"Kung Fu": TV Series with David Carradine, Superstition

#12 (Prod #166152) "Superstition"
Teleplay By: Ed Waters (also parts of #24, 31, 32, 39, & 43)
Story By: Dave Moessinger
Directed By:: Charles S. Dubin (also #9 & 14)
First Broadcast: ABC, April 5, 1973
Guest Stars: Fred Sadoff, Ford Rainey, Roy Jenson, Don Dubbins, Woodrow Parfrey
Regular Cast: David Carradine, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Radames Pera

Unjustly accused of stealing, Caine is forced to work in a mine over an Indian burial ground. The other prisoners/miners are convinced that uncovering human bones results in the death that day of whoever does so. In the flashbacks, Master Po shows the young Caine just what such beliefs produce. (Novelization by Howard Lee^*2*) (Note: we have been informed by David Spencer that Howard Lee was a pseudonym.)

Pilot & First Season
Available on DVD

"I would like to buy some beans. And salt." - Caine (proving that, occasionally, he has money in his pouch)

"I am not guilty." - Caine

"To choose one or the other is to agree with a lie." - Caine

"What is 'cooperate?'" - Caine

"You are the leader here." - Caine

"Is it not foolish to be afraid of another man's bones?" - Caine

"So, we are here as slaves cause free men will not work." - Caine

"...life is a corridor and death merely a door." - Young Caine, quoting a lesson from Master Po

"'Do you not believe me?' - Master Po
'Yes, Master, but I am still afraid.'" - Young Caine

"In time you will learn to fear only fear itself." - Master Po

"I was told to work. I am working." - Caine

"I am not different from you." - Caine, asked what kind of man he is.

"'Don't you feel the cold?' - asked of Caine
'Of course.' - Caine, though he shows no sign of such feeling.
'Did you learn that in China?'
'Yes. And other things more important.'" - Caine
I learned "to celebrate every man's life in my own." - Caine

"When a man has nothing, he is most able to raise himself up." - Caine

"When we dream, the things we wish for happen by magic. When we wake we know, without effort a man is less than nothing." - Caine

"It is essential always to keep one's balance, is it not?" - Master Po

"If you trust me completely, I can help you. If I tell you, you are not within a prison, the prison is within you, can you believe that?" - Caine
"Let all effort flow out of your body. All heat flow from your body. The weight of your body becomes less and less. Until the body becomes one with the spirit which is as light as a feather as a breath as nothing at all." - Caine
"To cast away life without true purpose, is this not wrong?" - Caine
"We will not die. We will endure until we remember that we are men." - Caine
"The power to claim life is not superstition. It is destiny. Bow to superstition and you create a new, unhappy destiny." - Caine
"Superstition is like a magnet. It pulls you in the direction of your belief." - Master Po
"There's no fear in him. None at all. That's why he can't be controlled." - about Caine
"These came from the earth. They must be returned." - Caine on the human bones he accidentally dug up.
"Perhaps, it would be better to remain still. Use one light. And free the mind from fear." - Caine
"Enough." - Caine (a word he often uses to stop things)
"Be still. Do not speak. Try to sleep. Still your heart. And hope." - Caine's advice on what to do when the air is running out.
"Then think of living." - Caine, when a man says he is afraid to die.
"Perhaps. As waking is an end to sleep." - Caine, when someone says it's the end and they are going to die.

"'Any suggestions?'
'Live.'" - Caine

In this episode Caine pulls coins out of his pouch to buy supplies.
Master Po lies to the Young Caine herein telling him a pool is filled with acid when it is really just water.
"To seek freedom, a man must struggle. To win it, he must choose wisely where and when he struggles. . . or it is like spitting in the wind." - Caine^*2*p12