Bruce Lee Podcast

"The void may be said to have two aspects: It simply is what it is. It is realized; it is aware of itself. And to speak improperly, this awareness is "in us," or better, we are "in it."" Void = Nothingess = Emptiness = The Origin of Things = Tao The first form of the Void where 'it simply is what it is,' is to cultivate an acceptance of reality as it is; to engage in simplicity and everyday mind; to simply be with acceptance and without force. The second form of the Void is aware of itself – this is a more developed sense of emptiness, an emptiness where we are "of it" or "we are it." Join Shannon and Sharon as they discuss the practice of finding your path, knowing yourself, and freeing yourself. We'd love to hear from you! Email us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us @brucelee on social media with #bruceleepodcast. Full notes at BruceLee.com/podcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

This episode is a follow up to episode #87 Becoming a Warrior. In this episode, we revisit what it is to Become a Warrior, Shannon shares her progress on Becoming a Warrior, discusses different self-experiments she's trying, and what it's like to develop your own warrior code. "The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus." We would love to hear about your path to becoming a true warrior! If you would like to share your own stories about your path to becoming a true warrior email us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us @brucelee on social media with #bruceleepodcast. Full notes at BruceLee.com/podcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

This week we have a special episode where Shannon and Sharon share wisdom from Bruce Lee Podcast listeners. We asked for our listeners to share their #BruceLeeMoments and we've gotten emails from around the world! Shannon and Sharon love reading the stories about how Bruce Lee has affected so many people's lives. It is wonderful when listeners share their wisdom and insights they've gained from listening to the Bruce Lee Podcast. By implementing Bruce Lee's philosophy into their lives, people are staying present, being in flow, and living life authentically. Thank you to all of our listeners for sharing your wisdoms and insights! We appreciate you and support you in your journey towards self-actualization. Be water, my friend. Go to our show notes to read in full the wisdom and insights shared in this episode. Full notes at BruceLee.com/podcast Have a #BruceLeeMoment or insight you've gained from listening to the podcast? We'd love to hear from you! Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

"Fluidity of mind – the moon in the stream – where it is at once movable and immovable." Your mind is the moon and all the thoughts and awareness that move through it is the stream. The goal is to cultivate a mind that is both still, but also able to move and take in everything at the same time. Bruce Lee thought that the mind was endowed with infinite mobility. "The mind itself is endowed with infinite mobilities that know no hindrances." Bruce had a story about the many-armed Kwan Yin. All of her arms are holding and doing different things, and if she stops to think about what one arm is doing then all of her arms stop. This is because she is no longer in flow as she has drawn back to question if she can operate all of these things at once. This is the idea of the moon and the stream, as applied to our mind. We can take in all manner of input and still have a point of view. "Moving and yet not moving, in tension and yet relaxed, seeing everything that is going on and yet not at all anxious about the way it may turn, with nothing purposely designed, nothing consciously calculated, no anticipation, no expectation – in short, standing innocently like a baby and yet with all the cunning of the keenest intelligence of a fully matured mind." The mind is easily distracted because it loved to analyze. Bruce believed that the native structure of the mind is fluidity. We are born with minds that sense and take it all in. It is through our experiences and input that we can start to shut down and fixate on certain experiences getting stuck in a mental loop. "The delusional mind is the mind intellectually and effectively burdened. It thus cannot move on from one move to another without stopping and reflecting on itself, and this obstructs its native fluidity – its creativity." "The wheel revolves when it is not too tightly attached to the axle. When the mind is tied up, it feels inhibited in every move it makes, and nothing will be accomplished with any sense of spontaneity. Not only that, the work itself will be of poor quality or may never be finished." When the mind is too bound up, we become paralyzed. Fear is a distraction that can block up our mind and paralyze us. We replay experiences repeatedly and get trapped in this loop. We have to let go of these replays, no matter how difficult it is. "Recollection and anticipation are fine qualities of consciousness; they are useful and serve their purposes, but when actions are directly related to the problem of life and death, recollection and anticipation must be given up so that they will not interfere with the fluidity of mentation and the lightning rapidity of action." When we have fluidity of mind, the mind is infinitely mobile and creative. Sometimes we get caught up in the fear that pain in life will last forever and crush us, but life does not stay fixed, it flows forward. Life moves all the time, the bad things move and the good things move. You must make the bad decisions so you can get the experience to make good decisions. If you have a fluid mind, it is easier to traverse rough terrain. Much of the pain we feel is due to resistance and bracing for the worst. All of the difficult experiences in your life are to help you practice the Moon and the Stream. Peacefulness is does not mean that nothing bad never happens, but instead peacefulness is letting bad things flow through you instead of creating blockage or a whirlpool of emotion inside you. "It is the ego that stands rigidly against things coming from the outside. It is this "ego rigidity" that makes it impossible for us to be fluid and accepting." Do not beat yourself up if you have a hard time being fluid in a situation; know that there will be another time where you can put fluidity into practice. It takes dedicated practice to have a fluid mind. Notice when you have difficulty having fluidity of mind. Notice when you have an insight and put it into practice. "The waters are in motion all the time, but the moon retains its serenity. The mind moves in response to the ten thousand situations but remains ever the same." What are you experiences of the Moon and the Stream? We'd love to hear from you! Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

"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. 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." Bruce Lee trained his mind as diligently as he trained his body. An intelligent mind is a curious mind that is constantly learning. "Knowledge is the past; learning is the present." In the past, memorizing facts was what was considered intelligent and not everyone had access to educational resources. Now, we have computers, the internet, and smart phones that give us wide access to information, so having an intelligent mind is about how we use that access to information. "Not "what" to think but "how" to think." There are all kinds of intelligence, not just intelligence based on how much you know or how many facts you can recall. "Intelligence is the understanding of self." "Intelligence is sometimes defined as the capacity of the individual to adjust himself successfully to his environment, or to adjust the environment to his needs." The intelligence of understanding yourself is challenging. It requires you to look deeply at both the good and the bad. Sometimes people show a performance of intelligence through eloquent words and fact recall, but have no understanding of their self. These people tend to rely on using other people's words and quotes in everyday conversations, instead of voicing their own thoughts and words. If you are only using other people's words without putting them into practice, then you are living a performance. It is good to use quotes from inspirational people such as Bruce Lee, but you should not use them in a superficial way. "Learning is discovery. The best way of learning is not the computation of information, but discovering and uncovering what there is in us – our own abilities, our own eyes, in order to find our potential." Bruce Lee held the belief that self-education makes a great person and to use your mind instead of being used by your mind. The intelligent mind is the mind that we are using. It is important that your mind and your outward expression be as in line as possible. When the words do not match the actions, there is a feeling of inauthenticity that is felt by you and everyone you are in relationship with. With an intelligent mind it is important to notice and be open to feedback you receive from your environment and relationships. "Life is something for which there is no answer. It must be understood from moment to moment." If you make the shift from a fixed mind to a curious mind, then you can invite discussion instead if shutting down discussion. "A conditioned mind is not a free mind." "Real freedom is the outcome of intelligence." If you are adaptable, if you are always learning and present, then the ability to be more free comes from that. Understanding yourself is difficult because examining your self and looking within can be painful. Use what is going on inside yourself to fuel your curiosity. The study of imperfection can perfectly lead you to a more free existence. If you saw Bruce Lee walk into a room, he was fluid, real, present, and alive in his mind. The intelligent mind is an alive mind, a mind that is actively engaged. "You have to raise your mind up to absolute awareness." Conversing and engaging with new people can be difficult, especially now when we can go on our phones and use that isolated activity as a shield in social situations. Mindfully entering a new space requires awareness and conversing with people in a meaningful way requires being fully present and engaged. "If you learn concepts and information, then you don't understand. You only explain. When a man thinks, he stands off from what he is trying to understand." "Drop and dissolve inner blockage." "A concentrated mind is not an attentive mind, but a mind that is in a state of open awareness can concentrate. We are concerned with the total process of living, and to concentrate exclusively on any particular aspect of life, belittles life." Sometimes a concentrated mind is needed in order to solve a specific problem, but the mistake is to bring the concentrated mind into all situations, instead then you need an attentive mind. You can concentrate and be open and aware of your surroundings at the same time. "The thought of a distracted mind cannot be sincere. Sincere thought means thought of quiet awareness." When your mind is distracted you cannot be fully sincere or fully engaged with what is happening. "What is" is more important than what should be. Too many people are looking at "what is" from a position of thinking "what should be"." Often we become preoccupied with thoughts about what we would like a situation or person to be, and miss what is actually happening or who that person actually is. Let people be who they are, and just observe, learn and be curious. "When you are awake, you must be fully awake and conscious about everything. This is a wonderful mental exercise." "The important thing is to be alert, to question, to find out, so that your own initiative may be awakened." We'd love to hear from you! Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

"The conformer seldom learns to depend upon himself for expression; rather he faithfully follows a pattern. As time passes, he will probably learn some dead routines and be good according to his set patterns, but he has not come to understand himself." If you follow patterns in life to seek approval and to be "good" you can be shutting down your true essence. This is just going through the motions of living life, and then we do things we do not want to because we are trained to please. In the business and career world, there is a lot of focus on productivity and efficiency. This can create dead patterns that are automatic responses to situations in order to achieve a certain level of efficiency. When we follow dead patterns we miss out on connecting with people. To be a complete human, you show up in the full aliveness of your experience, you show up with the availability of all your attention to engage in an intimate and real way. It can be scary to move away from the prepared pattern and be fully present because you do not know what someone will say or how they will react. This is where all your self-work comes into play. All the work that you have done on knowing yourself, and discovering what you are passionate about, will serve you in these situations. "A live person is not a "dead" product of this or that; he is an individual. And the individual is always more important than the system. Drilling on set patterns and routines will eventually make a person good according to the routine, but only self-awareness and self-expression can lead to truth." It feels safe to have a routine because you know that it works. This routine may work for a while, but eventually you will run into a situation where it will not work because the circumstances have changed while you have not. "Many people derive their techniques and principles from intellectual theories and not from application. He can talk about (and there are some master talkers), but he cannot teach it." Instead of just regurgitating Bruce Lee's quotes, we have to apply his philosophy to our lives. These inspirational quotes make us feel good, but it is important to integrate that lesson into our actual lives, which can be challenging. This requires you to really think about what you say and ask, "Am I walking the walk or just talking the talk?" While it can be challenging at first to live the principles, ultimately it takes less energy to live authentically than to be living a performance. "An excellent guide should be excellent at what he does. And inactive or mediocre guide might be of some help to the mediocre student but he can never truly understand." "Of this I am certain: superior performances will rest in future development and not on existing methods." When Bruce Lee says performances, he means the ability to execute. With future development you have to be open to change, growth, and evolution of oneself. Every time Bruce broke out of a dead routine or a set pattern or an establishment, he would get negative feedback from others, and because he was so grounded that negative feedback did not affect him as much. However, we are not all Bruce Lee, and for most of us we have fear around being exposed and vulnerable to outside criticism. This fear causes a hindrance as we do things in order to avoid that criticism. When you start to feel uncomfortable in a situation or something that you're choosing, is your response to withdraw or explore? "You can employ a systematic approach to training and practicing but never a method of [living]. [Life] is a process, not a goal; a means but not an end; a constant movement rather than an established pattern." Without thinking we can let these productivity systems take us over. The rhythm of our daily life should not feel like a machine. "Mechanical efficiency or manipulatory skill is never as important as inward awareness." It can feel painful to take an honest look inwards, but it is in the looking that you get real information. There is a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. In the fixed mindset we believe that our abilities, talents, and situations are fixed and we cannot have expansion. In the growth mindset we have the openness that anything is possible. The Conformer = Fixed Mindset The Complete Human = Growth Mindset "A true warrior "listens" to circumstances, while a conformer "recites" his circumstances." If you ask a question and a person responds with a canned response that is unspecific, this is them acting as a conformer reciting their circumstances. However, if you ask a question and a person is a complete human and listens, then if they do not know the answer they can answer honestly or help figure out the answer. "As a person matures, he will realize that his skills are not so much tools used to conquer others, but tools used to explode his ego and all its follies. All the practice is to round him up to be a complete man." When you fully engage with life in all its scariness and uncertainty, then you become more comfortable with the unknown and start to find the unknown exciting. "In short, the idea is to enter a mold yet not be caged in it, or to obey the principles without being bound by them. This is important, for a pliable, choiceless observation without exclusion is foundation of a [complete human being]." Are there any cages you are stuck inside? How can you go from conformer to complete human? We'd love to hear from you! Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

It's the 100th episode of the Bruce Lee Podcast! For this monumental episode Shannon and Sharon discuss freedom. Freedom, both what it is and how we can work towards it, was very important to Bruce Lee. Within freedom rests peacefulness and harmony, and Bruce wanted to live in harmony. What freedom feels like will be different for everyone because it is based on what makes you personally feel at peace. "Although I can tell you what is not freedom, I cannot tell you what is because that you must discover for yourself." Freedom has to do with the practice of researching your own experience, self-knowledge, understanding oneself, and self-actualizing at a deep level. "Free equals the absence of a feeling of constraint. Different people feel free in different ways, so the question is "how free are you?"" Where are you feeling constraint in your life and how can you examine that? You have to observe what your normally practice without condemning it. Having freedom in its primary sense is to be not limited by attachments, confinements, partialization, complexities. You have to get to a practice of neutrality and observation to move towards freedom. "Freedom is pliability of mind, neutrality of mind, and effortless of mind." Our minds are made for thinking, and sometimes we can be distracted by negative and/or limiting thoughts, so it is important to practice not letting those thoughts bog you down. But also thoughts or ideas can appear in your mind that energize you and you have the freedom to pursue those ideas. It is important to trust your feelings. "Don't think – feel! Feeling exists here and now when not interrupted and dissected by ideas and concepts. The moment we stop analyzing and let go is the moment we start really seeing and feeling as one whole. Stay with your feeling and feel it to the full without naming it. You and the feeling will merge and become one and there will be no other self than the oneness of that which is the moment." Many times when we feel strong feelings, especially painful feelings of sadness or anger, we have the urge to shut down that feeling. But what does it feel like when we feel that feeling all the way through? When you feel a feeling all the way through, then you can let it go, freeing yourself. Freedom is being fully present, having your body be fully sensing, and knowing yourself well. "Freedom is something that cannot be preconceived. To realize freedom requires a mind capable of immediate perception without the process of graduation, without the idea of an end to be slowly achieved." Sometimes we can disconnect from our bodies to go into our mind. There, we can get stuck and ignore how we feel. This will interrupt your flow. To achieve freedom you must stay in flow, with your mind and body connected. Trust your intuition. "The truth lived and experienced in concrete and existential awareness is what makes us free." "There is no freedom if you are enclosed by self-interest and walls of discipline." When there is too much rigidity or ego there will never be freedom. But if you are disciplined about practicing openness, observation, experimentation, and sensing with your body, will lead you to a path of freedom. Freedom has always been with us. You do not have to go on a great outward journey to find freedom it is within us all. "One must practice freedom in order to understand freedom. Create immediately an atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out for yourself what is true, so that you can face the world with the ability to understand it. One can tell for oneself whether the water is warm or cold." Practice freedom: Ask yourself, how free are you? Where do you feel the restraints? Where do you feel confined? See if it is possible to perceive your confinement in any other way. How does practicing freedom feel? Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast

"Somehow, one day, you will hear, "Hey, now that is quality. That is someone REAL." I would like that." We are still drawn to Bruce Lee and his performances are so magnetizing because there is authenticity and energy emanating from him. It was Bruce's ultimate goal that he be known for quality and realness. In order to achieve realness Bruce had to really know himself and not get distracted by performing a fake image or shortcuts in life. It was a big part of Bruce's life work to stay in the realness of himself. It is exhausting to constantly project a false image of yourself. "In life, what can you ask for but to be real; to fulfill your potential instead of wasting energy on actualizing your dissipating image, which is not real and expends your vital energy." In our modern society, social media has made a mass market of projecting an image of our lives. People work to project a perfect image of their lives through their social media even if their reality is different from that. With social media there is a cultural expectation that not only do you need it to create your self-image, but that you don't exist without it. Social media and projecting a curated image of yourself can be intoxicating. Image creation can become addicting when that image receives positive accolades from society. When you expend energy towards image creation you are putting energy towards maintaining an image that is not real, but is a performance or a disguise. We live in a world where people can reach you at any time and there is often no boundary between life and work. It can be hard to take a rest when you are constantly available, but if you take time to properly rest yourself then you will have more energy to devote to your work and life. The cultivation and proper use of your vital energy is an important Bruce Lee lesson. We are not machines, we are real people, and because we are real we need rest and nourishment as a regular part of our daily lives. "The truth is that life is an ever-going process, ever-renewing and it is just meant to be lived, but not lived for." If you are living only for external things it will deplete your energy and you are not truly living life. "To be what I term a "quality" human being, one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is." It takes a lot of courage to be real and vulnerable. There are some people who are on social media being real and vulnerable and are building a community around that because people gravitate towards realness. Social media is a reflection of our society. People are putting on a performance in their jobs and personal lives, no one wants to be the one who "sticks out." "To be what I term a "quality" human being, one has to be transparently real and have the courage to be what he is. Yet most people are doing just the opposite; they engage in a protective daily routine of security (a kind of thumb-sucking)." It can feel safe and comfortable to hide behind a performance. However, you can also feel safe and comfortable in yourself when you know who you are. When you move through the world with realness and authenticity then you know your interactions and relationships are real. "Someone Real has an urge to be honest, to express themselves honestly. You are what you are and self-honesty occupies a definite and vital part in the ever-growing process to become a "real" human being. Someone Real works their ass off and commits to constant learning and discovering. Someone Real takes responsibility to be what he actually is. Someone Real has an instinctive urge for growth and daily expansion of his/her potential. Someone Real participates in "what is" rather than get caught up in "what should be". Someone Real understands the distinction between self-actualization and self-image actualization." "To be Someone Real means to have a burning enthusiasm with the neutrality to choose to be." "Someone Real takes responsibility for one's actions, good and bad." "Someone Real centers their energy on expanding and broadening their potential or on expressing and relaying a unified energy for their clearest communication. Someone Real is a changing person because he is and always will be learning, discovering and expanding." "Someone Real demands the absence of prejudice, superstition, and ignorance, and leaves the circus acts to the circus performers." In your search to become Someone Real, ask yourself (substitute your name): "What it boils down to is a sincere and honest revelation about a person called ______________ - his viewpoint, who he is, where he is heading, what he hopes to discover. To do this, a person must stand on their own two feet and find out the cause of their ignorance." We support you on your path to being Someone Real and we'd love to hear about your explorations into becoming Someone Real. Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast

Bruce Lee was a prolific reader; we have around 1,700 books in the Bruce Lee Archive. In the Bruce Lee Library series we will explore different books from Bruce's library, sharing his annotations and underlined passages, and discussing how these books contributed to Bruce's philosophy and life. Bruce Lee was extremely well read, his library had a range of topics on things he was interested in from philosophy to fighting techniques to self-help to acting and directing. The first book that we will be sharing from the Bruce Lee Library is the Tao Te King by Lao Tzu Interpreted as Nature and Intelligence by Archie J Bahm. Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese text written some time during the 5th or 4th century BC and its author Lao Tzu (Old Master) was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer, and the founder of philosophical Taoism. The book itself is only 81 sections and it's very poetic. The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times. Full show notes at Brucelee.com/podcast Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast. Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!

This week we have a special guest on the podcast, Shannon's mom Linda Lee Cadwell! Linda joins us to share her firsthand stories of Bruce and their life as a family. She talks about Bruce's back injury, how Bruce was better than her at English grammar, and how Bruce charmed his way up to first class with the Cha Cha. It is always a pleasure to have Linda on the podcast, and we love that she was able to join us for this episode. Thank you Linda for sharing your stories with us! We'd love to hear from you! Please write to us at hello@brucelee.com or tag us on social media @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast. Help support the Bruce Lee Podcast and check out our Podcast Bundle on the Bruce Lee Store!