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This Book is Dedicated to the Free, Creative Martial Artist
Take what is useful and develop from there.
Take what is useful and develop...
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Victory is for the one, Even before the combat, Who has no thought of himself, Abiding in the no-mind-ness of Great Origin.
Victory is for the one, Even before the combat, Who has no thought of himself, Abiding in the no-mind-ness of Great Origin.
To understand you must study all of natural movement in all living things. Naturally,
In his lifelong quest for self-knowledge and personal expression, Bruce was constantly studying, analyzing and modifying all available relative information; his principle source was his personal library which consisted of over 2,000 books dealing with all forms of physical conditioning, martial arts, fighting techniques, defenses and related subjects. In 1970,
He intended it as a record of one man’s way of thinking and as a guide, not a set of instructions.
those things in movement and in language. He found in the philosophies of Confucius, Spinoza, Krishnamurti and others, an organization for his concepts and, with that organization, he began the book of his tao.
that describes the direction of Bruce’s studies. The investigations are left undone; the questions, some elementary and some complex, are left unanswered to make the student question for himself.
The way to transcend karma lies in the proper use of the mind and the will. The oneness of all life is a truth that can be fully realized only when false notions of a separate self, whose destiny can be considered apart from the whole, are forever annihilated.
Turn into a doll made of wood: it has no ego, it thinks nothing, it is not grasping or sticky. Let the body and limbs work themselves out in accordance with the discipline they have undergone.
The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.
The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.
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’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.
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.
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 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.
Let yourself go with the disease, be with it, keep company with it — this is the way to be rid of it.
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.
Right vocation: Your livelihood must not conflict with your therapy.
Right vocation: Your livelihood must not conflict with your therapy.
Right effort: The therapy must go forward at the “staying speed,” the critical velocity that can be sustained. Right awareness (mind control): You mu...
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Right effort: The therapy must go forward at the “staying speed,” the critical velocity that can be sustained. Right awareness (mind control): You mu...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
An artist’s expression is his soul made apparent, his schooling, as well as his “cool” being exhibited. Behind every motion, the music of his soul is made visible. Otherwise, his motion is empty and empty motion is like an empty word — no meaning.
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. Artistic skill, therefore, does not mean artistic perfection. It remains rather a continuing medium or reflection of some step in psychic development, the perfection of which is not to be found in shape and form, but must radiate from the human soul.
Jeet Kune Do avoids the superficial, penetrates the complex, goes to the heart of the problem and pinpoints the key factors.
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.
The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify. It is being oneself; it is reality in its “isness.” Thus, isness is the meaning — having freedom in its primary sense, not limited by attachments, confinements, partialization, complexities.
Jeet Kune Do is the enlightenment. It is a way of life, a movement toward will power and control, though it ought to be enlightened by intuition.
The tools, your natural weapons, have a double purpose: To destroy the opponent in front of you — annihilation of things that stand in the way of peace, justice and humanity. To destroy your own impulses caused by the instincts of self-preservation. To destroy anything bothering your mind. Not to hurt anyone, but to overcome your own greed, anger and folly. Jeet Kune Do is directed toward oneself.
Non-attachment as the foundation is man’s original nature. In its ordinary process, thought moves forward without halting; past, present and future thoughts continue as an unbroken stream.
Non-attachment as the foundation is man’s original nature. In its ordinary process, thought moves forward without halting; past, present and future thoughts continue as an unbroken stream.
The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.
Scratch away all the dirt your being has accumulated and reveal reality in its isness, or in its suchness, or in its nakedness, which corresponds to the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
Instead of facing combat in its suchness, then, most systems of martial art accumulate a “fancy mess” that distorts and cramps their practitioners and distracts them from the actual reality of combat, which is simple and direct. Instead of going immediately to the heart of things, flowery forms (organized despair) and artificial techniques are ritualistically practiced to simulate actual combat.
Worse still, super mental power and spiritual this and spiritual that are desperately incorporated until these practitioners drift further and further into mystery and abstraction. All such things are futile attempts to arrest and fix the ever-changing movements in combat and to dissect and analyze them like a corpse.
The man who is clear and simple does not choose. What is, is. Action based on an idea is obviously the action of choice and such action is not liberating. On the contrary, it creates further resistance, further conflict. Assume pliable awareness.
In martial arts cultivation, there must be a sense of freedom. A conditioned mind is never a free mind. Conditioning limits a person within the framework of a particular system.
Freedom from knowing is death; then, you are living. Die inwardly of “pro” and “con.” There is no such thing as doing right or wrong when there is freedom.
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.
The fighter is to always be single-minded with one object in view—to fight, looking neither backward nor sideways. He must get rid of obstructions to his forward movement, emotionally, physically or intellectually.
If you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools, prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see totally and freshly.
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.”
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing.
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing.
Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it.
