The Dude and the Zen Master by Jeff Bridges, Bernie Glassman
Authors: Jeff Bridges, Bernie Glassman
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anything, he’s just there.
B ERNIE : There was this wonderful ninth-century Chinese Zen master, Zhaozhou. He trained for forty years with his teacher, and when he finished his studies he said,
I’m going to go on the road, and if I run into an eight-year-old girl who embodies this path, I’ll stay and learn from her. And if I run into an eighty-year-old master who’s got all of the answers, I’ll move on
. He didn’t want answers, he wanted the life. So he went out searching for people who were just people, who really had embodied living this life fully, in the moment.
J EFF : When I make a movie, I attempt to get deep as quickly as I can with the guys I’m working with, both the cast and the production crew. I don’t even do it consciously anymore, because it’s become second nature to me. I want to get as deeply connected as possible with the director so that we can become almost like different impulses in the same brain. That intimacy is the snake I referred to earlier. The final movie is the snakeskin, which is nice by itself, only it’s not the snake.
The most important thing is to exercise this closeness we have together. It’s a chance to overcome resistance to birth, opening, growth, and life. Coitus, man. Making a movie is just the place to do it, like a church is the place to pray. It provides the safe, generous space to cook in. We’ve got all these artists together working to make something very special in two or three months, maybe six, that’s it.
So the intimacy you develop on a movie set is really something. Most movies—and stories, for that matter—have something to do with love, you know? When you do a love scene with somebody, loving becomes so accessible and easy, especially when two people are doing it on purpose, really opening their hearts. That’s why people fall in love with their costars. Then they make the misstep of fucking and that can screw it all up. My wife, Sue, is my leading lady in the real movie. We’ve just celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and our relationship is the most precious thing to me. But that doesn’t close down my intimacy with other people. If anything, it makes me love Sue all the more. The freedom that she gives me, loving me as I am, causes me to want to get closer and closer to her all the time and inspires me to give her that same freedom. We practice our love.
Practice, man. That’s what scratches my itch. It’s like when I’m making a movie. Each time I have the same kind of panicky feeling in the beginning:
Am I gonna be able to pull it off? Am I gonna be prepared? Am I gonna be able to do what’s called for?
And every time I prepare, I feel much better.
B ERNIE : We have to practice in order to experience being in tune with what’s going on. When you play your guitar with your band, everybody’s instruments have to get in tune using the same frequency; everybody has to get in resonance. That requires a common intention.
J EFF : Not only are the instruments in tune, everyone’s intentions are also in tune.
B ERNIE : But all that’s gone once you’re playing. You’re not thinking anymore,
Hey, I’m in tune with the other guys
. You’re just playing and experiencing the resonance.
J EFF : The song is playing you.
B ERNIE : There’s the phrase
freely
playing
, like the phrase
at play in the fields of the Lord
. In that state you’re no longer practicing, you’re just freely playing. Say the entire group is in that state, and now you’re joined by another musician, who comes from a whole different culture than yours with no sense of A440 but with a different tonal scheme instead. If that person joins you, the whole group is going to pick up on it and will play a different song or riff from what it would have played otherwise. That’s what happens if you’re in the realm of freely playing. If, on the other hand, you’re in the realm of practice, and this new musician starts playing, you might think:
Hey, that’s
B ERNIE : There was this wonderful ninth-century Chinese Zen master, Zhaozhou. He trained for forty years with his teacher, and when he finished his studies he said,
I’m going to go on the road, and if I run into an eight-year-old girl who embodies this path, I’ll stay and learn from her. And if I run into an eighty-year-old master who’s got all of the answers, I’ll move on
. He didn’t want answers, he wanted the life. So he went out searching for people who were just people, who really had embodied living this life fully, in the moment.
J EFF : When I make a movie, I attempt to get deep as quickly as I can with the guys I’m working with, both the cast and the production crew. I don’t even do it consciously anymore, because it’s become second nature to me. I want to get as deeply connected as possible with the director so that we can become almost like different impulses in the same brain. That intimacy is the snake I referred to earlier. The final movie is the snakeskin, which is nice by itself, only it’s not the snake.
The most important thing is to exercise this closeness we have together. It’s a chance to overcome resistance to birth, opening, growth, and life. Coitus, man. Making a movie is just the place to do it, like a church is the place to pray. It provides the safe, generous space to cook in. We’ve got all these artists together working to make something very special in two or three months, maybe six, that’s it.
So the intimacy you develop on a movie set is really something. Most movies—and stories, for that matter—have something to do with love, you know? When you do a love scene with somebody, loving becomes so accessible and easy, especially when two people are doing it on purpose, really opening their hearts. That’s why people fall in love with their costars. Then they make the misstep of fucking and that can screw it all up. My wife, Sue, is my leading lady in the real movie. We’ve just celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and our relationship is the most precious thing to me. But that doesn’t close down my intimacy with other people. If anything, it makes me love Sue all the more. The freedom that she gives me, loving me as I am, causes me to want to get closer and closer to her all the time and inspires me to give her that same freedom. We practice our love.
Practice, man. That’s what scratches my itch. It’s like when I’m making a movie. Each time I have the same kind of panicky feeling in the beginning:
Am I gonna be able to pull it off? Am I gonna be prepared? Am I gonna be able to do what’s called for?
And every time I prepare, I feel much better.
B ERNIE : We have to practice in order to experience being in tune with what’s going on. When you play your guitar with your band, everybody’s instruments have to get in tune using the same frequency; everybody has to get in resonance. That requires a common intention.
J EFF : Not only are the instruments in tune, everyone’s intentions are also in tune.
B ERNIE : But all that’s gone once you’re playing. You’re not thinking anymore,
Hey, I’m in tune with the other guys
. You’re just playing and experiencing the resonance.
J EFF : The song is playing you.
B ERNIE : There’s the phrase
freely
playing
, like the phrase
at play in the fields of the Lord
. In that state you’re no longer practicing, you’re just freely playing. Say the entire group is in that state, and now you’re joined by another musician, who comes from a whole different culture than yours with no sense of A440 but with a different tonal scheme instead. If that person joins you, the whole group is going to pick up on it and will play a different song or riff from what it would have played otherwise. That’s what happens if you’re in the realm of freely playing. If, on the other hand, you’re in the realm of practice, and this new musician starts playing, you might think:
Hey, that’s
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