Spiritual Teacher John de Ruiter: 3 Lessons In Learning How To Be

An author, teacher and spiritual pioneer, Canadian John de Ruiter has traveled around the world to share his thoughts on consciousness, purpose and spirituality. 

People from all walks of life have found profound meaning and change when conversing with John de Ruiter, whether it’s at The College of Integrated Philosophy in Edmonton, Canada, which de Ruiter founded in 2006, or at spiritual retreats in India, Germany, or Israel. 

These are a few highlights of recorded discussions with John de Ruiter, in the classic question-and-answer format that he has shared with others for so many years. 

See more dialogues with John de Ruiter on his website, johnderuiter.com. 

“Opening to the moment”

November 4th, 2015, New York   

Q: Hello, thanks for being here. I’m just I guess how do we connect to that restful place or that knowing when there’s been a lot of pain or trauma, or there are patterns of addiction or things that are just not life-supporting?

John de Ruiter: By valuing what honestly matters most to you in the midst of what you know matters less to you, and by not crossing those levels just because you can.  When you’re honest in the midst of that, what you are is awareness relaxing. When awareness relaxes it knows more deeply. When you know more deeply in the midst of something that’s upsetting to your self, in that moment what upsets your self matters less. You’re already right there in your return, you’re returning to what you know what matters more and what matters first.  It is so profoundly simple that it is overlooked.  

You naturally have moments where you’re home all throughout the day; they’re fleeting moments when your body is a little bit tired and you have a seat. In the moment that you sit down, if you notice, within that moment you’re free of your past, you’re free of your day, of your person and of your self, because within a moment you’re absorbed into what you know, whether you sit down when you’re a little bit weary or when you’re thirsty and you have a sip of water, or when you sit down to eat, and you have that first bite of food. These moments are strewn all through your day; single fleeting moments, all the way through, of you being home. When you realize within any of those moments, that moment opens and deepens. 

“Your life and your time just goes by”
January 25, 2015, Cologne, Germany

Q: For the last couple of years I’ve been working to earn the money for my family, and it was a lot. I knew I needed more space for something new, for something different in me, and I couldn’t make the switch while working. So now my work is gone, and I know that I need to make a switch or a change. I was hoping you could help me.  

John de Ruiter: If you’re going to take time off, spend that time on what most directly helps what you’ve already awakened to. If you spend that time on your self, you will tire again. If you spend that time on your self, you are buying more time for you to remain in the loop in your self and the loop that you’re in, in this world. If you rejuvenate, that will expire. 

If you rejuvenate your self, what you invest in your self will expire again. In that way, your life and your time just goes by. 

‘Nothing needs to be happening’

November 14th, 2002 Vienna, Austria 

Q: Hello John. It’s about the will to live the truth. There is some will, but I also have that I still want to be someone. This can’t work together so can you tell me how to stop, to finish wanting to be someone. To give more space to the truth. 

John de Ruiter: Then instead of being someone, enjoy being no one. Being happy without a reason.

Q: Right. I’d be happy without a reason.  

John de Ruiter: Nothing needs to be happening.  

Q: I feel like a child now. 

John de Ruiter: Nothing needs to be happening. You don’t need to be experiencing something. Just quietly happy. Just simple sunshine. It doesn’t have to be measured by your thinking. It doesn’t have to be contained by something: quietly and happily boundless. Just simple sunshine within, the same here as there. The enjoyment within of being content with nothing; the enjoyment within of not needing anything within; the enjoyment of having no need within; a very subtle smile within your inner face. The most subtle smile within that very pleasantly has no beginning and no end. 

When you find it within, as subtle as it is, you don’t need to bring that smile all together into one point. It doesn’t need to serve a purpose. It isn’t there for your benefit; it is just simply, quietly and fully your first nature. It isn’t there for you to do something with. It is just enjoyably there.  

While you are still, just let it swim through you like fish. When you become still, it moves through you. When you try to move toward it, it becomes still. As you become still, it moves through you and it keeps moving through you until you begin to move as it does. That is your enjoyment of it without you needing it. It is not exciting. It is just very quietly soothing. It is not meant to excite you; it is meant to gentle you. As your heart becomes gentled, it naturally opens. It’s nothing exciting or big. It’s just true.