The art of Jeet Kune Do thrives even today, nearly forty years after Bruce Lee’s death.
Throughout the past 35 years, two distinctly different Jeet Kune Do approaches have developed. Both schools of thought are powered by the positive desire of perpetuating the legacy. “Having no limitation as limitation.”
Jun fan Jeet Kune Do, aka “original” JKD, and Jeet Kune Do Concepts represent opposing sides of a single martial arts continuum, much like the taijitu or Yin Yang in that they are diametrically opposing yet complementary in so many ways.
In Original Jeet Kune Do (otherwise known as Jun Fan JKD), practitioners are guided by the principle that the founder’s historically correct Kung Fu legacy be protected as it was first created, without the interpretation and further modification of others.
Jeet Kune Do Concepts ideology tries to maintain the central JKD principles “discarding what is useless, absorbing what is useful, and adding what is uniquely your own.”
Both approaches have value, however that value diminishes significantly in the hands of the closed minded or inexperienced. A certain level of conscious understanding, such as Bruce Lee’s, is really necessary to make either approach work in favor of the founder’s broader purpose.
Original JKDers tend to establish such a protective position in relation to the founder’s original teachings that the true wisdom of the living art, aesphixiated within a rigid dogma. Despite the well meaning intentions, this approach creates single track dsciples instead of the free and empowered individuals that they should be.
Concept JKDers, in contrast, take an entirely different path by upholding only the Jeet Kune Do principles that suit their desires, thus creating an unbalance and skewed development that waters down the true power of Bruce Lee’s philosophy. The “concepts” structure oftentimes takes a principle so far out of context that the functionality diminishes significantly. “Absorb what is useful” for example, often leads to a continual increase and accumulation of combative techniques and strategies that becomes unblanaced with the “discard what is useless,” completely side stepping the core concept of “daily decrease.”
How can Bruce Lee’s legacy be preserved while nurturing the higher purpose behind the inspiration?
The answer to a healthy and living Jeet Kune Do is in a conscious integration between both sides and the creation of an entirely new approach.
Let’s preserve the original body of knowledge surrounding Jun Fan Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do by teaching it to future generations as Bruce Lee, himself, taught it to his students. Yet, upon the foundation of the original material, today’s students can be inspired and encouraged to evolve their own “way.”
The internet has provided preceisely that platform for universal access to information with the potential to unlimited personal evolution. The development of online Jeet Kune Do resources is becoming single most powerful product of Bruce Lee’s legacy.
Online and internet based interaction and information have paved the way for things, that would otherwise succumb to time and eventually disappear from the history books, to be preserved forever and allow easy access to all while serving as a catalyst for expansion.
