[David]

Originally Posted by Pusaka

Silat is as old as the keris itself, therefore there are teachings regarding it that old too held by gurus.

Some form of silat has indeed been around for centuries, passed by oral tradition. Silat, however, has changed greatly over the years, even more so as it has moved away from its origins in the Indonesian/Malay area to schools around the world. It is fairly well acknowledged though that the keris has become a central weapon in many of it's various schools only relatively recently, probably due to the recognition of its cultural importance in the area. But i seriously do not want this to become a discussion or debate on silat and it variant forms. This is not a silat forum. The keris stands alone from this martial art and it certainly wasn't created to serve it.
Much of what is "true" of anything in this world is a matter of our perception. There are those who believe that a keris blade can either be "dead" or "alive" and there are those who feel that all keris are merely artist weapons and artifacts. There are those who claim they can feel and perceive the difference. Sometimes these astute and highly trained individuals will disagree on such matters. I have even heard tell of the same person giving different opinions on the same keris on different days. Does that make that person a charlatan. Not necessarily. It depends upon what you believe. But debating these subjects seems pointless to me. I personally know when i am holding a keris that is particularly powerful to me. Yes, i can feel it, can't you? Maybe you just don't believe hard enough. You see, belief can be a powerful thing in and of itself.
I would disagree with Pusaka in that i believe all of us are indeed born with the ability to feel vibrations. These innate abilities are drowned out by the day to day rigors of mundane living. Training techniques only open up this ability to perceive. And there are many exercises to help us achieve this aside from "rasa" if we wish to pursue them. However, most this kind of perception is unnecessary for our appreciation of the keris. We all understand that the keris has over the centuries fulfilled a multitude of cultural purposes and that some of those purposes have changed over time within that changing culture. As Alan so correctly put it "It is not the place of anybody who is not a part of the owning culture to dictate to people within that culture what is appropriate for the culture." And it must be understood that aside from what has most certainly been lost over time that keris culture is a indeed living and probably still changing culture. I believe it would be a great mistake to dismiss keris that someone claiming mystical powers says to be "mati" as not being a "real" keris simply because of that assigned designation, especially when we consider just how subjective such observations can be.