After the Christian Bible, the Tao Te Ching is the most widely-translated book in the world. But that’s only part of the story: There are no fewer than 100 translations in English alone.

This is because this Taoist holy book was written in a such a poetic Chinese idiom that no one can say for certain what it means. As a wiser fella than myself once said: “Sometimes you read the book, and sometimes the book, well, it reads you.” The Tao Te Ching is that sort of book.

The Church of the Latter-Day Dude is heavily inspired by Taoism, and so it was that in the beginning of 2009 a few enterprising members of our forum started a Tao Te Ching interpretation of their own, translating it into the “parlance of our times.” By this I mean they incorporated material from the film The Big Lebowski, one of Dudeism’s more obvious influences.

After our compeers made it to the finals, the editorial board of The Dudespaper honed the verses a bit so that this here Tao Dude Ching would more closely match the message of the original Tao.

Here is the result: A book of levity and brevity which helps identify Dudeism as a modern incarnation of Taoism. Plus, to help illuminate the literal connection between the two traditions, the corresponding Taoist verse has been placed below each new Dudeist one. We hope you dig our style.

A big thanks goes out to those fellas from the forum who did the bulk of the series and set the ball in motion (Pastor Dirt and Digby’s Kid especially, plus Laughing Dude, Digitalbuddha and Lone Dude). You dudes sure can roll. Also, thanks to Peter Merel for letting us use his lucid interpolation of the original Tao. And thanks as well to Arch Dudeship Dwayne Eutsey for the far out Inner-duction which follows.

Furthermore, this should be a living document, so if you see any room for improvement (e.g. to make it truer or funnier) please contact us and give us notes.

Dudeism abides,

Rev. Oliver Benjamin
The Dudely Lama of the
Church of the Latter-Day Dude