The Distillation of Bruce Lee

Watch on YouTube   Bruce Lee was a martial artist, actor, philosopher but most of all he was an artist of life. He thought deeply, lived life to the fullest, challenged dogma and at the core of everything he did was honest self-expression. Bruce was intentional about cultivating his life and worked at it relentlessly. He believed and pushed towards self-actualization rather than self-image actualization. As an artist of life he was constantly expanding, growing and teaching as part of his never ending process. There have been countless books written about Bruce Lee and I’ll allow those to be your guide to Bruce’s biographical information. One thing I will say is it’s remarkable how much wisdom Bruce had considering he died at the young age of 32. This Distillation will be about the mindsets, methodologies and philosophies that guided Bruce on his path. The majority of this is pulled from various resources and very little are my original words or thoughts. As we’ll soon see Bruce was a man of many talents but his capacity for putting in the work is remarkable. His ideas will challenge your thinking and press you to explore how you approach life. Don’t accept any of Bruce’s ideas as gospel, but explore how his ideas could fit in your life. “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.” It is not about how much one learns but how much one absorbs what they learn. 

“I cannot teach you; only help you to explore yourself. Nothing more.” —Bruce Lee

 

Artist of Life

• “I have always been a martial artist by choice and actor by profession. But, above all, I am hoping to actualize myself to be an artist of life along the way.”
• “Artist of life” refers to the process of being an individual who, through the use of his own independent judgment, sought to fully actualize himself as a total human being (i.e., physically, mentally, spiritually). The “artist of life” is willing to bare his soul for the purpose of honest communication and not get caught up in societal role-playing (self-image creation). To be an artist of life you have to lead with feeling. This is uncomfortable and unavoided by most. Feelings are our body’s clue to us about how we feel about the world around us, how we feel about ourselves.
  • “Don’t think, feel.” You have to live it, feel it, not just analyze intellectually.
  • Looking around today we see countless people putting on false facades to fulfil the expectations of others instead of being their own artist of life and expressing themselves authentically. Josh Waitzkin believed in Unobstructed Self Expression. All the greats tapped into this expression of their true selves. 
• “Therefore to be a martial artist also means to be an artist of life. Since life is an ever-going process, one should flow in this process and discover how to actualize and expand oneself.”
  • Bruce put his identity in the context of humanity and not his profession. This speaks true to me as someone who always hated the question “What do you do for work?” I’m more interested in “What are you living for?”, “What are you most excited about in life?”, “What are you trying to discover within yourself?”
  • Being an artist of life gives us the power to take responsibility for what we will transpire in life. Our life is the canvas, what are you going to paint on that canvas? 

  “The greatest help is self-help, there is no other help but self-help– doing one’s best, dedicating oneself wholeheartedly to a given task, which happens to have no end but is an ongoing process.”   

Self-Knowing, a Lifelong Pursuit

• • Being an artist of life is hard and requires a tremendous amount of self-work. If you want to cultivate who you are, you have to start by knowing who you are. Most people resist this, it’s hard. Bruce went head first into the challenge of self-knowledge.
    •  “Well, ever since I was a kid I have possessed within myself this instinctive urge for growth and daily expansion of my potential. It has been quite some time now since I acquired and really understood the distinction between self-actualization and this illusion of self-image actualization. Through my own observations, I am convinced that an absolutely honest and direct inquiry into oneself will lead to understanding.” 

• Bruce Lee once wrote that “all types of knowledge ultimately mean self-knowledge,” and, certainly, the need to know yourself was one of the dominant themes of Lee’s teachings—particularly during the last four years of his life. Hollywood superstar Steve McQueen, who was a close friend of Lee’s, once made this statement: “Bruce was very much into finding out who he was. His comment to people was ‘know yourself’.… The good head that he acquired was through knowing himself. He and I used to have great long discussions about that. No matter what you do in life, if you don’t know yourself, you’re never going to be able to appreciate anything in life.” 

• “Having gone through a lot of these ups and downs, I realize that there is no help but self-help. Self-help comes in many forms: daily discoveries through choiceless observation, honestly, as well as wholeheartedly always doing one’s best; a sort of indomitable, obsessive dedication; and, above all, realizing that there is no end or limit to this, because life is simply an ever-going process, an ever-renewing process. The duty of a human being, in my personal opinion, is to become transparently real, to simply be.”
• “In life, what can you ask for but to be real; to fulfill your potential instead of wasting energy on actualizing your dissipating image, which is not real and means expending your vital energy. We have great work ahead of us, and it requires devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement, which is something I experience every day, sometimes good, sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your Inner Light guide you out of the darkness.”
• Bruce Lee was a constantly changing person because he was always willing to learn, discover, and expand. Like his martial art, his learnings are never fixed. They keep changing. At best, Bruce Lee presents a possible direction, but nothing more.

Reading. Discovering. Curiosity 

“Discovery is one of the means to uncovering our potentiality.”

• Bruce, like everyone featured in The Distillery, was constantly exploring, discovering and using their curiosity to guide them.  

• Bruce Lee was a voracious and broad reader of physics, philosophy, self-help, fitness magazines, and everything in between. Bruce understood that by having a multidisciplinary approach he could connect the key themes across different disciplines and understand himself better. After reading, he would write journal entries about what he read in order to synthesize the ideas. 
  • In Dr. Mortimer J. Adler’s book Great Ideas From The Great Books, Bruce underlined: “The reason we read the great books – of literature, science, or philosophy – is to deepen and broaden our intelligence and imagination, not to acquire up-to-date information.”
• Bruce was such a fan of reading that on his headstone there is an open book. At 32 his personal library contained over 2,000 books. Bruce’s partial Library List. 

• One of his favorite writers was J.Krishnamurti. When Bruce injured his back and was stuck in bed for months he ended up reading all 30+ of Krishnamurti’s books. One of the lines from Krishnamurti that most influenced Bruce was, “Identification destroys freedom and only in freedom can there be the highest form of sensitivity. Does not the very act of identification put an end to inquiry, to discovery? To experience, all identification must cease.” Bruce often talked about how identifying something as right or wrong, or choosing one school of martial arts over another, would limit personal growth. Once we have identified and labeled something then we stop thinking about it and are no longer in inquiry. When you identify strongly with one thing, then you close off your sensitivity. “The more we struggle for or against identification, the greater is the resistance to understanding.” – Krishnamurti. 
• When you label someone, you stop trying to understand who they are, and this leaves no room for compassion.

Tao Te Ching 

• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu was one of the books that had the greatest impact on Bruce (and me). You can find themes from the Tao weaved all throughout Bruce’s life philosophies. What Bruce did so well is take these abstract and paradoxical passages and figure out how to live them in his own life. 
• Some of the passages Bruce underlined 
  • “It is because we single out something and treat it as distinct from other things that we get the idea of its opposite. Beauty, for example, once distinguished, suggests its opposite, ugliness.” 
    • We tend to think of opposites as in opposition to each other, but really they derive their meaning from each other and there cannot be one without the other. Like yin yang, these opposites of hot and cold or beauty and ugliness find their completion in one another. “The two forces (yin-yang), although they appear in conflict, in reality are mutually interdependent; instead of opposition, there is cooperation and alternation.” – Bruce Lee
  • “Therefore the intelligent man accepts what is as it is. In seeking to grasp what is, he does not devote himself to the making of distinctions which are then mistaken to be separate existences.” – Lao Tzu
    • In Bruce’s writings he says: “Stand at the neutral point between negative and positive, no longer directing one’s mind to anything. The non-grasping mind; the sticky mind; one cannot follow what is if one is anchored down to one partialized view.” – Bruce Lee. Bruce believed that having a non-grasping mind allowed better flow in life.
  • “Opposition is the source of all growth.” – Lao Tzu
    • Bruce wrote: “Be pliable. When man is living, he is soft and pliable. Pliability is life. To change with change is the changeless state. We grow through conflict. Without frustration, you might discover what you can do for yourself.
  • “The intelligent man is concerned about his genuine needs and avoids being confused by dazzling appearances.” – Lao Tzu
    • “It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory!” – Bruce Lee

  “Self-help comes in many forms: daily discoveries through choiceless awareness, honestly as well as wholeheartedly doing one’s best, indomitable dedication, and realizing that there is no end or limit to this.”  

Personal Philosophy

• Through a continually process of learning, Bruce developed a personal philosophy. The central theme being the liberation of the spirit through greater self-knowledge. To free one’s self from preconceived notions, prejudices, and conditioned responses is essential to understanding truth and reality. Bruce was able to express his potential through martial arts. 

  “It is most difficult to write about oneself because each of us is such a complexity. In an attempt to really write something about oneself demands an honesty toward oneself, to be able to take responsibility to be what we actually are.” 

• Like Toto Wolff, Bruce understands that both life and every individual is complex. The other crucial part of this quote is that to understand yourself, it demands honesty to take responsibility for who you are. So many people are unwilling to have the honest look at themselves and therefore are never able to take responsibility. Honest observation leads to critical insights. 

 

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

 

Teaching

• Lee wasn’t just a practicing martial artist but a teacher who often said “A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.” 
  • Empty Tea Cup: A learned man once went to visit a Zen teacher to inquire about Zen. As the Zen teacher talked, the learned man frequently interrupted to express his own opinion about this or that. Finally, the Zen teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured the cup full, then kept pouring until the cup overflowed. “Stop,” said the learned man. “The cup is full, no more can be poured in,” “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions,” replied the Zen teacher. “If you do not first empty your cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?” When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
• Stirling Silliphant, a student of Bruce Lee said,“There’s something about a man who makes you believe in yourself. It’s a very special power that only a master has. Bruce made you excel by making you believe in the impossible. Under his tutelage everything was possible. All doubts were cast aside.” 

 

Emptiness…. The Starting Point

• “In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know what this cup is so useful? Because it is empty.” 
• Bruce would not wholly accept any particular style of martial art or philosophy and encouraged his students not to accept without question his teachings. His main message was “to keep one’s mind, attitude and senses pliable and receptive, and, at the same time, develop the ability to think critically.” This process of inquiry, debate and practice would lead not only to knowledge of one’s physical strengths and weaknesses but also to the discovery of basic truths that allow one to grow toward a state of harmonious unity of spirit, mind, and body. 
  • Too often we limit our ability to learn because we have preconceived ideas about things rather than coming at people and ideas with a beginner’s mind. Even experts fall victim of this trap and are victims to the Paradox of Expertise– “being an expert entails using schemas,selective attention, chunking information, automaticity and more reliance on top-down information, all of which allows experts to perform quickly and efficiently; however, these very mechanisms restrict flexibility and control, may cause the experts to miss and ignore important information, introduce tunnel vision and bias and can cause other effects that degrade performance. Such phenomena are apparent in a wide range of expert domains, from medical professionals and forensic examiners, to military fighter pilots and financial traders.”

 

“To be what I term, a quality human being, one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is.”

 

The Secret of Life

• • “The aphorism “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he” contains the secret of life. James Allen further added “A man is literally what he thinks.” This might be a shocking statement, but everything is a state of mind.” 
    • What might be a horrible situation for one might be bliss for another. Everything we experience is interpreted by our mind and given a label whether it’s “good” or “bad”. If we can begin to understand and change our state of mind we become in control of our world. 

• It’s all in your state of mind

• • “If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you like to win, but think you can’t It is almost certain you won’t. If you think you will lose, you are lost. For out of the world we find Success BEGINS with a fellow’s WILL. It’s all in the state of mind. If you think you’re outclassed, you are. You’ve got to think high to rise. You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life’s battles don’t always go to The stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man Who wins is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!” 

 

“I am happy because I am growing daily and honestly, and I don’t know where my ultimate limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery that I can obtain. However, the most gratification is yet to come…”

“That we pursue something passionately does not always mean that we really want it or have a special aptitude for it. Often the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have. It is usually safe to predict that the fulfillment of an excessively cherished desire is not likely to still our nagging anxiety. In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.”

 

Your Target 

• “Success comes to those who become success-conscious. If you don’t aim at an object, how the heck on earth do you think you can get it?” 
• Bruce understood the power of giving his ideas a definite plan of action. Bruce thought deeply about what he wanted and then would go after it with everything he could muster. Even when Bruce hadn’t accomplished much he still set his sights high. 
  • “When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripples that expand until they encompass the whole pool. This is exactly what will happen when I give my ideas a definite plan of action. Right now, I can project my thoughts into the future, I can see ahead of me. I dream (remember that practical dreamers never quit). I may now own nothing but a little place down in a basement, but once my imagination has got up a full head of steam, I can see painted on a canvas of my mind a picture of a fine, big five-or six-story gung fu institute with branches all over the States. I am not easily discouraged, readily visualize myself as overcoming obstacles, winning out over setbacks, achieving “impossible” objectives.”
    • Visualization is a common theme amongst people featured in The Distillery. Josh Waitzkin used this technique in both chess and martial arts and Yen Liow talks about “Can you picture your perfect day? If not, how will you live them?” 
• “I feel best when I am showing my skill. Why? Because baby I have worked my ass off to be able to do just that. And that means dedication, constant hard work, constant learning and discovering, and lots of sacrifices.”
  • In order to achieve your target there is no getting around dedication, work and sacrifice. 

 

All Moments Are Learning Moments 

• “Life is something for which there is no answer. It must be understood from moment to moment.”
• Bruce never missed an opportunity to let a situation teach him about himself. He was on a perpetual ride of self discovery. Bruce trained his mind as diligently as he trained his body. He believed that knowledge was in the past but learning is the present. Bruce was concerned with, “Not “what” to think but “how” to think.”
  • “An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanations, with conclusions; nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion. An intelligent mind is one which is constantly learning, never concluding – styles and patterns have come to conclusion, therefore they have ceased to be intelligent.”
• Like Physicist Richard Feynman, Bruce Lee was able to communicate his learning process at the same time he was living it or working it through internally. 
• Bruce was adamant about knowing the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. Too often we view inconveniences as catastrophes. Bruce believed when we realize these situations are not catastrophes but inconveniences then we’re coming into our own and it’s part of the process of “waking up”. 
  • “Learning is discovery. The best way of learning is not the computation of information, but discovering and uncovering what there is in us – our own abilities, our own eyes, in order to find our potential.”

 

“The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.”

Definite Chief Aim/ Purpose 

• “Men must find meaning in the creation and transformation of their own nature. A man who is truly human must live for some transcendent goal that he sets himself. If he does not do this, he must be engulfed in overwhelming despair at the meaningless of life.” 
  • Without self knowledge we’ll never know our true essence and therefore be unable to express it. To connect with your purpose in life you have to know yourself. 
• Bruce often described a “mysterious power” within him that motivated the paths he chose. Bruce felt an inner force that I’ve found is a commonality amongst the truly elite. It’s almost an inner knowing that they’re destined for greatness. Bruce allowed this inner knowing as a guide for his purpose in life and with this purpose he guided himself through self-will to achieving his vision. 

• “I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand.”
• “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.” – Winston Churchill 

• In 1969 Bruce created the document entitled, “My Definite Chief Aim” which stated
  • “I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States. In return, I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.”

 

“Attitude determines altitude. You will never get any more out of life than you expect. Every man today is the result of his thoughts of yesterday.”

 

Goals

• • Bruce believed that when you actively strive to achieve goals, it gives your life meaning and substance. Bruce’s goals in life always were to foster in his “pursuit of becoming”. 
  • Goals are not always meant to be reached but oftentimes something to aim at. Life hardly works out exactly as we’re hoping which is why goals may change as our situation changes. Be flexible, be adaptable, be like water… 
  • With your goals you can’t fear failure. “Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” Bruce was concerned with daily progress toward his goals and understood it’s a long term game. Goals are rarely reached in one step. “The control of our being is not unlike the combination of a safe. One turn of the knob rarely unlocks the safe. Each advance and retreat is a step toward one’s goal.” 

• The 1st Rule of Achieving your Goal

• • “Know what you want…. I don’t really worry about the reward, but to set in motion the machinery to achieve it. My contribution will be the measure of my reward and success.” 
• Just as Michelangelo did with the Statue of David, Bruce chipped away at the layers of his soul to expose his true self to the world. He worked hard to cultivate every aspect of himself. At one point he said, “Some may not believe it, but I spent hours perfecting whatever I did.” He worked not only at sculpting his body but at shaping his mind, educating himself, evolving his practices, developing his potential. He also worked on the little things, like having beautiful handwriting, writing and speaking grammatically well, developing a colloquial understanding of English through joke-telling, learning how to direct a film—the list goes on and on. How you do one thing is how you do everything.
• In 1962 at the age of 21 Bruce wrote this letter to a friend in Hong Kong named Pearl Tso
  • “My aim is to establish a first Gung Fu Institute that will later spread all over the U.S. (I have set a time limit of 10 to 15 years to complete the whole project). My reason in doing this is not the sole objective of making money. The motives are many and among them are: I like to let the world know about the greatness of this Chinese art; I enjoy teaching and helping people; I like to have a well-to-do home for my family; I like to originate something; and the last but yet one of the most important is because gung fu is part of myself. … Right now, I can project my thoughts into the future. I can see ahead of me. I dream (remember that practical dreamers never quit). I may now own nothing but a little place down in a basement, but once my imagination has got up a full head of steam, I can see painted on a canvas of my mind a picture of a fine, big five or six story Gung Fu Institute with branches all over the States. I am not easily discouraged, readily visualize myself as overcoming obstacles, winning out over setbacks, achieving “impossible” objectives.” – Talk about focus! 

 

“Do not be tense, but ready; not thinking, but not dreaming; not being set, but flexible. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware, and alert; ready for whatever may come.…”

 

Turn Stumbling Blocks into Stepping Stones 

• Most of us waste our energy worrying or anticipating scenarios in the future (many of which never end up happening). Bruce believes “life is too short for negative energy”, instead of worrying use that energy to do. 
  • “Worries, fear, and so forth, to take over you? Believe me that in every big thing or achievement there are always obstacles, big or small, and the reaction one shows to such obstacles is what counts, not the obstacle itself. There is no such thing as defeat until you admit one to yourself, but not until then!”
  • Obstacles in life are inevitable so instead of allowing the anxiety of facing them to debilitate you, use the obstacles you face in life to learn and grow. “So remember that one who is possessed by worry not only lacks the poise to solve his own problems, but by his nervousness and irritability creates additional problems for those around him.”

 

“The enemy of development is pain phobia: the unwillingness to do a tiny bit of suffering. As you feel unpleasant you interrupt the continuum of awareness and you become phobic and this weakens the heart of the will.”

 

Willing to Stand Alone Against Tradition and Popular Opinion 

• Bruce Lee rejected blind obedience to external authority. He urged people to hold themselves and their lives as their highest values and wrote in praise of “the artist of life: who lives by his own judgement and who is willing to stand alone against tradition and popular opinion.” Bruce insisted upon charting his own course towards truth. Following the herd or set patterns limits our ability to form self-knowledge. “The conformer seldom learns to depend upon himself for expression; rather he faithfully follows a pattern. As time passes, he will probably learn some dead routines and be good according to his set patterns, but he has not come to understand himself.” To know yourself you must be willing to break free of the patterns you conform to.
• “You can employ a systematic approach to training and practicing but never a method of living. Life is a process, not a goal; a means but not an end; a constant movement rather than an established pattern.”
• It is about learning principles but not being bound by them. Be like water. 

 

4 Step Guide to Honest Self-expression

1. Research your own experience
2. Absorb what is useful
3. Reject what is useless
4. Add what is specifically your own

  “To change with change is the changeless state.”

Change 

• Life is always changing and in flux and Bruce said you need to follow movement like the shadow follows the body. If you can be adaptable you’ll be able to handle all that life throws at you. You have the most control when you realize you don’t have any control. 
• Most of our fear of change comes from thinking about the past or future but if we can focus our attention on the present then change becomes exciting. 
• Embrace change. Be open to change. Learn to love change. Change is inevitable. Don’t get paralyzed in the face of change. Be open to pivots, goal shifts, reframes, change of strategy. This is a living organism in constant process.
• When we resist change we resist life. 

 

Be Like Water

• “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
• The concept Bruce might be most well known for is “Be Like Water”. I’ll use Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee’s words on living the Be Like Water principle: “At its essence, water flows. It finds its way around (or even through) obstacles. My father would call this having “no limitations.” Water is present to its circumstances and surroundings and therefore ready to move in any direction that allows it passage. That openness and pliability means it is in a constant state of readiness, but a natural readiness because it is simply being wholly itself. To be like water, then, is to realize your most whole, natural, and actualized self where you are living as much as possible in the slipstream of life as you forge your own path forward.”
• Bruce Lee began studying wing chun gung fu in Hong Kong at the age of 13 with his sifu (teacher) by the name of Yip Man (also Ip Man). Yip Man was a very skillful teacher who not only drilled physical techniques but also wove in Taoist philosophy and the principles of yin and yang into his lessons. He often illustrated his teachings through parables on nature, such as using the difference between an oak tree and bamboo to make a point (the oak tree will eventually snap under a strong wind while the bamboo survives because it can move with the wind). Bruce was a masterful student but still being young Bruce who was full of fire “yang”. Yip continually tried to teach Bruce the importance of gentleness, fluidity, and pliability, not just strength and cunning. 
  • One day Yip Man was trying to teach Bruce how to relax and calm his mind, to forget himself and follow the opponent’s movements instead. This is the art of detachment or an ability to respond intuitively to an opponent rather than get caught up in your own styling continually calculating your own moves. Yip advice bruce, “Never assert yourself against nature. Never be in frontal opposition to any problem, but control it by swinging with it.” After much frustration with young Bruce he told him to not practice for an entire week and to go home and think about what he said. Not practicing for a week was torture for Bruce who’s greatest love in his life was his marital arts practice. Frustrated with his pent up energy, Bruce decided to take out a small boat into Hong Kong harbor. After a while he laid in the boat rocking back and forth. His mind started to drift to his teachers’ lessons and training. Bruce couldn’t understand what his teacher was saying and his frustration started to boil. In a fury of frustration Bruce learned over the boat and punched the water. Suddenly a thought struck him and he looked down at his wet hand. 
    • “Had not this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again, I struck it with all my might—yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substances in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.” 
    • Bruce had a second revelation as he watched the birds flying overhead and casting their reflection on the water.
    • “Should not the thoughts and emotions I have when in front of an opponent pass like the reflection of the bird flying over the water? This is exactly what Professor Yip meant by being one in whom feeling was not sticky or blocked. Therefore in order to control myself, I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.”
    • “When we turn to water, we see a thing that is not in competition with its surroundings but in co-creation and coexistence with it. The water doesn’t desire to best the earth. The water simply is. And the earth simply is. Sometimes the water overtakes the riverbank, and sometimes the riverbank changes the course of the water. In a state of neutrality or emptiness, because there is no comparison and no judgment, there is no competition. Life is not a competition; it’s a co-creation.”
    • This philosophy went on to guide Bruce’s life moving forward. 

 

Jeet Kune Do 

• Bruce Lee developed an expression of martial arts that was personal to him called Jeet Kune Do (translated: Way of the Intercepting Fist). The art has as its symbolic representation what we call Bruce Lee’s Core Symbol and uses as its main tenet: “Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.”
• The term Jeet Kune Do was coined and put into use in 1967 by Bruce Lee in an attempt to put a name to his martial expression. Lee wrestled with putting a name to his art as he constantly veered away from any type of crystallization (and thereby limitation) of its essence, however, the simple need to refer to it in some concrete way won out and Jeet Kune Do was born.
• The idea of intercepting is key to JKD, whether it be the interception of your opponent’s technique or his intent. The basic guiding principles are: Simplicity, Directness and Freedom (the form of no form). 
• JKD emphasizes formlessness and non-telegraphic movement—movement that happens so instantaneously and in perfect response to the actual situation that the opponent cannot see what’s coming. The philosophy attached to JKD is meant to root the practitioner in a fluid and present state to keep him or her flexible and capable of initiating and responding to change. And one can only respond to change if one has enough mobility in approach to do so.
• The techniques and philosophies of JKD can be applied to real combat as well as challenging life situations. Jeet Kune Do consists of physical techniques and applied philosophies and requires the individual to train him or herself to their most cultivated state of being-ness so that when faced with a combat situation or a challenging personal situation, the tools needed are available in the moment and can be executed without thought. Jeet Kune Do celebrates the cultivation and honest self expression of the individual over any organized style.

 

True Mastery

• • True mastery is self mastery. “True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself—the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. Then, and only then, can a person know himself.”
  • Bruce was determined to learn about this process within himself. Even as he trained his body for strength and efficiency, so did he discipline his mind to search for the causes of his ignorance. 
  • “Though we possess a pair of eyes, most of us do not really see in the true sense of the word. True seeing, in the sense of choiceless awareness, leads to new discovery, and discovery is one of the means to uncovering our potentiality. However, when this same pair of eyes is used to observe or discover other people’s faults, we are quick with ready-made condemnation. For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes maybe a lifetime.”

• Three Swordsman: Three swordsmen sat down at a table in a crowded Japanese inn and began to make loud comments about their neighbor, hoping to goad him into a duel. The master seemed to take no notice of them, but when their remarks became ruder and more pointed, he raised his chopsticks and, in quick snips, effortlessly caught four flies on the wing. As he slowly laid down the chopsticks, the three swords-men hurriedly left the room. This story illustrates a great difference between Oriental and Western thinking. The average Westerner would be intrigued by someone’s ability to catch flies with chopsticks, and would probably say that has nothing to do with how good he is in combat. But the Oriental would realize that a man who has attained such complete mastery of an art reveals his presence of mind in every action. The state of wholeness and imperturbability demonstrated by the master indicated his mastery of self.

 

7 Affirmations

• Bruce Lee had 7 affirmations he wrote on small note cards and carried with him at all times. Memory, Subconscious Mind, Imagination, Reason, Emotion, Conscience and Will Power. These 7 ideas are part of a whole system of well being and self-cultivation Bruce developed. And they work together as a harmonious ecosystem.

1. Memory 
   1. “Recognizing the value of an alert mind, and an alert memory, I will encourage mine to become alert by taking care to impress it clearly with all thoughts I wish to recall and by associating those thoughts with related subjects which I may recall to mind frequently.” Bruce Lee on memory: “Not memory for memory’s sake, not accumulation of knowledge, but synthesis and application.”
2. Subconscious Mind 
   1. “Reorganizing the influence of my subconscious mind over my power of will, I shall take care to submit to it a clear and definite picture of my major purpose in life and all minor purposes leading to my major purpose and I shall keep this picture constantly before my subconscious mind by repeating it daily.”
3. Imagination 
   1. “Recognizing the need for sound plans and ideas for the attainment of my desires. I will develop my imagination by calling upon it daily for help in the formation of my plans.” “Creative intuition opens the wellsprings within man, activates the inner light, and is free and limitless.”
4. Emotions 
   1. “Realizing that my emotions are both positive and negative, I will form daily habits which will encourage the development of the positive emotions and aid me in converting the negative emotions into some form of useful action.”
5. Reason 
   1. “Recognizing that my positive and negative emotions may be dangerous if they are not guided to desirable ends, I will submit all my desires, aims, and purposes to my faculty of reason, and I will be guided by it in giving expression to these.”
6. Conscience 
   1. “Recognizing that my emotions often err in their over-enthusiasm, and my faculty of reason often is without the warmth of feeling that is necessary to enable me to combine justice with mercy in my judgments, I will encourage my conscience to guide me as to what is right and wrong, but I will never set aside the verdict it renders, no matter what may be the cost of carrying them out.”
7. Willpower 
   1. “Recognizing that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments of my mind, I will exercise it daily when I need the urge to act for any purpose, and I will form habits designed to bring the power of my will into action at least once daily.”

  “The height of cultivation should move towards simplicity…. The process to simplify is like a sculptor who continuously chisels away all the nonessentials until her creates a masterpiece.”  

Gung Fu

• Gung fu is anything you practice with effort, discipline, harmony, and humility, towards mastery. Gung fu translated means: discipline and training toward the mastery of some skill. It is applied to martial arts but it can be applied to anything. Ultimately, Gung fu is a pathway toward mastery and a deeper understanding of yourself and life.

• “True gung fu values the wonder of the ordinary, and the cultivation of Gung fu is not daily increase, but daily decrease. Being wise in Gung fu does not mean adding more, but to be able to get off with ornamentation and be simply simple – like a sculptor building a statue, not by adding but by hacking away the unessential so that the truth will be revealed unobstructed…Art is the expression of the self. The more complicated and restrictive a method is, the lesser the opportunity for the expression of one’s original sense of freedom!“
• Gung fu is based on simplicity; it is a natural result of four thousand years of exhaustive experimentation and is of highly sophisticated complexity. All techniques are stripped down to their essential purpose without wastage or ornamentation, and everything becomes the straightest, most logical simplicity of common sense. The utmost is expressed and performed in the minimum of movements and energy. 
• The principle of Gung fu is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding or instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from desires and emotions. The core of this principle of gung fu is Tao—the spontaneity of the universe.
• “A gung fu man devotes himself to being self-sufficient and never depends upon the external rating by others for his happiness. A gung fu master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve, is quiet and unassuming, without the least desire to show off. Under the influence of gung fu training his proficiency becomes spiritual, and he himself, grown ever freer through spiritual struggle, is transformed. To him, fame and status mean nothing.”
• Beginner to master, back to beginner again. 
  • But as months and years go by, as his training acquires fuller maturity, his bodily attitude and his way of managing the technique toward no-mindedness come to resemble the state of mind he had at the very beginning of training when he knew nothing, when he was altogether ignorant of the art. The beginning and the end thus turn into next-door neighbors. In the musical scale, one may start with the lowest pitch and gradually ascend to the highest. When the highest is reached, one finds it is located next to the lowest.

 

3 Stages of Gung fu

“There are three stages in the cultivation of Gung fu: the primitive stage, the stage of art, and the stage of artlessness.”

• The Primitive Stage:

• • • The primitive stage is the stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing of the art of combat. In a fight he “simply” blocks and strikes instinctively without concern as for what is right and wrong. Of course, he might not be so-called scientific, but he is, nevertheless, being himself.

• The Stage of Art:

• • • The second stage, the stage of art, begins when a person starts his training. He is taught the different ways of blocking and striking, the various ways of kicking, of standing, of moving, of breathing, of thinking. Unquestionably he is gaining a scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculation and analysis. Even worse, he might be “intellectually bound” and maintaining himself outside the actual reality.

• The Stage of Artlessness:

• • The third stage, the stage of artlessness, occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, he realizes that, after all, gung fu is nothing special and instead of trying to impose his mind on the art, he adjusts himself to the opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall—it flows through the slightest crack. There is nothing to “try” to do but be purposeless and formless like water. Nothingness prevails; he no longer is confined.

 

• Art is the expression of the self; the more complicated and restrictive a method is, the less opportunity there is for expression of one’s original sense of freedom. The techniques, although they play an important role in the earlier stage, should not be too complex, restrictive, or mechanical. If we cling to them we will become bound by their limitations.

Yin-Yang

• Yin Yang is the basic structure of Gung fu. This is expressed with the Law of Harmony: “One should be in harmony within and not rebellion against the strength and force of opposition.”
  • “When an opponent used strength, you must not resist him with strength, instead yield with softness, lead him in the direction of his own force. When your opponent’s strength goes to the extreme, the strength will change to weakness, and at that unguarded moment there is an opening.”
• The Yang (whiteness) principle represents positiveness, firmness, masculinity, substantiality, brightness, day, heat, and so forth. The Yin (blackness) principle is the opposite. It represents negativeness, softness, femininity, insubstantiality, darkness, night, coldness, and so forth. The basic theory in T’ai Chi is that nothing is so permanent as never to change. In other words, when activity (Yang) reaches the extreme point, it becomes inactivity, and inactivity forms Yin. Extreme inactivity returns to become activity, which is Yang. Activity is the cause of inactivity and vice versa. This system of complementary increasing and decreasing of the principle is continuous. From this one can see that the two forces (Yin-Yang), although they appear to conflict, in reality are mutually interdependent; instead of opposition, there is cooperation and alternation.
  • “Alive, a man is supple, soft; In death, unbending, rigorous. All creatures, grass and trees, alive Are plastic but are pliant too, And dead, are friable and dry. Unbending rigor is the mate of death, And yielding softness, company of life; Unbending soldiers get no victories; The stiffest tree is readiest for the ax. The strong and mighty topple from their place; The soft and yielding rise above them all.”

 

The Law of Harmony

• “The law of harmony thus fits in with the law of non-interference with nature, which teaches a Gung fu man to forget himself and follow his opponent. He does not move ahead but responds. So the basic idea is to defeat the opponent by yielding to him and using his own strength against him.”

 

The Law of Noninterference

• The above idea gives rise to a closely related law, the Law of Noninterference with Nature, which teaches a gung fu man to forget about himself and follow his opponent (strength) instead of himself; he does not move ahead but responds to the fitting influence. The basic idea is to defeat the opponent by yielding to him and using his own strength. That is why a gung fu man never asserts himself against his opponent, and never puts himself in frontal opposition to the direction of his opponent’s force. When being attacked, he will not resist, but will control the attack by swinging with it. This law illustrates the principles of nonresistance and nonviolence, which were founded on the idea that the branches of a fir tree snap under the weight of the snow, while the simple reeds, weaker but more supple, can overcome it.

 

No Mind (Wushin)

• “No-mindedness is not a blank mind that excludes emotions, nor is it simply a calm or quiet mind. It is the “non-graspiness” of the mind that constitutes the principle of no-mindedness. A Gung fu man employs his mind as a mirror, it grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives but does not keep.”
  • What he means is, let the mind think what it likes without interference by the separate thinker or ego within oneself. So long as it thinks what it wants, there is absolutely no effort in letting it go; and the disappearance of the effort to let go is precisely the disappearance of the separate thinker.
  • There is nothing to try to do, for whatever comes up moment by moment is accepted, including nonacceptance. No-mindedness is then not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked. It is a mind immune to emotional influences. “Like this river, everything is flowing on ceaselessly without cessation or standing still.”
• “Concentration in Gung fu does not have the usual sense of restricting the attention to a single sense object. It is simply a quiet awareness of whatever happens to be here and now. The mind is present everywhere because it is nowhere attached to any particular object and it can remain present because even when relating to this or that it does not cling to it.” This is the concept of being in Flow-“The flow of thought, is like water filling a pond which is always ready to flow off again. It can work its inexhaustible power because it is free and it can be open to everything because it is empty.”

Core Symbol 

• Bruce Lee created this symbol as a representation of the culmination of his own self cultivation. This symbol is the final in a series of four that show this progression. The stages of cultivation are:

1.     Partiality: The Running to Extremes
2.     Fluidity: The Two Halves of One Whole
3.     Emptiness: The Formless Form
4.     Jeet Kune Do

• The final symbol that represents Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee’s approach to life is a full yin yang symbol surrounded by arrows. The arrows represent the constant interplay of the complements of yin and yang. Finally the Chinese phrase surrounding the symbol translates to: using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.

Wu Wei

• Wu means “not” or “non” and wei means “action,” “doing,” “striving,” “straining,” or “busyness.” Wu wei doesn’t really mean doing nothing, but letting one’s mind alone, trusting it to work by itself.
• He frees himself from all mental suggestions of resistance and adopts a supple attitude. His actions are all performed without self-assertion; he lets his mind remain spontaneous and ungrasped. As soon as he stops to think, his flow of movement will be disturbed and his opponent will immediately strike him. Every action therefore has to be done “unintentionally” without ever “trying.”
• The natural phenomenon which the Gung fu man sees as being the closest resemblance to wu wei is water: Nothing is weaker than water, But when it attacks something hard Or resistant, then nothing withstands it, And nothing will alter its way.  The passage from the Tao Te Ching illustrates to us the nature of water: Water is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded; sever it, yet it is not divided. It has no shape of its own but molds itself to the receptacle that contains it. When heated to the state of steam it is invisible but has enough power to split the earth itself. When frozen it crystallizes into a mighty rock.

  “Each man binds himself – the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self and fear. You must liberate yourself.“  

Conquer Yourself

• • “A man is born to achieve great things if he can conquer himself.”
  • Bruce identified “Fetters” or restraints that hold us back in life from being our most authentic selves. The fetters that hold us back are:
    • Ignorance 
      • Bruce was constantly in search of what caused his ignorance. To accept and know that you do not know is a huge initial step. Then you have to ask “What is it that I am ignorant about?” This is challenging because most people try to avoid their fears or where they’re wrong. Knowing what you don’t know is invaluable. Go in search of your ignorance.

• Ego

• • • • Everyone has an ego and there are areas of our life where our ego is larger. In order to grow we need to use our ego as a tool to uncover where we’re resisting and unwilling to look with an open mind. Ask yourself “How am I resisting?”, search where you blindly follow your set patterns and have a willingness to listen. 

• Fear

• • • • Truly seeing and listening is not possible when you are coming from a place of fear because you are on guard. Sensitivity is about having mastery of your senses. Don’t suffer imagined troubles that may never take place. 
    • Self-consciousness 
      • “The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all action.” If we’re always self-conscious we’ll never be able to authentically express ourselves. If we’re always seeking the approval of others we’re trapped in a prison. “Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.” 

• Laziness 

• • • We all suffer bouts of laziness but seekers of self-mastery understand it requires to look inwardly and understand what creates our internal energy. If we’re constantly allowing fear, ego or self-consciousness to drain us then we’ll never have the energy to proceed forward. Tap into your Why to unlock your energy. 

 

The Keys to Conquer Yourself

• • Bruce identified the keys to help us conquer our fetters. Those are Know Yourself (Self-knowledge), Optimism, Self-awareness, Learning, Remain neutral and Taking action. 

• Self-knowledge

• • • • When we’re honest with ourselves and truly know ourselves we’re on the path to self-knowledge which is a never ending journey. When we can examine our whole selves, the good the bad and everything in between we find deeper levels of self that allow us to experience life. 

• Optimism

• • • • “Optimism is a faith that leads to success.” “Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.”

• Self-awareness 

• • • • You learn through experience and that experience leads to greater self-awareness. In order to learn you need to take action and use honest reflection.
    • Learning 
      • Start with a beginner’s mind, say I don’t know, seek out teachers, be curious and willing to learn from everything and everyone.

• Remain neutral

• • • When we’re not in a neutral open state we grasp onto thought patterns that don’t allow us to tackle our ignorance. We must be open and aware of everything that is happening around us.
  • Take Action 
    • Use all the keys together to take effective action. It is a conscious choice to be cured of your fetters but it only happens when you take action. 

  “I have to leave you now, my friend. You have a long journey ahead of you, and you must travel light. From now on, drop all your burden of preconceived conclusions behind, and “open” yourself to everything and everyone ahead. Remember, my friend, the usefulness of the cup is in its emptiness.”