Why Meditate?

 

Zafu

Given today's frantic pace of life, more and more people are seeking a way to reduce tension, and find contentment and peace. True North Insight offers meditation teachings in a quiet and inclusive environment. These teachings show us how to develop the skills to wake up and become free of greed, hatred and delusion, and cultivate calmer and gentler ways of living. From this place of deep understanding, a profound and compassionate response to the world's suffering arises.

Dr. Zindel Segal, head of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Clinic of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and one of the founders of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), expresses his support for True North Insight. Zindel Segal is also a professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto. Click here to read his letter outlining the health benefits of meditation.

 

Meditation allows us to:

  • learn how to release tension and holding in the body/mind and experience deep calm
  • find ways to stay grounded in present moment experience through mindfulness
  • explore the connection of body and mind
  • compassionately open to our own hearts with acceptance
  • learn to recognize and release limiting self-perceptions and live with creativity, courage and authenticity
  • cease being driven by old habits of fear and compulsion and find contentment and equanimity
  • develop wisdom to live with skill and kindness, releasing judgment, resentment and ill-will
  • transform our worldview from isolation and confusion to connection, clarity, interdependence and compassion

 

Did you know?

 

  • Insight Meditation has been taught and practiced for more than 2400 years as part of a path to liberation of mind and heart from suffering
  • Practicing insight meditation has been clinically proven to reduce the damaging effects of stress and pain, replacing them with peace and calmness
  • Meditation is being taught in hospitals and community health centres to help manage chronic pain, depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, stress and anxiety
  • Mindful awareness is considered a core competency in effective leadership
  • Meditation is being taught in elementary and secondary schools as an important life skill
  • Meditation is used in a wide range of personal development and rehabilitation programs as a tool for managing anger and learning to be accountable
  • The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto offers meditation as a well-researched intervention for preventing depression relapse
  • Many meditation communities are collaborating with environmentalists on important issues of planetary well-being, as insight meditation teachings reflect on interdependent relationships with all life forms and the environment.

 

Where to find meditation cushions?

Best well-kept secret in Montréal, Sea of tranquillity
Boutique Alchimiste en herbe on St-Denis
Bluecony - Banc de méditation made in Québec
Boutique Sri Aurobindo on St-Denis (4125 rue St-Denis)
Futon d'Or
La Massagerie
Conforauly in Eatern Townships
Samadhi Cushions,  Vermont, USA
Yoga centers and health and well-being stores
Large retail stores boutiques such as Winners, Indigo, etc. and online