[drewhempel]

I'm downloading this right now but it should be good.

http://avaxhome.ws/e...1402093551.html

The author, D.S. Farrer, states (May 2009):

I have been learning martial arts since 1975, and many instructors have helped
to develop my view of the martial arts. These include Bob Rose, John and Nicky
Smith, Des Bailey, Douglas Robertson and Donald Kerr, the late Grandmaster Ip
Shui, Ip Chee Geurng and especially Paul Whitrod. Many thanks also go to Sifu Ng,
Sifu Chow and Sifu Tan for teaching me Chin Woo.

The ordeal by boiling oil (mandi minyak) is an initiation rite of the Malaysian martial
arts organization Silat Seni Gayong Malaysia, a martial art that shares certain
fundamental affinities with Seni Silat Haqq Melayu.

So from December 1996 to April 1998 I trained silat with Pa’ Ariffin in London,
four or five times per week, and on my own every day for one to three hours.
Subsequently, I have had so many entries into and exits from the group that it
is impossible to summarize them all. For the most part Pa’ Ariffin treated me with
respect, and extended a warm friendship, especially when I first visited Malaysia
in 1999, and met him at the zawiya (Sufi lodge) in Kuala Lumpur. Except for the
time I knocked out the European silat champion, Abdul Rahman, in a match in
1998, I have never fought any of his other students.

For example, Pa’ Ariffin, whilst
a Haqqani Imam (roughly a priest) in London, would bitterly complain that the
female converts left their used tampons stuffed behind the radiators of Peckham
Mosque, something unimaginable in Malaysia where menstruating women would
not enter the mosque as a matter of course.

In sum Chapter 1 outlines my hypothesis that the Malay martial art must be
reconfigured as part of an analytical complex including the Sufi, shaman and magician.
I have argued that the omission of the martial artist from this complex is an
error of colonial analysis. This error results from a style of thinking that posits a
disembodied theory of magic (see Chapter 2), a style of thinking that is basically
essentialist. Against this I locate a concrete example of silat in Seni Silat Haqq
Melayu, and regard it in its complex multiplicity, accepting that contradiction, paradox,
and ambiguity are part of the object of enquiry, instead of ignoring untidy
elements that would not fit a preconceived theory (McHugh 2004). In order to begin
to analytically reconfigure the guru silat’s position I have outlined the methods
of performance ethnography that have permitted me to move beyond the veils of
secrecy concerning silat, and sketched out a definition of silat, alongside the field
and emergence of silat. In conclusion I have proposed that silat, like Sufism in the
hands of the Haqqani-Naqshbandi Sufi tarekat, may become New Age.

This post has been edited by drewhempel: 01 December 2009 - 05:31 PM

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Thanks for that download. Drew Hempel, you is one interesting dude!

This post has been edited by TheSongsofDistantEarth: 01 December 2009 - 05:46 PM

[drewhempel]

Actually Abe posted on my blog http://naturalresona...on.blogspot.com

The pedang, a light sword with a slight curvature,
forms one of the key weapons sets of Seni Silat Haqq Melayu, but Pa’ Ariffin only
taught this set to Cecily. Pa’ Ariffin’s mastery of the sword, blood-letting practice,
and knowledge of Sanskrit mantra, makes him an excellent candidate for the title of
bomoh-silat (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2).

In the style of the evil tiger (silat siluman harimau) becoming animal is the
culmination of a ritual practice where the pesilat lies in a grave for seven nights
(Chapter 8). The spirit that enters the practitioner, a tiger or crocodile, is nevertheless
the spirit (or spiritual attachment) of an ancestor, so in this sense becoming
animal is simultaneously becoming ancestral. Conversely, for pesilat of Seni Silat
Haqq Melayu, although they are taught to hold the posture of an eagle with arms
outspread whilst poised upon one leg, the idea of becoming animal is an anathema,
with Pa’ Ariffin proclaiming the virtues of “becoming human,” and emphasizing
that one is not fully human until the animal within is under control.

Bunga strategically disguises the lethal arsenal of silat. Beautiful, yet deadly, it
is the flowery, graceful, aesthetically pleasing dance of silat that differentiates silat
from other martial arts. Bunga serves as visible proof to Malays who would say that
silat was originally created by a woman. The continuous twisting, and curling over
of the hands is similar to Indian, Javanese, and Sumatran dance, and exemplifies
the “feminine” beauty of silat. Initially, I could not see how bunga could possibly
be deadly, until Pa’ Zaini, a wedding silat expert showed me the same elegant steps
whilst holding a razor.

Among Malays the Baweanese are notorious for their love magic, especially
the nasi kangkang, where a woman is said to stand with her legs astride a bowl of
steaming rice so her vaginal juices will drip into it. The rice is fed to an unsuspecting
suitor as a love charm. Baweanese in Singapore exaggerate that Bawean Island,
which lies 75 miles off the north-east coast of Java, is not a safe place for strangers
and say that unless the visitor is a Muslim they would not survive the night.

TheSongsofDistantEarth, on Dec 1 2009, 05:45 PM, said:

Thanks for that download. Drew Hempel, you is one interesting dude!

This post has been edited by drewhempel: 01 December 2009 - 06:18 PM

[drewhempel]

Prana is a four-part
exercise that is best practised at the “magic hour” just before dawn, and takes
about 30 min to complete. Prana should be done for a minimum of forty days.
Prana involves holding the breath whilst maintaining a variety of postures
(Fig. 3.9). The tongue is placed upon the roof of the mouth, in the same position
as that of a newborn.

The magic of Malay sorcerers works by robbing the victim of his or her agency.
For example, magic charms (susuk) inserted directly under the facial skin ensure
a youthful and beautiful complexion.3 Susuk is common among Indonesian and
Malay prostitutes who visit the bomoh to undergo a mirror surgical procedure to
insert a small magical stone under their facial skin to enhance their beauty and
attractiveness to men. The stone may be excised upon finding and settling down
with “the right man.” Meanwhile these women take the risk of incurring the negative
symptoms of susuk, which is the agony of a prolonged suspension of death (see
Chapter 8).

This post has been edited by drewhempel: 01 December 2009 - 06:25 PM

[drewhempel]

Wow -- Abe -- I figured out this Allah energy tongue connection on my own! I had posted this info already

Pa’ Din continued that one third of tenaga dalam concerns touching the tip of
the tongue to the roof of the mouth – just as when you say Allah. When a baby is
newly born its “energy cycle” can be shown by gently opening its mouth. The tip of
the tongue can be seen sticking to the roof of the mouth allowing the inner energy
to circulate around the body. To say the word Allah the tongue necessarily hits the
palate, and Allah repeated as dhikr will activate the energy cycle through a series
of pulses.26

[drewhempel]

I just got a PM stating the book had been removed but that was true for me as well -- for the first two links. The third link worked for down load:

In one of Shaykh Raja Ashman’s residences out in the jungle there is a room
in a tower reserved for the purpose of the forty day retreat. At a dinner party the
Prince once quipped that the room in the tower is called “the screaming room.” At
first, I thought this was a wry reference to the altered states of consciousness that
prolonged isolation combined with meditation, fasting and prayer tend to produce.
Visions are induced that may involve communication with the souls of the shaykhs,
who though long dead may appear in the present. Or the initiate may travel back in
time to communicate with the shaykh in the flesh (Kabbani 1995: 399–401; Shah
1956: 61). Later it became apparent that the screaming room is also where the evil
spirits that have entered the possessed are exorcised, a procedure that may take
several days.

Pa’ Ariffin’s favourite phrase upon waking for a one-and-a-half-hour marathon
of pre-dawn prayers was that “coffee is good in the morning,” which was a hint for
someone to go and make it. This would be the first of around eight to ten cups of
coffee per day and per night.

the most scathing “bitch treatment” from Pa’ Ariffin were precisely the fanatical
variety he called “sufi-goofies,” who were roundly condemned for donning veils
and cheap Pakistani clothes, changing their identity, abandoning their employment,
and for not being themselves.

It will be remembered that the play Silat: Dance of the Warriors featured an hour
and a half of warring factions slashing at one another with parangs. During the
rehearsals one pesilat had his finger chopped off and had to be rushed to hospital
with it in a plastic bag on ice. Another girl had her face and eye cut open. In
the closing scenes of the actual performance the violent factions are united and
the schism was healed by the benevolent Sultan, played by Pa’ Ariffin. The play
was staged in London with an all-Malay cast and a full musical accompaniment

To divine the student’s personality, the cikgu cuts the lime and then takes up half
of it, places the thumb over a segment, and from the next segment proceeds to circumnavigate
the lime with the formula tanah, air, api, angin. Where the series ends
under the thumb is the position that gives the student’s personality type (Fig. 7.3).9
The cikgu should count anti-clockwise, although this appears to make no difference
to the outcome. Because the correspondence to langkah, rezeki, maut, and bala was
indicated by Cikgu Ezhar, but not explained, I have not elaborated further than by
providing the dictionary definitions (Hawkins 2001).

This post has been edited by drewhempel: 01 December 2009 - 07:49 PM

[drewhempel]

Santiago:

Accompanying me was my Javanese uncle, affectionately known as Crazy
Wak, who when stripped to the waist revealed a tight muscle-bound physique crisscrossed
with old scars from knife fights—a far cry from the bloated bellies of most
of the silat gayong instructors.

The previous account has indicated a series of shifts in the meaning of the oil bath,
which has appeared in many guises across the ages. Historically, the oil bath appears
as a trial by ordeal, later it predominates as an invulnerability rite, and most recently
it is presented as a bath in healthy oil, like some kind of spa treatment. Nevertheless,
in all three cases the mandi minyak remains a revelatory rite. The ritual form is
maintained, even when the context is radically altered.23

This post has been edited by drewhempel: 01 December 2009 - 07:58 PM

[drewhempel]

However,
Pa’ Ariffin considered the Prophet Solomon (Suleiman) to be the king of the jinn,
and Malaysia to be the land of the jinn, as the jinn are said to have settled there
en masse after the conquests of Alexander the Great (Iskander). Similar symbols,
such as the “Character from the Seal of Solomon” are known in the occult, and
may be found in the seals of Sultans (Shah 1956: 7).

[Zenshiite]

This is some interesting stuff. Thanks for the link Drew.

[durkhrod chogori]

Good luck with your new venture which surely will enhance your spiritual practice.