our Aspiration

We started this meditation network to help you bring more clarity, balance, caring and joy to your life and your community.

What We Offer

  • Free meditation instruction and one-on-one follow-up sessions
  • Regular online sittings
  • Online wellness courses on Joyfulness, Mindful Leadership, Buddhism, Mindfuless & Anxiety, Compassion, and more

Quotable

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