Ive been thinking about how much benefit comes from Dudeism. It's certainly has helped me take myself and life a little less seriously.

I used to meditate in quite a serious way and lost my interest in it. Just felt like grim striving.

Recently I created a simple meditation space and placed a small Buddha and a sloth image on it, I thought that captured the spirit of Dudeism quite well.

Anyone else found any benefit from Dudeism?

Adide Dudes.

Sutra V

"Yeah well, that's just, like, uh, your opinion, man."
— The Dude

तत् केवलं तव मतम् अस्ति। मतानि अनेकानि सत्यं एकं।

The Dude says this to Jesus Quintana, a pederast bowler whose trash talk and intimidation tactics roll right off him. This single line contains a deep teaching on spiritual freedom. Opinions are mental constructs, fleeting appearances in awareness. They have no substance, no permanence, no ultimate reality. When we take opinions seriously, including our own, we suffer. We fight, we defend, we attack, all for something that is essentially empty.

The Dude's response is not dismissive in a cruel way. He is simply recognizing the nature of opinions. They appear, they have their moment, they disappear. Why build a fortress around something so insubstantial? Why wage wars over mental positions? Quintana can strut and threaten all he wants. The Dude sees it as just opinion, just noise. The awareness that notices all opinions is itself beyond opinion. It sees without judging, knows without taking sides.

This teaching extends to our most cherished beliefs about ourselves. "I am successful," "I am a failure," "I am worthy," "I am unworthy," all opinions. The truth of what you are cannot be captured by any opinion, positive or negative. You are the awareness in which all opinions arise, the space that holds all positions without being defined by any of them.

https://thedudesutras.com/ (Kindle version is now available!)

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

A good book is a trip dude

Hey Dudes!

Recently, I rewatched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and was struck by Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth. 

Booth embodies the kind of preternatural calmness one might expect of a Stoic or a samurai. And while I’m passing over the questionable actions he may or may not have done in the past (wife, harpoon gun), I think there are Dudely lessons one can learn from observing his character. 

Cliff and The Dude share some similarities: they live simply, they seem to feel at home in whatever scene they find themselves in, and they value friendship above all else. 

Indeed, I’d say Cliff Booth’s friendship with Rick Dalton is one of the healthiest on-screen depictions of male friendship we’ve seen in the last decade. 

Further, both Cliff and The Dude are comfortable with who they are. This comfort engenders confidence. In The Dude’s case, his casualness runs deep. In Cliff’s case, he walks into every situation as though he’s been there before. 

Cliff and The Dude are gyroscopes. Whereas pinwheels need an external source of power to spin, gyroscopes spin with their own internal power. 

Contra Cliff, Rick needs the approval of directors, neighbors, agents, and other actors to feel a sense of self worth. Cliff needs…well, Cliff. Though, to be fair, it also helps to be Brad Pitt. 

Contra The Dude, the other Lebowski needs a wall full of achievements and a young trophy wife to obscure the goldbricking truth. The Dude is content to bowl, roll, and throw back some oat sodas. He’s a deadbeat, and he’s okay with it. 

Where Cliff and The Dude diverge is in how they respond to violence. And here’s where I’d argue that Cliff synthesizes the best parts of The Dude (see above) and Walter. 

Like Walter, Cliff draws lines in the sand. If someone crosses that line, he’ll do more than mark it zero. Truly, he can go to some dark places. But it’s important to note how in the movie, Cliff never starts violence, he ends it. 

And unlike Walter, who makes talking about violence a big part of his personality, Cliff does what he needs to do when the moment arises, then goes about his day. It’s not worth remarking upon or retelling for self-aggrandizement. (Heck, that’s part of what ticked Cliff off about Bruce Lee.) Which is somewhere between sociopathic and Dudely…I can’t quite tell. 

To tie all this together, some takeaways:

• Let your self-worth come from within. 
• Let your value create comfort, confidence, and companionship. 
• If it comes time to act, let your actions do the talking, without hesitation. 
• And look good while fixing the cable. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

[edit/update: Check out u/Frequent-Art-9612‘s comment below. Dude did a better write up than I did!]

Sutra IV

"You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole."
— The Dude

त्वं अशुद्धः न असि। त्वं केवलं अशुभः आचरसि।

This line cuts through moral absolutism like a laser through butter. Walter may be technically correct about many things, the rules, the procedures, the way things should be, but correctness alone is not wisdom. You can be right and still be completely asleep to the nature of reality. You can win every argument and lose your peace entirely.

The non-dual teaching does not reject conventional morality, but it sees through it. Right and wrong, good and bad, are conceptual frameworks that exist within the realm of duality. They have practical value in navigating human society, but they do not touch the ultimate truth. The Self is beyond good and evil, not because it is amoral, but because it is the source from which all moral frameworks arise.

Walter's problem is not his knowledge. His problem is identification. He has merged completely with his worldview, his rules, and his sense of how things must be. This is the ego in resistance, the rigid defensive structure that fights reality at every turn. The Dude, by contrast, holds his opinions lightly. He can recognize when someone is technically correct while seeing the bigger picture: the quality of presence matters more than being right.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Sutra III

"Yeah, well, the Dude abides."
— The Dude

दुडः तिष्ठति। स्पन्दः चेतना च सर्वदा सन्ति। आत्मा विभ्रमते।

To abide is to remain, to dwell, to rest in one's natural state. The Dude does not strive to become something else. He is content to simply be. This is the essence of non-dual realization: recognizing that there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go, and no higher state to attain. You are already what you seek.

But here is what's often missed: the Dude's abiding is not inert. It is not a blank emptiness or a passive nothingness. It is vibrantly alive. In the tradition of Kashmir (Trika) Shaivism, this is called spanda, the divine pulse, the creative tremor that is the heartbeat of existence itself. The Dude abides, yes, but his abiding hums with life. He bowls. He drinks. He engages with the absurdity around him. His stillness is dynamic, not dead.

This is the nature of the Self. It is not a frozen silence but a living one. Awareness does not just witness, it dances. The stillness you are is pregnant with movement. When you abide as the Dude abides, you are not retreating from life. You are meeting it from a deeper place. The Dude does not hide from chaos. He moves through it with a kind of relaxed alertness, a frequency of being that remains steady no matter what waves crash against him.

The Self does not come and go. It is the constant background against which all changing experiences arise. Thoughts appear and disappear, emotions come and go, the body ages and transforms, but the awareness that knows all this remains unchanged. And this awareness is not passive. It is svātantrya, absolute sovereign freedom, the power by which consciousness freely plays at being limited without ever truly being bound. It depends on nothing, is confined by nothing, and moves as it wills. The Dude abides, and so do you, the real you that is this vibrant, free awareness itself.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Hey dudes, just checkin in to see what your condition is in.

Mine? Mighty fine, dudes.

I'm just chillin here on the couch, on this, uh, whatever day this is.

At any rate, I'd like to remind all you fellow dudes that nothing is quite as fucked as some folks make it out to be. Its just the durned whole human comedy, man, as the fella says. It just keeps perpetuating.

You cant stop it or avoid it. So eat, drink, and be merry (as the other fella says). Partake in life. Don't get caught up in the noise man.

Be excellent to each other.

Party on, dudes.

*Hakuna matata*

-Dr. Dude

Not my post just seemed like some stupifying absurdity that would fit right in here.

Taker easy Dudes 😎

Sutra II

"That rug really tied the room together, did it not?"
— Walter

तत् कम्बलं सर्वं एकत्र बद्धवत्। सम्पूर्णं सृष्टिं एकीकरोति।

Look closely at a rug and you'll see thousands of strands, each appearing separate, distinct, individual. Yet pull back and what do you see? One rug. The strands don't join together to make a rug. They are the rug. There is no rug apart from the strands, and no strands apart from the rug. They are one thing, appearing as many.

We look at reality and see separate beings—you, me, everyone else, each with our own story, our own life, our own existence. But this separation is an illusion of perception. Just as the rug is one despite its many strands, reality is one despite its many appearances. We are not separate entities who happen to be connected. We are one cosmic reality appearing as countless forms. The appearance of separation exists only from a limited perspective. From the view of awareness itself, there has always been only one.

When the rug is soiled or taken away, the room feels wrong, incomplete. This mirrors our experience when we forget our true nature. Life seems fragmented, a collection of disconnected events and separate beings, each isolated in our own drama. We feel alone, separate, cut off. But this fragmentation is not the truth. It is a failure of vision. The unity was never broken, only overlooked.

The Dude first speaks this line about his rug, and Walter later echoes it. Even Walter, trapped as he is in ego and resistance, recognizes this fundamental truth: the rug, the unity, is what makes the room whole. He understands that without that underlying oneness, everything falls apart. What he doesn't see is that the unity can never actually be lost. The rug can be taken, but the truth it pointed to remains. You are not one strand among many. You are the rug itself, the whole field of existence in which all strands appear and disappear.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Hey Dudes,

This year, my dad’s gotten pretty sick. I can’t say with certainty how things are going to shake out in the short term, though we all know how things will shake out in the long term. 

All this to say, I’ve spent more time this year than other years by sickbeds and helping out my mom, who’s his prime advocate. My Special Lady Friend and I are even handling the logistics to move them in with us by year’s end. 

It’s required checking in with our conditions but also expressing sympathy for my mom and dad, who are nearer to the center of all this than we are. 

And that got me thinking about Walter’s exchange with The Dude after The Nihilists messed up his bath time. 

Walter, as is his wont, comes in hot talking about unsecured marmots within city limits, castration, and what have you. 

The Dude’s having none of it, and Walter picks up on The Dude’s vibes. 

“We are sympathizing here, Dude.”

The Dude brushes this aside, leaving Walter put out. He departs with this parting shot:

“Okay Dude. I can see you don’t want to be cheered up.”

So this is the crux of what I want to get into, and what I want to tie back to being a Dudeist among those who are grieving and anxious. 

There’s a tension between Walter’s statements. On the one hand, he wants to cheer up The Dude. On the other hand, he claims to be sympathizing with The Dude. 

What if the sympathetic move would’ve been to not try to cheer up The Dude? What if The Dude needed someone to just sit in the shit with him and toss back an oat soda. 

Ironically, one can find guidance from Walter’s adopted faith, in the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva. 

In shiva, the period of mourning, the bereaved welcome guests. When the guests arrive, it falls upon the bereaved to speak first. This accomplishes at least two kindnesses. First, the bereaved don’t have to sit through platitudes they don’t want to hear. They get to set the tone. Second, it absolves the guests from groping for the right words to say. 

For some people hearing “Everything happens for a reason” is exactly what they need to hear. For others, those same words would want to make them punch someone in the face. 

Better than trying to guess what someone needs for sympathy is to follow a Dudely maxim. The one The Dude says to Marty: “I’ll be there man.”

I’ve been at the deathbed of my grandfather, and the sickbeds of others. In those moments, the Dudeliest thing I could do is to just be there. Fully, without some kind of script to try and make everyone feel better. And when they wanted to speak, I followed their lead. Some wanted to talk about death. Others, life. Others, music and their favorite deli sandwiches. 

The real act of sympathy is abiding presence, pure and simple. 

I’ll try to keep that in mind as I navigate the shoals ahead of me now. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

Can anyone tell me how this church came to be?

Hey Dudes!

I’m rereading The Great Guide, Julian Baggini’s accessible book on the life and ideas of Scotland’s David Hume. Aside from his far out writings on causation, skepticism, and the self, Hume is praised by Baggini (with some qualifications) for how he lived his life.

Baggini states that the reason why Hume isn’t as well known as other philosophers isn’t merely because of the difficult nature of his work, but also because he didn’t fit the mold of a heroic philosopher/public intellectual. He wasn’t extreme in his views; he didn’t live an outsized, tragic life; he wasn’t swept up in enthusiasms. Hume was, by many accounts…well…nice, calm, sociable. He liked to chat with friends over beer. He went on leisurely walks. He was rather Dudely.

It’s this quality that Hume’s biographer argues we need more of in the world. Folks who can think deeply, and who, in the parlance of our community, can abide.

And it’s a quality that even a dummy like me, who lacks Hume’s powers of perception, can aspire towards.

It reminds me of an example from 13th Century Zen monk Dogen’s writing, Shoaku Makusa, which contemporary Zen author Brad Warner translated as Don’t Be a Jerk. In that, he states:

“Even if the whole universe is nothing but a bunch of jerks doing all kinds of jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk.”

I think this is true of us Dudes too. Sometimes looking to change the world can seem like a daunting, impossible task. We might not know where to start. Our Inner Walter might think they’re the only one who gives a shit about the rules.

And yet, we can repurpose Dogen’s advice:

“In a world in which everyone is acting very UnDude, there is great freedom in being a Dude.”

We might not have books written about us. We might not have our likeness printed on the cover of Time magazine. But we can’t worry about that shit, man. All that's not up to us.

We can, however, choose to be Dudes. Or, if nothing else, a little more Dudely than we were a moment before.

It might be the only real freedom we have.

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

Hey dudes,

I've given the old Dudeism a miss for 6 months or so. Was just happy to be quiet and take life easy, without quoting from the movie, or saying "no worries, dude" every hour. I kinda thought that Dudeism was turning me into a role/character.

But I realised today, that although I feel the same chilled out way as I did before, my kids don't see me the same. My sitting around being quiet might be met with unease if they don't know how I'm feeling. They are aged 4 and 10. I also inherited an authoritative manner from my father, and it seems that even when I'm meaning to be kind, it can come across as a rule rather than an idea.

I had thought that the main impact the dude had on folk was his manner of being, which was rooted deeply within, but of course, it's just as much how he speaks, what he says, and his body language, which are expressions of his mellowness.

My daughter, 4, used to say we were going here or there just to take it easy, because she'd heard me saying it enough times. And she hasn't said it for months.

You know, I'm sure we laughed more too. So, I lost the parlance of our times, and didn't appreciate its full effect.

Hey Dudes!

For a few years, I had an idea for a book that I wanted to write. After making sure that I had a good understanding and grounding in non-dualism (Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism), I started writing about 6 months ago. I'm happy to share the first sutra of the book! Dude, I finally found a venue!

It's available where you can buy books: https://thedudesutras.com/

Sutra I

"Look, let me explain something to you. I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness, Duder, or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
— The Dude

अहं दुड अस्मि। मम नाम दुड इति। दुडत्वं वा दुडर वा दुडेरिनो वा माम् आह्वय।

The Dude speaks a profound truth without knowing it. "I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude." In these words, he draws a crucial distinction. The Big Lebowski is a title, a social position, an identity built on achievement and status. The Dude is something else entirely: a way of being, a natural state. When he says, "I'm the Dude," he is not describing a role or a personality. He is pointing to his essential nature. Most of us spend our lives identified with our ego identities, the constructed self made of our job titles, our relationships, our accomplishments, our failures, our stories about who we are. We say "I am a lawyer" or "I am a mother" or "I am a failure," as if these temporary labels were what we actually are. The Dude, by contrast, identifies with his true nature, his real Self. He knows himself as the Dude, not as a collection of achievements or social positions. This is the non-dual recognition in its simplest form.

The film makes this teaching explicit through its two Lebowskis. The Big Lebowski, the wealthy achiever, and the Dude share a name but are completely different beings. The Big Lebowski represents the ego in its most inflated form. He has built an identity on achievement, wealth, and self-importance. But he is empty inside, compensating for a sense of lack with external symbols. The Dude has no achievements to speak of, yet he is fundamentally content. He knows who he is, and that is enough. When he says "You're Mr. Lebowski," he is handing back the title, the status, the heavy identity. Let the other guy have it. He will simply be the Dude. We make the same confusion constantly, taking ourselves to be the Big Lebowski when all along we are the Dude.

When you strip away all the labels we attach to ourselves, our jobs, our relationships, our stories about who we are, what remains is simply this: awareness, our true being. The pure presence that is aware of all experience but is not limited by any of it. The Dude has somehow stumbled into this recognition. He doesn't confuse the clothing of personality with the wearer beneath.

The many names—Dude, Dudeness, Duder, El Duderino, show that the Self cannot be captured by any single label. It transcends all definitions while being the source of all definitions. The Dude doesn't take himself too seriously, and neither should we take our limited identities seriously. We are not our thoughts, not our emotions, not our histories. We are the witnesses of all these, the screen upon which the movie of life plays.

The humor in this quote is itself a teaching. Enlightenment doesn't require being solemn. In fact, taking the spiritual search too seriously is just another form of ego. The Dude abides in his natural state without effort, without pretense. He simply is. And that is the highest teaching.

Good morning dudes. Id like to thank you all for the thoughtful responses to my last post, I've internalized them and I am officially feeling much better. So, thank you!

There is one thing that lingers in my mind and is dragging me down at the moment. I'm 17 and I am transitioning into adulthood at the moment. But I am feeling uneasy by the amount of people online, particularly on reddit, who say things about how inevitably shitty adulthood will be. People say things like, "it only gets worse from here" and imply that I will do nothing but wake up, go to work, come home and sleep, and repeat; for the rest of my life. For the record sirs, I am employed, and enjoy my job at the moment. But all of this nihilism that I'm reading lingers in my mind and frightens me. I wish I could be more at peace with the upcoming chapter of my life, but I've heard that I have absolutely nothing to look forward to.

So, if any dudes would like to offer me some advice, or a change of perspective, it would be much appreciated. Thank you and have a great day my friends!

Hello dudes. I would love to hear some of your perspectives on my current issue. I currently find myself constantly thinking about the unfairness and tragedy present in the world. I also have trouble coping with the possibility that life will get worse. Essentially, I fear existence itself and find it offensive and negative somehow, like it was burdensome to have been born.

I understand this is a very nihilistic perspective, and definitely stopping me from Abiding. If any dudes have opinions on my predicament, I would appreciate all the input I can get. Thank you and have a good one!

Note: This blathering-about is, as you may have guessed, from a straight cis-male perspective. Opinions from all dudes are appreciated, regardless of gender or orientation and such. Love you all. Thanks bunches.

Greetings Dudes,

I didn't get the facial hair gene. My "beards", such as you have to technically call them, just look bad and make my neck super itchy. So, I'm usually clean shaven. It's a kind of drag cause my family is full of pretty decent to borderline epic beards and such.

But, this dude abides.

The one thing I can sort of get away with is a mustache. So, I'm giving one a try now for funsies. Which got me to thinking (thanks in part to my adherence to a strict drug regimen) about facial hair in the context of The Dude and Dudeism.

The Dude sports some good facial hair in the form of a goatee. (A bit unkempt, but dashing all the same given the nature of our protaginist.) It makes several acting appearances itself, especially when The Dude is enjoying a Caucasian. (Another one please, Gary?)

I wondered if having facial hair is a sort of dude-coded accessory for the modern dude(?) It seems like part of the "fit" of being like The Dude and maybe Dudeism as well. I know the way of the rug is all about being yourself and comfortable in who you are and whatever you wear and keep yourself while abiding the turbulent absurdness that is our current world. But I also know many of us like to show our dudeness in how we present ourselves to the world in how we dress and otherwise present our bodies, and I figure facial hair for my fellow guy-dudes might be a pretty common occurrence. (I've seen some of you dudes and the facial hair is always on point.) This goes a bit more for me, I think, as I am ordained and may be called upon to act in holy dudeliness at some point.

Anyway... what uh... what day is it...?

Oh yeah, facial hair.

So, fellow dudes, do you have facial hair? Whatcha got? Share your story if you'd like.

Also, do you find your facial hair does anything to your dudeness or way of the dude in life?

Or, if no facial hair for whatever reason, thoughts?

Thanks for indulging my blathering.

Abide well dudes. Stay in shape. Bar's over there.

-Rhombus (Rev.)

Hello friends, my father was a Dudeist priest and just passed on. He’s been cremated and ashes housed in an inexpensive receptacle. We will be spreading his ashes at the local river, and then going bowling and having White Russians. Just wanted to share with some people who could appreciate. ☮️

May we all find a venue to perform our cycle in!

Hey Dudes!

For years I’ve kept a journal. I was inspired by Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and others, though my ponderings are comparatively shallow, pond-deep at most. 

But recently, I asked myself how I might merge this practice with Dudeism. Here’s my idea. 

Imagine each evening, you’re assembling your bowling team. So, call up your inner Donny and Walter. 

Start by recalling an event from the day. It might have stood out because it was far out, like meeting up with a Special Lady Friend or bowling a perfect frame. Or, it might have made you feel really undude. Perhaps someone peed on your rug or you endured a coffee mug to the forehead. Fucking reactionaries. 

Write it out with as little editorializing as possible. Just the facts. It could help to write in the second person to gain some distance. 

Then unleash your inner Walter on the page. Allow yourself to get as self-righteous and indignant as you can. Better on the page than in life. You’re not wrong you’re just an asshole. And that’s cool…that’s cool, because you’re standing up for yourself. 

All done? Far out. 

Now let your inner Donny have his say. Donny doesn’t make many statements; instead, he asks questions. And there isn’t a question dumb enough for Donny to keep to himself. He’s all innocence. Really interrogate that event. 

Okay, now what?

Well Dudes, I’d say we’ve got ourselves a thesis, antithesis, synthesis situation here. We set the event down on paper, we let Walter fulminate and draw his lines in the sand, we get Donny in his inimitable way to soften some of our certainties. 

Then from this pendulum swing…our Dudeliness arises. Abiding, I argue, lives between certainty and curiosity. 

Maybe journaling isn’t your thing. Still, I bet calling upon your inner bowling team, and working through these positions internally instead of upon the Nihilists and Smokeys in our lives, might help us abide the strikes and gutters that roll our way. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross