I can tell you, almost to the minute, when I became in my heart a true martial artist. It was around 40 minutes into the premiere episode of the TV series Longstreet which aired at 9:00 PM on September 16, 1971 on the ABC network. It happened when Bruce Lee articulated the core philosophy of what the world would soon know as his martial art, Jeet Kune Do:
I vowed in that moment to live my life by those words. And I have failed miserably almost every day since. But Bruce, I am told, also lived by many another Taoist aphorism, including “Fall down nine times, rise up ten.” In my case, I would have to multiply it by a factor of at least a thousand, but you get the drift.
I include here the text of this version, which is my favorite among many:
“Empty your mind… Be formless…shapeless…like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. Put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or CRASH! Be water, my friend…”
I recommend that you seek out and watch the entire episode, The Way of the Intercepting Fist, which can currently be seen on YouTube.