The Many Vehicles Of Meditation with Dean Sluyter

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Have you ever tried to meditate regularly but had trouble sticking to it? Have you told yourself that you just don’t have enough discipline to sit and tame your mind, rest in the space between thoughts, or achieve a completely blank mind? Dean Sluyter advocates what he calls natural meditation. He tells us not to worry about thoughts during our meditation. When we find ourselves getting carried away by our thoughts during meditation (and it happens to everyone) he says, “Okay, there are some thoughts going on, there are some sounds going on outside, there is some traffic rolling by. Fine. It doesn’t matter. It’s all a texture of the silence, which actually you are at your core. It’s just resting in what you are in your own essence.” We can tap into the nature of our beingness by allowing ourselves to rest our attention in the heart center or on the breath and let this natural gravitation take over. He says that we’re not “creating silence,” we’re discovering the inner silence that underlies all the thought. The door to this inner silence is everywhere, and after a while you begin to experience it everywhere such as walking in the park or riding the subway. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to meditation. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Bio

Dean Sluyter has taught natural methods of meditation and awakening throughout the United States and beyond since 1970. He’s taught at colleges, yoga studios, corporate offices, and maximum-security prisons. He’s known for his funny, down-to-earth style, and for making life-transforming teachings accessible and easy. 

Dean Sluyter is the author of many books including:

• The Zen Commandments: Ten Suggestions for a Life of Inner Freedom (Tarcher/Putnam 2001)
• Why the Chicken Crossed the Road: & Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings from the Buddha to Bebop to Mother Goose (Tarcher/Putnam 1998)
• Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies (Three Rivers Press 2005)
• Natural Meditation: A Guide to Effortless Meditative Practice (Tarcher/Penguin 2015)
• Fear Less: Living Beyond Fear, Anxiety, Anger, and Addiction (TarcherPerigee 2018) 

To learn more about the work of Dean Sluyter go to www.deansluyter.com

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• How we need to find the meditation style that suits us
• What is meant by Natural Meditation
• How we all are searching for unbounded happiness, what some would call Nirvana
• What are the many doorways into meditation
• How a daily practice of meditation can put us in contact with the inner silence beneath all thought
• What is the myth of the monkey mind
• What is the sky meditation
• How Sluyter works with prisoners in a very noisy environment
• How we can meditate in a subway
• Meditating on the breath
• How to bring yourself back to your meditation when you go off on some long train of thought
• What is the benefactor meditation
• Who is Sri Mooji, Sluyter’s teacher

Host: Justine Willis Toms   Interview Date: 4/23/2015   Program Number: 3540

Music Playlist

From Album: Zen Pause
Artist: Thierry David
2007 Real Music #RM4210

Music Break 1: Track 09 It’s Safe to Sway
Music Break 2: Track 01 Rain on Me
Music Break 3: Track 03 Core Breath