- Type: #book - ASIN: B014C57RYK - Authors: [[Bruce Lee]] - Highlights - Life — for its own sake. — Realize the fact that you simply “live” and not “live for.” - The meaning of life. — The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems. - To live is to create. — To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation. - The life of perfection is the simple life. — A simple life is one of plainness, in which profit is discarded, cleverness abandoned, selfishness eliminated, and desires reduced. It is the life of perfection which seems to be incomplete, and of fullness which seems to be empty. It is the life which is as bright as light, but does not dazzle. In short, it is a life of harmony, unity, contentment, tranquillity, constancy, enlightenment, peace, and long life. - Enjoy yourself. — Remember my friend to enjoy your planning as well as your accomplishment, for life is too short for negative energy. (p1) - Time spent vs. time wasted. — To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever. (p4) - The value of time. — Time means a lot to me because, you see, I, too, am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing and simplifying. If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of. (p4) - The Moment is freedom. — I couldn’t live by a rigid schedule. I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them. (p7) - and movement equals energy: movement, impact, energy, (p12) - Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare. — There is “what is” only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful. (p13) - The law of harmony. — The law of harmony, in which one should be in harmony with, and not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way. (p14) - I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do and what I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life. (p19) - One additional comment: the energy from within and the physical strength from your body can guide you toward accomplishing your purpose in life — and to actually act on actualizing your duty to yourself. (p22) - The necessity for acting on our beliefs. — Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. (p25) - The reward of doing. — The doer alone learns. There is action mentally and physically. (p26) - All thought is partial. — All thought is partial, it can never be total. Thought is the response of memory, and memory is always partial, because memory is the result of experience; so thought is the reaction of a mind which is conditioned by experience (p31) - Intensity/enthusiasm is the god within. — Intensity and/or enthusiasm is this god within us — one that instinctively becomes the art of the physical “becoming” and within this transition we no longer care to know what life means. We are indeed furnishing the “what is” by simply being. (p69) - The happiness we have today is built on the ordinary life we had before we married. The happiness that is derived from ordinary life lasts longer; like coal, it burns gradually and slowly. The happiness that is derived from excitement is like a brilliant fire — soon it will go out. Many young couples live a very exciting life when they are in love. So, when they marry, and their lives are reduced to calmness and dullness, they will feel impatient and will drink the bitter cup of a sad marriage. (p80) - You are judged by your acts. — If you make an ass out of yourself, there’ll always be someone ready to ride you. (p82) - Anxiety. — Anxiety is the gap between the NOW and the THEN. So if you are in the NOW, you can’t be anxious, because your excitement flows immediately into ongoing spontaneous activity. (p95) - detached from all results, ready to fight or run, to win or lose, and always ready to laugh at all things, take whatever comes. Your child is ill you say, or you cannot pay the rent? Very well, accept these facts and face them. Are they not trouble enough in themselves without adding the aggravation of worry to them? (p96) - You cannot clear muddied water with your hand. — Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose? But keep calm and let time go on, and the state of repose will gradually arrest. (p97) - Worry only creates problems for those around you. — One who is possessed by worry not only lacks the poise to solve his own problems, but by his nervousness and irritability creates additional problems for those around him. (p97) - On people who “challenge.” — These people must have something wrong in their hearts. For if their heart was right, they would not challenge other people to fight. Moreover, most of these people challenge because they feel insecure and want to use a fight as a means to achieve some unknown aim. (p98) - The disease of philosophy. — Philosophy is itself the disease for which it pretends to be the cure: the wise man does not pursue wisdom but lives his life, and therein precisely does his wisdom lie. (p104) - The reward is to be found in the work. — The important thing is that I am personally satisfied with my work. If it is a piece of junk, I will only regret it. (p107) - The reward should be proportionate to the work. — No one ever does anything with enthusiasm unless he benefits thereby — reward proportionately. (p107) - Intense desire creates its own talents and opportunities. — We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. (p109) - Two ways of making a good living. — There are two ways of making a good living. One is the result of hard working, and the other, the result of the imagination (requires work, too, of course). Some may not believe it, but I spent hours perfecting whatever I did. (p109) - it. I’m not the type of guy who can sit in the office doing the same routine day in and day out. I have to do something that is creative and interesting to me. (p110) - The reward is in the action, not from it. — My only sure reward is “in” my actions and not “from” them. The quality of my reward is in the depth of my response, the centralness of the part of me I act from. (p111) - Success is when preparation meets opportunity. — Opportunities may come your way or they may not. Luck may come your way or it may not. But if they come your way — and you call that luck — you’d better be ready for it! (p119) - You can acquire a lot in life, if you are prepared to give up a lot to get it. (p120) - The biggest disadvantage of success is losing your privacy. It’s (p120) - ironic but we all strive to become wealthy and famous, but once you’re there, it’s not all rosy. (p120) - Success is not a destination. — Remember, success is a journey, not a destination. Have faith in your ability. You will do just fine. (p120) - The three keys to success. — Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The Power can be created and maintained through daily practice — continuous effort. (p120) - The six diseases [of excessive self-consciousness], — The six diseases are: The desire for victory The desire to resort to technical cunning The desire to display all that he has learned The desire to overawe the enemy The desire to play a passive role The desire to get rid of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with (p124) - The six diseases are: The desire for victory The desire to resort to technical cunning The desire to display all that he has learned The desire to overawe the enemy The desire to play a passive role The desire to get rid of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with (p124) - Why do you as an individual depend on thousands of years of propaganda? Ideals, principles, the “what should be” leads to hypocrisy. (p140) - Be “horn afresh.” — Drop and dissolve inner blockage. A conditioned mind is never a free mind. Wipe away and dissolve all its experience and be “born afresh.” (p140) - Are you a flowing entity, capable to flow with external circumstances, or are you resisting with your set choice pattern? (p140) - Live every second refreshed. — We live in cliches, in patterned behavior. We are playing the same role over and over again. To raise our potential is TO LIVE AND REVIEW EVERY SECOND REFRESHED. (p142) - One must die to one’s conditioning. — One must be uninfluenced and die to one’s conditioning in order to be aware of the totally fresh, totally new. Because reality changes every moment, even as I say it. (p142) - Meditation is without motive. — A simple mind, surely, is one that functions, that thinks and feels without a motive. (p158) - Where there is a motive, there must be a way, a method, a system of discipline. The motive is brought about by the desire for an end, for a goal, and to achieve that goal there must be a way, etc. Meditation is a freeing of the mind from all motives. (p158) - Do not look for a successful personality to duplicate. — When I look around, I always learn something and that is to be always yourself. And to express yourself. To have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it, which seems to me to be the prevalent thing happening in Hong Kong. Like they always copy mannerisms, but they’ll never start from the very root of his being, which is “how can I be me?” The need to be real. — In life, what more can you ask for but to be real? To fulfill one’s potential instead of wasting energy on actualizing one’s dissipating image, which is not real, and the expenditure of one’s vital energy. We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. (p166) - Absorb what is useful. — Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own. (p169) - True individualism is self-sufficiency. — Evaluation by others is not a guide for me. Only the self-sufficient stand alone — most people follow the crowd and imitate. (p169) - Be alert, question and find out. — The important thing for you is to be alert, to question, to find out, so that your own initiative may be awakened. (p171) - The key to liberation is within. — Each man binds himself; the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self, and fear. He must liberate himself, while accepting the fact that we are of this world, so that “In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver.” (p173) - The greatest victory is over oneself. — Self-conquest is the greatest of victories. Mighty is he who conquers himself. (p173) - Self-knowledge and intelligence. — Intelligence is the understanding of self. (p177) - Honest self-expression is difficult. — To express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself; that, my friend, is very hard to do. (p179) - When one is not “expressing” himself, he is not free. Thus he begins to struggle, and the struggle breeds methodical routine. Pretty soon one is doing his methodical routine as response rather than responding to what is. (p179) - The nature of growth. — Growth is the constant discovery and understanding in one’s process of living. (p180) - I am [[happy]] because I am growing daily and honestly don’t know where my ultimate limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery that I can obtain. (p180) - The need to make new discoveries every day. — I am improving and making new discoveries every day. If you don’t you are already crystallized and that’s it. (p180) - The growth aim. — The growth aim is to lose more and more of your “mind” and come more to your sense. To be more and more in touch with yourself and the world, instead of only in touch with the fantasies, prejudices, etc. (p181) - Simplicity is hacking away the unessential. — It is not daily increase but daily decrease — hack away the unessential! The closer to the source, the less wastage there is. (p183) - Life — for its own sake. — Realize the fact that you simply “live” and not “live for.” - The meaning of life. — The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems. - To live is to create. — To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation. - The life of perfection is the simple life. — A simple life is one of plainness, in which profit is discarded, cleverness abandoned, selfishness eliminated, and desires reduced. It is the life of perfection which seems to be incomplete, and of fullness which seems to be empty. It is the life which is as bright as light, but does not dazzle. In short, it is a life of harmony, unity, contentment, tranquillity, constancy, enlightenment, peace, and long life. - Notes -