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Review:
Book Description
Bruce Lee was more than just a man of action-he was a man of words. A voracious
reader, Lee studied text after text, taking meticulous notes to devise his
theories-in fighting and in life strategy. Here, for the first time, John
Little, who was granted exclusive access to Lee's notebooks, presents Lee's
writings on his philosophies of daily living including acting, fatherhood, and
the martial arts. As the 60th anniversary of his birth approaches, Bruce Lee is
an ever-popular icon of the 20th century-a man truly ahead of his time not just
in his mastery of martial arts, but in his forward thinking and his timeless
wisdom.
Excerpted from Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
by Bruce Lee, John Little. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All
rights reserved
The Mind
An intelligent mind is constantly learning. -
An intelligent mind is one which is constantly learning, never concluding -
styles and patterns have come to conclusion, therefore they [have] ceased to be
intelligent.
An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind -
An intelligent mind is an INQUIRING mind. It is not satisfied with explanations,
with conclusions; nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again
another form of conclusion.
The qualities of mind -
To be one thing and not to change is the climax of STILLNESS. To have nothing in
one that resists is the climax of EMPTINESS. To remain detached from all outside
things is the climax of FINENESS. To have in oneself no contraries is the climax
of PURITY.
You are the commander of your mind -
I've always been buffeted by circumstances because I thought of myself as a
human being [affected by] outside conditioning. Now I realize that I am the
power that commands the feeling of my mind and from which circumstances grow.
To free the mind -
In order that the mind may function naturally and harmoniously it must be freed
from all attachment to oppositional notions. The mind should be freed from the
influence of the external world. To let the mind take its course unhindered
among phenomena. Not the cultivated innocence of a clever mind that wants to be
innocent, but that state of innocence in which there is no denial or acceptance,
and in which the mind just sees what is.
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