Subud World Congress 2018 – Freiburg.

Here are the most frequently asked questions. Please see if your question is answered here. For more information please check out the congress website: www.subudworldcongress.org
Read more…

Do you think it was good that someone went to the Susila Dharma Conference and wrote it up in such lavish detail? Would you like that sort of thing to continue? Then send us some money.

You can do that quickly, easily and safely by sending us a donation by credit card. We have been going for 26 years now and would like to continue for another 26. Think what a hole it would be in the Subud world were we to disappear. No more reliable, Subud-supporting, independent news magazine regular coming to you as clockwork on the first of every month. Over the last few years we’ve exhausted all the available avenues of sponsorship. Now it is down to you, our readers, if you want us to continue providing this service.

We are suggesting people send $5 /month, but you’re welcome to give more… do it now while it’s on your mind…

• donate monthly
• donate once only

Select a Donation Option (AUD)

$2 (p/m) $5 (p/m) $10 (p/m) Other (p/m)

Enter Donation Amount (AUD)

Special Supplement

Photo: Mother and child at Yayasan Saudara Sejiwa in Bandung, one of the projects we visited during the Susila Dharma Conference. This project aims to eliminate discrimination and violence towards women and children.

Why has Susila Dharma been so successful?… Read all about the Susila Dharma Conference that was held in Indonesia in August in this Special Susila Dharma Supplement to Subud Voice… a 20 page report with many photos… read all about this great gathering of projects and the Susila Dharma organisation…

Download the Special SD Supplement (PDF)

Husain Sam-Tio Chung describes a psychomdramatic re-enactment of the crucifixion. From his book “God the Therapist” available from Amazon.com…

This was a spontaneous re-enactment of the crucifixion with a graduate class at Pepperdine University. Read more…

Johann Sebastian Bach. Bapak one remarked "Beethoven cried with the angels, Mozart played with the angels and Bach prayed with the angels."

Lawrence Brazier writes from Vienna

The acquiring of enthusiasms, the philosopher would have it, is dictated by the complex difficulty of life; which means that one is apt to need a certain amount of diversion to make one’s journey across the world bearable.

Molly, the woman (one’s wife), for example, has a great deal of passion for her garden.

“Seeds,” she maintains, “are spiritual, if you understand the planting of them.”

Our move to Vienna had Molly planting her foreign fields and yours truly twiddling thumbs – until Bach entered our lives. Read more…

A story by Harris Smart about how the world of dreams, myths and fairytales can erupt into everyday life…

RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL

Harris Smart writes…have you ever had that experience where the membrane between the worlds, usually so thick and impenetrable, suddenly wears thin and the world of dreams, symbols, myths, legends and fairytales invades the “real” world, so that you might tell someone of an experience you had in the “real” world, but you can tell it as if it was a dream? You might say, “I had this dream that I owned a tower and in the tower was a beautiful woman living, a fairytale princess…” Read more…

A story by Harris about a visit to Paris in which he was robbed by gypsies… it also has something to say about photography…

PARIS, FRANCE

I wandered through Paris, imagining myself to be Cartier-Bresson,

shooting the life of the streets… Read more…

by Lawrence Brazier and is also set in Paris and has something to say about jazz and other things…
PARIS: JAZZ

Lawrence Brazier writes…

For years advertising persons have had a leaning for jazz. The crowd on Madison Ave. felt the charisma, recognised the potential but knew, instinctively, that you can’t mess with this kind of power. Jazz as a media vehicle for these people is a waste of space. Jazz does not belong to beautiful people. It does not go well with suntans. A guy deep into a solo, with sweat standing on his brow like he has malaria, would be unacceptable.  Someone would have to run on and powder-dust him dry. Advertising does not relate to the concept of improvisation (making it up as you go along).

Jazz – hip, cool or otherwise – requires a certain lifestyle savvy. Remember black-knit ties…lowered a little, naturally? And nodding knowingly over an eighteen-minute solo from a boss tenor, with a honk or a squeak being okay? Read more…

A chapter from Husain Chung’s book GOD THE THERAPIST (available from amazon.com) and gives an insight into the way that Husain works with people…
THE MAN  WHO STUTTERED

This extract is taken from Husain Chung’s recent book GOD THE THERAPIST which is available from Amazon.com. Everyone should read this excellent book. This chapter gives a good idea of how Husain works with people… Read more…

A reflection by Harris on the nature of the body as an indicator of the inner nature and a portal to spiritual experience…

RELAX! THE BODY KNOWS THE WAY

Harris Smart writes…

How fortunate we are to be in Subud. Can we ever appreciate this gift enough? Can we ever be sufficiently grateful for this gift which has transformed our lives for the good?

And such a simple gift. You do not have to do anything. You do not have to study it, you do not have to make any effort. On the contrary, it is all about not making an effort. It is all about surrender.

But actually I prefer the word “relax”. I have decided that for me, the word “relax” is the most important word in Subud. Such a simple, unpretentious word.

Surrender is rather difficult concept to come to terms with. I once went around and asked six people what they understood to be the meaning of the word “surrender” and got six completely different replies.

But “relax!” We all know what that means. We’ll have some idea of it. We all have some experience of it. We all have some idea of how to go about doing it. We do not have to worry if it has being rightly or wrongly translated from the Indonesian like all those other words. This word exists in every language I am sure.

Relax! Sink into the warm bath of the latihan! No effort required

And as Bapak has often told us, the latihan begins in the body. It is not in the turmoil of the mind with all its grand ideas. It is in the simple, humble body that we must first become aware.

In our age, the body is the portal to the spiritual life. We don’t have to worry about the mind with all its big ideas and alluring images, just sink into the body. Become aware of what is happening in the body.

Isn’t that a marvellous thing? A new revelation. The body which was previously so much despised in religion, thought to be a source of temptation and an obstacle to the spiritual life, is now the gateway. Everything is integrated.

And we c an recognise also that Subud is part of a much wider movement of understanding. The attention to experience in the body which we find in Subud is also reflected in many other spiritual movements and psychotherapies which flourish today. This is the age of knowledge through the body, the much despised body.

Of course, the mind does not like it. The mind has been boss for so long that it does not like giving up its position to the humble body. The mind thinks it is so brilliant, it is not going to give up easily.

And so as we relax, and surrender, the mind is always trying to pull us back to the material world. Never mind! The more we do it, the better at it we become.

The following little story is an example of how body and soul are connected… Read more…

Harris and his daughter, Ariana, in early 1972...

WHAT IF WE COULD?… a children’s song about peace

TO HEAR THE SONG, CLICK ON THE LINK 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSU8Ykv0ck

What if we could find a way to start

To ease the pain in every broken heart

What if we could wipe the slate quite clean

Of ev’ry trace of hate there’s ever been

What if no mother’s scream should pierce the night

What if no little child should wake in fright

What if we could live in harmony

What a perfect place this earth could be Read more…

My daughter waits to go out for her walk.

We walk down the street. She dawdles. “Come along now, Ariana,” I say.

She ignores me. Already, at the age of almost two, she has a mind of her own. But then she catches up, and takes my finger in her hand. Read more…

 I intend this story to accompany articles in the November issue of Subud Voice. It has two themes. First, the Irish diapsora in Australia…a sideshow to Ilaina Lennard’s story of Bapak’s last visit to Ireland…And second, it is the story of my mother’s death and resonates I hope with the stories by Rachman Mitchell and Levi Lemberger about the deaths of parents…

In that period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852, commonly known as the Great Potato Famine, many of the Irish came to Australia, and greatly shaped the development of our nation. Perhaps the most famous of all Australians, the outlaw Ned Kelly, was, of course, of Irish stock. And I myself am partly of Irish descent. Read more…

I was looking for some video clips to include with some stories in Subud Voice when I stumbled across this one.

It is the acclaimed French dancer Sylvie Guillem, dancing with the assistance of some companions to Ravel’s Bolero.

Sylvie was an acclaimed classical ballerina but now dances modern and experimental works.

Perhaps this video clip is not every Subud members’ idea of  “true human culture” – the word “passion” comes to mind – but anyone would have to admire her extraordinary skill, precision,beauty and grace, surely human qualities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQp8xKN7zNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjv5d9lPax0

As we know, aging comes in waves.  One day we feel as good as we ever did, better.  We are full of vim and youthful vigour. We are still 18 years old.  The next day we are so exhausted we can barely drag our useless carcase around. Read more…

Piata these days.

Harris Smart writes…

I have traveled the world for 30 years interviewing many Subud members, but I have never interviewed the person closest to me, my wife.

We were sitting together this morning and she asked, “What did you discuss at the helpers’ meeting last night?”

I said, “We talked about why people leave Subud and whether there is anything that we can do about it. Why do people who have been in Subud for a long time drift away? And why do those who’ve only just been opened stop coming? Why do you think that is?”Harris Smart writes… Read more…