35. BRUCE LEE: Absorb what is useful
It’s Bruce Lee week! All 3 quotes this week will be words from The Little Dragon. Click here for PART 2 and PART 3
Bruce Lee (1940-1973) was a Chinese-American martial-artist, actor, writer, director, philosopher and is now an international cultural icon. As much as I love Teddy Roosevelt, Carl Sagan and some of the other people I’ve featured on this site, Bruce Lee is, and always will be, my number one hero. Seeing Lee onscreen for the first time was a life-changing experience for me (and millions of other teenage boys). Here was a guy that was cooler than James Dean, had more grace than Fred Astaire and was more badass than Schwarzenegger and Stallone combined. The fact that he was a skinny asian dude, just like me, made him that much more appealing.
I went through a hardcore Bruce Lee phase when I was 18-20 years old. One of Lee’s quotes is not to “go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it”. Well, sorry Bruce, you were too cool NOT to try to duplicate! He practised martial-arts, I practised martial-arts. He worked out, I started working out. He was obsessed with Muhammad Ali, I became obsessed with Ali. He studied the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, I started reading Krishnamurti. He had a puffy asian afro hairstyle, I tried to grow an asian afro (didn’t work).
Most people who aren’t that familiar with Bruce Lee only associate him with his films, as being the kung-fu guy who brandishes nun-chucks and screams ‘WATAAAAAAAHHHHH!’. But Lee can be very inspirational to those without even the slightest interest in martial arts. Lee majored in philosophy and was heavily into self-development, self-knowledge, motivation, goal-setting and had an almost pathological sense of ambition. Think about what kind of drive it took to become the first asian leading actor in a Hollywood film.
The ‘absorb what is useful’ quote illustrates one of Lee’s main philosophies. During the period Lee was training in martial-arts, you were either a judo person, a karate person, a kung-fu person and so on. And if you were a kung-fu person, you only trained in one of dozens of different styles of kung-fu (wing chun, choy li fut, hung ga, etc). So a karate student would be taught how to punch one way and the kung-fu student would be taught how to punch a different way. The punch you learnt was the best, and that’s the way you punched your entire life. You thought all other ways of fighting were inferior and you sure as hell didn’t train or associate with other styles.
Bruce Lee thought this way of thinking was stupid. Sure, he loved wing chun (the style he first learned), but he also really liked the way boxers used their jab. He thought the footwork of fencing was pretty clever. He realised the importance of grappling and wrestling. Lee borrowed whatever he needed in order to become a better fighter. He wasn’t held back by silly rituals, dogma and tradition that was prevalent in a lot of martial arts schools. These days, learning different styles of fighting, or mixed martial-arts, is considered normal.
Although Lee was talking about martial-arts, this quote can be applied to whatever your chosen field is: art, design, writing, cooking, dancing, film-making, photography or anything else. Don’t get trapped by one way of thinking. Never let an organisation become more important than your individual growth. Use whatever you need in order to become better.
- Martial-arts styles in panel 1, from top left: karate (or judo), shaolin, muay thai, wrestling, ninjitsu, fencing, boxing, wing chun, brazilian ju-jitsu, savate, Cobra Kai karate (those bastards), kendo, pencak silat, bak mei (Kill Bill‘s Pai Mei).
- The old guy in panel two is Ip Man, Bruce Lee’s wing chun teacher from Hong Kong.
- In the movie, Game of Death, Lee planned (he died before he could complete it) to have his character fight his way up a multi-leveled pagoda. On each level, he would face someone representing a different style of martial arts. Lee wore his famous yellow-jumpsuit to indicate that he was not affiliated with any style (you can see the unfinished footage here).
- The official Bruce Lee website.
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Thanks for the link to the footage.
Finally! I’ve been waiting for Bruce Lee quotes… and a whole week of it!
Be water my friend?
You’ll have to wait and see Trev!
Cobra Kai! Love it!
Thank you so much for making these!!!
i love Ip Man !
first knew him in Donnie Yen version, and then read him in many features.
i don’t know much about Lee, besides from his movies, and how cool he was when he had that duel with Norris.
i didn’t even know he’s obsessed with Ali.
but i agree to what is written here. I learned taekwondo during high school (it hurts), didn’t went well, but i still like it. i love kendo and fencing too ! all martial arts are beautiful – as long as it is used for good and non destructive cause. Amen.
“Cobra Kai karate (those bastards)”
Too funny…. Daniel-san.
Maybe I should adapt ‘wax on, wax off’?
I have to have a poster of this!
I just want to thank you, not only for this comic but for every comic on this site, you really inspired me to change my life to the better.
Thank you so much!
Wow, you’re welcome. Can you explain a bit more on what changes you made?
Bruce Lee week you say. I love you Gav. I had no idea Bruce was a student of Jiddu Krishnamurti. I love em both. Been a great influence in my life too.
Excellent as always! Such a good life strategy on so many levels. Thanks for exposing me to some of Bruce’s wisdom.
Hey Gav great job every time i read i see you do these, these make me learn a new thing about life without you i would not even know about these quotes. Thanks you. from a big fan.
3 Bruce quotes this week?! Best week ever.
Ohhhh yeah… knew this was coming!! Poster of this would be awesome..is that Sho Kosugi from Enter the Ninja???
wooooooooooo~
wataaaaaaah!!!
Gavin I love you for this man! I never knew you followed him that much because I started reading Jiddu Krishnamurti too! (Plus he’s part of my Indian heritage
)! This brings me back man I love the way he lived and influenced people around the world in a positive way, much love for this bro! I was obsessed with him all my ife and he still influences me today! Old school Yao Lin still lies within 
Thanks Aaron – i didn’t read that much Krishnamurti, but enough to get the basic gist of his teachings
Awesome Gav. Great colours!
Your writings and thoughts about the legend are the MOST amazing I have ever come across! Just one addition
millions of teenage boys and girls 
This is so good. For me this applies to music, as I play/listen to many different styles on different instruments, classical piano, jazz trumpet, classical indian on sitar, and try to add what is my own.
Still got a long ways to go
Congrats mate, just a few people make their own path!
Absolutely my favorite one so far, it applies to so much in life
great site, specially the Bruce Lee quotes. Loved the chi sau drill illustration with Ip Man.
love what you create, the creativity and the messages to every comic visual you compost are very practical and inspiring.
Your works are truly inspiring! As a person, it stings when it needs to and it soothes when required. As a science teacher, it moves one to do better and better as one goes along, changing oneself for the better of, not just yourself but for the students as well!
Cobra Kai is no match for myagi’s Crane! awesome strip again man! Lee is a powerful inspirational figure..
nice one! have you heard of kalaripayattu?? its one of the oldest forms of Martial arts!
Bruce Lee is an overrated actor, and that’s all he is. He could not win a single real-world fight or tournament. All his “fights” are strictly against actors/posers who were paid to take a dive for him. Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris are both skill-less dorky wanna-bes.
You obviously have no idea what your talking about. Why don’t you do a little research and learn about some of his fights such as when he was young and on the streets. Don’t bad mouth someone great when you don’t know the facts.
I think Foobar is a very appropriate name for you. It really explains your comment.
In the list of fields, where to apply Bruce Lee’s philosophy (“art, design, writing …”) I miss religion!
I really like Bruce Lee in deed, He is truly wise and further more appearing in this quote, awesome!
Thank you Gavin!
“Be water, my friend”