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 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee to explore our innate creative awareness through discussion, readings, and shares. We'll be reading and exploring Chogyam Trungpa's book True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art, which considers dharma art as a way of approaching creativity from a place of deeper awareness. Everyone is welcome!
Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
― Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
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 from Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach. This week, we'll be reading the section "Inviting Mara to Tea: The Practice of Saying Yes." Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book.
We bring alive the spirit of Radical Acceptance when, instead of resisting emotional pain, we are able to say yes to our experience.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Gloria, Kaye-Lee, and Marian as we continue to read from Tracy Chapman's book Presence: The Art ofBeing at Home in Yourself. We'll begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation, followed by a reading and discussion related to the "The Burning World" chapter. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
Unclenching the fist of desire begins to open us to the ground of our being.
– Tracy Cochran
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM E T
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to read and discuss Pema Chödrön's "Welcoming the Unwelcome." Compassion is naturally within us, and so our path is a process of removing whatever blocks our expression of it. Our actions can reinforce confusion or support awakening. Even tiny shifts—pausing before reacting, softening instead of shutting down—gradually transform us and our environment. Let's explore together with curiosity. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Every time we catch ourselves going down the rut of a habitual reaction, we have a chance to interrupt the moment and discover a whole new direction and depth to our life.
– Pema Chodron
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
Join Ken this Thursday to explore a breath/awareness practice by Philip Shepherd that helps us experience the world beyond the thinking mind. Our session will begin with sitting and walking meditation. Everyone is welcome.
When the centre of your conscious awareness comes to rest there [the core], simply pay attention to how different the world feels, to your sense of wholeness, and to any emotions that might stir to the surface.
– Philip Shepherd
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie to read and discuss a Josh Misner article titled "A Surefire Way to Improve Your Life." In it, he looks at several reasons for cultivating mindfulness and specific practices to develop it. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
I desired to be a better husband, father, and friend, so I began studying mindfulness, which led me to conduct doctoral research on how mindful presence affects our everyday interactions.
– Josh Misner
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie as we read Carol Cano's article "Samsara Above Our Beloved Earth." In winter, things appear to be gone, but life is gathering strength for growth. What can we learn from that? 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.
Indigenous traditions hold winter as a time for the old stories, crackling of fire, and the remembrance of our ancestors. A season lies beneath the Earth and the invitation of stillness touches and purifies our boundless heart.
– Carol Cano
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
In Pema Chodron's book Living Beautifully, we're invited to explore this question: What happens if we commit to not harming? Join Debbie to discuss this intriguing and crucial question. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation, and there's no need to be familiar with the book.
When you come from a view that you're fundamentally good rather than fundamentally flawed, as you see yourself speak out or act out, as you see yourself repress, you will have a growing understanding that you're not a bad person who needs to shape up, but a good person with temporary malleable habits that are causing you a lot of suffering.
– Pema Chodron
One of the amazing things about travelling to Mexico City is the sheer amount of activity that takes place on the sidewalks. From mariachi bands to shoe shiners, and bonsai plant salesmen to hip hop artists, the level of activity can be jarring. Believe it or not, what I just listed–plus an exuberant, if slightly tipsy, guest inviting my wife to dance–all happened on our sidewalk dinner last night. Not everyone wants quite that much action!
This brings me to the topic of equanimity. In Buddhist terms, equanimity includes taking in what is with patience (sometimes called "grandmotherly love") and standing balanced in the middle of everything that's going on.
Equanimity is...the ground for wisdom and freedom and the protector of compassion and love. While some may think of equanimity as dry neutrality or cool aloofness, mature equanimity produces a radiance and warmth of being.
– Gil Fronsdal
There are several aspects to equanimity, such as acting with integrity and developing mindfulness, but the one that speaks to my sidewalk story is understanding or wisdom. Wisdom helps us develop an acceptance, which Gil Fronsdal describes as "accepting awareness, to be present for whatever is happening without the mind or heart contracting or resisting."
So if you're enjoying dinner and the mariachi band, but the hip hop has you cranky, that's a form of resistance. You're aware but not accepting. Our practice is to relax into all of it, like a clenched fist releasing into an open hand. This doesn't mean striving to love sidewalk rapping. Instead, you might try being curious–about the performer or what's happening in your body. You could contemplate how fleeting this situation is; how quickly it will be gone forever. There's also Byron Katie's wry comment: "When you argue with reality, you lose–but only 100% of the time." 😊
Image by Pixabay
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
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
