Dean Sluyter is an award-winning author who has taught meditation since 1970, from maximum security prisons to the Guatemalan rainforest. He’s a student of Eastern and Western sages from multiple traditions and has completed numerous pilgrimages and retreats in India, Tebet, Nepal, and the West. 

In this episode, Eric and Dean discuss his latest book, The Dharma Bums Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics, which reflects his lifelong exploration of the awakening process as well as his years as a prep school English teacher.

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Dean Sluyter and I Discuss How to See the Dharma in Western Literary Classics and …

• His book, The Dharma Bums Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics

The role (or lack thereof) of efforting in meditation

The difference between awareness and mind 

What it means to “relax your grip” or “let it be” during meditation

The Dharma and the Infinite in The Cat and the Hat 

That dualism is the way the world appears to us when viewed through the thinking mind

How to find the fragrant emptiness at the core of our minds, beyond all thoughts

That only the infinite can give us infinite joy, in the finite world – having can’t match our yearning.

The nature of desire is that it replicates itself

Kindness in Huckleberry Finn

That the kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth, within and all around us

Dean Sluyter Links

Dean’s Website

Instagram

Facebook

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Dean Sluyter, check out these other episodes:

Dean Sluyter Interview (2019)

Inventions in Literature with Angus Fletcher

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