Subud Voice November 2011   -  Max's selection
see   -  http://www.subudvoice.net/
Complete contents:
* REAPING THE HARVEST - a musical editorial
* FROM RUSSIA WITH FEELING - healing the body corporate from Solihin Thom**
* BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME - Part 3 of "My Kalimantan Adventure" by Mansur Geiger**
* BAPAK'S LAST VISIT TO IRELAND - Ilaina Lennard recalls a dramatic incident**
* ENTERPRISE - Leonard van Hien outlines a vision
* ENTERPRISE NEWS -  a start, a site and 'where to from here?'
* FAVOURITE PHOTO - on the river with Andrew Clague
* SHORT STORIES -  a quake, the spread of Subud and an eye-opener
* SUSILA DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE - can we be Susila Dharma every minute of the day?
* THE RESURGENCE OF MORNINGSIDE CARE - a new start for Sine Cera
* WISH GRANTED - from Gibran Ohri**
* ONE CLICK IS ALL IT TAKES -  Leonard Wells finds a woman on the Internet**
* THE DEATH OF MY FATHER - from Rachman Mitchell**
* LIFE AFTER DEATH - Levi Lemberger writes about death and beyond**
* GOD THE THERAPIST -  new book from Husain Chung**
* TWO LOVE STORIES -  by Arifa Asariah**
* READER FEEDBACK - more response than in the previous 10 years put together**
* POET'S CORNER -  a rave and a rant from Emmanuel Williams
* WHAT IS SUBUD? -  in words and video
* CONTACT US
* ADS AND NOTICES
* SUBUD WILL LAST FOR 800 YEARS -  a talk by Bapak**

** In this selection

FROM RUSSIA WITH FEELING - healing the body corporate from Solihin Thom 
1st November 2011 
Solihin and Alicia Thom in St Petersburg.
Harris Smart writes - A couple of years ago I heard that Solihin and Alicia Thom were now living in Russia and working with a Russian entrepreneur, applying their experience in healing modalities and workshops to the development of his enterprise. I have always been interested to know in more detail what they are up to and at last we can bring you the story.
The work they are doing is even more exciting and important than I had imagined. The man they are working for is not only a big businessman Ð his companies employ 22,000 people Ð but also a visionary idealist. Solihin writes that this businessman has "a map or scheme for his own conglomerate, to spearhead a new initiative into the way business is done in Russia."
As if that wasn't ambitious enough, Solihin goes on to say that he has been employed by this man to "spearhead his desires to change or foster healing of the Russian psyche/soul." So this is very important work in the world.
Solihin explains his own role as, "Our job is to foster a new moral, ethical, transparent, and spiritual based culture of business in all the companies; although we have concentrated mainly in the Financial Corporation, and now, with the Insurance company. I am Director of personal and corporate culture. Alicia acts as consultant. "
Following an introduction from me, you will read below of how this opportunity was presented to the Thoms. Then, "dangling off" this document are two .pdfs. One is an article about Solihin and how he came into Subud. The second .pdf is a long article by Solihin providing a background to the work he is now doing. He writes particularly about the work he and Alica have done in investigating the "forces" and how this can be applied to the "healing" of a corporate culture - 

 An Introduction to Solihin
 Solihin Thom is well known as one of the leading cranial osteopaths in Subud. Lately, his focus has shifted from working with individuals to working with the "body corporate". He and his wife Alicia are now based in Moscow and he works in corporate development in the organization of a Russian entrepreneur.
 Thirty years ago, I was in Fulham (London) waiting to see a cranial osteopath, called Solihin Thom. I picked up a magazine to pass the time and found an interesting Elle article. It said that there were four "gurus" in the world today. In India there was Muktananda and Sai Baba. In the USA there was Ram Das (Richard Alpert). In Great Britain, there was Solihin Thom.
 No doubt he is intensely embarrassed about this and wishes I had not brought it up.
Nevertheless, I think it is something of interest and significance that all those years ago, Solihin was recognised Ð not just in Subud, but in the world in general Ð as someone noteworthy and in the illustrious company of these other internationally known "gurus".
 Last year in Subud Voice, Solihin wrote a series of articles about this life and work. The four articles appeared over four months in Subud Voice beginning in July 2010. They can be access by going to www.subudlibrary.net where past issues of Subud Voice are archived in the Miscellaneous and Compilations section.)
The whole story of how Solihin came into Subud is most interesting. Of particular interest is the story of how, after joining Subud, he was hit by a car and suffered very serious injuries. He was extremely fortunate to escape with his life.
 As an aside, I know of a number of Subud members having near-fatal car accidents and not only living to tell the tale, but often saying "it was the best thing that ever happened to me". We published such an article about Simon Guerrand in our February 2011 issue and soon there will be another about Peter Jenkins.
 Solihin, prior to this particular accident, was treated by a cranial osteopath, after he had hurt himself at work. During the session he had had an inner experience where he was told to become one; this proved prescient after his pivotal accident. There is something about cranial osteopathy that seems particularly compatible with Subud. We not only have many cranial osteopaths in Subud, but two that are very outstanding and world-recognized, Solihin and Maxwell Fraval.
 If you have experienced the sometimes extremely mysterious process of cranial osteopathy, you will understand the connection. Solihin, however, not only learned cranial osteopathy, he went on to master what seems like just about every other healing modality known. He learnt and has developed upon acupuncture and homoeopathy. He has also combined and developed kinesiology into a new modality called InnerDialogue™, which incorporate as a gesture-based language about two thousand received mudras.
 However, a tremendously important part of Solihin's work has been Subud, It has acquainted him so deeply with what it is to be human, that he and his wife, Alicia, created an extremely viable and systematic template for explaining the emanation process that Subud itself draws its own heritage fromÐwhat Bapak called the "forces".
 For decades now, Alicia and Solihin have held workshops to enable people to understand the forces Ð material, vegetable, animal and human. They then they wrote a book about it called, Being Human Ð Exploring the forces that shape us and awaken an inner life. (http://innerdialogue.org/shop/being-human-book)
 I have followed Solihin's development with great interest. I was present at seminars where he demonstrated the healing power of cranial osteopathy and I have had treatments from him. He is always most personable, friendly and glowing with energy Ð a testament to his own practice. "Physician heal thyself," has, apparently, been his motto.
 Occasionally, you will meet someone who thinks Solihin is "arrogant" but I never found him so. It is true that he usually seems extremely self-confident but I have also found him sometimes touchingly modest and humble, revealing things about himself you would not suspect. Once he talked to me about his Scottish ancestry and how one of the things he has to "work on" in himself is a tendency to feel inferior. There was in his ancestry a self-deprecating, "touch the forelock" attitude that he has had to overcome in himself.
 A couple of years ago, I heard that he had embarked on a new phase of his career. He was employed by a successful Russian businessman to develop this gentleman's organization Ð which is vast. Solihin and Alicia moved from treating individuals to treating multiple corporate bodies.
 I wrote to Solihin and asked him if he would provide me with an article about this work.
This is a very serious and substantial article. Many readers will no doubt find it challenging. It is long, 10,000 words, with many footnotes and esoteric illustrations. This article cannot be condensed. People who are really interested can go to the online November edition of Subud Voice where it is available its  entirety.
 (This is the sort of thing I want to see much more of in Subud Voice Ð interesting and informative articles by outstanding professionals in their field. A few issues ago we published such an article by Livingston Armytage about Justice and the law. There will be more.)
 Solihin has provided an account of what has taken him to Moscow and what he does there. I think it best that Solihin supply, in his own words, a brief introduction explaining what brought the Thoms to Russian and their current work in that country - .
 
SOLIHIN WRITES - 
 In ninety six a young Russian doctor appeared at a Gurdjieff center in Pennsylvania where he met Sal(uddin) Brownfield, a Subud artist who lives in Atlanta. Konstantin Trifinov, the Russian, had been instructed to find out about Subud, and had come to this center because the Muscovites had a relationship already with Gurdjieff's work. The book 'Witness' by John Bennett had prompted them to look for Subud in the US, oblivious that there was, in fact, a very small group already in Moscow.
 Sal told him about me, because the common factor was doctoring and Sal and I knew each other when I had taught in Atlanta, and had been at latihan with him. Konstantin phoned us in Portland, Oregon where we were living, and as luck had it, I was actually flying out to present a workshop in Connecticut the following week. We met there.
 Konstantin avidly watched the class, and went around asking if the students could 'spare' him a copy of my manuals. Somehow he conned several people to let go of their workbooks and presented me with a dilemmaÐa Russia loose with my work, without training, and having half a dozen manuals! What to do? However some inner feeling made me say, 'yes you can have them, but you must come and train with me.' What trust!
 He did, and we still work together, and he is now one of our principle teachers here in Moscow, and works with us in the conglomerate. He has been instrumental in placing this work into the hands of many therapists in Moscow, and we have quite a thriving group of practitioners here. Apart from that, the Subud group has grown and developed over the years since that initial meeting. Many people have been opened, and as usual, with these initial rapid growth spurts, many too, have left.
 However there is a quite wonderful solid core group of members; we do love them, and they apparently us! Unfortunately we often are not at latihan, and we do realize how and what we have sacrificed at not being at the group. Our work is very hard, we are holding the inner dynamic of large groups of people, and working hours that make it difficult if not impossible to go to latihan.
 However we do make sure that our own daily latihan is there, as a priority, otherwise we would be drowned by the amount and nature of what we are doing here. We recognize there will be some who read this and may judge our situation; we simply ask for understanding of what we are doing, and what has been given to us to do.
 During the ensuing years, Alicia and I would visit Moscow, staying with Konstantin, and presenting both the Being Human workshops which we had developed, and the practitioner work that is now called InnerDialogue. During one of these visits, in late 2006, one of Konstantin's students, a physician, recommended one of his clients, a businessman, to come to see me.
This man, now my boss, came with nothing particularly wrong with him, but a burning desire to change the face of Russian business. He presented to me, as a therapist, his pathophysiology: a map or scheme that he had for his own conglomerate, to spearhead a new initiative into the way business is done in Russia.
 This was at the height of prosperity and success, where everyone was making money hand over fist. I worked with him using the process of InnerDialogue, taking his map as the starting place for dialogue. His session proved useful for him, and every time we came back to Moscow I would go and see and work with him.
 Gradually our relationship changed to friendship, and an unexpectedÐyet strangely knownÐ new dynamic started to occur. He would ask me (every time) whether I would be willing to come and work with his business, setting up a school of our work, and spearhead his desires to change or foster healing of the Russian psyche/soul.
 We had a rather gentle courtship with this tempting idea, and then eventually as the offer became more concrete, Alicia and I couldn't say no. We were initially asked to come and present our work in two stages, so we came and presented to the top management of his conglomerate. It was a difficult sell, but the management I guess, nodded their acceptance in front of the bossÐ who liked it! This visit was followed by the economic downturn, and the second of our visits coincided with an abrupt 'face the truth' as the whole Russian (and global) business world disintegrated including a third of the conglomerate and large slice of our boss' wealth. The management was a little more receptive!
 We came May 2009. Our mandate had morphed from engaging in a project to create a series of health clinics around Moscow, and setting up a school of our work, to a singular initial purpose of bringing the Being Human work into the conglomerate as a new corporate culture. We seemed to have moved full circle from 'healing' individuals to healing a conglomerate; although we are not interested in healing anyone. The work creates the opportunity for that to occur in the individual, in groups, and ultimately in the larger reality of the conglomerate as well as all those families that our employees have.
 We would be charged to work with about 2,500 top managers in the (then) eighteen companies he owned. The conglomerate has a solid base of about 22,000 people with a further ten thousand associates. Our job is to foster a new moral, ethical, transparent, and spiritual based culture of business in all the companies; although we have concentrated mainly in the Financial Corporation, and now, with the Insurance company. I am Director of personal and corporate culture. Alicia acts as consultant.
 The Being Human workshop that we came with, were called initially Being Human: purpose and value. The work has been given an algorithmic new moniker: 5+4=v that signifies the five elements of a human and that of a business, relative to the four human qualities and work functionaries which create 'management by value'. (See the following article).
 The main business is as a large Financial Corporation with all the different banking services; leasing, investment, private, retail, corporate etc., that accompany it. Sitting allied to it, is a large insurance company, and then there are fledgling green or ecologically friendly companies that he is building and developing around this central core.
 Half of the profit goes into family philanthropy and these funds serve many of the orphans of Russia, as well as ensuring  the populace are educated and served by the religious communityÐthey support the Orthodox ChurchÐas well as a continuous program of spiritual educational books, cultural events and dialogues for the population at large.
 We love being here. We have been given a great apartment, near the center, twenty minutes on foot to Red Square. Our boss makes sure we are looked after. This does make a large noisy, dirty but nevertheless rather great city good to live in.
 It is full of history, monumental Stalinist buildings, wide streets, endless lines of slow moving cars, a fantastic metro, great art galleries, numerous wonderful costly eateries with Cyrillic menusÐfew speak English, expensive organic food if you can get it all (our conglomerate has a number of organic shops, cows and farms), cheap medicine for hypochondriacs, ghastly run down tenements, endless traffic police, huge numbers of rather maligned foreign labor who do all the donkey work; ice clearing and chipping, sweeping endlessly the parks and roadways Ð a very clean city!
 We are mainly on our own, may it be said, as few speak English, so every sentence is
accompanied through the lens and filters of translation; so nuances of speech, the precise language we use, is often obliteratedÐ we wonder, often times, what is said. Of course we have friends, notwithstanding Subud members, and many of the conglomerate have become dearly loved; but communication is very sparse and often a smile, a close hug, a kiss or two suffices.
 Alicia is beginning to learn Russian, and she has an ear and aptitude for languages, I don't. The language goes in one ear, and if it doesn't drop out the other, emerges from my mouth as an uncouth approximation.
I find it so frustrating, and this is where I see my own great failing. Nevertheless we are both adept at being with each other; are our best friends, still lovers, and good companions, and have surrendered to this singular lifeÐbut blessed by the job we have been entrusted with, and are open to what is provided. We are very blessed.
 Solihin, Moscow, September 2011
Solihin Thom His Journey Click here to see the original article that Solihin reedited from a series of interviews with Riantee Rand and Iliane Lennard about his life in Subud, and his life's work. (PDF) (Those who want to read that whole series may access it at www.subudlibrary.net where past issues of Subud Voice are archived in the Miscellaneous and Compilations section The 4-part series by Solihin began in July 2010 and ran for the next three issues of the Voice.)
 Solihin Thom Corporate Culture Click here to read Solihin's long illustrated article in which he presents his And Alicia's understanding of how the "forces" operate in a human being and how this is reflected in a corporate culture.


THE FINAL PART OF AN INTERVIEW WITH MANSUR GEIGER BY HARRIS SMART. Mansur talks about some of his extraordinary experiences and future prospects for our mining venture in Kalimantan now that a partnership has been formed with Freeport, one of the biggest mining companies in the world - 
 
Harris: Your whole Kalimantan endeavour has been very much based on following Bapak's advice hasn't it?
Mansur: 1981 was the first year I started working in Kalimantan. If I had been an accountant I would have never gone. Bapak was a hugely courageous and surrendered man. He understood and received the truth and the need into the future.  He said we would require billions of dollars, well, those billions are now available through our partners, but if I had thought about what we were embarking on back then I would never  have started.
Back in those days when I first went to Kalimantan it was mostly mythological Dayak tales about where the gold was. It really wasn't meaningful geological data. The Dutch had done some remarkable work in some places Ð they had a gold mine in a place called Tewah on the Kahayan River Ð but much was still uncharted territory. We were certainly the first white man explorers who went into some of those places.
On my first trip I just had an insane time for two months in the jungle.. I went back to Jakarta and the minute I arrived, I thought I was having a heart attack. I just collapsed. I was a strapping lad of 27, at the peak of my physical condition, and I suddenly couldn't breathe. I managed to pull myself together and it gradually passed. So the next day I went to see Bapak who always knew when I came back and liked to hear the latest stories.
It was 7 o'clock in the morning and he called me to his bedroom and he was in his pajamas. So I told him the story. And he said, "Now you understand the strength of the material forces. You went native. You enjoyed every minute of it and you dropped all your material defense's, the forces that most people use to operate in the city, the big commercial world.
So what you've experienced was the flooding of those forces back into you. So you've learned a good lesson and it won't be so bad next time. But yeah, you need to be aware." "In future you will learn to deal with all these forces."
But it was on the Rungan River that I got really sick. A young Indonesian Subud guy who liked to dabble in magic with me got possessed and the Dayaks had a selamatan for him, including a shaman, a dukun.
They tried to exorcise the spirit which involved the sacrifice of a couple of pigs and ten white chickens. I had to be smeared in pig's blood, being a Muslim that wasn't entirely cool and it went on and on and on.
Then a bunch of renegade Dayaks who wanted to seal the gold dredge shot at us, I was attacked by a large snake and things got worse and worse. My entire body got covered in little pimples in each pore. It was a very jinnie place and as though jinn and man literally co-inhabited the same space.
Harris: Good God!
Mansur: Yeah, shocking. This shamanistic ceremony was three days long and I wasn't allowed to go home the whole time.
Harris: Did the ceremony do the possessed Subud member any good?
Mansur:  It helped, but he had to go home, which meant I was left in the middle of the jungle alone with two pretty wild Dayaks.
The Jinn in Kalimantan acknowledged us. At least, they acknowledged Bapak according to what he said and I have no doubt about it whatsoever. And I had my own experiences about that, that they considered Bapak, the Jagad Guru, the Teacher of the World.
Bapak always loved to hear my adventures because it was kind of like I was his experiment. I knew it was like that. And, of course, those were my very special times with him. And he said one time, "Yeah, just remember whenever you're there and off in the jungle, just repeat within your inner self, you are Bapak's son. And everything is fine because the Jinn are looking after you anyway." Apart from anything else, his attitude showed a deep respect for local beliefs and customs.
I once met a dragon; it was huge, about 300 meters long. He was living in an unexplainable clearing in the far north of our concession, known as The Mohot, which is steeped in Dayak mythology and considered the land of the Jinn. There are no people there. I was in a helicopter and we intended landing in this rare clearing, which so happened to be the dragons resting place.
As we approached, he reared up and was about to shoot us out of the air with a fire ball. Then we connected inwardly and he said, "Oh it's you," and just went back went  to sleep. I screamed at the pilot, "Don't land there we can land on the sand bar in the river, it's much better". This huge green and red creature knew who I was.
After that Rungan incident, I went home to Bapak, and I told him the whole story. I said, "You know the remarkable thing? If I think about it now, I almost shudder with what I went through. But when I was there, I just felt like an observer. I felt in no way as if I was really a part of it. Sitting on the floor and being smeared in pig's blood. I kind of felt like I was in some drugged state, or like I wasn't really there." I never felt heavy or frightened.
Bapak stood up and walked around the room and sort of gazed into the beyond and then he said, "So you've been really blessed. What you came to experience during these two or three months was how to live, breathe and work continuously in the state of latihan. And the fact is that's the real purpose of Kalimantan." It doesn't mean others have to go through what I did.
For all of us who are willing to go there with the right kind of attitude, that state is available. Of course, we should be able to tap into that anywhere in the world, but I think everyone who presently lives there, or who has been there, feels this special pull to Kalimantan. There's a state, or an environment, that's available to us, an inner and outer environment that allows us to be continuously in latihan. As long as we have, the right attitude.
If you go over everything Bapak ever said about Kalimantan, it really was like grandpa talking to kids. He never really made any great designs. He gave indications, but it's up to us to develop it step by step.
Really it's a very logical process. What he said to us was go there with trust, surrender, submission and courage and work and work our butts off. And if you are able to do that and be in that right state, then God delivers. Your opportunities are open. And there are things that you can never expect. You can't plan it. You can't think about it. You just engage with what you believe is the right thing, and work sensibly.
That's certainly been my 30-year experience. I mean the people that we needed to work with us just came; it didn't take huge salaries or a big corporate profile to attract them to us. They liked the project and they liked the people. And I've seen that so often. Bapak went on and on about it. "You are your own capital."
You don't need the money necessarily. Kalimantan has taught me our greatest potential lies in our ability to be open to All of Mankind.
The daily proof of the latihan is in my work, walking the walk. Not thinking about it. Towards the end of his life Bapak added courage to his "Trust Surrender and Submission. I believe the courage he meant was to truly have trust surrender and submission in every moment of our lives, like him. These qualities are action qualities not qualities of discussion.
Of course today times have changed dramatically from when we first started. But that component still is there. We could have only survived through Bapak's guidance, and through belief and persistence. Just keep going. It's not a dream. And I think finally after 30 years, the acknowledgement of Freeport, which is possibly the third biggest mining company in the world, confirms it.

Freeport
They certainly have the richest, most profitable mine in the world. It produces more than $6 billion a year.  And they are saying they are so excited about our project. But you know it took a long time. I talked to Freeport 20 years ago. They said, "Man, we aren't interested in anything outside of Papua. Why would we be? We have the richest mine in the world."
But then 18 months ago we started talking to them again, and they were starting to think otherwise. We had this new very high-end geophysical data that they did for us, through very sophisticated computer generation of magnetic data.
And even then they said, "Wow, yeah, it's looking really good, but we have one very large super-profitable headache in Indonesia and we don't want another one." That was a corporate decision back in America, but fortunately we got to know the guys here in Indonesia, and one of them was particularly excited about it and he generated the continuing interest.
The work they have done for us looks deep below the surface of the earth and shows the potential mineralizing intrusions we have known must be there all these years. It's been a bit like an unveiling of the beautiful lady below.
We knew that what we had been finding must have something driving it, a driving mineral body that we were finding big surface expressions of. And that's entirely normal. So this guy from Freeport insisted on having the data redone to six kilometers deep.
This is something they had done in Papua, and on a number of other already existing mines, and a very specific model comes out of it. It happens that these big copper and gold deposits in this part of the world, the Southwest Pacific Rim, correspond to this magnetic model.
They all have a very high magnetic signature, whereas in America, they don't have any. It's the opposite and that's just the wonderful way of geology and nature and the way things are. Why it should be like that no one really knows. It's a mystery of nature. Only in the last few years has this been fully understood.
Just five years ago we had a joint venture with another company but they simply didn't drill deep enough. They proposed that they were going to do that but they never did, which was a huge disappointment. But they claimed that if it was not sticking out of the ground, it's not economic.
That was when copper prices were $1500.00 a ton. Now it's $9,000 a ton. And Freeport happened to be the company that invented a method of mining where they mine in these huge deposits underground which conventionally and historically could only be mined downwards. They go deep, deep down and they mine it upwards, and they can do it at similar cost to an open pit mine.
So you know we all wonder why and why now. The struggle of hanging on for 30 years has been a super tough one. The sacrifices of everyone involved in the project, even our staff has been enormous. Working for minimal or no salaries is hard when you have a family to feed and educate. It has been hard for Subud members or non-geological people to understand.
I mean, these types of ore deposits are really huge. You need to find one that is economic, meaning its grade is high enough to make a profit at the current price. You start off with a big gamble, and the price is cyclical; it goes up and down, up and down. Right now we have an all-time high on both base metals and precious metals. These high and maintained prices are largely the result of demand created by China, India and other developing nations.
We've taken a lot of criticism from some Subud members who feel we haven't done what we should have done, but they have never really understood the size of what we are doing and the resources that are required. That's the reason we went to Canada because there are people in the market there that understand high risk exploration.
Some think Subud should have a bigger piece of the pie, well if you don't put up the money needed to cook the pie you cannot  expect to eat it all.. and I can assure you the pie is very large. Armchair critics and Subud snipers produce very little that is positive or realistic, just distrust. Bapak used to say, "Never talk about something unless you have experienced it. Otherwise it's just hot air".
Murray (Clapham) God Bless him was always a big help to us. He was my pillar of support from almost the beginning. I started working in Kalimantan in'81 and Murray joined us in about '85. He helped us organize our first joint venture with people in Melbourne. At that time, Australia was looking at Indonesia as an investment opportunity. Rahman Connelly who has recently resigned as CEO was a driving force in our successful negotiations with Freeport. Both these guys contributed millions to the project for no reward and little gratitude.
So it's been an entirely linked-in, step-by-step process which we could have never mapped out, though good times and bad times, but now we have the enthusiasm of Freeport to really get on with it and drill these mammoth holes. There are only a very small handful of companies who have the resources to do what is needed. And that's what I don't think some Subud members have ever quite grasped.

Harris: You mean you've never really had those resources before that you really needed to do the job?
Mansur: Yeah, we've hung on and hung on, but up until now it's been underfunded. I think we've spent to date a total of something like $18 million, but now this year alone we will spend $5 million and next year if we have the encouragement we hope for it will be an open book. It might be $20 million, it might be 30. It will all depend on whether we get the excitement in results that we all hope for. We sure need lots of prayers to bring that home.
It has never been and still isn't a foregone conclusion that we will succeed, but now we will be drilling holes 1500 meters deep which cost in the vicinity of $800,000.00 to a million each. It sure isn't junior stuff anymore. We have reached that point. Freeport has absolutely acknowledged that everything we have done is exceptional. They were very surprised, because often junior companies lose their data or move on to other things.
Mining people are always asking, "Why have you stayed there for so long?" And as a geologist I said, "Well, when I see mineralization over an area of 50 kilometers by 50 kilometers, and I've walked all over it and it's everywhere, why look anywhere else. I know that where you find smoke, there's bound to be fire." It has to be down there it's a matter of the cost to find it. As a Subud member I have simply believe in what Bapak told us.
A copper mine is different from a little gold project.  You're looking at expenditures of maybe initially a total of $20 million in feasibility studies and a total of maybe $100 to $200 million to develop a gold mine. The things we're looking at now a copper gold mine, well, the feasibility alone might cost $200 million. And the development costs may be $5 billion or $6 billion. These type of mines last 20 or 30 years.
And as it turns out, this new analysis work we've done with our partners has showed things that Mathew and I worked on and discovered many years ago. In fact, , things we discovered in the first five years, But now we have the capacity to drill  million dollar  holes, to have a helicopter at $250,000.00 a month to run things up and down to the site.
It's no longer for small players. The other huge benefit we get from the project is that it will fund our YTS programs, which embed most of our Subud development goals. This could translate into many millions annually in the coming years.
These types of mining projects create whole cities and underwrite the development of a region like Central Kalimantan. That's the opportunity ahead. I do hope Subud members are able to participate and benefit from such a development. It will require more walking than talking.
So the next year will either give me a happy ending to my book with a big future, in fact a new beginning, or otherwise it will just be an adventure story of 30 years. Either way the journey has been great, for that I'm truly grateful.
Harris: Bapak's words have always been your guiding light haven't they?
Mansur: I was reading a talk Bapak made in Germany in 1981 in which he stated - 
So if you want to fulfill Bapak's hope for the lives of all of you here, then Bapak hopes that you will really make enterprises.
Brothers and Sisters, the enterprises that are required by the jiwa of each of you are not small enterprises but large ones. Are you really capable of setting up and running large enterprises? Are you really able to do that, when one can say that you are on a level that is not so high or so strong, materially speaking?
The example for this is Bapak himself. The project Bapak is organizing in Kalimantan will require, if we work it out in the way an accountant works it out, capital or money amounting to at least a thousand million dollars. Where will Bapak find that money? If you calculate it, it is impossible for Bapak to do it.
Then why is Bapak doing this? Because he has received the order from Almighty God.
This is something of which Bapak has really convinced himself and Bapak has truly understood how it works. In Kalimantan, for example, everywhere there is gold, in the rivers which flow there is gold, silver, copper and diamonds and precious stones. It is everywhere. So it's clear, Brothers and Sisters, God provides for all the needs of man, it only depends on man as to how he works and acts.
So, don't be fearful. God is Almighty and All-Great. If we are truly convinced of this, then it is from there, from the latihan kejiwaan, that we will find something that we can use, a way that we can follow, so that eventually we can become people who have a value in this world.
So Bapak's prayer for all of you is: Do not ever cease to think of enterprises. We are already beginning to pioneer the way in this direction. We are beginning to discern the way by which we have to go: the way to happiness for all Subud members who have received the gift of God Almighty through the latihan kejiwaan of Subud.
To develop Subud, Bapak does not need to make propaganda for it, explaining to people how good Subud is. Brothers and Sisters, we should more or less be able to demonstrate that by means of our worship we can build. It is this which will make people stare and will make people surprised; "How can you people build these things, from where do you get the money? "From God."
This is what will attract the people. For, in general, society, and not only society but all of you, cannot progress if there is no money or material wealth.
But you Subud members are not like that. The richer you are, and the better your inner feelings, the more you feel love towards your fellow human beings, the more compassionate you are. You have to express this compassion so that society can draw a conclusion from our actions, from the fact that we use our funds to help others through charitable undertakings for the benefit of mankind.
Such action is expressed nowadays by the words "social democracy."
But don't forget that social democracy should not be only on one's lips, but must be put into practice. Such is God.
The enterprises Bapak is constantly pushing are not for pursuing wealth and money, but for organizing our own selves.
This concludes this three part series of interviews with Mansur.


BAPAK'S LAST VISIT TO IRELAND - Ilaina Lennard recalls a dramatic incident 
1st November 2011 
Ilaine Lennard recalls a "traumatic occasion" - 
At the time of Bapak's last visit to Ireland Ð it was in the Seventies Ð Subud Belfast was small and not very strong, and to re-charge our batteries, very often we would drive down to stay with our friends the Conners.
The event I am about to describe is my own personal memory of what took place during Bapak's last visit to Ireland. This was a very traumatic occasion, and as much of it concerns Oriana Conner Ð who was a very special  friend of ours. I should stress that she might tell it from a very different angle. This she has now done, and has asked that my account of that time should be included alongside hers.  (Oriana's account of these events will be published in the next issue of Subud Voice.)
At that time, the Conner's house had become the unofficial 'centre' for Subud in Ireland. As such, in addition to the small number of Dublin members, members from Belfast or Cork would frequently arrive unannounced on its doorstep and they were welcomed without question and always given most generous hospitality. So when it was announced that Bapak would make a three day visit to Dublin, we were all delighted when they offered their house as somewhere for Bapak and his party to stay.
Oriana's mother, Stella Campbell, had made the lower part of the house into a flat for herself, and it was there that Oriana had decided Bapak and Ibu should stay Ð with other members of their party distributed in the bedrooms above. Everything was freshly painted and meticulously cleaned in preparation for their arrival.
However, a few weeks beforehand, Oriana Ð who to us had always epitomised the very essence of Ireland and who we all most dearly loved, went into crisis. The form it took with her, was that although she seemed perfectly normal, her former conviction about Subud suddenly and completely disappeared, leaving her with only antagonism towards Bapak and Subud. She couldn't even feel the latihan anymore.
There was nothing anyone could do to help her. It was an extraordinary situation Ð she who was to play hostess to Bapak, had lost any warmth of feeling with which to welcome him.
I offered to help in the house, and drove down from Belfast with a Subud member who had recently joined the group Ð Professor John Blacking, a  musicologist who had newly arrived from Johannesburg and was now working at Queen's University. It was August, but although it was high summer, to our dismay as we drove down, we soon became enveloped in a thick icy fog and could hardly see the road.
Such weather during August was unheard of. The same fog apparently affected Shannon Airport where Bapak's plane was going to land Ð and in fact it delayed him several hours. It felt as if  malevolent entities were all around, trying  to prevent Bapak's visit from going well.
When we arrived in Dublin, Oriana's state had not improved Ð all the rest of us could do was help in a practical way, by putting finishing touches to her house. One of my jobs Ð it felt like quite a privilege Ð was to polish the chair where Bapak would sit to give his talks. We didn't worry much about Oriana Ð we all naively believed that because Bapak was who he was, when he arrived her state would soon come right.
But it was not to be. Oriana's  'dark night of the soul' remained with her throughout the visit and continued for many years afterwards. Only very gradually did she regain any Subud certainties. I believe now that we had to understand from this that even Bapak could not 'do' things, he could only surrender Oriana's state to God. This was demonstrated by him in several other ways during that extraordinary visit.
Bapak Arrives
At last Bapak arrived. I remember him walking up the steps to the Conner's front door where I was standing, and he shook my hand. I was struck by his ordinariness.
Be that as it may, his presence did coincide with two unusual experiences that I had during that visit. Both were after I had gone to bed, and on each occasion I began to feel my head expand and expand, until it became enormous. It wasn't frightening. Just strange. I don't know what it meant.
Another curious thing occurred just after Bapak and Ibu left, when I went into their bedroom to clear up. The room still smelt of cloves Ð it was their kretek cigarettes. I noticed some little snippets of black hair scattered on the dressing table, and thinking they would make a wonderful souvenir, I put them in an envelope in my handbag. But when I searched for it later, the envelope and its contents had disappeared.
The story that now follows is really Oriana's and she might wish to tell it differently. But this is how I remember it..
It had been arranged that on each of the two evenings of Bapak's visit the latihan would be held in a nearby hall, and Subud members gathered there from all over Ireland. After the latihans, Bapak gave two talks and then did some testing, and this was when things started to happen. While the women were testing, Oriana abruptly left the room. The testing continued but only when it was over did Oriana come back.
By now we were all sitting in a semi circle, making a kind of arena in front of Bapak, and into the middle of this walked our beautiful  Oriana, in her long blue dress and with her hair caught up in a pony tail. It was very theatrical. Bapak asked why she did not want to do any testing? She walked slowly and with great dignity towards Bapak Ð and then she knelt down. She explained to him that it was as if a dark cloud had enveloped her and it made her unable to feel the latihan. She was sorry, but it was as if all her faith had been taken away.
Bapak appeared to be indifferent, even when her husband Raymond confirmed what she said. And then Bapak said a terrible thing, something none of us will ever forget: he said he did not wish to stay in a house where he was not welcome Ð he would prefer to stay in a hotel. Some people gasped and others began to weep.
Then he called for the men to test, and all the Irish men came forward. Amongst them was my husband Lawrence, and Lexie Mitchell from Londonderry.
Lawrence had tried to speak privately with Bapak beforehand about this testing, but his interpreter Ð Muhammad Usman Ð said this was not possible Ð instead could he help? Lawrence told him that at least two of the Irish members Ð he meant himself and Lexie Ð couldn't receive in testing. Usman said, "Don't worry, Bapak sometimes comes amongst the members during the latihan, and if they aren't receiving properly he may thump them on the chest." Ð The assumption presumably, was that this would help them to be more open and able to receive.
Both Lawrence and Lexie had decided that they would only respond in the testing if they truly felt moved from within. If they didn't respond, then Bapak would surely be able to see that something was wrong, and they hoped he would then do what Usman had described. But Bapak did nothing. They stood in front of him as rigid as two posts, and still Bapak did nothing.
Then Bapak called for the English to do the same tests.  These people seemed far more able to receive than the Irish members. Bapak then compared their receiving with that of the Irish members, saying as far as I remember, that it was clear from this that the Irish members should be much more diligent.
The Irish are very sensitive about their relationship with the English, and to be compared in this way made all the Irish men very angry, both at Bapak's apparent indifference to their beloved Oriana, and also at the way he had been towards their own inadequacies. It was all extremely disturbing.
Why Did Bapak Act Like This?
Sometimes I still wonder, why did Bapak act like this? In a rather naïve way, I had assumed that Bapak was always right, there must always be a spiritual reason for what he did, even if I didn't understand about it, but from then on I  'grew up' a little in the way I saw Bapak. To me after that he was still an extraordinary, profoundly loveable human being, but nevertheless he was also a man who could make mistakes, as he himself always insisted.
Whatever we felt at the time, eventually the wounds healed. Perhaps, we thought, he was tired, 'off form', acting human like anyone else. But at a deeper level, there were things about which I still speculate. For instance, there had been that malevolent fog which had cloaked his arrived. And then there had been the extreme fury the Irish men had felt at his treatment of Oriana
Had it been necessary through what happened, for Bapak to unleash something archetypal seething inside them at that time? We'll never know. But what was most apparent, was his indifference towards Oriana, Lawrence and Lexie.  He showed that he himself had no special powers to help them. It was up to the Almighty.
Nevertheless, I do remember Bapak saying during his talk that evening, that despite what had happened, he loved us, and would return one day if ever he were invited. But in fact circumstances prevented him, and this was to be his last visit to Ireland.
On the final day many members went to the airport to say goodbye to  Bapak and his party and I remember how the dense fog cleared at last Ð to be replaced by brilliant sunshine.
The Birth of Subud Ireland
Not long after, Subud Ireland was 'born'; for until then it had just been Region 7 of Subud Britain. But now it had its own identity, becoming a country in its own right.  And although the birth of its nationhood had been painful, I don't think many of the men who had been so angry with Bapak at the time actually left Subud as a result of that visit.
However, it was during that visit that my Lawrence Ð along with Oriana's husband, began to have serious doubts about Subud and these led up to  both of them eventually deciding to leave Subud. For many years before that however, Lawrence had continued the latihan just for my sake and I always hoped that eventually he would receive his own proof. But he never did, and in fact he became an atheist.
Nevertheless, Bapak told us that even when people left Subud, the latihan would always be with them, even after they died. At the end of his life Lawrence's mind was still in denial, and when he left Subud, he said he felt a profound sense of relief. But on June 16th 2006 when he died in his sleep after a massive heart attack, he looked totally surrendered, totally at peace with himself.

A Sequel
A small but significant sequel to Bapak's visit to Dublin came many years later, in 1986, when Esme Lillis sent me an account of a visit that she and her husband Brian made to Bapak on his last visit to England. By then he was very frail. He asked them how everything was going in Ireland and was interested in all that they told him.
They arrived too late to attend his talks and testing, so instead they were allowed a private visit to him at his English home, Villa Rahayu. They were accompanied by Luqman McKingley, Adrienne Bridges, and my husband Lawrence, who drove the car.
Esme later told me how worried she was at the time, because Brian had holes in his socks, and she was concerned that when he took off his shoes, his feet might smell!  But she doesn't mention that in what she wrote afterwards. Here's a little of it:
"How frail I felt Bapak was! And unsteady on his feet. Bapak did not seem worried that he was physically slowing down. His spirit and mind were so well. What we witnessed of his physical body should not be important. The spirit and life within him is what he wanted to put across.
" - I felt he understood everything that was happening in the world. ..We asked Bapak's blessing and on behalf of all our Subud Ireland. We had told him thirty-five in Ireland had earlier sent their best wishes and love. We thanked him for the privilege and it was a gift we could bring back to Ireland.
" - Muti gently helped him from the couch. She felt he had spent enough time with us. ..Bapak had treated us like children visiting a granddad, a lovely Sunday, to be remembered always."
Oriana Conner's account of these events will be published in the next issue of Subud Voice.


WISH GRANTED - from Gibran Ohri 
1st November 2011 
Gibran Ohri writes - 
It was in early January 2009 that I decided to test if I would be attending the 13th Subud World Congress in Christchurch
(N. Z.).  My receiving was a positive yes!
By the middle of February I made my travel arrangements.  On 20th March in the evening I was watching a T.V.  program, when I suddenly lost consciousness, I do not know how long I had been in that state.
When I came to, I realized that my two sons, Matthew and Ramon, were carrying me up to my bedroom.  The next morning I managed to get ready with some difficulty.  I decided to visit my doctor.  He examined me and said that he was making an appointment for me to see a cardiologist at the local hospital.  On the 22nd of May an appointment was made for me to see the cardiologist.
 
Open Heart Surgery
I had to undergo certain tests at the hospital.  On 13th June, the cardiologist, after having seen my test results, suggested open heart surgery.  An appointment was made for me at the Cardiac Unit, King's College Hospital (London) on 10th September at  8.a.m. for an Angiogram X Ð Ray.
On arrival, I was allocated a cubical for me to deposit my belongings and put on a hospital gown.  I was wheeled into the X Ð Ray room.  The doctor in charge started to take X Ð Ray pictures of my chest.  After completing the procedure, I tried to transfer myself from the X Ð Ray table to the trolley, but I lost consciousness.
 
Unexpected Heart Attack
When I came to, I realised that an oxygen mask was placed on my face to facilitate my breathing.  I had arranged to meet my son Ramon at the hospital at midday, on the assumption that the procedure went well.
He was surprised and worried when he was told that I had suffered a heart attack.  I was in the casualty unit awaiting a bed in the cardiac ward.  It was about five o'clock in the evening, when a bed was allocated to me in the ward.  There were about six patients in the ward.
 
The Blessings of the Month of Fasting
It so happened that it was also the month of Ramadan.  I had been in the ward about five days, when a Pakistani doctor attended me. I do not know the reason Ð what or why?  I asked the doctor if it was the end of the fast.  He replied that it was the 29th day of the fast.  I prayed and asked God's blessing and forgiveness.
That night, as I settled down to sleep, I felt that a blanket of cloud covered me.  I have never had such a wonderful and relaxing sleep.  When I woke up the next day I felt energetic and good.  The interesting thing was that the experience was also felt by the other patients in the ward.
I had been in the ward about two weeks.  I was told by one of the consultant surgeons that after reviewing my case, at the joint meeting of consultant surgeons, the decision was reached that it was not possible to perform 'open heart surgery'.
The only alternative solution was to implant a 'pacemaker'.  I asked how soon a 'pacemaker' could be implanted.  I was told that it would be about two months.  It was the beginning of October.  My flight to travel south was on 14th November.
I told the consultant that I would like to postpone my decision with regards to the 'pacemaker' until I return from the World Congress in 2010.  I also informed my doctor about my decision.  He gave me medication to last me for six months and wished me Good Luck!
 
My Travel to Malaysia      
I left London on 14th November 2009 and arrived in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 15th November. I stayed in Kuala Lumpur till 19th December.
In Kuala Lumpur, I telephoned brother Michael Alfonso, whom I have known for about 30 years.  I visited the Subud group and joined the members for Latihan.  There was great excitement as the members, who were attending the World Congress, were busy making preparations to travel.
I arrived in Melbourne, Australia on 20th December 2009, stayed in Melbourne and celebrated Christmas followed by New Year 2010 with my son David and his family.
 
The Subud World Congress in Christchurch
It was a wonderful feeling that David, Louise, Emmaline and Beata Ohri were also travelling with me to the Subud World Congress.  We arrived at Christchurch on the same day at the start of the Congress.
It was a memorable time for me.  I enjoyed every moment of it and hope that all the Subud brothers and sisters also had joyful experiences. I took part in all the testing sessions held and talks given by Siti Ibu Rahayu.
 
Return to London with the Power of the Latihan
We left for Melbourne on 19th January 2010.  I stayed in Australia until 19th March 2010 and left for Kuala Lumpur on 20th March 2010 arriving on the same evening in Kuala Lumpur.
I left for London on 21st April 2010 and arrived in London on 22nd April 2010. I realised that with my heart condition it would not have been possible for me to make the journey from London to Christchurch (N.Z.) and back but for the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud.
I thank God for giving us  Bapak  Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo
My WISH WAS GRANTED.  God Bless us All.
With love and best wishes to all
From your brother in Subud
Gibran Ohri


ONE CLICK IS ALL IT TAKES -  Leonard Wells finds a woman on the Internet 
1st November 2011 

It was way back in 1969 that I started having the feeling that I wanted to speak to audiences. I took this to indicate a talent for politics and this was confirmed by a letter from Jakarta a little later. So I gave up my job with the Inland Revenue Surtax Office where Ð in those days Ð the UK rich were taxed at a top rate of 97.5%, and I went to work in Oxford as the Liberal party agent.
A Subud brother, Simon Caradoc Evans, was standing as the Liberal Party candidate in North Berkshire and invited me to help. We lost our deposit! Nuff said! Sounds like a typical Subud undertaking!

Living in a Nightmare
My mother's serious mental illness killed off that dream and I had to return home to Warrington in 1972 to take care of her. She would literally not eat and refused medical help so I had to lace her nightly Horlicks with Complan (a powdered food full of vitamins) and try to surrender it.
Luckily my expertise in Taxation got me a job in Manchester with Grant Thornton and I commuted the 40 mile round trip for the next 8 years. To say that this period of my life was like living in hell is to diminish the nightmare that it was. One day in 1980, I could take it no more. I drove to the Liverpool Subud House and fell to my knees in the empty latihan hall. 'Father, I can carry this cross not another step!' I called out Ð at last able to totally surrender. She died within 36 hours.
 
The Arab Connection
I then cast caution to the wind, bought a caravan and an old London Black Taxi and set off south to work as close as I could to what became the Anugraha project. I wanted to help. By all kinds of magic, the only 2 paid jobs in Subud were offered to me on the same day, and later I was asked to join the Anugraha team and became the Company Secretary of that Titanic like enterprise.
From 1986 onwards I have worked for Arabs. There are some 12 great trading families in Saudi Arabia and I was taken on in a humble capacity by one of them. I stayed looking after their palatial country estate near Heathrow for 18 years and during that time their daughter married into the Bin Laden family Ð the one that was to become famous after 9/11. When they sold the house in 2004 I was asked by the daughter's husband if I would like to work for him and I am happy to be so doing for such an honourable and honest man.

An Eligible Bachelor Finds a Woman
All this time I had been alone Ð making a complete hash of every attempt to lose my bachelor status. Sachlan Fraval referred to me once 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 to ask in a 'Why has thou foresaken 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 vear old aunt in a small flat 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 emails I arrived at the airport into Bucharest, knees knocking, heart pounding. She told me later that she was so excited that she took tranquillisers 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 and I have come to love Romania Ð not the land of Gypsy beggars as some might think, but a very religious, friendly people. They are still blinking in the bright light of freedom since Christmas Day 1989 when they executed their hated dictator Ceausescu, lifting the dark shadow of communism which had fallen across their country in 1945.

A  Beautiful Country Involved in War
This beautiful country has been invaded by almost every nation in Europe at one time or another, whilst during the Second World War it had the dubious honour of being bombed by the Americans and the Germans! They wanted to make peace in 1944, so Hitler bombed Bucharest and Romania declared war on Germany. This changed history and shortened that great war by six months.
I have a great sense of humour and had got into the habit of telling funny stories in video clips on Youtube. I had several hundred by this time. One day, in a hotel in the far north of Romania in 2010, I made a clip about Romania. Suddenly I had this uplifting feeling that here was a way of 'talking to audiences' about politics and have made over 100 clips in similar vein since.
Unity and Strength
It came to me one day that for 2000 years we Europeans have butchered each other by the millions Ð maybe as many as 100 million have died needlessly. For most Europeans, Hitler was the last straw and they decided to make war within Europe impossible in the future by locking everyone into the dream of a United Europe and so today 27 countries participate in the EU.
God Willing, we may now have 2000 years of peace ahead of us, during which we may rebuild Europe into the greatest power for good on earth. Do not forget that it's GDP is almost equal to that of the USA and China combined Ð a staggering statistic!
I am ashamed of the way Britain has pussyfooted and shilly-shallied around the edge of Europe like a delicate damsel on her honeymoon night. It is time to stop insisting that we be allowed to play golf with a different sized ball to everyone else!
To this end I have been making little broadcasts on subjects like the Schengen Treaty and the Euro. Whilst most commentators here have been prophesying gloomily that Europe was disintegrating, I have felt to oppose them with all my strength.

Surrender only to God
The little Englanders are actually succeeding in keeping us just that Ð little! This morning I awoke with the words 'United States of Europe' on my lips and knew at once what I have to do. I shall start by building a website www.useu.net to attract all those with a similar dream.
I don't know if it is significant but whilst typing this article the postman delivered a letter to me from 10 Downing Street Ð responding  no doubt, to one of many complaints about our pathetic insularity!  So, at the age of 70 I am at last coming to grips with my talent. Never give up or give in.
Never surrender, save to Almighty God ! Tally Ho!
www.useurope.eu


THE DEATH OF MY FATHER - from Rachman Mitchell 
1st November 2011 
Rachman Mitchel writes - 
This took place in the April of 1947 when I was on holiday in Scotland visiting my Aunt Rena in Pitlochry.
Our parents had divorced at the beginning of the war. Their marriage had long been inharmonious and had suffered one of the worst things that can happen to married couples, the death of their first child, John or Jackie at the age of about eighteen months from diphtheria. Their second, my sister Sheilagh (now Roanna) did not satisfy their longing for another son, hence my conception and birth.
Taking me back to be seen by my maternal grandparents led to long periods of separation between my parents, and the resulting infidelity of my father was the final straw that broke the back of their marriage.

Changes in My Life
My mother returned to England and soon married my stepfather Frank Clause, someone about 10 years older than her.
My father, still a lieutenant in the RN, joined up immediately the war started and soon became a lieutenant commander with the duty of escorting convoys taking guns and tanks to the Soviet army up around Bear Island to the port of Murmansk.
He visited us almost every leave he had, although he had remarried. He enjoyed being a father and we both felt his love and care for us.
Bonding on My 12th Birthday
At the end of the war he spent almost another year ferrying Commonwealth troops back to their home country and he was demobilised in July of 1946.  We met him in London for my 12th birthday before he was to return to his previous or pre-war work in the Indian Forestry Service.
We had a great day, at least it was for me, as he took me shopping at Gamleys, the big toy shop of London, and bought me a board game called 'Dover Patrol' that played out the old Battle of Jutland that he had been in as young man of 23 or so, and also a small pocket chess set which I was into then. My sister spent the morning with our stepmother "Auntie" May and we all met up at the Cumberland Hotel, where they were staying, for lunch.
It was here that Daddy talked about his father and how proud he was of him, enrolling at the age of fifteen in the great sailing clippers that raced from Shanghai to London in the middle of the nineteenth century and how after 3 years of that he enrolled in the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman and worked his way up to being a captain. (I later found out that he was probably not commissioned as a captain)

My Father, the Hero
My sister and myself had probably not spent more than 4 weeks in the whole of the war with our father as there was little leave time that he had, and most leaves he did spend with us. He was our hero and I never had the adolescent revolt against my father, which most children go through as they witness their parent's weaknesses.
He was an expansive man who, when travelling in a railway carriage, would be talking with everybody, making an interesting social gathering of it.
His second wife said he would give the shirt off his back if someone else had greater need of it. He liked a drink and tended to stand other people drinks when they could not afford it.
It was a very full and happy day with him that last day and we would ever see him again.

The Premonition
The premonition of that was very strong as we got onto the bus at Hyde Park corner to go to Victoria station and catch the train home to Sussex. I wept .
Not long after this episode I had gone to Ascham, which was the new building for our Prep School having been boarded at one of the Eastbourne College house for two terms before that. We had a new and excellent Headmaster, Henry Collis, an outstanding educationalist and one with a very civilised mind and heart. I owe him a great debt of gratitude, as I do for many of the masters at school.

Dream about My Father
After moving there I had a dream that my Father's belongings had been taken to the school after he had died. I woke up feeling both sad and guilty over the dream and my apparent desire for his belongings.
Henry Collis set us a task of writing to absent parents every Sunday and my father replied in his neat handwriting with photos of the elephants that he now worked with as a Conservator of forests in India. I was always delighted to see these letters with the king's head on the stamps, but with the amount marked in annas.
In the Easter holidays of 1947, I went up to Scotland and stayed for a day or so in Edinburgh. I cannot remember whom with. As I was walking along Prince's Street quite near my maternal grandfather's old shop, an old lady accosted me and said, "Whatever happens to you. Remember to believe in the Lord"
I forgot all about this and one day I was standing in the central hallway of my Aunt Rena's house when I heard her crying in the bathroom. I wondered what all this was about and when she came out she was waving a piece of paper which was a telegram from my stepmother to say that my father had died after a fall in India. Both of my aunts had felt that my mother had been lucky to marry my father. They were bridesmaids at the wedding and both felt that they could have made better wives than my mother!

The Finality of Death
Part of me denied the death and believed it  all a lie and that he will suddenly turn up from the jaws of death, as he had done many a time during the war. There was no mourning process to go through. Everyone lost relatives in the war and one just accepted Ð the "Stiff upper lip", or the "grin and bear it". In fact, what happens is, that sadness is just driven underground or under one's day to day consciousness.
I found I could not talk about my feelings much with anyone. The only one who seemed to make sense for me was Ludwig van Beethoven. When I first listened to the slow movement of his ninth symphony, it spoke to me of another world perhaps a heaven where people may reach after much struggle and suffering.

Subud and New Connections
Actually the feeling of sadness did not go until I was opened in Subud ten years later, when I first experienced for myself the vibration of the soul within me and the connection with my father.
I was travelling in the Underground railway in London when suddenly I felt my father sitting next to me.
Later one evening in Wisma Subud Cilandak in the old latihan hall Bapak began to test the state of our fathers and I received he was truly happy.


LIFE AFTER DEATH - Levi Lemberger writes about death and beyond 
by Matthew Levi Lemberger
It was my father first. He had sent for me and I flew across the country to see him lying in a hospital bed. He had suffered from Parkinson for five years, the stiffening kind, and although his body had betrayed him, his mind was always perfect. Towards the last few years he had difficulty speaking.
When I arrived at the hospital he was either in a coma or a deep sleep. I immediately got quiet and sat in silence in a chair next to his bed. I don't know how much time had passed but suddenly he awakened and saw me. We talked for a while and he asked me to do one or two things, one of them was to promise to take care of my mother. I said I would and not to worry about it.
Then he said the last thing he was ever to say to me," Thank you for coming". I can't explain why that affected me the way it did, but it was the approval I had been seeking my entire life. With those words I had reached completion as his son.
I flew back home and he passed away soon after. I flew out again for the funeral and my brother and I covered the grave after the services were over.
It was a few days after that. I was staying in my mother's apartment and that afternoon I was alone when he came to me. How can I describe it? I did not see him but I knew he was there and with my inner eye I could see that he no longer was afflicted.
He didn't speak but he appeared and I understood that it was to show me that there was this other world. He had not been a religious or spiritual man in any sense of the world. He believed that you need to act in this world to help people. That was all there was to do, but now he came to me perhaps to show me that there was more and that he was all right. I don't ask you to believe me.
My brother was next. The circumstances of his death are shrouded. He had been ill with heart disease for a few years. He was missing for three days. His wife had called to tell me. A second phone call a day later told me that he had been found in a neighbor's empty house.
I had the job of telling my mother and this was one of the hardest things in my life. I could not tell her the truth. I lied. I told her he had died of a heart attack. I don't think she completely believed me but she had to in order to survive without more consuming grief than she was left with.
He was her youngest son and for all he had done in this life, she loved him unconditionally. He had a military funeral since that is what he wanted, for he had been in the army. I suppose I was sort of numb, having many mixed emotions.
Where was I when he came to me? Was I in my mother's house or back in my own? It was three or four days after the funeral and like my father, he did not speak, but he appeared to me and I knew that what his appearance meant was that he had passed through something and was now all right and that whatever it was that took his life was passed. I was happy to know he was all right and it resolved something for me about his passing and I was now much more at peace about it.
My mother's visit was different. I was with my mother when she died. My aunt, her sister, had called me to tell me that my mother was not doing well. Her heart was giving her trouble and that I should come if I wanted to see her. I caught a plane the next day and stayed with her for two weeks.
We had watched a travel show one evening and after I had fallen asleep, in the middle of the night she woke me and said," I think you better call an ambulance," which I immediately did and I didn't have time to dress so I just stayed with her.
When the ambulance came, I dressed and caught a cab to the hospital. When I got there they said at the front desk, "Your mother isn't doing well." I said, " You mean she died?" "Yes," they said.
I went outside to the courtyard and cried. I wanted to cry in private not in public. Then I went back inside and asked where she was. They had put her in a bed in a room and I pulled up a chair and sat next to her. In the ambulance, they had placed a wooden peg in her throat to keep her breathing. It was probably best that I wasn't there for I would have tried to prevent them doing that. I held her hand and sat with her for a long time. I didn't cry, but just held her hand. Then I went back to her house.
After the funeral I waited for her to come to see my as my father and brother had but she never appeared. I thought to myself that it was all right. That was just the way it was.
It was a few years later. I was at the end of my divorce, staying with a friend for I no longer had a place of my own. It was on the Sabbath and my friend had gone out for the afternoon. I was reading a book and suddenly felt my mother's presence. I doubted that the feeling was real, but then, there it was.
She asked me about the divorce. She didn't use words and I couldn't see her. I told her that my wife and I hadn't been getting along for a while, but that I was giving my wife a lot of money. That seemed to end the discussion for she knew that would make my wife happy.
Then I asked her how she was. "I'm with your father and your uncle Yetta and Uncle Ben." I knew that this meant she was very happy. Then the conversation ended and I wondered if you really could be with your loved ones in the next world.
I don't have anything more to add. Perhaps I had made a place inside myself for their visits. For myself, I don't doubt the reality of these experiences. They have helped me enormously to be at peace. They are as real for me as my experiences in this world.
First posted in Subud Creative
http://www.facebook.com/groups/SubudCreative/


GOD THE THERAPIST -  new book from Husain Chung 
1st November 2011 

Harris writes - 
He is a rebel and a renegade. He is not your usual, conventional Subud member. He is "the most unforgettable character I ever met".
I owe him my life. It was through him I found Subud, and if I had not found Subud at that time, I had painted myself into such a black corner, that I would probably have done away with myself (as my sister did).
It's possible that he has brought more people into Subud than anyone except Bapak. In the 60s he brought hundreds in.
Husain Chung, a remarkable man. Now he has published his book which is his autobiography, his unique take on the nature of the Creator, and his enthusiasm for the potential of  Subud.
He has suffered more than anyone else I have ever met in my life. He was born without hips and as a two-year old had to be sent away from his home in Shang-hai to llive in a hospital in Hawaii. He was totally isolated. An alien, Chinese, speaking no English, encased in plaster.
In this suffering and isolation he found God whom he called the "entity". And out of this tremendous suffering, he developed tremendous power. In certain ways, he is the most powerful; human being I have ever met.
God became his therapist, his refuge, his solace, his inspiration. To some extent we all define God in our own image and Husain is a therapist. Some day I am going to write a complete account of my relationship with Husain and of the extraordinary "happening" he produced in the 1960s as a master of psychodrama.
But for now you have Husain's story in his own words. An extremely lively and colourful story, I can assure you. You've read no other "Subud story" like it. He may be a rebel and a renegade but he has lived the Subud life to the hilt. l. He has run enterprises, he is a real helper, his commitment to Subud is total.
There is a story I have heard, perhaps apocryphal. But the story goes that someone went to Bapak to complain about Chung, and Bapak asked this person, "How many people have you brought into Subud?"
About 40 years ago, Husain called in on me as he passed through Melbourne on his way to Cilandak. But Cilandak was intended to be just a stepping stone to his real purpose.. And what was his real purpose? Nothing less than to "open China". Well, he hasn't done it yet. But there is still time to make a start - 
An inspiring real life story of a man who finds the ultimate guiding and healing force and his courageous journey that helped thousands to uncover and connect with their on souls. Through the crucible of the author's own suffering, this story records a life of searching for an authentic connection with the Power that guided the prophets and giants of the past. Husain Chung developed his own version of spiritual psychodrama that was considered by many as the most powerful and effective work of the human potential personal encounter movement. This provided a method to help unravel the emotional and psychological chains that prevented people from becoming their true self for which they were destined.
Available at Amazon.com
Husain was opened in San Francisco by John G. Bennett in March, 1958. The book describes the early days of Subud in America. Currently, Husain is a member of the Palo Alto, California group.
About the author: Husain Chung worked as a rehabilitation psychologist with the mentally ill, veterans, alcoholics, and prison inmates in addition to counseling individuals, families, teenagers, and couples. He founded the Human Institute and the Psychodrama Theatre which had branches in Los Angeles and Palo Alto. As a faculty member of the Pepperdine University department, he taught psychodrama and group psychotherapy to graduate divinity and psychology students. Husain was an invited group leader in the seminal research study at Stanford University where he was the most highly rated for participants' individual learning, competency as a group leader, and charisma.
Husain Chung is one of the few people I have met in my life to whom I could apply the work 'genius'. That is someone who carries a truly original and outstanding gift. In this case it is to work in the medium of psychodrama.
- Harris Smart, editor of Subud Voice
I have rarely encountered a therapist with the broad gifts that Chung displayed as he solved difficult problems with the people with whom he worked. He is a unique explorer of the psyche, and a Sherlock Holmes in his problem solving.
- Richmond Shepard, PhD, critic for Performing Arts Insider
Back in the 60s at Pepperdine when I was a psychology major, I took Chung's Psychodrama class. He inspired me to begin a lifelong spiritual journey, and for that I am eternally grateful. It was great to read more of his life before and after that period. Husain is an amazing man, and he's written an entertaining look at his interesting life.
- Helissa Penwell, editorial staff of Subud Vision
You were a pivotal catalyst in my journey, without which my life would have had a very different life trajectory!
- Julian Spalding, teacher of Ho'oponopono


TWO LOVE STORIES -  by Arifa Asariah 
1st November 2011 

This month, Melbourne visual artist Arifa Asariah releases not one, but two books РA life Worth Living and Eve and Lucifer. They are both available from .lulu.com in print (and soon in electronic versions). Go to www.lulu.com and search Arifa Asariah's name or the titles of the books.
(Last week a scientist in Australia was awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that the universe is not only expanding, it is expanding at an accelerating rate. If there is one aspect of the universe that this is true of, it is in the production of books by Subud members. Not only expanding, but expanding at an accelerating rate. Every month, new ones. A flood, a veritable flood. One can hardly keep up.)
Arifa is one of those around me whom I see, as I said in my editorial, is reaping the harvest. Reaping the harvest of a long and often very difficult life. This woman has suffered. She has been visited by loss and grief more than once and recently she has struggled with life-threatening illness. But she has come thru! And all that struggle, all that suffering has paid off. It has produced fruit, flowers. (Arifa has not only produced these books but has a BIG painting exhibition is coming up at the start of next year.)
Arifa's two books are very different from each other. One is a love story, and the other is a love story, but what different LOVE stories. One is about the love of a mother for a child and the other is about the love between man and woman, sensual love, erotic love. And above all, COMPANIONSHIP, EQUALITY!

The Story of Rahman
Arifa had four children and then she had Rahman, her son born severely disabled. She was offered the option of abortion but chose not to. It was not thought that Rahman would live beyond birth, or at most for a year or two, but in fact  he lived until the age of 19.
The heroism of mothers! Is it possible to ever say enough about it? The unsung heroism of mothers. Of every mother, but this particular mother is an extraordinary example of love and devotion.
We will never know Rahman as Arifa and her family knew him but we can know him through her account of him. We can see the cover photo, showing what a beautiful being he was. It shines through, even a feeling of profound peace and serenity. (The book has been beautifully designed by Marcus Bolt.)
Arifa says of the book - 
A LIFE  WORTH LIVING
The morning of my son's death I heard a voice in my head saying, clearly, "When I die, write my bookand call it "A Life Worth Living."  I knew it was my son.  What I didn't know was that he was in the process of dying.
Rachman was born profoundly disabled, not expected to survive birth. He lived a massive 19 years. If I'd known he was going to live when I was pregnant I would have been so worried that I couldn't cope with such a special needs child. 
As it so happens I didn't know and I'm so glad I chose to have him. Yes, chose, because when an ultrasound showed his deformed head the doctor immediately offered me a 'termination'.  Had I chosen the termination I would have missed knowing such a beautiful soul. 
My life has been deeply enriched by our relationship and the journey we shared.  
He taught me that all life is valid. This book goes out especially to those who have to make a choice to keep or not, an abnormal foetus and to those whose journey with a disabled child is beginning.
I feel that this is a book that could break through and become, if not a best seller, at very least a big seller. It  will be an inspirational story for all parents who find themselves in a similar situation. I feel that Arifa will get not only many sales but many speaking engagements because of this book.

Eve and Lucifer
We might call Arifa's second book the first feminist tract in Subud. Well, not a tract, more a dissertation. A dissertation in the form of a story, a dialogue. She has retold the traditional Jewish creation story as a chat between Eve and Lucifer. She has turned the whole story on its head.
It is of course an attack (a loving attack! A gentle attack! An attack in the form of a story!) on the foundations of the patriarchy. And why not? Isn't it about time we abandoned this rotting shell of the patriarchy? This system that has kept women abused, subservient, oppressed, repressed for thousands of years? That has turned them into chattels and denied them their full humanity? We are living in the age now (as Bapak said) in which men and women become equal partners in the enterprise of life. And about time, too. All that talent, all that capacity, which has been denied, dammed up. Release it! Arifa says of the book:
EVE & LUCIFER
Translated from the Original Manuscripts by Arifa Asariah
For most of us there is only one version of the happenings in The Garden of Eden.  In it Eve betrays Adam with a snake by eating the forbidden fruit.
About 15 years ago Arifa Asariah uncovered a set of manuscripts written by Eve and Lucifer.   She is, to this day unable to divulge the how and where of her findings, but the story, with some editing by herself, is laid out for you to read.
In it you will discover a very different story -  a story of love not evil, of loss and pain, not rejection by an angry God. Through Eve's eyes we meet Lucifer as a beautiful, loving, compassionate Angel.  Through Lucifer's eyes, Eve has grown up manipulated and bullied by Adam, who professes to know God, but for Lucifer it is Eve that shines with innocence, love and inner light. 
But read on for yourself - Eve and Lucifer
The book is illustrated by Arifa's own line drawings. (And is again beautifully designed by Marcus Bolt. These covers should be winning awards!)
The illustrations are of naked people, mostly women, but also men and women in loving embrace. Shock! Horror! Can this be a Subud book? Hide it before the children see it.
Well, I expect the children have seen much worse these days with the Internet. And there is nothing pornographic about Arifa's work. It is beautiful, elegant.
Sex and Subud
Sex and Subud! There is a subject we could devote some time to. Despite all our years of doing the latihan, there is still a lot of squeamishness, embarrassment and inhibition around the subject of sex. Let's face it!
We have produced one set of very enlightening, dare one say penetrating, writings about sex. Sudarto's -  as published in the collection of his writings, which you got as a bonus with September issue (download it here if you missed out!.
The Experiences of Mas Sudarto
Extraordinary writings about the sublime, the ridiculous and the miraculous of sex.
And there are of course Bapak's passages in Susila Budhi Dharma.
But most of the writing I see in Subud about sex takes the form of "I did it, but you mustn't".
(Marcus Bolt tells me that he and Dirk Campbell once ran a workshop on sex and more people than could fit into the room turned up. This shows there is no lack of interest in the topic.)
The best discussion I ever heard about sex was at a Meeting of the Americas held in Brazil about ten years ago. This was when Daniel Cheiftetz was WSA chair and you may remember that one of his things was to encourage long open-ended talkfests.
So the young people got together to talk about sex. A few older ones (me!) sat in. One girl expressed the "problem of promiscuity" with a turn of phrase I will never forget. In a way she was saying exactly the same thing Bapak says in Susila Budhi Dharma but with her own particular salty flavour. This is how she summed up the inadvisability of promiscuity. "When I drink coffee," she said, "I drink coffee. And when I drink coke, I drink coke. I do not mix the two!"
Bapak and the Patriarchy
Recently Arifa and I ran a workshop "Discovering your Destiny". Many interesting things happened in it, but one in particular was this.
When we had all gathered there was one empty chair. Some asked, "Who is that chair for?"
I said, "That is Bapak's chair." Because of course it has become a common practice at Subud gatherings to have an empty chair, Bapak's chair.
Arifa immediately objected, "No, that is Elijah's chair."
She explained that it's a Jewish myth that you always leave one chair empty for Elijah -  who is called an Immanent -  because he's always present.
For some reason, the incident called to my mind that many of us, men and women, for our different reasons have "a problem with Bapak".
I have a problem with Bapak. I have never found completely my right relationship with Bapak. I am sure that often it comes down to our relationships with our own fathers. My father died when I was five and before that I felt he did not approve of me. I still struggle with all that at the age of 69. And I am sure it influences my attitude towards Bapak. And then who knows what else comes into it. Nationality, ancestry - 
For women in particular, it is of course that he represents the male principle and many of us, men and women, are having problems coming to terms with what the male principle means at this point in time. Many women are of course in the process of overthrowing the patriarchy and it can look like Bapak represents the patriarchy. He is of course a most paternal figure. His very name proclaims it. Bapak, father! And many have problems coming to terms with this.
So many women (at some level of their beings) are caught in a paradox, a conundrum, a tight place, a conflicting place. They want to devote their lives to overthrowing the patriarchy and they want to give their lives to a spiritual movement, which issued from a father.
An interesting discussion for another time - 
For the present, get on your computer and order Arifa's books from www.lulu.com Ð available in print editions (and soon as ebooks).


READER FEEDBACK - more response than in the previous 10 years put together 
1st November 2011 
In the October issue I asked for reader feedback and I got it. In abundance.
Thank you to the many people who have already sent us feedback about October Subud Voice with your appreciation, criticisms, suggestions and reports of technical issues. Thank you especially to those who wrote to say you don't want your subscription back.
This feedback exceeds by far any previous response to an issue of Subud Voice. In fact we got more letters this time, many more, than we have received in the whole of the last ten years.
I have written individually to each of you I hope, but am also writing this collective response.
Many people wrote to complain of various things. Mostly gentle complaints, intended to be helpful, pointing out where we had fallen down. 
According to Murphy's law, things must go wrong when you least want them to. And so our web site, usually so well behaved, went mad, just when we were going into our completely new way of presenting Subud Voice.
Just as the previous month, when we had launched our new "subscriber initiative" Paypal decided to shut us down. Not only were we not allowed to transfer any money out of our account WE WERE NOT ABLE TO RECEIVE ANY!!!!!!!!!! Just at the very moment we were hoping to get all your lovely subscriptions. 
Is the Hand of God at work in all this? Are we supposed to have no choice but to go out free to the world?
Anyway, here is a selection of some of the feedback we got - 
Of the many responses, one which interested me particularly came from Haryanti Stuart. Her email touched on economic problems in Europe. Here is what she wrote to me.
 
From Haryanti Stuart  
Hi Harris, As always, I love reading SV. As a subscriber since its inception, except for the last request to renew, I just thought you might like my input. I thought long and hard about renewing, knowing I would miss SV enormously.  But Australia has been largely insulated from the worst of the world recession Ð it is hard to imagine how hard it has hit over here. I have retired friends whose income has been cut by 60% as the value of shares plummeted and bank interest on savings is currently 0.05%. One couple I know have cancelled their life-long subscription to the Guardian, others are cancelling magazine subs Ð anything to claw back money -  I'm trying to save everything I can to get back, but will have lost at least $150000 when I sell, due to the currency exchange. Europeans too are having a pretty rough time. I also know that some have teamed together, say two or three and shared the cost of a subscription to SV that way, which wasn't much help to you.  I wonder if asking for a subsidy of $10 a year, even $20 per person would help to get back more money from some of those 10,000 who read SV in the short time it was free? $35 was too much for many. The Guerrand Hermes Foundation would then be able to lessen its incredibly generous subsidy.
My very best wishes to you personally, and everyone else involved. Haryanti
Dearest Haryanti, thank you for your most interesting feedback. First, the good news! Now Subud Voice is free to everyone. 
But your email with its comments on desperate economic times in Europe raises for me much more profound questions. It is true that in Australia we are still, it appears, the "lucky country", compared to almost anywhere else in the world. Yesterday I spoke to two Subud members recently arrived in Australia from Spain, refugees from the desperate economic climate there.
I often attend Subud Congress and meetings of WSC etc. See the reports of the one held in Rungan Sari in June, reported in August Subud Voice. And it always strikes me how our gaze is still turned inward trying to sort out our own issues, rather than addressing the problems of the world. In saying this, I attach no blame to all the wonderful, dedicated, hard-working people in the Subud organization. No, it is a collective issue of all of us.
Subud has come into the world to make it a better place. First, to make all of us better and then to use this inestimable gift to make the world better. We should be turning our attention to helping solve the problems of the world. This is not a wild dream. We can start now. It is our responsibility.
We have enormous capacity and unique understanding. How do we solve the economic problems of Spain, Europe et al? Let's think about it. Of course we are not going to solve them overnight, but at least we could start turning our attention outwards rather than inwards.
You know that Bapak received a book that was blank because on its pages were to be written the answers to whatever questions he asked. Lately, I have begun to receive this. I do not mean I receive at Bapak's level or anything like that. But I do have a book in which is written the answers to my questions. Maybe now, they are mostly just questions and answers relating to my immediate situations, but they really work! I am sure other Subud members must be having the same experience.
So why don't we now begin to ask BIG questions? What is the solution to the world's economic and political problems? Europe, the Middle East?
Let us begin to ask. Love, Harris
PS:  On mortality. I awoke today at 5 am. I did latihan and went to a nearby MacDonald's for breakfast. They have WI-fi there and I started work on responding to all your e-mails. On the way home I saw an accident. A woman in a car had struck a man on a bike. Each day we set out with our hopes and dreams and plans assuming we are going to make it to the end of the day. Sometimes, some of us don't. Life always hangs by a thread.
 
From Ian Bourne and Rohana Bourne
Dear Harris -  You are doing such a great job with Subud Voice, just wanted to say a big "Thank you!"  I especially enjoyed Sharifin's poem and photograph. Would be interested in more news of Bardolf Paul and his work. We certainly don't want our sub. back Ð and will send a donation by cheque and post - 
Loving regards from us both, Ian and Rohana
Dear Ian and Rohana, thank you for your appreciative response. Most appreciated. We have a big article about Bardolf and YTS in the pipeline. Love, Harris
 
From Rohana Darlington
Hi Harris
Just to let you know I found the October issue really interesting as usual, particularly the latest instalment of the amazing Mansur Geiger's adventures. I think it will be better now SV is free online again, as I had difficulty in getting our members at Manchester to subscribe. I was shocked that only 100 people agreed to subscribe, yet 10,000 apparently accessed it free. How do these people think SV can survive if nobody pays? Anyway, I had a meeting with our committee and they have agreed to pay for an annual group sub for the same price it was before (from group funds), and I'll organise this shortly as well as continue to pay for my own subscription when it needs renewing. Then you'll have 2 subs from us in Manchester, and I'll print out the group copy myself and they can  borrow it from our library. I'll have another go at getting PayPal up and running.
I think the rock'n'roll articles will interest many members especially the young ones, and they contrasted well with Leonard Van Hien's comments about the management of various enterprises. As an investor in all the former major Subud enterprises most of which are now defunct I've learnt a lot about how projects should have been run! Oh, the wisdom of hindsight! I agree with his comments that the shareholders were not sufficiently kept informed or their smaller investments sufficiently respected in comparison with those of the fewer major investors.
Yet at Anugraha for example there were 5000 smaller investors from all over the world and their needs should have been held in more respect as jointly they added up to a lot of money. I also always thought that it would have been more in keeping of the community spirit of Subud to have structured them as Co-operatives but this idea was never seriously considered at  the time. The trouble was we did not have sufficient sensible personnel to manage so many international projects effectively simultaneously.
Well, you asked for comments, Harris!
Dearest Rohana
My cup runneth over. You are the perfect reader, the reader an editor dreams of. Thank you for your appreciative comments. Love, Harris
 
From Edward Mackenzie  (to Leonard van Hien)
Many thanks for your article in the recent Subud Voice. It is a timely cautionary reminder to most Subud members, myself included, who are not investment literate to take care of where and how they put their money in Subud endeavours. I particularly appreciated your comments on good governance which as you point out is not always evident. For me if good governance is not at the heart of the endeavour it is best not attempted at all.
 
From Leonard van Hien (responding to Edward MacKenzie)
Dear Edward - Many thanks for taking the trouble to write.
I had that "here we go again" feeling when at its last meeting the WSC approved that the WSA Executive / SESI could explore launching another widely held Subud enterprise Ð this time a business for financing Subud enterprises in Kalimantan.
I am all for people "having a go". Without that there would be no progress. Without pressure there is no development. At the same time we should try to avoid the disappointments and sorrows of the past. One could write chapters on governance failures within our worldwide association.
The WSA itself should, at this early stage of Subud's development, be lean, effective and relevant. If members perceive it as expensive and ineffective, WSA will be considered irrelevant. That would be a shame. The international component is essential to our organisation.
The present WSA Executive Ð and the Council itself Ð risk finding themselves sitting on the cusp. Since last world congress the Executive has run up chronic deficits. It has never presented its audited financials on time. This renders ineffective one of the essential checks and balances provided in its constitution. There are too many excuses.
If it continues at the present rate of burn WSA will have eroded all of its reserves by the time of the next World Congress. Someone needs to sound the alarm - Cheers, Leonard.
Thank you Leonard and Edward for continuing a most interesting and important dialogue. Cheers, Harris
 
From Hanafi Fraval
Hi  -  How do I download SV? I don't want to sit in front of a computer and read it. I want to have a pdf to print or more likely transfer to my iPad!
By the way, do you want to read about the new Bright Futures program I got started? If so please read the attachments to get the idea, and if you think it's newsworthy, please feel free to do an article on it - Best, Hanafi
Hi Hanafi, I am not sure who Peter is. Peter Jenkins perhaps? But anyway he is not the editor whoever he is. Subud Voice is now accessible from the home page. At the top of the home page is a photo of Peter Jenkins and the Rolling Stones and a blurb about the issue. Underneath in blue is a list of the content. Click on any title top get the article. There may be some glitches as with any new internet endeavour. We will fix. 
I look forward to reading the material about Bright Futures you have sent. Cheers, Harris
Later - you can print it all out or just particular articles that interest you.
 
From Hanafi again
Sorry Ð glitch of the keyboard. I should have addressed it to you. I don't like the option of selecting articles. What if I want to read it ALL, as Levana and I usually do, and more recently on the iPad? Can I download the whole thing? Or do I have to laboriously download each one, save it as a pdf, and then stitch the pdf's together? I don't think so - 
What do you suggest?
 
Hi Hanafi, this is the way the world is now - this is the best way to publish an online magazine - you are such a modern chap always up with the latest technology I am sure you will get used to it and realise its many advantages as an online publication...
You can still read it ALL -  you can still PRINT IT ALL -  it is just a much better format for online -  and now you can select and print what you want rather than have to print the WHOLE THING -  as was the case with the .pdf -  it is now much easier to read both online and in print -  thanks for your feedback -  love to be in contact with you. And always interested to know what you are up to - 
And longing for the day I will get your article about your Anugraha experience -  do you know I pursued Richendra Pope for 25 years to get her reincarnation story - . and Mansur for 20 years to get his Kalimantan story -  I am merciless and relentless once I get my teeth into something -  but you must get me your article before I turn 90 or 95 - 
Cheers, Harris
 
From Ilaina Lennard
Harris there is something very strange happening to SV October on line. I have only read a couple of pages, but it is already repeating photos and large chunks of text. And there are also other corrections that should be made to the text. I don't think this is working. Have a look, it is chaotic. You will be shocked. You need to go back to the old format and I hereby offer to do the proofing again. ! Ð Ilaina
Hi Ilaina -  Shocked! Appalled would be a better word! It was all lovely when we first put it up. There will always be some glitches as with any new Internet endeavour. Just to mention one recent example -  Recently SESI announced its new web site, to be quickly followed by the announcement it was down, followed by the announcement it was OK again. We will fix our problems.
Later -  I cannot understand what you are talking about. I just went to Subud Voice and it is all OK, just the way we put it up. Perhaps some problem in your browser settings or something needs attention. Some things are in our control, some aren't. But by all means let me know of proofing corrections. With our new system we can continue to correct after publication.
 
From Emmanuel Elliott
Thanks for another great issue, Harris. I notice that a lot of older people email each other in a rather larger point size than the rest of humanity. Would it be possible for the text of SV to be slightly larger?
Hi Emmanuel, I will look into this. Cheers, Harris
 
From Rapha"lle, French SICA coordinator.
Dear Harris - Could you give all the SICA websites address in the next issue? And speak about them? If someone do not understand the language, it is possible to ask automatic translation to help.
I know four: www.subud-sica.org , www.subud-sica.fr , www.sicabritain.co.uk, www.sica-deutshland.de , there are certainly others - Love. Rapha"lle, French SICA coordinator.
Hi Raphaelle, thank you for this suggestion. Please send all sites you think you should be included. Love, Harris
 
From Peter Jenkins
Hi Harris, You probably know by now that the first page of SV on line is repeated. I guess if this is your last issue as Editor, you've gone out with a wham bam! -  Peter
Hi Peter, Yes, yes, glitches, glitches! See responses to Ilaina, Hanafi above. What did you think of the pic of you with the Stones? And as for this being my last issue -  do you know something I don't? Anyway thanks for the bam! I like bam! Cheers, Harris
 
From Julia Hurd
It's good news that SV is free again, but what happened??  And so WSA does not need to look for additional gift subscriptions -  Best, Julia
Hi Julia, what happened is explained in the editorial. We no longer have to worry about gift subscriptions since now anyone anywhere in the world can download it for free. Cheers, Harris
 
From Harfiyah
Great News! Peter Jenkins must be getting on a bit by now! You forgot to put a link in your email but never fear, I haven't forgotten it. Harfiyah
Hi Harfiyah, I am not sure which link you mean in which email. Please let me know.
PS No you didn't Ð it just lost its colour in this version!
Oh, good!
PS Ð great to have the links to the sounds!  I first met Top Topham in 1970 and had never heard him play until now!  Great music! Not to mention the Stones! Keep up the good work! Harfiyah
Thank you for this encouragement which is very very much appreciated. Glad you like the sounds links. Love, Harris
 
From Benita in Paraguay
Dear Harris, This is really a great relief for me, to be able to read SV online for free, even without a password! Thank you so much everybody who has made this possible! Now I am going to read the OCTOBER issue (not September, right?) and promise a feedback. Benita, Paraguay
Dear Benita, Lovely to hear from Latin America! Thank you for your good wishes. Yes, a few glitches here and there. October/September etc. We will fix! Cheers, Harris
Later - I am not sure what you mean about October/September. It all looks Ok to me. The next Spanish edition to be published will be September. It is always at least a month behind because of the need for translation by our hard-working Cuban team. September Spanish will be there (I hope) on October 3
 
From Ilaina Lennard
Harris, I think you meant Subud Voice Online October 1st ! Don't worry the world will not end and I am sure we will all realise what you meant to put!! Ð Ilaina
Hi Ilaina, yes, glitches, glitches! Will fix! Cheers, Harris
 
From Robert Raymond
Hi Harris - Your editorial is New York New York and 1st October has become 1st September. But you had the courage to take SV on.  I don't want my subscription back. Best wishes for SV and God bless.
Dear Robert, Yes, glitches, glitches. Thank you very much for keeping your sub in. Cheers, Harris
 
From Hardwin Blanchard
I love Subud Voice, and I am delighted not to have to get my money back!  (And God bless Simon Guerrand!) Aloha, Hardwin
Hi Hardwin, thank you! This is what we like to hear. The perfect subscriber. Cheers, Harris
 
From Max Potter
Dear Harris..Sorry to have to say this but it is a real mess. Bits repeated all over the place and there does not seem to be any way to get a printable version, apart from cutting and pasting chunks into a Word document, which I do not have time to do.
I have two subscribers in Oxford who do not even have computers and rely on my producing printed copies which I am happy to do for them. I also like a printed copy myself. PDF files are just handy as far as I am concerned.
I am pretty sure that all three of us would be happy for you to keep the subscriptions if we could get copies which I could print out. There must be other subscribers in a similar situation Please let me know what you suggest.  Kind regards -  Max
Dear Max, I am particularly upset about the glitches which have accompanied our new way of publishing in your case because you have been such a wonderful supporter. It was all lovely when we first put it up. I guess there will always be some glitches as with any new internet endeavour. Just to mention one recent example - Recently SESI announced its new web site, to be quickly followed by the announcement it was down, followed by the announcement it was OK again. We will fix our problems today I hope. Cheers, Harris.
Later - As I have said in my replies above to Ilaina Lennard, I have just tested Subud Voice and it works fine for me. I will discuss with web mistress to see if we can identify your problems.
 
From Floriane Syfrig
Hello Harris, Thanks for the new version of Subud Voice and the good news -  for many members -  to get it free. As far as I am concerned I am quite happy with your decision, thanks to the Guerrand Herm's Foundation, and I certainly do not want my subscription fee back. So good luck for the future !! Love to you all
Dear Floriane, thank you for your encouragement and for keeping your sub in. Amen, to what you say about GHFP. Hearing from you brings to mind so many lovely memories of contact in the past. Love, Harris
 
From Haryanti again - 
Thank you for your very thoughtful response Harris. I couldn't agree more.  Even the earth seems to be crying out. I was present once when Bapak said that when the level of anger in the world is high, earthquakes and other disasters are the outcome. It's a sobering thought. And many times Subud has seemed to me to be so inward-looking Ð not the wide, all encompassing, compassionate body it could be Ð there are still members who look slightly askance at non members. It's crazy. Although I do think that aspect is changing, thank heaven.
Bapak also said that if just 2/3rds of the world's population were practicing the latihan, there would be peace in the world.
As a unique collective of people that contains those with insight, imagination and intelligence, and  religious and cultural experiences from all over the world, let's hope we can together find a way forward.
Take care, with love, Haryanti
 
Dear Harianti -  Thank you for this, most interesting -  I guess all we can do is soldier on, soldier on -  love, Harris
 
From Dawn Ives at Wisma Mulia
I usually print 2 copies of Subud Voice for our residents to read here at Wisma Mulia Residential Home, but I cannot find a printable version. Will I now have to go into each article individually and print from there?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Dear Dawn,
Yes, that's right, you print the individual articles.
We will keep on improving and responding to reader feedback. For instance, some people have companied that the size of the print is too small both online and when printed out. We are looking into this for example.
I can imagine the small font especially when printed is a problem for the folks at Wisma. Trouble is if we increase the font size, then it is bigger to print out, then I will get lots of complaints about that. People seem to think I am the New York Times with vast resources and a vast staff instead of one little guy in Dingley Village, Melbourne, subsisting on the old age pension. Perhaps you better issue them all with magnifying glasses until we sort out this conundrum.
 Some of the advantages of the present method are - 
You no longer  have to download a .pdf which some people always had trouble with. It's now immediately available and accessible to you on the home page.
You do not have to print out the whole thing. You can if you want to, but you can also just print out the articles of particular interest to you.
You will of course end up with a sheaf of papers rather than a "magazine". But you see this is the best way to produce it online. You have to get out of the mindset of how things were in the days when magazines were just a printed thing. This is a magazine designed for the Internet, which you can also print out.
This method enables us to print much longer and more substantial articles than ever before as we were always limited by the size of the .pdf. In the olden days we were limited by the size of the magazine we could print. The .pdf enabled us to include more and now this method of presentation enables us to produce much more in much more depth.
Furthermore,  it has many additional features. It opens up the whole vast world of interconnectivity with the vast resource of the Internet. It enables us to include photographs in colour in a much better way than we were able to before. It also enables us to include sound and video right there embedded in the articles, a greatly enriching experience.
I hope this explanation is of some use and reassurance to you. Love to all at wonderful, wonderful Wisma. How I love and admire that place. Especially give my special love to special Patricia my special friend! Did you all see recent articles and marvellous pics in the Voice about wonderful Paulette and her wonderful lions? Did the residents love that? I would love to know.
Dearest Love to you and all at Wisma and David Barker, who made it all possible, and all of you who carry the torch. We need 100 Wismas! Love, Harris
 
From Hanafi Fraval again
Yeah, but it seems I'm still too far ahead. I wanna use an iPad! And it's a piece of cake to load the whole pdf of each month's SV at once. I spend the whole day on the darn computer. I read stuff on the computer with my head. I read magazines, books, and my iPad from somewhere else. I have a suggestion:
Why not include an option for those who would like it to download the whole SV edition?
And by the way, what happened to Ilaine's section Ð the best part of SV and the main reason to get it in the first place? Although I do like the other stuff too, Ilaine's section is special.  :))
Why can't you call up the web site on your Ipad? No different form when it was a pdf except it is now more immediately accessible.
It is not possible to put it all in one down loadable file.
It's true we don't have Inner Voice as we used to. I mean the concept of Inner Voice really only made sense when it was print or .pdf and Ilaine was actually in the "inner" of the magazine. We still carry the same material not just labelled as Inner Voice. I often used to supply it anyway. See Rachman Mitchell's piece as an example of "inner voice" material, that is spiritual experiences -  or going back a bit to Rashida (Richendra's) pieces etc etc.
 
From Rohana Darlington again
I think you're really good trying to help the disaffected youth you mention below. I could never do that kind of work myself, but have worked as an art therapist with psychiatric in-patients for many years so I guess we all have different talents. My son-in-law Gary is an eminent academic in London who is advising the police on how to plan security for the Olympic games next year, worked with the Met Police advising on strategy during the London riots a couple of months ago and also flies to countries round the world setting up sports projects for young boys. Despite all this high powered stuff he still finds time every Monday to run a youth club in inner city London and has set up two football teams for youth in inner city London which he attends every Saturday with my young grandson. I do admire people like him and yourself for engaging in this work. Gary says football is the ideal way to get the boys involved in teams and it is an alternative from gangs.
We'd love to see a Ron Crumb cartoon if you can dig any out.
Yesterday I put up a poster at Subud telling people SV is now free online again and will keep trying to promote it and will send our group sub as soon as I can master it!
Dear Rohana 
How dramatic and even frightening. The chaos in our world. Especially economic, which has so many roll-on effects particularly in the growth of a disaffected youth, which seems to be such a problem in the UK.
I am about to start working with disaffected Polynesian youth in my area. They come from the pacific islands usually via New Zealand.
Recent immigrant groups to our multicultural society are having problems settling in. There is crime, violence, amongst them and towards the society in general. Much needs to be done. Especially amongst the Polynesian and the recently arrived Africans from such places as war-torn Sudan.
Yes, Ron Crumb! I might try to find the cartoon and send you. Warning, in case you search him out on the Internet or in bookstores: many of his cartoons are "adults only"! (But fortunately not "keep on trucking".)
 
From Rohana Darlington again
I'm flattered! I know how hard it can be to keep a Subud project going, so keep on trucking - 
I love keep on trucking - do you know the cartoons of Rom Crumb who invented this 
concept and made beautiful cartoons of it:?
No, I haven't seen his cartoons; I'll have to investigate them! I never knew the phrase came from Rom Crumb. We used this phrase a lot in Manchester when vandals were trying to burn down our Subud Centre, as we needed to encourage ourselves while hunting for the pleasant Subud House we have now. A couple of months ago we had riots in Manchester and were really glad we did move out in time as the area the Subud House used to be in had the nickname  Gunchester because there was so many shootings in the area!
I hope all is peaceful again.


SUBUD WILL LAST FOR 800 YEARS -  a talk by Bapak 
1st November 2011 
Since Subud Voice is now once again available in full to the general public, we no longer publish talks by Bapak or Ibu Rahayu in their entirety, because it is felt that, generally speaking, these are really only comprehensible and of value to people who already practise the latihan.
Bapak always insisted that his talks are "explanations" for people who already follow the latihan. One of his oft-repeated maxims was, "First the experience, then the explanation!"
He compared the latihan to eating a mango. There is no way you can "explain" the taste of a mango to someone who has not tasted one. First, you must experience it for yourself, then you can talk about it.
At the same time, brief quotations from Bapak, the founder of Subud, and his daugther, Ibu Rahayu, are often comprehensible to anyone, and may contain wisdom or advice that is akin to what is said in religion or other spiritual traditions.
So what we will do in Subud Voice from now on is generally suggest a talk which relates in some way to the contents of the issue and include a brief quotation of general interest. Subud members may then go to the www.subudlibrary.net web site to read the talk in its entirety.

SUBUD WILL LAST FOR 800 YEARS - 
From Pewarta Vol.14, No.1  November 1979
Copyright © 2007 the World Subud Association. All rights reserved.
Published by Subud Publications International
Code Number : 79 CDK 2
Provisional Translation
Delivered at Wisma Subud Jakarta, Indonesia January 7, 1979 - 
The fact is that Bapak is only a pioneer in Subud. Bapak is not the one with authority. The only one with authority over you and in your lives is God Almighty who can bring you to heaven. And Bapak has set up this dewan of helpers so that gradually they can learn to feel the certainty and the conviction of their own relationship with Almighty God and their own guidance that they receive from Almighty God.
Bapak is here with you to give you advice and so on. But you have to understand that Bapak is a human being and although now Bapak is fresh and healthy and strong, nevertheless Bapak is a human being like all of us, so that one of these days, after some years, Bapak will no longer be with us. And if by that time we have still not leaved learned to stand on our own feet, how to look after, how to receive for ourselves and how to express in reality what we have received from Almighty God, then Subud will be limited to Bapak's own life span, the and Subud will begin and end with Bapak.
But that is not the Will of God Almighty. The Will of God Almighty is only that Bapak should be a pioneer, that Bapak should bring to us something which will bring us into contact with God's Power. And once we have received this, once   Bapak has brought us face to face with this, then we can carry it on ourselves. So if the helpers can carry out their duties, if the helpers can put into practice what Bapak has told you, then Bapak has received that Subud will last for 800 years, and only after 800 years will there be some change, will it turn in some different direction. This Subud that Bapak has brought will only last that long, provided that during Bapak's lifetime the helpers have begun to feel for themselves the reality of with what they have received through the pioneering of Bapak.