Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee
Date read: 8/8/23. Recommendation: 8/10.
Compilation of Bruce Lee’s notes and essays published after his death. But don’t dismiss this as a martial arts handbook. It’s much more than that, showcasing Lee’s personal philosophy of formlessness, fluidity, and adaptability. Lee challenges the rigidity of traditional martial arts, emphasizing creativity, practicality, and emptying your mind so you can be present for the fight in front of you.
Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.
My Notes:
Beginnings:
Classical wing chun style that Bruce Lee began studying was developed 400 years before he was born.
Jeet Kune Do (JKD):
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is not complete, Bruce Lee’s art was ever-changing.
To understand JKD, you must throw out all ideals, patterns, and styles. Throw away even the concepts of what is or isn’t JKD.
Formlessness: “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 or means which serve its end.” Bruce Lee
“The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify.” Bruce Lee
“Agreeing to certain patterns of movement to secure the participants within the governed rules might be good for sports like boxing or basketball, but the success of Jeet Kune Do lies in its freedom, both to use technique and dispense with it.” Bruce Lee
“A Jeet Kune Do man faces reality and not crystallization of form. The tool is a tool of formless form.” Bruce Lee
Self-knowledge is the basis of JKD: “Jeet Kune Do is the art not founded on techniques or doctrines. It is just as you are.” Bruce Lee
“In jeet kune do, the goal is self-knowledge through breaking free of unexamined tradition and being fully involved in the reality of the moment with no attachment to prescribed routines.” Linda Lee Caldwell
“With the philosophical underpinnings of fluidity and adaptability as its central theme, Lee was adamant that he did not invent a new style when it came to jeet kune do. Instead, his overall approach to martial arts was to unify martial artists by focusing on fighting ‘as is,’ thereby eliminating the need for styles, tradition, and formality that rests on set patterns. And because of his objection to stringently held traditions, jeet kune do can use all ways yet be bound by none. Philosophically, Lee eliminated the duality of ‘for or against.’” Tommy Gong
Rigidness of martial arts styles:
“In the long history of martial arts, the instinct to follow and imitate seems to be inherent in most martial artists, instructors and students alike. This is partly due to the human tendency and partly because of the steep traditions behind multiple patterns of styles.” Bruce Lee
“Instead of facing combat in its muchness, 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.” Bruce Lee
Real combat is not fixed, it’s alive. There’s freedom in nonconformity of style.
“When, in a split second, your life is threatened, do you say, “Let me make sure my hand is on my hip, and my style is ‘the style.’ When your life is in danger do you argue about the method you will adhere to while saving yourself?” Bruce Lee
“A so-called martial artist is the result of three thousand years of propaganda and conditioning.” Bruce Lee
“He then becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing.” Bruce Lee
“The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sift accepts his pattern. As a result, his action, and, more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.” Bruce Lee
“I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves…when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoms.” Bruce Lee
“Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.” Bruce Lee
“It symbolized the oppression that rigid traditions and formal styles had on their student. ‘Organized despair,’ as Lee called it, contributed to the ‘death’ of independent inquiry and stunted the complete maturation of a martial artist. Ultimately, Lee concluded that sales divide martial artists instead of unify them, thereby restricting the growth of the individual.” Tommy gong
Creativity:
“Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.” Bruce Lee
“Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity.” Bruce Lee
Fluidity:
“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.” Bruce Lee
“When there is no center and no circumference, then there is truth. When you freely express, you are the total style.” Bruce Lee
“A real street fight is unpredictable and your enemy may be an expert in any fighting style, you must not be surprised in the fight. Therefore, it is important to research and understand every fighting style in order to win.” Bruce Lee
Relaxed concentration:
“Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.” Bruce Lee
“The mind is originally without activity; the way is always without thought.” Bruce Lee
“With all the training thrown to the wind, with a mind perfectly unaware of its own working, with the self vanishing nowhere, anybody knows where, the art of Jeet Kune Do attains its perfection.” Bruce Lee
In JKD focus is on keeping your mind in a state of emptiness. Bruce Lee believed all movements come out of emptiness. Emptiness is where sincerity, genuineness, and straightforwardness are found. Emptiness ensures that freedom of action is never obstructed.
Scout mindset:
“It is the ego that stands rigidly against influences from the outside, and it is this ‘ego rigidity’ that makes it impossible for us to accept everything that confronts us.” Bruce Lee
Simplicity:
“The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Half-way cultivation runs to ornamentation.” Bruce Lee
Find yourself in the work:
“All goals apart from the means are illusions.” Bruce Lee
Intuition:
“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.” Bruce Lee
Compassion:
“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.” Bruce Lee