From: hamlet@tatertot.com (Brian M Oldham)
Subject: Oraganized Despair
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 94 00:58:19 PDT

Last night I was studying my copy of THE TAO OF JEET KUNE DO by BRUCE
LEE, and I fixated on a section in chapter one (On Zen), called
"Organized Despair".  I thought that what Master Lee said about
martial arts applies heavily to magical arts, so I have reprinted the
section here for the curious (in the book it's on pages 14-15), which
I know will at least include my worthy sword fighting rival Joseph Max
(hey dude, give me 555).

To fully appreciate this, you should substitute the word "combat" with
the word "magick" wherever it appears in the following text:

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from THE TAO OF JEET KUNE DO
by BRUCE LEE
On Zen / Organized Despair (pages 14-15)

Each man belongs to a style which claims to possess truth to the
exclusion of all other styles.  These styles become institutes with
their explanations of the "Way," dissecting and isolating the harmony
of firmness and gentleness, establishing rhythmic forms as the
particular state of their techniques.

Instead of facing combat in its suchness, then, most systems of
martial art accumulate a "fancy mess" that distorts and cramps their
practitioners and distracts them from the actual reality of combat,
which is simple and direct.  Instead of going immediately to the heart
of things, flowery forms (organized despair) and artificial techniques
are ritualistically practiced to simulate actual combat.  Thus,
instead if "being" in combat these practitioners are "doing" something
"about" combat.

Worse still, super mental power and spiritual this and spiritual that
are desperately incorporated until these practitioners drift further
and further into mystery and abstraction.  All such things are futile
attempts to arrest and fix the ever-changing movements in combat and
to dissect and analyze them like a corpse.

When you get down to it, real combat is not fixed and is very much
"alive."  The fancy mess (a form of paralysis) solidifies and
conditions what was once fluid, and when you look at it realistically,
it is nothing but a blind devotion to the systematic uselessness of
practicing routines or stunts that lead nowhere.

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standard disclaimer: I have not modified this text in any way, and if
you don't believe me, look it up yourself...

hamlet


Gowan  (you expected something else):
Stir my soul / And wet my hunger
And feed that spell / That pulls me under