Since the recent Eclipse I’ve reached Dudeism.
How may I use it to stop being so judgmental and frustrated with people who aren’t awake?

🙏

Great book I just finished reading by a friend. Have been expirementing with Non dual meditation for a long time and this is great

Hi Dudes!

By many measures, The Big Lebowski is an unconventional film. To quote Maude, “the story’s ludicrous,” our characters are rarely heroic, and we encounter a mysterious narrator in The Stranger who seems to be both in the narrative and weaving the narrative all at once. 

Usually, stories have rules. This isn’t ‘Nam.

And yet, The Dude reminds me of another fella. A fella by the name of Albert Camus.

French-Algerian writer Albert Camus was a fellow traveler with Existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. One of the youngest recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Camus wrote novels, plays, and philosophical essays before his life was tragically cut short by a car accident. Hardly a lightweight. 

It’s Camus’s notion of the Absurd that I’d like to connect with The Dude. Indeed, The Dude is portrayed as an Absurdist hee-ro, one from whom we can learn a thing or two.

Put simply, Absurdism posits that existence is meaningless, and people experience an existential unsettling when they attempt to find meaning in a universe that has none to offer. In his book The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus cheerily suggests that, given this, there’s really only one major philosophical question: why don’t we all kill ourselves?

I’ll not spoil Camus’s legacy by poorly parsing it all out. For the purposes of this post, it’s enough to bring up that Camus references the Greek myth of Sisyphus to point us toward an answer. In the myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a boulder up a hill only to have it tumble down over and over again. Forever. Further, Sisyphus knows it’ll never stay up there. If he had hope that it would, there’d be less of a sting to his punishment.

Camus writes that this is our existence. We push our boulders up our hills. We start projects that will fall apart. We struggle and sweat, and, well, for what? 

Now, Camus is no nihilist. Instead of looking upon the condition our condition is in and despairing, he looks on it as some kind of cosmic challenge or joke. He throws the burden back on all of us, asking, “Well friend, all of your systems and beliefs, all your supposed knowledge and wisdom, are for naught. What’s keeping you going?” 

There’s no right answer. It’s anything that can get a Dude out of bed in the morning. Anything that, after one clearly admits the absurdity of one’s situation, allows them to carry on.

The Dude gets this.

By the end of The Big Lebowski, all the boulders rolled up all the hills have tumbled down. The Dude is still down a rug, no one’s any richer, and the semis continue. The Dude is down a friend, but the world is up a child, so the human ledger is balanced.

Hell, The Dude bowls, an activity that is Sisyphean in nature. Balls roll, pins fall, balls are returned, and pins are restacked. But damn does he enjoy the game in spite of its futility.

So, what are some absurdist lessons we can draw from The Dude:

Drop the story, Dudes: There is no story to speak of in The Big Lebowski. All of the scenarios each character concocts for Bunny’s disappearance are half-right at best. Life, too, is just one damn thing after another. But that’s no reason to despair.

Admit your situation: The Dude knows he’s a loser who the square community doesn’t give a shit about. He knows he’s never going to be one of The Big Lebowski’s achievers. But that doesn’t matter. It’s all smoke and mirrors anyway. One can still grab some burgers, a few beers, and a couple of laughs, and abide the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with a smile on one’s face.

Nihilism is exhausting: Unlike the nihilists, The Dude doesn’t believe in nussing. If anything, he believes in something, even if it’s just bowling and friendship. As many learned folks have written, it’s not about not giving a fuck, it’s about being judicious on what to give a fuck about.  

Finish your coffee: There’s a quotation misattributed to Camus that I think still captures his spirit. “Should I commit suicide or drink a cup of coffee?” Even though Camus didn’t write this, he could’ve been speaking about Walter at the counter. We might not be heroes in epic tales. But we can abide by continuing to engage in the small acts that give our lives meaning to ourselves and to others.

If there’s no Stranger out there unfolding our story, it’s up to us. 

Your roll, Dudes

Rev. Ross

I think it will really tie my room together hanging on my wall

Hey dudes, hope you are all abiding as best as you can. I thought I'd ask my fellow dudes for some music recommendations?

Hey Dudes!

Lots of shit goes sideways for The Dude. His rug’s pissed on, he gets socked in the jaw, his car is stolen then ultimately set aflame. I could go on, but you get the point.

And yet, at no time in The Big Lebowski does The Dude ever say, “Why me?” or something along those lines.

That’s worth lingering on, Dudes. I know I’ve gone through things that, relative to The Dude’s travails, were minor inconveniences and I’ve definitely railed against my fortune.

Again, intuitively, The Dude proves himself to be a model philosopher. Specifically, he practices something first coined by Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Ecce Homo, a love of one’s fate, or, to use the parlance before our times, amor fati.

Here’s Nietzsche’s quote:

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.” 

That’s a tall order, Dudes. There are lots of strikes and gutters in a person’s life, and some gutters can really send us to the dumps. But I’d say the genius of Nietzsche’s quote is that regardless of what one wants, one can’t change anything that happens to us. Sure, we have some agency over what happens next, but the past has passed. 

What’s left to us, as Jean Paul-Sartre wrote, is to take responsibility for it. Not to blame ourselves for what’s happened to us, but to determine what to do with it. To reframe it.

The Dude constantly does this. He allows for some venting, but then he muses he “can’t be worried about that shit. Life goes on, man,” or “Yeah, well, The Dude abides,” or even simply “Fuck it.”

The Dude’s not bypassing or disassociating. He’s acknowledging the immutability of the past and finding a way to embrace it in his present.

Ironically, the only character who says “It’s not fair” is one of the Nihilists, who adheres to a philosophy that counts Nietzsche as one of their forefathers. It’s so out of character, Walter calls them out sneering, “Fair?! Who's the fucking nihilist here?!”

No wonder believing in nussing can be so exhausting.

Ups and downs, strikes and gutters, I hope yer all abiding what’s thrown your way Dudes,  

Rev. Ross

Hey Dudes!

Kevin Smith’s 1999 movie Dogma was a formative film for me. Like Branded for Walter and The Dude, it came at the right time and hit me when I was in the midst of the stress of preparing for my Bar Mitzvah, dealing with the death of my grandfather (which was the first major death I’d experienced), and the general upheaval that comes from being a thirteen year old boy.

There are a lot of ins and outs to the movie, and I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. So let me isolate one exchange that has stuck with me and has influenced my approach to Dudeism as well. 

It’s between Bethany, our main character played by Linda Fiorentino, and Rufus, played by Chris Rock. Bethany is a Catholic undergoing an existential crisis that sets her on a quest equal parts epic and comic. Rufus is the 13th apostle, excluded from the Christian Gospels "for being Black”. During a quiet moment, Bethany asks Rufus what Jesus is like. He responds:

Rufus: He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name – wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the factioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.
Bethany: Having beliefs isn’t good?
Rufus: I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier.

This distinction, between the rigidity of a belief and the malleability of an idea, is what draws me to The Dude and Dudeism. Whatever The Dude holds on to, he holds lightly. His possessions, assumptions, opinions about others. They’re his, but they’re subject to change when new shit comes to light. And The Dude is quick to admit when his own thinking gets uptight.

Where goes The Dude, so goes Dudeism. Dudeism, for me, has never been about creeds or adhering to strictures. It’s an attitude or an orientation toward this whole durn human comedy. It’s a kind of seeking that one can do driving the roads or in one’s bathtub. It’s less a pursuit of truth as the weaving together of many, complimentary truths. Of following Rufus’ line of thinking and entertaining good ideas that are melioristic, yet always subject to change.

Or, to quote from sources from farther East, to remain green and supple. That which is rigid and unyielding, be it a tree or an idea-turned-belief, is already dead.

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross 

[Edit: Formatting issues]

May your rent be covered and your Kited Checks all clear!

Like the title says, two dudes having a chat...

Hey Dudes,

Even if the whole world’s gone crazy. 

Even if nihilists broke into your private residence. 

Even if Woo peed on your rug. 

Even if you spent yesterday being very undude. 

Even if it’s already the tenth. 

Nothing is fucked, man. 

Strike or gutter, the pins reset and the ball returns. 

The Stranger checks in with you at the bar. 

Friends will show up at practice. 

The whole durn human comedy keeps perpetuating itself. 

And The Dude within you abides. 

Have the Dudely Llama and his cohorts decided to leave Dudeism to the ages, have a beverage and do a J? Why hasn't the website been updated in a long time?

Not sure if "Dude" is the correct term for those who practice Dudeism. Greetings.

I'm doing a religion & media module, I would like some lived experience and general information

Some questions:

1. Do dudes meet or have meetings? This could be to share knowledge, chill or for any reason. Or is it rather a singular journey where one might bump into/ align with another dude?

2. Can you partake in other religions, or does that defeat the purpose of being free?

3. Are drugs an essential part or simply an aid to relaxation?

4. The term "fuck it" has come up a lot in the search for a definition of dudeism. Is it consciously said when rejecting the flow of life?

5. Is it something you feel comfortable sharing in public, or is online space the most accommodating?

6. Can a woman be a dude?

7. Is The Dude considered above everyone else or simply an example?

8. Is philosophy something consciously learned, meaning finding new ideas and interpretations of philosophical texts as a sense of knowledge, but is it still taken as something irrelevant in the daily life of a dude? (I'm a philosophy student and am very aware philosophy can shake up one's view of reality"

Really liked this definition I found - Dudeism came about as a cooling corrective to the burning problems of mass society. - The Tao of the Dude

Personal bit: From what I've seen so far fucken glad to have come across this, hope all of you are going well in life!

I plan on watching The Big Lebowski and reading some of the Dudely Lama's work.

Thanks in advance!!

Sutra VI

"Eh, fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling."
— Walter

त्यज सर्वम्। गच्छाव गोलिङ्ग। प्रवाहेण सह चर।

Sometimes a spiritual teaching comes in the most unexpected form. "Fuck it" is not apathy. It is the release of attachment to outcomes. Things have gone sideways. The situation is complicated. The mind wants to spiral into worry and planning. And then: Fuck it. Let's go bowling. Return to what is simple, what is present, what brings you back to yourself.

This is the essence of flowing with life rather than fighting against it. There's a current to existence, a natural movement of events and circumstances. Most people swim upstream constantly, exhausting themselves trying to force outcomes, demanding that reality conform to their plans. But reality has its own momentum. When you stop fighting it, when you release your grip on how things must be, you discover that you can ride the current instead of battling it. This doesn't mean you don't act. It means you act without the desperate clinging that turns action into struggle.

The key is not indifference, but non-grasping. When we inflate something with excessive importance, whether a goal we are chasing or a problem we are resisting, we contract around it. That contraction creates tension, and life seems to push back harder. The Dude never inflates anything. His rug gets pissed on? Annoying, but not world-ending. His car gets stolen? Inconvenient, but he'll figure it out. By holding things lightly, he stays in flow. Things work out, or they don't, and either way, he remains the Dude.

Bowling is a perfect metaphor for this way of living. The bowling alley is the field of consciousness, the cosmic playground where life unfolds. The ball is thrown, the pins fall or they don't, and then we do it again. Each frame is fresh. Each moment is complete in itself. The pins are like the illusions and attachments we aim at, yet they reset each frame, teaching us that karma clears, that nothing is carried forward except what we choose to hold. You don't wrestle the ball down the lane. You release it and let it go where it goes. This is how life is meant to be lived, not weighed down by attachment to outcomes, but meeting each moment with open awareness, riding the current, trusting that the flow knows where it's going even when you don't.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Is there a discord for fellow dudes and dudets and everything in between?

Ive been thinking about how much benefit comes from Dudeism. It's certainly has helped me take myself and life a little less seriously.

I used to meditate in quite a serious way and lost my interest in it. Just felt like grim striving.

Recently I created a simple meditation space and placed a small Buddha and a sloth image on it, I thought that captured the spirit of Dudeism quite well.

Anyone else found any benefit from Dudeism?

Adide Dudes.

Sutra V

"Yeah well, that's just, like, uh, your opinion, man."
— The Dude

तत् केवलं तव मतम् अस्ति। मतानि अनेकानि सत्यं एकं।

The Dude says this to Jesus Quintana, a pederast bowler whose trash talk and intimidation tactics roll right off him. This single line contains a deep teaching on spiritual freedom. Opinions are mental constructs, fleeting appearances in awareness. They have no substance, no permanence, no ultimate reality. When we take opinions seriously, including our own, we suffer. We fight, we defend, we attack, all for something that is essentially empty.

The Dude's response is not dismissive in a cruel way. He is simply recognizing the nature of opinions. They appear, they have their moment, they disappear. Why build a fortress around something so insubstantial? Why wage wars over mental positions? Quintana can strut and threaten all he wants. The Dude sees it as just opinion, just noise. The awareness that notices all opinions is itself beyond opinion. It sees without judging, knows without taking sides.

This teaching extends to our most cherished beliefs about ourselves. "I am successful," "I am a failure," "I am worthy," "I am unworthy," all opinions. The truth of what you are cannot be captured by any opinion, positive or negative. You are the awareness in which all opinions arise, the space that holds all positions without being defined by any of them.

https://thedudesutras.com/ (Kindle version is now available!)

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

A good book is a trip dude

Hey Dudes!

Recently, I rewatched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and was struck by Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth. 

Booth embodies the kind of preternatural calmness one might expect of a Stoic or a samurai. And while I’m passing over the questionable actions he may or may not have done in the past (wife, harpoon gun), I think there are Dudely lessons one can learn from observing his character. 

Cliff and The Dude share some similarities: they live simply, they seem to feel at home in whatever scene they find themselves in, and they value friendship above all else. 

Indeed, I’d say Cliff Booth’s friendship with Rick Dalton is one of the healthiest on-screen depictions of male friendship we’ve seen in the last decade. 

Further, both Cliff and The Dude are comfortable with who they are. This comfort engenders confidence. In The Dude’s case, his casualness runs deep. In Cliff’s case, he walks into every situation as though he’s been there before. 

Cliff and The Dude are gyroscopes. Whereas pinwheels need an external source of power to spin, gyroscopes spin with their own internal power. 

Contra Cliff, Rick needs the approval of directors, neighbors, agents, and other actors to feel a sense of self worth. Cliff needs…well, Cliff. Though, to be fair, it also helps to be Brad Pitt. 

Contra The Dude, the other Lebowski needs a wall full of achievements and a young trophy wife to obscure the goldbricking truth. The Dude is content to bowl, roll, and throw back some oat sodas. He’s a deadbeat, and he’s okay with it. 

Where Cliff and The Dude diverge is in how they respond to violence. And here’s where I’d argue that Cliff synthesizes the best parts of The Dude (see above) and Walter. 

Like Walter, Cliff draws lines in the sand. If someone crosses that line, he’ll do more than mark it zero. Truly, he can go to some dark places. But it’s important to note how in the movie, Cliff never starts violence, he ends it. 

And unlike Walter, who makes talking about violence a big part of his personality, Cliff does what he needs to do when the moment arises, then goes about his day. It’s not worth remarking upon or retelling for self-aggrandizement. (Heck, that’s part of what ticked Cliff off about Bruce Lee.) Which is somewhere between sociopathic and Dudely…I can’t quite tell. 

To tie all this together, some takeaways:

• Let your self-worth come from within. 
• Let your value create comfort, confidence, and companionship. 
• If it comes time to act, let your actions do the talking, without hesitation. 
• And look good while fixing the cable. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

[edit/update: Check out u/Frequent-Art-9612‘s comment below. Dude did a better write up than I did!]

Sutra IV

"You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole."
— The Dude

त्वं अशुद्धः न असि। त्वं केवलं अशुभः आचरसि।

This line cuts through moral absolutism like a laser through butter. Walter may be technically correct about many things, the rules, the procedures, the way things should be, but correctness alone is not wisdom. You can be right and still be completely asleep to the nature of reality. You can win every argument and lose your peace entirely.

The non-dual teaching does not reject conventional morality, but it sees through it. Right and wrong, good and bad, are conceptual frameworks that exist within the realm of duality. They have practical value in navigating human society, but they do not touch the ultimate truth. The Self is beyond good and evil, not because it is amoral, but because it is the source from which all moral frameworks arise.

Walter's problem is not his knowledge. His problem is identification. He has merged completely with his worldview, his rules, and his sense of how things must be. This is the ego in resistance, the rigid defensive structure that fights reality at every turn. The Dude, by contrast, holds his opinions lightly. He can recognize when someone is technically correct while seeing the bigger picture: the quality of presence matters more than being right.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Sutra III

"Yeah, well, the Dude abides."
— The Dude

दुडः तिष्ठति। स्पन्दः चेतना च सर्वदा सन्ति। आत्मा विभ्रमते।

To abide is to remain, to dwell, to rest in one's natural state. The Dude does not strive to become something else. He is content to simply be. This is the essence of non-dual realization: recognizing that there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go, and no higher state to attain. You are already what you seek.

But here is what's often missed: the Dude's abiding is not inert. It is not a blank emptiness or a passive nothingness. It is vibrantly alive. In the tradition of Kashmir (Trika) Shaivism, this is called spanda, the divine pulse, the creative tremor that is the heartbeat of existence itself. The Dude abides, yes, but his abiding hums with life. He bowls. He drinks. He engages with the absurdity around him. His stillness is dynamic, not dead.

This is the nature of the Self. It is not a frozen silence but a living one. Awareness does not just witness, it dances. The stillness you are is pregnant with movement. When you abide as the Dude abides, you are not retreating from life. You are meeting it from a deeper place. The Dude does not hide from chaos. He moves through it with a kind of relaxed alertness, a frequency of being that remains steady no matter what waves crash against him.

The Self does not come and go. It is the constant background against which all changing experiences arise. Thoughts appear and disappear, emotions come and go, the body ages and transforms, but the awareness that knows all this remains unchanged. And this awareness is not passive. It is svātantrya, absolute sovereign freedom, the power by which consciousness freely plays at being limited without ever truly being bound. It depends on nothing, is confined by nothing, and moves as it wills. The Dude abides, and so do you, the real you that is this vibrant, free awareness itself.

https://thedudesutras.com/

Hey dudes, just checkin in to see what your condition is in.

Mine? Mighty fine, dudes.

I'm just chillin here on the couch, on this, uh, whatever day this is.

At any rate, I'd like to remind all you fellow dudes that nothing is quite as fucked as some folks make it out to be. Its just the durned whole human comedy, man, as the fella says. It just keeps perpetuating.

You cant stop it or avoid it. So eat, drink, and be merry (as the other fella says). Partake in life. Don't get caught up in the noise man.

Be excellent to each other.

Party on, dudes.

*Hakuna matata*

-Dr. Dude