There’s this religion, Dudeism, the religion for its time and place. It’s an ancient religion, Laozi, Epicurus, Heraclitus, Buddha, and pre-ecclesiastical Jesus Christ are all examples of the Great Dudes of History. His Dudeness. The Dude, realized by the Coen Brothers, brought Dudeism into modern culture.

March 6, 1998: the day that Dudeism was fully realized on a large scale. March 6 is the Day of the Dude. On this day people are reminded to take it easy.

The religion of Dudeism is much more of a lifestyle, a way of understanding. It reminds us to just take it easy.

Dudes like to do things such as smoke a J and drink White Russians. Again, to be a Dude is to be a person who is the person for their time and place. They fit right in there.

The Church of the Latter-Day Dude’s Dudely Lama and founder, Oliver Benjamin, founded the religion in 2005. He and many other Dudeists have written books on Dudeism, such as "The Dude De Ching" and "The Tao of the Dude."

This religion is the religion of preaching non-preachiness. Doing Dude Chi helps us flow with the fabrics of the rug that really tie the room together.

Dudeism, though new, actually dates all the way back to the early forms of Taoism. And it has many things in common with Buddhism in general, and Zen.

It’s interesting to look at a religion; you know a lot of people take offense when talking about religions. Many people might view Dudeism as a joke, but that’s just, like, their opinion because to those of us who practice it, it’s just as real as whatever else have you.

You look at assumptions of religions, you look past what people say religions are telling you, and you really look at what is truly going on at the base. You find some crazy stuff, because, as the Buddha says, “Nothing is as it seems.”

Sometimes, in life, we need a reminder to just take it easy. That’s what Dudeism reminds us of, people have all these perceptions and get they get uptight in their ways of thinking.

Dudeism reminds us to not get uptight about the world and situations around us. It allows us to essentially become the Buddhist idea of a Bodhisattva. In Buddhism, that’s one who helps others reach enlightenment.

We do not seek to get the rug back because it’s our rug; we seek to get rug back because it really ties the room together. Sometimes we say that “this aggression will not stand.” We are the dude for our time and place, so we love being lazy, but sometimes, there’s a man, not necessarily a hero, and he does what is right (or woman for all the lady dudes out there).

In the end, the world is a pretty big place, with different people, cultures, and ideas. You know we might not understand all of them, and it helps that instead of taking an offense, because some people are real reactionaries, we just take it easy.

Well, that about wraps Dudeism up, if you’re into the whole brevity sort of thing. I lost my train of thought here… “The Dude Abides.”