Est. on the art of Bruce Lee
We teach structure — then point beyond it. You yourself are your best teacher.
The first educational council for Bruce Lee's art. No dogma. No paper mills. Learn from every point of view, assess honestly, and use what works — for you.
Study Jeet Kune Do from every point of view. The original materials. The history. The principles. Know the source of the water you drink from.
Don't take anyone's word for it — including ours. Test everything against your own experience, your own body, your own honest judgment.
Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is specifically your own. That was Bruce Lee's way. It's still the way.
Founder
Nearly fifty years in the martial arts. Started at five — Shaolin Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, Kempo, boxing, kickboxing, MMA. A myriad of martial arts experience, and a well-known Muay Thai coach who trained alongside the top Thai fighters on the planet. Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Licensed USA Boxing coach. Founder of the Jeet Kune Do World Council.
But Jeet Kune Do is the through-line. Heavy in JKD from 1996 onward, training under Gary Dill and cross-training across camps. Richard has taught across the United States, in Germany, and in India — Kolkata in 2019 and Murshidabad in 2023. He has students and people he's helped worldwide: Sri Lanka, the UK, China, and beyond. He has spent a lifetime studying Bruce Lee's art at the source: the original materials, the letters, the history as it actually happened.
He purposely avoided the magazine circuit and turned down podcast after podcast — same routine, going nowhere. Embodied Truth is different: the art shared the way it's rarely shared. Not about egos and camps. About using Jeet Kune Do to become the best version of yourself — and the best martial artist you can be in this lifetime.
Across his entire teaching career, he certified only a handful of people. "I wasn't running a paper mill. I was creating serious martial artists."
Today the council's trusted instructors carry the teaching worldwide. Richard's role is what it has always been: guardian of the standard, keeper of the record, and guidepost — not a guru.
The Council
The Jeet Kune Do World Council exists for one reason: to educate people on Jeet Kune Do. The first educational council ever created for this art — geared toward education only, not profit. Membership is $99.99 a year, which covers the training materials, assessments, and certifications. The fundamentals course itself is free and open to everyone.
We're not here to sell you anything. The membership covers what it costs to run real training and real certifications — nothing more.
Richard's trusted instructors — the handful he personally trusts to pass on JKD the way he teaches it — teach through the council across the world.
Rank here means something because it's hard to get. Fundamentals can be certified online. Anything beyond fundamentals requires an instructor — in person, eyes on, sparring. No exceptions, no shortcuts.
Jeet Kune Do is a fighting art. The council encourages honest sparring everywhere — because the truth of what works is found in contact, not in theory.
The record
Jeet Kune Do is born — the day after the Wong Jack Man fight — in the garage of James Yimm Lee, where Bruce Lee was living at the time. Witnessed by those who were there.
Leo Fong — friend of Bruce Lee and James Yimm Lee, who was there — in his own words: "JKD was born the day after the Wong Jack Man fight." Bruce Lee called him the next day. The art was born in 1965; it took the name Jeet Kune Do in 1967.
Bruce Lee coins the name: Jeet Kune Do — the way of the intercepting fist.
Constantly evolving, right up to the end. The art was Bruce Lee's personal expression — so it grew and changed as he did. It was never a fixed system; it was a living process.
The council carries it forward: the end result of where Bruce Lee's art stopped is the primary direction. Know the roots. Follow the direction.
Philosophy
Jeet Kune Do is already a label. Adding more labels on top of it is philosophically unnecessary. We practice the art Bruce Lee put forward — full stop.
"Learn the principles, abide by the principles, and then dissolve the principles." That was Bruce Lee's instruction — Bruce Lee: Artist of Life — and it's the heart of the art.
Jeet Kune Do was Bruce Lee's personal expression. It is also, in his own words, "merely a term, a label to be used as a boat to get one across." Both are true. The image comes from the Buddhist raft parable: you build a raft of reeds to cross to the far shore — but once across, you don't carry the raft on your back. The raft is the teaching. You are not bound by it. In this way, Jeet Kune Do is deeply Buddhistic — and deeply Taoist.
When we teach JKD, we teach JKD — undiluted, differentiated from the cross-training arts. For your own personal training and liberation, take from anywhere.
Know the source of the water you drink from — the roots matter. But the primary direction is where the art had arrived when Bruce Lee stopped: that end result is the compass.
Followed honestly, Jeet Kune Do ends in emptiness and a return to self. Personal liberation. It started as one man's style, but it was never stylistic.
We teach structure — then guide you past it. From the original, where teaching is light, through escaping the teaching altogether, to forgetting the lessons and coming back to yourself. We don't believe in mastery. We believe in student mastery: always moving forward. While we share in a teaching manner, please understand — we are simply pointing the way. You yourself are your best teacher.
"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." — Bruce Lee
The scholar behind the fighter. Bruce Lee read deeply — philosophy, strategy, psychology — and folded it all into the art. We do the same: learn from every point of view.
Training path
The council teaches in tiers, the way it always has: fundamentals, intermediate, advanced, and senior. Each level is earned, not bought.
The foundation: stance, footwork, the straight lead, the core tools and principles of Jeet Kune Do. Free and open to everyone. Four-month credit-hour program — proof-of-life videos required for certification ($29.99).
Deeper application of the tools. Requires in-person verification by Richard or one of his trusted instructors.
The art as a personal expression begins here. Eyes-on verification required. Nothing here is for sale.
Tenure and teaching. For those who carry the art forward and guide others — the guideposts.
The rule: anything beyond fundamentals requires eyes on — in-person verification by Richard himself or one of his trusted instructors. That's what makes the rank real.
From the founder's desk
Richard's two Jeet Kune Do books — the history as it actually happened, the principles as Bruce Lee put them forward, and a lifetime of study distilled.
Bruce Lee and the silent architect — James Yimm Lee's documented role in the art's creation.
Get it on AmazonThe Archives
Decades of posts, documents, and history from the JKD world — shared with evidence, and kept factual. The laundry gets aired, but the standard is the scholarly one: verify, cross-verify, then publish.
Bengali press, January 22, 2023 — Richard teaching schoolchildren in Berhampore, Murshidabad, during his India seminar tour. The work made the papers.
From the archive: Introduction to JKD — Oakland Branch, June 1971. Reprints of the original magazine articles, printed for students' use only. This is what the source material looked like.
In the Field
Seminars, students, and the road in between. This is what the work looks like.
Seminar highlights — Jeet Kune Do India. The students put in the work.
Moments
Kolkata, January 2023 — the welcome, the teaching, the training. Shot on the ground, graded for the record.
Join
$99.99 a year. Training discussion, history, the archives as they open, and first word on the fundamentals course — which is free and open to everyone.
Fill out the form below and we'll reach out to get you set up — we'll find a time that works and get your membership arranged personally.
$99.99/year membership. Fundamentals course free. Certification $29.99.
