05 June 2012

  

Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is the martial art created by Bruce Lee (Li Jun Fan/Siou Lung). JKD or Way of the Intercepting Fist may be classified as a form of modern martial art. Although Jeet Kune Do is primarily inspired from Chinese gung fu, Western fencing and boxing it is more accurately, Bruce Lee's martial art. Lee felt that a real fight was unpredictable and that most classical styles emphasized dead patterns instead of live and spontaneous training. Lee also came to the conclusion the MA was Universal and that "unless there is a being with more than two arms and two legs, that there is only one style of fighting, the human style". So, Lee conceptualized martial art as a whole and embarked upon a scientific course. Not one that blended styles but one that was born of the idea of non-style, geometry and physics. One as he described as "simple, direct and non-classical". At the same time that Lee was creating his martial art he was also very much into philosophy. One source of philosophy was Zen. One of the primary tenants of Zen is detachment or more clearly, non-attachment. The tenant of non-attachment can be a paradox for most. However for Bruce Lee, it may have been the perfect vehicle of understanding (enlightenment) that he needed to create his Jeet Kune Do. While non-attachment is a mental state, non-engagement is its physical counterpart. In the sense of fighting attachment or engagement imputes struggle. So with non-engagement through the use of physical science, our goal is non-struggle or to fight with the least amount of struggle.

No comments:

Post a Comment