Welcome to Community Meditation

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.

Donate

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.


 

Training the Mind with Meditation & Self-Hypnosis

An ONLINE course Led by Ken Dow. Starts November 30th.

Mindfulness meditation and self-hypnosis have been shown to have many benefits, including reduced anxiety, improved focus, and better sleep. Join Ken to learn how to practice the basics of self-hypnosis, deepen your capacity to use it, and decide how to choose mindfulness, self-hypnosis, or both, depending on your needs.

WHEN: Three Sunday afternoons from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
COST: Based on ability to pay, from $10 to $60

Register

What We're Up To

All online sessions, except our short morning sessions, include a 20-minute silent meditation. New to meditation? Instruction is available.
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Daily Morning Meditation Mon-Fri

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

Mon, Nov 24 – Taking On The Trance of Unworthiness

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 book, Radical Acceptance. This week, we'll continue reading and discussing Chapter 1, "The Trance of Unworthiness". Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book. 

The more we anxiously tell ourselves stories about how we might fail or what is wrong with us or with others, the more we deepen the grooves-the neural pathways-that generate feelings of deficiency
– Tara Brach

Tue, Nov 25 – Some Truths Can Only Be Experienced

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET

What does it mean to say that some truths can only be experienced? Join Gloria, Kaye-Lee, and Marian for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by the reading and discussion of "In The Midst Of Winter," a 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.

Life is always in movement and always uncertain. Yet deeper truths are revealed when we need them. Doors open on the Inside.
– Tracy Cochran

Wed, Nov 26 – Meditation & Discussion

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.

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.
― Robert Wright

Wed, Nov 26 – The Secret To Lasting Friendship

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi in reading the final few chapters of Mark Nepo's book, The Power Of Friendship. In "We Carry A Great Matter", Nepo explores the spaciousness of not being too full of ourselves, so that life can pass its truth and wonder through us. In a sense, to be hollow like the bamboo that bends rather than breaking. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.

When we dare to love those we meet along the way, we become friends, and in the life of that friendship, we become teachers and students for one another.
― Mark Nepo

Thu, Nov 27 – What Sort Of Human Being Am I?

IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
There are many lenses through which to consider the practice of meditation. Why are we doing it? What are we searching for? In Rob Nairn's book, Diamond Mind, he suggests that seeing ourselves clearly–with all of our quirks, dents, and imperfections–is an excellent place to start. Our session will begin with tea and hanging out, followed by 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.

This is how we approach ourselves. "What sort of human being am I?"...We say OK, that's what there is to work with. It may not be what I wanted, but it is what I've got.
– Rob Nairn

Thu, Nov 27 – Mastering The Art Of Living With Uncertainty

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE 
Please join Debbie, Daniel, Hazel, and Stephanie to read "4 Powerful Ways to Master the Art of Living with Uncertainty", a Krissy Loveman article on TinyBuddha.com. Loveman explores how uncertainty is uncomfortable, and suggests some ways we can meet it with wisdom. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.

I’ve come to realize that it’s in my best interest to learn how to live with uncertainty—not simply to make it less intolerable, but to awaken the personal power that comes through dancing with the unknown.
– Krissy Loveman

Fri, Nov 28 – Jane Goodall's Message Of Hope

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to read and discuss an interview with Jane Goodall by Andrea Miller in Tricycle. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. The celebrated environmental and animal activist and conservationist Jane Goodall passed away on October 1, 2025, at the age of 91. In this interview with Lion’s Roar editor Andrea Miller, she spoke about the compassion that exists in our natural world and the enduring hope that guided her life’s work.


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 most important thing we can do is remember that every single day, every single one of us makes a difference.
– Jane Goodall

Sun, Nov 30 – Great Patience

Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE 
In Ethan Nichtern's book, The Road Home, he considers the role of patience in our lives. Join Debbie for 20 minutes of silent meditation and a shared discussion of Nichtern's writings. There's no need to be familiar with the book.

In order to succeed with practice, we need great patience, instead of a get-rich-quick mentality where we are constantly waiting to be zapped with ray guns of insight.
– Ethan Nichtern

No Waiting

"There is no waiting." It arrives out of nowhere in the middle of my morning meditation, with no fanfare, landing like a drop of rain on a pond as still as glass.

I get these terse, cryptic memos every so often. They're not random, exactly. They have a matter-of-fact, almost brusque, quality. I experience them as a kernel of wisdom: Of course! But, also, a challenge: Say what?

So, there is no waiting. Surely there is, though? For my coffee to be ready, the weather to turn, my monogrammed socks to arrive? Hmm.

Then again, to wait is to abandon the present, the now that is our only given. In waiting, we drift from what's true. We trade the living moment, in which our compassion and wisdom are most profoundly available, for an imagined future.

How about this: There is no waiting unless you choose to wait. Hold up! What about The Surprising Power of Waiting, in which Elisha Goldstein writes:

As you notice the waiting, relax your body, recognize you’re safe, and just be curious about the experience of waiting.

Or Kelly Barron's advice in The Wisdom of Waiting:

We can make waiting an active event by bringing mindfulness to it...We also can use waiting as an opportunity to explore our capacity for patience.

These are both wonderful, but they leave the waiting intact as an object for our mind to study. They presume that waiting exists, is unavoidable, and the best we can do is work with it.

The difference is that Goldstein and Barron are working with relative truths, while the tiny mind-bomb that landed on me is absolute: THERE IS NO WAITING. Why? Because waiting is a idea, a fabrication of the relative mind. You're only waiting if you think you're waiting. Otherwise, you're simply alive, here and now.

--

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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Our Aspiration

We started this meditation network to help you bring more clarity, balance, caring and joy to your life and your community.

What We Offer

  • Free meditation instruction and one-on-one follow-up sessions
  • Regular online sittings
  • Online wellness courses on Joyfulness, Mindful Leadership, Buddhism, Mindfuless & Anxiety, Compassion, and more

Quotable

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