DEEP DIVE

Bruce Lee is known not just for his martial prowess but also for his ideas and philosophies. He’s credited with popularizing kung fu in the Western world and is often said to be the father of the mixed martial arts. It’s hard to find a martial artist today who isn’t familiar with at least a few quotes attributed to Lee.

Perhaps the best-known quotes are “Be like water” and “Absorb what is useful.” Did these words of wisdom originate with Lee, or do they have a deeper history? Do they mean what most people take them to mean? Let’s explore.

Be Like Water

This quote comes from a longer one that says, in part, “Be like water making its way through cracks. Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. Be water, my friend.”

Although these words come from Bruce Lee, the concept predates him. A translation of Chapter 78 of the classic text Tao Te Ching reads:

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice.

This passage describes the Chinese concept of which is often translated as “effortless action.” Professional athletes know this concept as “being in the zone” — or in a state of “flow‚” as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it in his book In this state, work is expressed without conscious effort