Bruce Lee Essay, Research Paper

Hello and welcome to the annual martial arts convention of 1974. As accomplished martial artists, we have traveled worldwide here to learn from eachother for the advancement of martial arts as an art form and lifestyle. As an actor, martial artist, and father, Mr. Bruce Lee was to speak to us today on martial arts and the impact it had had on his life.

Bruce Lee could kick three power kicks in a second. He could punch as fast you blink your eye. He trained for 12 hours a day. He did push-ups on one arm on a pinky and could bench-press over 400 pounds. But you as well as I know that a true martial artist s abilities are perseverance, force of will. What truly made Bruce Lee an artist was his philosophy and dedication to the arts.

In an interview with Mr. Lee several years before his death, he said that martial arts had a deep meaning in his life. That all that he had learned about himself, about the world, and about life stemmed from martial arts. Though many of us know what he is talking about, few of us know the extent of it. Martial Arts fueled Bruce s life force. You could see it in his walk and the look in his eyes. You could feel it when you talked to him. He was no ordinary man, and his unfortunate death last year was something that many of us couldn t understand.

The paramount realization that Mr. Lee gained from his life in the arts was something we all seek and few find. The truth of yourself. He described all knowledge as self-knowledge, and said that when he taught martial arts, what he was really teaching others was how to express themselves. Through the combatitive arts, he, in essence, found himself, and tried to show others the beauty of knowing who you are and what you can become through martial arts. He believed that you should not train under anyone s style but your own. Bruce discovered this when he saw he was surrounded by humans but was himself a robot, not asking, What would Bruce Lee do?

Martial Arts in all totality brought Bruce Lee enlightenment. He understood the simple idea that the only way to truly live life is to accept life, and live in the now. If you realize things in their truth, unfettered by desire and preference, you see the simplicity of it. If you realize people in their truth, without hate, then you realize their humanity. If you realize yourself in its truth, through self-expression, then you understand life itself.

After I m done speaking, Mrs. Linda Lee will come up to the podium to give her words on her late husband. But before I go, listen to this quote from the little dragon himself. The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.