He may think he’s talking about martial art, and acting…
To me, at least when I teach it, all type of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge. So therefore, they’re coming in and ask me to teach them not so much of how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in – rather, they want to learn to express themselves, through some movement, be it anger, determination… he is paying me to show him, in combative form, the art of expressing [the human body].
Here is the natural instinct, and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. If you have one to the extreme, you will be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man, no longer a human being.
I do not believe in styles anymore. Styles tend not only to separate man, because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrines became the gospel truth that you can not change, you know – you can just say ‘Here I am as a human being, how can I express myself, totally and completely?’ Style is a crystallization, but [true expression] is a process of continuing growth.
To me, ultimately martial art means honestly expressing yourself. It’s very difficult to do. It is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling, and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phony things, I can show you some really fancy movement, but to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, that, my friend, is very hard to do, and you have to train, you have to keep your reflexes, so that when you want it, it’s there.
…You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because under the sky, under the heaven, there is but one family. It just so happen, man, that people are different.