On Zen

To obtain enlightenment in martial art means the extinction of everything which obscures the "true knowledge," the "real life." At the same time, it implies boundless expansion and, indeed, emphasis should fall not on the cultivation of the particular department which merges into the totality, but rather on teh totality that enters and unites that particular department.

The way to transcend karma lies in the proper use of the mind and the will. The one-ness of all life is a truth that can be fully realized only when false notions of a separate self, whose destiny can be consedered apart from the whole, are forever annihilated.

Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite--there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living voud, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all being.

Turn into a doll made of wood: it has no ego, it thinks nothing, it is not grasping or sticky. Let the body and limbs work theselves out in accordance with the discipline they have undergone.

If nothing within yous tays rigid, ouward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like and echo.

Nothingness cannot be defined; the softest thing cannot be snapped.

I'm moving and not moving at all. I'm like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, "I amd doing this," but rahter, an inner realization that "this is happening through me," or "it is doing this for me." The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the properexecution of all physical action.

The localization of the mind means its freezing. When it ceases to flow freely as it is needed, it is no more the mind in it suchness.

The "Immovable" is the concentration of energy at a given focus, as at the axis of a wheel, instead of dispersal in scattered activities.

The point is doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer but the experience.

To see a thing uncolored by one's own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity

Art reaches its greates peak when devoid of self-consciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.

The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.

Wisdom does not consist of trying to wrest the good from the evil but in learning to "ride" them as a cork adapts itself to the crests and troughs of the waves.

Let yourself go with disease, be with it, keep company with it--this is the way to be rid of it.

An assertion is Zen only when it is itself an act and does not refer to anything that is asserted in it.

In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.

Establish nothing in regard to onself. Pass quickly like the non-existent and be quiet as purity. Those who gain lose. do not precede others, always follow them.

Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected.

Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.


Quotes from Bruce Lee