Bruce Lee....the Philosopher!

Bruce Lee, the Actor, Martial Arts Expert, and Philosopher...

My favorite is "Be Water, My Friend" , if the water is poured in a cup..become the cup!

First some great Martial Art talent...

The song is actually "Be Water My Friend"

Ok...come on...this is just awesome!!!!

This guy is the anti-ADHD. Amazing concentration.

What I wouldn't give to see Bruce Lee and Royce Gracie in the UFC octagon. Actually, Bruce Lee and any number of UFC fighters...

Just one more great one!!! He is not Chinese or American...but a Human! Great answer!

Originally posted by blazenresearcher
First some great Martial Art talent...

Or a fake.
A video made for an advert for Nokia.

Agency.Asia: Your JWT Network did splendidly to take out the network of the year at Adfest. Were you aware that your sister agency in Beijing were also armed with such a dynamic campaign in ‘Bruce Lee Ping Pong’, or was it as much a surprise to you as it was to everybody else that your network was going to take out the overall honours at Adfest 2009?

link

The most amazing thing I ever heard him say was, "The hardest thing to do is to express yourself honestly."
WOW

I read a book that he wrote from his hospital bed. I think he broke his leg, or maybe his arm. Well he decided to make the best use of his time in the bed and make a book while he couldn't do anything else. He is pretty much how I was introduced to Taoism. He is a major inspiration.

He was never about renouncing the world or anything monastic. He believed in making an honest living and having a good family and pursuing your goals.

I think the best way to sum him up is that he was so full of energy. He could do those movies and physical feats, but he also was tireless in explaining his own philosophy. Which by now I think many can appreciate the difficulties of bringing eastern philosophies to the west. It's not easy to explain, but he was a very disciplined hard worker, full of energy.

It's interesting to compare how he brought Taoism to the west, and how Shunryu Suzuki brought Buddhism to the west. Suzuki sort of overcame the difficulties with his wisdom and straightforwardness, Bruce Lee with his energy and work ethic. I do not know if there was a more key person to bring Taoism to the west, there may have been.

Yes he was a great philosopher but even more he was an un-acknowledged inventer....

By this I mean he was the very first Mixed Martial Artist. It was his teachings that brought upon the ever growing sport of MMA.

reply to post by alfa1


just because it was used for advertising does not mean it was fake,

bruce lee was always very adamant that none of his shots be faked. he wanted to show the reality of the art he was very adamant to never fake it with any of the Hollywood bologna

and regardless of it they did not decide to use the video of him playing ping pong for an advertisement until after it had been shot, they started up the ping pong match for entertainment it was a between shots game they decided to film when they saw how incredible it was it became clear to them the video could make money being used for something, no surprise that the movie industry wanted to use it as an advertisement

The "one inch punch". Wow. Check it out. How to throw some body across the room by moving your fist less than one inch, using, forearm, upper body, hips and legs. I've seen a phone book go through a plasma TV by dudes practicing to learn it. And i mean through the screen AND BACK of the TV!

Originally posted by pryingopen3rdeye
and regardless of it they did not decide to use the video of him playing ping pong for an advertisement until after it had been shot, they started up the ping pong match for entertainment it was a between shots game they decided to film when they saw how incredible it was it became clear to them the video could make money being used for something, no surprise that the movie industry wanted to use it as an advertisement

Did you not actually read the link I provided?

Polly Chu: Yes, we discussed with the director how to make it look like a never-seen-before secret footage of Bruce Lee.
The director took a great effort to study Bruce Lee and found the right talent.
We used an up and coming local Chinese director whose passion could be seen in every second of the film.

Originally posted by pryingopen3rdeye
reply to post by alfa1

 

just because it was used for advertising does not mean it was fake,

bruce lee was always very adamant that none of his shots be faked. he wanted to show the reality of the art he was very adamant to never fake it with any of the Hollywood bologna

and regardless of it they did not decide to use the video of him playing ping pong for an advertisement until after it had been shot, they started up the ping pong match for entertainment it was a between shots game they decided to film when they saw how incredible it was it became clear to them the video could make money being used for something, no surprise that the movie industry wanted to use it as an advertisement

edit on 10/6/11 by pryingopen3rdeye because: (no reason given)

You do realize Bruce lee is dead and that anything that comes out that is "fake" he cant complain about it, so therefore all because a Nokia commercial comes out with a "Bruce lee" imitator does not make it real. If your a true fan you would know for a "FACT" that the footage is fake, i could make an advert of JFK playing tennis and change it to black and white and you would probably fall for it. We live in a world with modern technology , hope that helps and sorry if the truth burst your bubble... im a fan too but i can cypher through whats real, the only footage i want to see is the full colour long beach footage. Yes bruce lee in colour!

Originally posted by Novise
I read a book that he wrote from his hospital bed. I think he broke his leg, or maybe his arm. Well he decided to make the best use of his time in the bed and make a book while he couldn't do anything else. He is pretty much how I was introduced to Taoism. He is a major inspiration.

He was never about renouncing the world or anything monastic. He believed in making an honest living and having a good family and pursuing your goals.

I think the best way to sum him up is that he was so full of energy. He could do those movies and physical feats, but he also was tireless in explaining his own philosophy. Which by now I think many can appreciate the difficulties of bringing eastern philosophies to the west. It's not easy to explain, but he was a very disciplined hard worker, full of energy.

It's interesting to compare how he brought Taoism to the west, and how Shunryu Suzuki brought Buddhism to the west. Suzuki sort of overcame the difficulties with his wisdom and straightforwardness, Bruce Lee with his energy and work ethic. I do not know if there was a more key person to bring Taoism to the west, there may have been.

He never broke hes leg or arm, he did damage hes back doing weight's though, "dragon - the bruce lee story" is made up, he never actually got to see that book published in real life as it was done after hes death from notes and references taken form hes estate. you can read more about this in www.chasingthefrog.com...

reply to post by camouflaged


Wow, thanks for the info. The book I read though, was called "Striking Thoughts, the wisdom of martial arts" by Bruce Lee. It may be from those same binders filled with notes? I don't know, anyway thanks for pointing me to that site, it's interesting.

Thank you all for your comments...growing up...to me...Bruce Lee represented fighting....which I'm not a big fan of...never really knew that he was so deep!

I guess that is the lesson, don't judge a book by there cover. In fact that may be the perfect lesson.

Peace to you guys

reply to post by blazenresearcher


Theres tremendous wisdom in this quote

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not you go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it.”

Its just unfortunate that so many of us have trouble loving themselves. Damn early childhood expeiences!:

WOW! These videos are awesome. I have never seen them before. Bruce Lee was indeed a great philosopher and martial arts fighter. Thanks for sharing video.

S&F

reply to post by blazenresearcher


Cool vid but I am pretty sure that vid of him playing ping pong with the nunchucks is not real, as in not really Bruce Lee. And the nunchucks is a movie weapon, as a weapon it literally is useless, in fact a sharpened pencil is way more dangerous then the nunchucks are as a weapon.

He mostly used it in his movies because it was cool, and to show people how anything in the right hands can become a dangerous weapon, but for all you nunchuck hopefuls out there....Never get in a fight with nunchucks you will probably hurt yourself more then you will hurt the other guy.

But anyways I read a couple of his books both on philosophy and fighting, and the whole "be water" thing is just a different way of expressing the zen principle of "no mind" in a way he tried to bring some of the principles of zen into a western mind-frame and express it in a way that people can understand.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and 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

One of the things he tried to break and succeeded in breaking a little, is the whole paradigm of following the past rules questionably, mostly in the martial arts. And from what I remember of the things I read on him or that he wrote, when he was younger he got into a couple of street fights, and that's one of the things that lead him into rethinking his entire approach on the martial arts. In a way he really is one of the people who pioneered the fighting arts, and trough his cross training approach of training in a couple of disciplines, it eventually lead to others breaking away and trying different things, and actually putting there theories on fighting to the test.

In a round about way he is one of the founders of mixed martial arts, or at least one of the spiritual and philosophical founder's by way of inspiring people to go out and try new things even if they were dangerous. And really if he was around today he could of been a pretty good fighter for his weight-class, and if he applied himself and stuck to fighting only so he could focus, he probably could of been one of the better fighters out there.

But he was more of a philosopher martial artist first, and an actor second. And trough his movies he tried to bring his philosophies and thoughts on the martial arts into the lime light, and the out into the world. And in many ways to those who watched and listened, he has done exactly that.

But ya op Bruce Lee was a great inspiration to a many people, even me.

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
― Bruce Lee

“If you don't want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.”
― Bruce Lee

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”
― Bruce Lee

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”
― Bruce Lee

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
― Bruce Lee

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.”
― Bruce Lee

“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!!”
― Bruce Lee

“A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. ”
― Bruce Lee

“Boards don't hit back.”
― Bruce Lee

“Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related.”
― Bruce Lee

“Linda and I aren't one and one. We are two halves that make a whole -- two halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would ever be alone!”
― Bruce Lee

“Now I see that I will never find the light
Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel,
Consuming myself.”
― Bruce Lee