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Be Like Water: The Philosophy and Origin of Bruce Lee’s Famous Metaphor for Resilience
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was famous for being a martial artist and a movie star, but in reality, he was a Zen master. His philosophies are timeless, and his spiritual insights make him a rare cultural icon whose appeal is increasing in each generation.
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Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was famous for being a martial artist and a movie star, but in reality, he was a Zen master. His philosophies are timeless, and his spiritual insights make him a rare cultural icon whose appeal is increasing in each generation.
Artist Of Life
Bruce Lee rivaled many great thinkers and philosophers with his new-age insights on life and his convictions on martial arts, family and love.
A collection of his notes, private letters, and poems are now published in the book **Bruce Lee: Artist Of Life.
Be Water
Nothing is weaker than water, and in that weakness, there is immense strength. Water is fine and impossible to grasp. It does not suffer any hurt, and cannot be stabbed, or cut. It has no shape of its own but molds according to where it is placed. It can be hard as a rock and also invisible as vapor.
Being like water, humble, adaptive, resilient and ever-changing, we become masters of our surroundings.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
The Bees and the symphony of life
Against every choice of destruction, there is always the choice of creation.
This is the message of Poet Audre Lorde, as she draws on bees to describe the alternative to destruction. He...
“Construction and destruction alike satisfy the will to power, but construction is more difficult as a rule, and therefore gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it."
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Key Ideas
There’s more to Bruce Lee than martial arts
He was also a philosophy badass.
From a very young age, Bruce Lee was obsessed with learning how to make the most out of his life - by the age of 30, he possessed thousands of tit...
Self-discovery
By learning to fight, he was able to better understand who he was — he could force himself out of his comfort zone, test his limits, and confront his fears.
Be like water
Bruce Lee saw life as being in constant change.
Unless we learn to adapt to it, we’re bound to experience tremendous resistance that will entrap us in a constant state of suffering.
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Key Ideas
Bruce Lee as a philosopher
He studied poetry and philosophy in school. He focused his studies on Asian and Western philosophy, incorporating elements of Jiddu, Buddhism, Taoism, and Krishnamurti.
This helped h...
Bruce Lee's impressive life
- He wasn't a master of any standard form of martial arts. He was closest in mastering Wing Chun.
- He invented his own style of martial arts. He based his style on the teaching of Man and what he learned of Wing Chun. He called his style Jeet Kune Do "the style of no style"
- He starred in 20 films in Hong Kong before the age of 18.
- He popularized the "1 Inch Punch" as seen in Kill Bill Vol. 2
- He was a prolific poet and philosopher. He studied poetry and philosophy in school and was even published several times.
- He was so fast, his moves were often too fast for a camera to catch.
- He only made 5 feature films in the US, his last released posthumously.