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Bruce Lee...
I know this thread won't 'go' anywhere, and so I'll put it here in Gen. Banter to share.
In studying Bruce Lee, out of remembered respect, I came across some of his philosophy on the martial arts which he also applied to life. Much of the way in which he transformed martial arts before our very eyes, removing style and tradition and becoming efficient, effective and flowing.....becoming to us a grandmaster of his art by removing any permanence, anything that had been clung to.....this bears great similarity to two things.
Firstly, and I know that Taoism and Buddhism were among Lee's influences, it applies some of the same methodology of Buddhism in letting go of connections, of perceptions, that take what 'is' and turn that into an abstraction; a false reality, of the mind, bound up in supports and ignorance. Lee would tell his students to firstly ask what it is that they wanted to do, and then the most effective way of doing it. There was never a 'this is the way always to act, to respond', but rather the style of no-style was about the natural 'flow' of fighting, just as life flows as a continuous stream of change.
I thought that was interesting.
More, I had the thought of Maitreya. When I was reading of Bruce Lee and what he did to the martial arts, how closely much of his thinking seemed to Buddhist thought, and then the name 'Maitreya' floated idly by.....it sparked. Some people think of Maitreya as the next-coming of a Buddha, and some think it nonsense. Personally I think that Maitreya is a hope; not for a person to come, but for the conditions to arise to lead all of humankind to an awakened state. But, if it were a 'person' that did arise out of conditions just as the Buddha did.....might not his/her true significance lie in employing the same methodology of Bruce Lee? In cultivating the essence and eliminating the style (the traditions) of Buddhism? Lee was influenced by Buddhism, and perhaps one might be influenced by both Buddhism and by Lee in turn. This may be the next true turning of the Wheel of Dharma, not in the way it is taken now but in the fundamental way it affects us.
It was just a thought, one that seemed for a fleeting moment to be profound. Nonsense if you like, but nonsense that may make sense to a certain way of thinking.
One might say "Maitreya is the Nirvana of humankind.", or not.
Namaste
In studying Bruce Lee, out of remembered respect, I came across some of his philosophy on the martial arts which he also applied to life. Much of the way in which he transformed martial arts before our very eyes, removing style and tradition and becoming efficient, effective and flowing.....becoming to us a grandmaster of his art by removing any permanence, anything that had been clung to.....this bears great similarity to two things.
Firstly, and I know that Taoism and Buddhism were among Lee's influences, it applies some of the same methodology of Buddhism in letting go of connections, of perceptions, that take what 'is' and turn that into an abstraction; a false reality, of the mind, bound up in supports and ignorance. Lee would tell his students to firstly ask what it is that they wanted to do, and then the most effective way of doing it. There was never a 'this is the way always to act, to respond', but rather the style of no-style was about the natural 'flow' of fighting, just as life flows as a continuous stream of change.
I thought that was interesting.
More, I had the thought of Maitreya. When I was reading of Bruce Lee and what he did to the martial arts, how closely much of his thinking seemed to Buddhist thought, and then the name 'Maitreya' floated idly by.....it sparked. Some people think of Maitreya as the next-coming of a Buddha, and some think it nonsense. Personally I think that Maitreya is a hope; not for a person to come, but for the conditions to arise to lead all of humankind to an awakened state. But, if it were a 'person' that did arise out of conditions just as the Buddha did.....might not his/her true significance lie in employing the same methodology of Bruce Lee? In cultivating the essence and eliminating the style (the traditions) of Buddhism? Lee was influenced by Buddhism, and perhaps one might be influenced by both Buddhism and by Lee in turn. This may be the next true turning of the Wheel of Dharma, not in the way it is taken now but in the fundamental way it affects us.
It was just a thought, one that seemed for a fleeting moment to be profound. Nonsense if you like, but nonsense that may make sense to a certain way of thinking.
One might say "Maitreya is the Nirvana of humankind.", or not.Namaste
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