“The Art of Dying” is a metaphor and describes the Zen idea of letting our ego die. The ego is the whole set of experiences, accumulations, and memories that make up our view of ourselves. The ego holds our prejudices and distortions.
Death of the ego means we are open to criticism. We are embracing the process of learning to develop our abilities.

The Art of Dying

“Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose, to accept defeat, to learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind, and learn The Art of Dying.”

“Do not think about winning or losing, do not think about pride and pain. (…) The biggest mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the fight. You should not think about whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your weapons will be used at the right time.“

“Jeet Kune Do teaches us not to look back after the course has been decided. He treats life and death indiscriminately. “ (…) To express yourself freely, you must forget yesterday. From the “old” you get security. “New”, you gain fluidity.”

A person with an ego is attached to a warped image, to the past, and to the future.
Letting the ego die requires you to let go of any memories and future expectations so that you can be free in the moment.

Dying to the Past and the Future

<ol>
<li>The desire for victory;</li>
<li>The desire to resort to cunning techniques;</li>
<li>The desire to display all that has been learned;</li>
<li>The desire to terrify the enemy;</li>
<li>The desire to be passive;</li>
<li>The desire to get rid of any evil that can affect you.</li>
</ol>
Bruce Lee describes the desire itself as a problem. Desiring is a bond, but so is the desire not to desire. To be detached, then, is to be free.

Six diseases that a fighter can have

A fighter should not concern himself with any expectations about the result. A fighter should continuously improve himself by using enough intelligence and training.
We should rid ourselves of our ambitious minds so we can enjoy our daily struggles without worrying about thinking in terms of winning or losing.

Die for the Ambition of Victory

Knowledge is created from the past. Forgetting knowledge means the fighter can reach a state of freedom to move in the present moment.
Bruce Lee believed the fighter should not submit to or limit himself to the technique. To die then is more connected with the idea of the constant search for improvement.

Techniques and Knowledge

“The skill and knowledge attained must be 'forgotten' so that you can float comfortably in the void without blockages. Learning is important, but do not let yourself be enslaved. (…) Any technique, however valuable and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind becomes obsessed with it.”

In his posthumous book, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, published in 1975, Lee stated that his style of fighting, called Jeet Kune Do, sought to involve both the study of a set of martial arts techniques and the development of spirituality: "The spirit is undoubtedly the controlling agent of our existence.