The Verses

1

Dudeness that can be blathered about is very undude.

Names we self-apply to things are only handles for what abides.

A tumbling of tumbleweeds is all that’s really out there.

The rug is a fabrication which ties our ruminations together.

Our thinking about this must not be uptight,

Or we will enter a world of pain.

Investigating complicated cases

Allows us to better understand the world.

The world is stupefying, but it’s far fucking out.

Am I wrong? Okay, then.

The Dude digs the style of the Stranger,

And the Stranger, the style of the Dude.

They differ only in their beverages.

The Tao helps make sense of the whole durn human comedy.

It is a Theory of Everything.

I can get you a TOE—

There are Ways, Dude.

Tao Te Ching: 1

The Tao that can be discussed is not really the Tao.

Things in the world are only temporary reflections of Tao.

The flow of Tao is all that really exists.

Our language and beliefs and categories

Are only fabrications which help us make sense of its flow.

In order to understand this, one has to first learn how to relax,

In order to experience this, one has to first learn how to unlearn.

The world is made of and by Tao,

And Tao is evidenced by the workings of the world.

Tao and the world may seem separate

But that is only because we are hardwired to see it that way.

To operate in greater harmony with the world,

We must begin to internalize this way and its perspective.