I know what you must be thinking. “A religion based on a Coen Brothers film?” I would have thought the same thing until about two years ago when my cube mate called me over to his monitor and said, “I’ve found the perfect religion for you”. He had come across a web site called dudeism.com. I’d seen the movie years earlier and frankly identified more with the Donny character than I did with The Dude, but as I read through the site I realized that many of the beliefs being represented there were the same spiritual values I had found to be true for me. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that as crazy as this may sound, it isn’t any less rational than basing a religion on the writings of a science fiction author or an all powerful being that lives on a planet named Kolob or even a virgin birth, for that matter. In future columns, we will explore various Dudeist teachings such as The Take It Easy Manifesto, The Dude De Ching, The Tao of the Dude and I will even introduce you to His Holiness The Dudely Lama himself. My hope is that you will find that this spiritual practice “really pulls the room together” as I have or at least get laugh out of it.
Here’s a short description of Dudeism as explained in The Dudespaper, the official online newspaper of Dudeism.
“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.”
For now, I’ll just tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a 52 year old man who lives on the beach in an area of Virginia called Ocean View. I am engaged to a remarkably accepting young lady and probably happier than I’ve ever been in my life. In my formative years, I was lucky enough to attend an amazing high school modeled after the freedom school from the Billie Jack films. The curriculum included outdoor education, pottery and organic farming and emphasized values like creativity, self awareness and a strong sense of community. I spent several summers traveling from show to show with The Grateful Dead and found that not only could I beat the crap out of a plastic bucket in a drum circle, I was also quite the imported beer salesman. My early career started off in the eighties driving limousine for posers, drug dealers and wannabe rock stars in Los Angeles. In the late eighties, I was introduced to the former owner of Paradise Lakes Nudist Resort who had just seduced and proposed to my roommate while she was on vacation in Florida. Fred took me aside one afternoon and told me, “I like you kid and since I’m taking your roommate and I’m pretty sure you can’t afford this beach rental on your own, why not come on out to Florida? I’ll find you a place to stay, give you a job and you’ll be surrounded by naked women”. So I loaded up my truck and moved to Paradise. Lakes, that is. Swimmin’ pools. Porno stars. (insert banjo solo here).
If you take anything away from all of my rambling, I hope that it is my belief that life is for living. I wake up every morning (well almost every morning) knowing that today is a wonderful gift to be unwrapped and explored. I believe that every day is filled with limitless possibilities and endless abundance. I’m convinced that our true purpose in life is to interact with our fellow beings and give witness to this amazing universe that surrounds us. If you are searching for miracles in life, you need go no farther than your back yard to realize that we are living in the midst of the greatest miracle of all.
In the words of The Dude “Take it easy, Man.”
“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.”
For now, I’ll just tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a 52 year old man who lives on the beach in an area of Virginia called Ocean View. I am engaged to a remarkably accepting young lady and probably happier than I’ve ever been in my life. In my formative years, I was lucky enough to attend an amazing high school modeled after the freedom school from the Billie Jack films. The curriculum included outdoor education, pottery and organic farming and emphasized values like creativity, self awareness and a strong sense of community. I spent several summers traveling from show to show with The Grateful Dead and found that not only could I beat the crap out of a plastic bucket in a drum circle, I was also quite the imported beer salesman. My early career started off in the eighties driving limousine for posers, drug dealers and wannabe rock stars in Los Angeles. In the late eighties, I was introduced to the former owner of Paradise Lakes Nudist Resort who had just seduced and proposed to my roommate while she was on vacation in Florida. Fred took me aside one afternoon and told me, “I like you kid and since I’m taking your roommate and I’m pretty sure you can’t afford this beach rental on your own, why not come on out to Florida? I’ll find you a place to stay, give you a job and you’ll be surrounded by naked women”. So I loaded up my truck and moved to Paradise. Lakes, that is. Swimmin’ pools. Porno stars. (insert banjo solo here).
If you take anything away from all of my rambling, I hope that it is my belief that life is for living. I wake up every morning (well almost every morning) knowing that today is a wonderful gift to be unwrapped and explored. I believe that every day is filled with limitless possibilities and endless abundance. I’m convinced that our true purpose in life is to interact with our fellow beings and give witness to this amazing universe that surrounds us. If you are searching for miracles in life, you need go no farther than your back yard to realize that we are living in the midst of the greatest miracle of all.
In the words of The Dude “Take it easy, Man.”
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