Tuesday, October 20, 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].


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, 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
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  • 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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Halloween, Samhain, the Grateful Dead

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Irish Samhain Traditions
(Holiday History) From harvest to haunting: How Samhain (like ancient Japanese Buddhist Obon and seasonal Mexican/pan-Latin Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" celebrations) became Halloween for wandering spirits, fairies, elves, ghosts, ghouls, and goblins.

OBON (お盆) or just Bon (盆) is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of the ancestors.

We'll be together again: samsara
This syncretic Folk (like the Shinto "kitchen god") Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday.

During it people return to visit ancestral family places and clean ancestors' graves because this is when the spirits of ancestors are revisiting household altars [like Mexican ofrendas prepared for the Day of the Dead].

Obon has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and includes the dance Bon Odori. More
What Buddhists can do for the Dead
The Buddha's chief disciple declared "foremost in psychic powers" among the monks Ven. Maha Moggallāna (comparable to the Buddhist nun Ven. Uppalavanna) saves his Brahmin mother from hell by transferring merits to her after she has died: "Mulian Rescues His Mother"
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Folk Buddhists pray soul out of purgatory (Silver)
The "transfer of merit" (Sanskrit pariṇāmanā [Note 1], Pali pattidāna or pattānumodanā) [3, Note 2] is a customary part of Buddhist spiritual practice where a practitioner's merit (puñña), resulting from wholesome karma (skillful deeds), is transferred to deceased relatives, friends, deities (devas), or to all sentient beings everywhere (as when cultivating the four illimitable Divine Abidings).

Day of the Dead, Mexico, 1995, cemetery prep
Such a "transfer" is a physically enacted deed with its sharing done mentally. The recipient (or another relative stuck in a purgatory such as the realm of hungry ghosts) can receive this merit when they rejoice (feel gratitude, literally becoming the "grateful dead") due to the meritorious acts being done and shared with them on their behalf.

Ah, they remember me! I'm grateful for their help!
This is necessary because in the realm (plane of existence) in which the recipient(s) have been reborn, the opportunity to generate beneficial karma by any other means is extremely limited or altogether absent.

In any case, the person offering, sharing, transferring merit produces more and more merit (wholesome karma). In Buddhism, sharing merit is seen as a far better alternative to mourning. More
The Grateful Dead of the afterlife?

The "grateful dead" in folklore gave 1960s singer and frontman Jerry Garcia the idea to name his band the "Grateful Dead."

According to bassist Phil Lesh, singer Garcia: "In that silvery elf-voice, he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" [27]

The definition found in the Britannica World Language Dictionary is "the soul of a dead person...showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial."

I'd be grateful for help when I pass away
According to Director Alan Trist of Ice Nine, the Grateful Dead's music publishing company, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on it while playing a game of Fictionary [28].

In her Jerry Garcia biography Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the entheogenic psychedelic DMT (also known as "The Spirit Molecule") at the time [29].

DMT: The Spirit Molecule
The motif of the "grateful dead" person appears in folktales from many cultures around the world [30]. Fittingly, the first show under the name Grateful Dead was in San Jose, near San Francisco, on Dec. 4, 1965, at one of Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests" [31, 32, 33].
Scholar Michael Kaler has written that the Dead's participation in those Acid Tests was crucial to the development of their improvisational vocabulary and to their bonding as a band, with the group having set out to foster an intra-band musical telepathy [34]. He says this coincided chronologically with adoption of the same goal by acid rockers Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and the Velvet Underground [35]. More


Why Asians don't really do Halloween

It's a Mexican tradition, and I love it
Mexican Buddhist, why would the living celebrate the Day of the Dead?
Ghosts in the past? Spirit of the Dead Watching (Paul Gauguin, 1892)
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The Simpsons: Apu returns, Treehouse Horror



The horror high above the treehouse

Treehouse of Horror
It's that spooky time of year, and that can only mean one thing. The Simpsons will air another installment of the Treehouse of Horror Halloween special. Like The Great Gazoo of yesteryear (The Flintstones), our favorite extraterrestrial space aliens Kang and Kodos may make an appearance.
The Great Gazoo
Treehouse of Horror is a series of annual Halloween-themed anthology episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons. Also known as "The Simpsons Halloween Specials," each episode typically consists of three separate, self-contained segments. Each segment involves the Simpson family in some comical horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting. More


What do Indians in India think?
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Zen end of all my addictions: Japanese way

(Presence & Path) The Japanese system to breaking any bad habit | Eastern philosophy

Five ways to end ANY addiction
  1. Ikiga9 
    Write bestseller, get rich quick
    (生き甲斐, lit. "reason for being") is a Japanese concept of an individual's definition of the meaning of one's own life [1]. It can be finding a sense of purpose in life [2, 3] as well as holding it as a source of motivation [4]. According to a study by Michiko Kumano, feeling     ikigai as described in Japanese is usually the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment that follows when people pursue things they're passionate about [5]. Activities that generate the feeling of ikigai are spontaneous and undertaken willingly, not imposed on an individual, making them personal and dependent on a person's inner [6, 7, 8, 9] sense of an internal locus of control. According to Japanese psychologist Katsuya Inoue, the concept of ikigai consists of two aspects, "sources or objects that bring value or meaning to life" and "a feeling that one's life has value or meaning because of the existence of its source or object." He classifies ikigai into three categories: social, non-social, and anti-social ikigai...     More
  2. Slow and steady wins the race (Tortoise).
    Kaizen         (改善, "[micro] improvements") is a Japanese word that has been adopted outside of Japan as a concept that asserts that significant positive results may be achieved due to the cumulative effect of many small (even trivial) improvements. It is put into action by continuously improving. It is about consistency, not perfection. Kaizen also applies to processes, aiming to eliminate waste and redundancies. It may be referred to as zero investment improvement (ZII) due to its utilization of existing resources [2], a Japanese philosophy frequently applied to business operations. More
  3. Corporations hijacked our willpower (Dr. Lustig)
    Hara hachi bu (腹八分目, actually hara hachi bun me) is a Confucianism-inspired [1] teaching that instructs people to eat in moderation -- only until they are 80 percent full [2], never 100%. The Japanese phrase translates to, "Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full" [2] or "belly 80 percent full" [3]. There is evidence that following this practice leads to a lower body mass index (BMI) and increased longevity, and it might even help to prevent dementia in the elderly. More
  4. You can do it, Duffy Moon
    Ganbaru     (頑張る, lit. "standing firm," Romanized gambaru) is a Japanese word that roughly means to slog on tenaciously through tough times [1]. The word is often translated as "doing one's best," but in practice, it means doing more than one's best [2]. The word emphasizes "working with perseverance" [3] or "toughing it out" [4]. Ganbaru means "to commit oneself fully to a task and to bring that task to [its culmination]" [5]. It can be translated as persistence, tenacity, doggedness, [hanging in there like a kitten on a motivational poster], and hard work. The term has a unique importance in Japanese culture [6]. More
  5. I keep my mind/heart in the present moment.
    Wabi-sabi     ("the art of imperfection")? In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘び寂び) centers on the acceptance of transience and imperfection [2]. It is often described as the appreciation of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" [3]. It is prevalent in many forms of Japanese art [4, 5]. Wabi-sabi combines two interrelated concepts, wabi (侘) and sabi (寂). According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, wabi may be translated as "subdued, austere beauty" and sabi as "rustic patina" [6]. Wabi-sabi derives from the Buddhist teaching of the Three Marks of Existence (三法印, sanbōin), which are impermanence (無常, mujō), disappointment (苦, ku), and not-self/emptiness, the impersonal nature of all things, devoid of self-nature (空, kū) [7]. Characteristics of wabi-sabi aesthetics and principles include asymmetry, roughness, ruggedness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and the appreciation of natural objects and the forces of nature. More
Why are we fat and Japanese thin?
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Who murdered Nirvana's Kurt Cobain?


No rockstar can live beyond 27 unless he sells out
(Rock Feed, Oct. 20, 2026) The grunge antihero Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain case (murder investigation) just took a dark turn in Seattle, Washington state, USA
  • Coverup narrative: "suicide" of Kurt Cobain but no blood is seen on police photos of Cobain's hand that allegedly pulled the trigger, indicating the hand was placed on weapon after the shot
  • Private investigator hired by drug addict wife Courtney Love investigated until he came to the irrefutable conclusion that Courtney Love did it -- then was sued and silenced
Murder covered up as self-inflicted death

I was killed and it was covered up
On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band Nirvana (famous for the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), was found dead of a gunshot wound at his home on Lake Washington Boulevard, Seattle, making him a member of the 27 Club. Forensic investigators and a coroner determined that Cobain had died on approximately April 5, three days prior [1]. The Seattle Police Department incident report stated that Cobain was found with a Remington Model 11 shotgun across his body and had suffered a visible gunshot wound to the head. An alleged "suicide note" was also discovered nearby. Seattle police tentatively accepted death as a suicide [2, 3], but conspiracy theories that Cobain was murdered were spread due to inconsistencies with this story and reported to the FBI, partially due to an Unsolved Mysteries episode dedicated to Cobain's death [4]. More

Our parents weren't born when he died
Why would anyone stage a "suicide"? To cover up truth just alter crime scene, like Epstein's FAKE death
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Female Bruce Lee? Kickboxer Kimura


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

In the future, will killbots fight humans?
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RIOTS: Why's France really burning? - Israel

I get paid by Israel to influence
Hasbara (Hebrew הַסְבָּרָה) is pro-Jewish Zionism PROPAGANDA that Israel euphemistically call "public diplomacy." It includes mass communication, monetary influence, individual interaction with foreign nationals through social and traditional media, and cultural diplomacy. Organizations involved include the genocidally militant IDF and its Spokesperson's Unit, the National Public Diplomacy Directorate at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and pro-Israel civil society organizations (think AIPAC). Zionist organizations historically called such efforts propaganda but found that name too revealing so have encoded it with a Hebrew term, wink-wink. More
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