When thinking of self defense, many people limit this
concept to physically combating an attacker. The Jeet Kune Do philosophy
developed by Bruce Lee has a much broader interpretation of this term. Lee felt
life was combative and you were always facing new challenges, financially,
health, emotionally. You might get cancer, your boss or fellow co-worker can
assault you verbally, lose your job, an entire litany of events can occur in a
single day ranging from minor to major assaults to ones self worth. True self
defense needs to encompass more than just dealing with someone trying to punch
you in the nose! To be successful in dealing with these issues, Lee felt you
needed to develop the warrior spirit and that was the deeper aspect of his Jeet
Kune Do. A well developed warrior spirit gives you strength to deal with life's ups and downs. There is an interesting dichotomy in the development of fighting skills, the greater we develop them, the less we feel the need to use them. Despite how cerebral or intellectual we humans pride ourselves, we all function unconsciously on a primitive physical level. An untrained fighter always carries a fear of larger and more aggressive people they come into contact. Part of this is from childhood when adults were so much bigger and more powerful and unfortunately this disabling feeling is carried into adult life. When an adult becomes secure in their ability to protect themselves, amazing feelings of confidence and empowerment develop. These feelings of confidence, regardless of how simplistic and "cave man mentality" they may seem, translate into much higher things in our life. Confidence gives us the ability to ask for a raise from our boss, not shake from fear when someone yells or tries to physically or even mentally intimidate us. After all, we know we can strike out fiercely at a given moment and this physical confidence is more empowering than when simply carrying a gun or knife. Knowing we can defend ourselves physically appeals to primitive instincts deep within each one of us. It also gives us the ability to walk away from violence if we have that option, because we don't have to prove anything to our self or others. I remember Jeet Kune Do practitioner Paul Vunak telling me how martial arts helped him control his anger when people would cut him off in traffic or yell from their car window, something that happens in Los Angeles rush hour a lot. He would just laugh to himself, "of all the people this person chose to pick a fight with,a guy that has been practicing plucking eyeballs out of human heads for the last 30 years!" This realization gave him the ability to not escalate the situation to something worse and yet keep his dignity. This empowerment is what Bruce Lee discovered and his writings are filled with the higher meaning of martial arts. Bruce Lee, subject to discrimination for being Asian during the 1960's and standing 5'7", weighing 128 lbs was a great example of how one can conquer intimidation and develop empowering confidence through the practice of martial arts.
The Jeet Kune Do Philosophy
The Martial Arts and Life Philosophy of Bruce Lee
Friday, September 14, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Three Martial Arts aspects of Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee like other creative innovators was
complex in nature and to try to classify someone like that in one or more
categories is limiting. However, there are three distinct aspects of Sifu Lee
that seem to cause confusion among even some devoted followers. I hope that examining
each one of those three sides will help clarify what others have found
confusing. The three martial arts
aspects of Lee can be classified as his Martial Arts for the movies, Martial Arts
for Kickboxing and Martial Arts for street survival. Lee was clear that what he choreographed for
the movies was not always what he would do in a street fight. For the movies , what looked good on the
screen took priority over how efficient or practical a move would be in a real
life fight. For instance, in the movies,
he did more kicking and certainly more high kicks than he promoted to his
students. One reason was he felt the camera caught the kicks better than his
hands, his hands being so fast. Therefore, we should never confuse what he did
for the cinema, for what he taught in his Los Angeles Chinatown school.
Then there was his exploration into kickboxing. World class kickboxers were coming to Lee for expert training, hoping his tips would give them an edge in the ring. Champions like Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris and Mike Stone were some who sought out Lee for his expert advice. However, sports fighting is a different animal, which involves a lot of strategy, endurance and observation of rules. Then finally we have what many feel was Bruce’s true passion and that was reality based fighting for the streets. The term street fighting is a bit misleading because a large number of altercations actually occur indoors, but we use that term as all encompassing for reality based self-defense. Sifu Lee’s concepts for reality based fighting were revolutionary at the time and focused on efficiently terminating a fight as quickly as possible. Certain principles are considered a core to efficient fighting and that one has to find the best way to personally adapt them. Understanding these different explorations of Lee will hopefully help to clear up past misunderstandings and not confuse his movie choreography or sports coaching with his reality based street fighting known as Jeet Kune Do.
Then there was his exploration into kickboxing. World class kickboxers were coming to Lee for expert training, hoping his tips would give them an edge in the ring. Champions like Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris and Mike Stone were some who sought out Lee for his expert advice. However, sports fighting is a different animal, which involves a lot of strategy, endurance and observation of rules. Then finally we have what many feel was Bruce’s true passion and that was reality based fighting for the streets. The term street fighting is a bit misleading because a large number of altercations actually occur indoors, but we use that term as all encompassing for reality based self-defense. Sifu Lee’s concepts for reality based fighting were revolutionary at the time and focused on efficiently terminating a fight as quickly as possible. Certain principles are considered a core to efficient fighting and that one has to find the best way to personally adapt them. Understanding these different explorations of Lee will hopefully help to clear up past misunderstandings and not confuse his movie choreography or sports coaching with his reality based street fighting known as Jeet Kune Do.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Jeet Kune Do Comes From China ?
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, famed basketball player was
an original Jeet Kune Do student of Bruce Lee.
He once stated in an interview that while JKD had its roots in Chinese
philosophy, it really was American in nature.
At first, I wasn’t sure what he was meaning, but later I began to see
his point. Jeet Kune Do is not limited
in any way and draws from many cultures, which is actually a very American way
of doing things. This idea of absorbing the best from around the world and
making it specifically your own has been something that has helped America gain
abundance. Sigung Lee felt that blindly
following a style could divide people and might possibly promote racism.
Unfortunately you still hear people argue “Korean Karate is the best”, “No
Brazilian Jujitsu is the only one”,” Japanese Karate rules” In Lee’s opinion, this would never lead one
to the truth and only creates division. Jeet Kune Do isn’t about promoting an
ancient culture or a single nationality. It’s all about what really works in
combat.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
THE FOUR RANGES OF COMBAT
Bruce Lee identified four ranges of empty hand combat. The first range was identified as kicking
range and is the furthest from your opponent. The next range is called boxing
or punching range and is a little closer and is about one step in from kicking
range. The closest range in stand up fighting is trapping range. Then finally
we have grappling range which can be as close as two opponents can possibly be
and often has full body contact top to bottom and is on the ground.
There are a few basic strategies in JKD as to how to use the
4 ranges. One thought is to identify
what range your opponent wants to fight in and you stay outside that range. For
instance, you would not fight an expert boxer in punching range, but try to
subdue them in kicking or trapping range.
While this is a good theory, in a street fight it’s not practical. Firstly, you don’t have much time in a real
fight to discover what your opponents expertise is and secondly the grappling
range is always our last choice. A golden rule is we try to avoid going to the
ground in a real fight. Also, by the
time you discover your opponents preferred range, it can be bad news for
you. We want to end a fight as quickly
as possible and we are not planning to hang around to see if this person is a
better fighter. Maybe he was a better fighter; we just didn’t give him a chance
to prove it.
A much better way to think of the 4 ranges of combat
is to think of them as a series of descending choices. Another rule for street fighting is
“distance is our friend”. Speaking of
distance, retreat has always been a military strategy and should be an
important part of your repertoire. In
my opinion, the best way to think of the ranges of fighting is to try to end a
conflict from the furthest range. If I can end a fight with a kick, why not? If
the kick didn’t stop the assault then usually you find yourself in punching
range and that’s the second choice. If punching range does not work, we flow
into trapping range, which would be our third choice. The final range and
absolute last choice on our list is grappling or going to the ground. There are
so many reasons in a real fight to not go to the ground so that should always
be last on our list if possible. Remember we are talking about street survival
and not sports fighting.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Three Swordsmen
Bruce Lee had a colorful way to explain his philosophy with a favorite story involving three swordsmen. The following is in the words of Sifu Lee:
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’ wings. As he slowly laid down the
chopsticks, the three swordsmen hurriedly left the room.
The
story illustrates a great difference between eastern 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 eastern person 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.
And
so it is with martial arts. To the westerner the finger jabs, the side kicks,
and the back fist, etc, are tools of destruction and violence which is, indeed,
one of their functions. But the eastern person believes that the primary function of
such tools is revealed when they are self-distracted and destroy greed, fear,
anger and folly.
Manipulative
skill is not eastern person's goal. He is aiming his kicks and blows at himself and
when successful, may even succeed in knocking himself out. After years of
training, he hopes to achieve that vital loosening and equability of all powers,
which is what the three swordsmen saw in the master.
In
every day life the mind is capable of moving from one thought or object to
another – “being” mind instead of “having” mind. However, when face to face
with an opponent in a deadly contest, the mind tends to stick and loses it
mobility. Stick ability or stoppage is a problem that haunts every martial
artist.
Kwan
– in (avalokitesvara), the goddess of mercy is sometimes represented with one
thousand arms, each holding a different instrument. If her mind stops (999) will
be of no use whatever, it is only because of her mind not stopping with the use
of one arm, but moving from one instrument to another, that all her arms prove
useful with the utmost degree of efficiency. Thus the figure is meant to
demonstrate that, when the ultimate truth is realized even as many as one
thousand arms on one body may each be service able in one way or another.
“Purposelessness”,
“empty – mindedness” or “no art” are frequent terms used in the orient to
denote the ultimate achievement of a martial artist. According to Zen, the
spirit is by nature formless and no “objects” are to be harbored in it. When
anything is harbored there, psychic energy is drawn toward it, and when psychic
energy loses its balance, its native activity becomes cramped and it no longer
flows with the stream, where the energy is tipped, there is too much of it in
one direction and a shortage of it in another direction. Where there is too
much energy, it overflows and cannot be controlled. In either case, it is unable
to cope with ever – changing situations. But when there prevails a state of
“purposelessness” (which is also a stage of fluidity or mindlessness) , the
spirit harbors nothing in it, nor is it tipped in one direction; it transcends both subject and object; it
responds empty – mindlessly to whatever is happening.
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 Lee
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The Great Dan Inosanto
Recently, I had the privilege of spending some private time with the legendary Bruce Lee protege Dan Inosanto. For those who might not be aware, Sifu Inosanto was hand chosen by Bruce Lee to teach Jeet Kune Do in Lee’s Los Angeles “Chinatown” school. In fact, he was the only person ever chosen by Bruce Lee to be an instructor in JKD and Lee had given Sifu Inosanto the highest ranking in JKD to an individual at that time.
To this day, Dan Inosanto remains the highest ranking instructor in JKD and in my opinion if you can spend even just a little time with him, you will quickly see what Bruce Lee saw in him. Not only does Sifu Inosanto have great skill and an encyclopedic level of knowledge in technique, he also possesses a deep philosophical understanding of martial arts. He has a philosophical understanding that transcends beyond mere combat and applies martial arts to day to day living for success and happiness. One example of this was back in the Oct 2009 issue of Black Belt Magazine nine well known JKD instructors where asked a simple question. They were asked what was the single most important thing that Bruce Lee taught. Every response, with one exception, was about some technique Bruce Lee taught. The Straight lead was mentioned by several, etc... Only one instructor mentioned the deeper philosophical aspect of Jeet Kune Do. That instructor was Dan Inosanto and he alone had the great insight to say the deepest thing Bruce Lee taught was "self-expression through self-discovery".
I really don’t understand how some people claim the Inosanto Academy doesn’t teach pure JKD. That might be an interesting article unto itself. Perhaps greedy people trying to make money by claiming they are the only source for JKD? Anyone that questions Dan Inosanto should go to his school and spend time with him. If they did, they would find he does teach JKD in its original form. The Inosanto Academy teaches JKD in its pure form, but by invitation only. He is not teaching JKD mixed with Kali. The Kali class and Muay Thai class, etc… are completely separate. This is because Dan Inosanto is keeping his promise to Bruce Lee, the promise to not exploit JKD for money. The other thing to keep in mind is Dan is the most honorable and decent person in martial arts today. That is a realization that anyone can come to with just a little investigation. Linda Lee, the wife of Bruce Lee, wrote that Dan was offered a lot of money right after the death of Bruce Lee to open a string of JKD schools. Sifu Inosanto turned it down because he chose to honor his promise to Bruce Lee to not exploit JKD. Wow, how many people could walk away from a fortune just to keep their word, keep their word to someone that’s not even alive?
The reality is that for most of us, the ultimate way we can know what Bruce Lee taught is by reading everything Bruce wrote and by talking to those who knew him. That’s it. Dan has proven that being honest is more important than money, so based on his amazing honesty; I feel it’s only logical that we should trust what he says about JKD.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Bruce Lee the ultimate Martial Artist
I remember many years ago when I was studying traditional
martial arts. I was going through the belt system of Taekwondo under a very
serious Korean master. He demanded absolute perfect form; every position of the
body had to be in the correct place. If a thumb were so much as slightly out of
place while holding a stance, he would quickly come over and correct you. In
fact, it seemed a lot of his time was spent going around correcting the form of
each student. This kind of drilling
makes a lot of sense early on and I can see it having a lot of value when you
are teaching a large military group. Actually, this concept of making everyone
adhere to the same pattern has made Japan a great country for
manufacturing cars. They have the perfect reference and everyone must hold to
it and no deviation is allowed. However,
would you call someone in a car factory an artist?
The problem develops when we call ourselves artists. The term artist has always had the
connotation of someone who is creative. Forcing someone to never deviate from
the ideal form in Martial Arts is like forcing someone to paint by the
numbers. Bruce Lee was a true martial artist
because he was able to be so creative in the development of his personal
martial art system. He was able to
honestly express himself and encouraged everyone else to do likewise. We are all different people with different
body types and attributes. As Bruce once
said, trying to force everyone to blindly fit in one form is like trying to
force everyone to fit in the same size suit! A core philosophical idea in JKD is, know the principle,
follow the principle, and dissolve the principle. Yes, its important to learn
the form at the beginning, but latter you should creatively adapt it to fit
you. Then you are a true martial artist.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Jeet Kune Do Power Strikes
Bruce Lee had the amazing ability to flow from very fast precision
striking with a kind of light “flicking” energy from a long distance to
tremendous power that could shell shock your body in close quarter combat. It all came down to what we call in JKD, his
body mechanics. Knowing how to focus
your entire body weight and muscle strength into your blows is a key to the JKD
striking power. Once learned, a small
person can easily generate enough power to inflict a debilitating blow to an
attacker. Bruce Lee was 5”7 and weighed only 128lbs!
The analogy I like to use is, imagine you have a sack with 10
small rocks in it and you are trying to ward off an attacker. From a far distance it
might make sense to pull one rock out at a time from the bag and throw it at the attacker,
similar to the JKD strategy of eyes jabs and groin shots. However, from a short or closer distance
that method will more than likely be ineffective. It would make more sense to keep all the
rocks in the bag and swing it with all your might to disable your attacker in
one or two power blows.
How do we start to train our body mechanics for power? Here is
where the practice of Kali helps our JKD.
Paul Vunak with the help of Dan Inosanto isolated six important moves
with the stick. These six moves will
force the body to move and twist in such a way as to help develop power in your
close quarter combat range. Power in
your blows in close quarter combat is crucial, because if you can’t hit hard,
you are just going to make your attacker angrier! Just remember anyone can learn to hit hard if
they are given the know-how. A 5’ tall
person weighing 90lbs can develop a devastating blow if they learn how to
impact all 90lbs plus into their strike and in my experience the average street
thug can’t recover from that!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Secret Killing Moves!
Most people that come to me to learn self-defense skills often
make the mistake as seeing this as nothing more than the acquisition of various
techniques. Secret moves that will make
them invincible to any attack. Unfortunately
it’s not that simple. Actually I should say fortunately it’s not that simple,
because if it were, then everyone would be walking around with secret deadly
moves.
It has become a common theme in self-defense circles to
trash traditional martial arts as a waste of time to learn for practical street
self-defense. Go to any so called
reality based self-defense seminar and all you will hear is “this or that”
martial arts doesn’t work in a street situation. My opinion concerning this is statements
like that couldn’t be further from the truth!
I am sorry to contradict all those self-defense instructors out there,
but I have seen traditional martial arts used successfully in street fights!
People who understand the spirit of Jeet Kune Do never trash
another art by claiming it has no value as practical self-defense. The reality is all arts can be made to work
if you spend enough time and develop enough skill. Some concepts can be learned and used quickly
while others might take years to master. Also, the more difficult the skill,
the more perishable that skill becomes.
So the questions to ask yourself in this day and age, how much time are
you able to devote to learning practical self-defense? Most people can’t devote themselves to living
in a temple and practice martial arts hours and hours every day like a Shaolin
monk. Most of us need to focus on the
most efficient skills that will stay with us for years.
One of my favorite Bruce Lee stories concerns an incident that
happened in his school with one of his students. A new student came to class that had a
background in traditional martial arts.
This student was sparring with an older more experienced JKD practitioner. The new student began doing a very fancy
move, I think it was a reverse spinning kick. The Bruce Lee student stopped the
new guy and began telling him very authoritatively why that was such a bad move
and would never work in “real life”.
Bruce overheard him and walked over to the JKD student and asked him to
explain why it wouldn’t work. Then Lee
began doing the very same technique with blazing speed and precision “nailing”
his very own student over and over! Lee’s
point was any technique could be made to work and it really comes down to your
own attributes and time you desire to perfect it. “Honestly expressing yourself” ,something
often quoted in JKD circles, also means to be honest with yourself! If you feel a technique doesn’t work, then you
should discard it, but before you do, answer honestly as to why it didn’t.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
KALI and JKD
http://absolutedefense.net/
Why do so many JKD instructors also include Kali in their
school? Especially when Kali drills seem
to actually contradict what Bruce Lee taught. Bruce Lee: "All fixed set patterns are
incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed
patterns." This is very true in
actual combat, combat being a very fluid affair. However we learned through Bruce Lee’s protégé,
Dan Inosanto that we gain attributes and turbo charge our JKD with Kali
drills. Kali teaches coordination and
balance better than any other warrior art I have come across. Adding the practice of Kali drills will turbo
charge your JKD quickly and efficiently. We are not teaching people to fight in fix patterns,
because that would not be JKD. However, for basic attribute development, you won’t
find anything better.
Famed JKD instructor Paul Vunak said that his practice of interception, a JKD fundamental, blossomed through the practice of Kali drills.
Famed JKD instructor Paul Vunak said that his practice of interception, a JKD fundamental, blossomed through the practice of Kali drills.
http://absolutedefense.net/
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
EFFICIENCY
Its very interesting to me when I see a JKD site try and get dogmatic with certain principles that Bruce Lee discussed in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. It's an attempt to turn JKD into another fixed style with a harden doctrine.
Its very interesting to me when I see a JKD site try and get dogmatic with certain principles that Bruce Lee discussed in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. It's an attempt to turn JKD into another fixed style with a harden doctrine.
Sometimes you will see JKD described as adhering to certain
rules as if these rules are some irrefutable gospel. Rules like: Simplicity,
Economy of Motion, Longest Weapon to the Nearest Target, etc... Unfortunately, this does JKD a disservice and
displays a lack of understanding into its innate fluidity. First, it's important to understand that JKD
recognizes 4 ranges of combat, which are categorized as kicking, boxing, trapping
and ground fighting range. Each one of these ranges has its own particular truth,
which can be exclusive to that range. For instance, in kicking range we often
find that the longest weapon to the nearest target and economy of motion is
a very effective strategy. However in
trapping range where we can attack with elbows and knees, the same principles
would prove inefficient. You will end a fight much faster with the rear
chambered knee rather than the one closest to your opponent. Sorry, but that's just a fact known by every
Thai fighter. If someone doubts that,
then feel free to test that by kneeing a bag with the rear leg and then the
closer front leg. What is going to do
the most damage and end the fight quickly?
Ending the fight quickly is the ultimate efficiency and that is the core
principle of JKD.
If I had to come up with one word to describe JKD, it would
be efficiency! Bruce Lee was very focused on how to end a fight fast. When he had that famous fight with Won Jack Man
and it took over 3 minutes, Lee felt that was far too long and that was one of
the turning points in his martial arts philosophy. He felt that a fight should
end in a matter of seconds and not minutes.
The longer you are in a fight, the more likely you are going to be
injured. When I train Law Enforcement, I
will ask "how long do you want to stand in front of the barrel of a loaded gun?" The usual response is "As short of a time as
possible!" That's JKD.
http://absolutedefense.net/
http://absolutedefense.net/
Monday, December 26, 2011
Bruce Lee Philosophy
I prefer to describe Jeet Kune Do as a philosophy rather than a concept. Certainly describing JKD as a "style" is not appropriate and doing so would contradict its founder Bruce Lee. The reason I prefer the term philosophy rather than concept is because the term concept seems too limiting. Concept gives the feeling of something not completely thought out. For instance, one definition of the word concept is: an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances. One definition that I like of the term Philosophy is: The critical analysis of fundamental assumptions or beliefs. That really sums up the way Bruce Lee approached his personal investigation of martial arts.
Bruce Lee was very much a philosopher. He studied philosophy at the University of Washington and after leaving, continued his self education with great enthusiasm. Some feel his enthusiasm for Philosophy was only matched by his love of martial arts. Dan Inosanto was quoted saying that when he first went to study martial arts with Lee, “I was a little frustrated because Bruce spent more time talking about the Philosophical aspect of the art rather than showing techniques.” Later, once Dan understood where Bruce was coming from, things improved dramatically.
Bruce Lee was very much a scientific researcher when it came to the practicality of martial arts. He would investigate techniques of a certain style and test them to discover how well they actually worked in combat. It was almost as if his kwoon or dojo was a laboratory and used in much the same way any good scientist would research the validity of a theory. A fundamental aspect of this testing was a technique must be successful when applied to a non-assisting attacker. You must perform your technique against someone that is giving you resistance. Unfortunately, most people in martial arts practice their techniques against a very docile assistant. In realty, just about anything would work against an attacker that is so non aggressive. Practicing with an assailant that is very aggressive is what separated Lee from most martial artists of his day. Unfortunately, too many people in martial arts blindly accept what they are taught and if the sacred technique they were taught didn’t work; the fault must be in them and not the technique!
So what is this Jeet Kune Do philosophy? It’s a discipline for discovering truth. To be more accurate it’s the discovery of self truth. Self knowledge is the highest achievement in JKD and this first starts with dealing with our beliefs and our ignorance. Lee understood that people categorize their beliefs in two areas. The first group consists of what could be called practical beliefs, while the second group is our emotional beliefs. Practical beliefs are the things we take for granted and just know are true and for the most part never question. We know things like gravity will make us fall or fire can burn us. On the other hand, emotional beliefs are things we want to believe in and rarely objectively research. We see emotional beliefs thriving in the world of religion and politics. When was the last time you saw someone deeply committed to a political or religious belief stand back and coldly examine intelligent arguments on both sides? It almost never happens because few of us have the courage to take the chance we might destroy the belief that gives our life some pleasure or perhaps meaning. It’s interesting because in both belief categories there exists the common bond of not asking or challenging that belief. Jeet Kune Do teaches us to never blindly accept what is taught but to test all things. Those around Lee said that when examining a technique from an art he would constantly ask “why” He wanted to know what the thinking was behind a given move. Asking "why" is crucial in the examining process and something we lose as adults because it is suppressed in us as children. When children ask "why" when given a command by an adult, most parents respond with “because I told you so!” This questioning process is further suppressed by some religions, some arrogant teachers, and later in corporate life. Bruce felt we had to break the shackles of the “don’t ask why” mentality if we are going to free ourselves and see the truth. Truth in life as well as combat is the goal and in JKD if it doesn’t work, we discard it. However before we discard something, we must honestly understand why it didn’t work. If it didn’t work, was it because the technique wasn’t practical or was it simply due to the fact that our attributes are lacking?
Jeet Kune Do also teaches us to be very direct in our approach and once the course of action has been decided, there is no looking back. We go for it with a 110% and never have regret, because win or lose, we know we made the correct decision. Bruce Lee felt that we should approach life in general as if it were combat. People can steal, hurt or betray us. We can get cancer or some other disabling illness. We must adopt the warrior spirit and be strong while life gives us its ups and downs.
Some quotes directly from Bruce Lee Philosophy are:
"Be formless, shapeless - like water."
"The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."
"Low aim is the worst crime man has."
"If you love life don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."
http://absolutedefense.net/
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