Our Approach
Owen teaches the 5 pillars Stillness Meditation Touch Therapy system as the late Dr Ainslie Meares taught it to him and wrote about it in his many books and papers. The 5 elements Owen calls pillars are:
P1. Solo Stillness Meditation.
P2. Meditation progression. Incremental addition of slight difficulty.
P3. Living in calm and ease, even in the face of difficulty.
P4. Meditation support factors.
P5. Stillness powered meditative touch therapy.
Modified Versions
Some teachers who have still managed to help a lot of people do not teach all 5 pillars. Modified versions are compared with the 5 pillars system below:
P1 (Stillness Meditation) similar assuming effortlessness rather than focus is taught. P1 is impacted by diminished or absent P2-P5.
P2 is virtually absent. No increments means no meditation progression.
P3 is diminished without ease facilitated by P2.
P4 is weak or absent. Support factors are forgotten or glossed over.
P5 is weakened. Nonverbal communication (eg touch) is downsized or absent with more talk.
Pillar 5. Stillness powered touch therapy
One researcher who says they don't use touch claims Meares' had a second teaching method involving only talk, said to be in one of Meares' books. Books use the written word. Without written words, there can be no “textbooks” as in instructional and self help books. Ainslie Meares wrote instructions (they are in Ainslie Meares on Meditation) so readers unable to travel or without resources could learn Stillness Meditation.
Meares wrote:- “Touch says what words cannot say... As we let our minds go still together, the process is greatly intensified by some degree of physical contact”. ABL.
Does theory really matter?
Theory is important. But, only if put into practice.
Remember, that every human has the ability to still the mind. It is just that culture, tension and anxiety sometimes resulted in this being greatly weakened or forgotten. It can be re-learnt. Pracitically anyone can learn to experience Stillness in meditation, and calm and ease in daily living. It is only experiencing that really counts! Each step down the path makes the next step easier. The 5 pillars pave the way to a better life.
Explaining the 5 pillars means noting differences from other methods. Also important is: "unity in essentials, freedom in non-essentials and empathy in all things".