Kadampa Meditation Centre Canada

On Crawford Street, half a block south of Bloor and an equal distance from Christie and Ossington stations, Kadampa Meditation Centre Canada sits in downtown Toronto's Little Italy. The doors open thirty minutes before each event. Inside is a meditation room the centre describes as peaceful, spacious and comfortable, along with a temple shop of books and meditation materials.

The centre was established in 2005 by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, as a non-profit that would give people in Toronto and the surrounding area a way to learn to meditate and practise Buddha's teachings. It is now the National Temple of the New Kadampa Tradition - International Kadampa Buddhist Union in Canada, and a registered Canadian charity. All its activities are run by volunteers, and profits go to the International Temples Project, which builds traditional and non-traditional temples and meditation and retreat centres, and supports World Peace Cafés and Tharpa Publications.

The week has a plain rhythm. Sunday mornings, from 11:00 to 12:15, are the Peaceful Sundays classes, with titles such as Letting Go of Attachment and Cooling the Fires of Anger. Resident Teacher Gen Kelsang Chodor, who has studied under Geshe Kelsang Gyatso for more than twenty-five years, also leads the two deeper study tracks: the Foundation Program, a systematic study of six texts, and the Teacher Training Program, which covers fourteen. Branch classes meet on the Danforth and in Roncesvalles Village.

Retreats mark the calendar. On October 24 and 25, 2026, a two-day Migtsema Prayer retreat runs three meditation sessions on Saturday and ends Sunday with an Offering to the Spiritual Guide. Its teachings draw on the International Kadampa Buddhist Festival in Malaga, Spain. A Clear Light of Bliss retreat follows from January 23 to February 4, 2027, and the Ontario Dharma Celebration is held each November. Beginners are pointed to breathing meditation, the sensation of air at the nostrils, as a first object.