Legend Of The Dragon

The Untold Truth Of Bruce Lee

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 07:21:00 +0000

Few people have had the social impact Bruce Lee did. Just about everyone knows who he was and what he did, but there are many aspects of his life that the public never got to see. Such as...

He wasn't a master of any standard form of martial arts

Ask anyone about Bruce Lee and they will undoubtedly point out that he was a master martial artist. They may even say he was a master of Kung Fu, but the truth is, he never mastered any martial art practiced throughout the world. That isn't to say he didn't know what he was doing, and that he couldn't kick pretty much everyone's ass if the mood struck him — he just didn't pick one way to do it. He picked them all.

It's said that Lee only ever lost one fight, when he was 14 years old. He had no training at this point, but the experience spurred his need to learn to defend himself. This eventually brought him under the influence and tutelage of Yip Man in 1957, who taught Lee Wing Chun. If Lee was close to mastering any martial art, it was Wing Chun. So why did the great Lee not technically master anything? Most likely it's because, due to Lee's mixed ancestry, he had a difficult time finding a sparring partner to train with.

Chinese custom frowns on teaching martial arts to foreigners, and Lee's mother was half-Chinese and half-Caucasian, which many thought inappropriate. Because of this, Lee was taught directly by Yip Man, which helped to influence his studies considerably. But before Lee could complete his training, he moved to the United States to continue his education. He ended up settling in Seattle in 1959 before he moved to Minnesota to attend college in 1960. Lee didn't abandon martial arts when he left Hong Kong (obviously), but his formal instruction in Wing Chun came to an end, leaving him without the training necessary to completely master the form.

He invented his own style of martial arts

After leaving Hong Kong, Lee began to teach his own form of martial arts. He based his style on the teaching of Man and what he learned of Wing Chun, but called his form Jun Fan Gung Fu, which translates into Bruce Lee's Kung Fu. He was a very humble man. Lee opened his first martial arts studio in Seattle, which he called the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. He continued to develop his style until he created Jeet Kune Do in 1967.

Jeet Kune Do evolved after Lee's fight with Wong Jack Man in 1964, a fight that arose due to Lee's insistence on teaching non-Chinese students. The fight went on for 20 minutes — upon reflection, Lee concluded that lasted too long, and the form of Kung Fu he was following was too formalistic to be practical. This led to the evolution of Jeet Kune Do, a system of fighting that abandons the rigidity of established forms, and places an emphasis on practicality, flexibility, efficiency, speed, and physique.

Lee built upon his already established physical regimen, to improve his physique to Captain America levels. Fitness and nutrition became paramount in his training and he formalized Jeet Kune Do as a new martial arts. He called it "the style of no style," emphasizing the abandonment of a formalized approach to training. Lee's influences in establishing his new style came from fencing, western-style boxing, and Wing Chun. Jeet Kune Do is still practiced thanks to Lee's influence and teachings. Some notable practitioners include his son Brandon Lee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lady Gaga, and Nicholas Cage, among many others.

He was a child actor, having starred in 20 films in Hong Kong before the age of 18

It's hard to find someone who doesn't know Bruce Lee and his work like Enter the Dragon, but most people aren't aware of his prolific body of work prior to his worldwide fame. Bruce Lee was acting since he was a little kid—he even worked on a film at the tender age of three months! In the 1941 film Golden Gate Girl, he played a Chinese baby, which … let's face it, he nailed it! He didn't do much more until the age of six, when he starred in The Beginning of a Boy. By his 18th birthday, he had performed in 20 films, his last child-star role being was the film The Orphan, in 1960.

Most of Lee's work from his adolescence is unknown outside of China and Hong Kong, but over there, it's no state secret. Finding his Hong Kong work in English and other languages can be difficult, but anyone so inclined to check them out can usually find them at the Hong Kong Film Archive, thanks to their lapsing into the public domain. While there are no official translations into other languages, some intrepid fans have compiled English subtitles on choice features, so the films can be enjoyed by fans outside of China.

He popularized the "1 Inch Punch" as seen in Kill Bill Vol. 2

Remember that scene in Kill Bill: Volume 2 when Uma Thurman's The Bride is buried alive and has to one-inch punch her way out of her coffin? Most people watching something like that would probably dismiss it as an impossibility, or a gimmick, but it was based off of something Bruce Lee often did at performances.

Basically, Lee would stand in front of a volunteer, who would have a board or some other protective gear covering their chest. Behind them would be a chair, and Lee would place his fingers on their chest in preparation for the punch. Within an instant, Lee would pull his fingers into a fist and punch with all his strength. The result often caused the volunteer to slam back into the chair, and slide back a few feet. People have been studying just how the legendary martial artist pulled off this feat for years.

According to biomechanical researcher, Jessica Rose or Stanford University, "When watching the one-inch punch, you can see that his leading and trailing legs straighten with a rapid, explosive knee extension." This forces the speed of his twisting hips to increase, which lurches his shoulder forward. He was literally putting his entire body — and likely most of his resting energy — into each punch. Lee would instantly pull his fist back, which shortened the impact time. This compressed the force, and made the punch all the more powerful.

He was a prolific poet and philosopher

Hardly anyone would think of Bruce Lee as a poet or philosopher, but that's exactly what he was. He studied poetry and philosophy in school, and was even published several times. While studying at the University of Washington, he focused his studies on Asian and Western philosophy, incorporating elements of Jiddu, Buddhism, Taoism, and Krishnamurti. This helped him to better understand himself and how he and his martial arts were more a method of self-expression of his philosophy than anything else.

His understanding of philosophy helped to develop his love of poetry, which he used as an expression of his emotions. Most of his published work was compiled and edited by John Little, who described his poems as "…by American standards, rather dark — reflecting the deeper, less exposed recesses of the human psyche … Many seem to express a returning sentiment of the fleeting nature of life, love and the passion of human longing."

He also read throughout his life, and maintained a rather impressive library in his home. At his death, his library boasted more than 2,500 books, many of which focused on martial arts and philosophy. Shortly before his death, Lee wrote a personal essay called "In My Own Process," where he reflected on his role in the world. "Basically, I have always been a martial artist by choice and actor by profession. But, above all, I am hoping to actualize myself to be an artist of life along the way."

He was so fast, his moves were often too fast for a camera to catch

Bruce Lee's speed is the stuff of legend. Anyone who's ever seen a video of the man doing … well, anything, has seen that the way he moved defied logic, physics, and the natural world. His tremendous speed was the result of his devotion to nutrition and fitness, which sculpted his body into perfection. His blows were so fast, they were unblockable by just about everyone who ever tried to face him.

This made some people think his moves were supernaturally fast, since you could barely see them on camera. In reality, he moved so, fast they just didn't need to do any enhancements on the film to make him look faster than he actually was. In many scenes, he actually needed to slow down to make the film look realistic. He was that fast.

He only made five feature films in the US, his last released posthumously

Some may remember him from his role as Kato on The Green Hornet, but most people recognize Bruce Lee as the leading man in films like Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury. By the time he died at the age of 32, Lee had only acted in five major American productions. His first, Marlowe, had him playing a supporting role. It wasn't until The Big Boss that we got to see Bruce Lee playing, well, Bruce Lee. He followed this up with Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, and his most well-known film, Enter the Dragon.

Sadly, Lee never got to see the recognition Enter the Dragon has received, since he died shortly after filming it. It's been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, noting it as being historically significant. Enter the Dragon was so successful, it spawned a Kung Fu craze, which resulted in a massive influx of Chinese-influenced martial arts films, all of which could conceivably be subtitled Not Bruce Lee, So Why Bother?

He died after taking medication for a headache due to a severe allergy to painkillers

Bruce Lee's death was a tragic accident nobody could have predicted. His brain had swollen considerably, having increased by 13%, due to an allergic reaction Lee had to meprobamate. For a man whose entire adult life was about nutrition and fitness, his passing as a result of a single pill taken for something as simple as a headache was difficult for fans to take. His death was officially ruled "death by misadventure," a ruling coroners use for someone who dies of an accident, usually after engaging in risky behavior, though it's hard to seriously consider taking a headache pill "risky."

Rumors about a conspiracy and murder began popping up in the media, but the conclusion was certain — Lee died from a cerebral edema. What's worst is, this edema may have been treatable, had he been seen by a doctor sooner.

His death brought on Bruceploitation and a lot of bad movies

We already know that Lee's death brought about the so-called Kung Fu craze in Western markets, but the nature of that craze tended to take a rather exploitative approach … it was actually dubbed Bruceploitation, and it's easy to see why. Shortly after Lee died, filmmakers in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan began hiring anyone who looked anything like Lee and put them in crappy martial arts films, hoping to bank on the deceased star's popularity, look, and style.

Not only did the studios hire men who looked like Lee, these guys ended up changing their names to sound something like him as well. Bruce Li, Bruce Lai, Dragon Lee, Bruce Leong, and Bruce Le were prolific throughout the '70s, and most of the movies were pretty awful, though some rare gems did shine through. Some of the most notorious Bruceploitation films are Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth; Enter The Game Of Death; The Dragon Lives Again; My Name Called Bruce; Exit The Dragon Enter The Tiger' Challenge of the Tiger' and Game of Death.

The latter represents a rare example of a decent flick that used stock footage and shots made for the film prior to Lee's death. He filmed scenes for Game of Death in 1972, but never completed it. Watching any of these films without your glasses on might lead you to believe you have luckily stumbled upon some lost Lee work, but a clearer viewing will show you that the actors are all lookalikes, and they pale in comparison to the real thing.
Original Source - Jonathan H. Kantor @TalkingBull

Related Post :

Legend Of The Dragon

Source : Wikipedia / grunge

Robert Lee

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 17:24:00 +0000

Robert Lee is a Hong Kong musician and younger brother of martial artist legend Bruce Lee, the brother-in-law of Linda Lee Caldwell, and also the paternal uncle of Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee. Lee's father, Lee Hoi-chuen, a leading Cantonese opera and film actor of the 1940s was all Chinese, and his mother, Grace Ho was half Chinese and half Caucasian. Specifically, Grace Ho was purportedly a half-German Catholic.

He is also the father of Clarence Lee. Lee is the founder of a popular Hong Kong beat band called The Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds were a beat group similar to and on the same Hong Kong/Macau musical scene as Danny Diaz & The Checkmates, Zoundcrakers, Anders Nelson & The Inspiration, D'Topnotes and Teddy Robin & The Playboys. He founded the group in 1966 and quickly became famous in Hong Kong. A few singles mostly or all were sung in English. Also released was Lee singing a duet with Irene Ryder. He later moved to Los Angeles in the United States and stayed with his older brother Bruce.

Publication Information

Bruce Lee : Robert Lee
Version : Bruce Lee
Ancestry : Shunde, Guangdong, China
Chinese :
- Traditional : 李振輝
- Simplified : 李振辉
Known as : Lee Jun Fai
Age : 67
Born : 16 December 1948
Place : Hong Kong
Citizenship : Hong Kong
Occupation : Musician
Genres :
- Hong Kong
- English pop
- Rock music
Instruments :
- Vocals
- Electric guitar
- Acoustic guitar
Associated acts : The Thunderbirds
Parents :
- Lee Hoi-chuen : Father (1901–65)
- Grace Ho : Mother (1907–96)
Sibling :
- Bruce Lee : Brother (1940-73)
- Phoebe Lee
- Agnes Lee
- Peter Lee

After Bruce Lee's death he released an album dedicated to him called The Ballad of Bruce Lee. A single of the same title was also released. On 27 November 2005, Bruce Lee statue in Hong Kong was unveiled by Robert Lee, celebrating what would have been Bruce's 65th birthday. He is the producer of the 2010 film Bruce Lee, My Brother.

Discography

Singles

196? - Irene Ryder & Robert Lee – Baby baby / You put me down – HK Columbia CHK-1028
1974 - Ballad of Bruce Lee – Sunrise 906 (USA)

196? - The Thunderbirds & The Nautics – ECHK 513

Album

1974 - Ballad of Bruce Lee – Sunrise LP-R905 (USA)

Compilation

Various Artists :
- Uncle Ray's Choice
- Baby Baby
- Irene Ryder & Robert Lee (1968) - EMI (1973)

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Source : wikipedia

1972 - Fist of Fury

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 15:37:00 +0000

Fist of Fury is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Lo Wei, starring Bruce Lee in his second major role after The Big Boss. Lee plays Chen Zhen, a student of Huo Yuanjia, who fights to defend the honor of the Chinese in the face of foreign aggression, and to bring to justice those responsible for his master's death.

Plot

In early 20th century Shanghai, Chen Zhen returns to Jingwu School to marry his fiancée. However, tragic news awaits him: his master Huo Yuanjia has died, apparently from illness. Chen is deeply saddened and traumatised by the sudden demise of his teacher. During the funeral, people from a Japanese dojo in Hongkou District arrive to taunt the Jingwu students. Wu En, translator and advisor for the Japanese dojo's grandmaster Hiroshi Suzuki, taunts Chen by slapping him on the cheek several times, and dares him to fight one of Suzuki's protégés. They present a sign to Jingwu School, bearing the words "Sick Man of East Asia", seemingly to insult Huo Yuanjia, describing the Chinese as "weaklings" in comparison to the Japanese.

Publication Information

Title : Fist of Fury
Chinese : 精武門
Directed by : Lo Wei
Produced by : Raymond Chow
Written by : Lo Wei
Music by : Joseph Koo
Cinematography : Chan Ching-kui
Edited by : Peter Cheung
Production company : Golden Harvest
Distributed by :
- Golden Harvest (HK)
- National General Pictures (US)
Country : Hong Kong
Language :
- Mandarin
- Cantonese
Release dates : 22 March 1972
Running time : 108 minutes

Watch Online & Download Movies

The protégé taunts the Jingwu students to fight him and promises, "I'll eat those words if any Chinese here dare to fight and defeat me". Shortly afterwards, Chen Zhen goes to the Hongkou dojo alone to return the "gift". He faces hostility from the Japanese students and they engage in a fight. Chen Zhen defeats all of them, including their sensei, single-handedly and effortlessly, using a nunchaku as a weapon during the fight. He smashes the glass on the sign and makes the students who taunted him earlier chew up the paper bearing the derogatory words, so as to make them literally "eat their words".

Cast

Chen Zhen : Bruce Lee
Yuan Li'er : Nora Miao
Jing Wu Student : Jackie Chan
Hiroshi Suzuki : Riki Hashimoto
Fan Junxia : Tien Feng
Wu En : Paul Wei
Inspector Lo : Lo Wei
Fan Jiaqi : James Tien
Xu : Lee Kwan
Yen : Maria Yi
Petrov : Robert Baker
Yoshida : Feng Yi
Tien : Wong Chung-shun
Feng Guishi : Han Ying-chieh

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Source : wikipedia

Jerry Poteet Passed Away

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 03:55:00 +0000

Sifu Jerry Poteet

With heavy hearts, we are saddened to report that Sifu Jerry Poteet passed away on Saturday, January 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. His Flame is still burning bright now and into the future through our family, instructors, students, friends, and followers. As Bruce Lee once said :

Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away. Pleasure is the flower that fades, remembrance is the lasting perfume. Remembrances last longer than present realities. - Source : jkdlondon

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Source : wikipedia / jkdlondon

The World Of Fitness And Film

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 01:01:00 +0000

Movie star, martial arts innovator, philosopher, cultural icon—Bruce Lee was all of these and more. A singularly complex man, Lee holds our attention in his vicelike grip just as strongly today as he did back in 1973.

The year most Americans were formally introduced to him as the star of Enter the Dragon and also the year he tragically died at the age of 32. In an era where MMA has supplanted boxing as the most popular combat sport, it’s hard to remember a time when the martial arts were strictly segregated. Yet Bruce Lee’s desire to break with tradition has influenced a generation and opened the door for the kind of fighting we see on our TV and movie screens today, as well as in the martial arts schools in our neighborhoods.
His eclectic approach to his art set him apart from others. He understood that creativity could be attained only through freedom of the mind and only when applied without restrictions. To say Bruce Lee simply “created” a new form or “style” of fighting with his vaunted Jeet Kune Do is to barely scratch the surface of his unique combination of creativeness and concept.

To fully appreciate Lee’s impact, we must consider it in the context of his time. In the early 1960s martial arts were beginning to flourish in the Western world and they were totally institutionalized within the boundaries of schools that began to appear. Bruce Lee, having studied various gung fu systems upon arriving in the States in 1959, soon realized there was more to pugilism than the “Chinese” style of fighting.

His counterparts in Hong Kong, like himself, had seen only similar systems of martial arts, as well as the training methods used to strengthen and condition their bodies, which had been passed down through generations. Lee, on the other hand, had been thrust into a world in which Western boxing and wrestling reigned supreme. It proved to be an awakening for the 18-year-old.

In those days, a martial artist stuck to a rigid set of exercises—ones that had been passed down over the years. Lee, however, soon began to realize that the traditional martial arts he’d grown up learning were not the only ones available to him. It was then that he decided that any protocol he found that could enhance his body and overall skill set should be integrated into his training.

Having broken away from the confines of tradition, Lee not only adopted Western styles of training, he also took nutritional and training cues from the bodybuilding community, even becoming a subscriber to Muscle & Fitness’ forebear, Muscle Builder, and purchasing a Weider barbell kit. By examining the various nutritional supplements used by bodybuilders and studying their routines, Lee was able to adapt and shape his body to complement his own personal martial art.

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Source : Wikipedia / muscleandfitness

4 Training Lessons We Can Learn From Bruce Lee

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Sat, 24 May 2014 13:11:00 +0000

Many in the iron world have enormous respect for Bruce Lee. From his razor sharp physique to his enormous work ethic to his obvious strength, he is widely respected by lifters worldwide. With his birthday this week I thought a look at how he influenced the world of fitness was due. Bruce Lee’s system, Jeet Kune Do, revolved around a central theme – absorb what is useful, discard what is useless.

This theme is replicated today in thousands of small box gyms all around the world that focus on functional training and getting away from the Frankenstein training craze of the 80s and 90s.

Lesson 1 : Organize Your Workouts by Similarities

Lee himself divided things up different. One of his innovations was to train different aspects of his martial arts on different days. Similar in many ways to a modern split program that might feature strength training one day and conditioning the next, this allowed him to focus better on a smaller number of skills each session.

Punches
Jab
Cross
Hook
Overhand Cross
Combinations
Speed bag workout

Kicks

Side Kick
Hook Kick
Spin Kick
Rear and Front Thrust Kick
Heel Kick

These exercises would be performed on a variety of implements from heavy bags to focus mitts to shadow work. Lesson one therefore is to split your training into similar actions each day so that you can put more energy into each skill individually. This allows for greater focus as well as making sure your sessions are a reasonable length instead of marathon four-hour sessions. Practicing for such long periods of time will usually mean you are performing each skill or movement poorly, rather than at the peak of your ability. Why train to perform sub optimally?

Lesson 2 : Keep It Simple, Stupid

Bruce’s superb physique is great testament to his freaky work ethic. He was one of the very first martial artists to discover and believe fully in strength training. Unlike many in the 70s who believed that weight training would make you muscle bound and slow, Bruce saw the benefits of weight training after a period doing just reverse curls to develop his forearmsAlways ahead of his time his routine wouldn’t be out of place now. Consisting of whole body exercises a typical day looked like this:

Clean and press
Squat
Good morning
Bench press
Curls

For anyone who cries out in indignation over the inclusion of curls into a full body routine I am reminded of something Randy Couture once said to me, “Anyone who doesn’t think curls are functional has never wrestled.”

Looking at his list of exercises you’d be forgiven for thinking Bruce had somehow traveled into the future and becomes friends with someone like Dan John. His workout is so KISS simple that he could focus on adding load rather than perfecting difficult movements.

Lesson two therefore is to keep your assistance training simple. Most people need to remember that they lift to assist their other activities, not to compete in lifting. You should be looking for the lifts that have the smallest learning curve, yet give the most transfer. The other noteworthy part is that Lee didn’t waste his time on endless reps of bodyweight only exercises. He stuck to known rep ranges for strength and challenged himself to gain strength. These low rep ranges elicit changes in the body’s ability to fire muscles, not in changing their size, keeping Lee fast and light, yet able to hit like a truck.

Lesson 3 : Roadwork Does Work

Another piece of Lee’s training puzzle we should note from a function point of view is his use of running and skipping for fitness. Roadwork has fallen out of vogue with today’s crop of HIIT inspired trainers yet all the real greats of fighting have done some form of running, from Ali to Lee.

Bruce would run 4 miles (6kms) three times per week at the start of the day. He would often perform these sessions as a Fartlek type workout, speeding up for short bursts before settling back into his regular pace again. The other three days Lee would skip for thirty minutes at a time. He believed it helped keep him light on his feet as well as helping his fitness. On these days he would also add another forty-five minutes of cycling on an exercise bike for extra fitness work.

Lesson 4 : Abdominal Work Is a Good Thing

The final piece of his training puzzle was targeted abdominal work. His ripped waist was clear evidence of time spent on many hard reps. Abdominal training has fallen out of favor in the last few years as research emerges that spinal flexion can cause disc herniation. However, elite athletes all over the world for decades have all believed strongly in supplemental abdominal work.

Research is unclear about whether or not the muscles of the midsection should be trained with high or low reps but Lee favored many high rep sets. Typically using three exercises for five sets each daily. A typical midsection workout might be:

Side bends
Leg raises
Sit ups

Looking at how Lee was so far ahead of his time with the rest of his training it wouldn’t surprise me at all to if he was doing some of these days for high reps with low loads and other days with heavy loads and only two to three reps at a time.

The four take away lessons from Bruce Lee’s training are:

Split your sessions into smaller chunks so you can better focus on improving skill.
Strength train, but keep your main focus on your art. Look to find the simplest exercises you can and milk the most you can from them.
Don’t neglect roadwork and other endurance work as these form a key role in overall fitness, health, and body composition.
Targeted abdominal work links the whole thing together and allows better power production as well as forming a protective shield during fighting.

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Source : Wikipedia / breakingmuscle

Striking Thoughts : On Being Human ( Part II )

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:55:00 +0000

Flow in the living moment. — We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you'll be flexible to change with the ever changing. OPEN yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the TOTAL OPENNESS OF THE LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.

p. 13; Unsourced variant: 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.

You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.

p. 13

The Moment is freedom. — I couldn't live by a rigid schedule. I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them.

p. 13

The Now is indivisible. — Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious mind to strive to divide that which is indivisible. For once the completeness of things is taken apart it is no longer complete.

p. 15

The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality — to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle.

p. 15 - 16

In Science we have finally come back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who said everything is flow, flux, process. There are no "things." NOTHINGNESS in Eastern language is "no-thingness". We in the West think of nothingness as a void, an emptiness, an nonexistence. In Eastern philosophy and modern physical science, nothingness — no-thingness — is a form of process, ever moving.

p. 16

What IS is more important than WHAT SHOULD BE. To many people are looking at "what is" from a position of thinking "what should be."

p. 16

Conditioning obstructs our view of reality. — We do not see IT in its suchness because of our indoctrination, crooked and twisted.

p. 19

True thusness is without defiling thought; it cannot be known through conception and thought. Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare. — There is "what is" only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.

p. 19

Reality is being itself. — It is being itself, in becoming itself. Reality in its isness, the "isness" of a thing. Thus isness is the meaning — having freedom in its primary sense — not limited by attachments, confinements, partialization, complexities.

p. 19

A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred — the human law in himself, his own individual will.

p. 19

One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way.

p. 20

The dualistic philosophy reigned supreme in Europe, dominating the development of Western science. But with the advent of atomic physics, findings based on demonstrable experiment were seen to negate the dualistic theory, and the trend of thought since then has been back to the monistic conception of the ancient Taoists.

p.. 21

If thought exists, I who think and the world about which I think also exist; the one exists but for the other, having no possible separation between them. Therefore, the world and I are both in active correlation; I am that which sees the world, and the world is that which is seen by me. I exist for the world and the world exists for me. ... One sure and primary and fundamental fact is the joint existence of a subject and of its world. The one does not exist without the other. I acquire no understanding of myself except as I take account of objects, of the surroundings. I do not think unless I think of things — and there I find myself.

p. 21

When we hold to the core, the opposite sides are the same if they are seen from the center of the moving circle. I do not experience; I am experience. I am not the subject of experience; I am that experience. I am awareness. Nothing else can be I or can exist.

p. 22

Taoist philosophy ... is essentially monistic. ... Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole.

p. 23

Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive; having no opposite, there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. The all illuminating light shines and is beyond the movement of the opposites.

p. 23

Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win. But never to accept the way to lose. To accept defeat — to learn to die — is to be liberated from it. Once you accept, you are free to flow and to harmonize. Fluidity is the way to an empty mind. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.

p. 25; Variant: Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose — to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!

Source : Wikipedia.

On First Principles ( Part I )

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:41:00 +0000

Striking Thoughts : Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living ( 2000 ) edited by John Little

Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.

p. 2

Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.

Life lives; and in the living flow, no questions are raised. The reason is that life is a living now! So, in order to live life whole-heartedly, the answer is life simply is.

p. 3

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.

p. 3

The aphorism "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he" contains the secret of life.

p. 4; Lee here quotes Proverbs 23:7 "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Meaning is found in relationship. — Meaning is the relationship of the foreground figure to the background.

p. 4

Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, unrhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.

p. 5

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

p. 5

The primary reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think.

p. 7

The timeless moment. — The "moment" has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time.

p. 9

Knowledge, surely, is always of time, whereas knowing is not of time. Knowledge is from a source, from accumulation, from conclusion, while knowing is a movement.

P. 9

To realize freedom the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement, without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness — care for watching, but don't stop and interpret "I am free," then you're living in a memory of something that has gone before.

p. 9

To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.

p. 10

Time means a lot to me because, you see, I, too, am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

p. 10; Here Lee paraphrases a much older English proverb: If you care for life, don't waste your time; for time is what life is made of. (as quoted in Bordighera and the Western Riviera (1883) by Frederick Fitzroy Hamilton, p. 189).

Be aware of doing your best to understand the ROOT in life, and realize the DIRECT and the INDIRECT are in fact a complementary WHOLE. It is to see things as they are and not to become attached to anything — to be unconscious meant to be be innocent of the working of a relative (empirical) mind — where there is no abiding of though anywhere on anything — this is being unbound. This not abiding anywhere is the root of our life.

p. 11

Concentration is the ROOT of all the higher abilities in man.

p. 11

Seek to understand the root. — It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.

p. 11

What we are after is the ROOT and not the branches. The root is the real knowledge; the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds "body feel" and personal expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing limitation and squelches creativity.

p. 11

Source : Wikipedia.

The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee ( 1996 )

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:11:00 +0000

To contemplate a thing implies maintaining oneself OUTSIDE it, resolved to keep a distance between it and ourselves.

p. 30

Running water never grows stale. So you just have to 'keep on flowing.'

p. 48

If one loves, one need not have an ideology of love.

p. 64

The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire — soon it will go out. Before we married, we never had the chance to go out to nightclubs. We only spent our nights watching TV and chatting. Many young couples live a very exciting life when they are in love. So, when they marry, and their lives are reduced to calmness and dullness, they will feel impatient and will drink the bitter cup of a sad marriage.

p. 66

Of course you’re there. Death is always there. So why was I afraid? Your leap is swift. Your claws are sharp and merciful. What can you take from me which is not already yours? . . . Everything I have done until now has been fruitless. It has led to nothing. There was no other path except that it led to nothing — and before me now there is only one real fact — Death. The truth I have been seeking — this truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So — we have met at last. And I am prepared. I am at peace. Because I will conquer death with death.

p. 77, spoken by Cord, the protagonist of the unproduced film The Silent Flute

Neither. I think of myself as a human being.

p. 87, when asked if he thought of himself as Chinese or American

The Three Stages of Cultivation — The first is the primitive stage. It is a stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing about the art of combat. In a fight, he simply blocks and strikes instinctively without a concern for what is right and wrong. Of course, he may not be so-called scientific, but, nevertheless, being himself, his attacks or defenses are fluid. The second stage — the stage of sophistication, or mechanical stage — begins when a person starts his training. He is taught the different ways of blocking, striking, kicking, standing, breathing, and thinking — unquestionably, he has gained the scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculations and analysis, and even worse, he might be called “intellectually bound” and maintain himself outside of the actual reality. The third stage — the stage of artlessness, or spontaneous stage — occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, the student realizes that after all, gung fu is nothing special. And instead of trying to impose on his mind, he adjusts himself to his opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall. It flows through the slightest crack. There is nothing to try to do but try to be purposeless and formless, like water. All of his classical techniques and standard styles are minimized, if not wiped out, and nothingness prevails. He is no longer confined.

p. 108-109

In Jeet Kune Do, it’s not how much you have learned, but how much you have absorbed from what you have learned. It is not how much fixed knowledge you can accumulate, but what you can apply livingly that counts. ‘Being’ is more valued than "doing".

p. 117

You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it — it’s there. When you want to move — you are moving. And when you move, you are determined to move! Not accepting even one inch less than 100 percent of your honest feelings. Not anything less than that. So that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into. To become one with your feelings so that, when you think — it is.

p. 126

In life, what more can you ask for than to be real? To fulfill one’s potential instead of wasting energy on [attempting to] actualize one’s dissipating image, which is not real and an expenditure of one’s vital energy. We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement, which is something I experience every day — sometimes good, sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out of the darkness.

p. 126

None whatsoever.

When asked what major religion he was affiliated with in 1972 by journalist Alex Ben Block, p. 128

To be perfectly frank, I really do not.

When asked if he believed in God, p. 128

I believe in sleeping.

When asked by his brother Robert if he believed in God, p. 129

There is no such thing as maturity. There is instead an ever-evolving process of maturing. Because when there is a maturity, there is a conclusion and a cessation. That’s the end. That’s when the coffin is closed. You might be deteriorating physically in the long process of aging, but your personal process of daily discovery is ongoing. You continue to learn more and more about yourself every day.

p. 131

I have come to discover through earnest personal experience and dedicated learning that ultimately the greatest help is self-help; that there is no other help but self-help— doing one’s best, dedicating one’s self wholeheartedly to a given task, which happens to have no end but is an ongoing process. I have done a lot during these years of my process. A swell in my process, I have changed from self-image actualization to self-actualization, from blindly following propaganda, organized truths, etc. to searching internally for the cause of my ignorance.

p. 133

Whether or not we can get together, remember well that art “lives” where absolute freedom is. With all the training thrown to nowhere, with a mind (if there is such a verbal substance) perfectly unaware of its own working, with the “self” vanishing nowhere, the art of JKD attains its perfection.

p. 156

You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession. For instance, if a man has decided that he is going to bite off your nose no matter what happens to him in the process, the chances are he will succeed in doing it. He may be severely beaten up, too, but that will not stop him from carrying out his objective. That is the real fighter.

p. 161

Walk on.

p. 174

Source : Wikipedia.

Tao Of Jeet Kune Do ( 1975 )

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 11:55:00 +0000

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 which serve its end.

p.12

When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding yourself.

Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.

p.25

Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.

This statement probably derives from a famous one of Jiddu Krishnamurti: "Truth is a pathless land."

Source : Wikipedia.

Bruce Lee Quotes

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Bruce Lee (27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American martial artist and actor who is widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century.

* Note : Many of Bruce Lee's statements are derived from his own studies of various schools of philosophy and the martial arts, and are sometimes paraphrases of previous expressions by others which he wrote down for his own instruction.

" Under the sky, under the heavens, there is but one family. It just so happens that people are different ".

Nowadays you don't go around on the street kicking people, punching people — because if you do (makes gun shape with hand), well that's it — I don't care how good you are.

Bruce Lee interview on the Pierre Berton Show (1971)

You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don't want to be like "As Confucius say," but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family. It just so happens that people are different.

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview (1971)

When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd better train every part of your body!

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview (1971)

All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge.

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview (1971)

Boards don't hit back.

As "Mr. Lee" in Enter the Dragon (1973); Bruce Lee's character said this to "Oharra" after Oharra had broken a board in the air with his fist.

A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When the opponent expands, I contract; and when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, "I" do not hit, "it" hits all by itself.

Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a conversation with an older member of the temple.

Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!

Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a training session with one of the temple students.

Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.

As quoted in "From Wing Chun to Jeet Kune Do" by Jesse R. Glover in Black Belt Vol. 31, No. 9 (September 1993), p. 35

Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.

As quoted in Bruce Lee : Fighting Spirit (1994) by Bruce Thomas (1994), p.44

Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely — lay your life before him.

As quoted in Bruce Lee : Artist of Life (1999) edited by John R. Little, p.192

There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.

As quoted in The Art of Expressing the Human Body (1998) edited by John R. Little, p. 23

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. 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. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000); here, Lee was reciting lines he wrote for his short lived role on the TV series Longstreet.

Source : Wikipedia.

One Inch Punch

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:52:00 +0000

The one-inch punch is a punching exercise from Chinese martial arts (kung fu) performed at a range of 0–15 cm (0–6 in). The one-inch punch was popularised by actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. It is designed to improve punching power and technique.

It is commonly believed by experts and kung fu enthusiasts that the one-inch punch skill comes only from the Wing Chun system of kung fu. However, it is present in many styles of Southern Chinese martial arts. As a general rule, Southern Chinese martial arts rely mostly on hand techniques from very close quarters (as opposed to Northern Chinese martial arts which focus more on kicking techniques from medium to long distances).
Because the Southern styles martial artists were often fighting nose-to-nose with their opponents, they had to learn a way to deal out punishing blows even while almost touching their target.

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How Boxing Influenced His Jeet Kune Do Techniques

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Tue, 28 May 2013 21:54:00 +0000

Bruce Lee was never a professional boxer although he did fight throughout high school and was an avid student of boxing during his adult life. Because his jeet kune do was greatly influenced by the fighting styles he studied, his interest in boxing leads to a question: Just how good was Lee as a boxer? His skill and prowess as a martial artist are wellknown. The manner in which he took over the direction of his second film and revolutionized the way the fights were presented in the Mandarin pictures is a matter of record.

But there’s a vocal minority who say Lee wasn’t a particularly skilled fighter — that he could choreograph a fight for the screen but that when it came to applying techniques in real fighting situations, he was a wash. To refute these claims, it seems that Lee’s skill as a boxer becomes a crucial point. It’s no secret that Lee scrutinized old films of famous boxers, integrating the moves into his own method of fighting. One of his favorite fighters was Muhammad Ali, who in Lee’s opinion developed the most intricate patterns of movement.

Knowing what Lee thought of Ali gives us a glimpse of how he might have interjected some of Ali’s prowess into his fighting, but how does Ali’s opinion of Lee fit the man who copied some of the
boxer’s style? In a brief interview, the question was put to Ali, and this is what he had to say:
“I understand he watched some of my fight films. You know, I don’t think he’d use too much of that boxing stuff in real life. I saw him in a karate movie, but I know that stuff is just acting. It’s colorful and good showmanship, and if I were a karate man, I’d want to be just like those guys in the movies, tackling 25 guys and making them all scatter.

All that action makes you want to fight, but he wouldn’t do that in real life. Watching real karate
fights is not like what you see in the movies, where a guy jumps in and does some superhuman stunts. That’s the movies, not real life.” The mystique of Lee has permeated the martial arts like nothing before or since. Karate champion Joe Lewis, who knew Lee for many years, has a mellow opinion of him. “In the beginning,” Lewis says, “Bruce and I became friends, and we had some differences. Later, we put those differences aside and resumed our friendship. All anyone can say about him is that he was a great theorist and his theories work very well. But then, of course, is the fact that Bruce never fought in competition, so you can’t really tell how he would have done.
“I think he would have made a relatively good fighter because of his speed.

He could have been a good featherweight or lightweight, rated one or two in the ranks. But then he would’ve been obscure because most of the public’s interest is focused on the heavier weights.” The best one can do, now that Lee is no longer here to demonstrate his skill, is to build a case through those who knew and worked with him. Two of his associates who are qualified to shed some light on his fighting ability are Dan lnosanto and Richard Bustillo. Inosanto and Bustillo met Lee in 1966 while he was doing The Green Hornet TV series. Once they became friends, Lee introduced them to jeet kune do. They grew under his guidance and soon became instructors. Both men have the highest respect for Lee’s fighting ability, but we’ll let them speak for themselves.

INOSANTO :

We used to go to his house on Wednesdays. We started off there, and we’ve been at it ever since. About that time, Bruce was beginning to develop his collection of boxing films. He had one of the biggest collections in the country.

BUSTILLO :

The way Bruce used to analyze those films — we could only take it for a couple of hours, but Bruce could sit there for eight or 10 hours and still show the same interest and enthusiasm he showed in the first five minutes. He’d go over and over those fight films, and he could imitate any of the fighters he was watching. The Ali shuffle, the Sharkey roll, Sugar Ray’s bob and weave, the Brown Bomber’s six-inch punch, Kid Gavilan’s bolo punch and any others that caught his trained eye.

INOSANTO :

Muhammad Ali was probably his favorite fighter, but Bruce took something from everybody. He liked Ali’s footwork and admired his outside fighting. He liked Marciano’s short punches. He used to study all the knockout punches of Joe Louis.

BUSTILLO :

Boxing, Western fencing and wrestling — Bruce Lee studied them all. In each art was a kernel of
the truth he was trying to demonstrate. The totality is Bruce’s art.

INOSANTO :

He had to know the answers. When anyone really searches for the truth as he did, he begins to see all facets. He was able to see all, to see the totality.

BUSTILLO :

The deeper he studied, the more involved he got, the more scientific he became. Everything he found out, he always asked himself this question: How or why? If he saw a left lead in a fight film, he’d turn his back to the screen and watch through a mirror. That would show him how the right lead should look — how and when it should be thrown.

INOSANTO :

He always asked, “Why is it done this way?” The why led him to more questions and in turn to more answers. Ninety percent of the people in the martial arts don’t ask why. If they happen to study with a guy in their neighborhood, they take what he presents as the truth. It’s a part of
the truth, but it’s not the whole truth. We never questioned our instructor. If he told us to stand on our heads, we’d do it — that’s the classical approach. But Bruce Lee was always questioning. It’s not that he embraced Western boxing completely.

He felt there were many flaws in boxing, too. But he also felt that out of all the arts in the hand range, boxing had more truth than, let’s say, karate. Not that karate was all flaws — he saw the truth in karate, too. But he would take the best of everything. He was developing the complete martial art. Actually, I didn’t think too highly of boxing before I met Bruce. I’d boxed some at the Y, but I didn’t appreciate the art. Bruce had been the interschool boxing champion while he was in high school in Hong Kong. Out of 15 schools, he was No. 1. He knew how effective boxing could be.

BUSTILLO :

There’s a good reason why most people don’t have any regard for boxing today — because today’s fighters are all courage and guts. There’s no skill and class. There’s no scientific moves, clever punches, plan of attack or strategy. Today, the guy who opens the fastest and hits the hardest is the guy who wins. Probably, Ali is one of the very few real scientific boxers left art. There’s more slugging, and you’ve got to push more with your gloves. Boxing, he felt, was over-daring, whereas
he found karate to be overprotective.

BUSTILLO :

That’s how he developed jeet kune do. He put all the arts together. Kicking distance, he taught, comes first. You have the longest reach with your feet. Close the kicking range, and you’re in hand distance. That’s where the boxing comes in. All the moves that are used in boxing would be good in JKD, along with the hand, arm and elbow moves that are used in gung fu. After hand range, wrestling or judo comes in.

INOSANTO :

And that’s important. It is easier to train a boxer to kick — or at least to counter a kick — than it
is to train a karateka to box. Within six months, a boxer would do well against most people schooled in karate. Wrestlers are in tremendous condition. Professional wrestling is a show, but don’t underestimate the skill of the professional wrestler. They’re in tremendous condition — they have to be to put on a show like that. And those holds are not fake; they’re real. I’d put my money on a professional wrestler against someone schooled in karate. There are a lot of weaknesses in karate. Bruce felt that there are a lot of talented people in karate; what we’re trying to say is that a lot of them are not aware of the different kinds of fighting conditions they might come up against. They’ve never been exposed to what it’s like.

* So there you have it from two of the Little Dragon’s closest associates. Lee sought the truth in creating a truly effective fighting form. He studied and mastered all the arts, and he had a special regard for boxing because of the truth that boxing presented in a total fighting scheme. And he was a good boxer, maybe even a great boxer. A high-school boxing champion, he continued to study the art and develop his skills. And he combined his knowledge and talent into a new and comprehensive fighting art. But it’s interesting to speculate on this: If Lee had gone into the ring professionally, what would have happened? One can imagine that initially his presence would have brought more respect and consideration for the lighter weight classifications; that as an attraction, he would have rivaled Ali; and that his influence would have brought a rebirth to a more scientific form of boxing.

Download the original copy of :

Bruce Lee's - How Boxing Influenced His Jeet Kune Do Techniques.

Source : blackbeltmag.

The Fountain of Youth

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:29:00 +0000

I love surrounding myself with people that have gotten over the idea that only children should spend their time learning. For me, there is no substitute for learning. Learning is the kind of wealth that will follow you everywhere. I'm not talking about attainment of degrees. Certificates and diplomas only mean something to the people that don't know you. What I'm talking about doesn't have an end. To the contrary, it has a million beginnings. Too many people let their egos get in the way of what it means to truly live getting old in the process. They fear losing their perceived value as a person if they were to submit to the act of learning something new. Then there are those people that get frustrated and quit something that they try to learn. What they don't understand is that we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself. Therefore, I don't believe that the number of years you have lived determines if you are old. I believe the lack of curiosity of life determines your age. And quite simply, people who feel that they are too old too learn have not yet learned to be young. Learning satisfies something deep inside us that can't be rivaled. Life and learning go hand-in-hand. In continuing to learn, I'm seeking an origin, you could call it a rebirth. Each time I learn something, I feel closer to the essence of life and my youth. I've found that learning very well may be my own personal fountain of youth.
Happiness. Wealth. Friendship. Luck. Affluence. Prosperity. Abundance. These are not things that we acquire. We can't find happiness at a location or a time yet to come. We can't wait for things to get better or for things to stop getting worse. We also can't push for the things to get better. Pushing only drives things the other way. We don't acquire it. We constantly choose it. We have to make the constant choice to tune into it. When we allow ourselves to tune into happiness and wealth, we stop trying so hard and it naturally comes. We have to trust in our innate power. We are much more powerful than we tend to believe.

But really its less of a choice than it is a feeling. We have to learn to empty the mind and feel. When we keep our mind centered and relaxed, we can allow ourselves to naturally move forward. This kind of natural progress is stronger than anything in the world. Choose to be simple. Feel the connection with abundance and things become clear. I've found this deeply personal yet highly universal feeling of oneness with things. I'm not sure that I'd have found this without martial arts. And to think most people count martial arts off as just learning how to fight. ;)

Daring Greatly

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory.

The Importance of Sensitivity

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:21:00 +0000

The ability to respond immediately and effectively to an attack is key to defending one's self in a combative situation. In any moment of time during a fight, the opponent will have some sort of action whether it is a slight movement, a pronounced movement, or no movement at all. This action may serve as a stimulus for a response and can be monitored by the sense of touch. In the martial art of Wing Chun, sensitivity is the term that describes the ability to be aware of what is happening through the sense of touch. The goal of developing sensitivity is to get an instant and accurate assessment of what is happening in a fight so that an immediate and proper response can be performed. There are many things during a fight that a combatant needs to be aware of that can be recognized through sensitivity. Sensitivity gives awareness of the ever-changing positions between a fighter and his or her opponent. A fighter needs to know when the opponent is in a strong dominating position, a weak vulnerable position, or both. A fighter also needs to know his or her own strong and weak positions in relation to the opponent. This knowledge is gathered from the sense of touch and processed through the subconscious so that the correct response is put into motion at the right time. When discussing the importance of sensitivity in a fight, the question of what to do when there is no physical contact to sense arises. This usually occurs at the beginning of the fight when the combatants are at a longer range and a physical attack has not yet been made. At this point, the sense of sight is the primary tool to recognize the stimulus that will evoke a response. In Wing Chun, the concept of mok lik is used to describe eye power.
In mok lik, the fighter stares straight into the opponent's eyes to look for any intent; but at the same time the fighter is using peripheral vision to be aware of anything in front or around that can serve as a stimulus for a response. As soon as the intent or a slight movement (such as a heavy breath or lowering of the shoulder) is recognized, an immediate response should follow. For many Wing Chun practitioners, the mahn sao is usually the initial response when there is no physical contact. Mahn sao is the inquisitive hand that is put forth as a probe to intercept the opponent. The information gathered from the mahn sao through the sense of touch will let the fighter know what to do next. If mahn sao is thrown out and there is nothing to impede its path, it should continue and become a strike to the eyes or throat.

If the mahn sao intercepts limbs with weak energy, it may turn into a fuk sao (controlling arm) or mut sao (lowering hand) crushing the defense towards the centerline, and then maybe a finishing move to the eyes or throat. If the mahn sao intercepts limbs with strong energy, the fighter may have to shift and change the angle of attack while redirecting the opponent's energy or pull (lop sao) in the direction where the opponent's momentum is going. In all these cases, assessment of the situation through sensitivity from the mahn sao allows a proper response to come after.

Sensitivity is not used only from the initial contact; it is used whenever the sense of touch is in play. When there is no contact, the gauging for stimuli is done by the eyes. Once contact is made and when the range is still long, both sensitivity and the eyes can gauge for stimuli. But in really close ranges (short bridge), the eyes cannot see much. Sensitivity plays a much more important role at this range where it is the primary way to recognize what your opponent is doing.

Sensitivity does not come naturally to most people and it must be cultivated. In Wing Chun, the chi sao exercises develop one's sensitivity. Such exercises include doan chi sao (single hand), seong chi sao (single hand), and chi gurk (legs). The concept of gum got lik describes the sensitive energy needed to be effective in responding to a stimulus. In order to be sensitive, one must remain relaxed so that he or she can feel the opponent's overall position and intent. The practitioner must also be in a proper position have an effective response to a stimulus felt from the opponent. Cultivating sensitivity is one of the major keys in becoming an effective fighter.

The Tao Of Gung Fu

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:16:00 +0000

Gung fu is a special kind of skill, a fine art rather than just a physical exercise or self-defence. To the Chinese, gung fu is the subtle art of matching the essence of the mind to that of the techniques in which it has to work. The principle of gung fu is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding or instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from desires and emotions. The core of this principle of gung fu is Tao - the spontaneity of the universe. The word Tao has no exact equivalent in the English Language. To render it into the Way, or the "principle" or the "law" is to give it too narrow an interpretation. Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, described Tao in the following words :

The Way that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Way;
the Name that can be uttered is not the eternal Name.
Conceived of as nameless it is the cause of Heaven and earth.
Conceived of as having a name it is the mother of all things.
Only the man externally free from passion can contemplate its spiritual essence.
He who is clogged by desires can see no more than its outer form.
These two things, the spiritual (Yin) and the material (Yang),
though we call them by different names, are one and the same in their origin.
The sameness is a mystery of the mysteries.
It is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.

In Masterpieces of World Philosophy: "Tao is nameless beginning of things, the universal principle underlying everything, the supreme, ultimate pattern, and the principle of growth." Huston Smith, the author of The World's Religions, explained Tao as "The Way of Ultimate Reality---the Way or Principle behind all life, or the Way man should order his life to gear in with the Way the universe operates." Although no one word can substitute its meaning, I have used the word Truth for it---the "Truth" behind gung fu; the "Truth" that every gung fu practitioner should follow. Tao operates in Yin and Yang, a pair of mutually complementary forces that are at work in and behind all phenomena.

This principle of Yin-Yang, also known as T'ai Chi, is the basic structure of gung fu. The T'ai Chi, or Grand Terminus, was first drawn more than three thousand years ago by Chou Chun I. The Yang (whiteness) principle represents positiveness, firmness, masculinity, substantiality, brightness, day, heat, and so forth. The Yin (blackness) principle is the opposite. It represents negativeness, softness, femininity, insubstantiality, darkness, night, coldness, and so forth. The basic theory in T'ai Chi is that nothing is so permanent as never to change. In other words, when activity (Yang) reaches the extreme point, it becomes inactivity; and inactivity forms Yin. Extreme inactivity returns to become activity, which is Yang. Activity is the cause of inactivity and vice versa. This system of complementary increasing and decreasing of the principle is continuous. From this one can see that the two forces (Yin-Yang), although they appear to conflict, in reality are mutually interdependent; instead of opposition, there is cooperation and alternation. The application of the principles of Yin-Yang in gung fu are expressed as the Law of Harmony. It states that one should be in harmony with, not in rebellion against, the strength and force of the opposition.

This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is to not strain in any way. When opponent A uses strength (Yang) on B, B must not resist him (back) with strength; in other words, B does not use positiveness (Yang ) against positiveness (Yang), but yields to A with softness (Yin) and leads A in the direction of his own force, negativeness (Yin) to positiveness (Yang). When A's strength goes to the extreme, the positiveness (Yang) will change to negativeness (Yin), and B can then take him at his unguarded moment and attack with force (Yang). Thus the whole process is not unnatural or strained; B fits his movement harmoniously and continuously into that of A without resisting or striving.

The above idea gives rise to a closely related law, the Law of Noninterference with Nature, which teaches a gung fu man to forget about himself and follow his opponent instead of himself; he does not move ahead but responds to the fitting influence. The basic idea is to defeat the opponent by yielding to him and using his own strength. That is why a gung fu man never asserts himself against his opponent, and never puts himself in frontal opposition to the direction of his opponents force. When being attacked, he will not resist, but will control the attack by swinging with it. This law illustrates the principles of nonresistance and nonviolence, which were founded on the idea that the branches of a fir tree snap under the weight of the snow, while the simple reeds, weaker but more supple, can overcome it. In the I'Ching, Confucius illustrated this: "To stand in the stream is a datum of nature; one must follow and flow with it.

" In the Tao Teh Ching, the gospel of Taoism, Lao-tzu pointed out to us the value of gentleness. Contrary to common belief, the Yin principle, as softness and pliableness, is to be associated with life and survival. Because he can yield, a man can survive. In contrast, the Yang principle, which is assumed to be rigorous and hard, makes a man break under pressure (note the last two lines, which make a fair description of revolution as many generations of people have seen it):

Alive, a man is supple, soft;
In death, unbending, rigorous.
All creatures, grass and trees, alive
Are plastic but are pliant too,
And dead, are friable and dry.
Unbending rigor is the mate of death,
And yielding softness, company of life;
Unbending soldiers get no victories;
The stiffest tree is readiest for the ax.
The strong and mighty topple from their place;
The soft and yielding rise above them all.

The way of movement in gung fu is closely related to the movement of the mind. In fact, the mind is trained to direct the movement of the body. The mind wills and the body behaves. As the mind is to direct the bodily movements, the way to control the mind is important; but it is not an easy task. In his book, Glen Clark mentioned some of the emotional disturbances in athletics:

Every conflicting centre, every extraneous, disrupting, decentralizing emotion, jars the natural rhythm and reduces a man's efficiency on the gridiron far more seriously than physical jars and bodily conflicts can ever jar him. The emotions that destroy the inner rhythm of a man are hatred, jealousy, lust, envy, pride, vanity, covetousness and fear.

To perform the right technique in gung fu, physical loosening must be continued in a mental and spiritual loosening, so as to make the mind not only agile but free. In order to accomplish this, a gung fu man has to remain quiet and calm and to master the principle of no-mindedness (wu hsin). No-mindedness is not a blank mind that excludes all emotions; nor is it simply calmness and quietness of the mind. Although quietude and calmness are important, it is the "non-graspiness" of the mind that mainly constitutes the principle of no-mindedness. A gung fu man employs his mind as a mirror---it grasps nothing and it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep. As Alan Watts puts it, the no-mindedness is "a state of wholeness in which the mind functions freely and easily, without the sensation of a second mind or ego standing over it with a club."

What he means is, let the mind think what it likes without interference by the separate thinker or ego within oneself. So long as it thinks what it wants, there is absolutely no effort in letting it go; and the disappearance of the effort to let go is precisely the disappearance of the separate thinker. There is nothing to try to do, for whatever comes up moment by moment is accepted, including nonacceptance. No-mindedness is then not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked. It is a mind immune to emotional influences. "Like this river, everything is flowing on ceaselessly without cessation or standing still." No-mindedness is employing the whole mind as we use the eyes when we rest them upon various objects but make no special effort to take anything in. Chuang-tzu, the disciple of Lao-tzu, stated :

The baby looks at things all day without winking, that is because his eyes are not focused on any particular object. He goes without knowing where he is going, and stops without knowing what he is doing. He merges himself with the surroundings and moves along with it. These are the principles of mental hygiene.

Therefore, concentration in gung fu does not have the usual sense of restricting the attention to a single sense object; it is simply a quiet awareness of whatever happens to be here and now. Such concentration can be illustrated by an audience at a football game; instead of a concentrated attention on the player who has the ball, they have an awareness of the whole football field. In a similar way, a gung fu man's mind is concentrated by not dwelling on any particular part of the opponent. This is especially true when he deals with many opponents. For instance, suppose ten men are attacking him, each in succession ready to strike him down. As soon as one is disposed of, he will move onto another without permitting the mind to "stop" with any. However rapidly one blow may follow another he leaves no time to intervene between the two. Every one of the ten will thus be successively and successfully dealt with.

This is possible only when the mind moves from one object to another without being "stopped" or arrested by anything. If the mind is unable to move on in this fashion, it is sure to lose the combat somewhere between two encounters. The mind is present everywhere because it is nowhere attached to any particular object. And it can remain present because, even when relating to this or that object, it does not cling to it. The flow of thought is like water filling a pond, which is always ready to flow off again. It can work its inexhaustible power because it is free, and it can be open to everything because it is empty. This can be compared with what Chang Chen Chi called "Serene Reflection." He wrote: "Serene means tranquillity of no thought, and reflection means vivid and clear awareness. Therefore, serene reflection is clear awareness of no-thought." As stated earlier, a gung fu man aims at harmony with himself and his opponent. Also, being in harmony with one's opponent is possible not through force, which provokes conflicts and reactions, but through a yielding to the opponent's force.

In other words, a gung fu man promotes the spontaneous development of his opponent and does not venture to interfere by his own action. He loses himself by giving up all subjective feelings and individuality, and he becomes one with his opponent. Inside his mind, oppositions have become mutually cooperative instead of mutually exclusive. When his private egos and conscious efforts yield to a power not his own he then achieves the supreme action, non-action (wu we). Wu means "not" or "non" and we means "action," "doing," "striving," "straining," or "busyness." Wu we doesn't really mean doing nothing, but letting one's mind alone, trusting it to work by itself. Wu we, in gung fu, means spontaneous action or spirit-action, in the sense that the governing force is the mind and not the senses.

During sparring, a gung fu man learns to forget about himself and follow the movement of his opponent, leaving his mind free to make its own counter movement without any interfering deliberation. He frees himself from all mental suggestions of resistance and adopts a supple attitude. His actions are all performed without self-assertion; he lets his mind remain spontaneous and ungrasped. As soon as he stops to think, his flow of movement will be disturbed and his opponent will immediately strike him. Every action therefore has to be done "unintentionally" without ever "trying." Through wu we, a "reposeful ease" is secured. This passive achievement, as Chuang-tzu pointed out, will free a gung fu man from striving and straining himself:

A yielding will has a reposeful ease, soft as downy feathers, A quietude, a shrinking from action, an appearance of inability to do. Placidly free from anxiety, one acts with the opportune time; one moves and revolves in the line of creation. One does not move ahead but responds to the fitting influences.

Establish nothing in regard to oneself. Let things be what they are, move like water, rest like a mirror, respond like an echo, pass quickly like the nonexistent, and be quiet as purity. Those who gain, lose. Do not precede others, always follow them. The natural phenomenon which the gung fu man sees as being the closest resemblance to wu we is water :

Nothing is weaker than water, But when it attacks something hard Or resistant, then nothing withstands it, And nothing will alter its way.

The above passages from the Tao Te Ching illustrate to us the nature of water: Water is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded; sever it, yet it is not divided. It has no shape of its own but moulds itself to the receptacle that contains it. When heated to the state of steam it is invisible but has enough power to split the earth itself. When frozen it crystallises into a mighty rock. First it is turbulent like Niagara Falls, and then calm like a still pond, fearful like a torrent, and refreshing like a spring on a hot summer's day. So is the principle of wu we :

The rivers and seas are lords of a hundred valleys. This is because their strength is in lowliness; they are kings of them all. So it is that the perfect master wishing to lead them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, men do not feel him to be an injury. And since he will not strive, none strive with him.

The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition :

One who tries to stand on tiptoe cannot stand still. One who stretches his legs too far cannot walk. One who advertises himself too much is ignored. One who is too insistent on his own view finds few to agree with him. One who claims too much credit does not get even what he deserves. One who is too proud is soon humiliated. These are condemned as extremes of greediness and self-destructive activity. Therefore, one who acts naturally avoids such extremes.

Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.
Stop your sense, let sharp things be blunted,
Tangles resolved, the light tempered and turmoil subdued;
For this is mystic unity in which the wise man is moved
Neither by affection nor yet by estrangement,
Or profit or loss or honour or shame.
Accordingly, by all the world, he is held highest.

A gung fu man, if he is really good, is not proud at all. "Pride," according to Mr. Eric Hoffer, "is a sense of worth that derives from something that is not organically part of oneself." Pride emphasises the importance of the superiority of a person's status in the eyes of others. There is fear and insecurity in pride because when a person aims at being highly esteemed and achieves such status, he is automatically involved in the fear of losing his status. Then protection of his status appears to be his most important need, and this creates anxiety. Mr. Hoffer further states that: "The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. One is proud when he identifies himself with an imaginary self; the core of pride is self rejection." As we know, gung fu is aiming at self cultivation, and the inner self is one's true self. So in order to realise his true self, a gung fu man lives without being dependent upon the opinion of others. Since he is completely self-sufficient he can have no fear of not being esteemed.

A gung fu man devotes himself to being self-sufficient and never depends upon the external rating by others for his happiness. A gung fu master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve, is quiet and unassuming, without the lest desire to show off. Under the influence of gung fu training his proficiency becomes spiritual, and he himself, grown ever freer through spiritual struggle, is transformed. To him, fame and status mean nothing. Thus wu we is the art of artlessness, the principle of no-principle. To state it in terms of gung fu, the genuine beginner knows nothing about the way of blocking and striking, and much less about his concern for himself. When an opponent tries to strike him, he "instinctively" parries it. This is all he can do. But as soon as his training starts, he is taught how to defend and attack, where to keep the mind, and many other technical tricks—which makes his mind "stop" at various junctures. For this reason whenever he tries to strike the opponent he feels unusually hampered (he has lost altogether the original sense of innocence and freedom).

But as months and years go by, as his training acquires fuller maturity, his bodily attitude and his way of managing the technique toward no-mindedness come to resemble the state of mind he had at the very beginning of training when he knew nothing, when he was altogether ignorant of the art. The beginning and the end thus turn into next-door neighbours. In the musical scale, one may start with the lowest pitch and gradually ascend to the highest. When the highest is reached, one finds it is located next to the lowest. In a similar way, when the highest stage is reached in the study of Taoist teaching, a gung fu man turns into a kind of simpleton who knows nothing of Tao, nothing of its teachings, and is devoid of all learning. Intellectual calculations are lost sight of and a state of no-mindedness prevails. When the ultimate perfection is attained, the body and limbs perform by themselves what is assigned to them to do with no interference from the mind. The technical skill is so automatic it is completely divorced from conscious efforts. There are big differences between the Chinese hygiene and the Western hygiene.

Some of the obvious ones are Chinese exercise is rhythmic, whereas the Western is dynamic and full of tension; the Chinese exercise seeks to merge harmoniously with nature, whereas the Western dominates it; the Chinese exercise is both a way of life and a mental cultivation, while the Western exercise is merely a sport or a physical calisthenic. Perhaps the main difference is the fact that Chinese hygiene is Yin (softness), while Western is Yang (positiveness). We can compare the Western mind with an oak tree that stands firm and rigid against the strong wind. When the wind becomes stronger, the oak tree cracks. The Chinese mind, on the other hand, is like the bamboo that bends with the strong wind. When the wind ceases (that is, when it goes to the extreme and changes), the bamboo springs back stronger than before. Western hygiene is a gratuitous waste of energy.

The overexertion and over development of bodily organs involved in Western athletics is detrimental to one's health. Chinese hygiene, on the other hand, throws its emphasis on conservation of energy; the principle is always that of moderation without going to the extreme. Whatever exercise there may be consists of harmonious movements calculated to normalise but not excite one's bodily regimen. It starts out with a mental regimen as a basis, in which the sole object is to bring about peace and calmness of mind. With this as a basis, it aims at stimulating the normal functioning of the internal process of respiration and blood circulation.

Handwritten Essay by Bruce Lee dated May 16th 1962.

Fighting Man's Exercise : Bruce Lee's Training Regiment

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Bruce Lee was a specimen of health. He trained every day and consumed only the proper food. He was a martinet who never let his work interfere with his training. Even when he was sent to India to find suitable locations for filming, he took along his running shoes. One of the most neglected elements of martial artists is the physical workout. Too much time is spent on developing skill in techniques and not enough in physical participation.

Practicing your skill in fighting is important, but so is maintaining your overall physical condition. Actually both are needed to be successful in a real fight. Training is a skill of disciplining your mind, developing your power and supplying endurance to your body. Aerobic Exercises : Lee’s daily training consisted of aerobic exercises, plus others which were patterned to develop his skill in fighting. He varied his exercises to avoid boredom. One of his favorite exercises was running four miles a day in 24 to 25 minutes. He would change his tempo while running — after several miles of constant, even strides, he would sprint several feet and then return to easier running. Between changes in running tempo, he would also shuffle his feet. Lee was not particular where he ran: at the beach, in parks or woods, up and down hills or on surfaced streets. Besides running, he also rode an exercycle to develop his endurance, legs and cardiovascular muscles.
He usually rode full speed — 35 to 40 miles an hour continuously for 45 minutes to an hour. Frequently, he would ride his exercycle right after his running.

Article : One-Inch Punch Demonstrated by Jeet Kune Do Expert Lamar M. Davis During Martial Arts

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:25:00 +0000

Second-generation Bruce Lee student Lamar M. Davis II studied under five of Bruce Lee’s original students (Joseph Cowles, Patrick Strong, Leo Fong, Jerry Poteet and Steve Golden). Through this jeet kune do technique video demonstrating Lee’s one-inch punch, Davis brings the concept of economy of motion through efficiency, directness and simplicity to life.

The stuff of legend in films such as Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Jet Li’s Fearless and the feature-film re-imagining of The Green Hornet, the one-inch punch is actually a punching exercise that translates into a close-quarters strike of significant explosive power. Made popular by Lee, of course, at demonstrations such as the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships, the one-inch punch also has been notably used by martial artists such as Michael D. Echanis. “You hear some people refer to the one-inch punch as this, but this is actually a three-inch punch” Lamar M. Davis II explains, gesturing with an open palm and fingers pointing toward his opponent’s central chest. “The one-inch punch actually comes from the first knuckle.”

Positioning himself in front of his demonstration partner’s chest-held focus mitt, Davis continues: “I just explode from here into the glove. And there’s not going to be any pulling back.”

The demonstration speaks for itself, as the impact of Davis’ one-inch punch knocks his partner significantly off-balance, sending him backward several steps — all without a windup preceding the explosive strike.

A martial arts practitioner for more than 40 years, Davis has devoted more than 30 of those years exclusively to training in Lee’s art of jeet kune do. Davis is certified as a full/senior instructor by five of Lee’s original students.
Jeet kune do expert Lamar M. Davis II is the founder and head instructor of Hardcore Jeet Kune Do. He serves as the executive director/senior instructor of the Hardcore Jeet Kune Do Chinese Gung Fu Association. Davis is also the co-founder of the International Wing Chun/Jeet Kune Do Alliance and the Efficient Warrior Alliance.

For more topics from Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do, such as :

attacks
defenses
energy training
timing
mobility

Article : Second-Generation Bruce Lee Student and “Chinatown Jeet Kune Do”

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:18:00 +0000

In the book Chinatown Jeet Kune Do: Essential Elements of Bruce Lee’s Martial Art, authors Tim Tackett and Bob Bremer (who studied directly under Bruce Lee) delineate the technical details of an array of jeet kune do techniques — including the JKD backfist, which Tackett demonstrates in this excerpt from his companion.

“While not very powerful, the backfist is fast and deceptive because it can be thrown from the on-guard position with very little, if any, preparation,” Tackett and Bremer write in the book Chinatown Jeet Kune Do: Essential Elements of Bruce Lee’s Martial Art. “The backfist that [Bruce] Lee taught [Bob] Bremer differs from the ones thrown in action movies. Instead of making impact with the back of the hand, Lee believed it was better to use the knuckles because it lessens the chance of self-injury. “This makes it more difficult to aim the hand, however, which is why a JKD practitioner needs to be selective of his target. Usually, students learn to aim for the opponent’s eyes, which are vulnerable and don’t require power to harm. To reach the target, throw your backfist like a stationary lead punch: Penetrate two inches beyond the point of impact, use your whole body, transfer energy from the legs, etc.

The above video is an excerpt from the book’s companion DVD, also titled Chinatown Jeet Kune Do: Essential Elements of Bruce Lee’s Martial Art. It features live-action demonstrations of the ideas presented in the book, organized in parallel structure for easy reference — but it also features an on-screen guide to chapters and pages in the book that further illustrate and explain what Tackett and his partners are demonstrating in the video. This makes for a true martial arts multimedia experience and a powerful educational tool from which jeet kune do students of all experience levels can benefit!

Article : Re-Imagining Philosophy Book Tao of Jeet Kune

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:12:00 +0000

Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial arts icon and jeet kune do founder Bruce Lee, recently granted Black Belt an exclusive interview regarding the production of Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition — a refurbished, augmented and enhanced update of her father’s most famous book. She touches on what went into the new layout and how it was modernized for a contemporary audience while still retaining the martial arts and philosophy content that made the original edition such a quintessential classic not only in the Bruce Lee canon but also in the whole of martial arts and philosophy literature.

First on the agenda for the Tao refurbishment was clarity. “What was great about this process — because I was very involved in [the Tao's] re-editing — was that as you read through it, you had to really … [because] we wanted to be really clear about, ‘OK, this paragraph is referring to this sketch,’ so we had to draw all these lines and make all these correlations,” Shannon Lee explains. “And then we wanted to make sure that those things were clear in the new manuscript.”

Because of the style of the original book’s assembly in the 1970s, it could be argued that some very important instructions may not have been highlighted as effectively as they could have been. So Shannon Lee and the Black Belt editors began determining what needed to be offset and framed for special attention. “We decided to do things like, ‘Oh, this is an exercise that [Bruce Lee's] recommending for you or a training aid,’” she explains, “[so] let’s put it in a box so that stands out. Bruce Lee is saying, ‘Do this.’ It was a really interesting process to think of the book in those terms and to want [it] to come across with as much clarity for the readers as we possibly could.”

Shannon Lee has high hopes for Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition as an enhanced reading experience for readers and fans of her father’s martial arts skills and philosophical ideas. “Hopefully, in this new manuscript, the clarity and the enhancement of all the imagery and the way things have been boxed and categorized will flow,” she says. “Because if we wanna do anything for Bruce Lee, we wanna flow. He was all about flow. So hopefully that will come through.”

Featuring digitally enhanced illustrations by Bruce Lee himself, translations of Bruce Lee’s original Chinese writings, a history of how the book came into being and new editorial contributions by Diana Lee Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Tim Tackett, Chris Kent, Jerry Poteet and many others, the beautiful Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition

Article : Tao of Jeet Kune Do - Then ( 1975 ) and Now ( 2011 )

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:57:00 +0000

Linda Lee Cadwell, the widow of jeet kune do creator and martial arts icon Bruce Lee, recently sat down with Black Belt for an extensive exclusive video interview about Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition. During this portion of the interview, she discusses the genesis of the seminal martial arts and philosophy text, Bruce’s (and eventually her) qualms about what to do with the collected notes that eventually became the original Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and why and how the 2011 expanded edition came into being.

“The original Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published in 1975 and, you know, Bruce passed away in 1973,” Linda Lee Cadwell says. “And then myself and my children, we made the move from Hong Kong and we brought all his possessions with us, and all his books and papers. When we were discussing [Bruce's papers] with Black Belt magazine, I just thought that there was so much valuable material there that I didn’t want to just put it away in filing cabinets and [have it] never see the light of day.

“Bruce himself had qualms about publishing his writings because he didn’t want them to be a how-to book that people would just pick up and [read], ‘This is how you do a punch and this is how you do a kick,’ you know, and just follow it movement by movement like that.

“So he had qualms about it. And I did as well, thinking, What would he do? How would he want this published?

“So, in the end, it was decided — by myself — that this was just too much valuable material to put away. And so the original Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published the way it was — with no pictures and just Bruce’s drawings and his writings — and I think it has served a wonderful purpose for all these decades. There have been so many thousands and thousands of people who have told me how much they have gotten out of the book.

“However, now here we are in 2011 and I think it’s very well-advised to do a revision of it, an update of it, to give it a much more modern feel to the book, to explain some things that were not explained in the original book like the Chinese writings, to make the drawings clearer … just to give it a better look for a new generation of readers.

“So I’m very pleased that Black Belt has undertaken [the task] to do this revision.”

The revision has taken shape in a fully refurbished book with an updated front cover, comprehensive Chinese-character translations, a history of the book’s creation, digitally enlarged and enhanced Bruce Lee illustrations, and editorial contributions from Linda Lee Cadwell, Shannon Lee, Tim Tackett, Chris Kent, Jerry Poteet, Diana Lee Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Yori Nakamura, Tommy Gong and others. Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition is the must-have martial arts book of 2011.

I Am Bruce Lee Movie

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Bruce's life and visual appeal of shocking expose of his enormous influence, and he continues to expand, martial arts, entertainment and outside the World Heritage - despite his 32 years of age in the tragic and sudden death.

Who knows Bruce has a direct and a wide variety of international icons, including basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, the famous actor Mickey Rourke and Ed O'Neill, world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, pop music group Balck Eyed Peas taboo, and the UFC and interviews with Dana White people and the world champion Jon Jones.

Interviews will be combined with rare archival material, classic photos, and the latest visual effects and graphics, in a way never seen before the story of Bruce Lee to tell.

Bruce Lee is universally recognized as the pioneer who elevated martial arts in film to an art form, and this documentary will reveal why Bruce Lee’s flame burns brighter now than the day he died over three decades ago. The greatest martial artists, athletes, actors, directors, and producers in the entertainment business today will share their feelings about the one who started it all.

We will interview the people whose lives, careers, and belief systems were forever altered by the legendary “Father of Martial Arts Cinema”. Rarely seen archival footage and classic photos will punctuate the personal testimonials. Prepare to be inspired. (IMDB)

I Am Bruce Lee Movie

How Bruce Lee Changed the World

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:47:00 +0000

The History Channel’s How Bruce Lee Changed the World explores the amazing multitude of ways that Bruce Lee – the first international Asian superstar–has influenced pop culture.

Calling Lee the biggest movie star in history is a bit of a stretch (though every shot of this hypnotically charismatic performer argues that he might have been, had he not died abruptly before the release of his fourth and most successful movie, Enter the Dragon).

A wealth of interviewees, ranging from filmmakers like Jackie Chan (who was a stunt man on Lee’s movies in his early career), John Woo, and Brett Ratner, comedians like Eddie Griffin and Margaret Cho, musicians like LL Cool J, RZA, and Damon Albarn, athletes like boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and bodybuilder Flex Wheeler, and more, testify to the enormous impression Lee had on them.
The documentary overreaches at some points, but there’s no denying that Lee brought martial arts movies to the West and redefined the image of Asian men in the public consciousness (before him, Asian men were fiends like Fu Manchu, servants, or buffoons).
Lee’s life history is efficiently told and some of the details are delightful–who would have guessed Lee was a champion cha-cha dancer in Hong Kong? His audition for The Green Hornet reveals a movie star just waiting to be discovered. The man himself–lithe and muscular, capable of astonishing speed and grace, radiating both intelligence and passion–makes all commentary unnecessary.

How Bruce Lee Changed The World

Article : Was Bruce Lee a fake master?

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:05:00 +0000

A true renaissance man, Bruce Lee was a talented artist, poet, philosopher, writer and actor, apart from being a formidable fighter.

Bruce Lee can be considered a prophet in some ways.

He combined boxing punches, grappling, low and high kicks in a unique style that was criticised vastly by most traditional martial artists at the time.

Today all mixed martial artists are training in a similar way.

The difference is that he was brilliant enough to do so more than 35 years ago. If you don’t believe me, watch the opening scene of “Enter the Dragon”. That was a true free fight event.

Back in Lee’s era, no training equipment was available. He had to invent it. His focus gloves and his fighting gloves are very similar to the ones that are used in MMA training today. If you see some techniques in his books (and his films), you will find out that his style can still be used in a ring effectively.

The techniques used in his movies are a bit flashier but full of martial arts wisdom. Guess what? He finished most of his opponents with grappling. In "Way of the Dragon " he finishes Chuck Norris with a neck break. In "Game of Death" he beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with a headlock. In “The Big Boss” the final fight ends with a mount.

Bruce always seemed so far ahead of his era. The techniques that are used today in JKD schools are (in my opinion, and I don't mean it as an insult) too influenced by Wing Tsun, Kali and Fillipino martial arts. I mean, I haven't seen a JKD guy that can really kick. Come on guys, Bruce was a great kicker.

Bruce proved to everyone that it is not how much you train, but how smart you train. Many people have said a lot of bad things about Bruce. Some claim that his physique was too skinny to withstand a powerful blow. Others say that although he embodied the use of free weights in his training, he could not lift as much as today’s champions do. Others say that he was not really ring proven.

I have seen all his movies and studied them very carefully and I must say that I learned more by watching his movies alone than I ever learned in any seminar or by watching any training tape. The techniques used in his books are the most inspiring I have ever seen. There are many books out there but every book has a technique or two that are useless. His books have none.

Bruce Lee joined tradition and common sense for the very first time in modern martial arts. He could have just accepted that he was a student of one of the last martial arts Masters, Yip Man, could have just been a representative of Wing Tsun kung fu in the US and just made money. But Bruce Lee had a restless spirit.

Sooner or later he found out the main weakness of Wing Tsun: its attacks are not strong enough. Some people will just not go down with a few punches. Today we see in mixed martial arts events that some fighters can take several good blows in the head and still be able to grab you and take you down.

Bruce created a unique style of fighting which is very effective in the way he used it. Here are some strong points:

He used kicks to the head. If he did not use them (like some people claim) he would not train for them. Kicks to the head CAN be very effective, especially roundhouse kicks. I have seen hundreds of fights. I haven’t seen anyone take a good roundhouse kick to the head and not go down. Even a tough fighter like Don Frye could not survive against a good roundhouse kick thrown to him by Jerome Le Banner.
He was one of the first to use boxing training methods and protective equipment in sparring.
He explained why a technique is effective before he taught it. Back then, in other martial arts, you either accepted tradition or you were out of the school.
He trained his punches and kicks against live targets (like focus gloves) or against the fearsome body bag. The noise of a snapping gi was not enough for him. He had to know that his attacks were effective.
He was the first martial arts master that stressed the importance of a cardiovascular workout. He was really tired of seeing big-bellied masters that would not last a single round against a boxer in a ring. For Bruce, the best kind of endurance and cardiovascular training was running.
Most martial arts make a common mistake in their training. They train their students against attacks that are used in a stiff and robot-like manner. No enemy ever attacks like that. And you can be sure that most attackers will not attack you with a reverse punch or using a traditional martial arts move. Bruce trained his students against boxing punches and tae kwon do kicks.

The list can go on forever. Bruce Lee contributed a lot to martial arts. Some can argue that he was just a man but in the end isn’t everyone? He will be in our hearts forever. Bruce Lee is considered by our website the greatest martial artist of the 20th century and no one can change our minds.

- Gus Fant [ Executive Editor ]

Article : Bruce Lee's Feats

jkd2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Bruce Lee's striking speed from 2 feet away was five hundredths of a second.
Bruce did one-hand push ups using only 2 fingers.
Bruce was able to break a 150lb bag with a sidekick.
Bruce would ride for 45 minutes (10 Miles) on a stationary bike, sweating profusely afterwards. Bruce's last movie Enter the Dragon was made for US$850,000 in 1973 ($3.74 million in 2005 currency.
To date, Enter the Dragon has grossed over $90,000,000. (IMDB.com

Bruce was able to hold a 125-pound barbell at arms length in front of him (with elbows locked) for several seconds
Source : http://www.allbrucelee.com