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Bruce Lee and Me

kareem.substack.com

61–70 of 81 posts

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#61
post #30

I've always held this conjecture that Jeet Kune do (JK do, so to speak) was actually a nod to JK, Jiddu Krishnamurthi, whose writings deeply influenced Bruce Lee while being bedridden in hospital for many months. He was the David Goggins of that generation. What an amazing human being.

How is he like Goggins? I can’t think of two human beings farther apart.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#62
post #32

Bruce Lee was a great martial artist who probably paved the way for MMA and a very charismatic man. But people tend to forget that he died at 32 because of his life style. The cause of death, a combination of: he had his armpits sweat glands removed, over-exertion, excessive water intake, overuse of several meds mixed with alcohol. For me that makes him an invalid role model or teacher and leaves him as an extreme en…

Bruce Lee was good at what he did and entertained millions. I had many happy moments watching Bruce Lee movies. I don't need to live like Bruce Lee or follow on his footsteps - it's enough that he impacted my life in a positive way by bringing me happiness. What you say is a bit related to cancel culture in the sense that we expect every person to be good at everything and, if they are not, we should condemn them. No…

I'm not condemning him at all. Not even judging his choices for himself. I'm only questioning him as a role model and teacher. I though I made that clear in my comment.

I mentioned this because I see young people sacrificing their health for performance in bodybuilding, MMA, etc. They are not being presented the full picture of that kind of life style, the costs it involves. Making a informed decision means having all the data.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#63

>> For me, my hook shot was the one kick practiced 10,000 times I honestly think Kareem is being a bit modest here. His one weird shot completely changed basketball for a couple of decades. I went to school with one of Kareem's kids who's now a neurosurgeon (although, looking back, I have no clue how any of us even graduated high school). The father, Kareem, is an honest to God treasure of a human being who has just…

Kareem's hook shot was absolutely insane. Highly recommend this video on the 1971 Bucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtocsxx_i0A.

His hook shot was so perfect and so unstoppable, that it almost "killed" basketball, in the sense that the Bucks were so dominant and the way they played was "boring".

I recommend watching the vid to get what I mean by boring.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#64
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I never made that connection. I'm not a younger person, but never had any interest in Bruce Lee movies. I've seen a few, it's just not my cup of tea. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a real stinker of a film, IMO. I'd be highly surprised if young people used it as a benchmark of much. I didn't even remember "he" was in it until this comment.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a stinker... that's a take. Movie wad fantastic. The Bruce Lee scene is fucking hilarious also.

[deleted]

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#66
"Think lightly of yourself, but deeply of the world."

This made me cry. I'm a nonprofit worker who feels the need to save the world, to right all its wrongs, and yet I'm acutely aware of my shortcomings and inability to have a measurable impact.

I feel as if I've been more and more crushed by my own ineptitude and growing jadedness over the years.

Read into it what you will, but this legitimately made me cry, and I'm not entirely sure why myself.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#67
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. I got bored and walked out to be honest. We all have our own tastes.

The phenomenon of walking out of a show I paid to watch, even if I'm not enjoying that much is so alien to me. The first thought I might have is "what am I missing", and throughout I'll be trying to either find something good in it or start joking about it in my head. Maybe it'll turn good, maybe it'll be so bad it's good. Maybe the way they tell the story is bad but I still want to know how the story ends. I feel li…

Time is worth more than money. It could turn around, but it could also not, and if it doesn't, you're not getting those two hours of your life back. You have a very limited amount of time allotted to you on Earth, choose what you do with it wisely. You'll get more money, you won't get more time.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started training Muay Thai a little over a year ago the first thing that struck me was how kind everyone was in the gym. There's something about training that hard that really starts to remove the ego. I've had a long standing, daily seated meditation practice, and it wasn't until I started training my body hard (first ashtanga style yoga, now muay thai) that the meditation practice really started to deepen.

That's funny, I have exactly the opposite effect with meditation: in the last two years I have been following teachings with which I resonated a lot and helped my meditation deepen a lot, and I attribute my newfound sports skills to this deepening. I was able to run 20km 2 weeks after taking up jogging again after a few years break, which is a distance I never managed in the past. I can see how my meditative work hel…

For sure, they definitely feed into each other. The yoga practice got me to put that meditation practice into my body in a different way, as did the Muay Thai. Plus the physical practice opened and strengthened my body so I could sit comfortably in lotus for long periods of time. Before that my hips were tight and the first few years of daily seated practice were uncomfortable. I rarely if ever exercised previously.

Anyway, getting the meditation practice off of the cushion was what the physical practices taught me. It's like the story of the arrow making dakini [1], you've got to have the practice in all actions you take.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraha#The_Arrow_Making_Dakini

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#69

"Think lightly of yourself, but deeply of the world." This made me cry. I'm a nonprofit worker who feels the need to save the world, to right all its wrongs, and yet I'm acutely aware of my shortcomings and inability to have a measurable impact. I feel as if I've been more and more crushed by my own ineptitude and growing jadedness over the years. Read into it what you will, but this legitimately made me cry, and I'm…

Another formula I heard that fits your situation is "be hopeless, but not helpless". The idea ia that if you go into activism with the aim to move things and change the world, you will likely burn out fast. Because, as you mention, having a measurable impact is near impossible. So the idea is to give up the hope of making an impact, but try nonetheless. Focus on the fact of doing what feels like the right thing to do, but do not get attached to results too much. Obviously easy to say, but hard to practice.

Your emotional reaction to the saying makes me think that you know what you think is right, but maybe have difficulty not putting a lot of weight on your shoulders. This is rare and precious, so many of us find excuses for not making a lot of effort.

Re: Bruce Lee and Me

#70
post #43
post #8

Seldom does one find an athlete so eloquent and so willing to share his deeper reflections on life as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It's sometimes forgotten that he was himself, looking purely at statistics, the GOAT for some time.

Abdul-Jabbar's quiet, thoughtful demeanor and philosophical bent to his conversational style, to say nothing of his imposing height, strongly reminds me of an airline pilot I once met. Really, the resemblance was uncanny.

Can confirm. Was on one of those flights as a boy. Surprisingly there was a video from the flight deck that day. https://youtu.be/iSi6iF9kVBs
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