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 of Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach. This week, we'll continue reading and discussing Chapter 2, starting with the section "The Suffering That Opens Us to Radical Acceptance." Everyone is welcome, and there's no need to have or be familiar with the book
The poet Rumi saw clearly the relationship between our wounds and our awakening. He counseled, 'Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.' When we look directly at the bandaged place without denying or avoiding it, we become tender toward our human vulnerability. Our attention allows the light of wisdom and compassion to enter.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Please join Marian, Kaye-Lee, and Gloria for 20 minutes of silent meditation, followed by the reading of "Speechless," a new chapter from Tracy Cochran's book Presence: The Art of Being at Home with Yourself. Please join us–there's no need to be familiar with the book.
...now I understood that a hero is someone who can take off the armor, who can be vulnerable and show up anyway, experiencing what is really happening without trying to resist or run away
– Tracy Cochran
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Lauren, Adam, and Sandi for several Wednesdays of contemplation and connection. We'll be reading Murray Hidary's 5-part exploration into the nature of joy. What is it? Where does it come from? The pursuit of joy is a paradox: the more we chase it, the more elusive it seems to become. So, how do we become joyful? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
Joy, it turns out, doesn’t respond to pursuit. It unfolds when the conditions are right — much like flow.
– Murray Hidary
IN-PERSON – OWEN SOUND
As a new year arrives, the push to rewrite our lives and somehow become a better person is everywhere. What if, instead of promises and plans, we chose renewal? Our session begins with some informal chat, followed by 35 minutes of sitting and walking meditation.
The shift from aversion to befriending is the most radical shift any student of mindfulness can make.
– Willem Kuyken
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Daniel to explore Marc Lesser's article titled "How to Deal with Difficult People." When encountering interpersonal difficulties, can we be "curious, not furious"? Our session will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation.
A strange and rather pervasive human behavior pattern is that we tend to judge others by the impact their actions have on us. We judge ourselves by our intentions.
– Marc Lesser
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie in watching Joanna Macy's video, "The Shambhala Warrior Prophecy." An ancient Tibetan prophecy about a time of darkness, when the courage of a warrior is required. The tools of the warrior are compassion and insight. 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.
When you're not afraid of the suffering of your world, nothing can stop you.
– Joanna Macy
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Join Debbie as we read and discuss Pema Chodron's book, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. Pema explores the fundamental ambiguity of being human. We will begin with 20 minutes of silent meditation. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
Humans don't like uncertainty, and so we construct an idea of who we are and what's going on -- and sometimes it's a bit too impermeable to what is actually happening.
– Pema Chodron
What if you just...stopped? Stopped worrying. Stopped wishing. Stopped regretting, avoiding, judging, insisting, resisting, identifying, and prevaricating. What then?
It's not only moving that creates new starting points.
— Kristin Armstrong
Perhaps even the thought of such a complete stopping touches an undercurrent of fear–what is life (what am I) if not movement? Who, if not action and reaction?
Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
— Guillaume Apollinaire
"I'll stop on the weekend."
"As soon as this is done, I'll stop."
"I can't stop now."
"Why would I stop?"
The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.
– Jerzy Kosinski
What are you bypassing? As in art, so in life.
In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape.
– Pico Iyer
Yin and yang. Creation and destruction. Tension and relaxation. What unites and underlies? Stop and find out.
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Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Jonathan Bean 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
