Ainslie Meares on Meditation

189 Pages·00.719 MB·English

by  Owen Bruhn

Ainslie Meares on Meditation.
Dissolve tension, anxiety & pain. Tap your inner wealth.
Includes Relief Without Drugs* & poems written by Meares.
by Owen Bruhn
Foreword by Pauline McKinnon
Cover graphic design & photograph restoration. Sarah Bruhn
ISBN 978-0-6481084-0-5
About the Author (and Editor)
Owen Bruhn, BSc Hons, Grad Dip Occ Hyg, Grad Dip Erg, MAIOH,
CPMSIA is an OHS Practitioner and Stillness Meditation Practitioner who
utilises the principles of the Egoscue method and is certificated in the
Primal Blueprint. He lives with family and dogs in Melbourne.
Dedication
To all Meares' Stillness Meditation teachers who are spreading something
precious and who should be encouraged.
To my family (including the Capital Letter Queen) for reading various
drafts and patiently allowing completion of the print and epub versions of
this book.
Disclaimer
It may be hazardous to heath not to relax and live in a calm way.
You, the reader, have a responsibility to seek out and listen to the best advice available. Follow
sensible advice. Disregard advice which is the opposite. This all applies to this book. This book is
intended for general information only. It should not be used as a substitute for consulting a qualified
health practitioner. Neither the author nor the publisher can accept any responsibility for your health
or any side effects of methods in this book.
Copyright
© Owen Bruhn 2016. Except as provided by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, communicated to the public without the prior written permission of the copyright owner or
CAL.
*Section 2 is a Condensation of Relief without Drugs by Ainslie Meares that is copyright property of © Australian Consolidated
Press originally published in The Australian Women's Weekly 1968. The use of this work has been licensed. Except as permitted
by the Copyright Act, you must not re-use this work without the permission of the copyright owner or CAL. Editorial comments
inserted in distinctive font in Section 2 are copyright property of © O. Bruhn.
+Sample poems are reproduced from the following poetry books written by Ainslie Meares: From the Quiet Place, The Wealth
Within, Cancer:Another Way?, Dialogue on Meditation, Thoughts, Prayer and Beyond, My Soul and I, A Kind of Believing, A
Way of Doctoring, Lets Be at Ease, Man and Woman, and The Silver Years. The sample of poems is reproduced so that readers
may taste them, and having done so, be encouraged to source one or more of these books.
Differences between this ebook and the print
version
This ebook is based on the hardcopy version but has been adapted to suit
the eformat.
Footnotes
Print book - footnoted references are at the bottom of the same page.
Ebook - footnotes in text are hypertext links.
Relief Without Drugs by Ainslie Meares
Print book- RWD is in a different fonts in the hardcopy book. Font
selection varies by device and user preference and so this has not been able
to be done in the ebook.
Ebook - a black dotted line extends down the side of the page. Editors
remarks are in italics. The editor's summaries in the Relief Without Drugs
Section also have the same dotted line and have been adapted slightly.
Sample Poems by Ainslie Meares
Print book- Poetry was in a distinct font in the hardcopy book. Font
selection varies by device and user preference and so this has not been able
to be done in the ebook.
Ebook - a black dotted line extends down the side of the page.
It is recommended that the user use a smaller font size to gauge the length
of the lines before enlarging the font so that the poetry fits the screen. This
is important as using too large a font that truncated the lines of poetry so
they are displayed over 2 lines will interfere with reading the poetry as
Ainslie Meares intended it should be read.
Other differences
The order of Sections in the book differs from the print version. The foot
notes remain accurate but retain the numbering from the print version. There
has also been some minor editing.
Foreword
Many who pick up this book will do so because they remember the
innovative work of Dr Ainslie Meares across a range of psychological and
physiological interventions. Many will attribute life transformation to his
ideas and ‘way of doctoring’ and are grateful; many know his name and
would like to learn more, and some less informed may well have argued
against him. Regardless of readership, this work is a testimony to Meares’
genius as he opened doorways in the Western world to the recognition of
meditation as a practice for wellness – and also to what we now know as
mind-body medicine.
In Ainslie Meares on Meditation Owen Bruhn provides a summary of
information on this topic for 21stC readers. An avid and competent
researcher and committed advocate of Meares’ work, Bruhn’s condensation
of this substantial task is admirable. Within this book you will discover
Meares’ writings from his earliest through to those written close to his
passing in 1986. Among these, Owen Bruhn has also discovered a range of
Meares’ little known writings and publications previously difficult to
source, along with observations of value but not necessarily part of the
essence of his final teaching.
Included in this book is a distilled version of Meares’ classic Relief
Without Drugs, written for the public and first published in the U.S.A. in
1967. That work is still sought after and very difficult to purchase today so
Ainslie Meares on Meditation provides a significant section of that
knowledge. Section 3 of Bruhn’s book summarises Meares’ entire body of
work on meditation and includes an overview of the typical exercises
suggested for those without access to a teacher together with Meares’
inimitable style of ‘making the stillness experience more general’.
Ainslie Meares’ work evolved via an extraordinary and diverse journey to
reach its end point. In his book Owen Bruhn has kindly given credit to me
in following that tradition. While my work and my writings on Stillness
Meditation Therapy authentically replicate Meares’ core teaching, this book
by Owen Bruhn provides the map, the way by which Meares arrived at his
conclusive style of meditation. I highly recommend this book to all who
aim to live and teach ‘a better life’.
Pauline McKinnon, Melbourne 2017
Table of Contents
Differences between Print and Eformat
Foreword
Background
Outline
1 RELIEF WITHOUT DRUGS BY AINSLIE MEARES
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Nature of Anxiety
1.3 Common Causes of Anxiety
1.4 Self Management of Anxiety
Editor's Summary
1.5 Some Notes About Pain
Editor's Summary
2. STILLNESS MEDITATION AND LIVING CALM
2.1 Introduction
2.2 A Natural Self Regulatory Mechanism
2.3 Natural Mental Rest
2.4 The Stillness Meditation Process
2.5 Making The Stillness More General
2.6 Living Calm
3. SAMPLES OF POEMS BY AINSLIE MEARES
4. MEARES' TEACHING PROTOCOL AND PERSONAL PRACTISES
5. LEARN, EXPERIENCE & LIVE CALM
6. ABOUT AINSLIE MEARES
6.1 The Early Years
6.2 Hypnosis Period
6.3 Relief Without Drugs (RWD) Period
6.4 Stillness Meditation Period
6.5 Ainslie Meares' Books
6.6 Photographs
Background
I remember hearing about Ainslie Meares' work in the media from
perhaps 1970 onwards. Eventually, I realised that this eminent doctor,
meditation researcher and teacher worked in the same city I lived in. I
decided to find out if he would teach me that which I felt was missing from
my own exploration of eastern arts. He granted my request. During my
attendance at his classes I witnessed his last step to simpler prompts
(discussed in book). Back in mid-1984 it was a change I accepted and
thought no more about.
In recent years, I sustained an uncomfortable injury. Various physical
treatments did little but, use of the principles of the Egoscue method
stabilised my injury and has helped maintain a good quality of movement.
Eventually, someone suggested I try visualising relaxation and I decided to
verify my meditation practice.
This is where the story really begins, in 2014, after I attended the Stillness
Meditation Therapy Centre. This deepened my own practice and
reinvigorated my interest - which only increased after I commenced the
SMT® teacher training course. I already had about 20 of Meares' books and
acquired copies of the rest as well as all his articles – if any were missed
they were pretty well hidden. So began a bibliography. At the repeated
suggestions of others this became a book about the man and his method.
Ainslie Meares on Meditation is the title as it is his story and his work.
Indeed, the distilled version of his book, Relief Without Drugs (RWD) and
samples of his poetry form part of the book.
Our ancestors were hunter gatherers for a million years, learnt
agriculture 10,000 years ago, then came the city, technology and computers.
Looking back, makes the pace and extent of change clearer. If anything, it is
increasing. Adverse health effects occur if our living conditions depart too
far from the evolutionary blueprint including diet, posture, physical activity,
etc.
Nature intended that humans take a few minutes of profound mental rest
daily and let this flow on so as to live a calm and better, busy life. This is
our birth right – it is Meares' method in a nutshell.
Read on and read deeply. But, appreciate that reading about Stillness
Meditation is not the same as experiencing it. Meares wrote at various times
that: it is only doing that really counts.