The Dude and the Zen Master

Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself.

People get stuck a lot because they're afraid to act; in the worst case,...we get so attached to some end result that we can't function. We need help just to move on, only life doesn't wait.

A famous Japanese Zen master, Hakuun Yasutani Roshi, said that unless you can explain Zen in words that a fisherman will comprehend, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Some fifty years ago a UCLA professor told me the same thing about applied mathematics. We like to hide from the truth behind foreign-sounding words or mathematical lingo. There’s a saying: The truth is always encountered but rarely perceived. If we don’t perceive it, we can’t help ourselves and we can’t much help anyone else.

The more you learn, the more you know that you're not so hot.

Hope's interesting, isn't it? I can't turn hope off, it's hopeless.

You’ve got to take care of yourself on the path, not just when you cross the goal line, because don’t forget, wherever you are, that’s the goal line.

Some people say you have to work with everything, but there’s a time and a place. If it feels like a knot, wait. It will come up again when you and the universe are ready.

Being alive, you have to do something. Not doing anything is also some kind of action.

It’s like what Miles Davis says: “Don’t worry about mistakes, there aren’t any.

if you’re going to wait to get all the information you think you need before you act, you’ll never act because there’s an infinite amount of information out there.

Appreciate the struggles as opportunities to wake up.

I notice that when I’m generous, accepting, and loving toward myself, all that’s reflected out into the world. The more I cut myself slack, the more I don’t judge myself for not being other than I am, the more I’m aware of who I am, see it, honor it, and respect it, the more I do all those things for others. I push them less and I respect their different rhythms.

In some way, my saying that I’m not here now feels sort of like an acknowledgment that I am here now, only feeling that I’m not.

the word happiness comes from to happen.

I love seeing somebody act real earnest and serious, like Jackie Gleason. He makes me laugh because he reflects back to me my own serious-mindedness and how ridiculous it all is. It’s always easier to see somebody else in that position than yourself, and you laugh. It’s like the classic slipping on the banana peel, or someone getting hit by a pie in the face. Why do those things make us laugh? Is it from relief, like: Thank God it wasn’t me? Or is it something else: I’m being very serious now. I’m pontificating earnestly and solemnly about—POW! PIE IN THE FACE! The bust-up of certainty.

Always maintain a joyful mind. Appreciate the struggles as opportunities to wake up.

unless you can explain Zen in words that a fisherman will comprehend, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

All this is nothing but space to be danced in. There's no need to feel harnessed or limited in any way . . . When the Dude is not in, life just blossoms.

We freeze up because we expect a certain result or because we want things to be perfect.

To me, this book is sort of like a snakeskin. A snakeskin is something you might find on the side of the road and make something out of—a belt, say, or a hatband. The snake itself heads off doing more snake stuff—getting it on with lady snakes, eating rats, making more snakeskins, et cetera.

As the Dude says, New shit comes to light, and when it does, you’ll pick it up again.

up in the morning, go to the bathroom, pee, brush your teeth, look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself. Do it every morning to start off the day, as a practice.

Covorul ăla lumina toată camera, nu-i așa?

Hope’s interesting, isn’t it? I can’t turn hope off, it’s hopeless.