The Final Analysis

My objective in creating these posts on Jeet Kune Do is in the hopes of settling a controversy that shouldn't exist. For over a decade now, I have been studying every piece of information I could concerning Bruce Lee and his martial arts. I have spent many hours of training in the art of Jun Fan Gung Fu/Jeet Kune Do Concepts under two instructors. One is certified directly by Dan Inosanto, and the other can trace his lineage back to Dan. Being a member of the JKD Concepts camp, I feel a sense of pride in knowing my training has been under instructors in the only legitimate line of JKD practitioners. In my final analysis, I believe Dan Inosanto has remained true to the legacy of his late mentor, Bruce Lee. Were Lee to come back to life today, he would, without a doubt, be proud of what his protege has accomplished. For those who still believe the "original" Jeet Kune Do argument, let me give you food for thought by quoting the founder directly:

1) "Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a boat to get one across the river, and once across, it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back."

2) "A JKD member who says JKD is exclusively JKD is simply not in with it. He is still hung up in his self-closing resistance; in this case, anchored down to a reactionary pattern and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move only within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that the truth exists outside of all molds and patterns, and awareness is never exclusive."

3) "It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory."

4) "If people say Jeet Kune Do is different from 'this' or from 'that', then let the name of Jeet Kune Do be wiped out, for that is what it is, just a name. Please don't fuss over it."

5) "Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system."

6) "Everybody has to think for himself. A right way for a big man may not be a right way for a small man. A right way for someone who is slow may not be a right way for someone who is quick. Each person must understand his weaknesses and his strengths."

7) "The problem lies in asking somebody else to solve your own problem instead of asking yourself. I can give you ten thousand of my ways, but they are my ways, not yours. An individual's questions are answerable only by the individual himself..."

8) "Remember, I am no teacher; I can merely be a signpost for a traveler who is lost. It is up to you to decide on the direction. All I can offer is an experience, but never a conclusion, so even what I have said needs to be thoroughly examined by you. I might be able to help you to discover and examine your problem by awakening your awareness of their cause and effect, but I cannot teach you, for I am not a teacher, and I have no style."

9) "The foundation of Jeet Kune Do is very much like Wing Chun in that it advocates elbows in position, the center line and straight punching. Now there are three stages in the cultivation of Jeet Kune Do, each of them interrelated. The first stage is 'sticking to the nucleus'; the second stage, 'liberation from the nucleus'; the third stage, 'returning to the original freedom'.

Clasically speaking, sticking to the nucleus is merely based on the interior/exterior straight line and rejects the curved line on the idea that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. True, the straight line is very efficient (depending on the circumstances, that is), but rejection of the curve will lead to separation from the whole and the totality will not be achieved when men stubbornly cling to one partial view of things. After all, a good martial artist should be able to strike and kick from all angles and, with either hands or legs, take advantage of the moment.

Therefore, straight punching in Wing Chun becomes a means to an end, but not the end itself, and it should be reinforced and supported by other compact angle punches and kicks as well, thus, as a whole, making one's style more flexible without confinement or limitation. Like western boxing, Jeet Kune Do is most fluid and the fluidity of movements lies in their interchangeability.

By combining the first and second stages we have the natural returning to original freedom, and that is, the absence of a standardized style, the notion of attaching to a method, or the idea of rejecting the straight or the curve. Any action that is based on a set, conditioned course is the action of choice and such action is not liberating and will create confilct and resistance. After all, you can straight-punch a swinger and curve a straight puncher; sometimes the straight is useful, sometimes the curve, depending on the circumstances.

In the eyes of combat, there is no set course, but the totality of action, and in this totality there is nothing to choose and nothing better or worse. One can say that pivot of Jeet Kune Do passes through the center where the curve and straight converge and, in the ultimate Jeet Kune Do is a circle without a circumference. 'In the landscape of spring, there is neither better nor worse.
The flowering branches grow naturally; some long, some short'."

10) "Let it be understood once and for all that I have NOT invented a new style, composite, or modification."