Tao of Jeet Kune Do
by Bruce Lee
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Book Reviews of Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Book Review: The True Essence of The Master
Summary: 5 Stars
As a child, I watched Bruce Lee movies without knowing much about the man. I thought that he was a talented martial artist; however, never knew his life philosophy. Unfortunately, the mainstream media rarely shared his insights with the public. When he died tragically, much of his life outside of the fighting or movie arenas remained an enigma.
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is much more than a martial arts book. Within its covers, the reader will enjoy the considerable intellect of Mr. Lee. He was a gifted writer and student of life. His undergraduate studies were in Philosophy, but this book is not a ambiguous spiritual odyssey. He provides many thought provoking quotes; however, they are not vague generalizations. His words imbue the same force as one of his legendary punches or kicks.
This book contains excellent illustrations, along with Mr. Lee's own handwritten notes. I thought those were the most compelling feature of this work. You can feel his spirit through his words, and to see them in the original script only reinforces their message.
He compiled much of this book while flat on his back with an injury. But as his wife, Linda, poignantly observed, his mind never stopped working. He was dedicated to his art, and this book is his legacy. One quote stands out: "Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart, for we can win a man's heart one day and lose it the next. But when we break a proud spirit, we achieve something that is final and absolute."
Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.
Book Review: A Look At What Made Bruce Lee the Possible Best of all Time!
Summary: 4 Stars
Tao of Jeet Kune Do is made up of notes written by Bruce Lee during 1970 while he was stuck in bed for six months with a hurt back. Also included are sketches drawn by Bruce to show different stances, attacks, takedown methods, etc. It must be known the book is not for those who just want to be able to beat people up. There are many proverbs included in the story and it challenges you to think and exercise your brain just as much as it challenges you to exercise your body. These proverbs could also be a downside for those with a lesser understanding of things because some of them could seem very confusing, or they may mislead people into getting a different meaning than what is meant to be given from them. Tao of Jeet Kune Do was not originally meant to be a book, but instead a collection of notes, so the information is sort of cluttered around. Included are suggestions on exercise, diet, stretching, attitude, and of course, self defense and attack. For those who study other forms of martial arts, almost all of the ideas behind Jeet Kune Do can be incorporated with these styles. Even if you don't use the book to train yourself it can be a very helpful tool in understanding how Bruce Lee thought and fought, and you can get a grasp of how Bruce Lee trained himself to accomplish all the great things he did. Overall, I thought it was a very enlightening book, and the only downside was the cluttering of the information, which was easily ignorable by the great content, and the confusing proverbs, which may have just been confusing to me, and could be easily understood by someone else.Book Review: worth reading and pondering
Summary: 5 Stars
Bruce Lee is absolutely the best martial artist on the planet. During his career of being a martial artist, nobody has ever knocked him down. Usually after their challenges, they would become his students -- Chuck Norris is the most famous one. Once when he was challenged by 15 Thai boxers, he knocked them all down. How could that be? This book is a nice guide to his philosophy.The book itself is not perfect as he did not really finish it, but later it was compiled by his friend and his wife. Just like many Chinese marital artists, his work is also kind of unfinished, but that's because Chinese martial artists usualy don't think the art is "speakable." However, in contrast to many other books, this one is still very worth reading and pondering, and kind of easy.
The drawings themselves have helped me very much when I was studying martial arts. Why? No redundancy!!
His art can be characterized by "economical, really quick, and no chance to fight back." Usually, his opponent would feel like he has three legs or several fists. Chinese called him "Three-leg Lee." He told his student to feel and react but not to think about how to do it. The methods are well-described in this book and some others.
His philosophy can be simplified by saying that he cut off all redundancy hidden in the sequences he learned in China and from his friends in the US.
Not only the art, but also the philosophy is also an important thing that we can learn from his work.
Anway, if you buy only one book about his art, this is the one.
Book Review: A Matrix of Zen, Taoism, and Martial Arts
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed reading this book a lot. Being a martial arts enthusiast myself, I have read through a great many "how-to" books and others that tackle the subject, but none come as close to being as prolific and profound as Lee's ideas. What everyone must understand when reading this is that it is not a step-by-step manual for JKD; in fact, Lee never intended JKD to be a separate martial art in itself. JKD is an amalgam of different disciplines that a fighter can incorporate into his own practice, depending on the need. Thus, Lee instructed his students not to teach JKD as a martial art.
The Tao of JKD offers guidance of both mind and body in that when a fighter begins to falter in technique, the mental supplement in these pages should help the fighter find the way back. In the same way that Lee espouses having no way as a way, I found that a truly pure fighting man should never be bound by walls, especially if a fighter finds him/herself in a life-threatening situation. Use all means possible, discard conventional methods, and think out of the box. Given this understanding, it can be argued that Lee's ideas served as a major catalyst for MMA development.
I like what Linda Lee says at the end of her introduction to the book, which is that after one reads through the Tao, the book should be discarded. I guess Bruce Lee stuck fast to his idea that even his ideas should not be regarded as gospel truth and that one must always be in a continuously absorbent state of mind-- keep learning and be like water.
Book Review: Innovative martial arts book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the bible of fighting science. Edited from thousands of notes that Bruce Lee personally wrote, "Tao" is full of insights into martial arts and fighting, as well as Eastern philosophy. The book itself reads more like a series of soundbites or excerpts from a textbook. This can make it harder to read in that there is rarely a linear expansion upon a particular idea; in the same vein, however, the text doesn't come across as dry as a textbook, because one can take one or a series of notes and meditate upon them. That is truly the key when going through this book: it must be studied, more than read.
Lee's overriding philosophy seems to be that fighting must be natural and "alive", fuctional and efficient. In light of this, he casts away many of the classical teaching methods used by other arts, such as deep stances, contrived footwork, and the hands in an artificial 'ready' possition. He draws his thoughts on mobility, attacking, defending and such on his own practical experience and on the writtings of great fencers and boxers. Inside this book he presents his thoughts on the straight lead, the use of kicks, grappling and foul tactics, feinting, parrying, the Five Ways of Attack, footwork, upper-body evasions, combinations, et al.
This is a must-have for any martial artist's collection. It represents the intellectual and philisophical observations of one of the most well-known martial artists of the modern era, and someone who took a scientific approach to hand-to-hand combat.