One Door Closes and an Other Opens

Pendekar Sanders - July 1, 2006

Many years ago I started out on a journey to learn Pencak Silat and that is all. I studied and practiced and took in the tales in awe. Unlike most I took the journey across the pond to see and hear more and in that innocent venture uncovered one thing after the other that only led me deeper in the maze. I crossed paths with many good people and wonderful teachers who added bits and pieces but never the same root.

In the process of just learning what was what, I stepped on the toes of people I had no intention of stepping on. It just so happened that my quest to find out all that I could I became very disturbing to some who wove tales, or cared that they were not what they appeared, and I was uncovering this by accident.

The most convenient way for them to stop me from what I was seeing and learning at least to them, was to discredit me anyway possible. I have been called names, had stories fabricated about me that were not so, left a career job and on the advice and promises of one of them, had my money, all of it get taken (a lot), lost a marriage, got split from my children, had a school stolen and wound up sitting on the floor of a rented house with no job or family or even a plate to eat from. I had close students stab me in the back all to protect what had been told and make sure I stopped in my tracks. I did not stop. I wanted to learn the roots of what I had been taught and to help develop Pukulan Cimande Pusaka. At the same time I found it necessary at times to defend the art and myself.

Now I can say I have peace with all of that with the closing of the door on the Mas Jud story and the real facts at hand I can now continue to develop this art as it should be. So we take a new turn in the road and maybe a surprise. I cannot keep beating a downed foe no matter how much temptation there is in it. It is not what a Pendekar should do, nor a good example.

Once the knowledge of Mas Jud comes out I ask all of those who may be upset at what they had been told, or even what they themselves have told in error to instead concentrate on what we have found and what can be learned from it. The doors of Pukulan Cimande Pusaka are open to ALL who want to learn these new things, even my largest foes in the past are welcome. I will share with you what I have if you desire it. I will NOT press the issue of the past and only go forward and show what we now have. I will report the facts in my book as they are because they are the facts but I will not belabor it. I will not partake of internet squabbles with those who only want to sow discord, say one thing and then deny it.

Let those who have a problem rant on, I will keep practicing and enjoying my new friends in Indonesia. You see by fate or by whatever you want to call it the roots of this art are now back in place. Those that left this art looking for it elsewhere may never see quite the same thing. But now I can strengthen those roots in all areas. I give thanks once again to my original training from Guru John Malter which kept me looking for the right thing and from all my other teachers on the way who helped especially recently Pendekar Mama, one of the greatest Cimande Masters on earth who brought us all together again and in the process found Mas Jud had the same roots from Cimande as he did, talk about fate!!!!

Take care and let’s train

Pendekar Sanders