It’s a scary thought, Descartes’ challenge for truth seekers:
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
This quote touches upon that having a spirit of critical thinking. Doubt towards established beliefs or dogma is necessary if one is truly seeking after truth. A spirit of doubt, however, is the only the start. When we do come around to something where we have conviction of its truth, it’s not just doubt that is crucial, but challenging that way to other ways. In this we have Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do – a way without a way. One of his favorite quotes is “research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.”
In things like politics, religion, or traditional martial arts, this is heresy as free thinkers are dangerous to the prevailing orthodoxy. But many claim Bruce Lee is the philosophical founder of modern day mixed martial arts – and that his Jeet Kune Do philosophy continues to be proven out in the octagon – a model of what mixed martial arts can teach us about truth seeking. In the octagon, we’ve seen something extraordinary – a blending of styles. The “Karate man” learns wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, boxing, and Muay Thai – and becomes a mixed martial artist.
And this fighter is now an entirely different person – and as we’ve seen proven out in mixed martial arts, entering the octagon against other mixed martial artists with only one style to draw from is a grave mistake. But many a traditional martial artist thinks their way is still superior – and they need not engage in such trivialities such as openness to other ways or testing their way against other styles. They have no doubt they’ve found truth. They just know. But that’s not truth-seeking, it’s truth-claiming.
The commonly accepted term for epistemology, or knowledge, is justified true belief. And philosophy and science demand more than “I just know.” For martial arts, let’s let the lab of the octagon show us what works or is true. Same for reasoned argumentation for one’s political, religious, or philosophical positions – “I just know” unfortunately doesn’t work for a genuine truth seeker.
And so doubt is clearly the start of the truth-seeking journey. But after willing to admit you may be wrong, the next plunge for the truth seeker is the truly terrifying one: pressure testing it with alternative views/styles. And as we’ve seen in biology and life, it is only through the crucible of mutation and natural selection where our views, styles, and our character can evolve. This is the essence of Jeet Kune do, when we “empty our minds” and “become water”.
In that Lee is quick to remind us that:
“I have not invented a “new style,” composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from “this” method or “that” method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds… Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see “ourselves”. . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of… A Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one’s back.”
Jeet Kune Do is the way without a way. Even the name is to be discarded. Being water is the true lesson and Jeet Kune Do is the just the name of the boat on the journey.
And from Descartes to Lee: doubt my friends, but then be water.
Photo by Man Chung on Unsplash
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