Sitting on the wall of my living room is one of the most treasured objects I own.
A pair of nunchucks used by Bruce Lee himself in Enter the Dragon, framed beside a hand-drawn sketch he made.
They’re not just memorabilia.
They’re a manifesto.
These nunchucks represent a way of thinking.
A way of being.
A way of growing.
It’s an idea Bruce Lee once shared with a student who was struggling with balance, unsure if he was “doing it right.” Bruce mentioned this line to the student….
“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add your own unique style.”
Instead of correcting the student’s technique, Bruce corrected the mindset.
And what he said would ripple through history.
At first glance, it sounds like martial arts advice.
But read it again, and you’ll feel it land in your bones.
This isn’t about how to throw a punch.
It’s about how to live.
Let’s break this down — and along the way, break free from whatever box you’ve been living in.
Absorb what is useful
Two weeks ago, in a Telegraph interview in London, I was asked:
“Vishen, some people call you a guru. Do you see yourself as one?”
My answer was immediate:
Absolutely not.
Because I don’t believe in guruship.
A guru sits at the center. The students orbit the guru.
That model is not just broken — it’s dangerous.
I believe the student should sit at the center.
And the teachers should orbit you.
You learn. You listen.
You discover different viewpoints.
You embrace colliding ideas.
But YOU discern what fits.
You decide what to absorb.
That’s why Mindvalley is not just me. Rather, it has hundreds of teachers.
That’s why we mix philosophies — sometimes even ones that contradict.
That’s why you are encouraged to be your own compass.
Bruce Lee refused to be limited by one style. He famously said…
“Style creates form. Form becomes limitation.”
Truth is thus formless. It goes beyond a particular style, method, or approach. It is not Sadhguru, or the Dalai Lama, or your Holy Book, or Mindvalley. Truth cannot be put in a circle.
Bruce Lee wrote in his book The Tao of Jeet Kune Do:
“When there is no center and no circumference, then there is truth.
Let that sink in.
The truth isn’t found in one guru or one style.
It’s found in the moment you realize you are meant to discover your own truth by studying many styles or philosophies and knowing what to take in and what to reject.
“Discard what is not…”
Now we come to the second part — and this is where transformation begins.
Because it’s not enough to absorb.
You must be willing to let go.
Most people carry too much.
Too many ideas. Too many identities.
Too many rules that never belonged to them in the first place.
I call them BRULES — bullshit rules.
The rules you inherited from culture, religion, society, or school that limit your joy, your voice, and your truth.
Bruce said:
“It is not daily increase, but daily decrease.
Hack away the unessential.”
Let me be direct:
- What manifesting rule are you still following because someone told you “that’s how it works”?
- What relationship belief is keeping you stuck in a loop of pain?
- What health philosophy is exhausting your body instead of energizing it?
John Lee, one of the teachers in Manifesting Mastery, said it brilliantly:
“Go to your phone.
Look at your contact list.
Now delete the names of the people who drain you every time they text or call.”
It sounds brutal.
But sometimes healing is subtraction.
And here’s the spiritual reason why:
From The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce writes:
“True thusness cannot be known through conception or thought.
It cannot be grasped with the mind.
One cannot express it with words.”
That means you don’t need more opinions.
You need more space to feel what’s already true.
Letting go is not a loss.
It’s a sacred rebellion against everything that dims your light.
“Add your own unique style…”
This… is the golden part.
After you’ve absorbed the good and discarded the noise…
Now, you create.
This is your soul’s turn to speak.
Bruce Lee said:
“Art is the expression of the self.
The more complicated and restricted the method,
the less opportunity there is
for the expression of one’s original sense of freedom.”
This is the most important part.
Because most people stop at absorption.
They mimic. They master someone else’s style.
But they never create their own.
They become copies.
Not creators.
You’re not here to live someone else’s version of excellence.
You’re here to express the original frequency of YOU..
But you can’t express the self…
Until you know the self.
That’s why Bruce also said:
“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.”
Do you know who you are?
You’re not here to be a carbon copy.
You’re here to be a cosmic mixtape of everything you’ve lived, learned, loved, and lost.
Your past pain was not just hurt. It was a lesson.
Every wound was an education.
Every personal growth class, every Quest lesson, and every meditation helped you discover your own truth.
Never forget that you are stardust, soul, and story—all entangled.
In other words:
You don’t find your style by looking outside. You find it by listening within.
Absorb ideas from many teachers.
Then discard what is dogmatic or not applicable to you.
And most importantly…honor your OWN truth.
Your 3-minute soul practice
Take a moment. Grab a notebook.
This is your Jeet Kune Do of the Soul.
- Write down 3 ideas or lessons you’ve learned recently that feel right for you.
- List 3 things—habits, beliefs, people—that no longer belong in your life.
- Name 1 thing that is completely yours—something no one taught you, but you know in your bones.
This is your inner Jeet Kune Do.
This is your map.
This is how you live—like Bruce—with no style, no center, no circumference… just truth.
Because you weren’t born to fit in someone else’s form.
You were born to become your own force of nature.
For those of you who are curious, here’s a hand-drawn sketch from Bruce Lee that hangs in my bedroom.
Side note: I grew up in Asia and competed in martial arts till I was 19. My first trip to the USA was to represent Malaysia in the US Open Tae Kwan Do Championships of 1993. Hence my fascination with martial arts and the story of Bruce Lee.
Now, I’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts in the comment box below (I read every single one).
If this story of Bruce Lee and the philosophy of becoming your own master spoke to you… I’d love to hear it.
Tell me: What part of this resonated with your own journey?
For more of these deep dives, insights, and personal reflections…
Follow me on Instagram: @vishen
And join my new broadcast channel for exclusive voice notes, stories, and teachings: Insights from Vishen (on Instagram). I share ideas daily on Instagram.
Here’s to the next-level version of you — the one who absorbs what’s useful, discards what’s not, and creates a life that’s truly your own.
See you in the field.
— Vishen
45 Responses
Hello Vishen,
I enjoyed reading this writing, I hope you will read my post, although I’m sure you are very busy. I agree with almost everything you wrote. I really like how you write, how you personalize it with your own stories and give a little insight into your life, setting a positive example for others.
I like this approach of learning different ideas from many different teachers and taking what you can apply to your own life. I have been learning this way for a long time, filtering what I hear and experience through my own values.
This is the first time I have written a comment to you (I didn’t dare to do it until now), and I would like to thank you for your many years of teaching. I have known Mindvalley materials for about 8 years, and they helped me a lot in improving my English skills, because they were so interesting that I wanted to understand them, and it was quite motivating to study. When I started listening to the videos, I only understood about half of them, but now I understand almost everything automatically. For that I am very grateful, because this is a huge improvement. I’m Hungarian, English is not my native language, so excuse me if I make some errors.
Since I am a graphic designer and content creator, it is really important for me to find uniqueness and not copy others. That is why I really like what Bruce Lee said: “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add your own unique style.”
So I always try to find my unique style and something for my soul to “speak”, that is why I started making lyrics, music, and videos to bring my stories to life, and maybe with that I can bring joy to the lives of others when they listen to them, watch them.
Unfortunately, there have been lots of painful things in my life, so it’s hard to think that it’s a good thing that it happened, because it also contributed to who I am today, but it’s true. Without it, I would be a different person for sure. Less compassionate, less kind-hearted, less strong. But it has made me a warrior survivor, always looking for the beautiful and the good that is still worth living for. That’s why it was so nice to read your comforting lines:
“You’re here to be a cosmic mixtape of everything you’ve lived, learned, loved, and lost.
Your past pain was not just hurt. It was a lesson.
Every wound was an education.
Never forget that you are stardust, soul, and story—all entangled.”
I’m sure your words will help many other people too.
THANK YOU WISHEN.
I look forward to your further writings.
Good stuff indeed! Be water. 🙂
I just like the helpful information you provide in your articles
Najbolji newsletter koji sam pročitala u zadnje vrijeme.👏👏👏 Znam koliko je teško odvojiti se od identiteta koje si stvorio, od istina koje si mislio da su tvoje, no znam koliko je oslobađajuće napokon stvarati, a onda i živjeti svoje istine. Još uvijek radim na tome, no znam da sam istinski na dobrom putu.💞Hvala na ovom newsletteru.
Vishen, thank you for this beautiful perspective. Yes, the concept resonates very much with me. I have lived and learned (and expanded) accordingly for many years now. When I was younger I was patterned to be focused on one direction, one religion etc. I felt guilty not to stick and follow (pre)shaped ways. However, it never felt true to me. It took me quite a while to overcome my patterns, to accept broad ways of thinking and to discern, resulting in letting go of some and absorbing of other. Bruce Lee’s life has fascinated me (I even watched the whole Netflix series :>). I did not know his words, but I think they reflect not only his martial arts but they go beyond. Those words may not be surprising knowing how he developed his own style and ways, but it is so valuable to see his perspective in a nutshell. Thanks for sharing.
This resonated, as I’ve long lived along these lines, taking in different ideas, absorbing them and discarding what doesn’t work for me. I also combine things a lot, making my own version of it. Since I was in my twenties, my guiding principle has been ‘there is no one truth’, meaning we all see things differently. This unfortunately makes me leery of sharing my ideas, as I accept and acknowledge that what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for others.
This post just lights me up…we spend so much time looking outside ourselves for validation, that we lose sight of who we are, lose trust in ourselves and our unique contributions and intuition. Each of us has been divinely created for a unique purpose on this planet; how can just one way be the right way? What you shared here resonates with me so deeply. I have turned away, so many times, from situations and people that are blocking my way…and it has felt so isolating and lonely at times. But the drive within keeps me moving forward, to wherever destiny is leading, and I hold a deep respect for all of us as we try to find our way through all the challenges we face, wherever we stand in this Journey. Thank you for a truly inspiring post, Vishen.
Hi Vishen: Congratulations to you and the Mindvalley Team. This Seminar reaffirmed everything I love about MV. I am so glad that I did way back when. Since joining my life has changed. I have learn’t many different ways to approach a subject. Mind Valley encourages you to FLY. I love the concept of student in the middle and teachers around. Here’s to the growth of Mindvalley!
This post totally reasonated Vishen. I have spent a lot of time in India and never followed a guru. And I have forged my own path with my work – am Chinese and was so happy to discover Taoism after Confucian start….maybe Bruce is a little bit my hero!!
I absolutely live like this. I had many masters and mentors. I implemented what I learned and kept what was beneficial and I gave it forward to my students with my personal twist. I also started to channel my own healing techniques too from angels and spirits as I was connecting more spiritually to the higher dimensions. That is how I created my Elemental Light Healer certification training.
“Because I don’t believe in guruship.
A guru sits at the center. The students orbit the guru.
That model is not just broken — it’s dangerous.
I believe the student should sit at the center.
And the teachers should orbit you.” – this resonates with me so deeply.
We’re in a world where many people still look to rely on external authorities to guide them and while guidance is lovely, blind trust is dangerous.
And I see many people in leadership positions who believe they are divinely guided and let their egos run the show.
Discernment is key.
When I started to get to know myself better, I noticed positive shifts in my life. My relationship with people improves, I become less controlling as I understand that every people has their own paths. In my journey, I hang out with different kinds of people and enjoy the many beautiful sceneries around me, but I still feel that I walk alone (not feeling lonely though) and this is something that I treasure. I’m grateful of the freedom as well as the power that were once forsaken and untouched but now fully regained . I’m also not afraid anymore to listen to other people when they express their own truths because I’m deeply rooted on my own validated with my personal life experiences. I live with my truths on a daily basis. In the process, I feel more authentic, more expansive and limitless. When I meditate on my self realization, of being whole and perfect, I feel immensely joyful and grateful.
A-HA!!!!!! Yes, this is the final missing piece! I have always taken what felt right and discarded what didn’t and felt like I didn’t fit into any particular philosphy or pattern. Being the student in the middle and letting the teachers surround the student rings true like a bell! This fits! This makes soo much sense! This was the missing part. I had wondered why Vishen was teaching so many different ways of manifesting and thought it would be so confusing for people to know which way to follow…but following your OWN way is the best. I realized that so many of the teachers took lessons from others and created their own way of teaching as well! Create your own truth, your own frequency…there are no “right ways” or “wrong answers”!
Hi Vishen
This message was so perfect to read this morning. I recently lost the person I loved, a first responder who took his life. This chapter of life is opening up space that I haven’t defined yet. The wide array of teachings in MV- nuggets & gold in every one of the classes (and in the emails you send out) along with the reminder about BRULES is greatly appreciated.
Your message on the Guru has really resonated with me – Thank you. Looking forward to manifestion mastery program starting next week
Hi Vishen,
I have been a member of Mindvalley for a few years now and started with Eric’s Wildfit program. Did I change my eating habits? Yes and no. I took in what resonated with me and I knew would work with my lifestyle. The biggest change for me was the internal dialogues we have with ourselves concerning food. The main reason I am commenting though is about my spirituality. I grew up in south Texas on a farm in the middle of nowhere. We attended the Baptist church in our community and was baptized at the age of 10. I went thru the ritual because I was told I would burn in hell forever if i did not accept Christ as my savior. Well, that never sat right with me and after growing up and leaving the farm, I started searching for the magic that I knew existed beyond the church. After 10 years of meditation, religion studies and what it means to be human, I arrived at a place where the pieces that resonated with me fit neatly into my soul and the rest just fell away. This was the greatest journey of my life as I am now 70 years old and the magic keeps coming. Thanks for giving us so many magical choices.
“Be like water my friend”
Hi! Very good day to you.
I am unable to attend these summits because of time lag. I live in India. I sleep early and get up early.Please let me know if I could watch recordings that would suit Indian tines.
Thank you
Hi Vishen, you and MV have been accompanying my personal development and spiritual journey for a long time. What you describe about being a unique cosmic mixtape (love this original expression) is the conclusion I have drawn and what I have been doing. We are our own gurus and it is only once we have learnt to centre ourselves, to really listen to that inner voice, our intuition, that we know with certainty what is right for us. Thank you for your dedication and passion. In light, Manu
This blog was a confirmation of my journey. My journey has been exactly what Bruce Lee has perfectly articulated – “Absorb What Is Useful, Discard What Is Not, Add Your Own Unique Style”. Growing up in church a lot of the sermon’s sounded nice, but I had no discernment and those “nice” things I was hearing didn’t apply because of the broken home I came from. I’ve been doing mindvalley for like 3 years now and I’ve noticed somethings really resonate and somethings don’t (although) I give them a try… but I’m really learning to listen to myself and be a wiser discerner and really trying to know “my self” (current work in progress) 🙂