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.
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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.
A Community Meditation weekend retreat
Owen Sound | June 6/7, 2026
How can we become calmer and more balanced in a time of accelerating social, technological, and environmental change? Join Ken Dow and Debbie McCubbin to explore this question through a unique and transformative mix of mindfulness, awareness, breathwork, discussion, and related practices.
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
This Monday, join Kaye-Lee for an ongoing exploration of creative awareness through discussion, reading, reflection, and sharing. We'll continue delving into dharma art as a way of approaching creativity from a place of deeper awareness.
Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are timeless.
― Julia Cameron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Brenda, Gordon, and Jim for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by a reading and discussion of Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach. This week, we continue with Chapter 6, "Radical Acceptance of Desire: Awakening to the Source of Longing."
If we meet the sensations, emotions and thoughts of wanting with Radical Acceptance, we begin to awaken from the identity of a wanting self and to reconnect with the fullness of our being.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Marian, Gloria, and Kaye-Lee for 20 minutes of meditation. Tonight, we will begin reading a new book, The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Boddhisatva Path, by Zen Buddhist poet and teacher Norman Fischer.
One day, I had a realization, of course, this story is true, absolutely, definitely true. One way or another... it happened...
– Norman Fischer
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:45 AM ET
NEW DAYTIME SESSION! ONLINE
Please join Sandi and Darina as we launch a new daytime session. We're excited to bring you readings from Pema Chodron's book, Another Kind of Freedom. In the "Fantasy and Reality" chapter, Pema observes that "fantasy' is wishing you were somewhere else, whereas "reality" is being exactly where you are. When we fantasize about being elsewhere, we don't appreciate where we are.
...the freedom that liberates us from the very causes of suffering...[is] what we feel when we settle down with life as it is.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to watch another Mark Nepo video, "How To Find Your Way, Passion and Energy in Life!" It's a reflective talk about how to discover and sustain your life’s direction, passion, and energy by listening to your inner experience, and staying faithful to the slow unfolding of purpose rather than chasing external success.
And what does a flower do when it blossoms? It literally reveals its inner beauty by turning itself inside out.
– Mark Nepo
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
Connection is everywhere, from the taste of tacos to the warmth of water. Feeling connected, however, is not; it's an inner experience that's also a skill we can develop. Join Ken to delve further into the nature and practice of experiencing connection.
Practicing the skill of connection is easier than you think. It's a matter of noticing the moments of connection that happen spontaneously all the time and then nurturing them.
– Davidson & Dahl
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Daniel as he introduces the work of teacher Adyashanti. We will watch two short videos: "Judgment vs Discernment" and "How to be of Benefit in a World that feels out of Balance."
Adyashanti is one of a handful of teachers who had an enormous impact on my path. His work was transformative for me–it changed my perceptions of myself and the world permanently.
– Debbie McCubbin
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie as we read from Vanessa's book Hospicing Modernity. In the "Surrendering Arrogance" chapter, we'll explore how a largely unconscious and unseen arrogance blinds us to changes that need to happen.
👉 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.
...arrogance is imprinted in all of us who have been socialized within modernity, and it can be interpreted as a cultural and system trait [rather than a personal one]
–Vanessa Oliviera de Machado
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Lauren as we continue reading Ethan Nichtern's book Confidence, an examination and reflection on the "Eight Worldly Winds": praise/blame, success/failure, pain/pleasure, and fame/insignificance. In the "Influence and Insignificance" section, we'll explore our desire to be influential in various ways, and what happens to that desire when we are alone.
How does it feel in those times when no one's eyes are on you, when you feel unseen or uncredited?
– Ethan Nichtern
A John O'Donohue poem of waiting and risk, of being propelled by noticing and wonder, until, at last, stepping into trust.
For a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Image by Mila Okta Safitri from Pixabay
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Nicolas Messifet 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
