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.
Live sessions are happening in Owen Sound again! Visit the Owen Sound page or our Meetup to learn more and RSVP (sessions limited to 12 people).
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Thich Nhat Hanh asks, "Why do we open our windows to bad TV?" Join Jim, Sharon, Brenda, and Gordon this week as we continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life. In Monday's reading, we'll receive Thich Nhat Hahn's instruction for closing some of our windows of perception and nourishing our awareness in each moment. No need to have the book, or have read it.
Whether we are in the city, the countryside, or the wilderness, we need to sustain ourselves by choosing our surroundings carefully and nourishing our awareness in each moment.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
In this week's session, after silent meditation, Bob Hollett leads a discussion based on "Getting in Touch with and Speaking the Truth", the tenth chapter of Koshin Paley Ellison's book, Wholehearted.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.
- Richard Feynman
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Adam Wilkinson this week, after meditation, to continue with Willa Blythe Baker's book The Wakeful Body. There's no need to have a copy or be familiar with it; through reading (on-screen) and discussion, we'll dive into the chapter titled "Gravity".
The groundedness of this body is something unchanging and stable in a world of constant change. This grounded body has the power to stabilize this flighty mind.
- Willa Blythe Baker
IN-PERSON, OWEN SOUND
Click here to view the Owen Sound Meetup Events page
Join Ken Dow for sitting and walking meditation, followed by a look at some specific techniques to refresh and improve our meditation practice.
The more technique you have, the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is.
- Pablo Picasso
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
This week, following sitting meditation, Debbie McCubbin looks at a key link between psychology and Buddhism: our psychological defences. Tune in on Friday to be part of the conversation.
If a person were to become aware of their defenses and recognize why they were altering reality, they would no longer believe the altered reality
- Tom Bunn L.C.S.W
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
Join Debbie McCubbin for sitting meditation, followed by a reading and discussion from Sylvia Boorstein's book, Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake. No need to have or be familiar with the book.
I would not ask you to do this practice, to undertake this path of liberation from the habits of suffering mind, unless it were a feasible path.
- The Buddha
I intend to confuse things,
to unite them, make them new-born,
intermingle them, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the unity of the ocean,
a generous wholeness,
a fragrance alive and crackling.
– Pablo Naruda
Cuong Lu is a Buddhist teacher, scholar, and writer who was ordained as the 18th monastic disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh. In his wonderful book, The Buddha in Jail, Lu writes:
Happiness is available when you know who you are and you no longer have the illusion of a separate self, when you recognize the penetrating interconnection between yourself and all of life.
Can you recall a time when you felt "the penetrating interconnection" Lu describes? Perhaps it was moonlight in an old-growth forest. A wailing newborn learning to breathe. That sidestep to a minor key in your favourite piece of music. An eruption of laughter from strangers in a coffee shop.
The gap between the reality and the basic human approach to life is dukkha [suffering], an experience of basic anxiety or frustration.
– Norman Fischer
Whatever evokes an intense sense of wholeness, what follows is a drop of reality. A drop of what is. The gap Fischer mentions has been closed. The buzz and wobble of routine has fallen away.
That this happens–spontaneously, instantly–is vital. It means we already have that capacity, or put another way, we are that capacity. With practice, little by little (and occasionally in great leaps), we nurture it from a rare, fleeting experience to the way-things-are. We discover there was no gap. We find that the penetrating interconnection was always there.
🙏
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
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.
When we understand why we suffer we can be compassionate to ourselves. When we understand how others suffer then we can be compassionate to them.
— Thich Nhat Hanh
