Lee's philosophy[edit]
Originally, when Lee began researching various fighting styles, he called it Jun Fan Gung Fu. However, not wanting to create another style which would share the limitations that all styles had, he instead described the process which he used to create it:
I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that.
There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.
— Bruce Lee[4]
JKD as it survives since then — if one views it "refined" as a product, not a process — is what was left at the time of Lee's death. It is the result of the lifelong martial arts development process Lee went through. Lee stated his concept does not add more and more things on top of each other to form a system, but rather selects the best thereof. The metaphor Lee borrowed from Chan Buddhism was of constantly filling a cup with water, and then emptying it, used for describing Lee's philosophy of "casting off what is useless". He used the sculptor's mentality of beginning with a lump of clay and removing the material which constituted the "unessentials"; the end result was what he considered to be the bare combat essentials, or JKD. The dominant or strongest hand should be in the lead because it would perform a greater percentage of the work. Lee minimized the use of other stances except when circumstances warranted such actions.
Although the On-Guard position is a formidable overall stance, it is by no means the only one. He acknowledged there were times when other positions should be utilised. Lee felt the dynamic property of JKD was what enabled its practitioners to adapt to the constant changes and fluctuations of live combat. He believed these decisions should be made within the context of "real combat" and/or "all out sparring" and that it was only in this environment that a practitioner could actually deem a technique worthy of adoption. Lee believed that real combat was alive and dynamic. Circumstances in a fight change from millisecond to millisecond. Thus, pre-arranged patterns and techniques are not adequate in dealing with such a changing situation. As an antidote to this line of thought, Lee once wrote an epitaph which read: 'In memory of a once fluid man, crammed and distorted by the classical mess.' The "classical mess" in this instance was what Lee thought of the "not too alive way of the classical kung fu styles".[5]