The Zen teacher, Bernie Glassman, sees much wisdom in the movie, The Big Lebowski, and specifically in the character played by Jeff Bridges, the Dude. This blog, the dude abides explains some of the insights he sees in the movie. It is worth checking out if your interested in zen, koans, or The Big Lebowski.
6 comments:
What the hell is a koan and what do strikes and gutters have to do with them?
i have to agree with the comment above. it seems as though this glassman fellow has taken some fairly humorous and paradoxical statements in the big lebowski and turned them into religious koans. in my humble opinion, this is a sham. the quotes he takes are so general and the way he pursues this is such that one could do this with any movie(interesting that he chose a cool, cult classic...glassman the businessman or self-promoter, perhaps?)
it seems to me that this is the very real problematic of generalizing koans, instead of providing a koan to someone with whom you have a relationship and are in conversation. the koan is a flexible enough form of religious teaching that any seemingly paradoxical or counter-intuitive statement can be construed to be a koan. thus, one could imagine finding koans in any thing that doesn't make sense or cohere on the face of it...seems to me to be a faux exercise in profundity, an exercise that shows the soft underside and banality of certain strands of american buddhism.
Ryudo's Social Action Koan: Mental Health Worker: “If Leroy doesn’t get a home pass this weekend, he is going to run away.”
Therapist: “Are you sure?”
Mental Health Worker: “Absolutely!”
Therapist: “But how can you know that?”
Mental Health Worker: “I just know.”
Who is right?
Traditional case koan from the Collection of Vines and Entanglements: Affirmation is not the answer; negation is not the answer; both affirmation and negation are not the answer.
Lebowski Commentary: Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
The Dude: No you're not wrong.
Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
The Dude: You're not wrong Walter. You're just an a**hole.
Walter Sobchak: All right then.
if glassman wants to put "the dude" up there as a zen hero, then god bless him. but, it gives me even more reason to criticize/reject american zen as a base form of aestheticism, which revels in little more than playful jouissance for its own muddled sake. glassman might very well be a "socially conscious" buddhist, but to bring "the dude" in as a representative of a "zen" mentality is to debase buddhism. the dude is an anti-hero, a funny one undoubtedly, but at bottom a pathetic figure who shows us more about what not to be rather than what to aspire to be.
i look forward to your attempt to deflect real questions with a paradoxical, non-repsonse. could i suggest one, from the dude himself--"that just like your opinion, man." i suspect glassman would approve.
I agree. But not being a Buddhist and only a sometimes Zen student I suppose I don't qualify to comment. There certainly are legions of Zen teachers who would agree with you. Glassman is a bit of an iconclast and so rubs people the wrong way; he eats beef jerky and smokes cigars and tries to incorporate social justice in his teachings. So would you have ever thought you would agree with the establishment of Zen in the United States? You have. Are you right, I don't know.
how does the Dude debase Buddhism? According to you there is something to become or Be. What is there to Be? Nothing, as you are already there. I am the Walrus.
Post a Comment