Jeff Bridges

There are many books on Buddhism that are really transcripts of dialogues... it's usually a monk giving a talk or occasionally transcripts from a panel. These books read in a very distinct way -- they sometimes have chunks of brilliance that spontaneously appear as the speaker and audience realize something together.

This book is in the spirit of the above, and does indeed have some of these spontaneously profound moments. And I think the intended audience is people who are coming in from a 'pop' version of Zen (ie, the vibe from Jeff Bridges's character in The Big Lebowski) and want to take it to the next level of depth from there.

But, if you've read such books before, this comes across as pretty light reading.… (more)

A little Zen Buddhism, a little Jeff Bridges, a lot of Dude quotes from the movie The Big Lebowski . . . What's not to like? Reading this book is like listening in on a long, rambling, but pretty interesting conversation. Jeff is not The Dude, but he strives in some ways to be more Dude-like, and listening to both him and the Zen Master Bernie Glassman reflect on the challenges of trying to be in the moment and live authentically makes for some good reading. I did kind of lose interest and put this aside for quite awhile, but when I picked it back up was glad that I did.… (more)