Tao of Jeet Kune Do

by Bruce Lee

Boasting tries to create an imaginary self, while secretiveness gives us the exhilarating feeling of being princes disguised in meekness.

For the self-observant, boasting breeds ...

Humility, however, is not verbal renunciation of pride but the substitution of pride for self-awareness and objectivity. Forced humility is false pride.

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. The cultivation of the spirit is elusive and difficult and the tendency toward it is rarely spontaneous, whereas, the opportunities for action are many.

The propensity to action is symptomatic of an inner unbalance. To be balanced is to be more or less at rest. Action is at the bottom — a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one’s balance and keep afloat.

The times of drastic change are times of passions. We can never be fit and ready for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test; we have to prove ourselves. A population subjected to drastic change is, thus, a population of misfits, and misfits live and breathe in an atmosphere of passion.

It is usually safe to predict that the fulfillment of an excessively cherished desire is not likely to still our nagging anxiety. In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.

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.