Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Wright
I don't intend to shatter illusions, but I always feel it prudent to point out when people use Enter the Dragon to discuss JKD philosophies, that Bruce Lee wasn't talking about anything.....he was reading lines from a script. Enter the Dragon was written by Michael Allin,
|
Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, said on the bonus disc for
the 2-disc DVD version of Enter the Dragon that Bruce Lee got a hold of the script that Allin wrote and heavily edited it with JKD philosophy. The same disc also says that Allin knew very little about martial arts or Hong Kong. Someone with very little knowledge of martial arts would hardly have been able to pepper a movie with JKD ideas throughout, from beginning to end, which is what one sees in Enter the Dragon.
To have no technique is a fundamental idea in JKD. The idea is to use all forms as your form, instead of one specific form. So you have no form. This is what is meant by the formless form in
Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
"A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming" I think comes from some of Bruce Lee's writings. I've read very similar statements in many of his writings, available in books such as
Bruce Lee: Artist of Life. The basic concept is yin and yang, which is embodied in the JKD logo.
"When the oponent expands I contract. When he contracts I extract." I think extract here should be expand. Yin and yang again.
I do not hit. (pointing to his fist) It hits all by itself. Bruce Lee took this from samurai philosophy, which taught the sword was an extension of the body, and should be used without having to think about it (mu shin no shin in Japanese). He applied the same idea to the fist.
A lot more of Bruce Lee's philosophy in the film--too much to list. Read
Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit, and
The Warrior Within for more insight into these issues.