There are many ways to share Buddhist ideals about spiritual tranquility and harmony, and one of them is to punch people in the face.

Let Jet Li explain.

"I tried to retire in 1997," said the star of "Hero," latest in a line of celebrated Chinese action movies. "But I met Lho Kunsang Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master, who said, `You cannot. You have finished your responsibility for your family, you have enough money, but you have more responsibility for yourself.' I asked, `What is this responsibility?' He said, `Go figure it out.' Then Warner Bros. called about `Lethal Weapon 4,' and Americans saw me (in his first English-language picture)."

He still hasn't had a chance to squeeze his philosophy into a U.S. film, though he remains optimistic. He and director Zhang Yimou touch on it in "Hero," where the assassin of the title learns violence doesn't solve all problems. Li expects the 2005 "Unleashed," which will be called "Danny the Dog" in its European release, makes that point:

"My character is only 10 years old mentally; he's very strong and knocks people out as a fighter, but he grew up like a dog in the shadows, without family or friends. Morgan Freeman plays a piano tuner who brings me back to friendship and compassion. It's a good drama, but I put action in there to give teenagers a way to relate to it. You can kick big people's asses, but if you don't understand emotions and responsibilities, you're just a dog."

Li knows about responsibilities. At 8 years old, he started training in wushu, a combination of martial arts, at the Beijing Sports and Exercise School. He became so accomplished that he trained seven days a week, once continuing for two days with a broken foot. He won five Chinese championships, attracting the attention of film producers at 16.

He starred in "Shaolin Temple" and "Shaolin Temple 2," going on to a martial arts film career that made him China's second-biggest star after Jackie Chan. Li passed on history's highest-grossing martial arts movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," because he'd vowed not to work if his wife was pregnant.

His English is acceptable; even at the end of more than two dozen interviews, it flies from him in bursts as rapid as his wushu movies. But like Chan, he's had bad luck in English-language movies.

His mano-a-mano "defeat" by Mel Gibson in "Weapon" was laughably absurd; "Romeo Must Die," "The One" (where he played multiple versions of his personality) and "Cradle 2 the Grave" caught neither his menacing suavity nor his stoic, quiet strength.

"In Asia, people know me very well, so we can talk about (complicated) stories," he says. "For Americans, I'm not big enough. A script for a commercial action film has to have elements guaranteed to make money. If you want to do something special. ..." His voice trails off. "You can't get a green light for a `Hero' or `Danny the Dog' in the States."

He's in remarkable health at 41, having escaped serious injury for a decade: "I've done meditation and training and kept my body in shape, and I'm spending more time to learn (stunt work). And a lot more people are trying to protect me now!"

Yet he's at the age when American action stars reposition themselves as dramatic actors, if they can.

"I think it would be difficult for me to make the transition to straight drama," he says. "In Hollywood or Asia, nobody wants to make Jet Li films without action.

"I still want to use martial arts because I know how to do them, but I can use martial arts in different stories. Zhang Yimou used them in `Hero' to talk about the kind of man who can become a hero through sacrifice. Ang Lee used them (in "Crouching Tiger") to talk about how people can fall in love."

Li's career paths have always seemed predetermined. He was steered into wushu studies without being allowed other options. Though he doesn't regret that commitment, he says, "I missed something when I was a little boy. You lose a lot of freedom, a lot of the normal life you could have had. You get something, but you pay something."

Yet Li's Buddhist philosophy teaches him that he should accept his massive success and the chance of sudden failure with equanimity.

"Today I'm an actor, maybe tomorrow I'm not. The older I get, the less I'm worrying; I spent a few weeks in Tibet learning about that.

"The more time I study Buddhism, the more knowledge, more awareness of the universe I have: why there's suffering, where there's hunger, why we're born here, why we're dying. You must be open to everything, whatever the cost, and take whatever comes to you."