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].

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

Bruce Lee beats up all the students of the Japanese martial arts school at once | Fist of Fury

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

(Binge Society) Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon (Return of the Dragon)

Did Buddhism shape Bruce Lee’s martial arts philosophy?

Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee)

(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, that hand that points?

  The Buddhist roots of “Don’t think, feel” and the finger pointing at the moon (Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra)
• The Zen master whose words ended up under Bruce 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. And comment on the 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

Female Bruce Lee? Kickboxer Kimura

Can females even be strong like guys are? - Men are better at everything with high IQ, Pt. 4

One day, will robots be built in Mona's image?

(K-1 Worldwide) Mona Kimura vs. Marine Nicol | full fight | K-1 World Max 2026 Women's Flyweight.

Mona Kimura (Japanese 木村 萌那, Kimura Mona, born April 12, 2001) is a Japanese kickboxer and former amateur boxer who is currently signed to K-1. She represented Japan at 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships... More

Mike Tyson is the ugliest weakest worst boxer of all... (public prank)

• Fighting machines (The War of the Worlds)
• The Singularity Is Near (when humans transcend biology)

In the future, will killbots fight humans?

(Frankie LaPenna) The future is here: first Human versus. Robot fight in history (full length)

Linda Lindas, Foo Fighters, Sublime (12/12)

When horny fans jump on stage, artists react - How much $$$ to see Metallica at The Sphere?

The new faces of Riot Grrrl pop punk

This morning on The Klein Ally Show (morning zoo), alternative rock station KROQ announced the lineup for the annual Almost Acoustic Christmas at the Forum in Los Angeles. The headliners are girl punk impresarios The Linda Lindas, making strides to conquer the post-riot grrrl rockers Bikini Kill rock world with hardcore LA angst.

• Radio station X-mas concerts Hollywood, LA
• The Linda Lindas transform 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' into a punk Christmas party | ALT 98.7
• Metallica's dynamic pricing at Sphere in Vegas

Finally, a lineup that doesn't completely suck.

Opening for the princesses of punk are what's left of the Germs, now playing as Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters featuring Pat Smear. Sublime, Weezer, and a self-proclaimed with named Julia Wolf are also co-headlining the bill, which features zero acoustic sets and has had nothing but full fuzz distorted electric guitars since the first show 35 years ago. Rounding out the night are Interpol, Joyce Manor, and almost monday.

Foo Fighters fantasize playing the Los Angeles Forum: "All My Life"

The station's official announcement runs like this: The 35th Annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas returns to the Kia Forum on Saturday, December 12th, 2026, featuring The Linda Lindas, the Foo Fighters, Weezer, Sublime, Interpol, Joyce Manor, Julia Wolf, and almost monday!

Tickets go on sale Friday, October 30th, 2026, with proceeds benefiting Para Los Niños [Spanish for "For the Children"] and the Al Wooten Jr Youth Center.

• KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 2026 | KROQ

What is "punk rock"? It's a relative term

What is "punk rock," Dave Grohl? - Foo Fighters cover Minor Threat's "I Don't Wanna Hear It"

• Dave Grohl (the fifth drummer) on why Nirvana was never going to last and Kurt Cobain's downfall

Who are The Pretty Lindas?

The Linda Lindas "Racist, Sexist Boy" (Live LA Public Library) Linda = "pretty" in Spanish

(The Daily Show) The Linda Lindas go national as rock stars

(NPR Music) The Linda Lindas: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert 2022

(The Linda Lindas) "Gotta Get Out" (official, Sept. 2026) LIVE in SF

(The Linda Lindas) "Oh!" on Epitaph Records (every member sings)

Interpol makes music for millennials learning how to be adults - Top 10 best Interpol songs

One-hit-wonder witch Julia Wolf? "In My Room" (What does it mean?)

'Faith' in Buddhism? (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

This is a beautifully written declaration of Buddhist confidence (saddha, faith, conviction) by our American Theravada Buddhist teacher and prolific translator of the Pali canon Bhikkhu Bodhi, founder of Buddhist Global Relief.

It speaks to the quiet, yet transformative work of the Dharma (Truth) the historical Buddha discovered and taught.

“We rely on the faith that a law, a principle, an inner truth is silently at work behind the field of phenomena, supporting generosity [letting go] over miserliness [clinging], compassion over apathy, and altruism [founded on the right view of not-self, the impersonal nature of all phenomena, correctly grasped] over selfishness.

Social Communal Harmony: Anthology

“Hidden by the face of appearances, it’s always there, as integral to the working of the universe as the dance of electrons, the binding of atoms into molecules, and the ceaseless pulsing of the stars.

“When we place trust in this law, we find that devoting ourselves to the good of others casts our own lives in a new light.

“It expands our sense of shared identity until it encompasses the whole, turning labor into love and self-sacrifice into ultimate self-fulfillment.

“And with that we acquire an enriching sense of purpose, a fountain of meaning more rewarding than all the petty trophies of the narrow ego-self.”

• Bhikkhu Bodhi translations (amazon.com)
• Bhikkhu Bodhi, BAUS.org (Chuang Yen)

"Faith" in what?

In Buddhism, "faith" (Pali saddhā, Sanskrit śraddhā) refers to a confident, serene commitment to the practice of the Buddha's Teaching (Dhamma, Dharma, Doctrine), and to trust in enlightened or highly developed beings, such as the noble ones (those along the four stages of enlightenment).

Buddhists usually recognize multiple objects of this sort of confidence or conviction, but many are especially devoted to one in particular, such as one particular buddha or disciple.

Faith may not only be devotion to a person but exists in relation to Buddhist concepts like the efficacy of karma (confidence that intentional action produce results) and the possibility of enlightenment for those who put into practice what the Buddha taught.

Who are the "noble ones," the real Aryan Sangha?

Faith in Early Buddhism focused on going for guidance the Triple Gem, namely: Buddha (Teacher), Dharma (Teaching), and the successfully Taught (the Noble Saṅgha, the "spiritual community" of developed cultivators of the path).

Compassion and wisdom go hand in hand.

A faithful devotee was called an upāsaka or upāsika, a status for which no formal initiation is required.

Early Buddhism valued personal verification of the truth of the Buddha's Teachings as the best way to confirm what is true. By comparison, it considered sacred texts (scriptures), mere reason, or faith in a teacher to be far less valuable sources of authority. See the Kalama Sutta.

As important as faith is to initiate action along the path-of-practice, it is merely a first step on the path of compassion and wisdom to awakening (full enlightenment).

Faith becomes obsolete or is redefined at the final stage of the path as it converts to gnosis (direct experience). More

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (president of the Buddhist Association of the United States at Chuang Yen Monastery); Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wiki edit saddha

'Comfortably Numb' Israel (Katie Halper)

Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb" (from The Wall)

If we fail in Middle East, we'll just overrun some other place

Roger Waters and Mona Miari "Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined" (official music video)

Let's design a flag of European white supremacy

(Katie Halper) Jewish anti-Zionist Katie Halper welcomes Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters to talk about "Israel's failed [settler colonialism Zionist] experiment" with Mona Miari (who has reimagined the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb") on Palestine and Jewish corruption through Israel's denialism but ultimately internationally-recognized  genocide in Gaza

Personal emotional horror of becoming "comfortably" numb due to The Wall

The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Long ago, Pink Floyd co-founder and principal songwriter Roger Waters was having a bad breakup with his American wife.

So he wrote two whole albums about it, The Wall (about the space between them) and The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. He gave the band a choice about which to make into a movie and massive stage show. For some reason, they chose The Wall.

In July 1978, Waters presented the concepts and played demos of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking as well as what was then titled Bricks in the Wall, which became The Wall, to his bandmates in Pink Floyd, asking them to decide which should be a group album and which a solo album for him [6, 7, 8].

After a long debate, they decided that they preferred the concept of Bricks in the Wall [7], even though their manager at the time, Steve O'Rourke, thought that Pros and Cons was a better-sounding concept [9] and guitarist David Gilmour deemed Pros and Cons stronger musically [7]. Waters declared:

"Well, the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea for The Wall – the basis of the idea. I wrote both pieces at roughly the same time. And, in fact, I made demo tapes of them both. And, in fact, [I] presented both demo tapes to the rest of the Floyd and said, 'Look, I'm going to do one of these as a solo project and we'll do one as a band album, and you can choose."

"So this was the one that was left over. Um...I mean, it's developed an awful lot since then, I think [8]. Bricks in the Wall, retitled The Wall, became the next Pink Floyd album in 1979. And Waters temporarily shelved Pros and Cons, but in early 1983, he undertook the shelved project himself as a solo project [10]. More

I love Jewish Israel better than USA

Pro-genocidal American Jewish Zionist multi-billionaire Robert H. K. Kraft [1] (age 85, born June 5, 1941) is a Jewish American businessman.

He told redhead Ed Sheeran that he better fire Macklemore, which cost Sheeran the other bands on the tour, including his own band.

Jewish Zionist Kraft is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment, real estate development, and a private equity portfolio.

Yes, sir. Who else do you want me to fire?

Since 1994, Kraft has owned the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He also owns the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS), which he founded in 1996.

In 2017, he founded the Boston Uprising, an Overwatch League esports team that competed from 2017 until it disbanded in January 2024.

According to Forbes, Kraft had an estimated net worth of $11.1 billion as of July 2024 [2]. More

Mandy Kahn: Peace Class, Deep Dive Poetry

Our true nature is peaceful and loving

Peace Class, FREE on Zoom (prs.org)

Our true nature is loving and peaceful. Why, then, is there so much belligerence, negativity, hate, aggression, violence, and war in our society? It is because we have been caught in the “terrible twos” of our evolution.

When a child is 2 years old, it is natural and organic for that child to express itself by throwing fits when feeling frustrated or angry or sad — to cry, wail, bang fists, and kick. This behavior is common, natural, and we love our 2-year-old children as they transit through this evolutionary phase to adulthood.

This behavior is so common that our culture has a name for it. We call it “the terrible twos.”

But soon a child is three years old, then four, then five. And it learns to ask for what it wants, and it learns to self-soothe. That is to say, it evolves. This progression, this refinement, this “evolution” is natural, just as the “terrible twos” was a natural phase to go through for a child.

Humanity has been in an extended expression of a kind of “terrible twos.” Loving parents understand that their two-year-old child will evolve out of certain maladaptive behaviors. And so that parent soothes the child, and loves the child, and soon, the child enters a new phase in its development.

Why, then, have we as humanity been “stalled” in our “terrible twos” for so long?

It is because we have failed to understand that what we are experiencing is a phase—a temporary and brief transit on an evolutionary trajectory, growing pains.

Instead, we look at our own behavior and say, “Ah, this is just how we are. This is human nature. We get angry and we have fits, banging our fists. We are violent. That is our innate, inherent, and natural way of being. We can't be expected to change.”

This thoughtless assumption -- or actively promoted view by some in the biological and social sciences -- is a powerful misconception. This misunderstanding has powerfully paused us at an evolutionary rut that would have been natural to evolve through very quickly.

A child experiences age two very briefly; the vast majority of its life is spent in a much more evolved state.

Yet, we've spent thousands of years in an evolutionary rut that teaches lessons that could be learned—and evolved from—in a single generation. Why?

It is because we look at the current phase we're in, and our behavior at this point, and create an “identity” based on it. We begin to think of violence and cruelty as our true human nature. It is not.

Just as it is natural for a baby to evolve from a child into a young person, and from a young person into an adult, it is natural for our human community to evolve. In fact, eventual evolution is natural and inevitable. We choose how quickly that evolution takes place.

It is unusual for a collective to spend so long stuck in a single evolutionary phase. But it is also our option to do so.

We can evolve as quickly or as slowly as we'd like. We have free will. And our free will is always honored by the universe.

Evolution by “peacening”

We are here to evolve. Our eventual “peacening” is happening and inevitable.

All-that-is understands our trajectory and loves and honors us at every point in our evolution, just as a loving parent loves its baby, loves its 2-year-old, and thereby holds space for its child's maturity to bloom and come forth.

We have looked at humanity's belligerent actions and have identified with those actions. We have concluded that we are inherently this way. And those conclusions have become hard and fast beliefs passed down from generation to generation. (Who are we, the Hatfields and McCoys?)

Beliefs not only precede experience, beliefs create experience. The belief that we are belligerent gets expressed in our behavior. The more it is expressed, the more challenging it is to see it as a phase.

As a result, we've misunderstood who we are.

We are loved and honored in all phases of our development, and nothing that we do is judged as terrible.

Therefore, maybe transitioning to using the phrase “temporary twos” to describe this evolutionary phase would be fruitful. Humanity is in its “temporary twos.”

It is natural to experience some belligerence, some anger, some aggression, some violence and so on during this organic—and early—evolutionary phase. But this phase is brief and transitory. It is also natural—and inevitable—to evolve past it. And the vast majority of our human experience will be an experience of original loving nature.

When we understand that our nature is inherently peaceful and loving and that our experience of our own belligerence is very temporary, we will be empowered by a fuller and more accurate sense of ourselves.

We will understand how to navigate. We will understand the true direction of “ahead.”

Believing our nature to be belligerent—inherently, unchangeably belligerent—has been like having a false North Star fixed in the sky then trying to navigate towards the North Pole.

Stepping into an accurate understanding of our nature returns us to our true North Star. Then it's easy to navigate by following the true North Star gleaming brilliantly for all to see.

• Mandy Kahn (prs.org); edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Life changes. Accept it? No, fight!

(Buddhism Podcast) Life never stays the same: Learning to ACCEPT change (impermanence) | Buddhist wisdom

Go gently into that good night?

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

Poem by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

I was born, but I don't want to die, ever.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Source

• Tara Brach (meditation, psychologist, author, teacher)

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

Radical Acceptance

Buddhist author and therapist Dr. Tara Brach, Ph.D. has 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 5,127 reviews).

In our current times of global crises and spiking collective anxiety, Buddhist therapist Tara Brach’s transformative practice of "radical acceptance" offers a pathway to inner freedom and a more compassionate world.

This classic work now features an insightful new introduction, an exclusive bonus chapter, and additional guided meditations.

“Radical Acceptance offers us an invitation to embrace ourselves with all our pain, fear, and anxieties, and to step lightly yet firmly on the path of understanding and compassion.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh

Why do things have to change and be unstable?

“Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,” says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork—all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled.

Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s 40 years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students.

Man, the Buddha was right! Loss sucks: dukkha.

A longtime friend of Buddhist clinical psychologist Dr. Jack Kornfield, Dr. Brach's writes with great warmth and clarity. She brings her teachings alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist tales, and guided meditations.

Step by step, Dr. Brach shows readers how to stop being at war with themselves and how to begin to live fully every precious moment of our lives. More

Cristina Mariani: filthy female standup comic

No, to Hades with change! Fight till death!

Be a man. Fight change. Fight it till death!

Metal and men clash once more to the end/ Warriors above, with the power to kill, descend/ Militia of blood, troops of hate march to die/ Soldiers of Hell, veterans of death arise/ [CHORUS] Prepare for attack/ Your body will burn/ Endless war/ There's no return/ Prepare for attack/ Death will arrive/ Your orders are clear/ No way to hide/ Fight till death!// Senseless death of all mankind overtakes/ Armored assassins destroy, at will, your escape/ Children of sorrow are trampled into the grave/ There is no future, no f*cking world to be saved/ [CHORUS]// To reign in Hell [guitar solo: Jeff Hanneman]// Gods of steel unleash their destruction on man/ Reign of death, what is the final command?/ Scepters of hate are dropped upon this Earth/ Clouds of terror destroy all hope of rebirth/ [CHORUS]/ Death will arrive/ Your orders are clear/ No way to hide/ Fight till death...

• VIDEO: I'm a Mexican Buddhist: Afghan Dharma
• Buddhism Podcast; Tara Brach; Dylan Thomas; Slayer; Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly