Читать книгу Bruce Lee Artist of Life. Inspiration and Insights from the World's Greatest Martial Artist онлайн

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Do not, however, be impressed by instructors who have brick-breaking hands, invincible stomachs, iron forearms, or even speed, for that matter. Remember, you cannot learn his ability, but you can learn his skill. At any rate, the ability to break stones, to take a punch on the body, to jump so many feet off the ground are but stunts in the Chinese art of gung fu. Of primary importance are the techniques.

Breaking a brick and punching a human being are two different things: a brick does not give, whereas when being hit, a human being spins, falls, and so forth, thus dissolving the power of the blow. What is the use if one has no technique to bring home his so-called “killing stroke”? On top of that, bricks and stones do not move and fight back. Thus, the system should be the thing considered, and, as mentioned before, a system should not be mechanical, intricate, and fanciful, but simply simple.

What if the “master” does not wish to show you his style? What if he is “too humble” and firmly guards his “deadly” secret? One thing I hope readers should realize regarding Oriental humility and secrecy is that although it is true that highly qualified teachers do not boast and sometimes do not teach gung fu to just anybody, the fact remains that they are only human beings, and certainly they have not spent ten, twenty, or thirty years on an art in order to say nothing about it. Even Lao-tzu, the author of the Tao Teh Ching, and the man who wrote “He who knows does not speak. He who speaks, does not know,” wrote five-thousand words to explain his doctrine.