For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, all groups are meeting online using Zoom (details below).
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 we have groups in several cities including Mississauga, Oshawa, and Owen Sound.
Our roots are Buddhist, but 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.
Zoom session begins at 7:00 PM EST. Meditation starts at 7:15, with informal talk and discussion from 7:35 to 8:30.
The gradual loss of author and philosopher Mark Nepo's hearing inspired him to explore what it means to truly listen, and to allow our awareness to open. On Tuesday, after meditation, Bob Hollett and Tammy Russell explore Nepo's insights and their connection to meditation and awareness practice.
Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.
- Mark Nepo
Zoom session begins at 7:00 PM EST. Meditation starts at 7:15 PM, with informal talk and discussion from 7:35 to 8:30.
After meditation this Wednesday, Adam Wilkinson wraps up the deep dive into Pema Chodron's advice on compassionate living with a double-feature: "Meditation", and "Letting the World Speak for Itself".
When we sit down to meditate we leave behind the idea of the perfect meditator, the ideal meditation, and preconceived results. We train in simply being present.
- Pema Chodron
Zoom session begins at 7:00 PM EST. Meditation starts at 7:15 PM, with informal talk and discussion from 7:35 to 8:30.
You know a practice has become mainstream when the top search hit for it comes from Harvard University. When I searched for "mindful eating" this morning, that's exactly what happened. But what is it exactly? Join Sawyer Arnold this Friday, after meditation, to look into this powerful practice.
Your body is not just yours. It is a gift and a responsibility. To keep healthy, we need to know how to eat.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Zoom session begins at 10:15 AM EST. Meditation starts at 10:30, with informal talk and discussion from 10:50 to 11:45.
Join Debbie McCubbin after meditation this Sunday to resolve the mystery of what the topic will be 😉
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
- Agatha Christie
Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash
In response to last week's email about the challenges we face in maintaining any kind of regular meditation practice, C. replied and shared this:
I know what it is! It makes me vulnerable. I am uncomfortable with that. By not meditating, it has distanced me from fear, disappointment of feeling not good enough.
This is such a fruitful insight. No matter how we come to meditation, we bring our ideas about meditation along for the ride. Maybe we imagine how serene it will be, or how clear, or compassionate. What we typically don't anticipate is that meditation will, sooner or later, illuminate the welcome and not so welcome facets of who are. We'll begin to see ourselves in action, in all our tangled, edgy, and scattered glory.
It's one thing to wax eloquent about our true nature and how awesome it's going to be, but something else again to discover the trip will traverse two hundred miles of boreal forest, swamp, and black flies 😉 Seriously, though, as Tara Brach puts it in her talk, The Joy of Getting Real:
There's always this undercurrent of fear and deficiency...The path to getting real is really the practices we're doing [meditation], which are learning to see and name and really contact the life that's here, moment to moment.
The good news is you're not alone. All of this is part and parcel of the human condition. As we begin to notice and accept that, we become kinder to ourselves and to others, each of whom has their own house blend of wackiness and splendour.
So it takes practice to discover our mysterious fullness, and that same practice will reveal things we don't really want to know or engage. That's OK. We can commit to practicing and to being gentle with ourselves, to engaging and to taking a break, to touching what's uncomfortable and (h/t to Debbie) to retreating into that mystery novel!
🙏
Ken & the Community Meditation Team
Our hearts go out to everyone — all of us are experiencing disruption of our normal lives and various levels of increased anxiety and sadness. It is an important time to pause, be present, and open our hearts.
We at Community Meditation will have completely transitioned to online sitting, discussion, and programs. These new online sessions are available to everyone, not just the local group, creating more opportunities for you to participate. Discussions are led by local teachers, including Debbie McCubbin, Ken Dow, Bob Hollett, Tammy Russell, Stephanie Stewart, Erin Vanderstelt and Adam Wilkinson.
For those of us working from home or self-isolating, these sessions provide a much-needed chance to connect with others in a heartfelt way. We have four sittings a week at this point and will keep you informed as new sessions and programs are launched. All are welcome!
Our future discussion topics will include ways to work with with anxiety and the current situation, along with our usual offerings about meditation, Buddhism, awareness and emotions.
We invite everyone to come together as a community to support each other in working towards a wise, caring, and healthy world.
Sincerely,
The leaders and teachers of Community Meditation Buffalo, Mississauga, Oshawa, and Owen Sound
if you’re new to Zoom, check out The Art of Zoom page we put together.
Good to go with Zoom already? You can join a Community Meditation session using the button below.
We started this meditation network to help you bring more clarity, balance, caring and joy to your life and your community.
Time is a game played beautifully by children.
- Heraclitus
