Immortal Combat Portrait of a True Warrior

"This book encompasses all aspects of combat from the primitive to cutting-edge technology - in fact many of the cutting-edge methods have almost come full circle and deal less with the physical and technological aspects of combat and more with the psycho-spiritual aspects. The main theme of the book is in drawing an analogy between the ambitions of the competitive ego-driven martial sportsman (typified by the career of many times karate-champion Joe Lewis) and the spiritual aims of the martial artist (personified by the life of founder of aikido, Morehei Ueshiba). Bruce Lee represent the man pulled in both the direction of his ambitions and the direction of his art - who has somehow to reconcile the two. The same dichotomy exists in the role of the warrior shaman of traditional societies of the past and the professional soldier. The book argues that the path of the martial artist is that of self-mastery and self-knowledge and of feeling more unified with existence, while the ambition of the martial sportsman is to set himself above and apart from others."

Bruce Thomas is the author of Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit—the definitive full-length biography of Bruce Lee— and Bruce Lee: Fighting Words. He trained in Kung Fu with the late master Derek Jones. Bruce is also the former bass player with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. His book about life on the road with the band, The Big Wheel, was short-listed for the Ralph J. Gleason prize for music writing and became a cult classic - it is shortly to be reissued by Helter Skelter.