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 @ 7 PM ET
Please join Brenda, Gordon, and Jim for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by a reading from Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance–Embracing your Life with the Heart of a Buddha. This week, we begin with Chapter 1, "The Trance of Unworthiness." Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book.
The trance of unworthiness keeps the sweetness of belonging out of reach.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Kaye-Lee, Marian, and Gloria as we meet for 20 minutes of silent meditation. After that, we'll begin exploring “My True Home is Brooklyn", a new chapter in Tracy Cochran's book Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself. There’s no need to be familiar with the book.
He extolled freshness as one of the qualities that each of us possesses in our essence, our Buddha-nature…….(my daughter) was reminding me that true freshness isn’t limited to those moments when we feel happily and playfully open. It often means feeling raw and vulnerable.
– Tracy Cochran
IN-PERSON – MISSISSAUGA
Join us in person on Wednesday as we gather to explore topics such as meditation, mindfulness, compassion, Buddhism, and other related subjects. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of meditation, and there are no prerequisites to participate.
Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.
― Jon Kabat-Zinn
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to continue reading the final section of Mark Nepo's book, The Power Of Friendship. In the "Curing Fox" chapter, we consider our role as friends; what does it mean to heal? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
...though millions have come and gone before us, no one knows how to live or how to make sense of the arduous journey of being alive. It only gets easy when we care for each other and dare to share what we see and perceive in the midst of beauty or pain.
― Mark Nepo
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Ken this week for a look at how to establish a habit like meditating daily. We used to think that education was the key, but it turns out that simply knowing how to meditate rarely leads to having a daily practice. What does? Access, social norms, and habits. Our session will begin with tea and hanging out, followed by 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.
The real barrier isn’t ignorance, it’s interference. We don’t need more information; we need fewer obstacles between intention and action.
– Pump Club newsletter
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie, Daniel, Hazel, and Stephanie to read "Living from the Inside Out," by Ryuku Laura Burges, on the Tricycle website. How can we look to our inner life and our own resources to have a happy life and work with addictive impulses, rather than judging ourselves by external standards? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Even if we have been abandoned by others in the past, we learn that we don’t have to abandon ourselves.
– Ryuku Laura Burges
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to watch "Conscious Being: Wisdom of Joanna Macy," a documentary from Naropa University. With Joanna Macy's recent passing, this recent film explores her contributions to the world. 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.
May we perceive what is being asked of us. May we awaken here, on this sharp edge of uncertainty.
― Stephanie Kaza, A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
This Sunday, join Debbie and Hazel to read and discuss the "Why the Heart Opens and Closes" chapter in Michael Singer's book, Living Untethered. What goes on with the energy of the heart opening, flowing, closing, and protecting? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
If you want to continue feeling love, you have to learn how to deal with emotions that open and close the heart. It's like learning to play an instrument. At first, you don't know how to do it. You're going to make mistakes and learn from the experience.
– Michael Singer
The Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced "Chick-sent-me-high") coined the term "flow" to describe a state he believed was the secret to happiness. In The Guardian, David Robson notes that a flow state has these characteristics:
...a high level of concentration, a sense of control, and decreased rumination or worry, with a clear goal and immediate feedback...it is also accompanied by an altered sense of time.
The flow state depends on a delicate balance between our abilities and the task itself. If the task is too easy, we get bored. If it's too challenging, we struggle. In equilibrium, time falls away, and there is no doer, only the doing.
Julia Christensen was a professional ballet dancer whose frequent experiences of a flow state while dancing were disrupted when her career ended with a back injury. She has since rediscovered flow states through visual art, and specifically the practice of drawing dancers. Christensen has written a book titled The Pathway to Flow about the phenomenon of flow states. She offers the following suggestions:
While it's tempting to compare flow states to meditative states, they are not the same. What they share, however, is a capacity to build a healthier mind, one that is less prone to anxiety and rumination.
Christensen's example is inspiring in that she found flow in two utterly different realms. Do you have an activity that puts you into a flow state? If not, can you think of an activity that would be likely to create the right conditions?
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Jimmy Conover 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
