Bruce Lee

[baloneyx]

Well I was checking out some Bruce Lee footage and stuff like that, as I'm sure most of you know he was pretty much amazing. Now even though I know a few things about him from documentaries I'm sure there are others who know more

 

So well I was just wondering if Bruce Lee practised any meditation, qigong, nei kung or anything of the sort?

Or was he just that fast and strong from physical training alone???

[mYTHmAKER]

Well I was checking out some Bruce Lee footage and stuff like that, as I'm sure most of you know he was pretty much amazing. Now even though I know a few things about him from documentaries I'm sure there are others who know more

 

So well I was just wondering if Bruce Lee practised any meditation, qigong, nei kung or anything of the sort?

Or was he just that fast and strong from physical training alone???

 

He was a cha cha cha dance champion.

[Pranaman]

he was fast and strong. I also heard he was an ass.

dude got skill but was still an ass.

wouldn't want to be punched by him.

I guess he didn't complete his training with Yip Man.

dude could still pack a punch though.

[baloneyx]

He probably could have become a cha cha cha champ if he wanted to

 

I hadn't heard he was an ass, but who is Yip Man?

Edited November 20, 2008 by baloneyx

[Starjumper]

Yip Man was his childhood teacher in Hong Kong. He had couple other teachers in Seattle as an adult, and they are relatively unknown outside of Seattle.

[thelerner]

I've caught views of Bruce Lee through snippets of books where he is mentioned casually.

 

One unusual lesson concerning Bruce is perfection can come at a heavy cost. One of his students who would later write for the Kung Fu series, wrote that Lee was a perfectionist who always pushed himself very hard, maybe too hard. His physique was amazing, but he'd injured himself very badly lifting weights. His films were ground breaking, but he'd be a nervous wreck while doing them.

 

The writer commented Lee would play with his children by putting them on his legs and doing leg lifts using them for weight. Even in play he'd find a way to work out. Admirable, but without rest we burn out.

 

 

There was an old martial art book that had an unusual comparison. The author had experience with both Lee and Morihei Ueshiba the founder of Aikido. The writer said that Lee was a true master capable of lightening speed. But that he would be no match again Ueshiba's divine skill. The guy who wrote it wasn't an Aikidoist either. He pointed out neither the 70 year old Ueshiba or young Lee had anything to prove.

 

 

Michael

[Sloppy Zhang]

If I recall correctly the wikipedia article on him mentioned a brief training in Wu style of Tai Chi, so that may have played into some of his later JKD concepts. But the majority of his foundation in martial arts came from Wing Chun, but he never finished the WC curriculum. He went back to his master to try and learn the rest, but was refused. So the basis of his JKD was WC, and he promoted lots of WC drills, but the upper level drills and exercises were his own creation. Obviously WC based, but obviously NOT WC.

 

Which can be good or bad, there are lots of Wing Chun people who don't like Lee, but... yeah, moving on....

 

He studied a lot, studied human anatomy and pretty much any martial art that he could come in contact with, and he drew on a lot of those philosophies for his martial arts and stuff. There were some philosophical aspects to his stuff, but he distinctly says in a few of his books that when in a life or death situation philosophy aint gonna kick the guy's ass so.... take what you will from that.

[gendao]

Well I was checking out some Bruce Lee footage and stuff like that, as I'm sure most of you know he was pretty much amazing. Now even though I know a few things about him from documentaries I'm sure there are others who know more

 

So well I was just wondering if Bruce Lee practised any meditation, qigong, nei kung or anything of the sort?

Or was he just that fast and strong from physical training alone???

He knew about qi and I think made some crude attempts at utilizing it. However, I don't think it's something he really focused on (I could be wrong).

 

Moreso, the guy was a gifted kinesthetic learner who was highly-coordinated and could pick up movements immediately and improve upon them a week later. That's why he became the Hong Kong cha-cha champ as well. If you learn and master moves twice as fast as everyone else, you are destined to become a champ.

 

I think the real mystery though is where all his boundless energy and magnetic charisma came from? Seemed the guy was literally larger than life and stole the screen of whatever scene he was in. Maybe he had some naturally open energy channels or some sort of open kundalini? This could also explain why he burned out so fast, too.

 

Anyhow, here is a good forum to learn more about him from 1st & 2nd-generation students. Most don't strongly emphasis qi (if at all), but still do lean towards physical internal arts principles of structure and very heavy soft hitting...as well as other reality-based techniques like non-telegraphing, etc. And there's also a big political divide between "Original" JKD vs JKD "Concepts" camps.

[Starjumper]

So well I was just wondering if Bruce Lee practised any meditation, qigong, nei kung or anything of the sort?

Or was he just that fast and strong from physical training alone???

 

He didn't do any chi kung because chi kung makes your muscles soft and he wanted to have hard muscles so he would look good for the movies.

[fizix]

He didn't do any chi kung because chi kung makes your muscles soft and he wanted to have hard muscles so he would look good for the movies.

 

Why does chi kung make your muscles soft if you don't mind me asking?

[picnic]

I don't know too much about him but did come across his book (link here) recently. It has some interesting thoughts, some wisdom (mainly taken from the Tao Te Ching and similar texts and adapted his way) it's interesting. One quote I do really like that is attributed to him is ...

 

"Put every great teacher together in a room, and they'd agree about everything, put their disciples in there and they'd argue about everything.". -Bruce Lee

 

Well I was checking out some Bruce Lee footage and stuff like that, as I'm sure most of you know he was pretty much amazing. Now even though I know a few things about him from documentaries I'm sure there are others who know more

 

So well I was just wondering if Bruce Lee practised any meditation, qigong, nei kung or anything of the sort?

Or was he just that fast and strong from physical training alone???

[Yuen Biao]

[rain]

Here's another excellant Lee quote: "Absorb what is useful.. Add what is essentially your own."

Reject what is useless

[wudangquan]

From what I've always heard Bruce was much more into Krishnamurti than anything else, as far as that goes.

 

He was also a philosophy major, so I'm sure that bad temper, possibly bad ego, etc. aside - he had at least a strong academic foundation in Philosophy and probably an ok cultural context for understanding the basics of Taoism.

 

I think he was a case of the right person, at the right time, at the right place.

 

Anyone own the 25th anniversary edition of Enter The Dragon? It has a bunch of old interviews and stuff with him where he looks STOOOOONED, but is talking about some interesting stuff regarding martial arts, life, philosophy, etc.

[minkus]

I read a quote from Bruce Lee somewhere that always sticked with me

 

"Im not afraid of the man who knows 1000 techniques. Im afraid of the man who knows 1 technique and trained it a 1000 times."

 

Regards

[doc benway]

He didn't do any chi kung because chi kung makes your muscles soft and he wanted to have hard muscles so he would look good for the movies.

I think you're on to something here. I studied Wing Chun in Baltimore. My teacher's teacher was William Cheung. Cheung visited us from time to time and I was usually his driver (not many of my classmates had cars). A a result I got to spend a fair amount of time with him. He was good friends with Bruce as kids and told me that he was the one that introduced Bruce to Yip Man and managed to get him accepted into the school. He described Bruce as being a very quick learner but much more interested in a career in movies than in fighting. Cheung said that Bruce was not as good a fighter as he was assumed to be in the US. He only learned a relatively small part of the Wing Chun curriculum before being asked to leave the school because of problems with other students. At least that's what Cheung told me (as best I can recall - it was about 20 years ago). Soon after, he came to the US, studied other arts and synthesized all of that into JKD. When you look at his history, though, it seems to me that acting was always his great love since childhood and was probably the inspiration for his martial arts training and dedication.

[Yuen Biao]

I think you're on to something here. I studied Wing Chun in Baltimore. My teacher's teacher was William Cheung. Cheung visited us from time to time and I was usually his driver (not many of my classmates had cars). A a result I got to spend a fair amount of time with him. He was good friends with Bruce as kids and told me that he was the one that introduced Bruce to Yip Man and managed to get him accepted into the school. He described Bruce as being a very quick learner but much more interested in a career in movies than in fighting. Cheung said that Bruce was not as good a fighter as he was assumed to be in the US. He only learned a relatively small part of the Wing Chun curriculum before being asked to leave the school because of problems with other students. At least that's what Cheung told me (as best I can recall - it was about 20 years ago). Soon after, he came to the US, studied other arts and synthesized all of that into JKD. When you look at his history, though, it seems to me that acting was always his great love since childhood and was probably the inspiration for his martial arts training and dedication.

 

I don't agree with that at all!

I think Cheung is widely regarded as having 'an axe to grind' but he is correct about Lee not completing the set of Wing Chun.

As for your other point about Lee's great love being acting? I think that would be his second love, do you know about Lee's training regime? Lee trained more than modern pro-fighter's for heaven's sake!

[r.w.smith]

I think the book "Martial Musings" sums up Bruce Lee pretty well.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/product/1893765008

[doc benway]

I don't agree with that at all!

That's fine with me, I'm just sharing information I got directly from Cheung many years ago.

He didn't seem at all bitter to me back then - he seemed to be doing exactly what he wanted in continuing to teach and train and seemed to be genuinely proud that he had been Bruce's friend as children. His point was that Bruce cared more about his career in the movies than about being a fighter - I think Bruce's life bears that out. He never fought professionally and fought very minimally in amateur competition. I could be wrong though... it doesn't matter to me one or the other. He was one of my early inspirations as well.

[baloneyx]

Thanks for all the info guys, I knew you guys would know more.

 

Love the quote

"Put every great teacher together in a room, and they'd agree about everything, put their disciples in there and they'd argue about everything.". -Bruce Lee

Thanks for that one

 

Also thanks for the links, I shall check those out too

 

But well I guess he didn't really look too much into cultivating internal energies and stuff like that. Do you think if he had he may have been even stronger, faster and more?

[Starjumper]

I think you're on to something here. I studied Wing Chun in Baltimore. My teacher's teacher was William Cheung. Cheung visited us from time to time and I was usually his driver (not many of my classmates had cars). A a result I got to spend a fair amount of time with him. He was good friends with Bruce as kids and told me that he was the one that introduced Bruce to Yip Man and managed to get him accepted into the school. He described Bruce as being a very quick learner but much more interested in a career in movies than in fighting. Cheung said that Bruce was not as good a fighter as he was assumed to be in the US. He only learned a relatively small part of the Wing Chun curriculum before being asked to leave the school because of problems with other students. At least that's what Cheung told me (as best I can recall - it was about 20 years ago). Soon after, he came to the US, studied other arts and synthesized all of that into JKD. When you look at his history, though, it seems to me that acting was always his great love since childhood and was probably the inspiration for his martial arts training and dedication.

 

Bruce continued his Wing Chun training to extreme levels while living with one of his teachers in Seattle. The style was the very internal and secret style taught within the Chinese opera. Bruce learned the expertise he had in all the weapons as well as tai chi, ba gua, and a whole bunch of other kung fu arts from him. His other primary teacher is a Shaolin grandmaster who lives in the Seattle area. So Bruce's main teachers were two of the deadliest guys on the planet, and their styles are both very internal and remarkably similar. That Shaolin master has the most astounding special abilities.

 

I think some wing Chun styles (or maybe it's mostly levels =) are a lot more external and hard style than the really soft internal wing Chun of the opera, the one that is said to have been originally developed by women to control larger people.

Edited November 20, 2008 by Starjumper7

[doc benway]

I think some wing Chun styles (or maybe it's mostly levels =) are a lot more external and hard style than the really soft internal wing Chun of the opera, the one that is said to have been originally developed by women to control larger people.

I think you're right about that. I got some internal training methods in Wing Chun (mostly related to generating fajin in the striking) but it was primarily external type training. I studied with my Wing Chun teacher for about 6 years. There may have been more internal curriculum that I didn't get to.

Do you know who his teachers were in Seattle?

Are any of their students still teaching in the area?

[gendao]

I think you're on to something here. I studied Wing Chun in Baltimore. My teacher's teacher was William Cheung. Cheung visited us from time to time and I was usually his driver (not many of my classmates had cars). A a result I got to spend a fair amount of time with him. He was good friends with Bruce as kids and told me that he was the one that introduced Bruce to Yip Man and managed to get him accepted into the school. He described Bruce as being a very quick learner but much more interested in a career in movies than in fighting. Cheung said that Bruce was not as good a fighter as he was assumed to be in the US. He only learned a relatively small part of the Wing Chun curriculum before being asked to leave the school because of problems with other students. At least that's what Cheung told me (as best I can recall - it was about 20 years ago). Soon after, he came to the US, studied other arts and synthesized all of that into JKD. When you look at his history, though, it seems to me that acting was always his great love since childhood and was probably the inspiration for his martial arts training and dedication.

The older I get, the more cool things I find in Bruce on deeper levels.

 

I think now, the coolest thing about him was his intense passion, magnetic charisma and belief in himself. Similar to a Tupac Shakur. Cha-cha, martial arts and acting were all really just vehicles for him to express his own unique persona in a totally captivating manner. He was becoming an expert at being Bruce. He had more confidence in himself than any system or teacher. And that total self-knowing, self-assurance, self-conviction and ability to express that effectively is something I am really searching for myself today.

 

Which I think is actually rarer than being a champion in any of those disciplines. I mean, it's tough to win fights in the ring. But, it is arguably much harder to look good on screen and captivate global audiences for decades.

 

Very few people possessed the raw charisma that he had. And I think that was his real gift, that I would love to be able to find in myself. The guy really knew himself and maximized his short time on Earth. How exactly did he do that? That's the real art I want to learn...

Edited November 20, 2008 by vortex

[Wayfarer64]

He was briefly a student of my sifu, Grand Master Bill Chung... GM Chung told me he believed Lee was killed by some unknown masters' female assassin -The only persons Lee let near him self were family, true & trusted friends and various lovers...someone laid him low with a slow-acting death blow administered durring sexual activity...

 

Many masters were ticked-off that Lee was so famous & would not test himself against them in an open trial by combat...

 

I do NOT claim this to be the facts just an educated guess by someone who knew him...Small world here huh?!

Edited November 20, 2008 by Wayfarer64

[doc benway]

The older I get, the more cool things I find in Bruce on deeper levels.

 

I think now, the coolest thing about him was his intense passion, magnetic charisma and belief in himself. Similar to a Tupac Shakur. Cha-cha, martial arts and acting were all really just vehicles for him to express his own unique persona in a totally captivating manner. He was becoming an expert at being Bruce. He had more confidence in himself than any system or teacher. And that total self-knowing, self-assurance, self-conviction and ability to express that effectively is something I am really searching for myself today.

 

Which I think is actually rare than being a champion in any of those disciplines. I mean, it's tough to win fights in the ring. But, it is arguably much harder to look good on screen and captivate global audiences for decades.

 

Very few people possessed the raw charisma that he had. And I think that was his real gift, that I would love to be able to find in myself. The guy really knew himself and maximized his short time on Earth. How exactly did he do that? That's the real art I want to learn...

Very well said - I think you hit it right on the money.