Bruce Lee (quotes)

Boards don’t hit back.
Be like water, my friend.
To tolerate is to insult.
As you think, you shall become.
Be happy, but never satisfied.
Live a life worth remembering.
Either push your limits or die.
Running water never grows stale.
The reward is found in the work.
We do not become. We simply are.
Learn it all, then forget it all.
Real living is living for others.
True refinement seeks simplicity.
Your state of mind is everything.
As you think, so shall you become.
Efficiency is anything that scores.
I think of myself as a human being.
Low aim, not failure, is the crime.
Pain is weakness leaving your body.
Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
The word ‘superstar’ is an illusion.
To live is to express oneself freely.
The unconditioned mind intuits truth.
A man must constantly exceed his level.
All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.
Willing is not enough, one must apply.
Get maximum effect from minimum effort.
Truth cannot be structured or confined.
Be a practical dreamer backed by action.
In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.
People fear what they do not understand.
Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.
Take what’s useful, discard what is not.
Circumstances hell! I make circumstances!
Observe what is with undivided awareness.
Optimism is a faith that leads to success.
Seek freedom from the conformity of styles.
Ultimately the greatest help is self-help.
Evaluation by others is not a guide for me.
Ideas are the beginning of all achievement.
The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
The usefulness of the cup is its emptiness.
When one has no form, one can be all forms.
Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.
There are too many stars and too few actors.
All knowledge, is ultimately, self knowledge.
Belts are only good for holding up your pants
To change with change is the changeless state.
Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot.
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived.
The possession of anything begins in the mind.
What is true stillness? Stillness in movement.
Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
Remember, Life is a journey, not a destination.
What Is, is more important than What Should Be.
Obey the principles without being bound by them.
From form to formless and from finite to infinite
I don’t believe in getting something for nothing.
It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.
It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.
When you freely express, you are the total style.
Don’t ignore the five senses in search of a sixth.
Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.
A person cannot forget someone who is good to them.
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
Be a calm beholder of what is happening around you.
In life, what more can you ask for than to be real?
Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.
To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
Understand your limitations and capitalize on them.
False teachers of the Way of life use flowery words.
If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.
One great cause of failure is lack of concentration.
The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.
The highest art is no art. The best form is no form.
After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.
Don’t indulge in any unnecessary, sophisticated moves
Either you understand or you don’t, and that is that.
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water.
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
The More we value things, the less we value ourselves
To be honest to oneself, and that is very hard to do.
To tell the truth, I could beat anybody in the world.
Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
What can you take from me which is not already yours?
Take inventory of everyone with whom you have contact.
When you feel pain, you know that you are still alive.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
A self-willed man has no other aim than his own growth.
All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge.
Knowledge earns you power, character earns you respect.
Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.
Every man today is the result of his thoughts yesterday.
If you want to be immortal live a life worth remembering.
Simplicity of expression rather than complexity of form.
Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead!
Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.
Turn your sparring into play – but always play seriously.
A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.
I don’t want to do anything halfway. It has to be perfect.
It’s the law of averages: put in more, come out with more.
Never take your eyes off your opponent, even when you bow.
Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony.
The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.
To understand your fear is the beginning of really seeing.
Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.
Success means doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly.
Forget about winning and losing, forget about pride and pain
Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.
The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world.
We have more faith in what we imitate than in what we create
Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.
If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.
You will never get any more out of this life than you expect.
Endurance is lost rapidly if one ceases to work at its maximum.
Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience.
My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.
Put ‘going the extra mile’ to work as part of one’s daily habit
The essence of fighting is the art of moving at the right time.
Art is the way to the absolute and to the essence of human life.
In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup.
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness.
The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.
The unfolding of the bare human soul…that is what interests me.
Genius: The capacity to see and to express what is simple, simply!
If you think a thing is impossible,you’ll only make it impossible.
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.
If every man would help his neighbor, no man would be without help.
Nothingness cannot be defined; the softest thing cannot be snapped.
To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself.
A good fighter must sense rather than perceive his chance to strike.
Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead.
I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.
I’ve come to understand that life is best lived, not conceptualized.
Learning is a constant process of discovery – a process without end.
The best form of endurance exercise is the performance of the event.
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.
If you want to learn to swim you have to throw yourself in the water.
In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes.
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.
Success is not in reaching the destination, but in making the journey.
To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery.
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
When you say that something is impossible, you have made it impossible.
Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
People try to hold onto the sameness. This holding onto prevents growth.
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that.
When finger point at moon, don’t look at finger or you’ll miss the moon.
When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity.
Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.
Maturation is the development from environmental support to self-support.
Remember, you are expressing the techniques and not doing the techniques.
The idea is that flowing water never goes stale, so just keep on flowing.
Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.
As long as we separate this oneness into two we won’t achieve realization.
I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged.
Let nature take its course and your tools will strike at the right moment.
All goals apart from the means are illusions; becoming is a denial of being.
Do not run away; let go. Do not seek; for it will come when least expected.
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits.
To see is to be decieved. To hear is to be lied to. To FEEL is to believe.
Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one
If you make an ass out of yourself, there will always be someone to ride you.
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
Self-will seems to be the only virtue that takes no account of man-made laws.
Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.
What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become.
Here I am as a human being…how can I express myself, totally and completely?
Self-Conquest is the greatest of victories. Mighty is he who conquers himself.
To take responsibility for one’s own actions, good and bad, is something else.
It is better to live as a broken piece of jade, than to live as a useless clay.
Only the self-sufficient stand alone – most people follow the crowd and imitate.
Only the self-sufficient stand alone – most people follow the crowd and imitate.
If you want to do your duty properly, you should do just a little more than that.
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man’s mind can conceive and believe.
Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
We are told that talent creates opportunity, yet it is desire that creates talent.
Defense is attack, attack is defense, each being the cause and result of the other.
Everyone wants to learn how to win, but no one wants to learn how to accept defeat.
Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment.
Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related.
A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard.
I’m a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed.
A quality martial artist is always ready for any move, and trains oneself invincible.
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing.
Sorrows are our best educator. A man can see further through a tear than a telescope.
Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear.
Flow in the living moment – We are always in a process of becoming and nothing is fixed.
Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.
It is not what happens that is success or failure, but what it does to the heart of man.
There is no love without friendship. Passion alone does not form relationships of value.
To reach me, you must move to me. Your attack offers me an opportunity to intercept you.
Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity.
Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.
Martial arts, like any art, is an unrestricted athletic expression of an individual soul.
The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible.
If you knew you had to fight for your life tomorrow, would you change your training today?
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
My strength comes from my abdomen. It’s the center of gravity and the source of real power.
There are no limits. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.
Learning is never cumulative, it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.
The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire- soon it will go out.
There is what is only when there is no comparing and to live with what is is to be peaceful.
In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.
You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup.
Defeat is a state of mind; No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better.
The primary Reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think.
Understanding comes about through feeling, from moment to moment in the mirror of relationship.
Use karate, judo, aikido, or any style to build your counter-offensive. It will be interesting!
Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish.
Let yourself go with dis-ease, be with it, and keep it company. This is the way to be rid of it.
Once I slow down because I think I have reached my peak, then my skills will go nowhere but down
Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.
Every morning like a scholar at his first class I prepare a blank mind for the day to write upon.
The mind is like a fertile garden in which anything that is planted, flowers or weeds, will grow.
All martial art is simply an honest expression of one’s body — with a lot of deception in between.
Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.
Fluidity is the way to an empty mind. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.
Humility forms the basis of honor, just as the low ground forms the foundation of a high elevation.
Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone.
Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I’ll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended.
The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.
There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.
Remember, success is a journey not a destination. Have faith in your ability. You will do just fine.
A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and accept the consequences of his own doing.
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a concept of what you should be like, actualize yourself.
For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.
Never waste energy on worries or negative thoughts, all problems are brought into existence -drop them.
Now I see that I will never find the light Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, Consuming myself.
Stop wasting time in playing a role or a concept. Instead, learn to ACTUALIZE YOURSELF, your potential.
The change is from inner to outer. We start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions.
Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception.
If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.
Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
Independent inquiry is needed in your search for truth, not dependence on anyone else’s view or a mere book.
True observation begins when devoid of set patterns; freedom of expression occurs when one is beyond system.
If I should die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do. You can’t expect more from life.
If there is a God, he is within. You don’t ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing.
All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
I do not fear the man who practices 1,000 kicks one time each. I fear the man who practices 1 kick 1,000 times.
Where there is no style, there is no slave. Martial Arts mean honestly expressing yourself. No style. No slave.
If there is always light, you don’t experience light anymore. You have to have the rhythm of light and darkness.
In order to realize our true self we must be willing to live without being dependent upon the opinion of others.
Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
To be what I term a ‘quality’ human being one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is.
Go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization… Search within… for honest self- expression.
If I tell you I’m good, probably you will say I’m boasting. But if I tell you I’m not good, you’ll know I’m lying.
You have to create your own luck. You have to be aware of the opportunities around you and take advantage of them.
A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Like the cobra, you remain coiled in a loose but compact position and your strike should be felt before it is seen.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
What comes after victory? Why do people value victory so much? What is ‘glory’? What kind of victory is ‘glorious’?
Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillfull, swift, and steady.
Remember my friend to enjoy your planning as well as your accomplishment, for life is too short for negative energy.
Sincere thought means thought of concentration (quiet awareness). The thought of a distracted mind cannot be sincere
To contemplate a thing implies maintaining oneself OUTSIDE it, resolved to keep a distance between it and ourselves.
A good martial artist does not become tend but ready, not thinking but jet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come.
Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I’m still learning, for learning is boundless.
Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart.
Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all. He lives only in what is.
You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession.
The more complicated and restricted the method, the less opportunity for expression of one’s original sense of freedom.
We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement.
Without frustration you will not discover that you might be able to do something on your own. We grow through conflict.
Each moment that passes changes you…You can’t even own yourself. How can you ever hope to own anyone or anything else.
The most important thing to me is, how, in the process of learning how to use my body, can I come to understand myself ?
When you’re talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you’d better train every part of your body!
Since life is an ever evolving process, one should flow in this process and discover how to actualize and expand oneself.
The three most difficult things in life are: 1. To keep a secret. 2. To forget an injury. 3. To make good use of leisure.
The timeless moment. – The moment has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time.
With every adversity comes a blessing because a shock acts as a reminder to oneself that we must not get stale in routine.
Jeet Kune Do: it’s just a name; don’t fuss over it. There’s no such thing as a style if you understand the roots of combat.
Give recognition where it is due. Compliments stimulate more effort and desire to improve. Be generous with honest praising.
I have the absolute confidence not to be number two, but then I have enough sense to realize that there can be no number one.
Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.
Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The Power can be created and maintained through daily practice – continuous effort.
Satori – in the awakening from a dream. Awakening and self-realization and seeing into one’s own being – these are synonymous.
We should devote ourselves to being self-sufficient and must not depend upon the external ratings by others for our happiness.
It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first.
Conditioning obstructs our view of reality. We do not see IT in its suchness because of our indoctrination, crooked and twisted.
To become a champion requires a good mental attitude toward preparation. You have to accept the most tedious task with pleasure.
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.
Man, he is constantly growing and when he is bound by a set pattern of ideas or way of doing things, that’s when he stops growing
Through my own observations. I am convinced that an absolutely honest and direct inquiry into oneself will lead to understanding.
Don’t be forecasting evil unless it is what you can guard against. Anxiety is good for nothing if we can’t turn it into a defense.
The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
I am not afraid of a person who knows 10000 kicks. But I am afraid of a person who knows one kick but practices it for 10000 times.
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.
I have always been a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, but above all, am actualising myself to be an artist of life.
I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves.
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.
The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique; my movement is a result of your movement.
The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.
Understanding requires not just a moment of perception, but a continuous awareness, a continuous state of inquiry without conclusion
You must accept the fact that there is no help but self-help. I cannot tell you how to gain freedom since freedom exists within you.
A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred the human law in himself, his own individual will.
I refer to my hands, feet and body as the tools of the trade. The hands and feet must be sharpened and improved daily to be efficient.
The future looks extremely bright indeed, with lots of possibilities ahead — big possibilities. Like the song says, We’ve just begun.
What is is more important than ‘what should be.’ Too many people are looking at ‘what is’ from a position of thinking ‘what should be’.
What is’ is more important than ‘what should be.’ Too many people are looking at ‘what is’ from a position of thinking ‘what should be.
Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is work of enlightenment. Art, in other words, is a technique for acquiring liberty.
If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding yourself.
One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.
Put every great teacher in a room, and they’d agree about everything, but put their disciples in there and they’d argue about everything.
The measure of the moral worth of a man is his happiness. The better the man, the more happiness. Happiness is the synonym of well-being
I did what I came here to do. What I’ve done I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.
Do not have an attitude, open yourself and focus yourself and express yourself. Reject external form that fails to express internal reality.
It is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky..but to express oneself honestly not lying to oneself, now that my friend is very hard to do
Prosperity is apt to prevent us from examining our conduct; but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is beneficial to us.
The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments . There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience.
There’s only one basic principle of self-defense- you must apply the most effective weapon, as soon as possible, to the most vulnerable target.
Cease negative mental chattering. If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
To express yourself in freedom, you must die to everything of yesterday. From the ‘old’, you derive security; from the ‘new’, you gain the flow.
Are you going to let the obstacles in your life be stumbling blocks or stepping stones? Choose the positive. You are the master of your attitude.
If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation.
More and more I believe in the fact that you have two hands and two legs, and the thing is how to make good use of yourself – and that’s about it.
One must be truthful and honest in his approach; a constant independent inquiry and not blindly following a certain blue print laid down by others
One will never get any more than he thinks he can get. YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES. Look back and see your progress – damn the torpedo, full speed ahead!
To me defeat in anything is merely temporary. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.
Self-knowledge is the basis of jeet kune do because it is effective not only for the individual’s martial art but also for his life as a human being.
Because of styles people are separated. Research your own experience, absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.
Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, un-rhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.
Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare. There is what is only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.
The moment is freedom. — I couldn’t live by a rigid schedule. I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them.
There are lots of guys around the world that are lazy. They have big fat guts. They talk about chi power and things they can do, but don’t believe it.
An instructor should exemplify the things he seeks to teach. It will be of great advantage if you yourself can do all you ask of your students and more.
Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.
Since weight training involves repetitions, a great deal of energy must be exerted. Therefore, weight training should be practiced only every other day.
But neither can you condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on. You can never invite the wind but you must leave the window open.
He who wants to succeed should learn how to fight, to strive and to suffer. You can acquire a lot in life, if you are prepared to give up a lot to get it.
Linda and I aren’t one and one. We are two halves that make a whole — two halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would ever be alone!
Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind.
The doubters said, ‘Man can not fly,’ The doers said, ‘Maybe, but we’ll try,’ And finally soared In the morning glow While non-believers Watched from below.
Art requires imagination. It requires Creativity. Creativity requires experience and experience comes from your life. And your life is expressed in your art.
A man strikes you, make him bleed. He makes you bleed, you break his bones. He breaks your bones, kill him. Being hit is inevitable, strike back twice as hard.
The more aware you become, the more you shed from day to day what you have learned so that your mind is always fresh and uncontaminated by previous conditioning.
When you point to the moon, what do you see in front of your finger; Your task is to feel, not to think, when you can understand that the lesson will be learned.
Action is a high road to self-confidence and esteem. Where it is open, all energies flow toward it. It comes readily to most people, and its rewards are tangible.
If mere mechanical efficiency can make everyone a martial artist, then all is well. Unfortunately, combat, like freedom, is something that can not be preconceived.
The deluded mind is the mind affectively burdened by intellect. Thus, it cannot move without stopping and reflecting on itself. This obstructs its native fluidity.
Knowledge , surely, is always of time , whereas knowing is not of time. Knowledge is from a source, from accumulation, from conclusion, while knowing is a movement.
Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.
The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity … the ability to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to ornamentation.
It is useless to try to stir the dirt Out of the muddy water, As it will become murkier. But leave it alone, And if it should be cleared; It will become clear by itself.
Nowadays you don’t go around on the street kicking people, punching people – because if you do (makes gun shape with hand), well that’s it – I don’t care how good you are.
The success of an assailant’s attack depends on surprise, and if you’re sufficiently alert to prevent a surprise, your counterattack is already halfway to being successful.
Anxiety is the gap between the NOW and the THEN. So if you are in the NOW, you can’t be anxious, because your excitement flows immediately into ongoing spontaneous activity.
We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem.
I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies.
If people say Jeet Kune Do is different from this or from that, then let the name of Jeet Kune Do be wiped out, for that is what it is, just a name. Please don’t fuss over it.
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.
If your opponent is at a distance, kick him in the groin. If he gets close, poke him in the eyes, bring up your knee, pop him with an elbow, dig a corkscrew punch to his stomach.
Jeet Kune Do does not beat around the bush. It does not take winding detours. It follows a straight line to the objective. Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points.
Training for strength and flexibility is a must. You must use it to support your techniques. Techniques alone are no good if you don’t support them with strength and flexibility.
Everything you do, if not in a relaxed state will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient. Thus the tensed expert marksman will aim at a level less than his/her student.
Meditation means to be free from all phenomena and calmness means to be internally unperturbed. There will be calmness when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed.
Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.
Learning is definitely not mere imitation, nor is it the ability to accumulate and regurgitate fixed knowledge. Learning is a constant process of discovery – a process without end.
Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation.
Zen is not attained by mirror-wiping mediation, but by self-forgetfulness in the existential ‘present’ of life here and now. We do not come, we are. Don’t strive to become, but be.
An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanation, with conclusions. Nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion.
Taoist philosophy is essentially monistic. Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole.
The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.
You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.
Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.
One rule is to not use complicated techniques unless they are necessary to achieve your goal. First, use simple movements, and if they don’t work, then introduce the more complex ones.
The past is no more; the future not yet. Nothing exists except the here and now. Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at our hands.
A kung fu man lives without being dependant on the opinions of others, and a master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve. He is quiet and unassuming, with no desire to show off.
In building a statue, a sculptor doesn’t keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the nonessentials until the truth of his creation is revealed without obstruction.
You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.
Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.
Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. Learn, master, and achieve.
Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice.
Truth comes when your mind and heart are purged of all sense of striving and you are no longer trying to become somebody; it is there when the mind is very quiet, listening timelessly to everything.
The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice.
The abdominal and waist region coordinate all parts of the body and act as the center or generator. Therefore, you can promote the ability to control the body’s action and master your will more easily.
When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style.
The Now is indivisible. Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious mind to strive to divide that which is indivisible. For once the completeness of things is taken apart it is no longer complete.
Time means a lot to me because, you see, I, too, am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
True thusness is the substance of thought, and thought is the function of true thusness. There is no thought except that of true thusness. Thusness does not move, but its motion and function are inexhaustible.
The best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man.
The principle of martial arts is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding and instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from emotions and desires.
To be bound by traditional martial art style or styles is the way of the mindless, enslaved martial artist. But to be inspired by the traditional martial art and to achieve further heights is the way of genius.
The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.
when one is not expressing himself, he is not free. thus, he begins to struggle and the struggle breeds methodical routine. Soon, he is doing his methodical routine as response rather than responding to what is.
Let the spirit out – Discard all thoughts of reward, all hopes of praise and fears of blame, all awareness of one’s bodily self. And, finally closing the avenues of sense perception, let the spirit out, as it will.
The more relaxed the muscles are, the more energy can flow through the body. Using muscular tensions to try to ‘do’ the punch or attempting to use brute force to knock someone over will only work to opposite effect.
One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way.
Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming. Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.
It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you’re being knocked down, ‘Why am I being knocked down?’ If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person.
Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. – To realize that it’s just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up.
Having totality means being capable of following what is, because what is is constantly moving and constantly changing. If one is anchored to a particular view, one will not be able to follow the swift movement of what is.
If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.
Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.
The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition
You will never learn anything new unless you are ready to accept yourself with your limitations. You must accept the fact that you are capable in some directions and limited in others, and you must develop your capabilities.
When you fight, if it is a real fight, use every tool that you have, use your whole body. Use your fists, your legs, your fingers, your head if you have to, and hit them in every vulnerable spot, the balls, the eyes etc. to win.
You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don’t want to be like As Confucius say, but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family. It just so happens man that people are different.
In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you’re tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.
Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationships to man. He then becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing.
To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.
Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.
Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationship to man etc. Then he becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing.
The martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills. Power training and the use of force are easy, but total comprehension of all of the skills of the martial arts is very difficult to achieve.
To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.
It is the man that has nothing to lose or is willing to lose everything to beat you that I am afraid of. If a man is willing to lose his life to bite off my nose then I don’t care how good I am or what I do to him- he’s gonna get my nose.
Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose – to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!
Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
Everybody has to think for himself. A right way for a big man may not be a right way for a small man. A right way for someone who is slow may not be a right way for someone who is quick. Each person must understand his weaknesses and his strengths.
I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.
Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is very important. Most people live only for their image.
Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques which serve its end.
The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sifu accepts his pattern. As a result, his action is and , more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.
Before me now there is only one real fact — Death. The truth I have been seeking — this truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So — we have met at last. And I am prepared. I am at peace. Because I will conquer death with death.

Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related.

Recognizing that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments of my mind, I will exercise 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.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When the opponent expands, I contract; and when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit, it hits all by itself.
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.
When we hold to the core, the opposite sides are the same if they are seen from the center of the moving circle. I do not experience; I am experience. I am not the subject of experience; I am that experience. I am awareness. Nothing else can be I or can exist.
I’m not a master. I’m a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I’m still learning. So I’m a student-master. I don’t believe in the word ‘master.’ I consider the master as such when they close the casket.
To develop the creative attitude, analyze and focus on the wanted SOLUTION; seek out and fill your mind with the FACTS; write down ideas, both sensible and seemingly wild; let the facts and ideas simmer in your mind; evaluate, recheck, settle on the creative ideas.
When one has reached maturity in this art, one will have the formless form. It is like the dissolving or thawing [of] ice into water that can shape itself to any structure. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, one can fit in with any style.
There’s so much myth and baloney. Like a 80-year-old man able to manhandle a 300-pounder with his little finger. Ridiculous. Or this matter of breaking bricks and boards wth the edge of your hand. Now I ask you, did you ever see a brick or a board pick a fight with anybody?
A kung fu man who was really good was not proud at all. Pride emphasizes the superiority of one’s status. There has to be fear and insecurity in pride, because when you aim at being highly esteemed and achieve such status, you automatically start to worry about losing status.
What we are after is the root and not the branches. The root is the real knowledge; the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds ‘body feel’ and personal expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing limitation and squelches creativity.
The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.
We have great work ahead of us, and it needs 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.
We [tend to] have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We [often feel that we] cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its root in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone; we are not alone when we imitate.
I don’t believe in different ways of fighting now. I mean, unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs, then we will have a different way of fighting. But basically we all have two arms and two legs so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way.
The founder of any branch must be more ingenious than the common man. However, if his achievement is not carried on by disciples of the same ingenuity, then things will only become formalized and get stuck in a cul-de-sac; whereby breakthrough and progress will be almost impossible.
The core of understanding lies in the individual mind, and until that is touched everything is uncertain and superficial. Truth cannot be perceived until we come to fully understand our potential and ourselves. After all, knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means self-knowledge.
There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way.
Unfortunately, now in boxing people are only allowed to punch. In Judo, people are only allowed to throw. I do not despise these kinds of martial arts. What I mean is, we now find rigid forms which create differences among clans, and the world of martial art is shattered as a result.
Concepts vs. self-actualization. – Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a concept of what you should be like, ACTUALIZE YOURSELF. The process of maturing does not mean to become a captive of conceptualization. It is to come to the realization of what lies in our innermost selves.
To realize freedom the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement, without the bondage of time , for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness care for watching, but don’t stop and interpret I am free, then you’re living in a memory of something that has gone before.
I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves. It is futile to argue as to which leaf, which design of branches, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.
The attitude, ‘You can win if you want to badly enough,’ means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too ‘tough’ to take in order to win. Such an attitude can be developed only if winning is closely tied to the practitioner’s ideals and dreams.
Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life! Do not be concerned with escaping safely – lay your life before him!!
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite–there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings.
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.
The athlete who is building muscles though weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. In combat, without the prior attributes, a strong man will be like the bull with its colossal strength futilely pursuing the matador or like a low-geared truck chasing a rabbit.
As long as I can remember I feel I have had 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.
The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease.
Art is the way to the absolute and to the essence of human life. The aim of art is not the one-sided promotion of spirit, soul and senses, but the opening of all human capacities – thought, feeling, will – to the life rhythm of the world of nature. So will the voiceless voice be heard and the self be brought into harmony with it.
I believe in teaching just a few students, as teaching requires a constant alert observation on each individual in order to establish a direct relationship. A good teacher cannot be fixed in a routine, and many are just that. During teaching, each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly changing and constantly adapting.
I’m moving and not moving at all. I’m like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, I am doing this, but rather, an inner realization that this is happening through me, or it is doing this for me. The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.
To me, racial barriers do not exist in reality. If I say that ‘everyone under the sun is a member of a universal family,’ you may think that I am bluffing and being idealistic. But if anyone still believes in racial differences, I think he is too backward and narrow in his perspective. Perhaps he still does not understand man’s equality and love.
Life is better lived than conceptualized. This writing can be less demanding should I allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I’ve come to understand that life is best to be lived — not to be conceptualized. If you have to think, you still do not understand.
I don’t know what is the meaning of death, but I am not afraid to die – and I go on, non-stop, going forward with life. Even though I,, may die some day without fulfilling all of my ambitions, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do and what I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.
If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.
Life is an ever-flowing process and somewhere on the path some unpleasant things will pop up – it might leave a scar, but then life is flowing, and like running water, when it stops it grows stale. Go bravely on, my friend, because each experience teaches us a lesson. Keep blasting because life is such that sometimes it is nice and sometimes it is not.
Life is better lived than conceptualized. — This writing can be less demanding should I allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I’ve come to understand that life is best to be lived — not to be conceptualized. If you have to think, you still do not understand.
Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better. As the great Sun Tzu said: When you know yourself and your opponent, you will win every time. When you know yourself but not your opponent, you will win one and lose one. However, when you do not know yourself or your opponent, you will be imperiled every time.
Good technique includes quick changes, great variety and speed. It may be a system of reversals much like a concept of God and the Devil. In the speed of events, which one is really in charge? Do they change places with lightning speed? The Chinese believe so. To put the heart of the martial arts in your own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension.
To live is a constant process of relating, so come on out of that shell of isolation and conclusion, and relate DIRECTLY to what is being said. Bear in mind I seek neither your approval nor to influence you. So do not make up your mind as to this is this or that is that. I will be more than satisfied if you begin to learn to investigate everything yourself from now on.
A powerful athlete is not a strong athlete, but one who can exert his strength quickly. Since power equals force times speed, if the athlete learns to make faster movements he increases his power, even though the contractile pulling strength of his muscles remains unchanged. Thus, a smaller man who can swing faster may hit as hard or as far as the heavier man who swings slowly.
Success only means doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly. I think life is a process. Through the ages, the end of heroes is the same as ordinary men. They all died and gradually faded away in the memory of man. But when we are still alive, we have to understand ourselves, discover ourselves and express ourselves. In this way, we can progress, but we may not be successful.
Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I’ve understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability to express the utmost with the minimum.
I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet ‘paradise’. More important, I no longer fear ‘hell’. The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself.
There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of maturing. Because when there is a maturity, there is a conclusion and a cessation. That’s the end. That’s when the coffin is closed. You might be deteriorating physically in the long process of aging, but your personal process of daily discovery is ongoing. You continue to learn more and more about yourself every day.
Styles tend to not only separate men – because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, if you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely? Now, that way you won’t create a style, because style is a crystallization . That way, it’s a process of continuing growth.
All types of knowledge ultimately lead to self-knowledge. So, therefore, these people are asking me to teach them, not so much how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in. Rather, they want to learn to express themselves through some movement, be it anger, be it determination or whatever. So, in other words, they’re paying me to show them, in combative form, the art of expressing the human body.
You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession. For instance, if a man has decided that he is going to bite off your nose no matter what happens to him in the process, the chances are he will succeed in doing it. He may be severely beaten up, too, but that will not stop him from carrying out his objective. That is the real fighter.
Flow in the living moment. — We are always in a process of becoming and nothing is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
I personally do not believe in the word style. Why? Because, unless there are human beings with three arms and four legs, unless we have another group of beings on earth that are structurally different from us, there can be no different style of fighting. Why is that? Because we have two hands and two legs. … because of styles, people are separated. They are not united together because styles become law.
While it may come as a profound surprise to those of us who are in the throes of an emotional or life crisis, the fact remains that the answer to virtually all of our problems resides within us already. It exist in the form of a vast reservoir of free-flowing energy that, when channeled to our muscles, can give us great strength and, when channeled to our brain, can give us great insight and understanding.
A good teacher can never be fixed in a routine… each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly changing and constantly adapting. A teacher must never impose this student to fit his favourite pattern; a good teacher functions as a pointer, exposing his student’s vulnerability and causing him to explore both internally and finally integrating himself with his being. Martial art should not be passed out indiscriminately.
The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both. I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not if you have one to the extreme, you’ll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man No longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. That way it is a process of continuing growth.
Too much horsing around with unrealistic stances and classic forms and rituals is just too artificial and mechanical, and doesn’t really prepare the student for actual combat. A guy could get clobbered while getting into this classical mess. Classical methods like these, which I consider a form of paralysis, only solidify and constrain what was once fluid. Their practitioners are merely blindly rehearsing routines and stunts that will lead nowhere.
To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. Now, it is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phoney things. Blinded by it. Or I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that is very hard to do.
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round 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.
When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and never has been, one realizes that one is all things mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear there is nothing apart from oneself and therefore nothing to fear. Realizing this results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself but, on the contrary, as one’s own body.
The biggest adversary in our life is ourselves. We are what we are, in a sense, because of the dominating thoughts we allow to gather in our head. All concepts of self-improvement, all actions and paths we take, relate solely to our abstract image of ourselves. Life is limited only by how we really see ourselves and feel about our being. A great deal of pure self-knowledge and inner understanding allows us to lay an all-important foundation for the structure of our life from which we can perceive and take the right avenues.
There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power — God, history, fate, nation, or humanity.
The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality – to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle.
How can there be methods and systems to arrive at something that is living? To that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path, but not to that which is living. Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it. …Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put-together form, through stylized movement.
Though methods play an important role in the early stage, the techniques should not be too mechanical, complex or restrictive. If we cling blindly to them, we shall eventually become bound by their limitations. Remember, you are expressing the techniques and not doing the techniques. If somebody attacks you, your response is not Technique No.1, Stance No. 2, Section 4, Paragraph 5. Instead you simply move in like sound and echo, without any deliberation. It is as though when I call you, you answer me, or when I throw you something, you catch it. It’s as simple as that – no fuss, no mess.
I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

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