Book Review: The Tao of Gung Fu

Title: The Tao of Gung Fu, A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
Author: Bruce Lee
Editor: John Little

Lightning review

For philosophically-inclined martial arts students (especially those learning kung fu) this book will be inspirational, while instructors will appreciate how Lee explains abstract concepts like yin-yang, wu-wei, and what it means to "be like water", making them accessible, attractive, and applicable.

Bruce who?

Although the actor and martial artist Bruce Lee died in 1973 at the age of only 32, his accomplishments nevertheless paved the way for kung fu to cross over into mainstream Western culture. His film performances were thrilling, his fights spectacular yet largely believable, his manner charismatic and highly engaging. Something of Lee's philosophical approach to life and martial arts came through in these performances and even more so in interviews, and the fact that he died so soon after achieving stardom and in somewhat mysterious circumstances contributed to his mystique.

An iconic fight scene: avenging his sister's death

At the same time as he was performing on screen Lee was also developing his own eclectic approach to martial arts, which he called Jeet Kune Do. Claiming the mantle of a modernist Lee portrayed his approach as superior to "the classical mess" of traditional martial arts, favouring self-expression and formlessness over adherence to tradition.

The foundation of Lee's martial arts skill was established in around five years of dedicated training in Wing Chun kung fu under prominent master Yip Man, whose life-story has been dramatised in the recent Ip Man film trilogy. Something of a prodigy, Lee had a voracious appetite for training and learning. Where instruction was not forthcoming he would experiment and cross-pollinate by exploring other martial arts methods and integrating aspects into his approach.

As an interviewee, even when faced with ordinary questions, Lee makes a fascinating subject:

All this adds up to a legacy like no other. The evidence of Lee's charisma, athleticism, and aspects of his philosophy survive on screen, while Bruce Lee books and merchandise continue to sell, and Jeet Kune Do and Wing Chun enjoy a degree of popularity worldwide.

The Tao of Gung Fu

This book is a posthumous publication of a collection of Bruce Lee's writings on Chinese martial arts, edited by John Little.

Tao (pronounced "dow") means way or path and signifies an approach to knowledge that cannot be grasped purely intellectually, but that can be attained through dedication and experience. It is a Chinese word, linked also to the native Chinese religion / spirituality of Taoism. Similarly, Gung Fu (an alternative spelling of kung fu) literally means skill from long practice and dedication, which could in principle apply to the practice of anything, but colloquially has come to refer to the Chinese martial arts.

In his book Bruce Lee describes his approach to the Chinese martial arts, and seeks to frame his over-arching philosophy in terms of selected pieces of ancient wisdom drawn from the classic work of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching (the "Book of the Way of Virtue").

You cannot learn martial arts from a book, but good books make useful adjuncts to study. This text is primarily intended to convey something of the mindset necessary for learning kung fu, or at least Bruce Lee's account of what worked for him.

Lee is at his best making abstract notions accessible.

For example, he describes Yang and yin as universal opposites. Each contains an element of the other and they can be understood to complement rather than compete. To emphasise one over the other is a mistake. Lee gives the lovely physical analogy of pedalling a bicycle: it won't work if you push on both pedals at once! Linguistically, he observes that Chinese characters representing opposites often come together to form a new concept: good plus bad make quality, buying and selling together construct trade. In a martial arts context Lee instructs the student to seek out these complementary opposites: hardness / softness, attack / defence, striking / blocking. Each includes an element of the other, as illustrated in the yin-yang symbol.

Lee makes a strong case for dedicated training. The central problem of learning is that one goes from ignorance, but with the saving grace of spontaneity (assuming one isn't too inhibited) to being overly conscious and hence stilted. By sufficient practice and training one can return to spontaneity and intuitiveness, but with the advantage of now being skilled. What Lee describes aligns with the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition and the Four Stages of Competence. There's also an element of "Keep it Simple (Stupid)". One of Lee's preferred stratagems against a less skilful opponent is what he terms the stop-hit, wherein the opponent starts an attack, but the defender executes a counter-attack before the assailant has completed his technique. The beauty of the stop-hit is that the opponent is committed to a course of action, so if you can do it there's little chance of his adjusting. To be that fast you need to be reactive and lightning quick: there's certainly no time for conscious thought. The difficulty is you need to be really fast, both in reflex and execution. All of this has antecedents in the classical martial arts, but Lee explains the concepts beautifully.

The best anecdote in the book concerns Lee's personal realisation of the Taoist notion of wu wei or non-striving, that he would summarise as "be like water":

When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists refer to as the “double-bind” type, my instructor would again approach me and say, “[Bruce], preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but control it by swinging with it. Don’t practice this week: Go home and think about it.” 

After spending many hours meditating and practicing, I gave up and went sailing alone in a junk. On the sea I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water! Right then — at that moment — a thought suddenly struck me; was not this water the very essence of gung fu? Hadn’t this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again I struck it with all of my might — yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water. 

Suddenly a bird flew by and cast its reflection on the water. Right then I was absorbing myself with the lesson of the water, another mystic sense of hidden meaning revealed itself to me; should not the thoughts and emotions I had when in front of an opponent pass like the reflection of the birds flying over the water? This was exactly what Professor Yip meant by being detached — not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling was not sticky or blocked. Therefore in order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.

What a wonderful description of the thrill of discovering something personally meaningful in your training. How much better to realise this for yourself than be handed it on a plate!

Conclusion

What's so inspirational about Lee is that he was able to take what he learned through kung fu and run with it. One of my favourite proverbs is "The Master will show you one corner of the room, but it's up to you to find the other three." Bruce Lee certainly went searching for those other corners, and found some good stuff. Most of what he found was known before, but he succeeded in making what he found his own.

Much of what Bruce Lee espoused has strong antecedents in the classical martial arts, and my recommendation for a future edition would be to include some illuminating commentary and cite earlier sources.

Bruce Lee was never the last word in martial arts, but his writings and films continue to inspire.


My review copy of The Tao of Gung Fu was provided by the publisher, Tuttle.

Coach Wooden: Definitions of Success

I have just finished reading the fabulous Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and Off the Court by the all-time greatest ever college basketball coach, John Wooden with Steve Jamison.  Apparently still alive, but gravely ill at 99, Coach Wooden was profiled in Carol Dweck's fantastic book, Mindset, which I reviewed previously, and I am now reading some of the books recommended therein.

Wooden's approach to teaching, coaching, and life, which led him to an unrivalled record as coach of the  UCLA Bruins, including 10 national championships, including a streak of 7 (the previous record was 2 in a row), was built on an unconventional but efficacious definition of success.  He disagrees with the dictionary definition:

I knew how Mr. Webster defined it: "as the accumulation of material possessions or the attainment of a position of power or prestige, or something of that sort." Worthy accomplishments perhaps, but in my opinion not necessarily indicative of success. So I wanted to come up with something of my own. ...

From those things, and one other perhaps, I coined my own definition of success. Which is: Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you're capable. I believe that's true. If you make the effort to to the best of which you're capable, try and improve the situation that exists for you, I think that's success.

The catch in this is that it leads to highly refined, systematic, and committed approach to training and learned.  It's not easy, it's not about talent, but consistent and intelligent practice and teamwork.

The ultimate accolade that Wooden received was that his past players routinely said that more than teaching them how to play basketball, he showed them how to succeed in life.  It took fifteen years for Wooden to win his first national championship, but well before then, by his own lights he was already successful.

His book is great, and you should read it.  Here's a sample of some more of his pithy wisdom:

The four laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition. The goal is to create a correct habit that can be produced instinctively under great pressure. To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning: namely, explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition and repetition.

Needless to say, everything in the book is applicable to almost any area of endeavour.

Mindset

Every so often I read a book that is so good that, on completing it, I re-read it straight away.  Mindset, by academic psychologist Carol Dweck is the latest.  Entertaining and highly informative, Dweck has a different take on the eternal nature vs nurture debate.  Her research centers not on the relative impact of nature and nurture, but rather on the impact of the individual's belief in nature compared to nurture on their performance and personality.  It turns out that "mere" belief in nurture leads to better performance over time, and much more besides.

With respect to any capacity, be it intelligence, sporting ability, musicality, etc. it is not too difficult to establish whether an individual takes a "fixed" mindset (the belief that, broadly speaking, you got it or you don't), or a "growth" mindset (the belief that that capacity can be developed and refined with effort).  People are not either purely "fixed" or "growth", but may adopt different mindsets with regard to different capacities, and their mindsets can change with time.

When caught in the fixed mindset people tend to be fragile, crave constant validation, and treat success or failure in some test or task as a true measure of themselves (making them a success or failure).  By contrast, those employing the growth mindset are more resilient, treating external critique as a diagnostic of where they need to improve, and tend to define themselves as successful if they are learning and improving.

Dweck's academic work, personal experience, and teaching record demonstrate how this single factor has a profound effect on performance, resilience, and attitude.  The book also has stories from education, sports, business, etc. that illustrate the impact of the two mindsets.  The people who adopt the growth mindset largely do better performance-wise overall, and make great positive role models.  (Some of the well-known people who adopt the fixed mindset make great negative role models.)

Mindset can change and it can be influenced by external factors: the growth mindset can be taught.

* * *

I found the evidence and illustrations of Mindset convincing, and am encouraged to try to adopt the growth mindset more broadly personally, and also in my parenting and teaching to try to try to steer others to adopt it.

The idea of the growth mindset also brings to mind the chinese phrase kung fu, not originally meaning martial arts, but rather "any individual accomplishment or skill cultivated through long and hard work".  To someone trapped in the fixed mindset, this sounds like a waste of time and effort; to those cultivating a growth mindset, it's where it's at.

Adopting the growth mindset is not an end in itself, but rather a beginning.  It means that, with respect to a capacity, you are ready to start learning.  And that is the real journey.

If you could choose just one technique...

If you could choose just one technique to build an unarmed combat course around, what would it be? During WWII Moshe Feldenkrais selected Hadaka Jime, one of the rear chokes, for a 10-part course aimed at regular serving British soldiers.

Re-issued in 2009, with a new forward and afterword by Moti Nativ, Feldenkrais's little book includes additional photos, including an appendix with a sequence showing Feldenkrais's teacher Kawaishi applying the eponymous technique to Feldenkrais in a dojo setting.

Very clearly written and illustrated, this book will be of particular interest to students of the Feldenkrais method, especially those with a martial arts background, and to judoka and jiu-jitsuka with an interest in Kawaishi's methods of Judo and self-defence.

But please don't practice the content at home, or anywhere for that matter, without qualified supervision!

Leaving the original text unedited, Nativ has bolded the parts with particular relevance to Feldenkrais's approach to learning and education. Here is some footage of Nativ demonstrating one of the applications taught in the book:

Fans of mixed martial arts will note that the basic Hadaka Jime technique is similar to the rear strangles often used to achieve a submission in such contests. Interestingly, hadaka jime was not included by Kawaishi in his encyclopedic "My Method of Judo", where he preferred other (less larynx-crushing) methods for applying a strangle from the rear. [Tangent: There seems to be two main schools of thought as to whether hadaka jime aims to cut off the air or blood supply, chronicled here.]

Nativ has promised to re-issue another early Feldenkrais martial arts work, his 1931 Jiu-jitsu book, and then his own magnum opus on the synergy between the Feldenkrais method and the martial arts. I am looking forward to reading and reviewing these works!

Smile, breathe, and go slowly

I have been exploring my breathing. This is a huge area, so consider this article an introduction.

Breathing methods and practices are widespread and varied. Breathing can be automatic or controlled, and is widely believed to connect the body and the mind: Many people take a few deep breaths to help calm themselves; counting breaths is a popular meditative practice, as is observing one's breathing; Pranayama -- breath control -- is a significant part of yoga. Going in the other direction: If you start to panic you may find yourself taking shallower breaths, and possibly hyperventilating.

Specialized breathing techniques are also widespread in the martial arts. There are many different -- and conflicting! -- approaches to training and becoming aware of your breathing.

Caution: You do not want to mess up your breathing. Becoming aware of your breathing patterns in different situations would seem to be a reasonably benign step to take; forcing significant changes on yourself, more risky. Take care.

My approach to this topic consists of background reading, asking questions, and a degree of observation of myself and others.

Modes of breathing

There is more to breathing than inhalation and exhalation. Let's look at some of the different aspects.

I am aware of two very natural modes of breathing:

1. Abdominal breathing: This is what babies and young children do when they rest on their backs. As they inhale, the abdomen expands; as they exhale, it contracts. By comparison, the chest does not rise and fall noticeably.
   
2. Reverse breathing: When I cough -- or growl or kiai or sing (loudly) -- my abdomen expands during the accompanying exhalation. This is the exhalation part of reverse breathing. On the inhalation the lower abdomen contracts, but as with abdominal breathing, the chest does not dramatically inflate.
   

These are by no means the only possibilities. To take another example, if you always keep you stomach pulled in, neither of these modes will be available to you, and the expansion / contraction will be largely confined to your chest.

My take is that abdominal breathing is good and natural for relaxation, and reverse breathing for exertion.

Rather than consciously controlling these patterns, I simply try to be aware of them during training.

For example: In jiu-jitsu and judo classes we recover on our backs between warm-ups in a position similar to yoga's corpse pose, but with our eyes open and arms at right-angles to the torso. You can tell if you are doing abdominal breathing by feeling your belt tighten on the inhalation and loosen on the exhalation.

Nose or mouth?

A normal person can inhale and exhale through both the nose and mouth. Surely there is a situation in which each combination is appropriate. However, in the martial art styles that I practice we advocate inhalation through the nose and exhalation through the mouth, for training and self-defence. The question is why? I cannot be definitive, but

• In-through-the-nose is generally slower and steadier than in-through-the-mouth, and the nasal hairs and passages provide a degree of filtering and warming of the incoming air.
• Although out-through-the-nose is slow and steady -- hence good for relaxation -- out-through-the-mouth can also be slow and steady when you touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, and I find that it is easier for the body to switch to reverse breathing when exhaling through the mouth. Certainly a kiai demands a mouth exhalation.

This is what I do in training, but at other times I find myself reverting to nasal inhalation while relaxing, and mouth inhalation during periods of intense exertion, and when I have a blocked nose!

Other pointers

Holding your breath is a good idea while diving, but not while taking impact. For example, in jiu-jitsu and judo we train to exhale when executing a breakfall. This is only natural: The air will be driven out anyway, so you do not want to fight it.

You really do not want to be struck while inhaling or holding your breath, so by extension having very apparent breathing is not good in combat against a sophisticated opponent.

Breathe through your feet!?

A helpful tip that I picked up from Philip Starr's book, Martial Mechanics, is handy when practicing stance training -- such as holding a horse stance -- for an extended period:

As you breathe, imagine that you are inhaling up from your feet into your abdomen, and exhaling the same way. More specifically, the point on your foot to focus on is the yongquan point (see left).

I find that this helps me to gently relax into the stance, helping me to release tension and sit more solidly. It also hints at the potential power of combining visualization techniques with breathing.

Other places to look

For self-exploration and observation:

• Place your hands on various parts of your torso -- stomach, chest, front, back, sides -- while engaging in different activities and motions.
  
• How does your breathing in-flow and out-flow coordinate with different physical actions?
  

Further reading:

1. Philip Starr's Martial Mechanics (mentioned above) has a good chapter on reverse breathing and some of its applications in the Martial Arts.
2. There are many Feldenkrais lessons that include gently explorations of breathing, and there practice should lead to breathing that adapts well to the situation. I would start with Feldenkrais's Awareness Through Movement or Shafarman's more accessible Awareness Heals.
   
3. Systema, the Russian martial art, is built on explicit breathing practices. See Vasiliev's Let Every Breath... Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters.
   
4. Lastly but not leastly, for a book that explores the function, practice and anatomical basis of breathing, look no further than Calais-Germain's amazing Anatomy of Breathing.
   

Finally
The title of this post -- Smile, breathe, and go slowly -- is a quote from the highly quotable (and readable) Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh. Words to live by.

And remember, keep breathing!

What's Om got to do with it?

The popular image of meditation goes something like this:

Seated in lotus position, eyes closed, hands forming esoteric signs, the adept repeats the mantra Om mani padme hum and seeks oneness with the Universe.

This all looks and sounds very passive and peaceful (and more than a bit New Age); almost the exact opposite of the stereotype of martial arts as active, violent and blood-thirsty.

But there is more to meditation than passivity and navel-gazing, and there is more to martial arts than beating people up. A significant component of meditation is a state of mind that is essential to the mental side of martial arts, and one that is of great value in everyday life.

So I hope you will join me on a brief tour on the nature and relationship of meditation to the martial arts:

What is meditation?
In reality, the meditative state is almost the exact opposite of being oblivious or pre-occupied. My working definition is:

A state of relaxed concentration on the reality of the present moment.

In other words, it is about being really awake, alive and tuned in to what is going on in and around you. I consider it to be the same as being "in the zone" or in a state of flow.

Anything that leads you to this state can be viewed as a form of meditation.

Note: While it is true that there are many types and techniques of meditation with varying aims and extensions, I take the above aspect as the common foundation. (At least, it is the aspect that I am going to stick to for the purposes of this article!)

Martial arts = Moving meditation
Clearly, in a life-and-death situation, such as being under attack, or needing to take quick action to save someone else in danger, being relaxed, aware, concentrated and undistracted is gold.

So rather than getting a huge adrenalin rush -- the fight-or-flight response -- and going berserk, the martial artist trains to enter a meditative state in which his (or her) every action is swift, accurate and efficient.

The Samurai called this state mushin or no mind, and it is characterized by the absence of fear, anger, pride and cogitation; a feeling of calmness and clarity; and the ability to act swiftly and decisively.

For this reason, any form of martial arts training which seeks to train the mind in this respect can be seen as a form of moving meditation, albeit one with extremely practical application!

So where the practitioner of a sitting meditation technique seeks to extend the meditative state into day-to-day life, the martial artist trains her- or him-self to be mentally ready for life's toughest challenges.

Explicit connections
Legend has it that the Indian monk Bodhidharma brought Zen Buddhism to 6th Century China. Furthermore, he is alleged to have introduced the then-puny monks of the Chinese Shaolin Temple in martial arts techniques to build them up physically and mentally to be able to withstand the rigors of hard-core meditation practice!

Similarly, the traditional aim of hatha yoga is not to become a contortionist and run off and join the circus, but to prepare oneself for advanced meditation techniques.

It is possible to regard meditation as a useful practice to "bolt on" to one's martial art, as a somewhat esoteric form of cross-training, but I believe that it is much more integral than that.

The Inner Game
The most accessible book on meditation that I have found is Tim Gallwey's classic, The Inner Game of Tennis. Without mentioning the M-word, Gallwey gives a compelling introduction to what are effectively moving meditation techniques that work on the tennis court.

Gallwey starts by asking a perceptive question about self-talk: When you criticize yourself for mis-hitting a shot, who is talking to whom?

Side-stepping more loaded labels such as mind/body, left-brain/right-brain, conscious/unconscious, Gallwey calls the vocal critic Self 1, and the listener Self 2. He suggests that Self 1 is a bit like an incompetent boss, while Self 2 is like a harried, but potentially highly able underling. Gallwey's introductory techniques aim to get Self 1 off Self 2's back by giving him something more useful to do.

Gallwey's classic introductory exercise is called "bounce-hit", in which the player is asked to say out loud "bounce" when the ball bounces on his or her side of the court, and "hit" when the racquet strikes the ball. This gives Self 1 something to do actively (say "bounce" or "hit"), while incidentally providing useful sensory input to Self 2 (about the location of the ball).

As a meditation, bounce-hit forces the individual to stop worrying about the past or future and instead focus on the location of the ball right now. It is a great exercise and most people get immediate results. (Maintaining the improvements as Self 1 starts to get self-congratulatory is the next challenge!)

I have personally adapted some of Gallwey's other techniques for teaching martial arts, I think with some success, but that's a subject for another article or -- publishers please note -- maybe part of a book. ;-)

Conclusion
Martial arts, meditation, yoga, excellence in sports, flow: If you are deeply interested in one, research the others. There is a common core that cuts through the lot.

Further notes on Gallwey and the Inner Game
Translating Inner Game techniques to other areas is not all that easy, even for Gallwey! There are several sequels to The Inner Game of Tennis including the follow-up Inner Tennis and the variations: The Inner Games of Golf / Skiing / Music and even Work. However -- for my money -- the original book is the best. (Interestingly, the current boom in life-, business- and executive-coaching has its origin with Gallwey.)

Going in the other direction, Gallwey seems to have derived his techniques from particular Yogic teachings brought to the USA by controversial Indian "guru" Prem Sawat (also known as Maharaji). The consensus seems to be that the techniques taught are real enough, but Sawat himself gets mixed reviews.