Dean Sluyter

Dean Sluyter (pronounced “slighter”) has taught natural approaches to meditation and awakening since 1970, from elite prep schools to maximum-security prisons. His six books include two Nautilus Award winners, Natural Meditation: A Guide to Effortless Meditative Practice and The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics. Publishers Weekly has called his work “joyously entertaining.”

A grateful student of Eastern and Western sages in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions, Dean has completed numerous pilgrimages and retreats in Asia and the West. He is known for conveying authentic teachings in forms that are relaxed, accessible, and down-to-earth.

Dean is now on the faculty of the West Coast Writers Conferences and is married to documentary filmmaker Yaffa Lerea. He is a contributing writer to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, narrates audiobooks, co-hosts The Filmosophers movie podcast, sings for dying people with the Threshold Choir, and zips happily through the streets of Santa Monica on his Vespa.