Enlightenment Orgasm

[forumdude]

I've been fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman's new book "The Dude and the Zen Master" - there's some really groovy stuff in there in which they discuss exactly this topic. The not-knowing idea implicit in Zen. And the paradox that one can know and not-know at the same time. I've really been impressed with the book so far. It's a fun way to delve into some Zen ideas and also get some cool insights into the process of acting and movie making.

Just as an aside, my "spiritual trip" happened like this: I did the two week Annapurna loop trek in Nepal and made friends with some British travelers. They were keen to learn about Buddhism at the Kathmandu "Friends of the Buddhist Order." So I went with them and found myself sitting in a room with all westerners, being taught about Buddhism by a westerner who was clearly a bit of a novice.

I said to myself, why the fuck am I in Nepal listening to some English dude tell me about some kind of Eastern thing when the legendary Gurus of the Himalayas are so nearby? So I started looking into the offerings and found a hilarious flyer for a guy named Vikash who had such a huge beard that you could barely make out his face among all the hair. There was a laundry list of techniques listed on the flyer in way too many different fonts and charming broken English. I said to myself, "this is my guy!"

Traveled to a small village outside of Kathmandu, at the foothills of the Himalayas and stayed in his very modest compound, one most people I know would have considered bordering on a shanty. For five bucks a day I got a full day schedule of all sorts of weird shit: vomiting in the morning, neti pot cleansing, various types of hatha yoga, laughing meditation, other types of meditation, some basic veggie meals, had to bathe with the locals in run off from snow melt, etc. etc.

I don't know what happened but all the attention and kindness and crazy techniques conspired to give me some sort of a mental breakthrough where all my late adolescent (I was 24) hang ups and anxieties just went right out the window. I think that just for the first time I realized how cool it was just to be alive. Looking back, there was nothing spiritual (per se) about it, it was just that it helped to break down some of my conditioning.

Apparently this is a relatively common occurrence for people who study this stuff for the first time. And it's also apparently common that duplicating that "satori" feeling is really hard to do. The mind doesn't like to be tricked like that and builds up greater fortifications.

But I have to say, just the memory of that experience, that I briefly got out of my own ego was enough to give me a "north star" to remember that I am living most of my life with a shitload of baggage and false worry.

I really kind of hate that word "spiritual" because it's so often positioned opposite to the word "rational." But most of my life since that trip has been endeavoring to look at what people call spiritual or mystical from a rational point of view. I think that's a pretty good way of describing Dudeism. But of course, "rational" has its own baggage. Words are fucking pains in the ass.

[forumdude]

I agree with you Masked Dude. I think it's awesome to think about how much there is to discover in the world. I don't understand people who say they wouldn't want to live forever - maybe they're the type of people who just like sensual pleasures and know they'd be bored for eternity. I would love to have the option of learning new shit and creating new shit forever. I hate the fact that as I approach middle age I can hear doors shutting. I guess I'll never be an astrophysicist or a midwife or a kickboxer or a plumber or a farmer or a stockbroker...

I wish I believed in reincarnation.

[RighteousDude]

I really kind of hate that word "spiritual" because it's so often positioned opposite to the word "rational." But most of my life since that trip has been endeavoring to look at what people call spiritual or mystical from a rational point of view. I think that's a pretty good way of describing Dudeism.

Right fucking on, man. Life is really very cool for those who'll just let it be as cool as it is. And isn't that where Zen tries to take us, out of our own heads and into the world?

It's really difficult to translate Eastern teaching to the Western world. It's relatively easy to get blissed out in a place where a traffic jam is a balky yak on the trail, but most of us don't get to live in those places. Dudeism seems to have the potential to make a limber mind accessible to the rest of us -- at any rate, the abiding way I've been practicing since right about 1976 makes it accessible to me, and a lot of what I've read here (outside of the heavy reliance upon the movie as perhaps a tad more than metaphor) resonates so I have this vague feeling that Dudeism and my approach are pretty similar.

Eh, whatever the hell Dudeism is, man, thanks for getting the ball out of the bag and giving it a hurl.

[forumdude]

Glad you dig the unknowable/knowable Dudeist way as it unfolds, Righteous Dude.

There's a great quote, I think it's from The Razor's Edge: "It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain."

The hard part is being a holy man when you're knee deep in shit.