Sourcing Bruce Lee

   Did Bruce Lee invent "the six diseases"?  Introduction  Marcin Sygula, a friend of Martial History Team and this project, Sourcing Bruce Lee , sent me a link to Bruce Lee Podcast #47, titled The Six Diseases . He noted that the podcast listed what it called "the six diseases," as shown below: Bruce Lee Podcast #47, The Six Diseases In text, the content reads as follows: "The six diseases of the mind are obstacles that you will confront on your path to wholeness and fluidity. These thoughts can keep you from your full expression and growth. The Six Diseases: The desire for victory The desire to resort to technical cunning The desire to display all that has been learned The desire to awe the enemy The desire to play the passive role The desire to get rid of whatever disease one is affected by All of these diseases occur when we seek outside validation." The question is, did Bruce Lee invent these six diseases? And does the podcast's interpretation re...

 Did Bruce Lee say a quote that starts with "To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts"?  Introduction  Another Bruce Lee "quote" appeared on my radar today. In full it reads (as shown in the image at top): "Instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach them all the things you were never taught. Material wears out, but knowledge stays." This didn't sound like Bruce Lee to me, especially because Bruce Lee had a definite materialist side to his personality. (Check out the clothing, houses and cars he bought.) I also expect he would have given his kids whatever they wanted, since he was a loving father. This is not incompatible with providing "knowledge," but I wanted to check out this quote anyway. The Sources I checked my tier zero sources as explained in the recent Martial History Team post The Bruce Lee Library and More . I found plenty of writing by Mr. Lee that mentioned family and children, so I asse...

  Did Bruce Lee say a quote that starts with "To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts"? Introduction  Another Bruce Lee "quote" appeared on my radar today. In full it reads (as shown in the image at top): "To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is." This didn't sound like Bruce Lee to me, especially talking about "martial arts" as a whole. Bruce Lee was not a fan of most martial arts. As this quote is widely circulated, I decided to check it out. The Sources Black Belt Magazine, November 1967 This quote was easy to track down. I first found it in John Little's book The Warrior Within, where something like it appears on page 119. Mr. Little writes: The entire concept of simplicity, of seeing through the veneer to the common denominator that ...