John de Ruiter

John de Ruiter (born November 11, 1959) is a Canadian Nondualist author who conducts meetings and seminars on his own 'College of Integrated Philosophy' in Edmonton, Alberta and abroad.

Early life

John de Ruiter was born on November 11, 1959, one of two boys and two girls raised by Dutch immigrant parents in the town of Stettler in Alberta, Canada. While still a boy, he was taught shoe repair by his father, who was from a long line of shoemakers from De Bilt in the Netherlands.

Career

At the age of 17 de Ruiter claims to have experienced a spontaneous state of awakening, which lasted a year, then left him as abruptly as it had come. Following this experience, de Ruiter spent several years investigating many mystical and philosophical traditions in an attempt to regain what he had lost. He found no existing system, religious dogma or technique that provided the means to fill the void he felt. According to de Ruiter, only unconditional surrender returned him to the state of awakening.

De Ruiter founded in 2005 in Edmonton the College of Integrated Philosophy, where he holds weekly meetings when he is not travelling. the facility is said to be worth $7-million.

Teachings

In public meetings de Ruiter rarely addresses the whole group, he responds to questions on a one-on-one basis with individuals from the audience on stage and often respond after long pauses of 30 minutes or sometimes answer not at all in a three-hour-long session. During these periods of silence de Ruiter is said to be in a deep state of Samadhi. His teaching style has been compared to oral-based teaching of Tibetan Buddhism where detachment and release are also key principles. Paul Joosee, in his 2009 study of de Ruiter published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion, concluded that de Ruiter’s silences can inspire devotion in three ways: First, it elicits projection, the psychological phenomenon in which we attribute certain thoughts or feelings to another, in other words, listeners often interpret silence as understanding. Second, silence sometimes served as a punitive purpose, as a display of power. Third, combined with gazing deeply into another's eyes, silence can create the sort of intimacy usually exclusive to lovers, followers can confuse the act that usually accompanies intimacy with actual intimacy, feeling connected to de Ruiter in a deeply loving way and inspire devotion simply by gazing at them.

"Okayness" is according to de Ruiter central in his philosophy. It is best understood as "loving acceptance" and can exist even "in moments of intense sorrow or immense physical pain." De Ruiter states that "Truth lives in each one of us," and that a high level of awareness, that can only come from "core splitting honesty," is required to understand that there is no necessity to search. De Ruiter is said to practice and recommend inner quiet and integrity on all levels of life, from the profound to the superficial.

Controversy of de Ruiter's movement arose in 1999 when in a public meeting his wife confronted him after learning that de Ruiter was involved with two daughters of a devotee, the sisters later sued him in court for support.

Publications

Books

• The Intelligence of Love: Manifesting Your Being In This World, Dragon Hill Publishing Ltd, 2015 ISBN 978-0-994882-00-4 (PB)
• Unveiling Reality, Oasis Edmonton Publishing, 1999 ISBN 978-1894538008 (PB)

Audio CDs

• True accompaniment, 2005 ISBN 1894748883
• A renaissance of being, 2005 ISBN 1894748905
• Sincerity and comprehensiveness, 2005 ISBN 1894748891
• Sustaining being with being, 2005 ISBN 189474893X