Bruce Lee

One of the famous personalities whom I like and draw inspiration from is the late kung fu icon - Bruce Lee.

While I was surfing youtube for some inspirational videos, I stumbled upon these two clips which I find very interesting and come with some highly philosophical quotes.

Be Water My Friend - Bruce Lee

"I said empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Bruce Lee speaks on 'balance of mind'

"To me, at least the way when I teach it, all type of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge."

"So what I'm saying it's a combination of both. I mean here is a natural instinct, and here is controlled. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not, if you have one in the extreme, you become very unscientific; if you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man, no longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. Therefore it is not only pure naturalness or unnaturalness. The ideal is unnatural naturalness or natural unnaturalness."

I continued my search on Wikiquote and found lots of brilliant philosophical quotes by Bruce Lee, such as:

Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!

There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.

Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.

Seek to understand the root. — It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branch, or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoming.

To read more, see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee .

Apparently, Bruce Lee had understood the importance of mastering both the conscious and unconscious minds, and use both of them in harmony to achieve greatness.