How to See the Dharma in Western Literary Classics with Dean Sluyter
The One You Feed
Eric Zimmer
4.6 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2022
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Dean Sluyter, check out these other episodes:
Inventions in Literature with Angus Fletcher
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your favorite restaurant they change chefs. |
| 0:02.6 | Your favorite shirt turns into a dust reg. |
| 0:05.2 | You know, the boot is teaching of impermanence. |
| 0:07.2 | It's all going away all the time. |
| 0:09.0 | [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ |
| 0:16.9 | Welcome to the One You Feed. |
| 0:18.9 | Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized |
| 0:21.3 | the importance of the thoughts we have, |
| 0:23.5 | quotes like garbage in, garbage out, |
| 0:25.9 | or you are what you think, ring true. |
| 0:29.1 | And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen |
| 0:31.9 | or empower us. |
| 0:33.3 | We tend toward negativity, self-pity, |
| 0:36.1 | jealousy, or fear. |
| 0:38.1 | We see what we don't have instead of what we do. |
| 0:40.9 | We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. |
| 0:44.4 | But it's not just about thinking. |
| 0:46.4 | Our actions matter. |
| 0:47.8 | It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort |
| 0:50.6 | to make a life worth living. |
| 0:52.7 | This podcast is about how other people keep themselves |
| 0:55.4 | moving in the right direction. |
... |
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