My Mute Monologue

Sometimes reading a comic can be educational too.

Based on this comic, it can be summarised that some part of the objectives in learning martial art are:

1. To be able to know what presence is.
2. To be able to read the enemy’s presence.
3. To be able to eliminate one own presence.

How do we achieve the objectives? Find a good master who can fight not by mouth.  Surely he can guide you to be able to know the presence. It is not an easy road to walk but with the passion and patient, insyaallah there should be a way to success.

related post: Pintar Pintas

A person may have a lot of skills that he has learned throughout the years. Or perhaps mastering a variety of skills in handling weapons with a collection of them in the wardrobe. Some are written nicely in the manual book or being recorded in the hard disk in order to capture the memory so that it will not fade in the future .

However, usually people don’t carry them all in their pocket, in case they face an emergency. This is when a person need to choose which one he prefers the most. The one he is comfortable with and the one that he believes most effective among all that he has.

Then comes the practice to sharpen the skills in order to create better confidence when he encounters the real situation. The training should be made countless time until the person can do them in any situation with anybody even with the eyes closed!

Some martial art schools do not have much many moves yet their few moves are practical in many situation. The key secret is the drilling until it ripes. They need to really master just a few moves in order to survive.

On the other hand, Silat Gayong is known for its countless number of movements in its syllabus. Furthermore, the syllibus can be vary from one master to another. However the disciple (including me) might be trapped in trying to grasp the skills as much moves as he can. At the end of the day, the disciple might become Jack of all trades, master of none. Poor him…

This situation usually happens to the amatuer level. If something bad happens, he starts blaming his teacher or the school that he went for not preparing him well to the real world. He himself should be blamed first for believing that quantity means quality which rarely true. Poor him…

Quality is the priority  and quantity means bonus. It is like having a pocketknife in your pocket which is already ok, but having a multi-tools swiss army knife or perhaps a few more gadgets is a bonus. However, having a picture of knife in your pocket which you think as a real one might give you a big problem!

What he should be doing is finding the one that he really likes and practise it until he becomes one with the moves. He should make the muscles in the body save the data (not the youtube). It will come out automatically (with the will of God) when he needs it.

The great thing being in Gayong Meor Rahman is that you are able to choose, from different schools to different teachers to different hundreds or thousands of moves. Don’t be too greedy to master all at once. But be greedy to learn and preserve the art. The masters are losing their age. Better we be hurry or else it will be too late.

Perlahan-lahan makan anak Sayang
Jangan sampai tercekik paku seluruh alam.

(Oh Anak!, Phoenix Bangkit, 2001)

Besilat means able to hit and not being hit (too much), the others are just the accessories. At least that is what I syoksendiri believe, Therefore, put a few skills in your pocket so that you won’t get embarrassed  if you encounter a fight on the street (with the will of God). huhuhu

Picture taken from (here- the writer has also written a critical review on silat)

It started when Pak Ngah Izahar suggests me to find a teacher of his batch who is now hold the Gayong organization in Johor. He is Cikgu Mohd Noor bin Haji Abdul Samad. Because of some of hindrances, the intention was postponed for years until these few weeks.

It is quite weird when I manage to travel for quite some distance to watch students practicing and I did not realise that there is a Gayong gelanggang in my residential area, just a stone trow away from my house. I should now be more greedy to learn from both gelanggangs. The interesting part was that the instructors are the active Gayong Malaysia members under Cikgu Mohd Nor. What a bless.

Cikgu Mohd Nor, picture taken from the website of Gayong UTM.

Tracking him down the net was quite impossible because I could not find any story about him. Although he is among the early batch who learn Gayong in Singapore, not many seems to know him. I guess only those who learn along with and under Cikgu Mohd Nor know who he really is.

The word of wisdom that came out from his mouth really excites me. It makes my decision to apply for a transfer to my hometown shakes pretty hard. Getting the big picture on how he approaches the syllabus tailors pretty much on the late Grandmaster’s way has made me think even harder. Then, he assures me with one statement, “Be confident with the destiny, we can’t do anything about what had happened. And the good things are everywhere, you don’t have to worry about it.”

He practices the wisdom of timba mencari perigi. Furthermore, he is really strict in pouring his knowledge and skills to others including to his students. The courses were rarely held as to make students master what were being taught first. Only the chosen ones were able to join, not openly held to everyone. All of the classes and courses were kept almost under the radar. He prefers being low profile as nobody although he is somebody in Gayong.

Hopefully I can learn something valuable from him or at least from his apprentices. His way of looking at the Gayong knowledge has opened a new perspective from how I saw the school back then. More input from him is needed and really appreciated in order to widen my horizon and view to my own self, Gayong and the world at large.