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A Light from Above
By Anonymous As a Catholic Subud sister, and one who was inwardly directed to join the Church following nine years of latihan, I have been conflicted by recent scandalous behavior of priests coming to light. I am, therefore, reassured by the following spiritual experience, told to me many years ago by a Subud sister. Although she herself was not a Catholic she once entered a Catholic church to be confronted by an amazing sight. As she walked into the church she saw - with the vision the latihan sometimes affords us - the priest standing at the altar preparing communion. From above, a dazzling white light came down and entered into the host. She commented: "Whether a priest is a good priest or a bad priest makes about as much difference to the spiritual truth of receiving the communion, as whether lightning strikes living wood or dead wood." - - - - - Exercising the Dog By Anonymous Long ago as a travelling international helper, I was receiving Latihan with a group of men in a private home in Indonesia, when we were joined by a dog. The door onto the garden had been left open and it just wandered in. The dog then proceeded to walk among the men wagging its tail and smiling. (At least, the fact that it was smiling is the impression I was meant to have.) Then, after about five minutes of enjoying the Latihan, the dog wandered out to the garden again. It was evident to me that it had enjoyed it very much. Nobody else noticed and I was not prompted to do anything about it. In the West, we are inclined to believe the nature of an animal will affect everybody's latihan but this dog was there and it didn't affect anything. We all have our own animal forces, but the forces in this little dog might even have lifted those up. - - - - - Of Death and Dying By Anonymous My friend, who turns 91, this week recognises that death may soon visit. He uses an athletic metaphor, talking of getting ready for the ‘high jump’ My very limited experience of being present at two deaths – where both were touched by the Latihan – is that it was very peaceful. Recognition of its presence, and even entering into the instant of transition, was accompanied by full and conscious surrender. It seemed as if surrender possessed the person – they did not have to make an effort to surrender. At that stage concern with sins or errors was not present – I witnessed only the nafs gone and the jiwa surrendered, and a sense of gentle and definite transition in the instant. We had the privilege of passing three hours yesterday with our good friend, a Subud member and medical professional, who works with terminally ill in the process of dying. She sees the vast majority of people, whether they believe in God or not, experience the same thing. As death approaches initially they see relatives, and later even talk with them. This experience to them is so real that you can see it transforms them, and death itself ceases to be some feared unknown. It becomes just a passage en route to reunion. One of the things she said is that she is often asked for assistance to die (pill, injection). But when she talks with them, and this may take one or two hours a day over two or three days, they become aware of the need to face and accept death, which happens easier if they feel supported and work through their fears and unresolved issues. Listening to her, I became aware of what a sacred process dying is, and that we have a duty to respect and support people through it. Over the years my own feeling regarding the dead has changed. Bapak explained how we can raise our ancestors through our Latihan. I have experienced that, but I also feel that through our Latihan we raise our descendants. And this, too, has more recently come into my awareness, that when lives are not lived well they are a distress to the ancestors. There is an ongoing and dynamic relationship between the living and the dead, and the yet unborn. At one stage, such as when I was opened, I saw life as a beginning at birth and ending at death. Nothing more. Even though I had a religious education, that was the limit of my awareness. But now I feel that life is not so exclusively individual: rather life feels to be part of an interconnected continuum of those who have gone before, the one presently living, and those yet to be born. My own life (to use a metric metaphor) when compared to say, one metre of length, now seems to be book-ended with seven metres of ancestors at one side and seven metres of descendants at the other. This awareness is one of the major gifts which years of doing the Latihan has brought me. And it explains the emphasis in former times placed on the family that one married into – less focused on social or economic standing and more attentive to the quality that runs through the family. - - - - - Going Home By Anonymous As she lay dying at home, I massaged my friend Dawn’s feet and soft Latihan singing started in me spontaneously so I let it out. Afterwards, she said it was a beautiful massage and a lovely feeling. Then she looked at me and said my eyes were “sparkling like crystals”… I did the same with my mother when she was near the end with cancer. Over the next two weeks, she put on a little weight and her complexion changed from yellowish to pink. Then she was ready to die – which I think of as going Home - and asked to be moved to a Hospice… I was in another country when my father died. It was unexpected. I think he came straight over the sea to me because at the time he died, I was writing a letter telling him how much I loved him. - - - - - “It’s So Beautiful” By Emmanuel Elliott This story takes us back to the late 50s when Subud groups were just forming in the U.K. One of our members in the Loudwater group had been seriously ill in hospital for some time and was in a coma, her husband and son by her side. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright, eyes wide open, and exclaimed, “Oh, it’s so beautiful, so wonderful!” before falling back dead. - - - - - Ancestral Interference By Anonymous I well remember Bapak once testing with us when he asked us to receive the state of our ancestors. The women were first and there was a great deal of screaming. Then the women went outside and it was the men’s turn. Once again, there was terrible screaming, and the people in the next street actually had their TV reception shuddering. As we women stood outside, a man (a big Scotsman, as I recall) from the nearby cross street came over to the entrance and said he'd punch somebody if we didn't stop this. He said it had affected their tv. It had certainly affected him! When we returned to our home a couple of miles away, the babysitter - for the first time ever - had the door locked and said the baby had woken up crying, which was also a first. It seems that a force had rushed through the house, woken the baby and frightened the babysitter. - - - - - |
An Old Helper Looks Back
By Anonymous Long ago, I was one of Bapak's helpers. For about thirty years I considered it an honour to be used for this task, but wasn't sorry to outwardly retire. Also, in doing this work I received a lot through my Latihan. A complete education in fact, though I didn't ask for anything. God knows our needs. Bapak uses us if we are not stuck. One thing that I was told early in the helper phase of my life was to look after the members with love. This resonated strongly with me. Quite aware that we were not the members' helpers but Bapak's helpers - as everybody knows there is a big difference - what came through me was that feeling Bapak had and still has for all of us as his grandchildren. It was surprisingly easy to act this out. In thirty years I had a lot of experiences and as long as I stayed in ' Float Mode' and didn't plant my feet in dogma from religion, or my own upbringing, things went along as they were meant to. This came to me recently: "Dogma is the driftwood we cling to in an uncertain sea." I tend to move on and don't look back, but something lovely happened for me at the 2005 Congress in beautiful Austria. A young lady- well, she seemed young to me- rushed up to me and took my hands saying she wanted to tell me what a loving helper I 'd been to her when she was far from home and in trouble.: that I'd paid her electricity bill and written to her parents in Europe saying she needed support. Then another very young lady came to me in that huge crowd and greeted me with such love and fond memories. Amazing that she could recognise me now, old and fat as I was, but this was like a gift from Bapak and was wonderful for me to experience. What I'd given out came right back to me in the feelings just like that old new age saying. Finally, before I retired Bapak's daughter, Ibu Hardiyati,visited our country. We were together in a bedroom and she was sitting on a chair when she dropped something and it rolled under another chair. I went on my knees and reached under the chair for it and as I turned to her, still on my knees, I found myself looking straight up into Bapak’s eyes! The feeling that then rushed through me cannot be described, but it was a gift and such a blessing. In a life full of mistakes to be given that . . .well! Thank you, God, for Bapak and the Latihan Kejiwaan. I wish to say to the next generation that Bapak still uses his helpers and guides them, even his retired ones - - - - - Goodness on Earth By Anonymous The recent 'Going with the Flow' contribution reminds me how, many years ago, at a crucial time when I feared to go with the flow and step into a new and uncertain future, I was told I could ask for a miracle. I did it as a prayer. In fact I received three synchronicity miracles on the same day. This is one of them: A Subud sister rang unexpectedly and said she just felt impelled to share with me what she had been told in the past by a lady who as a young girl had lived in Holland. The young girl had been lying wide awake in one of those built into the wall cupboard-like beds, in a house with huge, high ceilings. when suddenly, through the far wall, three angels suddenly entered the room. They just slid through the wall and were so tall that they'd had to stoop to fit under the ceiling. She was very alarmed and, sensing this, one stepped forward and assured her that she was safe. "We've just come tell you," the angel informed her, "that goodness on Earth is not what man thinks it is." Then they just withdrew back through the wall. This came to me at such an important time thirty-four years ago and as I was meant to, I experienced the telling as an indication or important message. I'm grateful that Subud sister followed her inner feeling and told me. Things evolved as they were meant to and though I haven't thought about those angels again until now, the memory of all this is as clear as a bell. - - - - - Paramahansa Yogananda By Anonymous Not long after I moved to Southern California, I experienced an intense and unexpected occurrence during my first visit to the Swiss Hotel, for a swim and a soak in the hot mineral waters. Tears overcame me with a great fullness of emotion, accompanied by a strong presence of Paramahansa Yogananda. The owners were concerned by my unusual state. Then they told me that they were followers of Paramahansa Yogananda. This struck me, because years earlier, I had dreamt that Yogananda invited me to have a cup of tea and a chat in a small, humble trailer. I don’t remember what we talked about, only that he was welcoming and friendly, as though we had known each other for a long time. At the Swiss Hotel, I sat down and I felt an expansion and transmission of radiant energy through inner space coming out of my head and belly. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I felt the living presence of a powerful energy in my intestines, literally moving up the walls and tissues of my inner organs. I also felt a comforting goodness, and I was not overwhelmed because Yogananda was with me and would be there to stabilize me. At first I thought, “Oh no, another overwhelming inner experience that will take me down a rabbit hole to who knows where.” But then I was reassured—it was ok, I was ok, just alive in an energetic way that was different but not overpowering to my human body. - - - - - An Unusual Encounter By Anonymous One week after I was opened in Subud, I met Bapak's second wife, Ibu Siti Sumari. The circumstances were unusual. I happened to be in the corridor of a hotel where Bapak and party were staying on their travels and somebody with authority sent me to Ibu's bedroom. I gently knocked at the door and was invited in. Ibu was in the process of getting dressed and the lady who had been assisting her (Ibu was elderly and happened to have a headache) left the room temporarily to get an Asprin. I stood there a bit uncertain, unsure if this was a mistake, because Ibu was only half dressed. Without any preliminaries, Ibu asked what my name was and my reply seemed to satisfy her. Her assistant returned and it was indicated nicely that I could now leave, but of course my mind wondered why had I been sent there in the first place? When later I asked somebody who would know, I was told that when Ibu married Bapak she inwardly saw a picture of all the Subud women who would come to be opened. She was just putting a name to a face. - - - - - Death is Life By Anonymous When I was very young, I went to a seance and asked to speak to my grandad. I asked him what it's all about here. The reply was "Birth is death and death is birth." I was reminded of this very recently when I read Bapak’s words on page 7 of Remembrances of Bapak’s Last Days: “He said that people usually felt that the end of this life, or what happened after this life, was death. But, in fact, it was the opposite. This present life in this world is death, while the life afterwards is the real life. The life of the jiwa.” - - - - - |