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
Please join Kaye-Lee to explore what happens when we slow down with intention and turn towards the creative.
Art gives those unexpressed parts of ourselves permission to be felt and spoken.
― Jaeda DeWalt
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 our discussion of Chapter 8, "Awakening Compassion for Ourselves: Becoming the Holder and the Held".
When we are willing to touch the pain of separation, our longing carries us to the tender and compassionate presence that is our awakened nature.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
You are welcome to join Marian, Gloria, and Kaye-Lee as we delve further into Norman Fischer's book, The World Could Be Otherwise. We are on Chapter 2, "The Perfection of Generosity".
Life is complicated; the world is messy. Nothing, not even generosity, is simple.
– Norman Fischer
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:45 AM ET
NEW DAYTIME SESSION! ONLINE
Please join Sandi and Darina for our daytime session. We are reading Pema Chodron's brand new book, Another Kind of Freedom. In it, she explores the six "styles of imprisonment", the first of which she calls "The Cosmic Joke".
How did the ego come to be and how did it escalate into our ongoing experience with "samsara"? (the suffering that results from repeating the same habitual pattern over and over again).
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Sandi, Lauren, and Adam as we dive into the wisdom of Rupert Spira. This week, we continue examining relationship as an experience of awakening. Spira suggests that love isn't an emotion produced by the mind, but what is left over when the boundary between "self" and "other" briefly falls away. We will start with 20 minutes of meditation and then dive into these ideas together.
You still long to have a relationship, but that longing doesn’t come from a sense of lack. It comes from a kind of overflowing of peace and love.
– Rupert Spira
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
This week, we'll practice what Byron Katie preaches, which is to work with our suffering by moving our thoughts from head to paper as meditation practice. We'll start with the "Judge Your Neighbour" worksheet, and then move through 4 simple questions and a turnaround. Join Ken to investigate how our thoughts can be the source of our stress.
Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.
― Byron Katie
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Hazel as we explore the work of teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk and renowned spiritual teacher.
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie as we explore ways to stay grounded and motivated in the face of our climate crisis. Three Buddhist teachers, David Loy, Joanna Macy, and Mark Coleman, offer ways to meet the climate crisis through our practice.
👉 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.
The breakdown of our ecological and climate systems poses many questions for Buddhist practitioners. What is the most appropriate response given the nature, scale, and pace of the crisis? How does one stay grounded when it feels as if the ground beneath us is giving way? What can Buddhism offer us at this overwhelming time of fear and loss?
– Tricycle Magazine
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Darina as we continue reading Ethan Nichtern's book, Confidence. "The Power of Compassion" is part of a series about the "Eight Worldly Winds" (praise/blame, success/failure, pain/pleasure, and fame/insignificance). This week, we'll continue with the "Four Powers of Confidence" section, starting with the power of compassion.
We need a worldview that places individual effort in the framework of interdependence.
– Ethan Nichtern
A couple nights ago, I was listening to a podcast by three Jungian analysts when one of them quoted novelist and writer Anais Nin:
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
They went on to note that a fulfilling life will require us to face fears and take on certain risks. Although Nin was referring to the arrival of a pivotal day in someone's life, this move from bud to blossom isn't limited to momentous decisions.
Think of this as a spectrum, with the tightness and clinging of the bud at one end and the generous opening of the blossom at the other. We are somewhere on that spectrum (and almost always in motion) on a typical day.
On the surface, it can feel like an uneventful day when in fact we're being influenced by subtle inklings of risk. These undercurrents run outside our normal awareness yet exert a gravitational pull on our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Awareness is, of course, the name of the game here at Community Meditation 🙂 One way to uncover such faint murmurs of risk is to pause every so often and mindfully scan beyond your "autopilot" awareness. You could include a question, for example:
A mundane chat with a coworker might bring up a slight trepidation ("What's with that glance at my shoes?"), or an imperceptible tightening of the jaw muscles ("That wasn't really how it happened."), or a vague impulse to get back to your desk ("Is she implying I don't work hard enough?"). These are the minuscule versions of the pain of remaining in the bud that Nin described.
Great–you've located that odd sensation in your stomach after your colleague cleared his throat. Now what? Nothing. You see, the act of bringing new awareness to a subtle fear that winds us up will also kick off the process of unwinding it, making space for a tiny bud to blossom. When we're willing to look, we find that daily routines offers endless opportunities to hone our awareness. Which is great news, because as author Annie Dillard points out:
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
If you'll excuse me, I have this minor twitching under my right eye (Was this post too long? I could've made it shorter. What if they don't finish it...?)
Note: This article was originally posted May 31, 2021.
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Alaric Duan 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
