4) The Opponent

Question 1

What is it meant by:

To know oneself is to study oneself in Action with another person?

Answer 1

Only through putting myself with an opponent , I will learn about who I am and how I work.

Question 2

When student Lao kicked Bruce Lee, and Lee replied saying “What was that? An exhibition?”

What is he trying to convey?

Answer 2

Yes, it was a pretty nice kick, but how does it relate to this moment?

What is its purpose? What are you trying to express?

Question 3

What does Bruce Lee mean by “emotional content”?

Answer 3

Feel and sense the energy of the present setting (what is happening in the moment).

Direct intent toward opponent. Focus on him, give him all my awareness, include him.

Question 4

What is meant by “don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!”?

Answer 4

Don’t be caught up on one part of the experience. See the full experience, which is still unfolding and where the deeper understanding lies.

Question 5

To learn and grow, I need relationship. I need that sparring partner to level up my game. But what must I be aware of?

Answer 5

I want to become better, not better than.

The opponent relationship is not a contest, but a compliment, a means for me to develop.

Question 6

What happens by choosing to approach each experience openly, inhibiting each moment fully?

Answer 6

There’s only room for what is unfolding before me and how I respond. No room for winning or losing.

Question 7

🎁results = temporary

Answer 7

Any wining and any losing is only temporary. The stream doesn’t do a victory dance and decide to cease because it reached the ocean. It keeps on flowing.

Question 8

The 6 diseases come from the desire to win at all costs. When we relate to these, how are we being?

Answer 8

We are disconnecting from our true selves in order to access some form of outside validation.

There is only the winner and the loser, where as the true self only grows.

Question 9

6 Diseases:

1) The desire for victory

Answer 9

I must be the winner. If I don’t win, I’m a loser. If I win, everyone else is a loser.

Question 10

6 Diseases:

2) The desire to report to technical cunning

Answer 10

I rely on the power of my wits to show you how great I am.

Who cares about other people or their feelings as long as everyone can see how clever I am?

Question 11

6 Diseases:

3) The desire to display all that has been learned

Answer 11

Check me out. I know lots of things. I can speak at length about anything. It doesn’t matter what anyone else has to say (especially if it’s dumb).

Question 12

6 Diseases:

4) The desire to awe the enemy

Answer 12

I am a force to be reckoned with. Look out! I will wow you to get your approval, even if I have to do something shocking and wild to get your approval.

Question 13

6 Diseases:

5) The desire to play the passive role

Answer 13

I am so unobtrusive and sweet, who wouldn’t like me? I will put anything that’s important to me aside just to make sure you see how likeable I am.

Question 14

6 Diseases:

6) The desire to rid oneself of whatever disease one is affected by

Answer 14

I am not okay or enough as I am. I will perform constant self work and work so hard to make myself good, that you will see that I am trying to be a good person even if I continue to do shitty things. I know you know that I am not okay or enough as I am, which means it’s okay not to truly get better, as long as it looks like I’m trying.

Question 15

Why are the 6 diseases such traps that stagnate my growth?

Answer 15

They are all delusions of the ego

They will keep my success always outside of myself and my hands, as I chase victory and validation through the eyes of someone else.

Question 16

🎁 Anticipating outcomes

Answer 16

The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of an engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or in defeat. See that there is no one to fight, only an illusion to see through.

Question 17

Every time I point the finger away from myself, why should I turn it right back around?

Answer 17

The human across from me is in fact me.

If I need others to be wrong for me to be okay, then, well… is that really okay?

Question 18

Why does forming attachments to people, things, and happenings, then assigning them the quality of being attractive or unappealing GIVES UP my happiness and peace?

Answer 18

Because i have given them power over my inner world. I have put the responsibility for my happiness and peace outside of myself.

Keep it within myself. Do not assign things as attractive or unappealing. It simply is.

Question 19

How do I truly heal and move past the destructive pattern?

Answer 19

Take responsibility for it. Own my shit

Question 20

What is it meant by: life is a reflection of who I am

Answer 20

Chasing after someone for them to validate my specialness is reflecting that I am not validating myself.

I am responsible. Take Self ownership, as that is power to change.

Question 21

Why must I go within and realise my fears and insecurities?

Answer 21

I will begin to experience more peace and wholeness.

Question 22

🎁Reflection in Faliure

Answer 22

Is is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when being knocked down, “Why am I being knocked down?” If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for that person.

Question 23

What is the law of adaptation?

Answer 23

Instead of opposing force by force, one should complete an opposing movement by accepting the flow of energy from it and defeat it by borrowing from it.

Being so attuned to my opponents energy that I can sense the opportunity to respond immediately.

Question 24

What is meant by:

I do not think unless I think of ‘things’ — and there I find myself.

Answer 24

The world and I are in active correlation. The world is that which is seen by me.
I would not see, think, or imagine, acquiring no understanding about myself, if there was nothing to see.

Encounter the world by listening to my inner stories and my reactions to everything so that I can find myself

Question 25

What is really meant by ‘opponent’?

Answer 25

A symbiotic (both benefiting) relationship between me and what I perceive as outside of me.

And ‘outside of me’ is actually also me, as we are always in active correlation.
Just like Yin-Yang, there are no actual opposites but instead only complements.