In 1971, it was Lee's intent to finish the treatise that he started during his convalescence. The combination of the "core set of writings" and the "disparate notes" would be known as the text Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Many of these notes were "sudden inspirations" which were incomplete and lacked any kind of a construct. Lee had also kept various notes throughout the development of his combat philosophy and these would become the disparate notes used in the book. Many of these writings were done during a single session which provided natural continuity. The bulk of these writings would become the "core set of writings". It was during his convalescence that he decided to compile a treatise on the system or approach to martial arts that he was developing he called it Jeet Kune Do. This was a very tiring and dispiriting time for Lee who was always very physically active.
He was ordered by his doctors to wear a back brace for 6 months in order to recover from his injury. During this time he could not train in martial arts. The project for this book began in 1970 when Bruce Lee suffered a back injury during one of his practice sessions. I am very grateful for everyone who helped me.Tao of Jeet Kune Do is a book expressing Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy and viewpoints, published posthumously (after Bruce Lee's death in 1973). The Zen Master Shido Bunan once said, “If you think of everything as training, your suffering will disappear.” So this is the kind of attitude we try to approach life with at Maryland Jeet Kune Do, and opening a new location during the height of the lockdown was certainly a fine opportunity for training. Every part of your life becomes an avenue to practice Zen, every circumstance is training. There is a word in Zen Buddhism called shugyo, which means deeply training both one’s entire self, body and mind, through the most extreme circumstances that life can offer. The MDJKD family rallied around us, we had supporters do fundraisers, we continued to train over Zoom, and continued to support each other. Savage Mill itself was extremely understanding toward us during this unprecedented time and helped us tremendously. The constraints on the fitness and martial arts industry were very strict, and we had no idea when we were going to allowed to open. We signed the lease here at Savage Mill two weeks before Governor Hogan initiated the lockdown here in Maryland. There have been so many experiences, good and bad, that have helped shape me and teach me on this path. I’ve had some of best boxers, kickboxers, grapplers, and stick fighters in the world help me on my journey. I’ve lived and practiced in Zen meditation in Buddhist temples. Since then, I have had the opportunity to train with many great Jeet Kune Do men and women including some who were hands-on students of Bruce Lee himself before his passing. So naturally, I jumped at the chance to actually study Bruce Lee’s teachings hands-on. My parents had gotten me Bruce Lee’s book, the “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” one year for Christmas, and I fell in love with the idea of using the martial arts to become a more disciplined and enlightened person. I had grown up doing martial arts like Okinawan karate and Taekwondo, and loved the movies of Bruce Lee. My first instructor also taught a college level PE course in general self-defense and martial arts. I began studying Jeet Kune Do in 2000, while attending Anne Arundel Community College. In many ways, it could be seen as a forerunner to what we today call “mixed martial arts”.
Jeet Kune Do thus came about as a way of training Jun Fan Gung Fu as well as other arts as a process of self-exploration aimed toward directness, freedom, and simplicity, rather than just a fixed methodology. Much of the philosophy behind Jeet Kune Do derives from the practice of Zen Buddhism, as well as the philosophies of Daoism and Krishnamurti. While doing this, he was also delving into philosophy both Western and Eastern, and much of the process of developing JKD reflects this. He blended Wing Chun with Western boxing and took ideas from Fencing and other arts, but as time went by, he felt even this was too limiting for both self-defense and for personal expression. Lee Jun Fan was his Chinese name, so this could literally be taken as “Bruce Lee’s Gung Fu”. Out of his experience with Chinese boxing, specifically a method called Wing Chun, Bruce Lee originally invented a system he called Jun Fan Gung Fu. As I mentioned before, we look at Jeet Kune Do as a way to practice martial arts, a path, rather than a martial art by itself. Jeet Kune Do is the result of many years of experimentation and exploration that Bruce Lee went through.
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