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Summary
Summary
The New York Times bestseller from Academy award-winning actor Jeff Bridges and Zen leader and author of Bearing Witness , Bernie Glassman .
Zen master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges's iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who Âare simple and unassuming, and so good that, on account of them, God lets the world go on." His buddy Jeff puts it another way. The wonderful thing about the Dude, he says, is that he'd always rather hug it out than slug it out.
For more than a decade, Academy AwardÂwinning actor Jeff Bridges and his buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies with a charm and bonhomie that never fail to enlighten and entertain. Throughout, their remarkable humanism reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.
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Author Notes
Bernie Glassman was born Bernard Alan Glassman in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York on January 18, 1939. He received an engineering degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He first became interested in Zen in 1958 after reading a book. He began meditating, found a local Zen teacher, got involved with the Zen Center of Los Angeles, and became a Zen teacher himself. In 1979, he founded the Zen Community of New York. He and his second wife, Sandra Holmes, founded the Greyston Foundation in 1989 and the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1996. Glassman wrote several books including The Dude and the Zen Master written with actor Jeff Bridges. He died from sepsis on November 4, 2018 at the age of 79.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Actor Bridges engages in a philosophical dialogue with friend and Zen master Glassman, an aeronautical engineer and mathematician in his early years, for an easy, fun read that poses some serious questions. The presentation is light-hearted and analogies are frequent; in discussing a fear of taking action, Glassman invokes "Joe, the centipede with a hundred legs, trying to figure out which leg to move first." Later, Glassman recommends a musical approach to dealing with change: "Bear witness to the voices and the instruments-whether it's a jazz band or life-and then move with them, flow with them, because in life you're always in a band and you're always swinging." The Zen influence means a lot of nature imagery, with "Leaves turning, flowers popping open, rain falling on a leaf," but it's not cheap spirituality. Both men are involved in programs to promote peace and defeat hunger and they share stories of community artists, Holocaust survivors, and even Bridges's long-time stand-in. Recognizing that frustration results from expectations, they say, "Work with whatever you have and make something beautiful." Lest it all get too lofty, Glassman recalls his judo master's advice: "When you get into trouble, the best judo defense is to run." (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A rambling conversation on all things Zen between the mystic-minded movie star and his spiritual teacher. As the title suggests, this book targets (and might most please) the ardent cult attracted to The Big Lebowski, the movie that gave Bridges (Pictures, 2006) his iconic role. He explains of the book's genesis, "Somy friend Bernie Glassman says to me one day, Did you know that the Dude in The Big Lebowski is considered by many Buddhists to be a Zen master?' " The two proceed to explore one of the movie's signature lines, "The Dude abides," from every possible perspective, punctuated by anecdotes from Bridges' film career and personal life and spiritual sagacity from Glassman (Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen, 2002, etc.). Perhaps the most revelatory is a close reading of "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat," where even readers who have heard it thousands of times before will understand "gently," "merrily" and "life is but a dream" with fresh ears. Some of the rest belabors the obvious, suffers from clich and hippie vernacular, and even borders on self-parody. When Bridges talks about fan letters, most of which he doesn't answer and then occasionally feels guilty, Glassman advises, "You need to befriend Jeff. It's got nothing to do with the letters. You've got to befriend the fact that Jeff can only do so much.The Dude does not get angry with himself for all the things he's not doing. He befriends the self." Bridges makes it a point to distinguish himself from that role, though sometimes he wishes he could be more like the Dude. He writes things like, "Dig is beyond understand. I like digging where I am and what I'm doing, I like jamming with myself." May lead readers to plenty of better introductions to Zen. You dig?]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.