Remembering Bruce Lee

“Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee - A Warrior’s journey.

Last night was spent on a vigil with the greatest martial artist of our time, Lee Jun Fan also known as Bruce Lee.

I watched almost all of his films from Fist of Fury to his latest Biography, The Dragon produced by his widow Mrs Linda Lee.

I have watched these movies before as a child, back then I was more fascinated with his unique martial act skills, his kung fu moves, smart kicks and punches, jumps and leaps, smart use of the dragon (2 short sticks bridged by a small chain) their languages and other action and comic packed scenarios.

Watching these epic classic movies again as an Adult, I find more inspiration from his great philosophies of life through his words.

Bruce Lee challenged convention. He didn’t believe life should take a rigid pattern, he believes any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it, all men are equal irrespective of their nationalities and there is no scared or secret customs anywhere in the world. His general philosophy expresses the freedom of man which we are yet to achieve till now and sees only possibilities. To him, impossibilities do not exist.

In one scene of his biography movie –The Dragon, he opened a training school where he taught Americans the “sacred” Chinese martial arts, this act didn’t go down well with his Chinese counterparts who believes the blacks, the whites and other nationalities were enemies of the Chinese state as such should not be taught one of Chinese finest and scared act (The Martial Art); he was summoned by the Elders of the Chinese Temple, who warned him to desist from the act or else risk losing his life in a battle with the fiercest man at that time.

Bruce Lee refused their order and went ahead to challenge the man whom he won convincingly and went ahead to continue his training.

In another movie – Enter the Dragon, he had a one on one conversation with his Master (teacher) on mental attitude to challenges in the following dialogue:

Master: What are your thoughts when facing an opponent?

Bruce Lee: There is no opponent.

Master: Why is that?

Bruce Lee: Because the word ''I'' does not exist. A good fight should be like a small play...but played seriously. When the opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity... I do not hit...it hits all by itself (shows his fist).
Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it (Rigidity).

One of Bruce Lee’s Achilles heels was his stubbornness, the stubbornness which ironically he used as his main vehicle to success. Being stubborn could a positive trait depending on how you use it.

His strength lies in his fearlessness (he fought and conquered his fears in The Dragon) and over confidence which he also used to achieve solid advantage over his opponents.

“As long as I can remember I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand.”

He sees problems as challenges’ and sees his challenges’ as serious plays. He was a very fair person and believes strongly in justice. Do me; I do you kind of justice. He was also a highly creative person.

He was also a nationalist to the core in respective of his believes; A Chinese American by birth; I remember a touching scenario in The Dragon, when he told his mother in-law his intention to get married to her daughter. The mother in-law didn’t like the idea at all and tried dissuading her daughter from going ahead with the plan, she touched a sore point in Bruce’s heart when she told him point blankly he is half American and their kids can never be full American because of his Chinese blood.

Knowing Bruce; that was the challenge he needed for his serious play in getting married to his wife.

His Water theory is a very deep way of describing flexibility. Water is not rigid; it conforms to whatever situation it finds itself; be it a bowl, bottle, flask or cup. It adapts and waits for the right opportunity to move to the next level.

Water is the most flexible element in the world, move it from a cup to a bowl and it will instantly conform to the shape of the bowl.

On techniques, he says “The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique; my movement is a result of your movement.

A good JKD man does not oppose force or give way completely. He is pliable as a spring; he is the complement and not the opposition to his opponent’s strength. He has no technique; he makes his opponent's technique his technique. He has no design; he makes opportunity his design.

One should not respond to circumstance with artificial and "wooden" prearrangement. Your action should be like the immediacy of a shadow adapting to its moving object. Your task is simply to complete the other half of the oneness spontaneously. In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes”.

You can read more of his philosophical quotes from Wikipedia quotes and this link: http://www.fightingmaster.com/masters/brucelee/quotes.htm or his main site: www.brucelee.com

Bruce Lee was born Lee Jun Fan on the 27^th of November 1940 in San Francisco USA and raised in Hong Kong; he died on July 20^th 1973 at the peak of his carrier.

In his brief life span, he was a philosopher, great martial artist, film director and founder of Jeet Kune Do – meaning - The Way of the Intercepting Fist.

He is widely considered as the most influential martial artist of the 20^th Century and a solid cultural icon. He was named by Times magazine as one of 100 most influential people of the 20^th Century.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the second major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature length films, Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Bruce Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973), directed by Robert Clouse, and The Game of Death (1978).

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world and remains very popular among Asian people and in particular among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism and upheld the Chinese national pride at a crucial time in history and also of Asians through his movies which reached every part of the known world.

While Lee initially trained in Wing Chun, he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead to utilize useful techniques from various sources in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy he dubbed Jeet Kune Do.

His deep insights philosophies are still very relevant in every section and situation of our lives today depending on we use them.

His words will forever be seeds germinating at different times to different people depending on their awareness and implementation.

His Life and Legend is just starting... Catch you later as I return to my fun filled weekend of Bruce Lee.