A reader e-mail prompted me to do something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: Review Bruce Lee’s Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living.
Follow THIS LINK to order from Amazon.com. You can also follow THIS LINK to the Bruce Lee Foundation.
First I have to answer the reader’s question: No, I did not name this blog after the book. In fact what I thought was an original idea I later discovered was already taken by John Little and Linda Lee Cadwell!
There are no original ideas. Only original people.
~Barbara Harrison
Now on to the review…
First this is not a book Bruce Lee actually wrote. Rather, it’s a collection of his thoughts on various topics. The main person who did the organizing is the official Bruce Lee biographer, John Little. Mr. little was given access to Lee’s notes, books, journals, etc. The result is several books that relate to Lee’s personal philosophy–as interpreted by Little and Linda Lee Cadwell.
John Little has done a good job of organizing Lee’s thoughts. He has captured Bruce Lee’s “personal philosophy” in a manner that’s easily accessible by the layperson. Better still, these thoughts are organized by topics including life, death, ideas, etc. Here’s a few examples:
- Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.
- 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.
- Balance your thoughts with action. — If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
- Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
Short and sweet: Little distilled Bruce Lee’s thoughts in a manner that results in a good introcudtion to Lee’s philosophy for life. The many examples can be applied to a martial artist competing in a tournament, a student in college, or even in the workplace. The book is full of similar thoughts, which, if studied and considered carefully, can help anyone find alternate ways of looking at life’s problems.
The two criticisms I’ve heard about this book are these:
- That Lee took these ideas from Eastern and Western philosophy.
- That this book is not philosophy from an academic sense.
Let’s take number two first: It’s a compilation of Lee’s thoughts that were put into book form. Lee never wrote it as a philosophy book or academic treatise on the topic. In fact, it’s main audience is the non-expert so this criticism is not fair.
As for point one; well, Lee was a philosophy major so what did you expect! By all accounts he was a voracious reader. He studied MANY martial arts and used their many parts to create Jeet Kune Do. So, it should be no surprise that he look at both Eastern and Western philosophy and took from them what he found valuable.
He applied this method to the martial arts and to philosophy. In fact, not many people can take ideas that already exist and transform them into something new.
Bottom line: It’s worth picking up a copy in my opinion. I thumb through mine every year or so and am often surprised at what I discover!
~BCP
