Be water my friend.
Be water my friend is the iconic phrase of bruce lee: martial artist, actor, director, screenwriter, producer and great cha cha cha enthusiast. We can undoubtedly call him one of the most successful, influential and innovative people of the 20th century. After learning wing chun from the famous mastermind Yip Man he created his own style which he would call Jeet Kune Do, if it were not for Bruce Lee most likely the film industry would be quite different, it is thanks to him that martial arts films have become famous all over the world and he certainly also helped to spread Eastern culture and philosophies to the West.
There would be so much to say about Bruce's life and successful careers, but here I want to focus on one part of his life and spiritual philosophy and see how we can apply the same teachings to our own lives.
By studying and assimilating the phrase: be water my friend, we enter fully into the Taoist teachings of Lao Tzu, which offer us a view of life in aromia with universal laws and nature. By following the advice of Bruce lee and Lao Tzu we can be more relaxed, avoid forcing events and people, is to let every action and movement arise spontaneously, in the Taoist, water is taken as a reference and model, given its ability to transform and flow, be soft, gentle and also strong, in Taoism it is taught that yielding and gentleness win over the hard and strong, this can help us understand the philosophy of bruce lee. Another very important concept of Taoism incorporated in bruce lee's philosophy is, wu-wei which can be translated as: action without action or don't force, don't force events, ourselves and other people. Often and often we find ourselves in the wrong situation, relationship or job because we have done more than necessary and thus ended up off track, or we have done more than necessary in a relationship and without our realizing it a balance has been created, while the other person was going at a slower pace, we went too fast and now the gradations of feelings no longer match, as we begin to integrate the concept of wu-wei into our lives, things will go in the best possible way, eliminating stess because we will be able to flow with life and we will be able to let go without attacking people and situations that are not right for us.
As we see integrating into our lives what bruce lee brought into his allows us to live a healthier, freer and more fulfilling life.
To live a healthy and fulfilling life we must empty our minds as much as possible and let go of desires, get back in touch with our spirit and our instinctive part by elevating ourselves through pure feelings and emotions such as love and gratitude. We need to get out of the competitive model and enter into a creative and cooperative approach, by doing so, art, work, relationships and the whole society will be improved. Through these teachings and positive thinking we will be able to flow through life going towards the best that can happen to us.