The Dude and the Zen Master

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And the Zen master at the center of the book is the cardigan-wearing, White Russian-swilling Jeff Lewbowski. That or His Dudeness or Duder or, you know, El Duderino - if you're not into the whole brevity thing. That's because one, a well-known Zen teacher and the other, the guy who brought Lewbowski to life, have written a new book together, titled, appropriately "The Dude and the Zen Master. Their book's gentle conceit is to use The Dude and his response to situations thrown out in "The Big Lewbowski," to impart the essence of Zen's promise.

I dig The Dude, says Bridges at one point in the book. He can be angry and upset but he's very comfortable in his own skin. And in his inimitable way, he has grace. No matter what happens, Bridges explains, The Dude is there, he shows up.

And in Zen that is what really matters, just showing up. Trillions of years of DNA, the flow of the entire universe all lead up to this moment. So what do you do? Having experienced my share own of seven-day Zen intensives, I can vouch for the fact that a big chunk of Buddhism lies in a daily practice that can, sometimes, be intense. This book doesn't really touch that aspect of Zen but that's OK. Glassman and Bridge are trying to show us that the real truth is we have no other choice.

Jeff Bridges is a well-known Oscar-winning actor, performer, songwriter and photographer; and Bernie Glassman is the founder of the Zen Community of New York and a longtime Zen teacher. This dialogue addresses their thoughts and opinions about work, play, love, compassion, trust, selfishness, fear, life, death, and much more.

It reveals much about each of their personal and working lives, while weaving much Zen wisdom throughout the discourse. The Dude is a character from The Big Lebowski movie and serves as an example for much of the wisdom that they impart. The conversation leads the reader through a maze of diverse topics which requires inquisitiveness, patience and thought. However, I found it to be a very rewarding experience to negotiate this maze. I learned much about both of these men and appreciated their integration of Buddhist wisdom into their discussion.

This is a unique and very worthwhile book that provides entertainment and life lessons from a Zen perspective.

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Aug 09, Arne Krueger rated it it was amazing Shelves: Mar 05, Anthony rated it really liked it. I thought this would be a cheap cashing-in on Lebowski, forcing links between the character's lazy "zen"-like behavior, but it is actually an extended conversation between the two authors where they reveal and share while discussing zen and its application to real-life situations.

It was fun getting some insight into Jeff Bridges's personal life, and Bernie Glassman truly is a savant and treasure; not enough can be said about the good that both these men have contributed to the world. But more t I thought this would be a cheap cashing-in on Lebowski, forcing links between the character's lazy "zen"-like behavior, but it is actually an extended conversation between the two authors where they reveal and share while discussing zen and its application to real-life situations. But more than these insights, they both unsurprisingly prove themselves to really well understand zen and its methods and challenges, and they both appropriately use metaphor and anecdote to relate the practice's eternal teachings.

I liked this more than I expected to. Bonus points for being a quick read, too. I have to confess that I had my moments with this book. It is very difficult to say whether my four stars grading is justified by the fact that the Big Lebowski just might be among the best movies ever made or by the other fact that my mind made an impressive trip during the reading process.

Possibly due to both facts, or opinions.

Like any book in our world, I am sure this book does not impress everyone. However, if you are thinking to skip this book, just because you think it is one of those D I have to confess that I had my moments with this book. However, if you are thinking to skip this book, just because you think it is one of those DIY-life-improvement-eternal-happiness-pocket-size-that-actually-does-not-fit-into-a-normal-pocket-books, I can recommend you to forget your suspicions and read the book.

I am thankful for the warm moments I spent with this book, there is something profoundly great in this world that anyone is capable to see if you just remember to treat yourself with respect and love. Apr 11, Kurtbg rated it liked it Shelves: The actor who plays the Dude and his zen master buddy spend a week waxing philosophical on the big Lebowski, life, and everything in between. Sure, Jeff Bridges does not lead an atypical life.

Sometimes he's got some valid points that give grist to the mill, and other times you can't help but say, " yea, but that's just like you're opinion, man", when you really mean to say, you've had the benefits of a stress-free fiscal life. Well, that's your challenge, because wisdom and understanding are th The actor who plays the Dude and his zen master buddy spend a week waxing philosophical on the big Lebowski, life, and everything in between.

Well, that's your challenge, because wisdom and understanding are there if you choose to see it. Not that there's anything remarkably special here, but it does provide some nice little moments to remind yourself that it's okay to step outside yourself. After all, It's perfectly valid for you to say to yourself , " hey, that's just your opinion man. May 03, Colette rated it it was ok. I would have given this book 3 stars if the other guy, the "Zen Master", were not in it. I was sick to death of hearing this Bernie guy tell me he was a Zen Master and he does - again and again and again. I was mostly interested in Bridges' approach to acting which sounds all consuming and yet, humbled at the same time.

The Dude and the Zen Master

I enjoyed reading about his time with directors, particularly Hal Ashby. I guess if you are a die hard Lebowski fan, you might love it, but if you are a sentient human being, you I would have given this book 3 stars if the other guy, the "Zen Master", were not in it. I guess if you are a die hard Lebowski fan, you might love it, but if you are a sentient human being, you will find parts repetitive and irrelevant.

Jan 10, James Gordon rated it it was amazing. The Dude abides is a phrase I use to remind myself to just be. Most people assume The Big Lebowski is just a stoner movie. That's the thing about Zen and Mojo, you get it or you don't. This book is a great discussion and along with Willie Nelson's latest book, "Roll me up and smoke me when I die" are great "after stressful holidays" reading. Feb 04, Mike rated it did not like it.

The Dude and the Zen Master is one of the laziest contrivances of a book I have seen yet.

They go on and on and on in the longest "Yes, and" dialogue I've read in recent memory. The book is in the form of dialogue, but here's the thing: They don't feel organic after all the long, LONG-winded and self-congratulatory slop coming out of both of their heads. I did, for a bit there, enjoy how Bridges and Glassman can pinpoint cultural touchstones to find the Zen principles in them, or perhaps, the little koans embedded in everyday speech, the wisdom in old nursery rhymes.

The Buddhist thought they gave to "Row, row, row your boat" was actually quite nice. I enjoyed how they imbued some quotes from The Big Lebowski with this sense of Zen-ness: They are little nuggets of sentences that maybe, because this 'Zen Master' Glassman says it enough about himself through the book, ugh really analyzed them, folks familiar with meditation may be inspired to pick up those tools, OR look for Zen in other works that are resonant with them.

Well, not Zen, but something similarly resonant. For me, I began thinking about how "This Must Be The Place" by the Talking Heads is a perfect opportunity for this form of "Zen-finding," for finding short explanations for the practice and educating people through that.

It's a good idea, truthfully, as a pedagogical tool. But as a product? The product placement here is unbelievable: Again, the slacker mentality of assembling this book - its devil-may-care attitude with its own presentation - sort of fits the characters talking here. Well, when it seems they could actually be talking. Either way, a book should probably look less slacker when it's laden with this much shameless self-promotion. And it comes so easily off of the resurgence of Big Lebowski 's popularity that, well It's a little disingenuous. A lot disingenuous, wall to wall, if I may correct myself.

The Dude and the Zen Master has these simple nuggets in them that could have the capacity to make this book a book to return to. It references Jon-Kabat Zinn, who in turn references Thoreau. It references Victor Frankl. It references the Digha Nikaya sp? Having been exposed to plenty of those references, The Dude and the Zen Master could have had value as a fun, "isn't-that-neat" way of revitalizing one's Zen practice by looking at Zen's ideas through a certain film or popular culture.

If only it didn't shoot itself in the foot. It also had little notes that resonated with me about my Mom's charity and this and that I underlined plenty of things in the book - sometimes "ugh" or "oh please", but sometimes wrote "for Mom" or "for the man. I underlined them at the time because they reminded me of things I've read and underlined in better texts elsewhere.

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I wondered why this idea was so important when I looked back, and I wondered why all of it was utterly forgettable. In fact, the more utterly forgettable it is, the better off Bridges and Glassman will be. The Dude and the Zen Master is two friends getting cigars talking about how they have shit in common. Their idea of a good time is to have their lives meet somewhere in the middle.

Zen and the Big Lebowski" or something like that. Because that's the thing: Jeff and Bernie, I don't think, have that skill. So leave it up to the naturals: Then maybe I could write a brief essay about how "This Must Be the Place" works as an example as well. You could then read the short article, and move on. And how I wish this book were just a short article. Oh well, no more grasping, yes Bernie?

We're not grasping for cash are we here, gentleman? You're capitalizing pretty shamelessly on fandom and low self-esteem. Is it going to charity? Like, I mean is it going to the causes you spent a ton of time talking about very stiltedly? Oh, the Dude is not in right now? Can I leave him a message? Oh okay, I figured. Tell him I 'bore witness' to him or whatever. Ugh, you fucking assholes. In The Dude and the Zen Master , Jeff Bridges and his old friend Bernie Glassman have a loose and free-wheeling chat about life and Buddhism, attempting to make it more accessible by illustrating many of its concepts with The Big Lebowski as its main example my love for which probably being what prompted this being gifted to me.

Buddhism and mindfulness have both been recommended to me a lot, given that I have a few troubles with anxiety, and so using something that I already love and know insid In The Dude and the Zen Master , Jeff Bridges and his old friend Bernie Glassman have a loose and free-wheeling chat about life and Buddhism, attempting to make it more accessible by illustrating many of its concepts with The Big Lebowski as its main example my love for which probably being what prompted this being gifted to me.

Buddhism and mindfulness have both been recommended to me a lot, given that I have a few troubles with anxiety, and so using something that I already love and know inside out was a good way of trying to sell me on some of its easier to understand principles. It was also reassuring to read that Jeff Bridges, who has always seemed to be as chill as The Dude, can also be pretty anxious underneath it all.

Mar 26, Yvonne rated it really liked it Recommends it for: This is so Zen! This book was very helpful in teaching me to see and accept myself. Starting with Jeff Bridge's movie The Big Lebowski, two friends have a discussion, Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman, a former aeronautical engineer and mathematician, presently a master of Zen Buddhism.

Some helpful things I garnered: Row row row your boat, merrily down the stream! The Dude is not in. But he's not embarrassed about it, he's not trying to live up to some persona, he's always the Dude. We have the capacity to sail in any system; we also have the capacity to try to change it the system we're in. That's the dangerous way to go, because we're going to be criticized, rejected, excommunicated, and maybe even killed. If I was going to be asked to do something I wasn't willing to do, I wouldn't let it turn me off the entire thing.

I would just take a rest for a while. This helped me go further and further, each time asking myself to do a little bit more I wish I could be a little more Dude-like. But I have to, I got to, please, befriend myself.

These are the same questions that I ask myself in different situations in my life, and the challenge is not to judge myself or my answer but to just notice. One of the things that I notice is that there are limits, and limits are a cool place in which to hang. Jan 19, Ann rated it really liked it. Thanks Jeff and Bernie for this book. You're cool cats and Zen dudes. If you are looking for a book about your favorite movie, The Big Lebowski, this isn't it. Although, Bernie Glassman, who founded the Zen Community of New York, finds perfect Zen simplicity and popular representation in two of the Dude's phrases: Two very pleasant surprises.

He's got his stories about being on set, but he also talks with deep love about his parents, his brother Beau, and his wife and kids; and he lets Bernie do a lot of the talking. For example, Bernie discusses the Lamed-Vavnik or 'thirty-sixers' in a way that helped me better understand the concept. You have to go with the flow. Bernie uses "Row, row, row your boat This was very helpful to me, at a stressful time.

I find myself repeating the child's rhyme in words and signs. We're all going down the stream. Are you going to use one or both oars or read a thousand books to make sure you do it right, or will you just follow the stream, 'merrily, merrily' as you can? Jan 10, Modi rated it really liked it.

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I understand it is not a total break down of 'The Dude', and I know it is not a zen primer, but instead is just a weekend conversation between Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman. I tried to take it as such and I think that just a relaxed and quiet attitude is the best to read this. Sure the book draws specific markers from " 'The Dude and the Zen Master' was a strange read for me, not just jumping abit outside my preferred genre, but also being a book I tried to enter with no preconceived notions. Sure the book draws specific markers from "Big Lebowski's" The Dude, but those are just launching points for conversations about Jeff's and Bernie's lives, trials, attempt to keep zen going, and their goals.

A solid read with enough real world zen applications and lessons it makes me want to root through my closet to see if I have any of my old zen books there. If I took one thing away from this it was a few evenings viewing the world through a lens and path I normally don't. That and to try to use "That's a nice way of looking at it" more often than shutting people down. Aug 25, Melissa Lee-Tammeus rated it really liked it Shelves: I have a crush on Jeff Bridges so when I saw this I figured I'd find out how much was based on his characters versus how much is real.

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And after reading this, I still have my crush. This book is a philosophical discussion related to the character The Dude, which of course is an icon in and of itself. The two friends discuss the notion of Zen practice and how it relates to our lives and our sense of self awareness. On occasion I had to put it down as it began to hurt my head - there is a lot of t I have a crush on Jeff Bridges so when I saw this I figured I'd find out how much was based on his characters versus how much is real.

On occasion I had to put it down as it began to hurt my head - there is a lot of thought provoking stuff in here - but I also wanted a break from how groovy it all was. I suppose I am just not that groovy, but certainly hanging out with these two would make it so. This book made me run off to an enlightenment retreat and never look back. Jeff Bridges and his Master are two cool cats and that fact that I can say that with a straight face makes me very dude-like, one thing in which we should all aspire.

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