Bruce Lee Podcast

Bruce Lee referred to Natural Action in different ways. He would write about "spontaneous action" or "naturalism" or used a Taoist term "wu wei" which means non-action or non-doing. From Wikipedia: Wu Wei "In the Tao Te Ching , Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the...

Shannon met former Kristen Ulmer at the Spartan Race in Lake Tahoe. Kristen is the author of The Art of Fear: Why Conquering Fear Won't Work and What to Do Instead . In this episode she shares her journey with fear and discusses how we deal with fear. Kristen Ulmer started out as a professional athlete, she was the best female big mountain extreme skier in the world, a status she kept for 12 years...

"All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to find the true meaning in life – peace of mind." Achieving peace of mind was Bruce Lee's ultimate goal. Peace of mind is something that we all desire, whether we know it or not. We want to feel peaceful so that we can enjoy life fully. Having peace of mind does not mean that you are removed from your everyday life, but instead you are living in a...

For our end of year episode we asked our listeners to submit questions they wanted us to answer or advice they wished they could receive from Bruce Lee. We had many, many questions submitted and we noticed that many dealt with finding motivation when you're stuck. People were feeling stuck and unmotivated in a range of topics from their work and jobs, to dealing with injuries and feeling isolated....

"It's not about what happens; it's about your reaction to what happens that matters." This is a big Bruce Lee concept and a big concept for moving through life. Sometimes we use what happens in a situation as justification for our extreme reaction. How you react to anything says more about you and where you are in that moment than any of the events that led to your response. It could be that you h...

This episode we talked with our final Podcast Challenge winner, Dina, who called us all the way from Germany! Dina is a recent fan of Bruce Lee. She grew up in East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and she never heard anything about Bruce Lee. She thinks Bruce Lee wasn't mentioned in the GDR because he had "made it" in the Western world and people from Western countries were not talked abo...

"Many people are still bound by tradition; when the elder generation says 'no' to something, then these other people will strongly disapprove of it as well. If the elders say that something is wrong, then they will believe that it is wrong. They seldom use their mind to find out the truth and seldom express sincerely their real feeling. The simple truth is that these opinions on such things as rac...

"To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities." Patience was something that Bruce Lee tried to cultivate. His wife Linda said that he would get very frustrated by other people not being able to match his timeline or if they would say they would do something and then not do it. Bruce was in dynamic motion all of the time. He had follow through so when others did not he would get frustrated. T...

This episode we sit down with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge Winner, Mahmoud Hamed! He shares with us his experience with the challenge and how approaching life from a place of love has deepened his daily interactions. Mahmoud first discovered the podcast out of a desire to learn more about Bruce Lee and reengage with the interest he had in Bruce Lee when he was growing up. Mahmoud knew of Br...

For this episode we talked with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Mary C. If you've been following the Bruce Lee Challenge, then you know that we couldn't just pick one winner due to all the wonderful submissions we received. Mary was kind enough to join us and share her experience participating in the challenge. The Podcast Challenge came to Mary at a very crucial time in her life. She...

We had a chance to talk with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Bryce Young, who came all the way from Montana to record with us. Bryce shared with us his experience doing the challenge, how he found the podcast during a difficult time, and how participating in the podcast challenge changed his life. Below is an excerpt of our show notes, to read our full notes for this episode go to Bruc...

"Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one." Sometimes this quote is misunderstood—out of context it seems like Bruce is encouraging you to toughen up because winter is coming. But these words are not about praying for the strength to fight against a hard life. Within the context of Bruce Lee's philosophy of harmony, the "strength" Bruce is referring to is one o...

"Defeat is a state of mind; no one is very defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to exert greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth." Bruce defines defeat not as a mistake or failure, but as an attitud...

Director John Alan Thompson joined us to discuss the film project we worked on together, "One Family." John discovered he wanted to be a filmmaker at 15. A video production class in high school and seeing "Apocalypse Now" propelled John to start experimenting with filmmaking. His teacher told him about a competition that AFI was hosting for students, and his senior year John created a short film t...

We had a great time talking with Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner Michael R. about his experience with the challenge. Michael first discovered Bruce Lee when he was 12 and first started studying martial arts at a martial arts school. An older student recommended "The Art of Expressing the Human Body." After that, Michael was hooked on Bruce Lee. He discovered the Bruce Lee Podcast when he was lo...

This episode we had the pleasure of chatting with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Katrina R. Katrina knew about Bruce Lee as a kung fu master, but it wasn't until she was browsing youtube one day that she came across an interview Shannon did with NextShark. This interview sparked her interest in learning more about Bruce's philosophy. After finding the podcast, the Bruce Lee Podcast Ch...

"The times of drastic change are times of passions. We can never be fit and ready for that which is wholly new, we have to adjust ourselves and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. We undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. A population subjected to drastic change is thus a population of misfits and misfits live and breathe in an atmosphere of passion." When you hear the word "...

"Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own." The idea of constantly researching and refining your own experience was key to Bruce Lee's way of life. When Bruce decided to break away from traditional martial arts, he wanted to know what really works in combat and how to train your body for real conflicts. Bruce only incorporated wh...

The idea of True Flow comes directly from Bruce Lee's physical study of martial arts and specifically from his art of Jeet Kune Do, which literally translated means "the Way of the Intercepting Fist." One of the core tenets behind Jeet Kune Do is that there are no separate movements of offense and defense, they can happen simultaneously and flow quickly together. This is an idea that can be applie...

When Bruce talked about confrontation he was talking about it on two levels, physical confrontation and then confrontations between people in everyday life. As you become ore rooted and secure in yourself, the natural tendency is to feel that you can more easily avoid confrontation, that you don't need to prove yourself. What Bruce has learned from being challenged is: What is your reaction to bei...

Choiceless Awareness is a path to peace of mind. It means having awareness in the moment as things are unfolding but not making a choice or judgment one way or the other about whether it's good or bad. Bruce talks about how, "There is an awareness without choice, without demand, an awareness in which there is no anxiety and in that state of mind there is perception and it's perception alone that w...

Often the immediate association with the word "Faith" is a religious one, but that's not the type of faith we are talking about in this episode. The definition of faith in the dictionary is: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something." That's how Bruce Lee interpreted "faith," to have trust and confidence in ones self and abilities. Bruce's definition of faith is: the spiritual power of...

We were overwhelmed with the responses for the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge and found it impossible to pick just one winner, so we'll be having several winners join us as guests on the podcast. This week we welcome our first Podcast Challenge winner, Kyoko @Jinjabrew! She lives in LA so Kyoko was able to join us in the studio for this special episode. Kyoko didn't grow up watching Bruce Lee films,...

"All knowledge ultimately means Self-knowledge." For all of his adult life, Bruce Lee was on a journey to understand the truest essence of himself. We remember him as the ultra confident movie star with martial arts mastery but even Bruce Lee was a work in progress. Self-knowledge is not a static idea of "who I am" but it's a forward motion pursuit of understanding your root. It is lifelong pursui...

We had our first live taping of the Bruce Lee Podcast last Thursday, July 20th celebrating the podcast's one-year anniversary and honoring the 44th anniversary of Bruce Lee's passing. When we started the podcast a year ago, on July 20th, it was to commemorate that day with a beautiful remembrance of Bruce Lee and the gifts that he left behind for all of us. The podcast format allows us to discuss...