Dean Sluyter

BIOGRAPHY

Dean Sluyter (rhymes with "lighter") has taught natural meditation throughout the U.S. since 1970. He guides the New Jersey Sangha and is a prison chaplain for the New Jersey Department of Corrections. A leading innovator in the use of meditative techniques in education, Dean taught from 1977 to 2010 at The Pingry School, where he developed the Literature of Enlightenment program; he now teaches at Milken Community High School in Los Angeles. He is a sometime film critic and the author of three books, the most recent being Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies, and he blogs for The Huffington Post. Dean has given talks and workshops throughout the U.S. at such venues as the Chautauqua Institution, New York Open Center, and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and has spoken at colleges including Columbia, Rutgers, Wesleyan, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has appeared in various media, including Oprah & Friends Radio and National Public Radio. His work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly, which called his writing "joyously entertaining." 


Born into a family of musicians and political activists, Dean grew up in New York and Los Angeles. He dropped out of college to hitchhike around the country and embark on a path of spiritual investigation, eventually returning to earn a B.A. in English and an M.A. in interdisciplinary education. He was married for twenty-five years to the late artist and dharma teacher Maggy Sluyter and has two grown children. He is now engaged to film editor and yoga teacher Yaffa Lerea.

Dean has trained and practiced with eminent teachers in various devotional and meditative traditions, with his main focus on the nondual contemplative approaches of Buddhism and Advaita. He has completed numerous lengthy retreats in the U.S. and abroad and has made pilgrimages to India, Tibet, and Nepal. When not writing or teaching, Dean takes photographs, plays and sings in the kirtan band Mantra Squad, and happily rides his Vespa through the streets of Santa Monica.

A lively TV interview with Dean on the spiritual teachings of Jaws is here.

More TV and radio interviews are here.

Audio of Dean's March 8, 2009, talk to the Ethical Culture Society on "Buddhas in the Classroom" is here.


TALKS AND WORKSHOPS

Dean's talks and workshops throughout the United States are noted for their clarity, warmth, and humor. Topics include:

  • Just Being: The Way of Natural Meditation and Self-Inquiry 
  • Buddhas Behind Bars: Life Lessons from Prisoners 
  • Breaking Out: Freedom from the "I" 
  • Shower the People You Love with Love 
  • Pilgrimage in India (with spectacular slide show) 
  • Free Your Voice and Your Mind Will Follow 
  • Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies 
  • The Zen Commandments: Ten Suggestions for a Life of Inner Freedom 
  • Your Children Will Be Buddhas 
  • Shakespeare's Cosmic Vision 
  • The Dude Abides: Enlightenment Teachings of The Big Lebowski
  • A Perfect Day for Nirvanafish: J.D. Salinger and the Spiritual Quest 
  • Shakespeare's Cosmic Vision 
  • Meditation in the Classroom 

. . . and other topics as the occasion requires.


Dean loves traveling and teaching. If you represent a school, a corporation, an organization, or a group of individuals who would be interested in attending a workshop, contact him about organizing one in your area. He is also happy to chat with book clubs and discussion groups anywhere in the world via Skype video calls.



CONTACT deansluyter@gmail.com

LITERARY AGENT Jonathan Matson, Harold Matson Inc., 212.679.4490, jonpmats@aol.com

PRISON WORK Information on volunteering to teach dharma in prisons: Liberation Prison Project

UNIVERSE Beautiful photos of our amazing universe: Astronomy Picture of the Day

MOOJI Highly, highly recommended: YouTube videos of enlightening dialogues with Mooji, the brilliant Jamaican-British self-inquiry master, are here and here.

"There is only Awareness, no 'one' being aware."
   - Mooji