Being like Water Means Having an Open Mind (transcript) (Patreon)

To understand Bruce Lee is to know him not only as a martial performer but also as a Chinese-American immigrant living in America during the fifties and sixties. Lee's heritage, cultural clash, and label as the outsider informed not only his thinking but in how he saw the martial arts—which were to Lee an expression of life.

Though Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco, what mattered wasn't his birth certificate or that he was an American, but rather what people saw on the surface. And to most, he was just another "Chinaman." And "American" meant a standard look and sound.

Hollywood treated him no differently, even taking one of his ideas and casting a white actor: David Carradine. That show was Kung Fu.

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

This famous quote is actually part of a daily affirmation from Gestalt therapy. Many of Lee's best quotes are not his own. Lee was willing to learn from any source. No loyalties, he took the ideas he liked and discarded the rest.

Lee is also known to have said, "There is nothing new under the sun," which is a verse from the Bible.

Lee was a curator of ideas. He read, thought about things, and shared with the world the ideas that struck him the most. This is Jeet Kune Do, there is no technique Lee invented himself. He only synthesized what he believed to be the best moves and best ideas.

Lee: "You see, I have already made up my mind that, in the United States, I think something about the oriental, I mean the true oriental, should be shown."

Pierre: "Hollywood sure as heck hasn't!"

Bruce Lee: "You better believe it, man. I mean it's always that pigtail, bouncing around, "chop-chop," you know? With the eyes slanted and all that. And I think that's very, very out of date."

In his own acting pursuits, Lee did not want to be an Asian minstrel performing to white expectations. But Hollywood did not want an Asian leading man. (And to this day, you can make an argument that Bruce Lee was the first and still only Asian leading man.)

For Lee, this was a time in Hollywood when white actors in yellowface still portrayed “Orientals.”

Whether it be race or styles, Lee believed these were arbitrary social constructs made by man, and he decided these limiting beliefs were not for him.

In one of his most famous interviews, Lee said:

“You know what I want to think of myself, as a human being. Because, I don’t want to sound like—as Confucius say—but under the sky, under the heaven, man, there is but one family. It just so happens, man, that people are different.”

Now in this context, reconsider the meaning of Lee's most famous quote, given in the same interview:

“Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. Now 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. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

This was Lee synthesizing Taoism and the work of Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching, the philosophy of pluralism.

Frustrated with Hollywood, Lee moved to Hong Kong to create his own success. Lee decided if he were to be an outsider, he would make his outsider message so large that it could not be ignored by the West.

In The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee by John Little, a personal friend to the Lee family, Bruce Lee is quoted as saying:

“We have much great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement, which is something I experience every day—sometimes good, sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out of the darkness.”

When an interviewer asked Lee about teaching martial arts to actors, Lee explained what he was really teaching through the martial arts:

“All types of knowledge ultimately mean self-knowledge. … They want to learn to express themselves through some movement. Be it anger, be it determination, or whatsoever. Therefore, he is paying me to show him in combative form the art of expressing the human body.”

The interviewer then asked Lee if that wasn't in a sense, acting?

“It might sound too philosophical, but it’s unacting acting or acting unacting. … So what I’m saying, actually, you see, it’s a combination of both. I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not, if you have one to the extreme, you’ll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man. No longer a human being. So it is a successful combination of both, so, therefore, it’s not pure naturalness or unnaturalness.”

This was Chinese Taoist philosophy in application. Lee spent much of his time reading books and listening to tapes on philosophy.

Philosophy, not martial arts, was Bruce Lee's area of study in college. There were many martial athletes on TV and movies. But Bruce Lee was the first martial philosopher in popular Western entertainment. This is what makes Bruce Lee unique in all the world.

In martial arts, Lee was only classically trained from 1957 to 1959. Though impactful, it was a very short period. Much of Lee's knowledge, then, came from self-study and from reading.

The 17th-century Japanese haiku master Matsuo Basho said: “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.”

To this, Lee said: "When I look around, I always learn something, and that is to be yourself always, express yourself, and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him. Now that seems to be the prevalent thing happening in Hong Kong, like they always copy mannerism, but they never start from the root of his being, and that is, how can I be me?"

Being like Bruce Lee is not about moving like he did, otherwise every acrobat is Bruce Lee. But rather, reading what he read, and delving into the philosophies that formed his mind. Into the abyss and to come out with new knowledge. Not only to parrot sound bites but to understand where these ideas first blossomed.

This is what Lee tried to do, often playing the same philosophy tapes he would listen to in front of his students (from Alan Watts to Jiddu Krishnamurti). This is why the followers of Bruce Lee are unable to reach others like he did; they are teaching his moves without the deep philosophical meaning behind them. Arguing over what would work on the streets, rather than asking, what is there to life beyond the streets?

Becoming copies of copies, crystalizing, becoming mechanical teachers who imitate philosophy without understanding it, turning Lee's words into clichés, rather than expanding on his work.

Becoming more like the tape player than like Lee.

It's fun to kick and punch; but how many people willing to do that are equally willing to sit still and study? For most, it's a binary decision.

Why sit still and study when I would rather kick and punch instead? Or why would I kick and punch when I can sit and study? But in the pluralism of Taoism, Lee's foundational philosophy, there is no separation from this way and that way. There is only one Way.

Lee was eager, both physically and mentally. The problem of the world today is that people are divided in their eagerness: eager in body or eager in mind but not both. Lazy in one or the other or both, but rarely enthusiastic about all things.

But life is all things.

And there are all kinds of people.

Lee constantly looked for ways to apply philosophical concepts to martial arts, where martial arts was the conduit for philosophy.

The most famous and controversial idea being that there were no styles, just as it is controversial to say there are no categories of people. (Remember, this was a time of civil rights where equality itself was a controversial idea.)

Every new idea, was and still is considered a slippery slope.

No styles? What next? Treat everyone equally? Allow women also to train?

Bruce Lee went to college during the height of post-modernism, the belief that all things are subjective. However, and I can relate to this, what these idealistic students and academics lacked was the grounding of martial arts. Without it, rather than bringing people together, you alienate them. People will think you're just trying to police their speech, and ultimately their minds.

The idea of no styles, whether it be political or martial, threatens institutional power. If it were only about fighting, people would have been less upset.

The idea of mixing styles for effectiveness had already existed. What threatened people was that Lee was not talking about fighting, he was using fighting as a metaphor to speak about everything: from his own interracial marriage, to teaching all walks of life, treating people equally, and challenging American identity. Not only mixing of styles but mixing of blood, and his own mixed children.

But that is the nature of Taoism, no classifications but rather one broad understanding.

Though people miss the metaphor now, they got the metaphor then. And they were not happy about the ramifications of Lee's teachings. Conservative minds found it subversive, corruptive. But, now there's nothing subversive about Lee teachings; he's just a bad-ass. And to only appreciate that is a shame.

You see, Lee was talking beyond the blending of styles, or MMA, or the mixing of people—but that these categories and institutions themselves were illusions—that they did not exist. To say you were mixing them would be an admission of natural divisions, which Lee did not believe in.

We may speak differently, but all languages are just dialects built from grunts. (In intellectual circles, these ideas are now in vogue because of Yuval Noah Harari and the award-winning history book, Sapiens. But perhaps, watching or even trying MMA and thinking about the construct of styles would have gotten these intellectuals to this paradigm shift sooner. Or that there is no paradigm shift at all, that there is nothing new under the sun.)

We cannot dismiss that Bruce Lee lived in a time where signs that read "No Chinese or dogs allowed," were common. And this was during the height of the sixties, the progressive era. In San Francisco, the progressive city.

Back then, Bruce Lee was not Bruce Lee—in the era he lived in, he was not revered. Lee, was just another Chinaman (another chink) and faced constant discrimination like every other Chinese immigrant. (Even though he was born in the US.)

It's easy to retroactively assume he must have been as beloved then as he is now, but the reason he is beloved now is because of what he overcame then.

Think about this, interracial marriage was only legalized in the United States in 1967.

Bruce Lee began dating Linda Emery in 1961. Not only was that shocking and unacceptable, but it was also dangerous. Their relationship was only more grave because Lee was an Asian man and Emery, a white woman.

Back then, and perhaps in some parts of the country now, stopping a non-white man from dating a white woman was saving the white woman from a foreign animal. (You heard the same things then as you hear now, "What next? Will we let people marry their dogs?")

Misguidedly, these people don't see themselves as villains, but rather, as heroes to their race. But all villains see themselves as heroes; otherwise, they couldn't justify their actions.

Though a white man with an Asian woman has gained acceptance, the opposite is still uncomfortable for some. (And in some areas, still dangerous.) Imagine how bad it was during the time of Bruce and Linda?

The two married in 1964, three years before it was federally recognized. Lee was not only an outcast in white America but also in the Asian community. These events shaped his beliefs.

We know Lee's physical prowess but forgot his message, his underlying life philosophy. (Turning most of his quotes into inspirational workout platitudes.) Lee believed in evolving to a higher consciousness, and that meant thinking beyond petty differences.

On social constructs and illusory divisions amongst groups, Lee said:

“You see, actually, I do not teach, you know, karate, because I do not believe in styles anymore. I mean I do not believe that there is such thing as, like, a Chinese way of fighting or a Japanese way of fighting, or whatever way of fighting because unless a human being has three arms and four legs, there can be no different form of fighting.”

And just as there can be no different styles, "unless a human being has three arms and four legs," there can be no different types of people. Not Chinese, Japanese, or American, only human beings, one family under heaven.

The key to Bruce Lee's worldview on human constructs and arbitrary divisiveness is best explained in Lee's own words:

“But, basically, we only have two hands and two feet. So styles tend to, not only separate man because they have their own doctrines and the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But, if you do not have styles, if you just say, ‘Here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely?’ Now that way, you won’t create a style because style is a crystallization. That way is a process of continuing growth.”

Another apt metaphor:

"Running water never grow stale. So you gotta keep on flowing."

If you asked Lee what political party he belonged to, he would probably say, "I do not believe in parties. Parties tend to separate man. And if you do not have parties, you can just say, here I am as a human being."

We buy into arbitrary doctrines about ourselves, and others, and the way we ought to live our lives. But it's all man-made illusions.

On being a human being, Lee said:

“Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.”

So why is there such confusion over Bruce Lee's philosophy? It traces back to his usage of the term "martial arts." There is how we generally mean it, the militaristic art of combat, and there is Lee's definition of martial arts, one I can personally relate to:

"But martial art has had a very, very deep meaning as far as my life is concerned because, as an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all these I have learned from martial art."

Our definition of the martial arts is too limiting. It is meant to be holistic knowledge, a Way of being.

“To me, ultimately, martial art means honestly expressing yourself. Now it is very difficult to do. I mean it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool and all that. Or I can make all kinds of phony things, you see what I mean? And be blinded by it. Or I can show you some really fancy movement. But to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself and to express myself honestly, that, my friend is very hard to do. And you have to train. You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it, it’s there! When you want to move, you are moving and when you move you are determined to move. Not taking one inch, not anything less than that! If I want to punch, I’m going to do it, man, and I’m going to do it! So that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into it—to become one with it. You think [snaps his fingers], it is.”

So how should we frame the martial arts? Perhaps we should empty our minds. You can't fill a vessel that is already full, especially one that is full of preconceived notions. 

Having a closed mind is like being trapped in a repeating closed loop. Open your mind.

Bruce Lee said:

“Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationship to man. Then he becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing.”

If you cannot think beyond your programming—your patterns—then you are not really thinking. You are a "mechanical man." Then what is living? Lee said:

“Real living is living for others.”

Perhaps we only focus on Lee's martial arts moves and make it domain-specific (martial arts icon rather than cultural) because his life philosophy, to this day, makes people uncomfortable.

But after Enter the Dragon, Lee became a civil rights symbol. He, in many ways, is just as important to non-Asian minorities.

Lee saw himself as a cultural bridge between the East and the 

West. According to Dan Inosanto, Bruce Lee's closest friend: "He told me that he could educate people about the East more in films than in books."

On his stardom, Lee said:

“Well, let me say this—first of all, the word ‘superstar’ really turns me off, and I’ll tell you why. The word ‘star’ man, it’s an illusion. It’s something that the public calls you.”

Lee did not want to be a superstar but rather an educator. To teach us to look past the skin or any preconceived notions and to judge a person by his or her character.

“I do not look upon myself as a star. I really don’t. I mean believe me, man, when I say it.”

Not only enduring after his death, Lee's legacy only continues to grow, inspiring people from all walks of life. And that was always his goal, for us to have a life of meaning, as he did.