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.
NEW! Dharma Art: Starts Monday, February 2nd
Click here to join on Zoom @ 5:00 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee for our new exploration of Dharma Art on Mondays, which is a way of approaching creativity from a place of deeper awareness or mindfulness. Together, we'll learn what Dharma Art is. and through discussion, readings, and creative shares, how to move our creativity through that place of awareness.
We will begin by reading True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art, by Chogyam Trungpa. Our reading list will expand with other viewpoints as we explore this path. Our art shares will be voluntary and can be whatever we feel we want to contribute, visual, written, performed, you name it. Our aspiration is that, as creatives, we inspire each other to explore this deeper awareness or knowing from many different angles. Everyone is welcome.
The whole philosophy of art is that you don’t try to be artistic but you just approach the objects as they are, and then the message comes automatically.
– Chogyam Trungpa
Time: 5–6:30 PM
Contact: Email Kaye-Lee for details
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, and Jim for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by a reading of Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. This week, we'll continue reading and discussing Chapter 3, "The Sacred Pause: Resting Under the Bodhi Tree". Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have read the book.
The more deeply we feel flawed and unlovable, the more desperately we run from the clutches of the shadow. Yet by running from what we fear, we feed the inner darkness.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee, Gloria, and Marian for 20 minutes of silent meditation. We'll follow that by continuing to read and discuss the "A Shared World" chapter in Tracy Cochran's Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself. There's no need to be familiar with the book, and all are welcome.
Tell them we are meant to live in a shared world.
– Tracy Cochran
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to continue reading Murray Hidary's "The Nature of Joy." In the final section, he observes that "Joy is not something that we find. Joy is something that we are." Bring your curiosity, and we'll explore together. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
When we make others responsible for our happiness—when we wait for life to deliver joy—we become dependent. But when we take full ownership of our inner state, we step into freedom. True joy is autonomy of the heart.
– Murray Hidary
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
Join Debbie this week for sitting and walking meditation, followed by a shared reading and discussion.
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
– Sylvia Boorstein
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
In Eckhart Tolle's "Stop Missing Your Life in 2026" video, he points out that, for many of us, the constant voice in the head creates stress, self-criticism, and unhappiness. Tolle explains why the mind never stops talking and how to reconnect with the present moment for real relief. Please join Debbie, Stephanie, and Daniel as we explore this illuminating video. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Moments of stillness are not empty—they are full of potential and clarity. This is where true transformation begins.
– Eckhart Tolle
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie as we listen to an interview with Monica Gagliano, "Learning to Listen to Plants." What is our relationship to plants, personally and societally? 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.
I think it’s our responsibility to question [Western science] all the time. And to ask, does it actually stand? Is this the only way to see? Is this the only way to think about things? Because nothing changes if we don’t question.
– Monica Gagliano
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Join Debbie to read the "Life without the Story Line" chapter from Pema Chodron's book, Living Beautifully. When stories arise in our minds, can we be with the underlying energy rather than following the story? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
The propensity to feel sorry for ourselves, the propensity to be jealous, the propensity to get angry–our habitual, all-too-familiar emotional responses are like seeds that we just keep watering and nurturing.
– Pema Chodron
Fredrik Bachman's book, My Friends, is a meandering tale of relationships, childhood, and art. Bachman manages to balance the tragic elements of the story with a delightfully quirky and tender humour, so much so that I've burst out laughing more than once.
Laughter plays a key role in our relationships. In a study titled "The Social Life of Laughter", Scott, Lavan, Chen, and McGettigan observe:
...laughter is a social emotion, occurring most often in interactions, where it is associated with bonding, agreement, affection and emotional regulation.
The researchers go on to distinguish between social (voluntary) laughter and evoked (involuntary) laughter. Social laughter acts as a kind of relational lubricant, while involuntary laughter is the spitting-out-the-asperoll-spritz-on-your-new-blouse variety.
Given the benefits of laughter, is it something we can cultivate? Funny you should ask 😉 One approach is laughing yoga, which was discovered in 1995 by a family physician in Mumbai, Dr. Madan Kataria.
...laughing yoga was designed to teach people how to laugh on cue rather than relying on people or things to bring them joy.
– Healthline
A typical laughing yoga session would evoke relaxation through a combination of breathing techniques, clapping, and chanting. It could also feature improv exercises, citing positive affirmations, gentle stretching, and yoga breath work. If this all sounds a bit out there, consider that a study of the effects of laughing yoga on stress and burnout levels in nurses during the pandemic concluded that it was an "effective method to reduce perceived stress and burnout while also increasing life satisfaction."
Life may be no laughing matter, but laughing matters to a life well lived.
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Tine Ivanič 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
