The Teachings of Bruce

“I want you to concentrate.”

Remember Bruce Lee, that’s what he used to do, kwon-sentrate. Now please don’t accuse me of racism because of the tone of my spelling here, I’m just recalling his accent and writing phonetically to remind myself. My friends and I were huge fans of Bruce’s work. We loved his movies, we bought his books, and we consumed his words, he was a teacher.

As teenagers watching ‘Enter the Dragon’ at a cinema in Christchurch, NZ, I remember the audience bursting into laughter at the scene where the tough New Zealand guy was dealt with by Lee’s character, by telling the would be opponent to get into a boat and wait for him there, Lee subsequently set him adrift. This eliminated the need to fight one more annoying challenger. We laughed, because it was exciting that New Zealand got a mention, it made us feel international. Kung Fu was new, and if our man was the fall guy, we were cool with that, at least we had a player.

Bruce Lee emphasized concentration, he knew how to focus, he knew how to keep at his practice, and that was how he became a master at what he did. The words in his books repeated the message – concentrate, focus. This meant keep at it, study yourself, and study your own progress.

Bruce Lee inspired us to open our minds to aspects of Chinese culture, and so our emulations of his magic moves, helped our imaginations cross a cultural divide and freed us from previous limitations. Learning can do that.