Those who’ve seen ‘The Big Lebowski’ will be well versed in the Dude and his languid way of living. He’s a lovable slacker you can’t help but root for as the film progresses and he finds himself more and more out of his depth. But as the situation gets more and more confusing and difficult to follow, it is the Dude who retains clarity and reads between the lines to find out what is really going on. This clarity comes in no small part from the way he chooses to live, without the stresses and pressure the rest of us put on ourselves which inevitably cloud our judgement and bring us down. And it is from this stress free and loose weave existence that Dudeism was born.
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Modern Dudeism was founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin, a chill guy from Los Angeles, CA, but the Dudeist way of thinking stretches back as far as recorded history goes. Maybe even further but the Dudes at the time couldn’t be chewed to write it down. Basically as long as there has been aggression, there’ve been Dudes who will not let it stand. At its heart Dudeism is about taking it easy, not letting the expectations and pressures that society forces upon us get us down and just going with the flow.
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Unlike other religions, there are no rules to follow with Dudeism; no doctrines, commandments or orders. We don’t have prayers, specific days of worship or strict rituals that need to be adhered to; Dudes are free to practice Dudeism in whatever way they see fit and anyone can be a Dude. The term ‘Dude’ itself is non-gender specific. To us ‘Dude’ just means ‘like-minded, super awesome individual’. But that’s not to say non-Dudeists can’t be Dudes. Anyone can be a Dude. Wait… did I say that already? Aw hell, lost my train of thought there.
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Where were we? Ah yes, the facts. So Dudeism is a non-theistic religion with its roots in Chinese Taoism but there have been examples of the ‘rebel shrug’ in a great number of other religions too. Buddhism, Sufism, Christianity, they all feature Dudes doing what they can to take it easy. And while we don’t have a ‘God’ or ‘Creator’ or whatever to set the rules or dictate when and where we chill, we do have examples of Great Dudes throughout history who took it the easiest and we can learn a lot about the art of the chill from. Lao Tzu, Bob Marley, Emily Dickinson, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell, Snoopy, plus many more; these are all Dudes wiser than ourselves and whose examples can show us the path to ultimate chillness.
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When it boils down to it Dudeism is really about being true to yourself, your family, your friends, whatever you love. This world we live in is big, scary and on occasion pretty dangerous. Our lives are short and infinitely complicated and no matter where you go or who you speak to, there are no real answers to any of the so called ‘big questions’. So we Dudeists say “fuck it, Dude”, pour ourselves a large Caucasian, find a comfortable chair to kick back in and just let the world go by. And if people say we’re lazy or that Dudeism isn’t a religion or that ‘The Big Lebowski’ is overrated, that’s fine; it’s just, like, their opinion. We Dudeists will do what we do best; that is to say, abide.
What is Dudeism?
Image courtesy of http://dudeism.com/