Bruce Lee: Quotes and Death

Hello all,

Bruce Lee is best known as a fantastic martial artist and for his films but he was also a very deep thinker, a knowledgable and intelligent man, ultimately a philosopher.

Here are some of his quotes although maybe thought of in martial arts terms I think they can be applied to everyone and everyday life:

"Be formless... shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend..."

"All kind of knowledge, eventually becomes self knowledge"

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

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

"A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough."

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."

Some very useful quotes there in my opinion and they can be applied to normal everyday life.

I also think some of them could act as useful tools in looking at any conspiracy theory.

Bruce Lee's death is shrouded in mystery and no solid reason has been identified for his death, if anyone would like to speculate upon that in this thread then please feel free.

Cheers,

Indeed. Bruce was an advanced thinker.

As to his death, Bruce had a standing, open invitation for anyone who wanted to fight/spar with him to visit him any time. He normally schooled anyone who took him up on his offer. However, about 2 weeks before his death an old chinese man showed up and challenged him and the two of them had a very intense battle that reportedly lasted for over an hour leaving them both exhausted, battered, and dripping with sweat with neither being able to ever really gain an advantage over the other.

The rumor coming from Bruce's inner circle of students was that during this fight, the old man had at one point hit him with a "Dim Mak" strike in such a way as to cause the brain edema 2 weeks later which caused his death. The Dim Mak or Death Touch is not a myth. I have had training in this myself and it is very real.

Other rumors indicated that the old man had been sent by the Chinese Tongs for the express purpose of killing him. They had ordered him to shut down his schools soon after he had opened it and he had proposed a winner take all fight with a champion of their choosing. Bruce won the fight and kept his school open but the Tongs never took losing well.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by AwakeAndAware]

Kudos brother, I loved Bruce Lee the first time I ever seen him on Green Hornet. I was about seven.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough."

I think this is my favorite quote.
Bruce Lee was a great human being before he was anything.
We lost so much when the lost him and still he left us with so much.
SnF

Bruce up your thread a little bit. This is a very rare fight scene, that I have
never seen in syndication.



Truely unbelievable speed.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by randyvs]

reply to post by AwakeAndAware


Interesting. I have heard the idea that Bruce died because of a dim-mak like strike, the Vibrating Palm strike is whats commonly mentioned.

However, I have also heard that he died from taking Cannabis.

reply to post by randyvs


Thanks for the star and flag, yeah indeed Bruce Lee was a great man.

I've recently been reading about various martial arts because I intend to take them up again in the near future and I was reading about him (once again!) which inspired me to write this thread.

I think the man was ahead of his time in more ways than one and it will be a while in my opinion before we have someone else like him.

reply to post by AwakeAndAware


The fight with the old man (Wong Jack Man) did take place and was supposed to have lasted about 3 minutes according to Lee et al and 25 mins according to Wong. This was before Bruce vastly improved his technique. Bruce became almost superhuman in his abilities and even masters such as Wong stood no chance.

I believe the coroners verdict of sensitivity to the analgesic he took.



[edit on 19/3/2010 by LightFantastic]

reply to post by randyvs


Cheers for the vid!

I'm looking at studying a martial art called Panantukan, don't suppose you have ever heard of it ?

reply to post by Death_Kron


No one has ever died from taking cannabis. Don't ever forget that.

Cause of death on the coroners report undetermined.

I'm looking at studying a martial art called Panantukan, don't suppose you have ever heard of it ?

I havn't heard of that please tell I'm always interested, is it new?

I am very well studied in the way of the intercepting fist.
From that I developed the speed in my punches. Then when I decided
to go take a class. Sinsei told me after one month of being there.

That if I was their to gain a black belt then by all means stay.
If I was there to learn how to fight, I may as well leave because I already knew.
I was absolutely floored that he said that to me.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by randyvs]

Originally posted by randyvs
reply to post by Death_Kron

 

No one has ever died from taking cannabis. Don't ever forget that.

Don't worry I know that, in fact I find it hard to believe Bruce Lee would smoke Cannabis but I suppose everyone has their own vices.

I like the "empty cup" speech Bruce often gave, which is really a comment on preconceived notions, something I see a lot of here on ATS. To be open to new ideas you frequently have to discard the old ones. I don't know how many times I've seen people reject good information because they "just can't believe it."

www.articlesonmartialarts.com...

It was obvious to the master from the start of the conversation that the professor was not so much interested in learning about Zen as he was in impressing the master with his own opinions and knowledge. As the Zen teacher spoke, the proud man would frequently interrupt him with remarks like “Oh, yes we have that, too” and so on.

Finally, the Zen teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured until the cup was full... and then kept pouring until it overflowed.

“Enough!” the professor once more interrupted. “The cup is overfull, no more will go in!”

“Indeed, I see,” answered the Zen teacher. “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. If you do not first empty your cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?”

This little story nicely illustrates the qualities of being humble and open-minded. As a martial artist it is important to acknowledge that we don’t know everything, and although we strive to reach our potential we can always learn from others, including our instructor in our chosen martial art.

One very famous martial artist who epitomized the quality of being open-minded and learning from others is Bruce Lee and the story quoted above was one of his favorites. Unfortunately for his family and for the rest of the world, Bruce Lee tragically died over 30 years ago on July 21st 1973.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by Crito]

reply to post by Death_Kron

I think he ate cannabis.

It is impossible to die from Cannabis directly. To give a 50/50 chance of death you would have to smoke about a ton in 30 minutes.

Can anyone name any other substance that is that safe?

reply to post by Crito


That was a good story and one I haven't read about before so thanks for that

It highlights the fact that as a martial artist you need to be open to other people's ideas and attempt to learn what you can from them.

But that also applies in life!

Originally posted by LightFantastic
reply to post by Death_Kron

 

I think he ate cannabis.

It is impossible to die from Cannabis directly. To give a 50/50 chance of death you would have to smoke about a ton in 30 minutes.

Can anyone name any other substance that is that safe?

I don't believe he died from Cannabis intake one bit to be honest but all sorts of things have been mentioned as to the cause of his death.

Even a family curse upon the Lee family...

With regards to substances I do know that your more likely to die in a train crash than you are from taking a MDMA tablet.

sometimes people just die. he exercised hard and had very little body fat, it's not a good combination. in a lot of respects, it's nearly as bad as obesity.

he had some interesting ideas though, i particularly like his ideas about fighting, ritualised practice and the habit of only fighting and sparing with people who use the same style as you seems to make 90% of what you do in most martial arts fairly redundant (boxers never see a kick in the stones coming).

bruce lees ideas and theory are far more practical while the actual skills require very little instruction, they feel fairly natural and fluid right from the start. it's a very useful style of martial arts. (easy to learn, impossible to master )

[edit on 19/3/10 by pieman]

Originally posted by pieman
sometimes people just die. he exercised hard and had very little body fat, it's not a good combination.

He was probably one of the healthiest individuals that has ever lived, your input wasn't very insightful...

reply to post by AwakeAndAware

The Dim Mak or Death Touch is not a myth. I have had training in this myself and it is very real.

Ops, is someone here confessing a crime???

reply to post by randyvs


Quite the contrary! Apparently its thousands of years old, basically the hand form of Kali/Escrima, it looks extremely effective on the videos I have watched and theres a local club teaching it so I'm thinking of going.

Here's a link of Dan Inosanto showing the art :

www.youtube.com...

I've been reading alot about JKD aswell recently, very interested in the fact that its more of a concept than an art and the fact that its flexible with regards to incorporating other techniques.

reply to post by pieman


Better post my friend and I've starred you for it.

reply to post by ucalien


LOL. No. No confession of a crime here. Though trained in Dim-Mak I have never used the art.

As far as the fight goes, I was in no way referring to the fight with Wong Jack Man, that fight took place years earlier. The fight I am referring to happened about 2 weeks before Bruce died and happened in the middle of the night. An old man showed up at his door in the middle of the night and Bruce had no idea who the guy was, just that he felt like it was a fight to the death and that the fight stopped when the lights came on and linda started yelling for him. He was really shaken when it was over and told a friend the next day that he thought he had been hit with a dim mak strike.

reply to post by Death_Kron


there's a book compiled from bruce lee's notes, it's called the tao of jeet kune do, i think you'ld find it interesting. it's as much about the way you think as the way you fight. you seem to be interested in bruce lee so if you haven't got a copy, i recommend it. you can probably find a free download somewhere but it's probably not something you could sit and read for hours, i recommend you buy a copy and keep it close to the throne.

in honor of your thread, i thought i'ld open a random page, stick a pin in and quote whatever was written.

the whole secret of the actual force of a terrific punch is it's timing, coordinated, of course, with the accuracy of it's aim. hang a small ball to practice aim.

not very philosophical, i tried again and got

insight is realizing that one's original nature is not created.

which is better, if a little obscure.

[edit on 19/3/10 by pieman]