Bruce Lee Artist of Life. Bruce Lee

inter-dependent—the complementary parts of a whole.

      On the surface, softness and firmness appear to be opposites, but in reality they are inter-dependent—the complementary parts of a whole. Their meaning (softness/firmness) is obtained FROM each other, and they find their completion THROUGH each other. This “oneness” of things is a characteristic of the Chinese mind. In the Chinese language, events are looked on as a whole because their meanings are derived from each other. For example, the Chinese character for “good” and the Chinese character for “not good,” when combined together will reflect the “quality” of something (whether good or not good). Likewise, the Chinese character for “long” and the Chinese character for “short,” when brought together mean “length”; or the character for “buying” when combined with the character for “selling” forms the new word “trade.”

      Not only does everything have a complementary part, but even within that “one” special thing it, too, should have the characteristic of the other component part. In other words, softness is to be concealed in firmness and firmness in softness.

      All these examples show us that everything has a complementary part to form a whole. Now we can look at the “oneness” of firmness and softness, without favoring either side too much so that we can truly appreciate the “good/bad” of them. Not only does everything have a complementary part, but even within that “one” special thing it, too, should have the characteristic of the other component part. In other words, softness is to be concealed in firmness and firmness in softness. In either case, be it softness or firmness, it should never stand alone; for standing alone will lead to extremes and going to extremes is never best.

      Source: Bruce Lee’s handwritten paper entitled “The Union of Firmness and Softness.” Bruce Lee Papers.

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      TAOISM

      Taoism is a philosophy of the essential unity of the universe (monism), or reversion, polarization (Yin and Yang), and eternal cycles, of the leveling of all differences, the relativity of all standards, and the return of all to the primeval one, the divine intelligence, the source of all things.

      From this philosophy naturally arises the absence of desire for strife and contention and fighting for advantage. Thus the teachings of humility and meekness of the Christian Sermon on the Mount find a rational basis, and a peaceable temper is bred in man. Taoism emphasizes nonresistance and the importance of gentleness.

      The basic idea of the Tao Te Ching is NATURALISM in the sense of wu wei (inaction), which really means taking no unnatural action. It means spontaneity; that is, “to support all things in their natural stage” and thus allow them to “transform spontaneously.” In this manner Tao “undertakes no activity and yet there is nothing left undone.” In ordinary life it is expressed in “producing and rearing things without taking possession of them” and “doing work but not taking pride in it”—thus the natural Way stands in complement to all artificial ways such as regulation, ceremonies, and so forth. This is the reason that the Taoists don’t like formalities and artificialities.