Be Water, My Friend: The True Teachings of Bruce Lee

by Shannon Lee

Do not be tense, but ready; not thinking, but not dreaming; not being set, but flexible. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware, and alert; ready for whatever may come….

Water may flow swiftly or it may flow slowly, but its purpose is inexorable, its destiny sure.

If my mind is polluted with all manner of negativity or I’m snapping at people out of pure emotional reaction, then I am not responding—I am reacting.

To be like water is not to be aspiring to perfection. Perfection is a difficult master. To be like water is not to be controlling of everything. Control is a tight yoke.

“Here is natural instinct, and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.”

When man is living, he is soft and pliable; when he is dead, he becomes rigid. Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether we are speaking of the body, the mind, or the spirit. Be pliable.

Throw a rock in a stream, the stream adapts to make space for the rock.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

A wave doesn’t have to remember how to land on the shore. A river doesn’t have to consider how to carve a canyon into a mountain. A lake doesn’t have to practice giving life to the fish and the plants.

The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.

You must give up everything you think you know and believe, for just an instant, in order to fully experience that which you are encountering in the present moment.

We are always looking to be proved right. And when we have a need to be right, we will only accept that which substantiates our point of view.

I must give up my desire to force, direct, strangle the world outside of me and within me in order to be completely open, responsible, aware, alive. This is often called “to make oneself empty,” which does not mean something negative, but means the openness to receive.

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral, which always is as it is.”

Have a mind that has no dwelling place but continues to flow ceaselessly and ignores our limitations and our distinctions. Do not strive to localize the mind anywhere but let it fill up the whole body; let it flow freely throughout the totality of your being.

We in the West think of nothingness as a void, a nonexistence. In Eastern philosophy and modern physical science, nothingness—nothingness—is a form of process, ever moving.

To live with “what is” is to be peaceful. There is “what is” when there is no comparison at all. Require not just a moment of perception, but a continuous awareness, a continuous state of inquiry in which there is no conclusion.

Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a constant state of learning.

Each man must seek out realization himself. No master can give it to him.

if something is occupying a lot of your mental and physical energy, then it’s a problem whether it’s manifesting physically or not.

Self-knowledge is a game of balance—of understanding what we actually need in any given moment to flow through life.

For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes maybe a lifetime. To take responsibility of one’s actions, good and bad, is something else. After all, all knowledge simply means self-knowledge.

We shall find the truth when we examine the problem. The problem is never apart from the answer; the problem is the answer.

“Patience is not passive. On the contrary, patience is concentrated strength.”

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

“What is the opposite of existence? The immediate answer might be ‘nonexistence’ but this is incorrect. The opposite is ‘anti-existence.’”

“No-mindedness is not being without emotion or feeling but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked—a non-graspiness of the mind.”

rather than trying to be more, aim to be less—less obstructed, less compartmentalized, less separate, with less ego. Over time, the less becomes more—more peaceful, more healthy, more whole, more real.

“Every circumstance of every man’s life is the result of a definite cause—mode and control are yours.”

Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.

To be consciously unconscious or to be unconsciously conscious is the secret to nirvana. The act is so direct and immediate that no intellection finds room to insert itself and cut it to pieces.

Intolerance can teach tolerance. Judgment can teach acceptance. War can teach peace. Fear can teach love. Shadow can teach light. Open your mind. Rebalance the scale. Look where you’ve not looked before.

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”