Bruce Lee Podcast

Bruce Lee was driven by his own Purpose in life: "All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to find the true meaning in life: peace of mind." Bruce's Purpose was "peace of mind," rather than his specific goals of becoming a big movie star or financial success. His big Purpose was self-actualization. "Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious mind to strive to divide that which i...

During one of the busiest times in his life, Bruce Lee wrote a letter to himself titled "In My Own Process". When Bruce wrote this, he had just halted production on Game of Death was in mid-prep for Enter the Dragon which included re-writing script pages, creating fight choreography, and being a producer. He was moved to pause and write several drafts of this letter to himself—each version was an...

This week we discuss a typical day in the life of Bruce Lee, his habits and activities on an average day when he wasn't filming. The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle has an exhibit called "A Day in the Life of Bruce Lee" and you can make your own "Day in the Life" infographic here. Bruce Lee believed in the restorative powers of sleep, typically getting about 8hrs a night. He went to sleep around 11pm...

When Bruce Lee was 21 he wrote: "I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision, it is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand. Whether it is the godhead or not, I feel this great force, this untapped...

This week we sit down with Friend of Bruce Lee, and self-professed Bruce Lee geek, W. Kamau Bell! He's a comedian and TV host. He hosts CNN's United Shades of America, and podcasts Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period and Politically Reactive. Kamau Bell became a Bruce Lee fan as a kid watching 70s martial arts films on TV. He thought Bruce Lee was in tons of movies because o...

When Bruce Lee spoke about the Art of Dying, he did not mean dying in the literal sense, but as a metaphor for letting go of the past and things that limit you, so you can be a fluid human in the present moment. "Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to learn the way to lose. To accept defeat, to learn to die, is to be liberated from it. Once you accept this you are free...

Bruce Lee started writing poetry when he moved from Hong Kong to the U.S. at age 18. He wrote poetry to express his feelings of contemplativeness, love, melancholy, and oneness with nature. The poetry was a way to process and understand his own feelings. Bruce also wrote poems and letters to his wife Linda expressing love and gratefulness for her. Linda says that she can still feel the warmth of h...

The Yin Yang symbol is circle with two interlocking teardrop shapes in complimentary colors with a dot on each side. It's used in popular culture, but it is a core Chinese philosophy. The Yang side represents positivity, firmness, masculinity, substantiality, brightness, day, and heat. The Yin side represents negativity, softness, femininity, insubstantiality, darkness, and coldness. Excerpt from...

Bruce's wife and Shannon's mom Linda Lee Cadwell joins us again and she shares more stories about Bruce, telling of his spirit of generosity and charity. And for the first time she shares stories about their son Brandon Lee. When Linda first visited Hong Kong in 1965, it was a tough time for many Hong Kong people. There were a lot of very poor people and many would stand on corners asking for dona...

11/27/16 is Bruce Lee's birthday and he would have been 76 years old today. In honor of his birthday we are reposting the Be Water, My Friend episode (#2) with a special birthday message from Shannon Lee. To honor Bruce, take a moment for yourself today to listen or re-listen to this episode. It's filled with great tips on how to center yourself, clear your head and move around obstacles you have...

At the request of fans, this week we discuss Bruce Lee's approach to nutrition and fitness! Nutrition and fitness were ongoing obsessions for Bruce during his life, and we can't cover everything, so we'll discuss the big ideas on this episode not specific regimens. Bruce Lee was constantly experimenting on himself and seeing what worked for his body. There was cardio, weight training, martial tech...

This week we talk with Friend of Bruce Lee Steve Aoki. Steve is a Grammy nominated Electro house musician, DJ and record producer. Steve's unique musical life is the subject of a new Netflix documentary called "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," Steve has been a die-hard Bruce Lee devotee since he was a kid. When he was taking karate classes, and he emulated all of Bruce Lee's moves and became obsessed wi...

"Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system." From a very young age Bruce Lee was a rebellious thinker with a keen awareness that established systems could restrict the full development of a human being. One event that sparked this questioning was the discrimination he faced at his Kung Fu school in Hong Kong. He was ultimately...

In this week's episode we are finishing up our 3-part discussion of Bruce Lee's affirmations with the 7th and final affirmation: Willpower. Affirmation 7: "Recognizing that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments of my mind, I will exercise it daily when I need the urge to act for any purpose, and I will form habits designed to bring the power of my will into action at le...

This week we continue our discussion of Bruce Lee's Affirmations with three more concepts: Emotions, Reason, and Conscience. Even though we are discussing each affirmation individually, Bruce Lee used all 7 together to help achieve wellbeing. 4th Affirmation: Emotions "Realizing that my emotions are both positive and negative, I will form daily habits which will encourage the development of the po...

This week we discuss Bruce Lee's affirmations. These are 7 ideas he wrote on small note cards and carried with him always: Memory, Subconscious Mind, Imagination, Reason, Emotion, Conscience and Will Power. These 7 ideas are part of a whole system of well being and self-cultivation Bruce developed. And they work together as a harmonious ecosystem. Today we discuss the first three ideas: Memory, Su...

Bruce Lee, was an extremely joyous person who loved to laugh. It's an often overlooked part of his personality but he loved to joke and play around, and make other people laugh. He also thought of happiness as a synonym for well-being. Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce's wife, tells us about Bruce's humor and how much she laughed during their years together. Bruce was also quite a prankster on set and with...

In this week's episode we have a special guest Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee's wife and Shannon's mom. Linda shares stories of her life with Bruce, how they first met and what it was like to be married to and in a partnership with him. She said that Bruce considered his greatest accomplishment was being a father. She describes what kind of father he was to Brandon and Shannon, and how his unusual s...

"The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it until this moment. Now I see I will never find the light unless, like a candle, I am my own fuel." This quote is very close to Shannon's heart. When her brother Brandon unexpectedly died in 1993 on the set of the Crow, Shannon was overwhelmed wi...

"Walk on." There's a story behind this famous quote. In 1969, Bruce severely injured his back during a routine training session because he didn't warm up properly. He was told he could never practice martial arts again and may never walk normally. Devastated by this news, Bruce became a researcher of his injury, his body and ultimately created his own path to healing. The journey was long and ther...

In this week's episode we talk about the three core tenets of Jeet Kune Do: Simplicity, Directness, Freedom. Bruce Lee applied these tenets to martial arts, but also to everyday life. Shannon shares the story of the pivotal fight that led Bruce Lee to develop his own martial arts philosophy and way: Jeet Kune Do. In Bruce Lee's words: "The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify. Jeet Kune Do av...

"Under the sky, under the heavens, we are but one family." This week we discuss harmony. Harmony was an important part of Bruce Lee's philosophy and the way he lived his life. He was always seeking connection over opposition and never needed to compare himself with anyone else. He truly believed that we are one family—black, white, brown, yellow, red—we are all one. Bruce Lee believed in the harmo...

"To change with change is the changeless state." Change often brings fear, and many times we resist. But if you can flow and be adaptable, you can move through all of the things that life throws at you, with much ease you will remain in a place where you wont freak out and you will remain in a changeless state. "To understand your fear in change is the beginning of really seeing." Life is constant...

"What was that? An Exhibition? We need emotional content. Now try again!" What did Bruce Lee mean by "Emotional Content?" He was describing the feeling of being totally present in your body and connected to your own life force. A spiritual life force that is the energy of creation. This force helps you become a human being from moment to moment. When you are creating emotional content, you are cre...

This week we talk about how Bruce Lee documented his goals, valued mistakes and created a personal definition of success. A dedicated journal writer, Lee consistently wrote down his big and small goals. He believed that all goals did not have to be achieved, they were a way to orient yourself towards a big dream with meaning. They were also an opportunity to make mistakes along the way, learn and...