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 continue exploring the intersection of mindfulness and creative practices. Does creativity advise us in seeing (sensing) that which is hidden? Let's explore!
Michelangelo saw his work as a form of revelation, with his work being to remove that which obscures the hidden form.
– Unknown
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 Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach. This week, we continue discussing Chapter 7, "Opening our Heart in the Face of Fear."
When the trance of fear arises, instead of getting caught up in worrying or looking for something to eat, instead of getting busy and trying to fix things, we can choose to lean in.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Kaye-Lee, Gloria, and Marian for 20 minutes of meditation followed by a reading and discussion of Norman Fischer's book The World Could be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path. This week, we continue with the first chapter.
Compassion isn't only me benefitting you. It is us swirling in and out of each other in the expanse of ever-connected, ineffable, imaginative reality.
– 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're excited to bring you readings from Pema Chodron's new book Another Kind of Freedom. She details types of suffering, one of them being the pain of going back and forth between "I like" and "I don't like", forever switching between the two. Another is "the pain of all those life situations you do not want", aka the pain of pain.
Sometimes our experience is pleasant, and sometimes it hurts. It keeps alternating, never coming to a final rest on either side... no circumstances are final.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to experience the teachings of Loch Kelly. We'll practice shifting out of our limited sense of self and into panoramic awareness, and then dive into an article on Loch's idea of "Effortless Mindfulness". Loch states that "we discover our spacious awake mind and return our senses to their natural condition. From there, it opens a doorway for a loving, embodied, and interconnected way of living." Seems like a good use of an hour on a Wednesday evening ;-)
Glimpses are the initial effortless effort of opening, surrendering, resting, or turning awareness around to find our open mind and open heart.
– Loch Kelly
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
This week, we will continue exploring the fourth and final pillar of the Born to Flourish book: "Purpose." We can easily get caught up in turning our search for purpose into something heavy and grandiose. What if we lightened up instead?
Finding a sense of purpose can be a light, playful exercise. You can experiment with different perspectives and see what feels right.
– Davidson and Dahl
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie for an introduction to the work of teacher Ethan Nichtern. This week, we'll read from his book The Road Home, in which he investigates the journey each of us takes to discover where we belong.
Ultimately, what we are seeking is a feeling of belonging in our life. It's the feeling of relaxation that comes with knowing there's a place for us right here in this present moment.
– Ethan Nichtern
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie in reading an excerpt from Dougald Hine's book At Work in the Ruins. In it, Hine contemplates two different visions of the future and an approach to dealing with climate change.
👉 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.
Climate change is a scientific term. It refers to a set of processes that are described by the natural sciences. Yet climate change also asks questions that science cannot answer.
– Dougald Hine
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. As part of a series about the "Eight Worldly Winds" (praise/blame, success/failure, pain/pleasure, and fame/insignificance), we'll continue exploring our relationship to success and failure.
Comparative mind makes it difficult–and sometimes impossible–to acknowledge and appreciate the many successes that do come our way.
– Ethan Nichrern
I once had a Zen teacher raise the topic of faith, which surprised me. After all, the Kalama Sutra, one of the earliest teachings of the Buddha, advises us not to accept anything just because it’s said by an authority or found in the Buddhist teachings. Instead, we should test everything through our own experience and reason.
So what does faith have to do with it? The Zen teacher went on to ask what it would mean to have faith not in anything, just to have faith. I’ll confess that that question stopped my mind for a few beats!
The word "faith" can be loaded. To some, it carries connotations of blind adherence and fundamentalism. To others, it comes across as unscientific or irrational. Let’s sidestep all that and use the word "trust" instead. In his text "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa wrote:
Trust is not based on rationality or logic; it’s based on experience and intuition. Trust yourself. When you can trust your own experience, you have the possibility to transcend any obstacles that may arise.
Trungpa’s reference to experience brings us back to the Buddha’s instruction above that we should test everything through our experience. We aren’t separate from our experience, though. To trust it is to be it. Simply residing in our direct experience is trust, free from separateness, period.
I’m not asking you to trust me 😉 Sound reasonable?
Note: this article was originally published in this newsletter on June 3, 2024.
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Nothing Ahead
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
