Dudeist quotes

[PriorRestraint]

Hey Dudes -- since I was ordained back in 2009 or so, and have read over most of the forum, the dudespaper, and various blogs and interviews, I've kept a note open on my phone where I've pasted quotes that have seemed authoritative, provocative, spoke to me, or just well described the dudely way. I thought that since most dudes are of the lazy inclination, I'd post the quotes in case any of you would like to bookmark it or paste it into your devices for easy purusal of Dudeist words of wisdom. So I guess it's like the Tao of the Dude inverted -- the quotes are all from us Dudeists. I had to seperate it into three posts because of length. Yes, I know this is the definition of "That looks exhausting," but nevertheless, it's way less exhausting than reading all of the Dudeist material this far...Enjoy!

Part 1
Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don?t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you?ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others ? that is to say, abide.

From what is Dudeism trying to liberate us? Thinking that?s too uptight.
To what state of being is Dudeism trying to bring us: Just taking it easy, man.
By what means does Dudeism attempt do this? Abiding.

When confronted by unfortunate circumstances, forget about it. You can't be worrying about that shit. Life goes on.

One of the Dude?s most endearing qualities, both to the other characters in the movie as well as to us, the audience, is that he approaches everybody as his equal. There is no personal hierarchy with him. Whether he?s talking to his crazy-fuck pal Walter or Jackie Treehorn who thinks he has the money he?s straight ahead, no bullshit. His easy going manner puts others at ease, much in line with the Taoist idea of leading people by getting under or behind them rather than lording over them...It all comes down to acceptance. The Dude didn?t run around trying to mold everyone in his image. He accepted them as they were, more or less treated everybody equally, didn?t snub anyone or brown-nose them either. In this way he cultivated Dudeness wherever he went and with whomever he encountered. He even showed a certain degree of compassion to the shitheads.

You see, my fellow urban achievers, Dudes may be found wherever you are, hidden in plain sight. But they are easy to spot if you are paying attention. You may see someone simply smile and shrug after being splashed by water from a passing car on a rainy day. Or someone singing and playing a rad drum solo on their steering wheel in the middle of shitty traffic.

In his youth, the Dude tried to change the world, with a manifesto, no less, occupying Berkley, and so on. Eventually he realized that it was hopeless. But that didn't make him become bitter, or angry, or revengeful. Nor does he lead by example, as the clich? would go. He doesn't do, he is. Even when provoked, he harms no one. He cares little about money and is, in essence, a sensible, honest man with the kind of patience and tolerance that belongs to the spiritually gifted. He doesn't preach; now in the wisdom of his maturity, he never would; he just abides. With more people like him, the world would improve markedly.

So, as the Dude said, "Can?t be worried about that shit. Life goes on." And it keeps going on until it doesn?t. So don?t worry about that shit. What can you do about it? Even giving up smoking or putting nonfat milk in your white russian only adds a little bit more on average. The best thing to do is enjoy what you?ve got, while you?ve got it. That?s what Dudeism is all about ? providing ideas and tools to help you live without fear, anger, and what-have-you.

"There was this old hippie pot grower?they DID have hippies and pot farms in ancient China you know?(laughter)?who had worked his hidden fields for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. Such bad luck, man?they said sympathetically. Maybe, the grower replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. How cool is that??the neighbors exclaimed. Maybe, replied the old hippie as he lit up another one. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on this latest misfortune. And again, the grower answered?maybe. The next day, the sheriff showed up looking for the young man who had run off into the woods after being discovered making it with his daughter. Seeing that the son?s leg was broken, the sheriff figured it could not have been the grower?s boy and left. The neighbors congratulated the old grower on how well things had turned out. May?be, said the grower?
"There was this guy who was so upset by the sight of his own shadow and so pissed off with the sound of his own footsteps, that he decided to get rid of both. The brilliant method he hit upon was to run away from these aggravating affronts?so he got up and took off. But every time he put his foot down there was another step, plus his shadow kept up with him with no problem ?heh ?heh. He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough. So he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until he finally dropped dead. He spaced out the brilliant insight that if he merely stepped into the shade, his shadow would vanish ?poof! ?and if he sat down, poured himself a Caucasian and took er real easy?chilled deeply?there would be no more footsteps?"

The dude?s message is clear to me: follow the lanes to enlightenment and make light your burdens. Just throw ?em down, say "fuck it", and then go bowling.
So, these days, I take things easy. If you don?t take it easy, you?re gonna take it hard, and man, stress is a killer?so, you might as well take it easy.

Now it is understood that not all drugs and philosophies are created equal, leaving plenty of room to stand up with an abiding attitude and defend the Dude lifestyle. That abiding is not slacking in personal laziness; that living a life of acceptance is key to living in a peaceful world. I think one could even defend Dudeisms validity against some of the worst reactionary types, at least to the point where their head explodes with frustration, or they start throwing coffee cups.
Dudeism kind of brings the modern hippies, the slackers, hip, cool, counterculture, partier types back into the Tao fold. Demonstrating philosophy and spirituality don?t mean you have to be a square or a reactionary, that complicated Zen rituals are not required. Candles, a warm bath and a J will do; they will do just fine as a personal ritual to find your Tao. Being rooted in ancient thought and beliefs, demonstrably peaceful and kind, yeah, man, Dudeism is the path of a sage.

Well that is simple: our core values as I see them are total equality regardless of belief, race, gender, sexual orientation and so on, to abide with what life gives us and take it easy without infringing upon the freedoms of others. I would say that those are good morals to be instilled with and raised upon.

Our schools are specifically structured to produce efficient workers. Even so-called "special schools" which claim to find the hidden potential and secret gifts of our children really just exist so that oddballs can become high wage earners too. Dudes see through this at an early age and learn how to get through it without destroying their uniqueness in the process.
Choosing to go against the common flow and follow their own path takes character, and a person?s character is the ultimate achievement in life ? not money or position. What constitutes a person is not the crap they surround themselves with ? not even their grades and achievements, because these are often merely a product of fulfilling the expectations of others. What constitutes a person is far more simple: their everyday acts and decisions. A dude is an expert of the everyday.

Always accept people for who they are even if they?re very un-dude and you barely have anything in common with them. They may be assholes, friends with cleft assholes, goddamn morons, frame of referenceless, or nymphos, but as long as you just say "fuck it," you can get past your differences, learn to appreciate their company, and gradually influence them with St Francis? insidious method.

For me that?s what religion is about: feeling happy and being kind. I know for a fact that there are many people in the world who get genuine happiness from their respective faiths whether it be Christianity or Islam or whatever. Personally I?ve never had much faith ? I think that comes from never being worried too much about the future and never dwelling too much on the past. I?m a live-in-the-moment kind of guy, maybe a bit impulsive. One day I might do this and the next I do that depending on how I feel at the time. That?s why Dudeism suits me, It?s the only thing I?ve come across which combines the good points I like about various religions with the good points I like about life and doesn?t label people or try to control them or put them into little segregated groups. For me it?s about having fun and spreading a good positive message and if it means something different for you then that?s cool, no one is going to tell you that you?re wrong or you don?t understand or that you need to do it differently; no ones trying to control your mind with fear of the unknown or some paradoxical father figure who loves you but will send you to the fiery depths if you don?t do what he says. That?s not for me, again I could be wrong and am going straight to hell for saying that, well if that?s the case, I may as well relax and have fun before I go, right?

34. Bottomless
Bottomless, the Dude is deeply casual during all the separate incidents:
Confronting Lebowski,
Attending the cycle,
Helping Maude conceive,
Wanting only for his rug in return.
He abides all things,
Does not try to scam anyone;
He is unemployed,
So he seems like a loser, a deadbeat,
Someone the square community doesn?t give a shit about.
He is mixed up in all this;
In bed with everybody
He has no expiration date,
So he fits right in there.
Because it favors no finite thing,
Dudeness is infinite.
That?s marvelous ??
Very free-spirited.

48. Achievement
The follower of achievement acquires as much as he can every day;
The follower of The Dude just drops in to see what condition his condition is in.
By slowing down his career he reaches a state of inaction
Wherein he does nothing, leaves nothing undone,
Which bothers some men. Beaver.
To conquer the World, take it easy;
If you must do something,
Do a J, and let the World conquer itself.

The realization that one can only truly Take It Easy after one knows who it actually is that is doing the taking-it-easy is tough but true.

Knowing Thyself means being able to say:
?Let me explain something about the dude??

We all live in metaphysical bungalows, even if some guy decides to build himself a pad hanging off the side of a cliff, or a big fucking mansion on a hill. These people aren?t better than you, they?re just the same as you, only they?re uptight and pissy about the fact they don?t want to be just another human being cruising his way through life at ground level. And as we all know, desire breeds unhappiness, leaving behind the contented man to smile away his days in his recliner.
And what?s our secret? We don?t need war, or aggressive pamphlets, we just need a calm, quiet voice keeping people sane when it all gets too hectic, reminding them that we treat everyone the same, even the fucking rug-pissers. Sure, they may not be housebroken, but they?re not beyond some redemption, right? Surely no one?s in so deep the Dude can?t reach ?em. Just sit them down, give them a Caucasian and point them in the direction of the little Dude?s room, which, incidentally, is on the same floor as all the other restrooms around here. We?re all privy to the new shit. Am I wrong?

So, yeah, I took a sabbatical from all the intellectualizing and conceptualizing and verbalizing and proselytizing and what-have-you-izing that we sometimes have to do as a growing religion. Doing so fits right in there with our worldview and can help keep our minds limber enough to experience the enduring wordless reality that animates the heart of our holiest-of-holy mantras: ?Just take it easy.?

Abide:
Some discussions of the movie reference a peaceful, almost zen acceptance, as well as the idea that
The Dude will always be around.

A discussion on Reddit of what "the Dude abides" means has some consensus that it's an Intentionally vague phrase hinting at the fact that The Dude Lives, in his unperturbable state of dudeness, somewhere.
and that the definitions "accept" and "continue" make sense in this context.
As @wfaulk points out, today we usually use abide transitively to mean things like trusting in, accepting or obeying; so it doesn't mean The Dude accepts or endures a particular thing, but I agree that the phrase still can imply a sense of patience or toleration, even if it's just the way someone waits or continues.
If you look at the etymology of abide, you can see how some of these meanings emerge:
O.E. abidan, gebidan "remain, wait, delay, remain behind," from ge- completive prefix (denoting onward motion; see a- (1)) + bidan "bide, remain, wait, dwell" (see bide). ... Meaning "to put up with" (now usually negative) first recorded 1520s.
and going back to bide:
O.E. bidan "to stay, continue, live, remain," also "to trust, rely" (cognate of O.N. bi?a, O.Fris. bidia, Goth. beidan "to wait"), apparently from PIE *bheidh-, an extended stem of one root of O.E. biddan (see bid), the original sense of which was "to command," and "to trust" (cf. Gk. peithein "to persuade," pistis "faith;" L. fidere "to trust," foedus "compact, treaty," O.C.S. beda "need"). Perhaps the sense evolved in prehistoric times through "endure," and "endure a wait," to "to wait."

I think you're right: The Dude endures; The Dude lives on.


Relaxation puts you in touch with your true self
Your inner self is a manifestion of devine cosmic grooviness.
So taking it easy is the ultimate religion.

then I found the final prawn and kinda lost my train of thought.
Peace and mellow sativa,
Boston

I think that 'take it easy' is the law of the universe, in fact, 'taking it easy' is a scientific fact most often referred to as 'taking the path of least resistance'. In the organic world, every phenomenon naturally seeks the path of least resistance, be it water running down the side of a hill or conducted electricity for example.  Indeed, we ourselves are programmed to take the path of least resistance, if we were trying to get to a town that was over the otherside of two mountains, then we would walk between the mountains, or around them, or any other way that would avoid having to climb over the fucker's.
The problem lies in the manufactured world, which has attempted, and succeeded to seperate us from the laws of the universe.  There are some laws which are way bigger then us all, and 'the path of least resistance' is a law that I feel obliged to follow.

Abiding is freedom from judging things, which makes you free from judgement. That whole judge not jazz from the Bible. If you abide and avoid judging, then things are never wrong or boring.

Oliver:
i can think of no more dudeist adventure than really low end budget backpacking. ever since i first traveled to europe in 91 right after my first year of work out of college i've been addicted to that sort of travel. it's not "holiday" travel or "adventure" travel or travel with any kind of a label or purpose or limit. it's just total freedom and simplicity and day to day experience, never knowing where the road will take you, who you'll meet, where you'll sleep, what you'll learn. trying to do it as cheaply as possible forces you to have much more interesting experiences. the more comfortable travel is the more it insulates you from the experience. not that it has to be hell - just pragmatic, functional and reasonably safe.
sort of settled now but those were the years that solidfied my faith in dudeism. it wasn't until seeing the big lebowski that i realized what it all meant.

Olly: It's a profound conundrum inherent in being human that "feeling deeply" might make life feel more profound, but also more painful and ultimately distressing. but it may all come down to the vague definition of "feeling." i find that meditation doesn't make me feel less necessarily, only that it makes me feel subtler emotions that are often drowned out by fear, jealousy, joy, cockiness, and all the other extreme (and often destructive) emotions.
when i stop and create a bit of silence in my head, i can sense a lot more are are the subtle beauties of the world, the simpler ones. the smaller parts of the world seem to rush over to you like long-neglected kittens.
i used to be very into meditation when i was younger and confused about the world and anxious about my place in it. it really helped. but then i got older and content for a long time and stopped doing it.
after that long and stable period i'm now going through some difficult times again and the good thing about it is that it's steered me back to my meditation practice.
the timing is perfect - as i'm about to dive in to expanding the practical applications of dudeism, notably regular meditative practices. plus it's increasing my levels of compassion which i hadn't realized had dipped a bit. and compassion is arguably the most profound "feeling" of all.
the universe is funny like that. sometimes when it kicks your ass, it kicks you in the direction you need to go.

[PriorRestraint]

Part 2

It is interesting that the Dude uses the word reactionary to describe an adversary and that abide is his preferred modus operendi. To "abide" is the opposite of to "react." But I always thought that "reactionary" had nothing to do with "reaction" - that it only was meant to describe political conservatives. But in fact it is based on "reaction" - that is, reaction to progress or political evolution.
The Dude's action is the Taoist type of "actionless action" - that is, going with the flow. Whereas the conservative "reaction" is an attempt to dam up the flow of life and progress and build walls keeping "flow" from happening. In many ways it is the opposite of movement, of life, and of Tao.
When you think about the words and what they mean it really illuminates some of the essence of the film. To abide is not to stand still; rather it is to ride the current of life calmly.

Re: the old Lebowski's use of abide:
Using the word in very much the same sense as the dude's meaning (strikes and gutters; life goes on, man) that rich fuck was exemplifying the polarity of his clique: reactionaries/achievers will not accept that shit happens.

Nice, Dude!  A word from the unwise:  Be patient with yourself through this process.  You'll likely find that your new-found "fuck it" attitude slips from time to time, plunging you back to the mental habits that you're trying to overcome.  Something will happen and you'll feel very undude; you'll quickly snap back in to old ways of thinking, and have doubts about the value of a limber mind.  At least, this happens to most people when they try to take a new perspective on things. 
Just remember that when this happens nothing is fucked!  The goddamned plane has not, in fact, flown into the mountain.  These are just old habits reasserting themselves.  Years and years of conditioning that has a pretty firm grasp on the ole neural architecture.  The thing to keep in mind is that, first off, this is natural, man -- it's just what minds do and there's no reason to lose your cool (you don't have to believe everything you think, as a wiser fella than myself once said).  Second, these are the exact moments that provide you with opportunities to really abide.  Slipping into old habits is not a bad thing, in fact, it's the greatest teacher if you can recognize you've done it and do some kind of yoga to increase the chances of conceiving an abidist mindset.  You know, man?

I don't think abiding is about either of the extremes, man, it's about balance, as the subject of your post points out. As much as we like to equate abiding with not doing things (except drinking White Russians and watching our sacred film), that's not the whole story. To me abiding is a question of whether I can remain relaxed and limber in everything I do. That includes long days at work and frustrations with coworkers. Abiding really isn't about the life you have (whether you're employed or unemployed, a bowler or a golfer-- it don't matter to Jesus), it's about how you relate to the life you have. Can you take things lightly and impersonally? Can you keep things in perspective? Can you recognize that whatever's got you in a vice right now is just a passing phase of life?
It sounds like you might be running up against a perfectionistic approach to life, so you either take things on fully or try not to even think about them ('cause they're so fucked up it stresses you out). But ultimately you're a conscientious guy so when you take your hands off the wheel for a little while you end up trying to "fix" everything you left undone.
I myself have dabbled in pefectionism, and it's a tough monkey to feed. See if you can lower your expectations a little, man. It's the gap between reality and what you think reality should be that gets you all fired up and anxious. For guys like us, abiding means accepting things as they are and recognizing that they couldn't be any other way. The "what ifs" and "if onlys" are just your mind playing tricks on you, man. They're no more real than a unicorn or Santa Claus. Keeping your expectations mellow is a craft like anything else, so keep trying and give yourself kudos when you are able to swing it.

Some shit ya just gotta ride out. The first most important thing is to keep in mind, at all times, that control is always an illusion. Always. Life wants to teach you this, so let it. You aren't going to get there now, while things are all fucked up, but work in that direction. Later, when the dust clears, work on it some more. Control is an illusion. You have little to no control. When things get out of control it's because they always were. You cannot lose what you never had.

But we shouldn't be slaves to our instinct. Overcoming our baser impulses is a big part of what Dudeism is all about. Status anxiety, jealousy, desire, greed - these are all natural parts of our evolutionary heritage. But they were designed to help us fend off alien tribes looking to rape and kill us, or to establish a pecking order in times of scarcity. So in this day and age when we have so much, to be so hung up on machismo and codes of honor and sloganeering is positively anachronistic.
The Dude is not a prophet. Dudeism has no prophecy. But he's an example which we all could do well to follow because he's supernaturally immune to the parts of our brain that make us feel inferior, violent, and ultimately dangerous.
The point is that the Dude is estimable but not because he's cool or lazy or whatever. The element of the Dude that we should incorporate into our lives if we want to achieve a better state of mind is his immunity. I've said it many times - he is supernaturally immune to the dictates of society and the typical impulses of the human social animal when faced with conflict or superficial dearth. And of course, there are many of these types of characters in history we can use as examples. It's just that, for the moment, he is the most easily grokked.

I guess, right here right now, 'abiding' for me means trying to maintain a balance between  the pressures and obligations of being a parent and developing a mellow nurturing vibe of positivity that my daughters can absorb and use as a kind of mental compass to find their way back from the dramatic tangents,  fears and pressures that young minds are prone to. It ain't friggin' easy.
Abiding, as you so eloquently put it: "is fluid and changing - "  - it is the sense (for me) that we are surviving; that is to say the essence of ourselves, the bit we like best about being human. When the roar of the world subsides for awhile, when we are surprised by the beauty of the natural world after a period of immersion in tribulation - we suddenly come up for air in these moments. Maybe recall that once we were alright guys/gals, whatever and that we would like to keep that feeling around a little longer:  keep the Dudeness of us alive. Surviving. Rolling. Despite the demands of nihilists, the 'Man', whomever - there is spark of something that we try and protect, nurture. Unfortunately the world twists and distorts, pollutes that which we hold most dear. It is under constant attack from the world we have allowed to come into being. Our senses are assaulted with illusion, manufactured desire and what-have-you - anyway, rambling up onto the Cliche Plateau, here.

Of course, here the word "abide" deviates from the way we've used it in the rest of the Tao Dude Ching. Mostly we use it to define a state of mind that is calm and flows with the rest of the world rather than fights against it, which is a form of "maintaining shape" as well, of course. but in this particular verse we use the "maintaining shape" idea more strictly. we recognize that things which "abide" are things which can be identified and used as foundations for thought, but should never be confused with absolute truth. One thing about "abide" - it is such a holy Dudeist word that it is very hard to pigeonhole. Like the word "dude", it's a loosely-defined but profound concept, just as "God" or "spirit" is in other religions.

I think it's not a question of either/or but both/and. Truly cool things in life (like TBL and other great works of literature) are open ended and open for interpretation. That's what makes a lot of religions so irrelevant, dead and outdated. They are corpses trotted out on Sundays and holidays for all to try to clutch the past glories of.
As that nitwit (but great aphorist) Osho said (or was it Dick Van Patten?), religions kill religiousness. Keeping a sense of humor about the tropes of religion but still employing them to try and understand the religious (or philosophical, if you prefer) impulse is what Dudeism is all about, IMDO. In that way, we might be more "religious" than actual "religions" but of course that depends on how you define the terms. I define religion as a static ossification of a fluid impluse towards awareness-building (which could be termed religiousness, spirituality, philosophy, gestalt, emergent phenomena, or even just plain "learning"). The philosophical introduction to the Dao De Jing by Ames and Hall spells this out pretty amazingly.
Talking about this stuff this way always makes me feel like a bit of a shmo. It's hard to discuss without sounding more serious than I intend it to sound. Maybe it's the fault of the new ageists. We need a new vocabulary to discuss stuff like this so we don't sound wishy washy or pedantic. Or at least, I do. Anyway, I think it all comes down to the limitations of words to describe abstract impressions. Again, the Tao Te Ching starts off by saying "The Tao which can be named is not Tao." That pretty much says it all.
It was also designed to be a group exercise in trying to figure out what the pragmatic and rational aspects of religion were. The fact that we parody a lot of established religions isn't so much to make fun of them but to draw light to how arbitrary and nonsensical most dogmas are. Perhaps we are "pulling the rug" out from under the stodgy and sacred cows, but not before snagging some of their milk for our beverages.
It's all very tongue in cheek. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Isn't humor and silliness and lateral thinking the best way to find out what's true? And isn't furious linear idealism the worst way? I think the more serious someone is the less he or she understands. I myself can get very high and mighty about "the truth" and I appreciate when people take me down a peg.

He may have once been vigorous and idealistic, but carefree resignation has replaced all of that. Now this man shows great authenticity among the chaos by existing complacent and content to let life carry him along wherever it wills.

Along these lines, the "laws" of chance dictate that each person will have a mixture of good and bad experiences. As the Stranger (Sam Elliott) explains to the Dude, "Sometimes you eat the bear. And sometimes the bear, well, he eats you." The third doctrine of slack follows from that fact: Since one can do very little to affect this mixture of good and bad, one should accept life as it is and learn to be content. Granted, a little effort is sufficient to solve some problems. Hunger, for example, can be eliminated simply by eating. Other problems are either unsolvable or they take more effort than is worthwhile. A successful slacker is one who can tell the difference between these two types of problems.
The fourth tenet of slack goes as follows: The purpose of life is to be as happy as possible in any situation. If life, like the wind, is blind, chaotic, and purposeless, then the purpose of life does not come from anything metaphysical or external to the individual. If life is to have purpose, therefore, each individual must decide what that purpose is. The other characters in The Big Lebowski find meaning in various things: sensual pleasures, money, and duty, to name a few. Yet the Dude reacts with detached amusement to each of them. These things are fine, he seems to say, but none of them is essential to make life worth living. Nevertheless, while it might be tempting to say that the Dude does not value anything, it is more accurate to say that he values everything, but no particular thing is supreme.

This might be the biggest reason why some people get annoyed by the Dudeitude: they have no way to get to us and this takes away power and control from them. If you follow three of our commandments:
1) Take it easy
2) Don?t be uptight
3) Abide
then it?s pretty hard to be forced to do something that you don?t want to do. And many people out there love to control, manipulate, and exploit other people. Often it?s even part of their jobs: to make more money, sell more stuff, accumulate more power, convince people to be afraid of imaginary threats, and so on. Taking the movie as an example, what power do the Big Lebowski or Jackie Treehorn with all their money have over the Dude? In the end, nothing. Sure, he got a few pee-stains on his rug, his car got dinged up and he wasted some time, but in the end he abides, as always.

The Dudeciple is a true follower of The Dude. He?s (and I substitute he for he/she to make it easier on the eyes of the reader, but I make no move towards a gender divide amongst us Dudes) the one going out there and spreading the message in the truest way possible, and that?s what he contributes to mankind, the well-being and ultimate coolness he exudes. He?s a rock to the community (albeit a lightweight and somewhat unpolished rock), out there setting a good example of how-to-be, 24/7. He?s the one that?ll always shoot you a smile and remind you that life?s good. And that even if no one else around you abides, or digs your style, he does. The Dudeciple is the foot soldier of the far-out, the poster boy of beatitude and right-reverend of relaxation.

The irritation/anxiety reaction to a sudden problem is caused not by the problem itself, but by the thought that we must do something about it (ie that we?re responsible for it). This is a conditioned response which can be reprogrammed with a psychological gimmick. The technique is to do nothing when you notice a problem ? or rather, suspend judgment for a few days. Problems often disappear by themselves if they get the chance (especially if they appeared by themselves). In settings tinged with urgency or guilt (e.g. work or family) they don?t usually get the chance.
(If you?re not convinced by this, and you remain attached to solving problems, there?s always the comforting thought that as long as you focus on problems, there?ll be an endless supply of them ? which conveniently justifies the need to solve them).

I'm just doing my own thing in my own way in my own time. I don't feel any need to examine my life or understand my motives. I'm a happy guy and I'm not trying to improve. The way I figure it I'm either already good enough or irredeemable.

It might be said that dudes are realists who rebel against excess idealism, whereas hippies are idealists who rebel against excess reality. Thus the Dude mandate is the same as Voltaire?s, Samuel Johnson?s and Thoreau?s: Tend to your own little garden and mend your neighbor?s fence. Hippies, on the other hand, think the entire world is a boundless garden, and then get disappointed when people shoot at them for trespassing.
It is telling that Lao Tzu had to convince people that ?taking it easy? was a good thing to do. Not much has changed since then. To this day people need to be continually reminded that nature is beautiful and that the good life consists not in collecting products and assets but in acquiring memories and friends. Over the last two millennia The Tao te Ching has been translated into every language on earth, has been read by billions, and still few actually ever take its suggestions to heart. Then again, it?s quite a thing (some might even say heroic) to go against the current of civilization. And this is why Pai, and other backpacker burgs the world over beckon to Dudes everywhere searching strenuously for an idler?s idyll. It?s not such an easy thing to take it easy.

No matter what happens, Bridges explains, the Dude is there, getting upset and then quickly adjusting with good humor and natural kindness. He shows up and in Zen that is what really matters. Just showing up. That's because being present for whatever appears without pushing it away or demanding it be different is the only way we can act with real freedom. As Glassman writes, "Trillions of years of DNA ? the flow of the entire Universe ? all lead up to this moment. ... So what do you do? You just do." You remain curious, open and aware even as you act.

Well, the thing is, Dudeism is not fascist, man. We?re not all about having a long list of rules and things you have to do to be a Dude. Dudeism is an attitude. It?s an attitude that we try to inculcate in our daily lives. It?s basically all about being as ?Dude? as possible. What that means is, in the same way as Buddhism, Taoism, a lot of these Eastern philosophies, it?s all about mindfulness and not being egotistical and not being grasping and materialistic; all of these things that we know to be ?un-Dude?, but that we do anyway because society sort of taunts us, that we don?t have enough or don?t buy enough or aren?t cool enough or good looking enough or our hair isn?t cut the right way.
There?s so much pressure to be ?un-Dude? and what we?re trying to do is invert the hierarchy and say, ?Hey, it?s really better for everybody if we all just take it easy, man, and don?t try so much. Don?t worry so much.? We consider it kind of a communicable ease, instead of disease. 
We?re trying to bring back being kind and cool. But cool in the sense of being calm, not in the sense of being hip or better than somebody else. We want to encourage a lot of the aggression in society to be seen as anathema, to be seen as something bad, instead of what the media would have us believe; that it?s really great and that cool guys or tough guys finish first

"The Dude may seem an unlikely figurehead, but in this day and age where our greatest concerns aren't Armageddon or the afterlife, but generalized anxiety and existential engagement, the Dude helps us enlighten up to a greater quality of life," Benjamin, the "Dudely Lama," said. "We don't need heroic figures to lead us to a promised land. We need Dudeists to help us abide where we are."

Relax, don't worry, and let life be good, because it will be if you leave a space for it.

[PriorRestraint]

Part 3

So how does he do it?  How does the Dude handle playing one side against the other, in bed with everybody?  It?s not easy, but it is actually not as difficult as it looks.  Once the Dude realizes in his meeting with the big Lebowski that his micturated-upon rug will go unreplaced, he says, ?Fuck it.?  To which the big Lebowski retorts, ?That?s your answer to everything!?  Later, after Walter threatens Smokey with a word of pain, the Dude tells Walter to just take it easy.  Walter?s reply: ?That?s your answer for everything, Dude.          These are in fact the same answer, and they are in fact the answer for everything.  ?Fuck it? may be a little more harshly worded, but the basic philosophy behind it is still to just take it easy.  Otherwise, things get far too complicated.  The big Lebowski, with his bottomless vanity, gets himself so heavily into debt that he resorts to embezzlement from a children?s charity.  He is not taking it easy.  Uli and his fellow Germans, if they were true nihilists, would not go to all the trouble of lopping off a girlfriend?s toe even for a million dollars; they would have just said, ?Fuck it.?       The main reason this attitude can be so difficult to maintain, in my experience, is just a matter of practice.  So many of us become so uptight in our thinking that there seems to be no way around it.  But really, one needs simply to persevere.  The Dude, even when faced by threats of castration and the destruction of his car, persists in his Zen-like attitude and ultimately sees things work out in the end.  At least twice while arguing with the Dude, Walter acquiesces to this: ?Have it your way, Dude.?  And the Stranger himself even concedes this point in this exact manner when the Dude continues to use so many cuss words.  If you stick to your guns, if you commit yourself to the facets of Dudeism, then this will be so.  You will have it your way.      I have a typically Western attitude towards Eastern philosophy, in that the most exposure to it I get is in fortune cookies.  So it comes as no surprise to me that Dudeism has sprung up around a lot of the basics in Taoism and Buddhism, and even Transcendentalism.  Happily, for slobs like me, Dudeism is helping to spread this wisdom nicely ensconced in booze, bowling, and a lot of swear words.  But whatever the method, as long as one strives for unity within one?s life, while at the same time taking it easy, it seems pretty clear that one will always achieve. Go forth and abide.

In fact, unless you?re depressed, laziness and boredom are almost mutually exclusive. The precise reason why you?re being lazy is because you are not bored doing it. The reason why lazy people don?t do shit is because they?re enjoying not doing shit. If you?re enjoying something, you?re not bored with it. Working is boring. Putting effort into meaningless tasks for some vague idea of ?status? or ?money? or ?recognition? is boring. Going back to Po Chu-I?s poem, grinding rice and farming is boring. Lying around being a worthless piece of shit is fun as hell.

Dudeism is a belief system that teaches us that the universe wants us to take it easy. Getting all worked up over nothing goes profoundly against the laws of nature, psychology, sociology, bowling and several tropical countries. It?s about finding ways to maintain peace of mind in a world with too many ins-and-outs and strands to keep in your head. And it?s about finding ways to keep your heart light when the bastards are trying to get you down. It?s basically Taoism meets The Big Lebowski, plus a big scoop of Humanism and a sprinkling of Buddhism.

[Rev Doctor Abidingly]

      Thanks for sharing your notes Dude!  I will peruse them and weigh their significance and meaning to me in my own life.   And I think other Dudes will do the same... 

      And I apologize if any of these are obviously out of it as it has been a little while since I have read it, but have you read the Tao of the Dude?  There is a lot of good stuff in there I found it very interesting and I ended up highlighting a lot of sections and quotes that are especially meaningful to me in it...  Just wanted to recommend it to you if you hadn't read it yet.  I found it very interesting and illuminating.  Even better than The Abide Guide or The Dude De Ching as the books go...  It didn't take itself too seriously but seemed to have a tone that was more interesting and guiding more so than entertaining like the other two I just mentioned. 

       Thanks again for sharing this post Dude!