It was announced today that Jeff Bridges — a.k.a. The Dude, or His Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing — will be releasing a book called The Dude and the Zen Master, which Entertainment Weekly reports will explore “the meaning of life, laughter, the movies and trying to do good in a difficult world.”
This is not merely interesting news for fans of The Big Lebowski, the 1998 film in which The Dude first peered over his glasses. I think it’s going to be the somewhat surprising case that a good number of Buddhists, specifically, are going to be all over this — much like Groundhog Day, the film has become a sort of entertainment cause celebre for more than a handful of dharma practitioners. (It seems crazy to me how many dharma-friends love this movie!*) And being that Bridges gets on famously with the American Zen teacher Bernie Glassman, and that the book will be a work of co-authorship between the two, I think we can expect something special. In the meantime, here are more details about The Dude and the Zen Master, by way of Entertainment Weekly.
* If you’re a friend of The Dude, feel free to let us know why in the comments here.
See also: Jeff Bridges joins Bernie Glassman in saying “Let all eat” (Video), and: Video: Jeff Bridges on the Buddhist influence in “Tron: Legacy”; More on the Tron/Dharma connection
6 Comments
The Dude has no anger in his soul.
The Dude is a fictional character.
duh Lenny…. much like Jesus then.
and Buddha too!
"If you’re a friend of The Dude, feel free to let us know why in the comments here."
Well, sometimes there's a man–I won't say a hee-ro, 'cause what's a hee-ro?–but sometimes there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Dude here–sometimes there's a man who, wal, he's the man for his time'n place, he fits right in there–and that's the Dude, in Los Angeles.
Wooooo freakin' love that movie, Emilia :)