The Emphasis In Pencak-Silat Is Spiritual

The emphasis in pencak-silat is spiritual rather than physical; more so than the emphasis in the fighting arts of Japan (bugei as opposed to budo forms). That is to say, the soul or the heart of the fighter is of the utmost importance. His purity, or his lack of it, will be reflected in his techniques; experts claim they can read the nature of the trainee's heart simply by watching him practice. For that reason, pencak-silat is not the activist discipline that the fighting arts of Japan are: it places tremendous importance on the attainment of self-perfection by means other than its own physical techniques.

Yet in spite of its spirituality, pencak-silat is, quite obviously, founded on the harsh reality of possibly deadly hand-to-hand combat, and in its exercises it imposes the rigors of a real combat situation upon trainees. They are expected to consider not only the weapons being used but
also the climate, the time of day or night, and the terrain upon which the combat occurs; these all combine to establish the prevailing emotional as well as physical atmosphere of the fight. Trainees must always bear in mind that the weapons they are using are real objects capable of inflicting serious injury.