Tao of Gung Fu

By Bruce Lee

Gung fu is so extraordinary because it is nothing at all special.  It is simply the direct expression of one's feeling with minimum of lines and energy.  Every movement is being so of itself without the artificiality's with which we tend to complicate them.  The closer to the true Way of Gung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is.  Gung Fu is to be looked through without fancy suits and matching ties, and it remains an secret when we anxiously look for sophistication and deadly techniques.  If there are really any secrets at all, they must been missed by the "seeing" and "striving" of its practitioners (after all, how many ways are there to com in on an opponent without deviating too much from the natural course?).  Gung Fu values the wonder of the ordinary and the idea is not daily increase but daily decrease.  Being wise in Gung Fu does not mean adding more but being able to remove sophistication and ornamentation and be simply simple - like a sculptor building a statue not by adding but by hacking away the unessential so that the truth will be revealed unobstructed.  Gung Fu is satisfied with one's bare hands without the fancy decoration of colorful gloves which tend to hinder the natural function of the hands.  The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity while half way cultivation runs to ornamentation.  

    There are three stages in the cultivation of Gung Fu; namely the primitive stage, the stage of art, and the stage of artlessness.  The primitive Stage is the stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing of the art of combat.  In a fight he "simply" blocks and strikes instinctively without a concern as to what is being right and wrong.  Of course he might not be so-called "scientific" but he is nevertheless, being himself.  

    The second stage, the stage of art, begins when a person starts his training.  He is taught the different ways of blocking and striking, the various ways of kicking, of standing, of moving, of breathing, of thinking.  Unquestionably he has gained a scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost and his action no longer flows by itself.  His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculations and analysis.  Even worse, he might be "intellectually bound" and maintaining himself outside the actual reality.

    The third stage, the stage of artlessness, occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, he realizes that, after all, Gung Fu is nothing special and instead of trying to impose his mind, he adjust himself to the opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall - it flows through the slightest crack.  There is nothing to "try" to do but be purposeless and formless like water.  Nothingness prevails; he no longer is confined.  These three stages also apply to the various methods being practiced in Chinese Gung Fu.  Some methods are rather primitive with basic jerky blocking and striking.  On the whole, they lack the flow and change of combinations.

    Some "sophisicated" methods on the other hand, tend to run to ornamentation and get carried away by grace and showmanship.  They whether from the so-called "firm" or "gentle" school, often involve big, fancy movements with a lot of complicated steps toward a single goal (it is like an artist who, not satisfied with drawing a simple snake, proceeds to put four beautiful and shapely feet on the snake).

    When grasped by the collar, for example, these practioners would "first do this, then this and finally that" - but of course the direct way would be to let him have the pleasure of grasping the collar (he is grasping it anyway) and simply punch him straight on the nose!  To some martial artists of distinguishing taste, this would be little bit unsophisticated; too ordinary and unartful.  However, it is the ordinary that we use and encounter in everyday life.   Art is the expression of the self; the more complicated and restrictive a method is, the lesser the opportunity for the expression of one's original sense of freedom.  The techniques, although they play an important role in the earlier, should not be too complex, restrictive or mechanical.  If we cling to them we will become bound by their limitations.

    Remember that man created method and not that method created man and do not strain yourself in twisting into someone's preconceived pattern, which unquestionably would be appropriate for him, but not necessarily for you.  You yourself are "expressing" the technique and not "doing" the technique; in fact, there is no doer but the action itself.  When someone attacks you, it is not technique number one (or is it "technique number two?") that you use, but the moment you're aware of his attack you simply move in like sound; an echo without any deliberation.  It is as though when I call, you answer me or, when I throw something, you catch it.  That's all.

    All these years of practice in the different schools I have found out this: that techniques are merely simple guiding lines to tell the practitioners that he has done enough!  Of course different people have different preferences and therefore I will include different techniques of both the Northern and Southern Schools of Gung Fu.  Observe closely the differences as well as the similarities in utilization.