By Bart Scovill

I first heard this comment in an interview with Bruce Lee. Later, I learned more about this concept in Joe Hyams' book, "Zen in the Martial Arts." The quote comes from a story Bruce Lee was relating to Mr. Hyams where a master was trying to make a point to an arrogant visiting martial artist. This martial artist ostensibly came to learn from the master, but merely wanted to prate his own ideas. In the story, the master begins to fill the visitor's cup with tea, but when it is full, the master continues to pour and the tea runs out. When the visitor points this out, the master replies, "until you empty your cup, you cannot get any more tea." The basic concept is that if you are full of your own ideas, there is no room for new ones....

• Naotte - As you were, return to the previous position
• Kamiza - "Seat of the deity," the spiritual center of the dojo
• Shomen - To the front
• Ki - Intrinsic energy, Qi or Chi in chinese
• Jime - Choking

Look at it but you cannot see it!
Its name is Formless.

Listen to it but you cannot hear it!
Its name is Soundless.

Grasp it but you cannot get it!
Its name is Incorporeal.

These three attributes are unfathomable;
Therefore they fuse into one.

Its upper side is not bright:
Its under side not dim.
Continually the Unnameable moves on,
Until it returns beyond the realm of things.
We call it the formless Form, the imageless Image.
We call it the indefinable and unimaginable.

Confront it and you do not see its face!
Follow it and you do not see its back!
Yet, equipped with this timeless Tao,
You can harness present realities.

To know the origins is initiation into the Tao.