Community Meditation is non-profit network of meditation groups. We bring mindfulness and wellness into peopleβs 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.
UPCOMING ONLINE COURSES
We're delighted to offer a new series of short courses you can enjoy at home over Zoom.
Six Key Doorways to Being Present
Begins Sunday, April 21st, 2 PM ET
Exploring Aspects of Our Inner Selves
Begins Sunday, June 9th, 2 PM ET
Meditation: Improving Our Experience and Understanding
Begins Sunday, June 30th, 2 PM ET
All online sessions include a 20-minute silent meditation. New to meditation? Instruction is available.
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Monday, Apr 15 – Living Our LoveClick here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET Please join Brenda, Gordon, Jim, and Sharon for 20 minutes of silent meditation followed by our continuing discussion of Sharon Salzberg's book Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. This week, we continue reading Chapter 11, "Living Our Love". Everyone is welcome, no need to have the book.
Tuesday, Apr 16 – Awakening to Pure ConsciousnessClick here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Wednesday, Apr 17 – The Practice of Not KnowingClick here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET Join Adam, Lauren, Sandi, and Jessica after meditation to read and discuss "The Practice of Not Knowing", a chapter from Mark Nepo's Seven Thousand Ways to Listen. The deepest listening is an act of great trust; the trust to open and receive without judgement. All things being impermanent, what feels tense and uncomfortable could prove to be an opportunity for growth (OK, it might just be indigestion π ) The truth is we do not know and that's the wonder of life. There's no need to be familiar with the book.
Thursday, Apr 18 – The Circle of All BeingsClick here to visit our Meetup Join Ken on Thursday for sitting and walking meditation, and then to read and discuss "The Circle of All Beings", a chapter from Tara Brock's book, Radical Acceptance. What keeps us from opening our hearts and extending compassion to other humans and the more-than-human world?
Friday, Apr 19 – Being With What IsClick here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
Sunday, Apr 21 – Unbelievable HappinessClick here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET This Sunday, after meditation, Debbie will host a discussion that draws on Jon Bernie's book, The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is. The possibility of being unbelievably happy can seem remote or even impossible, but Bernie suggests otherwise–and points the way.
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Note: This article was originally published here on December 6, 2021.
I sometimes experience meditation as a gradual shift from the relentless, narrow, and nitpicking mind toward an open, curious, and playful one. You may remember the wave of excitement many years ago about how the left and right sides of the brain worked. It went something like this: the left brain deals with logic, the right brain with art. This led to categorizing people as one or the other ("She's so left-brained!") and gave us books like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and writer, and thoroughly debunked this view of the brain in his seminal work, The Master and His Emissary. What differs isn't where the brain works its magic, but how these hemispheres see the world. In other words, most of the brain is involved most of the time, but the two sides approach their tasks very differently.
There are parallels between the experience of meditation I described above and how these two parts of the brain address the world. The left engages life in a specific and dissecting way, while the right embraces it through ambiguity and wholeness. We absolutely need both sides, but McGilchrist believes we're at a point in human history that–to our detriment–skews heavily to the narrowing focus of the left brain. He suggests, for example (emphasis mine):
One very practical thing — a recipe for healing for almost every one of my patients — is not forcing things to be the way they would like them to be, but to embrace the way that they’re likely to be and doing those things that will help that forward...mindfulness engages wide networks in the right hemisphere, and the EEG studies show that there is a more balancing of the two hemispheres in those who are meditating. So I think meditation and not doing things, making space in your life and switching off your machines, being present in the moment, and practicing mindfulness would be a way to start.
The video below (~ 12 minutes) adds an entertaining visual dimension to one of McGilchrist's talks on this subject. Enjoy!
Photo by Naro K.
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Ken & 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.
β Thomas Merton