The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature cover art

The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature

Finding Nirvana in the Classics

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature

By: Dean Sluyter
Narrated by: Dean Sluyter
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.52

Buy Now for £15.52

About this listen

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 Eastern Literary History & Criticism Philosophy Witty Funny Meditation

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
All stars
Most relevant
An enjoyable read into the dharma hidden within great literature. An easy listen well read. Highly recommended.

Buddha in the classics

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.