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.
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, Jim, and Sharon for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by our conclusion of Pema Chödrön's Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World. Tonight, we'll wrap up Pema's book with "Practices for Welcoming the Unwelcome." There's no need to have or be familiar with the book, and everyone is welcome.
As you do this practice, gradually at your own pace, you will be surprised to find yourself more and more able to be there for others even in what used to seem like impossible situations.
– Pema Chödrön
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Kaye Lee, Gloria, Marian, and Caitlin to read and discuss Linda Ernst's article "What does it mean to be enlightened?" in Lion's Roar magazine. There's no need to have read the article as we'll explore it together. The session begins with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Contrary to popular thought, awakening isn't a distant goal. In fact, awakening is always available.
– Linda Ernst
Click here for directions
IN-PERSON – MISSISSAUGA
Join us on Wednesday to gather in person and continue studying Pema Chodron's Living Beautifully. We're in the chapter titled "Second Commitment–Take Care of One Another." Our session will begin with 20 minutes of meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
If you acknowledge what’s happening and refrain from acting, that opens up some space in your mind.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
You're invited to join Adam, Lauren, and Sandi, to read and discuss Mark Nepo's book, You Don't Have To Do It Alone. We'll be considering a section titled "Regardless of What Happens", in which Nepo offers an example of how we might stay connected and even strengthen our friendship when we're far apart. We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
Our faithfulness in being a friend depends on staying in relationship to the deeper nature of our friend that doesn't change.
– Mark Nepo
Click here to visit our Meetup
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Ken to kick off a reading and discussion of "Have Your Feelings (Or They Will Have You)" from the book Difficult Conversations. We'll explore the role of emotion in our interactions and relationships, and how we can become more skillful at recognizing and incorporating emotions. Our session will include 35 minutes of sitting meditation and walking meditation.
In many difficult conversations, it is only at the level of feelings that the problem can be addressed.
— Stone, Patton, and Heen
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
How can we tell the difference between healthy embarrassment, which helps us to grow, and shame? Join Debbie to read and discuss "Cultivating Healthy Embarrassment", an article from the Tricycle website. There's no need to be familiar with the book, and the session is open to all. We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
There's a huge difference between shame and embarrassment. Shame...almost ensures that our conditioning will continue in the same way.
– Koshin Paley Ellison
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to read and discuss an article by Nikayla in the One Earth Sangha newsletter. We might ask the question: how can we make peace within ourselves when the world is at war?
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.
If I wait for a wave of peace to miraculously wash over the world, I’ll die waiting, and then wait a lifetime again. An empowering question arises: How can I be the wave of peace myself? Right now?
– Nikayla
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
Join Debbie this Sunday as we read the chapter "Birth of the Personal Mind" from Michael Singer's book Living Untethered. How do we experience reality in the mind? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
...you've held on to images that are no longer being generated by the outside world. They got stuck in your mind as mental patterns, and as a result, you're out of harmony with reality.
– Michael Singer
Unless you're new around here, you'll be familiar with the phrase "being present". We often use it in the context of noticing that our mind has wandered, and then gently coming back to the here and now. In Owen Sound last week, we explored an exercise by Joel and Michelle Levey called "The Wheel of Mindfulness" as a more specific way to become present.
The first step is noticing that we're not in the wheel 🤓 Being judgey isn't helpful, so they suggest a light-hearted "whoa!" before we enter the wheel at "I Notice". What we're noticing in this first step is sensations. What am I sensing right now in terms of touch, taste, texture, and so on? Next, we shift to noticing our emotional tone in the "I Feel" step: am I glad, cranky, relieved?
In the "I Think" step, we notice my thoughts, any stories I'm spinning, and memories I'm recalling, among other things. Once that's done, it's time to consider our desires, intentions, and motivations in the "I Want" step. What are we pushing away or being pulled toward?
It's the last step, "I Will", that jumped out at me because it's deliberately active–moving skillfully into the world, as it is and as we are. What's being called for? What are we willing to do, or not do? Having brought our entire being into this moment, we can act with clarity, echoing the final phase of the Ten Oxherding Pictures by "entering the marketplace with helping hands.
Barefooted and naked of breast.
I mingle with the people
of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees
become alive.
Until the mind wanders again 😁
.
--
🙏
Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya 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
