It was announced today that Jeff Bridges — a.k.a. The Dude, or His Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing — will be releasing a book called The Dude and the Zen Master, which Entertainment Weekly reports will explore “the meaning of life, laughter, the movies and trying to do good in a difficult world.”

This is not merely interesting news for fans of The Big Lebowski, the 1998 film in which The Dude first peered over his glasses. I think it’s going to be the somewhat surprising case that a good number of Buddhists, specifically, are going to be all over this — much like Groundhog Day, the film has become a sort of entertainment cause celebre for more than a handful of dharma practitioners. (It seems crazy to me how many dharma-friends love this movie!*) And being that Bridges gets on famously with the American Zen teacher Bernie Glassman, and that the book will be a work of co-authorship between the two, I think we can expect something special. In the meantime, here are more details about The Dude and the Zen Master, by way of Entertainment Weekly.

* If you’re a friend of The Dude, feel free to let us know why in the comments here.

See also: Jeff Bridges joins Bernie Glassman in saying “Let all eat” (Video), and: Video: Jeff Bridges on the Buddhist influence in “Tron: Legacy”; More on the Tron/Dharma connection