"Using no way as way, no limitation as limitation."
-Bruce Lee
Jeet Kune Do--the literal translation is "way of the intercepting fist"--was conceived by Bruce Lee in 1967. Unlike many other martial arts, there are neither a series of rules nor classification of techniques which constitutes a distinct Jeet Kune Do (JKD) method of fighting. JKD is unbound; JKD is freedom. It possesses everything, yet in itself is possessed by nothing. Those who understand JKD are primarily interested in its powers of liberation when JKD is used as a mirror for self-examination.
Jeet Kune Do is not a new style of kung-fu or karate. Bruce Lee did not invent a new art composite style, nor did he modify a style to set it apart from any existing method. His concept was to free his followers from clinging to any style, pattern, or mold.
The total picture Lee wanted to present to his pupils was that above everything else, the puplils must find their own way to truth. He never hesitated to say, 'Your truth is not my truth; my truth is not yours'.
Bruce did not leave a blueprint, but rather a series of guidelines to lead one to proficiency. In using training equipment, there was a systematic approach in which one could develop speed, distance, power, time, coordination, endurance and footwork.
But Jeet Kune Do was not an end in itself for Bruce--Nor was it a mere by-product of his martial studies; it was a means to self discovery. JKD was a prescription for personal growth; it was an investigation of freedom--freedom not only to act naturally and effectively in combat, but in life. In life, we absorb what is useful and reject what is useless, and add to experience what is specifically our own.
No art is superior to any other. That is the object lesson of Jeet Kune Do, to be unbound, to be free: in combat to use no style as style, to use no way as the way, to have no limitation as the only limitation. Neither be for or against a particular style. In other words, Jeet Kune Do 'just is'.
-Dan Inosanto
