# Firmness/Gentleness



## Flatlander (Sep 16, 2004)

From Jeet Kune Do - Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way, edited by John Little:

-What is gentleness?  It is a pliable reed in the wind...it neither opposes nor gives way.
-What is the highest state of yeilding?  It is like clutching water.
-What is true stillness?  Stillness in movement.
-What is adaptation?  It is like the immediacy of the shadow adjusting itself to the moving body.
-You wish to know what is internal school and external school?  Not two!
-One should forget oneself and learn from others.  One's attention is on the mind (imagination), not on the breath - not I'm doing, but _it's_ doing.  The body is following its own wisdom and is completely free from mental driving or direction.
-To change with change is the changeless state.
-The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness, only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.
-The flow of movements is in their interchangeability.
-Nothingness cannot be confined; Gentleness cannot be snapped.

Thoughts or comments?


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## loki09789 (Sep 16, 2004)

Yup, he definitely got his degree in philosophy....

It's just the textual representation of possible interpretations of the Yin/Yang symbol.

It's worth while discussion, but I think it needs to be reference with "In my art we would be 'gentle' when..." or something like that.

Good conversation starter.

Gentleness, in terms of martial arts, for me would be the 'soft' or relaxed stuff that promotes smoothness and mobility.

The Firmness would be the stuff that creates constriction or 'tension' that is necessary for some of the moves.

Finding balance between these elements is the difficulty - but it will manifest differently for each system and student.


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## Flatlander (Oct 27, 2004)

> Gentleness, in terms of martial arts, for me would be the 'soft' or relaxed stuff that promotes smoothness and mobility.
> 
> The Firmness would be the stuff that creates constriction or 'tension' that is necessary for some of the moves.
> 
> Finding balance between these elements is the difficulty - but it will manifest differently for each system and student.


 I have found that in order to complete some maneuvers, say a trap, lop sau, bong sao, etc, we need t go from firm to gentle to firm and back to gentle.  I find it is like a cycle - not following any set timing, rather responding to the energy fed.

I liked your comparison to the yin yang (Tao).  Very appropriate.


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## achilles (Oct 28, 2004)

I think an interesting interpretation of gentleness is the ability to adapt.  Si Gung Bruce seemed to be fond of using the analogy of the young sappling which bends under the weight of the fallen snow rather than snapping like the older, more ridgid tree.  It also goes back to the water analogy.

In reading this post, I can't help but go back to a passage in Si Fu Dan Inosanto's book on training with equipment where he mentions that the only form Bruce Lee was really interested in was adaptability.  I didn't really understand what that meant (in fact, it sounded like an answer to an entirely different question) until one day when I was reflecting on the use of kata/forms on a walk.  I always wonder what it is that people are trying to learn when they are practicing a form, what they gain from it.  Really it seems to come down to a kind of conditioning (i.e. if A then B).  Furthermore, it seems to go beyond forms and applies to drills and all matter of conditioning (i.e. systems, delivery or otherwise).   Such logic seems to overstep the boundaries of what we can possibly know about conflict and how conscious beings relate in conflict.  In the end, all theories in martial art are useless without adaptability.  Regardless of how well thought out, how much they claim to allow a fellow who is attributionally disinclined to "be feared by his enemies and admired by his friend," no matter what famous athlete espouses a particular conditioning or set of beliefs, no matter how apparently sound the  logic, it all falls apart without the ability to adapt.  I would contend that all martial knowledge is useless without the ability to adapt to another being.  That is one of the more unique things about JKD: the emphasis on adapting to the situation rather than stubornly butting your head up against the wall.


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