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Lockdown has been full of Surprises!
By Anonymous I was due to have a hip replacement operation, which was scheduled for the first day of the lockdown. It was cancelled and since I had waited for four years to get to the point of actually having the op, I was naturally despondent about the cancellation. Some weeks later my daughter found me unconscious on my bed around noon. My son was instructed to do CPR on me having moved me onto the floor. The emergency services arrived in full PPE, and carted me away in the ambulance. Three days later I awoke in a darkened room, with a strange man standing looking at me. He asked me where I thought I was? "Switzerland," I replied. "What are you doing here?" he responded. "Oh, I'm skiing," said I. He asked me again and this time I replied, "In hospital?" He wanted to know whereabouts. "Truro," I said and fell back into the darkness. I truly thought I had died, or was about to die, as there was no life in my body. In my twilight state I did try and receive the Latihan, but felt nothing. So I surrendered myself to death. As the sun was rising and the birds were beginning their dawn chorus, which I always love as it brings the long dark night to an end, I began to feel a tingling in my body and realised that my Subud sisters were doing Latihan for me. Within an hour, as they began to serve up breakfast, the first nurse in the ward came rushing over and asked what had happened, as I was sitting up, smiling, and had an intense light surrounding me - the light I thought only I could see, but apparently could be seen by all! The nurse ran out of the ward and came back with a doctor and other nurses. They all looked astonished! What has happened? They were all perplexed, but pleased. Whilst I was unconscious the doctor had done an MRI scan of my body. It showed that I had had a seizure of my brain, lungs, heart and liver. After I regained consciousness and with the light surrounding me, they did the scan again. A few days later the neurologist came to see me in the ward, and said that they had no explanation, except that the first scan must have been wrong, as there was no sign of a seizure or any physical damage internally. One by one all the specialists involved have contacted me and said they cannot explain what happened and are mystified by it all. I am not! My daughter had phoned me and told me that she had contacted the Regional Helper, and she had arranged for a number of Subud sisters, including her, to do the Latihan at a certain time for me. It was indeed a surprise miracle! Thank you to my son, daughter, and my Subud sisters, the Latihan and to Almighty God. From a sister in Cornwall - - - - - A Transformative Experience By Anonymous I had this dream a few days ago and would like to share with you. It was the most powerful 'songe' I had in my life (as we say in French to distinguish true spiritual and imaginal experiences from usual dreams). It has had a powerful, transformative impact on me. I am walking on a wide, golden, earthy path, a type of country road, wide enough for a car to drive on. I am a pure spirit and am walking with a dear friend of mine who is here also as a pure spirit. We have no human forms, but our spirits are clearly identifiable and I know it is her and she knows it is me next to her. On my left is a row of emerald green high fluffy trees, forming a wall following this road and parallel to it. This natural environment may be to mimic life on earth, as it felt unreal. I am walking or moving along this road with my friend, and she, or her spirit, is to my right. It feels like we are walking, though we have no legs, no body as such. The energy field surrounding us is of an impeccable peacefulness, a calmness unknown to us on earth. It is gentle and so tranquil, so relaxing, and it feels utterly natural. It is absolutely devoid of the weight of the human mind and its concerns, ideas, tendencies to judge or criticize. Freed from the human mind’s habit of criticizing and doubting, we experienced a totality of peace unknown to us on earth. It was an utterly exquisite experience. There is absolutely no separation between the two of us. I am her, and she is me. Though as me I can talk with her, while simultaneously being one. The gentleness experienced is remarkable. It is one based on shared identity, a complete, simple, sense of Oneness. She is looking down to her right, gazing into space, somewhat lost in her past, analysing her life on earth, curiously, objectively, non-judgmentally. She is looking at the lessons she learned and the choices she made. It feels like she had just died, and I had passed a while back before her; as such, I was able to greet and guide her. I am completely attentive, and she is in a deep exploration of the trials and tribulations she had on earth. However, from that level, everything is seen as perfect. She is very focused, though just curious, and I am sharing in her exploration. It feels like a timeless and extraordinary experience - infinitely soft, pure and perfect. It was so deeply serene, truly peaceful. No words can describe the depth, lucidity and simplicity of everything that was said and felt. The critical mind had vanished. I woke up, and at first I just thought to myself, oh I dreamed about my friend last night. Then the details of the dream returned. I am left transformed by this experience. It enhanced what I intuitively know, that we are on earth to learn and that whatever experience we have serves a purpose. Everything that we experience may just not be what it appears to be. I could feel from that level of insightfulness how short our time on earth is. I could also feel the utter liberation that occurs when judgments disappear. We tend to judge ourselves, and others as it is human nature to do so. Yet the highest Truth transcends judgements. To go beyond the human mind and its array of insecurities, it’s constant habit to judge, enables us to taste the power of Truth and to reach a subtler or higher level of awareness. - - - - - Praying for God's Will By Anonymous When my father had a massive heart attack and died in a Jakarta hospital emergency room, I was standing close to his bed as the doctors were resuscitating him. I was only 25 years old, and was in shock and desperately prayed for my father to survive. As I was praying this, suddenly a very strong voice inside me said "NO, you cannot pray for that! You must only pray for God's Will for your father, not your will." I was astounded. Even in that desperate panic situation, I was being trained about the true way to pray. Immediately my prayer changed to one of surrender and acceptance of whatever was God's will for my father's life. My father survived and continued his life for another twenty years, and I will never forget that deeply significant lesson from my Latihan. - - - - - |
The Birds and the Bees
By Anonymous There were three men who worked as Bapak’s assistants in the Sekretariat back in the 60s and the following decades. They were Prio, Sudarto, and Brojo. Sudarto was very accessible and accommodating, always ready to provide guidance, and a coffee, even in his own home when the Sekretariat was closed. A favourite technique of his was to make you laugh – he said if you give explanations from mind to mind it may not always go in, but if you make them laugh then their feelings are open and easier to accept advice. Sudarto wrote of his own experiences in the Pewarta. That was an early Subud journal from Cilandak containing a talk by Bapak, and sometimes copies of his letters of explanation. Also included from time to time were the experiences of Sudarto. These were later collated and published. He gave much advice on sex but his comments on sex - as far as I know - were not written down. We were young back in the 70s, both in age and in Subud, and hungry for understanding and guidance, still finding our way. I recall his advice on sex, and a way of preventing the lower forces hitching a ride during sex. ‘Sometimes you will wake up spontaneously in the night, and roll together for union. This is better if it happens naturally. It prevents letting the passions climb on board when coming together after you go to bed’. My own experience of sex changed after I was opened in several ways. First thing I noticed was that I actually felt connected in an ongoing way with my wife. She was not just a sexual partner, but a real and felt connection began which was beyond romance and sex. Another thing was that over time the post coital tiredness and lethargy so common in pre-Subud days disappeared. Sometimes I felt energized, and wide awake, and did not feel like sleeping afterwards. And sometimes my wife would experience this also. When I could not sleep I decided to fill the available time waiting for sleep to arrive by just surrendering and praying. When I did so I would often experience things, and found that in this state of alertness and receiving Latihan after sex, my receiving was very strong. As an example, once when praying for a relative who was about to leave their home to study in another city, I saw a building. When I later visited at their flat, as soon as I stopped on the roadside I saw it was the building I had seen in my experience. Another thing I found is that after sex I would often not feel like eating the following day, as if guided to fast. I often wondered if others had that experience. - - - - - The Dogs and the Horse By Anonymous (Coincidentally, another contributor sent me the following, and I could not resist adopting the two headings. EE) A friend of mine told how twice during sex, not long after being opened, unusual things happened. Once all the dogs in the neighbourhood began barking and continued until he had finished. On another occasion a horse galloped loudly up his drive and into his garage, its shoes striking hard on the concrete driveway. He went out to check because his driveway was only 20 yards long, and there was no way out of his garage other than the entrance, yet he had not heard it come out. He found nothing and the door to the garage was still shut. - - - - - Vision By Anonymous I had the following dream a few years after I was opened in 1982: There was a stepped pyramid in front of me like the Mayan or others from central/south America. It was full of light and a line of dark figures were walking towards it and up the steps from the base of the centre of it, some singly and some in twos holding hands. They were silhouetted against the light and disappeared into the light when they got to the top of the pyramid. Then running down both sides of the pyramid, emerging from the light, came streams of golden children. The dark figures going up the pyramid were quite slow in their ascent, the children coming down were full of life and joy. - - - - - Live with the Brakes off By Anonymous If you have a life which has its circumstances in YOUR will rather in than HIS will, there is no point in asking for trimmings like health, wealth, etc. You can 'test' this by asking yourself the following (not latihan, just ask yourself) "Am I a Subud member who surrenders their will to God's will? If it were right for me to move to another place -- would I do it? (Even if my roots are down where I am?)" Check sincerely your own reaction for it will tell you something. You may have to be willing to leave where you are. Did you ever suspect this? If you are willing, that may be all that is necessary. Health and other blessings can find us if we are flowing along and have the courage to follow that flow. Every one of us who is opened has the latihan inside like a motor idling and if we are not willing to let it move us along to the next station, health and luck are affected. You don't have to do anything but be willing. God will arrange the rest if you have the brakes off. Willingness is the brakes--are they on or off? Live with the brakes off, both in the latihan and in your life. Such people are needed in this world and they can be guided to good health because they have work to do. - - - - - Bombardment By Sebastian Paeman I remember Bapak saying that we needed to be careful with thinking about others because this can affect people. I once had a painful experience with this when I had written something on a religious website which went against certain orthodox beliefs. Later that day when I was going about my business suddenly the house was filled with disturbance. It felt as if sharp objects came in from everywhere, flying through the air and aimed at me. I immediately realised that this bombardment of lower forces must have had to do with my writing. I went to the site and saw many very angry responses underneath my post. I quickly removed the piece after which the bombardment gradually faded away. - - - - - |