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.
🧘
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 Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up by Koshin Paley Ellison. This week, we will be reading and discussing Chapter 13, "Realizing Equality, Celebrating Diversity." Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book.
How do we learn how to live with the vulnerability of realizing that the way that feels right to me isn’t the way that feels right for somebody else?
– Koshin Paley Ellison
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Join Kaylee, Gloria, and Marian for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by beginning Part Two: Heart, in Tracy Cochran's book Presence: the Art of Being at Home in your Self. We will be reading from Chapter 2, "French Lessons." There is no need to have read the book. All are welcome..
The process of awakening - like winemaking - is an alchemy that changes you, bringing the flavor of life inside.
– 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.
Our reality, our true self, is hidden in what appears to us to be nothingness.
― Thomas Merton
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi to read and discuss the final section of Mark Nepo's lovely book, The Power Of Friendship. in chapter "On the wings of the dragon", we can explore whether we are ever really accepted for who we are if we live for others.
Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
When we live for others, we tend to hide our humanness in the hopes of being accepted by being what others want us to be.
– Mark Nepo
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
Join Ken this week for 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation. Afterward, we'll read and discuss an article about our relationship to pain by Mingyur Rinpoche. When the experience of pain arises, what is our habitual response to it? What other responses are possible?
Most of the time, when pain asks for attention, we respond by trying to get rid of it. Pain becomes an object outside the mind that needs to be ejected, thrown out..
– Mingyur Rinpoche
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Daniel to read and discuss A Reminder to Pause (article from Tricycle) by Kathy Cherry. We can explore Four "pause" practices to bring us back to our bodies. Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation, and all are welcome.
Our nervous system is designed to activate and deactivate as needed, depending upon our environment and the circumstances that are happening. But the effects of ongoing stress, systemic injustice, relational ruptures, and loss can cause our system to get stuck.
– Kathy Cherry
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Daniel McCubbin as we continue to watch the video "Ecodharma: A New Buddhist Path?" by David Loy, in which he talks about how the ecological crisis intersects with the teachings of Buddhism–we are watching parts of the video, no need to have seen prior parts. 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.
The essential teaching of Buddhism is that the life of the Buddha resides in every plant and tree, even in the smallest dust mote: it is a philosophy of the utmost reverence for life.
– Unknown
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
This Sunday, join Debbie and Darina to read and discuss Michael Singer's book, Living Untethered. In the chapter "understanding emotions",
How do emotions arise, and how do they interact with our thoughts?
Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
If you can learn to sit back and simply watch that voice inside your head, you can free yourself.
– Michael Singer
Note: This article was originally posted on August 14th, 2023.
Have you ever heard of self-serving bias? It refers to our very human tendency to take credit for good outcomes and blame others (or bad luck) for poor outcomes.
The self-serving bias describes our tendency to attribute positive outcomes and successes to internal factors like our personal traits, skills, or actions but attribute negative results or failures to external factors, shifting the blame to situational factors beyond our control, such as bad luck or the actions of others.
– The Decision Lab
Let's say I decide to invest a bit of money. After doing some research and talking to a few friends, I discover CM MindPower™ and buy some of their stock at $1. Six months later, the stock has risen to $1.30. Amazing! A smile spreads across my face as I congratulate myself for making such a smart choice. Another six months go by, and the stock price has dropped to $0.90. Shaking my head, I point to a change in the CMMP leadership and that one acquaintance who really approved of the stock.
Notice how I take credit for the rise to $1.30, and blame the fall to $0.90 on bad luck. That's what self-serving bias looks like, and it undermines our wellbeing in two main ways. First, we miss the opportunity to look at our role in what happened and learn from it. Maybe my research was incomplete, or my conclusions weren't fully thought out. Second, we're quick to apportion blame and reluctant to share the credit with others. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle, but self-serving bias makes that hard to see.
Once we realized that this is a universal bias, mindful awareness and self-compassion can help us work with this challenge. For example, we can:
Want to learn more? Check out Why do we blame external factors for our own mistakes?, an article by The Decision Lab.
--
🙏
Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
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
