Be Like Water

Bruce Lee coined the term “be like water” in reference to being formless, adaptable, and resilient. For Bruce Lee, it is about taking the shape of the situation and remaining flexible through life’s constant battles and challenges. Lee overcame old Hollywood racism, injuries, and prejudice to build a prominent career, and in being ‘like water,’ Lee took the shape of the situations he found himself in. Even with success, Bruce Lee wasn’t done. He was a perfectionist. Faced with his greatest challenge, the limitations of the martial arts world, he actually became water by inventing a boundary-less world in Jeet Kune Do. The core philosophy of Jeet Kune Do (simplicity and effectiveness) transcends traditional martial arts’ rigid styles and emphasizes “using no way as way.” This is consistent with the teachings of the Tao Te Ching, the fundamental text of Taoism (pronounced Daoism), it is said:

(Chapter Eight)

“A person of great virtue is like the flowing water.

Water benefits all things and contends not with them.

It puts itself in a place that no one wishes to be and thus is closest to Tao.

A virtuous person is like water which adapts itself to the perfect place.

His mind is like the deep water that is calm and peaceful.

His heart is kind like water that benefits all . . .

. . . His movement is of right timing like water that flows smoothly.

A virtuous person never forces his way and hence will not make faults.”

References to ‘being like water’ exist in several areas of Eastern Philosophy, as nature plays a more spiritual role than the clearer Hand-of-Heaven framework of thinking.

"Using no way as way," Jeet Kune Do relies on a fighting style heavily influenced by Wing Chun, Tai Chi, taekwondo, boxing, fencing and jujutsu. The fighter uses fluidity to dip and borrow from each fighting style depending on their situation.

In Jewish literature we see a similar thought in Isaiah 55:1 (Yeshayahu):

"O all who thirst, come for water."

Water here is a direct metaphor for Torah. The Midrash nails this down further, by stating that this verse in Exodus is also a direct reference to water:

“They traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water.” (Exodus 22)

It is said that the prophets among them legislated that the Torah should be read on the second and fifth day of the week, so they would not let three days pass without hearing the Torah (Bava Kama 82a). In Kabbalistic thought, Chesed is like water, in that it flows naturally and is expansive, boundless, and infinite. Chesed is ‘loving-kindness,’ and requires the same humility of the righteous man in the Tao Te Ching, who “benefits all things without taking.”

So we have water and like-water: way and no way. Divine order and transcending order.

In Kabbalistic thought, the ‘divine order’ is the Chesed-Gevurah relationship, with Gevurah playing the role of ‘loving-restriction.’ When pure ‘loving-kindness’ and pure ‘loving-restriction’ are harmonized, they become Tiferet — Beauty.

So the water of ‘Essential Beauty’ is the water of Torah, the active way.

In Zen thought, the purpose is to experience ultimate reality, to release oneself from the shackles of suffering. It is believed that we experience suffering because we have a body. To quote Jewish singer-songwriter David Berman:

“And the end of all wanting is all I’ve been wanting and that’s just the way that I feel”

At the end of ‘all wanting’, or more specifically, the end of worldly suffering, is Zen harmony and peace.

Zen harmony is the water of Jeet Kune Do, the non-active “no way as way.”

As I turn twenty-five today, the day before New Year’s Eve, I stand before the year ahead (as well as the rest of my days). Severely limited by my situations and my body, yet powered by my search for essential beauty, I have set a goal for myself:

Be more like water (Bruce Lee) and be a better vessel for water (Torah).

There is a deeper connection between the vessel and water in Judaism, as portrayed by the story of Rebecca and Eliezer by the well. While one must be water, and take the shape of their situation, one must also be able to handle water by having negative space. Only with the absence of space (realizing imperfection), can we handle goodness. (Rembrandt van Rijn, 1640s)

In 2026, we are celebrating imperfection, impermanence, nature, and chasing the end of chasing!