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TRUTH CANNOT BE STRUCTURED OR DEFINED 

One cannot express himself fully when imprisoned by a confining style. One can never express himself fully as long as one lives within a society. There are always societal forces affecting ones thinking and behavior. If a style fits ones beliefs, personality, etc., then one may express himself fully in the style. Combat "as is" is total, and it includes all the "is" as well as "is not," without favorite lines or angles. Lacking boundaries, combat is always fresh, alive and constantly changing. Your particular style, your personal inclinations, and your physical makeup are all 'parts' of combat, but they do not constitute the 'whole' of combat. Should your responses become dependent upon any single part, you will react in terms of what "should be" rather than to the reality of the ever changing "what is." Remember that while the whole is evidenced in all its parts, an isolated part, efficient or not, does not constitute the whole. While this may be true to some extent, one must train in parts, one cannot train in the whole. To train in a spot, one trains to perfect each of its parts. For example, a golfer practices driving, putting, clipping, etc.  Since we cannot train to be proficient at responding to every possible attack (each part of the whole), we train to respond to the most common attacks (parts). If you have no response to common attacks, then you will lose.

Prolonged repetitious drillings will certainly yield mechanical precision and security of that kind comes from any routine. However, it is exactly this kind of "selective" security or "crutch" which limits or blocks the total growth of a martial artist. In fact, quite a few practitioners develop such a liking for and dependence on their "crutch" that they can no longer walk without it. Thus, any one special technique, however cleverly designed is actually a hindrance. Hindrance to what? Jeet Kune Do has it own techniques, why are they not also hindrances. If individual techniques are bad for other styles, then they should also be bad for JKD. If you do not know how to perform an effective side kick, how will you be able to perform the kick when an opening that is best attacked with a side kick presents itself.

Let it be understood once and for all that I have NOT invented a new style, composite, or modification. I have in no way set Jeet Kune Do within a distinct form governed by laws that distinguish it from "this" style or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my comrades from bondage to styles, patterns, and doctrines. If one says he has no religious beliefs, the statement itself is a religious belief. The person is saying he his religious belief is that he does not believe in religion. Lee says JKD is not a style, but then he teaches it in a particular way according to his philosophy, which makes it style. Just saying that JKD is not a style does not make it so.

What, then, is Jeet Kune Do? Literally, "jeet" means to intercept or to stop; "kune" is the fist; and "do" is the way, the ultimate reality---the way of the intercepting fist. Do remember, however, that "Jeet Kune Do" is merely a convenient name. I am not interested with the term itself; I am interested in its effect of liberation when JKD is used as a mirror for self-examination.

Unlike a "classical" martial art, there is no series of rules or classification of technique that constitutes a distinct "Jeet Kune Do" method of fighting. This must make it easy to learn JKD. Since it does not have rules or special techniques, anything you do must be okay; that is unless what you do is from one those evil “styles.”  JKD is not a form of special conditioning with its own rigid philosophy. It looks at combat not from a single angle, but from all possible angles. All possible angles? Does anyone have the time to train in responding to everything? While JKD utilizes all the ways and means to serve its end (after all, efficiency is anything that scores [scores, is Lee saying that an effective technique is one that scores a point in sparring competition, a competition with all those rules on what is and is not allowed]), it is bound by none and is therefore free. In other words, JKD possesses everything, but is in itself possessed by nothing. Philosophical BS!

Therefore, to try and define JKD in terms of a distinct style be it gung-fu, karate, street fighting, Bruce Lee's martial art, etc. is to completely miss its meaning. In 2004, the Bruce Lee Foundation changed the name of Jeet Kune Do to Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do. "Jun Fan" was Lee's Chinese given name, so the literal translation is "Bruce Lee's Way of the Intercepting Fist." Apparently his heirs missed the point. Its teaching simply cannot be confined with a system. Why not? Since JKD is at once "this" and "not this,” it neither opposes nor adheres to any style. To understand this fully, one must transcend from the duality of "for" and "against" into one organic unity, which is without distinctions. Understanding of JKD is direct intuition of this unity. In other words, to understand JKD, you must accept Lee’s philosophical BS!

There are no prearranged sets or "kata" in the teaching of JKD, nor are they necessary. It is okay not to use kata. Katas serve many specific purposes; if you do not think these purposes are worthwhile, then it is okay not to use them. Consider the subtle difference between "having no form" and having "no form"; the first is ignorance, the second is transcendence. What the hell does this mean? Through instinctive body feeling, each of us 'knows' our own most efficient and dynamic manner of achieving effective leverage, balance in motion, economical use of energy, etc. If this is true, why do sports do scientific research to find the best way to perform the sports and why do all elite athletes have coaches to point out their mistakes and correct them. Why do not they just rely on their instincts? Patterns, techniques, or forms touch only the fringe of genuine understanding. The core of understanding lies in the individual mind, and until that is touched, everything is uncertain and superficial. More philosophical BS! Truth cannot be perceived until we come to fully understand ourselves and our potentials. After all, 'knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means self-knowledge.' You can have all the self-knowledge and self-understanding possible, and it will not help you in a fight unless you know how to effectively defend yourself and perform effective attacks. This article was written in a time when Transcendental Meditation was the “in” thing to beleive.

At this point you may ask, "How do I gain this knowledge?" That you will have to find out all by yourself. You must accept the fact that there is [no] help but self-help. For the same reason I cannot tell you how to "gain" freedom, since freedom exists within you. I cannot tell you what 'not' to do, I cannot tell you what you 'should' do, since that would be confining you to a particular approach. Formulas can only inhibit freedom; externally dictated prescriptions only squelch creativity and assure mediocrity. Bear in mind that the freedom that accrues from self-knowledge cannot be acquired through strict adherence to a formula; we do not suddenly "become" free, we simply "are" free. Apparently, Lee sees no purpose in experience or history. I would much rather have someone tell me that I will burn myself if I touch a hot stove than for me to learn for myself. We need people with previous experience to tell us what we should do or not do. Whether we follow the advice or not is an individual choice. As Will Rodgers supposedly said, There are three kinds of men: those that learn by reading, the few who learn by observation, and the ones that have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

Learning is definitely not mere imitation, nor is it the ability to accumulate and regurgitate fixed knowledge. Its not? Apparently, all schools and colleges have it wrong then. Learning is a constant process of discovery, a process without end. True. In JKD, we begin not by accumulation but by discovering the cause of our ignorance, a discovery that involves a shedding process. Again with the empty cup! Apparently, if you do agree with JKD, it is because of your ignorance and your previous knowledge and experience. It seems that to learn JKD, you must reject all you have learned and believe in Lee’s philosophy as the only way to the truth.

Unfortunately, most students in the martial arts are conformists. Instead of learning to depend on themselves for expression, they blindly follow their instructors, no longer feeling alone, and finding security in mass imitation. Bull! Martial arts students come to a martial art class to learn a martial art from a supposed expert in the martial art. They must filter what is told them through what they already know to determine if what they being told is reasonable, logical, or true.  The product of this imitation is a dependent mind. Independent inquiry, which is essential to genuine understanding, is sacrificed. Is it? Look around the martial arts and witness the assortment of routine performers, trick artists, desensitized robots, glorifiers of the past and so on all followers or exponents of organized despair. What about JKD students? Are they not imitating what they are being taught? How long will a JKD student last in class if he does not imitate what is taught or if he constantly questions the instructor’s methods. After all, is not this Lee’s definition being an “independent” student?

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