Ilaina Lennard writes…
In Subud we are a family. All over the world people have come to know and love each other through their Subud contacts – even sometimes despite their apparent differences. I decided to try and make contact with some of those who used to be well known but who have now slipped into the background for a number of reasons.
Many of course have died. Others may be ill or in Homes for the Elderly. A third group are still active and doing interesting work. SV hopes to bring news of some of them in a running article called ‘Whatever happened to…?’, and believes this could also become a kind of networking.
The first article is from news received in January 2012. Hopefully there will be news from others in future articles. Send to me at: ilaine.l@blueyonder.co.uk or phone +44 (0)1242 707701 or write to: 8 Sissinghurst Grove, Cheltenham, GL51 3FA, UK
Conrad Aldridge sent his news from the UK : my wife Michelle and I moved back to Yorkshire (at the end of Ramadan) to be nearer our five married children and eight grand-children. We enjoyed ten happy years in Scotland.
We now attend the Sheffield Subud Group which is on the edge of a major de-industrialised part of the City. The Sheffield City Council has produced an Action Plan to try to entice developers to help re-generate the area. Sheffield was once a World Player because of steel making, but now, along with everyone else, struggles with the economic downturn.
I’m working with others to do commercial property development here in Sheffield via a Development Trust – an organisation whose profits will be used to fund social needs. It’s a form of development work that I’ve been keen on since I visited Project Sunrise in Sydney back in the early nineteen eighties.
It allows me to use some of the skills I picked up via Premier Hotels and involves making contact with large numbers of other organisations around the City and nationally.
There is a growing intention amongst communities to share in wealth creation in their neighbourhoods and people are keener to find new long term ways to pay for social programmes. It’s early days but we’ve made a start.
So I’m alive and kicking and am also Subud Britain’s North Region Chairman.
If anyone wants to contact Conrad – and especially if they have knowledge of or are interested in re-generation projects, his e-mail address is conradaldridge@btinternet.com and tel in the UK is 01484 863 799
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Lucas (formerly Latif) Horton sent the following: we have been in Ireland now for around 4 years. Before that I had been in the USA for 4 years living in New York and then in the community at Badger in the mountains of California.
Originally when we moved here, there was plenty of development and Architectural work, but this has now diminished to almost nothing. Fortunately Syna, my wife – who is also a cranio-sacral therapist, is busy and I have been developing a new trading business which is growing slowly but surely, so I am very optimistic for 2012. It is important to stay positive. The future is more interesting than the past.
This is the third time I have lived in Ireland, originally dating back to the early 1970’s nearly 40 years ago. I find Ireland congenial, it has a different pace than England, and people take themselves less seriously than in many places, so that maybe it is possible for me to get to a quieter place in myself whilst living here. It is also where my father was born and where my grandparents lived and worked, so maybe there is some historical logic to being here as well.
SUBUD is very thin on the ground in Ireland, where latihans of more than 2 or 3 people are rare. We travel to Provence 3 to 4 times a year. I like Provence and there is a stronger SUBUD presence there than in Ireland.
I have been very fortunate to have travelled to many countries as a SUBUD member. In the last 6 years, we have done latihan in the UK, USA, Russia, China, as well as a number of European countries. Although SUBUD is different in every country, the central tenet is the same. Do the latihan. However there is a perspective that comes from travelling that is, I believe, inspiring. It is this perspective that I would like to share with you.
– The latihan is a gift from God to All of Mankind. It is an inner cleansing and purification, and it opens up a way for us to find our way back to God.
– The recent feeling that came to me was that I am a member of SUBUD living in Ireland before I am a member of Subud Ireland..
– What I mean by this is that SUBUD is the community of people worldwide who open themselves to God’s Grace through the latihan. SUBUD is not the Subud organisation.
– When we as SUBUD members collectively open ourselves to God’s Grace a link, a circle, a channel of openness is created which stretches around the world that links together all who have the same openness to Grace. Collectively this channel of openness becomes a channel for God’s Grace into the whole world, which does, I believe, have an effect on the whole of mankind.
– I feel this link in each country we have been to and done latihan in. I also feel that this link to Grace is one of the key drivers in the progress of the human race in finding its way back to God, and for raising the overall spiritual condition of the human race at this time.
– This for me is the primary aim and purpose of SUBUD, and it is this SUBUD of which I am very happy and grateful to be a part.
– It also reinforces to me what is the most important thing for me to do as a SUBUD member and that is to hold this channel to God’s Grace inside me as much as possible, every day.
E/m for Lucas/Latif: latif_horton@hotmail.com
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Muchtar Martins, a former Chair of the World Subud Council, sent the following. At present, to be honest, I’m not concerned about having work as an architect or even to construct buildings but much more what I’m facing is this enigma of feeling all the conflicting diversity of human beings while at the same time searching to be one with humanity.
The way I used till now for this search, was through team work in the very challenging endeavours of Subud projects around the world. But these days, it seems, my adventurous nature is no longer necessary and my struggle is to find a new way to put into practice the inspirations that I receive in the latihan that are indeed much larger than before and need much more team work in order to be achieved.
In fact I’m perplexed regarding the way to move forward and …….. with whom ……. !!!? So other than being patient there seems to be nothing at present that I can do. E/m: muchtar.martins@gmail.com
Michael Menduno, incorrigible editor of the Congress magazine GEEWA at the Spokane World Congress, writes: I’ve been living in Berkeley, CA for the last year writing, playing music and getting back into scuba diving. I’m a helper in our local group and I’m also chairing our upcoming Subud California Congress which is to be held 25-27 May, 2012 at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, Van Nuys, CA. Find us on Facebook under Subud California Congress.
Workwise, Michael Menduno adds:
I work with an investment research firm called OTR Global. I’m a senior reporter and lead a team of reporters from US, Europe and Asia to write about enterprise technology; things like computer networking, network security, cloud computing etc.
In addition I have started freelancing for magazines again and loving every minute of it. Lately I have been writing about scuba diving. I used to publish a diving magazine called “aquaCORPS: The Journal for Technical Diving” 1990-1996. Now I am getting back into the sport and writing about diving technology and some of the key people that are driving the sport forward.
I am also a musician and play and gig here in the Bay Area. I play bass and am into jazz, R&B, latin jazz and blues. e/m: michael@menduno.com
Leonard Wells (UK), quite recently died in his sleep – aged only 71. He would shortly have married his Romanian sweetheart, and had written the following about his romance in the UK’s August 2011 Subud Journal (extract):
‘Sachlan Fraval once referred to me as the most eligible bachelor in Subud but it did not seem to make much difference. By 2008 I was getting desperate to put it mildly. In a way like that day in the Liverpool Subud House, I called out one night in a ‘Why hast thou forsaken me’ moment. Two days later I was looking at a very pretty lady scientist on an international dating agency Website on my PC. She is Romanian and lives with her immortal 97-year-old aunt in Bucharest. I did not appreciate when I clicked my mouse in her direction where it was going to lead me. After some months of e-mails I arrived in 09/09/09 in Bucharest, knees knocking, heart pounding. She told me later that she was so excited that she took tranquilisers before coming to meet me. I have now made six visits in all to Romania and have travelled extensively. We love each other very deeply.’
God bless you Len and surely all our hearts will go out to your beloved now.
LOOK OUT FOR MORE “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…?” updates in the next Subud Voice Online.