Tao Of Jeet Kune Do

Essay on Jeet Kune Do Bruce Lee 1 Three swordsmen sat down at a table in a crowded Japanese inn and began to make loud comments about their neighbor, hoping to goad him into a duel. The master seemed to take no notice of them, but when their remarks became ruder and more pointed, he raised his chopsticks and, in quick snips, effortlessly caught four flies wings. As he slowly laid down the chopsticks, the three swordsmen hurriedly left the room. The story illustrates a great difference between oriental and western thinking. The average westerner would be intrigued by someone’s ability to catch flies with chopsticks, and would probably say that has nothing to do with how good he is in combat. But the oriental would realize that a man who has attained such complete mastery of an art reveals his presence of mind in every action. The state of wholeness and imperturbability demonstrated by the master indicated his mastery of self. And so it is with martial arts. To the westerner the finger jabs, the side kicks, and the back fist, etc, are tools of destruction and violence which is, indeed, one of their functions. But the oriental believes that the primary function of such tools is revealed when they are self-distracted and destroy greed, fear, anger and folly. Manipulative skill is not Oriental’s goal. He is aiming his kicks and blows at himself and when successful, may even succeed in knocking himself out. After years of training, he hopes to achieve that vital loosening and equab