The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature

Finding Nirvana in the Classics

By: Dean Sluyter

Narrated by: Dean Sluyter

HOW THE LITERATURE WE LOVE CONVEYS THE AWAKENING WE SEEK

Suppose we could read Hemingway as haiku . . . learn mindfulness from Virginia Woolf and liberation from Frederick Douglass . . . see Dickinson and Whitman as buddhas of poetry, and Huck Finn and Gatsby as seekers of the infinite . . . discover enlightenment teachings in Macbeth, The Catcher in the Rye, Moby-Dick, and The Bluest Eye.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma - authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening - and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring listeners to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh new way: as a path of awakening.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Dean Sluyter (P)2022 New World Library

Critic reviews

“What a wise and wonderful book, an exploration of some of our greatest writers through the seemingly simplest and most noble questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? What is the nature of consciousness? What energies and forces supersede my transient ones? Bravo!” — Ken Burns, filmmaker

“The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature beautifully demonstrates how inspiration and spiritual insight can be found anywhere, at any time, in any situation. Dean Sluyter’s unveiling of the sacred within the secular is wonderful to experience, a satisfying feast for the mind and soul. Savor it.” — Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder and spiritual director, Agape International Spiritual Center

“This book is both wise and funny, inspired and inspiring, delightful and light filled. It opens up whole new ways of seeing.” — Connie Zweig, PhD, author of The Inner Work of Age

Genius

I never write reviews, but after listening to this book--three times!--I had to share with other readers what a gem this audiobook is. I laughed. I cried. Sometimes at the same time! Dean has an uncanny talent for pointing out connections that had never occurred to me, but seem obvious after he explains them in his wonderfully entertaining way.

Very fun book!

Find the Dharma in everything, because it's always there if you look!! I will forever be searching for it!

Beautifully genius!

I just can't tell you how soothing it is to listen to Dean's new book on audible. The book is so beautiful written and narrated that my car has become a place I cannot wait to get to so I can continue the book. I look forward to going to the grocery store, the doctor's office, and even work. Thank you Dean, for writing this book, I absolutely love it. I feel like I am a better person after listening. I think you will too.

Expected more

Overview of some great, and not so great, works of western lit in relation to eastern thought. Most of the connections seemed tenuous at best, mixed with a few interesting insights. The last third of the book was particularly arduous...the example of the National Anthem was just silly. The narration provides another example as to why authors should not read their own works, and this one was apparently a teacher...don't sign me up.