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.
NOTE
For all the sessions listed below:
Click here to join on Zoom @ 5 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Kaye-Lee on Monday for a contemplative journey into the elements of mindful creativity, with its limitless forms of expression. Bring a pen and some paper, and we'll explore through play. Everyone is welcome.
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
– Sylvia Plath
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 Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. This week, we continue reading and discussing Chapter 11, "Recognizing Our Basic Goodness: The Gateway to a Forgiving and Loving Heart".
When we pay careful attention, we see every person as an expression of the love and goodness we cherish.
– Tara Brach
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Do you ever wonder what karma is? Join Kaye-Lee, Gloria, and Marian as we read and discuss Norman Fischer's "Karma" in his book The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path. What do we think about karma and how our lives work? Join us as we consider Fischer's exploration and our own understandings; perhaps arriving with more questions or opening to a new idea, or just wondering or disagreeing. We hope to see you!
The (Buddhist) teachings on karma provide a road map for more happiness and less misery that does not require excessive restriction or a special belief system.
– Norman Fischer
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:45 AM ET
ONLINE
Please join Sandi, Darina, and Anita for our daytime exploration of Pema Chodron's book, Another Kind of Freedom. This week, we'll look at the 5th section of meditation: the way of the Buddha. We'll explore a mindful awareness practice where we sit with our eyes open. In this approach, distractions are not considered distractions.
The vipashyana perspective is a panoramic situation in which you can come and go freely, and your relationship with the world is open.
– Pema Chodron
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Join Lauren, Sandi, and Adam to continue exploring the five gates of grief from Francis Weller's beautiful book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow. We'll contemplate the 2nd gate: places untouched by love. These neglected pieces of soul are profoundly tender because they've lived outside of kindness, compassion, and warmth.
What we perceive as defective about ourselves, we also experience as loss. Whenever any portion of who we are is denied, we live in a condition of loss. The proper response to any loss is grief.
– Francis Weller
OWEN SOUND, IN PERSON
Join Ken this week to carry on reading the "Hidden Reefs" chapter of Rob Nairn's Diamond Mind book. What role do expectations play in meditation practice? In our lives? Everyone is welcome.
NOTE: Harmony Centre has a new door lock, and we can't make sure it stays open, so please use the doorbell to the right of the door.
Whatever happens has a vividness and interest of its own because we are not judging it against any criteria.
― Rob Nairn
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie as we explore Cara Lai's three-part article, "The Healing Power of Generosity". How can we emphasize generosity in the midst of lives that might already be busy and demanding?
To practice this, don’t look towards the ways you feel obligated to give. Look for where you naturally feel called to give, even in the tiniest ways.
– Cara Lai
Click here to join on Zoom @ 7 PM ET
ECODHARMA
Join Debbie to read and discuss the teachings from Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis by David Loy. We'll be exploring the intersection of Buddhist teachings and 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.
What is there within Buddhist teachings that can be helpful to us today, that helps us understand not only ourselves but also the situation we’re in today?
– David Loy
Click here to join on Zoom @ 10:15 AM ET
ONLINE
Please join Debbie and Darina as we continue reading Living Beautifully by Pema Chodron. We'll dive into a rich and relatable topic: being present when life is difficult.
When life is uncomfortable, when we're highly agitated and don't know where to turn, that's the most difficult time to stay present.
– Pema Chodron
There’s no such thing as compassion that is separate from action. While that may sound like a radical thing to say, it simply means that compassion becomes real through our thoughts, words, and deeds. I find this view can be a helpful way to ground what can otherwise become just a pleasant concept. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for concepts. Lofty, technical, intriguing – they’re wonderful! But when it comes to easing the suffering in ourselves or in others? Well, a concept plus $5.93 will get you a pistachio latte ☕️
Tara Brach explains compassion this way:
Empathy is the ability to feel what other people feel…compassion includes empathy, and it also has the quality of caring and concern that wants to help. Compassion means “to suffer together,” but it is really defined by a quivering of the heart that wants to help.
This “quivering of the heart” and the genuine desire to extend ourselves are the first sparks of compassionate action. We can cultivate and realize this in many ways, including practices such as metta (loving-kindness) meditation. One interesting approach, from the folks over at the Action for Happiness website, is something they’re calling Friendly February.
Recognizing that “acts of kindness and connection ripple out”, they’ve created a calendar with a straightforward and friendly act for each day in February. Today, for example, is “Ask a friend how they have been feeling recently”. Tomorrow: “Do an act of kindness to make life easier for someone else”.
If that sounds inspiring, you can grab the Friendly February calendar as an image or a Word document from the Action for Happiness website. You can even follow along with the #friendlyfebruary hashtag on Twitter.
So there you have it, an easy-to-follow roadmap for putting compassion into action. May you be healthy. May you be happy. May you be free.
Note: This article was originally published on February 2, 2021.
--
🙏
Ken, Sandi, and the Community Meditation Team
Photo by Ron Lach
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
