Jeff Bridges – An Interview with The Dude and The Zen Master
With wit, charm, and profound insight, in alternating voices, Bridges and Glassman discover the Zen in iconic scenes and lines from Lebowski like “If you will it, Dude, it is no dream,” “Phone’s ringin’, Dude,” and “The Dude abides,” as in the following exchange:
Bernie Glassman: The Dude’s a lot like us. Stuff upsets him, like when someone pees on his rug. He has thoughts, frustrations, and everything that we all have, but he doesn’t work from them. He works from where he is.
Jeff Bridges: He does his thing, he’s very authentic, but the chaos of life throws him off time after time. He’s rowing his boat merrily, but new things always happen and he has to make an adjustment.
Bernie Glassman: Because there’s no perfect place anywhere. One of the Buddha’s first teachings was that life is suffering. He didn’t just mean heart-rending, painful, traumatic suffering, but something more basic than that. It doesn’t matter how good we have it or how basically happy we are, things arise every day that leave us feeling discontented or disappointed. . . . But the Dude abides, so it doesn’t take him long to be at ease with the new situation. . . . That’s what life is, constant change, ups and downs. And like the Dude, we have to abide.
Or this take on “The Dude is not in; leave a message”:
Bernie Glassman: That’s our life again. We’re not in, and everybody’s leaving messages. Not being in – not being attached to Jeff or Bernie or whoever you are – is the essence of Zen. When we’re not attached to our identity, it allows all the messages of the world to come in and be heard. When we’re not in, creation can happen.
