Just prior to his death, Bruce Lee was working on a way to increase his already mind numbing reaction speed and focus even further. Using headphones, he would play the sound of running water in one ear, while slowly increasing the sound of a roaring jet engine in his other ear - remaining focused on the sound of the running water. He found that a state approaching a kind of sleepiness greatly aided catlike reflexes - that "quite, deeply relaxed awareness" cats are so amazingly well versed in. Despite its great neglect - there's a lot to be said for the mind's side of BL's own JKD - no doubt about it.
Things I've run accross over the years. On another note, in the first epsiode of Longstreet ("The Way of The Intercpeting Fist") ever notice how Lee choreographed the Longstreet character fight at the end of the episode to appear sloppy, as in life? Yet there is so much noise in the JKD world about proper form (over what Lee's character's "helping" the Longstreet character "to explore" results in - "spritual loosening, relationship, efficiency - anything that scores")? Word-phrase-descriptions such as "spiritual loosening," "liberating effect," "relationship," and so on, were so important to Lee's own JKD. In a single phrase or two he'd capture an entire constellation of what he'd been after, arrived at, sought to share with those fortunate enough to have trained with him. They're not hollow words. Neither are they mere philosophy. Instead, they hold vital keys to what this brilliant individual had found was JKD. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg2oeP3-yKk&feature=related"]YouTube - bruce lee - Jeet kune do[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0AVGWIw4cU&feature=related"]YouTube - Longstreet: The Way of the Intercepting Fist Scene 17 of 17[/ame]
Great Posts JeetKuneDero thanks. "Free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying" "Drinking tea from a empty cup" awesome.
"until you can put combinations together without even thinking about it..." For so many, the emphasis is on reflex through drillls (not denying the necessary physical attributes they result in, nor the need for sound mechanics, just another way). One resaon for this thread was that its been my own experience that "techniques and combinations" drills are not the way to that end result. That only leads to being unable to respond in the moment to the moment itself, unless it happens to fit the reflex which was drilled! In the clip, Lee does not do focus on drills. Instead, he focuses the guy on movement while using his senses, on relating to Lee, on being in the moment, and so on.. You enter original freedom. Onnce there, you study the physics - in action, on the spot "in" original freedom - "iinstinctive body feel" (Liberate Yourself From Classical Karate). As is often the result of this type of journey, upon having reached that high a level, looking back at his own path, Lee may have found there was another way - that of approaching the route to orginal freedom by beginning at original freedom itself. Thus his statements, "I can not teach you, only help you to explore..." "Play it like you don't know anything" - Jazz legend, Miles Davis
