FREE YOUR MIND

This week, our featured Instructor, Ed Monaghan, pinpoints what makes Jerry Poteet’s Jeet Kune Do so special and unique. We could also use the same superlatives for Ed, a loyal, talented, innovative teacher and martial artist! Like his Sifu, Ed is a seeker and philosopher who incorporates ancient as well as modern training techniques in his teachings. He is a certified Instructor in the UCLA Mindful Awareness Program, and a decade’s long disciple of Taoism and Buddhism. I will let him tell you what drew him to Jerry, and how it impacts his life:

“Although I had several black belts and had been certified in other methods of JKD, something was always missing. What Sifu did was brilliant. Sifu Jerry told me ” I am merely a conduit for what my teacher, Bruce Lee, gave to me. It elevated my life in every way. It is this gift I wish to pass on to you.”
Jerry ‘s Jeet Kune Do was much more than physical. It is a tool for growth and self-discovery. Like the philosophy of Krishnamurti and other favorite philosophers that Bruce Lee required Jerry to read, JPJKD is an art of EXPANSION. To experience this expansion directly from Sifu Jerry was to have your life changed forever. Jerry wanted to share the joy of an elevated life that he received from his teacher. ”

“There were no “secret sets”, no endless techniques to clutter your awareness. Sifu Jerry was outspoken about people who had made Bruce Lee’s sublime art about them. In some hands, it became a cult, where the head figure is almost revered, and the student is not allowed to question or seek training and knowledge elsewhere. To Jerry, this defeated the purpose of the art. PHYSICAL techniques were just a method to get you to an expanded, elevated life. To dwell only on the physical was to always be what he called, “an advanced beginner in Jeet Kune Do”. Like my Sifu, my goal is to pass on the joy of the art and philosophy of JPJKD. It has enhanced my life in ways I could not have foreseen. It is a circle with no circumference, an expansion of awareness that is almost mystical. Join me, and FREE YOUR MIND.”

Edward Monaghan,
Ekata Martial Arts Academy
Professor, UCLA