Embarking on a journey into natural meditation often stems from personal experiences of inner stillness and expansiveness, as it did for Dean Sluyter.
From spontaneous childhood moments of tranquility to discovering spiritual texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads during his teenage years, Dean’s path was shaped by a deep-seated curiosity about meditation. His early attempts at Zen led him to Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, where he learned to embrace the mind’s natural tendency to settle into stillness.
Today, Dean passionately shares his insights with MysticMag, making natural meditation accessible to all through free online sessions, and emphasizing the effortless, inherent peace that lies within us all.
What led you to start your journey in natural meditation?
Like many people, I had a number of spontaneous encounters with inner stillness and feelings of expansiveness in my childhood. I think a lot of people have those experiences and then just kind of forget about them. But in my case, it caught my attention. I thought, “Wow, what’s going on here?”
By the time I was in high school in the mid-60s, I was in California. That was when we were just starting to find books like the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. So I started reading about these things, including the Tao Te Ching, around the age of 15 or 16. As soon as I started hearing about meditation, I knew, “Oh yeah, this is what I want to do. Why would anyone not do that?” It just seemed obvious.
My early encounters with meditation included being a Zen student for about three days. I flunked Zen because the whole idea of sitting completely still didn’t work for me; my body was too fidgety for that, and my mind was too restless to concentrate on one thing. This led me to look around, and what I found out was that I was just normal, like most people.
At that time, I discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught Transcendental Meditation, a form of natural meditation. The principle is that rather than trying to control the mind and push away thoughts, which is like trying to get the mind to be still by making it busier (a contradiction), you allow the mind’s natural tendency to settle, relax, and move into stillness. Within a few years, I became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation.
Later on, I widened my scope and studied with Buddhist teachers who were tuned into that natural method, which has different names in Tibetan Buddhism. I particularly spent time with Tibetan Buddhist teachers where the natural approach is called Dzogchen.
These days, I teach independently and am very interested in making natural meditation, the effortless path, available to as many people as possible. Most of my teaching these days is done on Zoom. I lead Zoom sessions three times a week, and they’re free and open to everyone.
Can you explain the concept of natural meditation and how it differs from other forms of meditation?
No problem. If you think of the mind as being like an ocean, when people realize they want to experience peace and silence through meditation, they often think they need to flatten out all the waves on the surface. So, you grab a big oar or a paddle and start trying to flatten the waves. That doesn’t work. There are too many waves, and you actually just create more turbulence in the water. This is what happens when people try to meditate in the conventional sense.
In natural meditation, we allow the mind’s natural tendency to settle in the direction of peace. Instead of trying to flatten out the waves, we let the waves be and just sink a few feet below the surface. The great discovery is that beneath the waves, the ocean is already silent. It’s always silent and vast. The mistake is trying to quiet the mind. The mind is never quiet because the mind means thinking. There is no entity called “mind”; it’s just like the wind. The wind does not exist separate from blowing. The mind does not exist separate from thinking.
The mistake is confusing the mind with awareness. Awareness, which is deeper and underlies the mind, is by nature silent. When we allow our attention to settle below the mind into awareness, we realize that we don’t have to do anything to silence it. It’s already right here.
What are some common misconceptions about meditation that you encounter?
Most people think of meditation as trying to concentrate or still the mind. This leads to misconceptions such as believing that only people with strong powers of concentration can meditate or that you need a silent place to do it. I love meditating on the subway when I’m in New York City because it’s so noisy, crowded, and chaotic. It’s wonderful to find the silence of awareness, like the silent ocean beneath the waves, right there in the midst of everything.
Another misconception is that you can only meditate in a particular way, like needing a mantra or doing breathing exercises such as pranayama. While these practices can be helpful, they are not central to natural meditation. They are like side dishes to the main course. In natural meditation, you let Mother Nature drive the car while you relax in the passenger seat. Everything is fine, and everything is easy.
How can beginners start incorporating natural meditation into their daily lives?
The simplest way is to join one of my Zoom sessions, which are free and open to everyone. I offer them at various times during the week, so they are convenient for people in different parts of the world. As soon as you find out how easy it is, you’ll see that you can meditate in this natural way not only when you’re sitting at home on your cushion or in your chair but also in other settings.
For example, you can meditate in the doctor’s waiting room. A few weeks ago, I had some dental work done, and while they were drilling away at my teeth, I was just sinking back into silent awareness, meditating through the whole thing. It was great. This shows that you can incorporate natural meditation into your daily life, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.
Can you share a transformative experience from your work with meditation?
Yeah, I’ve done a lot of work with prisoners in maximum security, and I’ve seen incredible transformations in their lives. One instance that stands out is a man who came up to me after meditating with me for about a month. He was in maximum security and said, “I’m so glad I was sent to prison because I never would have encountered this teaching in any other way.”
He grew up on the streets of Newark, NJ—a very rough town where all he knew were drug dealers and killers. He witnessed his first murder at the age of seven, standing on a street corner when the local drug dealer, who was handing him a dollar, was shot. You can imagine how dramatically traumatized he was. But as he continued to attend our sessions, I watched him transform back into the sweet, innocent person he was before that trauma. Since then, he has been released from prison, married a wonderful woman, has a beautiful daughter, and is working a steady job—a complete transformation of his life.
I have many stories like that. Let me share another one. I was hosting in-person sessions, and a young woman, about 20 years old, started coming regularly. She never spoke or asked questions during the sessions. One night, after she’d attended four or five times, she took me aside as she was about to leave. She said, “I just want to tell you one thing. I’m a heroin addict. I’ve been in recovery for six months. The way I felt in the meditation tonight—I never thought I could feel that way in this life without drugs. Thank you.”
When things like that happen, it’s incredibly rewarding.
What advice would you give to someone struggling to maintain a regular meditation practice?
Stop struggling.
Find out more at: DeanSluyter.com
Dean’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DeanSluyter01/videos
