MAENPO CIKALONG - Don’t Hurt Your Opponent

MAENPO CIKALONG (Part 2) - Don’t Hurt Your
Opponent
The two people move backwards and forwards in an orderly
manner. There arms extending and folding in turn. Suddenly
one of the players reverses direction throwing his adversary and
immediately raucus laughter fills the room.
The above scenario describes the training environment at the
Paguron (School) of Maenpo Cikalong Pancerbumi, that
happens each Friday night on the 3rd floor of the Hydro
Building auditorium situated in Cililitan, East Jakarta. “These
exercises are the basic foundation exercises in order to
recognise and develop the concept of rasa or feel, says H Ceng
Suryana, one of the leaders of the Paguron (School).
Rasa of feel is an important concept within the style of Cikalong silat, that generally sets
it apart from other styles of silat. Rasa as a concept can be described as the art of
adjusting the expression of our energy, while at the same time adapting our flow and
rhythm, based upon the movements and actions of the opponent.
With rasa, a Cikalong pesilat not only emphasises speed and strength in a fight, but also
relies on their trained physical sensitivity so that they may anticipate or read the intention
of an attack and act accordingly by using the exact amount of energy needed to neutralise
or divert the attack.
One of the requirements in order to train rasa, is the
sticking hands sparring training or what is
commonly referred to as ulin tempelen, and it is the
aim of this training specifically that the student
develops their intuition and inter-relationship
between the adversary and themselves. “From a
practical perspective, a Cikalong murid (student)
must touch an opponent to understand rasa, said H.
Ceng. The tempelan or sticky exercises with a
partner are a core element when training in
Cikalong. It is in the paired training, by touching, the
placing and the friction between arms/hands of
student and guru or other training partner that the
student attains the benefit and a practical
understanding of rasa and where knowledge is
achieved. “It’s a central tenet in order to train our sensitivity in relation to the expression
of energy of our opponent”, said H. Aziz Asy’arie.

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It’s not surprising that amengan tempelan (the activity of sticky hands) was one of the
favourite pastimes among the noblemen of the Cianjur area in the old days. By practicing
touching or sticking hands they were able to develop the sensory acuity to see and read
the intentions of their enemy/oponent without using the perception of vision. “The
reaction of the pesilat in a fight becomes automatic”, he
said.
Apart from that there is a perception in Cikalong that the
exercise of amengan tempelan has the added benefit of
initiating the flow of rasa and energy between teacher
and pupil. In other words there is a direct physical
transmission from the moment the student is in contact
with the teacher. “The act of tempelan between teacher
and pupil is called barokahan (barokah = gifted or
bestowed) because the student is gifted with an
abundance of energy”, said Ezra Purnama, a Cikalong
practioner. It because of this unique concept that a
Cikalong guru is only capable of training a select number
of students at any one time. “Because of this requirement to nempel (to adhere to), each
student has to come into contact one on one with their teacher”,
he said.
In reality, the teachings of Cikalong is quite simple as it only
has 10 jurus, which form the foundation movements of the
system. These foundation movements expand in their
application to an unlimited potential because all movement
must be adjusted to the prevailing condition of the
confrontation and opponent. “But to develop rasa, it is
unavoidable that we still need to train tempelan“, he said.
It is through the process of training in tempelan , that a
Cikalong pesilat will understand how to read and pervail as
well as to utilise focused energy. Because of that, from within
the environs of practical sparring there are expressions known
as “empty energy” and “full energy” as well as “half energy”. “The concept of an
aggressive response, strength on strength does not exist. With these three expressions
afore-mentioned, a Cikalong adept learns to control the expression and flow of their own
energy”, says H. Aziz. This is why in Cikalong the concept of blocking an attack is
foreign. Instead, what exists is the “receiving” of an attack that then can be neutralised
effectively with rasa. “The opponent too does not feel that they are being attacked and
will surrender to our effort to incapacitate their aggression”, he said.

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This journalist (from Tempo) eventually had the opportunity to try to hit H Aziz. To fast
to realise what was happening, the attack of my right hand was swept to the side by his
left with what felt as a soft energy that appeared to be in balance with the speed and
strength of my attack. His counterattack happened with speed and a soft grace. Almost
lazily, H. Aziz’ fingers caught and lifted my chin and slowly twisted my neck, with
precision and apparently without effort, to the conclusion that I fell to the floor as if
preparing to repose.
H. Aziz’ touch was precise and without apparent effort, but he was able to neutralise the
opponents aggression and momentum to press the attack. “If our movements are sudden
and rough, it will ellicit a similar reaction from our opponent” he said. “The more skilled
a person becomes in Cikalong, the softer is the fall of the adversary”, said H. Aziz. This
tenet is in accordance to the teachings of R. H. Ibrahim, the founder of Cikalong, who
based his art on the teachings and philosophy of Sufi tradition. “As far as is possible, the
opponent should not be injured”, he said.

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Authored By: Amal Ihsan
Translated By: Krisno Pryosusilo

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