Chaos Theory

Oh, my word, the beak and head seem to be the only parts outside of the egg. The rest of the body is still stuck inside. I'm talking about Jeet Kune Do at this point in its development.  The JKD teachers have the right idea, that JKD should be formless and yet assume all forms and that you have to be like water, my friend. But what they do in practice is still reminiscent of something from the 1970s. The JKD student still goes through a core curriculum through Jun Fan JKD, which they tend to be very dogmatic about.  Or a style sampler blend, like Inosanto's JKD Concepts.

JKD is the product of the marriage between Eastern martial tradition and Western practicality. Bruce Lee learned as much as he could from different martial arts. Likewise the modern JKD teacher provides the knowledge of different martial art approaches. The student then takes all these approaches and assimilates whatever works for his or her particular body type and personality. All good and well, but the progress is impaired when the student goes back to the partial, that is, they keep training the separate ideas.  The Jun Fan JKD people practice the core curriculum that Lee developed and then take in other styles to build on top of the core.  Or for the more enlightened, they strip away to the most essential of the core and the most essential of other styles.  And then the Inosanto approach, the core is practiced along with other styles.  For example, the typical training schedule for that kind of JKD school would be: MMA Mondays, Jun Fan JKD Tuesdays, BJJ Wednesdays, Muay Thai Thursdays, FMA Fridays, open-sparring Saturdays. It's almost as if breaking free of them and fusing all of them would be dishonorable to the traditions of the elders.


Inosanto teaches that there are common threads of movement in many styles, and he states on his web-page that "movement is universal, no one single style or system has it all." Good, I agree. Then I realized why he teaches styles separately when he continues saying, "students learn what works in a particular situation, against a particular opponent, and when another technique or series of techniques would be more practical and effective." He still focuses on particular techniques? He associates those techniques with particular situations? Wow, I had hoped he would be beyond this by now.


Bruce Lee had the right idea when he sought the "totality" in martial arts, the formless form, the ultimate to simple and functional. He did his best to bring together the principles of different styles and meld them into his own, but he died at the beginning of his journey.  His followers also have the right idea, to meld all the styles into a personal style and make it adaptable. But here's the catch: in the blending, they still conform to their training in separate systems, and even if they don't, they still answer a technique with a corresponding technique.

In a way, I'm glad I didn't fully complete my training in JKD. I had to end my training out of necessity, but by then, I was already questioning what I was learning. Why am I practicing the partial? Why is it that I'm practicing specific techniques?  Can I truly adapt to anything thrown at me?  It's good that JKD is more realistic and practical, but why is there so much emphasis on keeping the different styles separate rather than teaching what all of those styles have in common?  Why not work it all together into a person's particular body type in the very beginning rather than doing the traditional approach of finding the formless in the form?

To be continued...

What I cannot do

In my effort to live a life for God, I trip up more than I want. My sin is so ever clear to me as I move even closer to Him. Sometimes, I sin so much that I feel like I'm laying down an invisible wall, brick after brick, that separates me from Him. By His grace, that wall will never grow, no matter how often I add to it. At that point, I have to ask what Chambers asked: "Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do?" I cannot live for God without His grace and I can only live by His grace. Can I believe that He will make me more like Jesus, something I definitely cannot do?


The Staggering Question by J. Oswald Chambers

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He said to me, ’Son of man, can these bones live?’ —Ezekiel 37:3

Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— "O Lord God, You know" ( Ezekiel 37:3 ). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, "Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done."

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.

"Behold, O My people, I will open your graves . . ." ( Ezekiel 37:12 ). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My "grave" has been opened by God and "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells" ( Romans 7:18 ). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.