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.
NOTE
For all the sessions listed below:
Click here to join on Zoom @ 5 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Kaye-Lee in a contemplative journey into the elements of mindful creativity, in the many forms it might take. Everyone is welcome.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.
― Steven Pressfield
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Brenda, Jim, and Gordon for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by a reading and discussion of Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. This week, we continue Chapter 10, "Widening The Circles of Compassion: The Bodhisattva's Path."
All the enormous suffering of violence and war comes from our basic failure to see that others are real.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Gloria, Kaye-Lee, and Marian as we continue reading and discussing 'Verses on the Perfection of Generosity' in Norman Fischer's The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path.
Sit down and pay attention to your body. Now pay attention to your breath as it goes in and out as your stomach rises and falls. Rest in each exhale.
– Norman Fischer
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:45 AM ET
NEW DAYTIME SESSION! ONLINE
Please join Sandi and Darina's daytime session, in which we're currently exploring Pema Chodron's book, Another Kind of Freedom. We might explore anger as a form of aggression, seeing how, if not noticed and worked with, it grows until there is no space.
You cannot really eliminate pain through aggression. The more you kill, the more you strengthen the killer.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Lauren, Sandi, and Adam to meditate and discuss together. We will sit for 20 minutes of silent meditation and then explore a Lion's Roar article that examines the idea of transforming criticism into compassion.
We’re not born feeling unworthy. Infants arrive with an inherent aliveness—qualities of joy, curiosity, strength, fragility, and love that need no justification.
– Alisa Dennis
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
This week's topic asks us to consider more deeply just who or what we are. Join Ken this week to continue with Norman Fischer's wise article titled "Life is Tough. Here Are Six Ways to Deal With It". Everyone is welcome.
NOTE: Harmony Centre has a new door lock, and we can't make sure it stays open, so please use the doorbell to the right of the door.
There’s only being, and there’s only love, which is being sharing itself with itself without impediment and with warmth.
― Norman Fischer
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Daniel as we are introduced to the work of Adyashanti by watching the "Life Without a Story" video. Many people in our community have been expanded by Adyashanti's wisdom and style.
The truth is that you already are what you are seeking.
― Adyashanti
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Daniel and Marian as we watch a video.EcoDharma Past and Future. He is interviewed here by David Loy, author of EcoDharma.
Guhyapati (also known as G) is a Buddhist teacher, activist, and writer who focuses on the connection between Buddhist practice, social change, and ecology
👉 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.
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Please join Jim and Darina as we continue to read Ethan Nichtern's book Confidence. As part of a series about the "Eight Worldly Winds" (praise/blame, success/failure, pain/pleasure, and fame/insignificance), we'll continue into the "Four Powers of Confidence" section, starting with compassion.
"Care" goes beyond imagining another person's experience to developing genuine concern for their well-being and wishing them happiness from their own perspective.
– Ethan Nichtern
Have you ever considered the connection between music and mindfulness? I started writing songs before I started meditating, but eventually realized how these two intersect.
Initially, I noticed my sense of time disappeared while immersed in an exploration of notes, timbres, rhythms, and story. This is similar to the flow state first described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced "MEE-hahy CHEEK-sent-mee-hahy-ee"). Next, I recognized that this was a highly attuned, moment-to-moment experience. Each chord or note was an emergent phenomenon to receive and explore mindfully.
While making music can be an intentionally mindful practice, the connection isn't limited to creation. It also applies to listening. Rather than placing your attention on the body breathing, you can focus on the transitory phenomena of a piece of music.
Music can serve as a focal point for mindfulness practice...The harmonies and rhythms provide a steady point of focus, guiding your thoughts away from the past or future.
– Couture Media
As a teenager growing up in a small Northwestern Ontario town in the 1970s, records were practically sacred objects–although I wouldn't have described them that way–that utterly absorbed my attention. Little did I know how beneficial they were in cultivating calm, boosting a sense of well-being, improving attention and emotional regulation, and supporting working memory.
Mmm. What's that sound? Ah. Steely Dan's Aja beckons!
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Jason Thompson 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
