The 7 Principles of Adaptation, according to Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee became famous all over the world by becoming the protagonist of films that cross borders, however, this important martial arts fighter was much more than a Hollywood idiot, graduated very young in Hong Kong in Eastern thought and also distinguished himself as a philosopher and writer Bruce Lee was a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Washington.

He was also one of the figures who began to arouse interest in martial arts in the West. Bruce Lee was very charismatic and was soon regarded by many as a role model. Each of the interviews he gave was a true chapter of magic and wisdom. .

  • “It is not the strongest or smartest species that survives.
  • But the one that best responds to change.
  • -Charles Darwin-.

One of his most significant interviews was the last, which was not published until 2007. In this interview he spoke of the great importance of the concept of adaptability, summing it up in a famous phrase: “Be water, my friend?(Be like water, my friend. Your interesting point of view can be summed up in 7 points.

In the West we have been taught to set a goal, to achieve it and to maintain it, we are rarely prepared for the great losses that life causes, so we complain when what left or when the here no longer exists.

Bruce Lee stressed the importance of understanding that nothing remains the same, everything changes and moves constantly. Resisting this reality only causes suffering, so understanding that everything changes is the fundamental basis of adaptation.

It is reality that is necessary, not the beliefs we have about it, we are often surprised by something that is happening and we come to think that it should not have happened that way, this corresponds to the idea that we believe that reality should respond. to our beliefs and not the other way around, that our axioms about the world must be formed from reality.

It is impossible to make a completely objective and totally true reading of reality, so the way we translate sensory information always implies some kind of error, when something happens that we thought unthinkable, reality shows that we were wrong.

Reality flows with its own wisdom. When something is finished or destroyed, the seeds of the new also appear, if something has been destroyed is because time is up, the cycle is over, however, this should not be considered a negative thing.

For things to progress, people or objects must disappear, so that new ones can appear. Affections, habits, situations. For those who know how to look through the rubble of what ended, what emerges is a set of new opportunities and invitations to the new.

We are always influenced by our environment and, at the same time, we influenced it, so Bruce Lee stated that each individual change involved a collective change and vice versa, when the environment changes, the individual also changes.

Therefore, any individual evolution is also a contribution to the world. At the same time, helping others evolve also leads to our own growth. You cannot separate a person from the social group in which it develops.

The present is the synthesis of the past and the seed of the future, the past, the memories, what manifested itself in the present differently from what happened, so it no longer exists as it was, but as it is today. .

There is no future if the present is not fully rooted to flow, what exists in the here and now is the opportunity to form a seed, not to determine the future, what will come is uncertain, so the present moment is the only true one. and valid thing.

There’s a lot of talk about the essence of things in the West. We assume that there are fixed elements that are immutable in time, a concept that gives us a sense of security, so we are talking about the human essence, the social essence and all those concepts that speak of static realities.

In Bruce Lee’s philosophy these concepts do not exist, the identity of the human being can change completely. If a person is shy, for example, this characteristic is not related to an essence, but to a stage of life, in the future everything can change.

Attempts to control one’s reality or that of others only create a sense of frustration, one way or another, everything is as it should be and everything is as it should be, at least in the present moment, no one has absolute control over So, as Bruce Lee said, we have to be like water, which adapts and takes the form of what it finds along the way.

Bruce Lee’s teachings have had a great impact on the West, they represent a way of seeing reality from a different perspective than that prevailing in our society, they do not seek dominion over themselves or others, but they respect respect for implicit logic in reality, which is always, in a way, different from our desires.

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