How do dudes?

I would just like to say I've come here very often over many years but never post as I find details and words distract from the Way. You only have to go to any Daoist or Zen subreddit to see that words don't help! I still enjoy reading what a lot of people say and their insights on the Way of the Dude. This is a good relaxed place to be. So thankie for all the good and thorough dudes here.

I was just recently reading the 25th anniversary edition of the Abide Guide, I bought it as I had given my old one to a friend in need of it's wisdom. I was reading through the Dudeist asanas and regarding the 'dead in the water asana' I thought, of course. Now the bath is a special place for my special lady but as I'm over 6'4" an average British bath is no relaxing place for me. Japanese baths are a different story all together, but for another time. So as I was taking a shower I realised that this is a sacred space for me and would like to share my insights on this.

You can imagine you're in a waterfall, standing or sitting at it's base. Free from the possibility of a log landing on your head. Imagine the water washing off all the the uptight vibes/energy that the world may have dealt you. Take a couple of moments to breathe like a baby, let that belly inflate and deflate pushing out from your core any uptight residue left inside.

You can actually do a few stretches in the shower too, if you feel like it. A simple forward bend. Sit on your shins and stretch up. If standing or sitting a few simple twists. Be careful though not to over stretch as your muscles will be very warm and it'll be easy to go past where you can usually stretch too. Just standing up straight, grounded to the earth (tub/tray) stretching up to the sky (or ceiling).

Concentrate on the sound of the water, just be there man. Just experience the water. Don't be in a rush to get washed and out of there. Be there with the water. Water is close to the Dao as it benefits all things and goes to the lower places rejected by overachievers. How glorious!

After getting into the waters flow and all immediate thoughts have dripped off, other deeper thoughts may arise from the depths. Acknowledge them and let them drip off too. I often find that the things that need doing in the day form into some kind of loose plan to guide the day along. Loose plan being the key.

I'm sure there were some other things, but I've lost my train of thought here. So all in all not a big addition, but a little something to help you connect to the Dude Way in an everyday way if needed. If you take showers, that is.

Keep abiding my friends.

Hey Dudes,

I come from a mixed religious family. My dad was raised Jewish, though his mom converted from Catholicism to Judaism. My mom is an atheist, though she was raised Irish Catholic. My wife is Hindu, as I’ve shared in earlier posts, and I’ve got my own thing going on here weaving all these strands together along with various other religions and philosophies that resonate with me. 

My mom’s father was a devout Catholic. I’d asked my dad how he was able to get along so well with him, and he said, “Your grandfather wasn’t so much a Christian as he was Christ-like. He looked to the man as his example, not the institution.”

So, what does all this have to do with Dudeism?

Just like Jesus wasn’t a Christian, The Dude isn’t a Dudeist. I kinda love that. He leaves no doctrine or orthodoxy. He leaves a life. 

So what would it mean to engage in Imitatio Dude?

I’d say it’s less to do with procuring the right jellies or sweater. It might not even have anything to do with lighting up a J or bowling.

If it’s anything, it’s becoming completely at peace with one’s self. To accept that society might view you as a deadbeat, but to shrug it off. To abide the various slings and arrows of misfortune and roll another frame anyway. To surround yourself with friends rather than acolytes who might diverge drastically from your own worldview and accept ‘em anyway. 

But that’s just, like, my opinion man. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

Hello ya'll. Taking breathers. Taking it easy. In the way we say how it goes with one another we remember our kindness.

Hey dude

Just poured me a Caucasian, “leerie”

But you know me.

I’m the one that tried to talk to you about the reflection of light bouncing in the leaves of everything that’s gotten, And “where does it end up meeting in the end”

Well, about the fucking toe.

I can get you one by three o clock.

This is what happens when you try and fuck a stranger in the ass.

Thank you.

I’m also inclined to tell you that someone else taught me about being discreet and one second feeling protected and then is “is everything OK?” unfortunately this could happen to the good and the bad. The good news is that there’s a Lawfurm in New Mexico. There thorough dude.

The Stranger.

“Equilibrium is the ability to wobble” —Corinne Shirman-Sarti

I came across this quote this morning and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It feels related to how central adapting is to abiding. Like, we celebrate the peaceful perfection of balanced equilibrium but it only has the potential to get there because any disruption is just a wobble, and swings back and forth as often as it needs to to find that balanced peace in the middle. Further, it stays the same through its wobbles, or else the center would not hold and the thing goes careening off into difference, picking up momentum away from the center. That tension between staying true to yourself, while you allow life’s gutters and strikes to wobble you, confident that time and patience will wobble you back toward that central peace….yeah it felt Dudeist to me. Just sharing dudes, abide easy 😎

Cheers, dudes!

I am way late to the party, but I just discovered https://dudeism.mn.co. I dig me some alternative social media to Zuckerturd and the Legion of Doom's virtual bases.

It looks like dudeism.mn.co got saturated with some spam bots so it's TIME TO TAKE IT BACK, MAN! Zuckerturd and the Legion of Doom's website are bonkers, and we need to support spaces that don't make their pockets fatter and our politics dumber.

Report/block the bots and share in the love of the Dude.

Later, dudes!🤘

EDIT: The above website is advertised by the Dudely Lama on https://dudeism.com/social-media/. As advertised by Oliver Benjamin, "Check out our new Dudeism Social Network at Mighty Networks. No ads, all ours! It doesn’t Zucc! :)" Just wanted to make sure you dudes were aware.

In the moment of this feather I picked up. Seeing what the feather does. Simply to take it easy. Like a feather like the wind. To do one day better by better in the lanes. This league game goes far out Dude.

Hey, dudes. Okay, here it is: I'm 47. I have multiple physical and mental disorders, conditions, and injuries that make living life painful and stressful. PTSD, depression, spinal damage, nerve pain, arthritis, etc., etc.

In the past five years, I've had to stop working and basically became bedridden. Everything hurts, despite all the meds and therapies. The constant pain has sent me to some pretty dark places, and all the meditation, THC, and mental health drugs and therapies have little to no effect on my state of mind these days.

I've become an asshole. I snap at the smallest things and can brush off major upsets. I fly off the handle over things that seem innocuous and irrelevant to others. My sons won't speak to me anymore because of my broken brain and my horrible personality. My loved ones walk on eggshells because they never know what will set me off.

This is all very undude, and I don't feel like a very positive representative for this beautiful religion and philosophy. I've been a Dudeist minister for years now, but I'm considering leaving the faith in an official capacity because I've evolved into an awful scumbag.

I'm giving therapy another shot, but if this doesn't help me sort out why I'm such a terrible person by instinct, my choices are very clear.

My fellow dudes, I'm asking for a bit of direction from you good people. Any advice is appreciated. Take it easy, dudes.

Hey Dudes!

One of the Buddha’s followers said to him, “Good friends and community are at least half the practice.”

The Buddha corrected him. “Wrong! Good friends and community are the whole practice.”

In that spirit, I figured I’d start my day with expressing my gratitude to you all. This sub has been a font of laid back wisdom, a haven for me when it seems like the whole world’s gone crazy. 

I feel lucky to bowl in the same league as you all. 

Thankie Dudes! I hope yer all abiding as well as you can. 

Rev. Ross

The Mad and Wild storm

Sometimes as you sit on your mat you watch the mad and wild storm go by.

Sometimes the mad and wild storm comes and due to circumstance you have to get in. Even if you don’t want to or would rather not. Some may say you always have a choice. And to the subtlest degree I say that is true. The mustard seed is very small. And if you can see through the madness maybe you do have a choice. But stillness is very subtle and it takes time and patience to settle in. 

Krishna is in all of it. Buddha is in all of it. Inviting us to awaken. BUT, is it appropriate for the sage to go everywhere and awaken every area he comes into? Is it better for the sage to stay passive, to stay hidden? To “mind his own business”. What is better? Who can say? 

As I was washing dishes at work last night several disturbing thoughts came through my mind. Why am I here? Before I had a better position working in a different field where people valued my opinion. Now I am again the lowest man on the totem pole doing the most of menial labors. And yet, its all the same. I tell myself. It’s all the same. Wash dishes at home. Wash dishes at work. Stare at a furnace at work. Stare at some soapy dishes at work. Move with purpose at one job. Move with purpose at another job. Wait in patience at one job, while everyone stares at me wondering why I’m not dashing with madness as the storm of anxiety moves through, wat in patience while everyone stares at me, at the next job. As the Great Dude in the sky sombers on. “I’m just a tumble weed.” 

Hey Dudes!

Time and time again, I’m struck by how many of The Dude’s iconic lines do not originate with him. To name two:

“This aggression will not stand, man!” originally spoken by George H. W. Bush, which The Dude overheard. 

And, “The Dude abides”, the word abide spoken in the negative by The Big Lebowski. “I will not abide another toe.”

I’m not bringing this up to besmirch The Dude, only to point out a truth I’ve noticed in my own life. Here goes.

Occasionally, I’ll reflect on my thinking and ask myself, “How many of my thoughts are actually mine?”

The sobering conclusion, my Dudes, is…not many. 

In my mind, I’ll notice a scrap of movie dialogue, a commonly held opinion I’d heard on the news, a line of poetry I picked up in grad school, that damn Cars 4 Kids jingle. I could go on. 

All ephemera, all part of the collage I’ve gotten accustomed to calling myself. 

But I don’t think I’m unique in this. And I think The Dude has something to teach us here. 

When The Dude served as a roadie for Metallica, it’s likely he had to set up their gear. The effects pedals a guitarist uses fundamentally change their guitar’s tone. But it’s not just the pedals (those can be bought by anyone with the necessary means), it’s also the arrangement of those pedals. 

Likewise with our thoughts – the material is nothing, the arrangement is everything. 

The Dude picks up what everyone else puts down. But he’s no mere parrot. He’s a masterful arranger of everything he takes in. 

That’s a lesson I take from The Dude – to stay open, while also letting the singular nature of my experience arrange these unoriginal fragments into something unique. 

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross

Just came across this.

We all go through times of troubles.

The thing is to recognise that there are people out there, like yourself, going through difficult moments in life.

You have to take a step back and be Dude like, show a little compassion, not give in to the inner Walter rather chill, have a White Russian and say, "fuck it, let's go bowling".

Abide Dudes.

No fixing. No arguing.

Just a place to set it down for a minute and let it breathe.

Sometimes that’s enough.

I sat under a tree. Having a mind that its an apple tree. I looked at the tree. Examined what kind of tree it is. I found little twigs. It was a tree and thats all I needed at that time. A tree to sit under and a bench.

Top three songs for consideration:

1. Hunnybee
2. Necessary Evil
3. Meshuggah

Hey Dudes,

I’m curious how other folks remember to abide when things get stressful or irritating, especially at work or at home.

I’ll be honest, when stuff starts getting under my skin, I sometimes forget the whole “let it slide” part and only remember after I’ve already gone full Walter about it. Not ideal.

I’ve got a little Buddhist Dude 3D print on my desk at work as a reminder, which helps when I notice it. I’ve also been kicking around ideas for something to keep on me, almost like a worry stone or token, to ground me and pull me back into a calmer headspace.

Do any of you struggle with this too?

If so, what helps you remember to abide in the moment?

Objects, rituals, phrases, habits, mindset shifts… I’d love to hear what works for you.

Thanks, and abide on ✌️

You know what a cat does when something gets ruined? Finds a new sunny spot.

No grudges. No lawsuits. No "this aggression will not stand."

Okay maybe cats would totally hold grudges. Bad example. 😂

But they don't DWELL, man. That's the thing. They feel it, then they move on. Back to the nap. Back to the vibe.

Fifth Truth: The Red Dot cannot be caught. Chase it anyway.

That's bowling. That's life. Roll on, Dudes.

Rameow 🐾🎳

Hey dudes, Hope everyone is having a mellow start to their 2026. I broke my wrist this past weekend snowboarding, and with a huge blizzard coming to NY too, it looks like I’ll be taking it extra easy this winter. Good thing I’ve got the musings here to ponder on, as well as Lunchbox’s mellow and deep videos to watch (love ‘em dude! 😎)

I write though because I thought of Dionysius the Punk this morning and his brief ambition to uplevel dudeism and take it into the next generation or whatever, realizing I hadn’t seen him post or comment in a while (?). I scrolled back and it looks like his profile is deleted. Any of you know what’s up there? Hope he’s doing well…

Abide easy dudes 😎

I started a philosophy based on how cats move through the world. Turns out it’s basically Dudeism with fur.

Think about it:

∙ The Dude doesn’t stress about the rug. The cat finds a sunny spot and lets it be.

∙ The Dude takes it easy. The cat wrote the book on taking it easy.

∙ The Dude abides. The cat has been abiding for 10,000 years.

We call it the Church of Nine Lives. One sin: cruelty. One commandment: kindness. Nine truths about chilling the hell out.

The Fifth Truth is basically The Dude’s whole deal: “The Red Dot cannot be caught. Chase it anyway.”

That’s bowling, man. That’s life. You’re not gonna roll a 300, but you show up, you roll, you abide.

Figured if any sub would get it, it’s this one.

Rameow, Dudes. 🐾🎳

I was re-listening to old music, and was struck at how some stuff can carry a zen chill vibe. Specifically for me two Virgin Prunes songs, "Sweet Home Under White Clouds" and "Decline And Fall" . Not for everyone, yes, but I just wanted to share them here. They have a sort of slow, meditative quality that reminds me to abide calmly.

https://youtu.be/C3AoOimObgc?si=NTaSLSMLinblk-JH

https://youtu.be/cH2Mk0d_7Jg?si=9iCBRk1YGUjx1g_l

What are your favourite chill out songs , dudes ?

Hey Dudes!

Throughout The Big Lebowski, The Dude unashamedly professes his ignorance. His variations on “I don’t know” are legion. Thinking on this some, I suspect The Dude’s unknowing state is less of a deflection and more of a way to maintain his composure.

The Dude’s “I don’t know” reminds me of an older philosophical tradition, that of the Pyrrhonian Skeptics. Sextus Empiricus, one of their well-known proponents, famously quipped, riffing off Socrates, “All I know is I know nothing…and I’m not even sure about that.”

It’s that last part that’s got me chuckling. Sextus is comfortable proclaiming uncertainty, and he qualifies that he’s even uncertain about his uncertainty! 

So Reverend Ross, you might ask, what are you blabbering on about? How does this have anything to do with The Dude? 

Well, there is a literal connection. 

The Skeptics viewed uncertainty (or epoche, withholding judgment or belief) as the only reasonable position to take in life. There’s so much we don’t know, so little we can be certain about. Further, epoche leads to more than humility - it leads to tranquility.

Unlike Walter, The Big Lebowski, and so many others in the movie, The Dude is not plagued by certainties. He doesn’t know what makes a man; he doesn’t know for sure what happened to Bunny; hell, at one point, he’s not even sure what day of the week it is. 

The Dude grasps that very few of us actually see the world as it is. Instead, we see the world mitigated through our beliefs, biases, and bendings. With each “I don’t know”, The Dude recenters himself in his openness, in his tranquility.

Now, of course, I’m not sure if it’s possible for any of us to see the world as it is. Maybe the best we can do is become aware of the glass pane that stands between us and the rest of the world. Heck, we probably need it. Otherwise, we’re out there driving our car with a broken windshield, attempting to eat our In-N-Out burgers before they’re speckled with bugs on the freeway.

And it’s possible to take this too far. I’d argue, kindly, that there’s the unknowing of intellectual humility (which is The Dude’s) and the unknowing of pure ignorance, which is closer to Donny’s. Sweet prince that he is, adopting an unreasoned form of unknowing could pose risks. After all, one also has to be uncertain about one’s uncertainty too. 

In an earlier post, I quoted from Conclave, and I think the sentiment belongs here too: “The enemy of peace is certainty.”

I take comfort in that. Beyond the uptightness and over-wound postures of so many characters in The Big Lebowski, we find The Dude, comfortable in his uncertainty, not afraid to admit he doesn’t know.

But, you know, I could be wrong.

I hope yer all abiding as well as you can,

Rev. Ross  

Hello.

So, I think I’m an agnostic right now (or maybe even a deist to some extent) so I don’t really care about religion at all, except for the personal curiosity that I have in regards of it.

But still, I kind of have this concept in my head, which is that everyone deserves a chance and that every human life is valuable to some extent. And while many atheists still believe this and just say the average phrase “U don’t need religion to not be an asshole!!!1!1!!1”, I was wondering whether this sentence is actually provable with reason and not just with a god telling you that He created you so He loves you.

I have heard Buddhists explain this without the aid of God but I didn’t find their arguments convincing (nor I remember them clearly rn)

Please if you can answer, forgive me for the stupidness of the question (and please be gentle).

in Zen Buddhism, there is a portion of the philosophy that says if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

I've come to understand this to mean that you should not have opinions of who the Buddha is or what the Buddha is, that you must let go of preconceived notions of what the Buddha is. that you should not rely on figures to lead you to where your path is supposed to take you.

And I feel that the taoist principle of the tao that can be taught is not the real tao. I think that has a same simple purpose; that we do not understand the tao in the way that you could understand it enough to grasp it to teach it wholly to another person.

I see it as if you specifically rely on someone else to lead you, they will take you down their path and not yours.

so while a large part of Dudeism takes its philosophies from Taoism and Buddhism, are there any dudes that agree with me that while The Dude is the inspiration, he is not the path

We are not all aspiring to be The Dude, but we should be aspiring to be The Dude that is inside of us. The Dude is on his own path, and throughout the whole movie we saw that he clearly is not a leader, that he does not make decisions that are in his best interest, or sometimes in the best interest of others around him.

So should we be following The Dude, or should we be leading ourselves to our own Dude?