Medium, Raylene Nuances, has agreed to hosting monthly “Ask Erik” sessions starting in late January. She’s going to set up her site so that you can reserve your spot to ask Erik a question. Of course, there will be a limited number of spots, but I’ll give you the details as soon as she gives them to me. As per the poll results, it’ll cost you only $5 to ask your question. That way, we can all support Raylene’s gift.
On another note, I had the CRAZIEST dream last not. Not the usual boring unloading the dishwasher or ironing a shirt one. I was in kickboxing class, and Menda, our instructor, had us start jogging around the mat as the initial part of our warmup. Then she told us to take our feet and rub them on the mat to get rid of our callouses. Next, she had us rub our heels together to accomplish the same. Then she told us to rub our heels (she much have a thing for heels) against the chins of our partners. After I did that for a while, my tongue inexplicably fell out of my mouth. I didn’t seem bothered by that at all. In fact, I nonchalantly started to peel the pink outer covering of my tongue like a banana. Much to my surprise, there was a very tiny baby inside of it wearing a red overcoat. Its arms and legs were very thin; he had no hair, and he was very cute. We interacted for a while and that was it. End of dream. A psychiatrist would have a hay day interpreting that one! What’s the craziest dream you ever had?
Don’t forget that tomorrow at 7 PM CT is Erik’s Hour of Enlightenment radio show. Call 619-639-4606 15 minutes prior to talk to Erik. http://goo.gl/aFHTzJ
Enjoy Part Two of our three-part interview with the great Bruce Lee.
Me: All right, so what was your favorite movie, the ones you acted in? All of them?
Bruce Lee: They were all different.
Emanuelle: I’m going to be honest; I don’t know any of his movies. I know my husband likes certain movies, but I am not a big fighting movies fan. He is showing me with a dragon.
Me: Oh the one with the dragon. That was your favorite one?
Emanuelle: Yeah, I am not really sure what it’s called. He’s just showing me a picture of a dragon, so I am assuming it has a dragon in the title.
She giggles.
Me: Okay, fists and dragons? I’ll look into that.
Bruce Lee: I could put my personal print on the story, and I could incorporate my beliefs and how I saw the world into the movie while the other ones were more like, “Here is the script,” and there was not a lot of room for me to change things that I wanted to change.
Me: Well, let’s talk about that you were also considered a philosopher and poet. What was your main philosophy? Words to live by, by Bruce Lee ?
Bruce Lee: Well, I had my own life vision and my own religion.
Me: That’s true.
Bruce Lee: I wanted to be the best that I could be in any aspect of my life. I wanted to be the best husband, the best brother, the best son, the best father, the best actor, and I wanted to be the best that I could be. So for me, self-discipline was one of the biggest lessons I had to learn because if I wanted to be the best, I had to be very disciplined in my life, in my diet. I had to be disciplined in the way that I saw the world so for me, self-discipline was what I was here to learn and teach at the same time. It’s all about creating your own art. You are your own painter, and you have to create your life into that masterpiece that you want it to be. What I learned was that if you follow your passion, no matter what it is, you’ll do great at it because you do it with passion and love and intensity. If you do want to do something in your life, always do what you want to do, do it with your whole heart no matter what other people tell you and no matter what they say, “Oh, you can’t do it” or “You’re not allowed to do it.” If you want to do it, then you do it.
Me: Okay, well let me tell you a personal story. I had this passion to start kickboxing, “Kickboxing Granny.” So yes, I really like it, but yesterday we started the warm up like this jogging on the mat. Ten steps in my knee pops, I mean, I wasn’t even kickboxing per se. And it hurt so bad and was so swollen. Dr. Lee, what’s wrong with my knee? What in the world did I do? Is this the universe saying, “You’re too old to do kickboxing, girl! You’re too old!”
(Emanuelle giggles.)
Bruce Lee: You’re never too old to kickbox! You just put your foot in a wrong position and it just popped. It’s about learning not to give up. So get back on that horse! After it is better of course.
Me: I know. Did I injure anything? What did I do inside my knee? What’s going on?
Emanuelle: He says there is something jammed in between the kneecap and the … (not sure how to spell it.)
Me: Oh yes, because when I bend my knee and have my hand on my knee, I feel my kneecap popping. Do I have to go to the doctor, or can I just wait? The ortho dude.
Bruce Lee: It should go away with plenty of rest.
Me: Dang that knee is old girl! We need to replace it!
Bruce Lee: Ice and rest. It should be okay.
Me: All right, Dr. Lee. Thank you so much. Just mail me the bill. Now let’s talk about your death because I know there is a lot of controversy around it. Why did you have cerebral edema? You had cerebral edema; they gave you mannitol to get rid of the fluid and you did okay for a while. Then all of a sudden, you got a headache and somebody gave you something called Equagesic for the pain, and you never woke up from that. So they don’t know if you had cerebral edema, if it was just the cerebral edema again, which you did have according to the autopsy or whether you also had an allergic reaction to that medication?
Bruce Lee: It was a combination of both, but it was an allergic reaction that made the cerebral edema worse. It was just my time to go; it was not intentional. There is no conspiracy behind it.
Me: Well some say you died because of a curse on your family or that you were murdered by the Triad’s.
Bruce Lee: No, it was just my time to go. I accomplished what I was here to learn.
Me: But why cerebral edema? Was that from trauma to the head or something?
Bruce Lee: Well it was a combination of my very strict diet, the blows that I received and fatigue. I was in a time where I was very tired, working on a lot of different things, not seeing my family much. I was constantly working, working, working, trying to get all this stuff out there, doing several movies at the same time and writing the scripts, etc. So it was a combo of a lot of things all together that led to my death. But the fact that my death turned into this big conspiracy theory promoted who I was and my spiritual beliefs and this resulted in helping more people then I could have helped if I had lived longer. Now I have millions of people who understand my spirituality, who understand how I saw life and that is helping them in their spiritual growth. So it was all part of a bigger plan. I did feel bad about leaving my children and wife. My little girl was so young when I left and never got to spend the time with Dad like Brandon did. Brandon is with me now every day so we hang out. I visit my family every day so.
Me: Well let’s go to some spiritual questions now that we have your background. What was your spiritual mission in your life as Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee: I was here to teach people to always stay true to yourself, be yourself no matter what anyone tells you and to never give up. If you want something in life, do everything you need to do to accomplish those goals. It’s about discipline, about really putting your focus on what you want in life. Now don’t focus on how or when you are going to get there but only put your focus on the end result. Find that inner light and let it shine upon the world. If you can achieve that then you have created your masterpiece.
Me: Nice. I like the way you tied that into art. Life is a canvas and you just have to paint a beautiful masterpiece on it or sculpture.
Bruce Lee: There is no purpose in doing things in your life that you don’t like, so why would you even bother spending all your energy on something you don’t even like doing? You’re here for YOU, so start doing what you want to do. That was part of my philosophy. I was here to be the best in everything I did, and so that is what I did. I didn’t accept NO and I refused to let other people tell me what I could or couldn’t do. So do the same for yourself. If you want to be successful in what you want to do, then go for it. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you, including yourself. Never tell yourself you cannot do it because then you have an even bigger problem.
Me: Well, usually when we’re telling ourselves that, it also comes from someone else like a parent or a teacher or an authority figure or peer. They engrain us into thinking, “No, you can’t do it.”
Bruce Lee: Exactly. So that’s what I was here to teach: Create your own art; stay true to yourself and express yourself in such a way that it’s completely, 100% you.
Me: Do you think you accomplished that goal?
Bruce Lee: Oh, yes
Me: I think you did, too. Do your movies convey your philosophy?
Bruce Lee: Well, there is a little bit of my philosophy in every one of my movies, but the dragon one had the most.
Emanuelle: I keep hearing “The Dragon.” Is it “The Last Dragon?” I hear “The Last Dragon.” I might be wrong. Oh god. I’m not sure about that. Please don’t shoot the messenger.
Me: Oh, don’t shoot the messenger. It’s hard to get names. It really is.
Emanuelle: It is.
To book a session with Emanuelle, email her here: sakyamuniheule@hotmail.com
