3 Things Bruce Lee Taught Me About Water
/“But a relationship is also a clear reflecting pool in which we can see ourselves most astutely if we dare to really look.”
- Shannon Lee, Be Water, My Friend. The True Teachings of Bruce Lee
Being a fire sign (Aries), water was one of the most difficult elements for me to connect to. But in my healing journey, I was being called to be in a deeper relationship with this element to create more balance in my life. Fire had been the dominant element I needed to accept my true nature of being an Aries with a fiery determination for life, ambition, and determination to accomplish my goals. But I was burning out, fanning my flames with resentment and anger from the hurts and intense impacts of previous relationships.
I really believe that water was one of the most difficult elements for me to connect to because it’s the element that makes you take a deep look at yourself. And that’s not easy to do. I also realized, water is the only place in nature where you can see your reflection! Mind-blown
So I prayed for some guidance to help me get started on this journey to understand water. Then, I found Bruce Lee’s teachings through his daughter Shannon Lee. Be Water, My Friend was everything I needed! It was meant to be that I pick up Shannon Lee’s first book sharing her father’s teachings, starting with water. And I can’t wait for more from her!
Of course, Bruce Lee’s teachings have always been powerful and priceless in philosophy and martial arts, but to hear about Shannon’s life growing up as his daughter and how it impacted her was pure evidence of what ancestral healing can do: guide you toward your purpose to continue a family legacy of helping people navigate their lives with deep meaning.
What struck me most about Shannon’s story is that although her father passed away when she was just four years old, discovering his journals and teachings about water allowed her to be in relationship with her father so much more than when he was alive. Isn’t that amazing what ancestral healing can do for us?!
I highly recommend you pick this one up if you’re into Bruce Lee. And if you haven’t checked out the latest Bruce Lee projects, check out the amazing HBO Series “Warrior” (Exec. Produced by Shannon Lee) and SF’s Chinese Historical Society of America’s Bruce Lee Exhibit.
So let’s get on with the lessons I received from this book:
Lesson 1 - It’s more than flowing like water, it’s about BEING THE water.
An ancient way of connecting to nature is to watch how its elements and organisms behave and relate those observations to your behavior. When I facilitate groups, sometimes I open with the question, “What element do you feel most like right now?” And some participants might say they feel “floaty” like air or wind, not tethered to the meeting or the present moment. Or someone could say “fiery” because they just heard something enraging.
When Bruce Lee talks about being like water, its shape and movement are in response to the environment it’s in. In the book, Shannon Lee writes about the movement of water when it’s blocked by structures or obstructions it will change shape or move in response to those interruptions of flow. She affirms, “Water is responsive and alive.” This quality is much like our emotions.
This was a lesson in bringing attention to my response and my capacity to control my responses to the environment around me.
Lesson 2 - This is clearly ancestral healing.
I’m deeply appreciative of Shannon opening up about her own life and how processing her traumas clarified her purpose. Moreover, her purpose then involved a deeper relationship with her father whom she lost at just four years old. To me, this was evidence that ancestral healing is real and that can happen in so many different ways to everyone!
As someone who has had to redefine “family” after estrangement, this was a valuable piece of the story for me. Most of my spiritual development relied on this belief that my ancient ancestors were communicating with me, guiding me toward my true purpose and inherited gifts. I would have intense and lucid dreams filled with emotion and messages. I would feel them around me when on a personal hike and when leading groups on healing hikes. I started to notice insights and intuition guiding me on decisions I would have otherwise never make on my own. This can sound fairly witchy and esoteric to those conditioned with Western views on spirituality, but this book proved that ancestral connection and healing are so powerful. I gained a contemporary voice in Shannon Lee validating the power of ancestral healing for our journey back into ourselves.
Lesson 3 - You must be both fluid and structured, in your own way.
Although we think of water as fluid and freely moving, our practical life still requires us to some level of containment and control of it. This is the power of this element. Because no matter what we build to redirect it or anticipate its flow, it will end up going where it needs to go.
Much like navigating our own lives, we must strike a balance between flowing naturally and having control of where we want to go or who we want to be. It’s easier to let go of the need to control water and simply surrender to the element’s power by “leaving it up to the water to take you somewhere.” But giving full surrender to any element can either stifle someone from embracing their own desires or completely bypass the effort required to get to a specific place in life. Water will be on its own merry way without you if no specific container is created for it.
Exhibit on the elements at the chinese historical society of america in SF
Finding your own way or moving like water in the container that is YOU has always been the central message from Bruce Lee.
His magic and medicine was in his unapologetic way of being himself. Working towards the mastery of himself in both spiritual and physical senses showed up as an actor and a martial art practitioner. If you ever want to know what his workout regimen was, it’s in this book, and it’s pretty gnarly!
So, we can BE water AND water will form into exactly what it needs to be, based on its environment. Our adaptability to our environment while remaining integral to who we are is truly an art form.
It was a significant lesson for me to be disciplined in this pursuit to understand myself in my fullness and wholeness as my power in an ever-changing and sometimes hostile environment.
” When we train to know ourselves, then we gain assuredness and confidence. In becoming our quintessential selves, we reach our fourth stage of cultivation, which feels phenomenal. Perhaps it even feels like nirvana.”
- Shannon Lee
Sometimes I feel like this after and good healing hike!