Paul Wilson (meditation teacher)

Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson at 'Mind and its Potential' Conference.
Born	Outback, Australia
Medium	Author, meditation teacher, businessman
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1980–present
Subject(s)	Calm, peace of mind, meditation, spiritual growth
Notable works and roles	The Calm Technique, Instant Calm, Little Book of Calm, Perfect Balance, The Quiet, A Piece of the Quiet, numerous musical albums, mass 'learn to meditate' programs
Website	http://www.calmcentre.com/ http://www.millionmeditators.org/

Paul Wilson is a meditation teacher, columnist,^[1] and author of two novels^[2][3] and 19 self-help and spiritually-oriented books, including The Calm Technique, Instant Calm, The Little Book of Calm, Calm at Work, The Little Book of Calm at Work, Calm for Life, The Complete Book of Calm, Perfect Balance, The Quiet, A Piece of the Quiet and "Calm, No Matter What" – mostly around the topic of finding peace of mind in everyday life. Because so many of as these books had 'calm' in the title, the Times (UK) nicknamed him The Guru of Calm^[4][5][6][7]

Wilson began his meditation training in the Buddhist and Yoga traditions, experimented with Transcendental Meditation in London in the late 1960s, then distilled what he had learned from these and other meditation traditions into a simple, secular approach which he coined 'the Calm Technique'. This, and other meditation methods, were taught free of charge at his training centre, the Calm Centre, based in Sydney, Australia. In 1986 he wrote about his successes with this method in The Calm Technique, Meditation without Magic or Mysticism. Wilson's meditation methods are taught and practiced throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia.

It has been estimated that he has taught over 1,000,000 people to meditate,^[8][9] and he was listed as one of the 100 people who make Britain a happier place.^[8]

The Calm Centre

The Calm Centre is a non-profit meditation teaching, training and meeting center established by Paul Wilson in 1983 in Sydney, Australia. The Calm Centre presented a secular approach to meditation, on a face-to-face basis, at no charge.

Books

Calm, No Matter What

Calm No Matter What (ISBN 978-1-40503934-5 was published by Pan McMillan.

The Calm Technique

Wilson's book The Calm Technique (ISBN 978-0-7607-1524-6) was one of the first mass-market books on meditation. First published in the Eighties by Greenhouse in Australia and Bantam in the USA, it attracted a wide audience in Europe, USA and South East Asia. It has been translated into several languages.^{[10][11][12][13]}

The Quiet

The Quiet (ISBN 978-1-40503766-2) was published by Pan McMillan in the UK and Australia and by Tarcher/Penguin in the USA.

The Little Book of Calm

The Little Book of Calm (ISBN 0-14028526-1) was published by Penguin Books in 1997. It distills Wilson's larger books Instant Calm, and was written during a Zen seminar in Japan.^[14] One review described it as "the first and still one of the best books aimed at counteracting stress".^[15] The book has been translated into 24 languages^[13] including Italian,^[16] French,^[17] and Mandarin Chinese^[18]

Wilson followed up the book with titles including The Little Book of Calm at Work in 1998, The Little Book of Sleep and The Little Book of Hope in 1999, The Life Priorities Calculator in 2000, and A Piece of the Quiet in 2007.^[19][20]

References in popular culture

The Little Book of Calm featured in numerous satires and parodies in the late 1990s, with cartoons^[21][22] regularly appearing in UK daily newspapers. The book was featured in the first episode of the British comedy Black Books, when Manny Bianco accidentally swallowed a copy of it. The book is later absorbed into his body, and he is able to dole out helpful calm-inviting comments to passersby, such as "When you're feeling under pressure, do something different. Roll up your sleeves, or eat an orange".^[23]

Footnotes