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During his lifetime, Bruce Lee formulated a complex personal philosophy that was a synthesis of Eastern and Western ideas that promoted the virtues of knowledge and total mastery of one’s self. A clear example of this can be shown from Bruce himself, whilst talking about his son.
“Brandon is being brought up in the midst of two cultures. There are good points in Chinese culture; there are good points in Occidental culture. He will be taught to take some principles from one, some from the other. Brandon will learn that Oriental culture and Occidental culture are not mutually exclusive, but mutually dependent. Neither would be remarkable were it not for the existence of the other.”
Bruce believed that ultimately all knowledge meant self-knowledge. Although Bruce’s philosophy was deeply rooted in Taoism and the principles of Ying-Yang, he read widely, including Western philosophers such as Aristotle and Alan Watts as well as the likes of Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu and Krishnamurti. Consequently, Bruce constructed his own philosophy that took positive aspects from both eastern and western philosophies and merged them into his own, one that at the same time embraced and yet was free from tradition...
In turn, Bruce’s philosophical outlook was reflected in his own martial art known as Jeet Kune Do (“the way of the intercepting fist”). Although Bruce initially trained in Wing-Chun (http://www.ukwingchun.com/), he also studied western boxing and fencing as well as various other forms of martial art, and thus was not bound by any one style.
“I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that. There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. ……. the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive.”
A collection of Bruce Lee’s essay can be found here: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ray.d8/essay1.html
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