TO HELL WITH CIRCUMSTANCES - BRUCE LEE’s #82 Birthday
“To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities” - is a famous quote attributed to Bruce Lee.
To me, this is another reincarnation of the same old idea that keeps popping up in philosophy and resilience - “The Obstacle Is The Way” (as our Stoic friends advocated for).
In other words - life’s hardships are not something to fear, but something to leverage towards our own growth.
For more about Stoics and their philosophies see http://theobstacleistheway.com/ and https://ryanholiday.net/.
Following is a very-brief review of Lee’s timeline,.
For each period, we will try to identify one obstacle (circumstance) and how Lee turned it into the way forward (opportunity).
1940: Lee Jun-fan
1940, the year of the dragon.
At the hour of the dragon, Lee Jun-Fan (Bruce Lee’s Cantonese name) was born, in San Francisco.
His father was a Cantonese opera singer, and the family was in the US for an international opera tour.
Lee’s family moved back to Hong Kong, when he was 4 months old.
There Lee grew up, collecting a wide variety of challenges and experiences that will help shape and define his destiny.
Circumstance: born outside the homeland, relocated while only a few months old.
Opportunity: as we’ll see later, Lee will use his connection to the US, in order to build his world legacy.
1940-1959: THE LITTLE DRAGON
Because of his father’s profession, Lee was exposed to the world of cinema from a very early age.
Lee took the stage name “The Little Dragon”, as he was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiac.
By the age of 18, Lee already participated in 20 movies.
During his early years, Lee also experienced the world of combat and martial arts:
Trained in Boxing and won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament, knocking out the previous champion
Won Hong Kong's Cha-Cha Championship
Trained in Wing Chun with the legendary Ip Man (despite resistance from the Chinese community due to Lee’s mixed heritage)
Street fighting
Following street fighting troubles with the law, Lee moved back to the US, where he would eventually grow out of the “Little Dragon” persona into “The Dragon”.
Circumstance: street fighting troubles drove Lee to the US, away from home.
Opportunity: street fighting experience helped forge Lee’s fighting capabilities, US arrival enabled the legend we know today.
1959-1967: US, JUN-FAN GUNG FU
In the US, Lee studied Drama and Philosophy, and started teaching martial arts, taking his Wing Chun basis and expanding it with more tools, methods, and ideas.
According to Lee, the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to him to stop teaching non-Chinese people.
When he refused to comply, he was challenged to a combat match with Wong Jack-man.
The arrangement was that if Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school, while if he won, he would be free to teach white people, or anyone else.
Accounts of Wong's fight with Lee are controversial, as it was unrecorded and held privately.
And Lee, who already drifted away from the traditional Wing Chun, kept teaching under the name “Jun-Fan Gung Fu” (after his own name).
Lee emphasized what he called "the style of no style" - getting rid of the formalized approach of traditional styles.
Lee felt that even the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was too restrictive.
It eventually evolved into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call ”Jeet Kune Do” or the “Way of the Intercepting Fist”.
Circumstance: Traditional Chinese community called Lee to stop training westerners.
Opportunity: Having to adapt to and change, Lee was able to refine his martial art concept and create the first MMA (mixed martial art)
BONUS: WU WEI GUNG FU - “SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENT”
One of Lee’s earliest US students, was Jo-Si (founder, you’ll see of what in a sec) Joseph Cowles.
After training with Lee for a few years, Cowles asked Lee if he can also teach Jun-Fan Gun Fu.
Lee answered no.
Ok ok, he told Cowles that he can teach, but not under the Jun-Fan name (which was just Lee’s private name).
So, Cowles founded (Jo-Si == Founder, remember?) the “Wu Wei Gung Fu” school, after the Taoist principle of “Wu Wei”.
”Wu Wei” can be translated in various ways from Chinese (what a surprise, usually philosophical ideas from different cultures translate perfectly into English).
Some translations are: “action without action”, “no action”, and figuratively “spontaneous movement”.
So the ore concept was, as Lee advocated for, responding to each moment with an effortless solution.
Today, Wu Wei Gung Fu is headed by the Israeli Si-Jo (head of school) Eyal Koren, who was given this role by the found Jo-Si Joseph Cowles.
And I, had the good fortune of training under Wu Wei Gung Fu top teachers, for a few years.
Currently I am on a kind of self-imposed exile, training alone at home.
But the things I learned will always empower me.
And my eventual return will be sweet.
Circumstance [me]: COVID, starting a new family and career, led me to withdraw from formal training in Wu Wei Gung Fu
Opportunity [me]: Despite having no official routine to hold me accountable, I maintain a self-imposed routine of daily training (for 2 years now), improving what I can, preserving what I cannot. I will not progress in martial arts nearly as fast as I could by training with the group and teacher. But keeping up with a self-imposed routine will forge unbreakable skills, habits, and mentality of not stopping despite all the excuses in the world (I wonder if this ability can be useful in life, hmm…)
TAKEAWAYS
Whatever happens, or is happening to you - you can choose to find the positive, the growth, the opportunity in the circumstance.
