Friends Of The Heart, Toronto, ON

Friends of the Heart is a group of lay people who actively pursue the deep philosophic and ethical teachings of East and West while maintaining an active, ordinary life within the community. We practice meditation from the Buddhist, Christian and Sufi traditions: we study these systems intellectually as well as engaging our creative talents in movement studies, hatha yoga and the creative arts. Our aim is to help people develop ways to live with a compassionate heart and a clear mind while remaining engaged with the ordinary world. We work in a variety of ways: through meditation, creative movement and yoga, through intellectual study and discussion, through visual art, story telling and sound. As householders, parents, and people leading ordinary lives in the city, we believe it is possible to live within society and bring compassion and awareness into our lives. We believe that our society urgently needs to develop a thoughtful and ethical way to live. Meditation studies can help us develop wholesome and happy lives.