“A Taoist Priest” (a Zen Poem) - found in ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do’ by Bruce Lee
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“The empty-mindedness of chi sao applies to all activities we may perform, such as dancing. If the dancer has any idea at all of displaying his art well, he ceases to be a good dancer, for his mind stops with every movement he goes through. In all things, it is important to forget your mind and become one with the work at hand. When the mind is tied up, it feels inhibited in every move it makes and nothing will be accomplished with any sense of spontaneity. The wheel revolves when it is not too tightly attached to the axle. When it is too tight, it will never move on. As the Zen saying goes:
Into a soul absolutely free
From thoughts and emotion,
Even the tiger finds no room
To insert its fierce claws.
One and the same breeze passes
Over the pines on the mountain
And the oak trees in the valley;
And why do they give different notes?
No thinking, no reflecting,
Perfect emptiness;
Yet therein something moves,
Following its own course.
The eye sees it,
But no hands can take hold of it -
The moon in the stream.
Clouds and mists,
They are midair transformations;
Above them eternally shine the sun and the moon.
Victory is for the one,
Even before the combat,
Who has no thought of himself,
Abiding in the no-mind-ness of Great Origin.
SOURCE: Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
