The Big Lebowski, the Large Hadron Collider of the Dharma.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

Fuck, man!  What would happen if we collided religious particles together in a closed cinematic chamber.  Would we discover the Dude boson?  Some essential Dharma particle?  The boys in the lab are working around the clock!  In the mean time, "I've got some information, certain things have come to light."  Check out the most recent collision data.   


   

THE HARE-MARK ON THE MOON¹

                                                                                             

                                                                                     
Suggestion: Read the story (black) first.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benāres, the future Buddha was born as a hare (our Bunny in her grass-print bathing suit; her license plate, "LAPIN" [French for wabbit]; Golden Fawn [as in Fawn Knutson] is a breed of rabbit, ) and lived in a wood.  He had three friends, a monkey ("Man, she's gotta feed the monkey."), a jackal (Pomeranian, actually a terrier in the movie, but no matter the jackal is considered to be a distant ancestor to dogs), and an otter (marmot, actually a ferret in movie [for reasons of safety, I'm sure] and in the same family as the otter); all of these animals were very wise.  The hare used to preach to the others, exhorting them to give alms ("I'm sayin', she needs money.") and keep the fast-days ("Shomer fucking Shabbos!").  On one of these fast-days the hare and his friends were seeking their food as usual; the otter found some fish, the jackal some meat, the monkey some mangoes.  But the hare, as he lay in his form before going out to eat his grass ("Las Vegas" translates "the meadows"), reflected that if anyone should ask him for a gift of food, grass would be useless ("The life of mortals is like grass . . ."  Psalm 105.13).  As he had no grain or meat he made up his mind to give up his own body (porn?) if any one asked him for food.

Now when any wonderful thing such as this takes place on earth, the throne of Sakra in Heaven grows hot.  Sakra looked down to see what was happening, and perceiving the hare, determined to test his virtue. He took the shape of a Brahman (Jackrabbit, Brahman Tree, Brahma Bull horn, Treehorn, "All I'm saying is, I want mine."; translation, Where is dat pesky wabbit?), and went first to the otter and asked for food.  The otter offered him fish.  The jackal and the monkey inturn offered him meat and fruit.  Sakra declined all these offers and said that he would return next day.  Then he went to the hare, who was overjoyed at the chance of giving himself in alms. "Brahman," said he, "to-day I will give such alms as I never gave before; gather wood and prepare a fire (fire on the beach) and tell me when it is ready."  When Sakra heard this he made a heap of live coals and told the hare that all was ready; then the hare, who would one day be Buddha, came and sprang into the fire, as happy as a royal flamingo (Red Jaguar) alighting in a bed of water-lilies (in the fountain).  But the fire did not burn, it seemed as cold as the air above the clouds. At once he inquired as of the disguised Sakra what this might mean. Sakra replied that he was indeed no Brahman, but had come down from Heaven to test the hare's generosity.  The hare replied: "Sakra, your efforts are wasted; every creature alive might try me in turn (including the other Jeff Lebowski, even if he has a hole in his sole), and none could find in me any unwillingness to give."
 
Then Sakra answered: "Wise hare, let your virtue be proclaimed to the end of this world-cycle (Marty, "I'm performing my dance quintet, you know my cycle.").  Taking a mountain, he squeezed it, and holding the hare under his arm, he drew an outline picture (Treehorn's note) of him on the moon (Cynthia, epithet for Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the Moon) using the juice of the mountain ("Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town.") for his ink.  Then he put down the hare in some tender grass in the wood and departed to his own heaven.  And that is why there is a hare in the moon. 

1.  Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. & Sister Nivedita Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists (2012 Dover Books on Anthropology & Ethnology, Dover Publications, Kindle Edition, Locations 4538-4549.  This book was first published in 1967, [and] is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by George G. Harrap & Company in 1913).  THIS IS A REALLY GROOVY BOOK, MAN.

VISIT: A Midrash of the Gospel of John http://dudeism.com/smf/under-the-influences/a-midrash-of-the-gospel-of-john/

[jgiffin]

I can dig it, man. You draw some very interesting parallels. Can you take it a step or two further and/or dumb shit down for me?

For instance, "lapin" is French for a castrated (and, therefore, male) rabbit. How does that relate to Bunny's situation? After they leave the bowling alley, Walter carries a dog-crate to the Dude's car but the dog is not in it - he's yapping alongside. There's no indication the dog jumps in the car. Does that have any meaning? Most importantly: what's the meaning of the symbolic story and/or the iteration contained within TBL?

[meekon5]

Too many words. I lost concentration about half way through, but good effort Dude.

I would say that personally I don't take too much "deeper" meaning from the film.

And do remember the Coen brothers are positively perturbed when anyone asks them about the fact that there is a "religion" based on the film.

As I've said before a Dude is a Dude with or without the film.

The Dude is an example not a scripture.

All IMHDO of course.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

Thanks for comments meekon5.  I have attempted to make this post more readable.

To jgiffen:  Thanks for your interest.  The allusions used by the Coen Brothers are for the most part very loose and that's why they are so hard to string together.  Maybe that's one of the ingredients to making a Cult Film.  Once the string is discovered, however, then the number of linkages cohering would seem add Creedence to the string.  Of course, all of this could be projection on my part!

When Woo pisses on the Dude's carpet we, the viewer, accept this as if in a dream-state.  Woo's carpet pissing is as SCRIPTurally non sequitur as Ariadne's looping-mirror scene in Inception.  Both are allusions.   

One of the 20th Century's greatest spiritual travelers, Carl G. Jung once wrote (in his Red Book, posthumously published in 2012):   

    Christmas has come. The God is in the egg. I have prepared a rug for my God, an expensive red rug   
         from the land of morning.; 
    My hand prepares the rug and spreads abundant flowers before you.;   
    On the evening of the third day, I kneel down on the rug and carefully open the egg.; and
    Everything is quiet and dark. I look around me: the empty shell is lying on the rug.

Again, Woo pees on the first rug.  The Dude dances around the mandala of his new rug, coming to a pose.  He later meditates to the mantra of bowling strikes, his head resting in the mandala.  And Maude rides the rug.  Something is going on here!

Well, the rug may very well reference Jung, as might the mandala.  Woo may reference Wu Wei (also known as the 'water way' in Taoism).  The Dude's pose may reference God Shiva of Hinduism.  His meditation may reference Buddhism.  Maude's ride may loosely reference Islam (Couple this with the fact that the last bowling shirt worn by the Dude reads Medina SOD).

I'm just sayin'.  By the by, ever notice the stylized Yin Yang symbol in Maude's studio (the first time the Dude visits).         

[jgiffin]

Apropos of that, one of my favorite little embedded references in the movie is Woo's line as he pisses on the rug: "Ever thus to deadbeats, Lebowski."Almost no one (unless they frequent dudeist websites) catches the mimicry to John Wilkes Booth's line after he shot Lincoln: "Ever thus to Tyrants". Well, actually Boothe said it in Latin ("Sic semper tyrannis") and it was, technically, closer to "Thus always to tyrants" but who the fuck speaks Latin anymore - let along gets shitty over loose translations from dead languages.

I'm digging threads like these that raise the Eastern references and Eastern symbolism in the movie. I don't have as much substantive knowledge there so it's a fresh twist for me.

[Yeti]

The Big Lebowski as the Large Hadron Collider of the Dharma.

I prefer the Big Lebowski as Santa Claus.