Brian Lee

Brian Lee is a teacher, artist, builder, therapist and backyard philosopher.

Brian began teaching martial arts, which he had been practicing since the age of 12, in college. Over his lifetime he has worked with a fairly large number of masters and internationally recognized teachers of both internal and external martial arts. He still teaches occasionally, though his sons carry out the regular teaching since his official retirement. He taught for several years at The International Institute of Chinese Medicine and has taught continuing education of D.O.M.s (Doctors of Oriental Medicine) as well. He has taught hundreds of students over the years, some of whom are now teachers themselves.

Brian was trained as a goldsmith by Stephen Kretchmer, a goldsmith and mokume gane expert from Rhode Island School of Design, and ran a jewelry company featured in 90+ galleries in the US and overseas. He has worked as a sculptor, furniture maker, house builder and lately as a watercolorist.

Brian was trained as a therapist in the Reichian tradition of body psychotherapy. He also made extensive study of other schools of psychology and body therapeutic modalities. They have informed and given context to his pursuit, particularly of internal martial arts. Brian also lived for several months in the Rinzai lineage Zen center of Joshu Sasaki roshi after leaving college. Subsequent to that experience, Brian did extensive study over a 15 year period with Dr. Jorge Gonzales and others, in the tradition of the Peruvian Ayahuasqueros. 

While Brian calls himself a “backyard” philosopher, his training in philosophy and related fields go back to his early days. Beginning with 2 years of Latin and 2 years of ancient Greek, Brian was trained in classical western philosophy and mathematics at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM. His autodidactic education has continued since those days. His idea of “backyard” philosophy reflects the belief that philosophy coupled with psychology should not be exclusively the realm of an educated elite but accessible and useful to everyone.