6 Philosopher

Chapter 5 Philosopher Bruce's ability to perform martial arts almost ended in 1970. One morning, he was lifting weights when he felt a pain in his back. The next day, the pain was worse. The day after that, it was worse still. Soon, the pain was unbearable. He went to see a doctor. The doctor told Bruce he had permanently damaged a nerve in his back. He said Bruce's kung fu career was over. Bruce was confined to bed for the next three months. For three months after that, he still couldn't do any martial arts. That was six full months with no martial-arts training. "In every big thing or achievement there are always obstacles—big or small," he later said. "The reaction one shows to such obstacles is what counts, not the obstacle itself."

In this case, Bruce's obstacle was his injury. For the first time in his life, he wasn't in motion. How did he react to it? Well, he didn't mope around feeling sorry for himself. And he didn't waste his time, either. Instead, he continued to develop his philosophy—his personal code of conduct. Bruce read many books on other people's ideas of what the basic principles of life might be. He had a huge library. He once estimated he had more than 2,500 books!

Bruce studied those books, and he thought about a lot of things. He thought about jeet kune do. He thought about life. He thought about how he could bring more of his thoughts about

life into his teaching of the martial arts. He also began to write. His notes have been compiled into many different books about jeet kune do, the martial arts, and wisdom for everyday living. Still, Bruce had always been a man on the move, and he needed to get back into action. He knew what the doctor had told him: He set out to prove the doctor wrong. Bruce mapped out his own strategy for getting better. He started slowly at first, then gradually worked his way back into shape. He had to deal with pain in his back for the rest of his life. Otherwise, though, he was as good as ever. Bruce was able to return to the martial arts in large part because his ways of training and fitness were revolutionary. His methods were considered extremely unusual for his day, but they have long since become accepted. Consider weight training, for instance. In Bruce's time, weight training was used mostly by huge bodybuilders who wanted to make their muscles as big as possible. Bruce was only about

five-feet seven-inches tall and weighed only 140 pounds. Still, he trained with weights. He didn't care about how big his muscles were, he cared how useful they were. Though he was not big, his strength was legendary. He was so strong that he could do fifty chin-ups—using only one arm!

THE WISDOM OF BRUCE LEE: A FEW OF HIS MOST FAMOUS SAYINGS "I FEAR NOT THE MAN WHO HAS PRACTICED TEN THOUSAND KICKS ONCE, BUT I FEAR THE MAN WHO HAS PRACTICED ONE KICK TEN THOUSAND TIMES." "NOTICE THAT THE STIFFEST TREE IS MOST EASILY CRACKED, WHILE THE BAMBOO OR WILLOW SURVIVES BY BENDING WITH THE WIND."