Bruce Lee inspired generations as an actor and a martial artist. On Striking Thoughts, his thinking is condensed in 825 aphorisms. It's written like a philosophy book, and his thoughts resonate with Taoist, Zen Buddhist, and Stoic lessons. Everything he says is straight to the point.
I was reading Striking Thoughts from Bruce Lee this morning and this paragraph on self-actualization versus self-image-actualization. None of the founders we back are ordinary people. If they were, they would get a job at a large corporation.
"I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude."
"Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualizing and self-image actualizing is very important. Most people only live for their image. Where some people have a self, most people have a void, because they are so busy projecting themselves as this or that. This again is the curse of the ideal. The curse is that you should not be what you are. Every external control, even internalized external control—"you should"—interferes with the healthy working of the organism. There is only one thing that should control the situation. If you understand the situation that you are in and let the situation that you are in control your actions, then you learn how to cope with life."
"The law of non-interference with nature - The law of non-interference with nature is a basic principle of Taoism that one should be in harmony with, not rebellion against, the fundamental laws of the universe. Preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but to control it by swinging with it."
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