Saturday, October 24, 2026

How Buddhism shaped Bruce Lee


What philosophy did Bruce Lee teach?

Intercept the fist to disarm the opponent
Jeet Kune Do (Chinese 截拳道, Jyutping, lit. "Stop Fist Way" or the "Way of the Intercepting Fist," abbreviated JKD) is Bruce Lee's hybrid martial art, which was conceived of, practiced, and taught by Lee.

It centers on the principle of counterattacking an opponent in order to impede that opponent's offense [12, 13].

As an eclectic martial art, it relies on a fighting style heavily influenced by Wing Chun, tai chi, taekwondo, boxing, fencing, and jujutsu [14, 15].

Dead far too young
Asian stardom threatened USA?
How did Bruce Lee die? Only one doctor knows for sure: Dr. Joel Wallach (youngevity.net), who says it was severe nutritional deficiencies due to fad dieting.

One thing that can be said for sure is that Lee was not following the age-old dietary habits of Buddhist Shaolin Temple martial artists, Zen practitioners in Japan, or even well-established Asian customs, any of which could have kept him healthy and still with us.

There's something to be said about a "curse" and foul play since his son, Brandon Lee, also died under mysterious Hollywood circumstances.

Hah, Bruce Lee, you're not so tough!

China's "Three Teachings"
Jeet Kune Do, which Lee intended to have practical life applications without the traditional routines and metaphysics of conventional martial arts, incorporates a set of principles to help practitioners make quick decisions and improve their mental and physical health [13, 16].

Lee based JKD on his experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense, as well as on his eclectic, Zen Buddhist, Confucianist, and Taoist philosophies... More

In a conversation with the abbot of Shaolin Temple, the abbot asks what Lee thinks about when he faces an opponent. "There is no opponent," Lee answers, "because the word 'I' does not exist." That line echoes one of the Buddha's central teachings [anatta, the impersonal nature of all existence and phenomena]. The fixed idea of "me" that "we" [the aggregates] cling to so tightly falls apart the moment you look for it closely [systematically through satipatthana].

Bruce Lee: White men can't fight, Chuck Norris

Did Buddhism shape Bruce Lee’s martial arts philosophy?
Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee)
Buddha's Wisdom(Buddha's Wisdom) 🥋 Was Bruce Lee a secret American Buddhist [partial to China's Three blended spiritual Teachings]?

The man behind the saying, “Be water, my friend” reportedly said he had no religion at all, like most Americans. Yet ZEN, Taoism, [Confucianism] and the Buddha’s teachings (or Dharma) run through his life, his films, and his own blended philosophy he called Jeet Kune Do.

And one famous “Bruce Lee quote” actually traces back to Chinese Zen Buddhist Master Linji (Linji Yixuan), who passed away in the year 866.

Let's follow Bruce Lee from a rowing boat in Hong Kong Harbor, where he punched the sea, to the Oakland, California (next to Berkeley) fight that made him rebuild his art, the back injury that put him in bed for months.

Let's culminate with the Hollywood movie set for Enter the Dragon, where Bruce Lee refused to show up until his Buddhist-Taoist-Confucian philosophy scenes were put back in.

Along the way, we separate what the record shows from what the legend claims.

💡 DISCOVER
  • Why Lee punched the sea—and why “Be water” begins with a Taoist image
  • How a disputed 1964 fight made him question his fighting style.
  • The Buddha’s Parable of the Raft, and how Lee rebuilt his fighting style
  • Why Lee insisted on philosophy in Enter the Dragon and the Buddhist image in one of its most famous scenes
  • The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path hidden in Bruce Lee's sickbed notebooks
Fat Happy Budai (Hotei) pointing at the moon
  • What, the hand, the hand that points?
    Buddhist roots of “Don’t think, feel” and the finger pointing at the moon (as in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra)
  • Zen master whose words ended up under Lee’s name
🌿 Join a community: Instagram: buddhaswizdom. Facebook: buddhaswizdom. X: x.com/BuddhasWizdom. Spotify: open.spotify.com... TikTok: buddhas.wisdom. #BruceLee #Buddhism #Zen

☕ Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom. paypal.me/buddhaswisdom 🔔 Subscribe for more stories of the people who carried Buddhist ideas into the modern world, often without their names attached. Comment on question, what two words would you write on a card?
  • Matt, Buddha's Wisdom, AI. Oct. 17, 2026; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
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UCLA Mindful celebrates 20 years (10/24)


"Mindfulness" is more than sitting still
UCLA Mindful (previously MARC, the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles) is celebrating 20 years of mindfulness at UCLA.
For 20 years, UCLA has been a home for mindfulness (Buddhist sati) education, research, and practice. New website: UCLA Mindful - Mindfulness Education Center | UCLA Health

Join us in celebrating this journey—from the founding of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) to the growth of UCLA Mindful and its reach across Los Angeles and around the world.

Join us on October 24, 2026, for a Day of Mindfulness featuring opportunities for practice, learning, and connection, followed by an evening 20th Anniversary Evening Reception to celebrate two decades of growth and impact and look ahead to the next 20 years.

There are two exciting celebration opportunities, the Day of Mindfulness and an Evening Reception.

  • Participate in a free Day of Mindfulness in-person or live-online. Full event details now available.
  • In-person and online Day of Mindfulness October 24, 10:00 am-5:00 pm (Pacific Time). All are invited to participate in a Day of Mindfulness, co-sponsored by and partially held in the UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden, on Oct. 24 from 10:00 AM–5:00 PM. This special anniversary celebration brings together longtime members of the UCLA Mindful community, educators, practitioners, students, and friends for a day of meaningful practice, reflection, connection, and learning.
  • The garden will host a variety of creative ways to practice mindfulness including movement, forest bathing, relational mindfulness, and much more.
  • All are welcome to join in continuing the milestone celebration at the UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden for the Evening Reception. Limited spots still available.
LIVE: online and in-person in the Main Hall
The online experience offers its own thoughtfully curated program, with access to the day's featured speakers and shared moments of practice and reflection from the main hall.

There will be guided meditations throughout the day. The main hall will be livestreamed all day, allowing the broader community to come together in celebration from wherever they are.

A highlight of the celebration will be a gathering of past and present leaders who have helped shape UCLA Mindful over the past two decades. Featured speakers will include:
  • Diana Winston, Current Director, UCLA Mindful
  • Sue Smalley, Founder and Founding Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC)
  • Dan Siegel, Founding Co-Director of MARC
  • Marvin G. Belzer, Former Associate Director of MARC
Additional teachers include:
  • Dr. Allyson Pimentel, Mitra Manesh, Gloria Kamler, and Dr. Ali Mossaver-Rahmani
Only the in-person experience will invite participants into the UCLA campus and the Mathias Botanical Garden for a full day of embodied and relational practice, including breakout sessions, movement practices, and mindful garden experiences.

These sessions will take place in the main hall and throughout the garden and will offer opportunities to connect with the natural environment and with one another in ways that can only happen in person.

The in-person program will feature a rich variety of breakout sessions, with topics including:
  • Relational mindfulness
  • Movement and embodied practices
  • Mindful garden tours
  • Forest Bathing
  • Mindful Photography
  • and other opportunities to explore mindfulness through different perspectives and practices
Garden-based breakout sessions will not be recorded or livestreamed, allowing these intimate experiences to remain grounded in the garden and in the presence of those participating on site.

Together, we will reflect on the history of mindfulness at UCLA, celebrate the people and practices that have shaped the program, and look toward the future of mindfulness in our community and beyond.

Whether joining us on campus or from home, all are invited to be part of this milestone celebration. Join ss:
  • Saturday, October 24, 2026
  • 10:00 am–5:00 pm (PT
  • UCLA Campus: Matthias Botanical Garden
  • Online registration: The event is free to attend
  • Donations are warmly appreciated and help support the continued work of UCLA Mindful.
  • REGISTER NOW
  • Facilitator 10:00-11:15
Opening Gathering: Founders Roundtable Dr. Elizabeth Ko Moderator 11:30-12:15 Sitting Practice- "Sharing Joy" Allyson Pimentel 12:30-1:15 Sitting Practice- "Slow Time" Dr. Ali 1:15- 2:15 Lunch 2:15-2:45 Mid-Day Gathering- Practice & Connection Diana Winston 3:00-3:45 Sitting Practice- "Where Is Your Attention Right Now? From Noise to Choice" Mitra Manesh 4:00-5:00 End of Day Gathering- Visioning & Sound Bath with Michael Perricone Diana Winston More

Two ways to participate — one meaningful celebration
Los Angeles leads mindfulness movement
The Day of Mindfulness will be offered in a hybrid (in-person/online) format, with opportunities to participate both in person at UCLA and online from around the world.

While both formats are part of the same celebration, the experiences are intentionally designed to be different. See website for in-person and online experience details (uclahealth.org/uclamindful). Full session details now available.

Together, we will reflect on the history of mindfulness at UCLA, celebrate the people and practices that have shaped the program, and look toward the future of mindfulness in our community and beyond.
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Los Angeles' new Biddy Mason Park

What this country needs is a free Black woman like Biddy or Harriet Tubman on the face of cash

Pershing Square, DTLA, California
Pershing Square is perishing. Many Angelenos (people living in the megalopolis of the "City of Angels" aka Spanish Ciudad de Los Angeles) have visited downtown’s Bradbury Building, but not everyone knows about the nearby Biddy Mason Memorial Park located on the south side of the building, between Broadway and Spring Streets.

I'm smiling because I'm finally free!
Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into slavery in 1818. Not much is known of her early life, but by the time she was a young adult she was enslaved in the household of Robert Smith.
Whites need to stick together and keep LA for us
In 1847, she traveled, mostly on foot, from Mississippi to Utah with the Smith household. The household lived in Salt Lake City for two years, then resettled in San Bernardino, California in 1851.
California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free, non-slave state, which meant [human trafficker] Smith was holding Biddy Mason illegally. Mason fought for her freedom in court, with the trial ruling confirming her freedom in 1856.

Money is a good servant but a cruel master
As a free woman, Biddy Mason settled in Los Angeles with her children and found work as a nurse and midwife.

In 1866, she purchased a nearly one-acre site between present-day Broadway (then Fort Street) and Spring Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets.



On this, the present location of the park, she built her homestead. Throughout the years, this pioneering Black woman purchased more property. And as the value of her [real estate] holdings escalated, she eventually became a relatively wealthy woman and a tireless philanthropist.
  • List of parks in Los Angeles
  • Alvarado Terrace Historic District
  • VIDEO: How Biddy Mason changed LA forever: Biddy Mason’s story is one of the most powerful hidden chapters in American history. Born into slavery, she fought for her freedom and went on to become one of the first Black women to own land in Los Angeles. Through real estate, business, philanthropy, and founding First A.M.E. Church, she helped shape the city we know today. How did she build her legacy, inspire generations, and truly become "the woman who owned LA"?
Today's Pershing Square in DTLA

The lotus pond of Alvarado Park, LA
This mini-park was designed by landscape architects Katherine Spitz and Pamela Burton. The artwork Biddy Mason Time and Place is an 80-foot-long poured concrete wall by artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.

The wall is a timeline of Biddy Mason’s life, illustrated by impressions of objects such as agave leaves, wagon wheels, and a midwife’s bag, as well as simple text and images such as an early survey map of Los Angeles and Biddy’s freedom papers.

The history begins at the right (northernmost) end of the wall with the text “Biddy Mason born a slave,” and progresses in time to the inscription: “Los Angeles mourns and reveres Grandma Mason.” More

Can Blacks ever be rich?

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100 million Natives in USA before USA

(Discover America) Every Indigenous Native American tribe explained in 22 minutes

"All the Real Indians Died Off": And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans (Myths Made in America)
All the Real Indians
Authors Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker has 4.7 out of 5 stars (with 393 reviews). It is part of Myths Made in America (a nine book series). It unpacks the 21 of the most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans in the USA.

In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations.

Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths such as:
We used to dance in peace
  • “Columbus discovered America”
  • “Thanksgiving proves the Indians welcomed Pilgrims”
  • “Indians were savage and warlike”
  • “Europeans brought civilization to backward Indians”
  • “The United States did not have a policy of genocide”
  • “Sports mascots honor Native Americans”
  • “Most Indians are on government welfare”
  • “Indian casinos make them all rich”
  • “Indians are naturally predisposed to alcohol”
Indigenous Peoples' History of US
Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudices of European migrants, using euphemisms like “pilgrims” and “settlers” to remove the sting of violent invaders and polluting occupiers.

The larger political agendas of these “settlers” aimed at acquiring (defrauding, misappropriating, stealing) Indigenous lands, tying American history to narratives of intentional erasure and disappearance.

Accessibly written and revelatory, All the Real Indians Died Off challenges readers to rethink what they have been taught about Native Americans and white revisionist history. More
  • Discover America (video); Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Dina Gilio-Whittaker; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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Venice Yoga Festival and Block Party


What is "yoga" anyway?
If poses were yoga, few would benefit
Actually, the best and most useful definition of yoga is "an eightfold path" (ashtanga-marga) to "meditation" (samadhi).

The practice of this path, which should not be confused or conflated with the Buddha's Ennobling Eightfold Path to enlightenment (because they are not the same and do NOT lead to the same result, even if well-meaning people trying to mush and blend them together into a syncretism of traditions).

Yoga's Eightfold Path to "Union"
In fact, the Sage Patanjali copied the Sage of the Shakyas (Shakyamuni) Buddha's very popular eightfold pattern in condensing a rich tradition of yoga into a handy set of steps, which is why they seem the same on the surface.

But what did each sage put inside the paths they were teaching in ancient Proto-India? The Buddha condensed the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment into eight general categories. Patanjali tried to summarize many individual practices (each limb of the path amounting to many discrete practices) into a set of eight unfolding markers.

What is true of both paths -- which are not opposed to one another but, in fact, can be very helpful each to the other -- is that they are not really "steps." A yogi or yogini (a dedicated practitioner) does not complete one step then go on to the next then leave those to and go onto a third. Each "step" mutually supports all the others.

The path for runners is a circular track, barefoot
For example, if a runner wants to run, it is important follow these eight "steps": hydrate, eat well, supplement, warm up, stretch, train, practice, and recover. One never stops doing one just because one starts doing the others. They are all included. Similarly, one may take the Buddha's Ennobling (Noble = Aryan = Enlightening) Eightfold Path take condense it further into a threefold division or virtue, meditation, and wisdom (sila, samadhi, paññā).

Each thunderstick relies on all the others to stand
Virtue does not stop because stillness (samadhi, concentration, coherence) has begun. And the right view that began the path does not stop at wisdom but rather is bolstered by it. One feeds the other, and they end up being like three spears or rifles leaning on each other to stand (like a tripod, three-legged stool, or a stand with eight factors).

In just the same way, the Eightfold Path of Yoga or Ashtanga can be said to begin here or there, but wherever one begins, one does not stop a "step" to begin another. For instance, in the case of pranayama (breath work, breath restraint, breath control, the manipulation of pranic energy in the body by breathing), there are exercises. But all through the asanas (postures, poses, stretches) there is still breathing.

Begin by focusing on the breath, in, out...
In fact, there's more breathing -- more pranayama -- than when simply sitting. Focusing the mind on a bindi, the real meaning of drishti, is arguable more helpful in the poses than in dhyana (meditation). The goal, to the extent that there ever is just one ultimate goal in yoga or Buddhism, is samadhi. In Vedic tradition, Brahmanism (Old Vedic religion), or Hinduism, the ultimate goal may be said to be a special form of samadhi. But the historical Buddha did not stop there.

Samma-samadhi ("right-samadhi") is crucial to getting the mind to a temporarily purified state to then emerge from meditative absorption (jhana, dhyana, zen) and practice meditation in a different sense of the word (perhaps best translated as contemplation or anussati) -- systematic mindfulness (satipatthana) of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects for the realization of permanent insight (vipassana-nana or panna, "liberating-wisdom"). The insight is into the true nature of reality, the Three Universal Marks of Existence.

You're not still focusing on the breath, are you?
Does Yoga go there, or does it stop at temporarily exalted states with the possibility of regressing back to ordinary consciousness? Seers (rishis) like Patanjali and other mystics may have been transformed to some extent by self-realization. But it was not what the Buddha was teaching and defining as moksha or final spiritual "liberation." The Buddha called this nirvana and used the term in a whole new way.

How to Know God
Yogis, Brahmins, Hindus may hear the word "nirvana," recognize it as Sanskrit, and think, "Oh, yeah, we know about that. But they do not, for they do not understand the meaning the Buddha was giving to the term -- much as he gave new meaning to many Sanskrit (an exclusively Brahmin liturgical language at the time of the Buddha), Pali (the lingua franca at the time of the Buddha), Prakrit, Magadhi, and Vedic terms.

The stated goal of Yoga as a fully rounded practice is "union." "Union with what?" one may ask. The breath (prana, chi, ki, qi), spirit (pneuma, holy spirit), Brahman (GOD or godhead, the reality behind all illusions or maya), God (Brahma), Self (Atman), the polarities of ha and tha, sun and moon, masculinity and femininity, yin and yang, the bija or seed-mantra "OM" (aum, the humming sound of the living cosmos operating)...all things?

Eat real Vitamin C (citric acid) from organic fresh seasonal fruits
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Friday, October 23, 2026

Do Black people even have culture?

Hollywood stole from Black stars

Sister Tharpe invented rock 'n roll
These Black Americans were once celebrated on Hollywood's silver screen, admired by millions, and remembered as some of the most talented Black performers in Hollywood history. But behind the fame, glamor, and unforgettable performances, some faced heartbreaking financial struggles, declining careers, and devastating hardships in their final years.

This video uncovers the tragic stories of 13 classic Black Hollywood stars who died in absolute poverty — performers whose contributions helped shape American entertainment, but whose personal lives often ended far from the luxury and recognition associated with Hollywood fame.

From groundbreaking actors who shattered racial barriers to beloved entertainers who struggled after the spotlight faded, we explore the financial difficulties, racial discrimination, movie industry exploitation, and personal tragedies that shaped their final chapters.
The Black Native Americans

🎬 This video explores
  • 13 heartbreaking stories from Black Hollywood history
  • The forgotten struggles behind legendary Hollywood careers
  • How racial discrimination affected opportunities and financial security
  • The hidden financial realities of early Hollywood
  • Why fame and talent didn't always lead to lasting wealth
  • The lasting legacies of stars who deserved greater recognition
Biracial Blacks hidden on screen

These stories remind us that Hollywood fame doesn't always guarantee fortune, security, or a happy ending. Behind every legendary performance was a real person whose struggles deserve to be remembered.

Where'd your museum get these artifacts?
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