Concerning Subud

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 1

The New Epoch

1. The Conscious Direction of Evolution

Thanks to the achievements of archaeology, anthropology, prehistory and

several auxiliary sciences, it is now possible to reconstruct with some
confidence the story of mankind for at least seven thousand years; and, with
many gaps and uncertainties, for twenty-five thousand years, that is, back to
the time when Aurignacian man first left evidence of a high culture. The
human story goes back still further for at least half a million and perhaps
one or two million years, but it is known only from a few hundred skeletons
and a very limited range of stone implements that give us little idea how our
remotest ancestors really lived. The whole story of life on the earth covers
the hardly imaginable span of much more than five hundred million years.
During this time prodigious changes have occurred in the dominant forms of
life on earth and in the oceans.

It is no longer possible to account for the sequence of events on the

supposition that no agency save blind chance has been at work, and that
consciousness and a directive will were entirely lacking on the earth until
men appeared. In Volume II of The Dramatic Universe, I endeavour to show
how much simpler and more satisfying is the theory that the entire story,
from its earliest beginnings, has been directed by Conscious Powers that
have known how to make use of the uncertainty or freedom inherent in the
operation of all the laws of nature, and bring about the progressive
development of the living forms that were required at each successive stage
of the evolution of the earth itself.

We cannot represent to ourselves the nature of such Conscious Powers,

and we should certainly be wrong to picture them as individualized beings in
any way resembling men—that is, having a body with limbs, organs, and
perceiving by way of senses like ours.

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10

But it is no new thing for science to accept the reality of entities of which we
can form no mental picture at all. Indeed, the recourse to 'unthinkables' has
been one of the strangest developments of science since Planck introduced
his mysterious quantum of action, and Einstein based his relativity theory on
a Riemannian geometry that cannot be pictured by the senses or grasped by
the mind.

We shall start then from the supposition that there always have been and
still are Conscious Powers that regulate events upon the earth without
violating the laws of nature. It may shock the susceptibilities of scientists—
who are very touchy about supernatural entities that they have not
themselves invented—if I call these Powers by the name of angels. I do not
know who or what angels are, but for many years I have had no doubt that
there are such beings, and that it is possible to be aware of their presence. I
am equally sure that the angelic powers work within the framework of the
natural laws of geometry, physics and biology.*

As we survey the past, with its vast time scale of cosmic, geophysical,
palaeobotanical and palaeontological history flowing into the very early
prehistory and later history of man on the earth—we can observe one
common and indeed universal phenomenon. This can be called 'progress by
explosion.' History never has been continuous. The great changes in the
families and genera populating the earth have come about suddenly, and
have been followed by long periods of relative quiet. It would be out of
place to review here all the evidence for the 'explosive theory of progress.'
Indeed the theory is not new, and has been adopted in many branches of
science.

2. The Theory of Epochs

If we combine the Theory of Conscious Directive Power with the Theory of

Explosive Progress we arrive at the notion of Creative Cycles.

* In Volume I of The Dramatic Universe I have shown that the 'natural' geometry of six
dimensions has several degrees of freedom that allow full scope for a regulative consciousness
even in the rigorous sciences of kinematics and electromagnetism.

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This is simply illustrated in the working of an internal combustion engine

which alternates between phases of compression, explosion, expansion and
renewal. The sudden explosions which occur in history can only be
understood if we assume that the Angelic Powers direct natural energies for
a certain time into a phase of concentration and compression that
accumulates enough energy to make an explosion, the results of which then
expand and grow until their force is exhausted. Explosions that occur
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without any system of regulation are inevitably destructive, and the
incontrovertible fact that explosions have occurred over and over again in
the history of the stars, of the earth, of life in general and of mankind in
particular, and have resulted on the whole in progress towards higher levels
of consciousness and a greater freedom, is the best evidence that the
Conscious Directive Power of the angels has seldom been absent.

From the notion of Creative Cycles in general we come to that of the

Epoch* in the life of man. By 'Epoch,' I understand a period when all
humanity is dominated by a certain creative attitude towards life. This I call
the Master Idea of the Epoch. For example, the middle Neolithic Epoch,
from about 11,000 to 8,000 years before the present was marked by the idea
of the Earth Mother. Until that time, nearly all the people of the earth were
nomadic hunters or gatherers of fruit or sea foods. From 9,000 B.C., serious
agriculture began, and men first realized that it was possible to claim
ownership of the land they worked and to accumulate material possessions.
Since generation, i.e. birth-death-resurrection, is the essence of the
agricultural cycle, men were able in that Epoch to receive the notion of
birth-death-resurrection as applicable to their spiritual life also. Thus the so-
called 'fertility cults' were a real step forward in the spiritual development of
man. The mutual need of the sexes in the spiritual life was an obvious fact to
people who began to see the continuity of the family in their village
settlements. The idea of the Earth Mother encouraged a matriarchal social
system such as existed in the Neolithic Epoch.

* The Theory of Epochs is discussed in The Crisis in Human Affairs, Hodder & Stoughton,
1948.

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The middle Neolithic Epoch began with an explosion that probably

coincided with considerable disturbances of the earth's surface. It ended
when a fresh change of climate led to the desiccation of the densely
populated areas of Central Asia and North Africa, and it was succeeded by
the Epoch of the Great Migrations that lasted from 6,000 B.C. to the middle
of the fourth millennium. This time the Master Idea was that of the Search,
of which fragments remain to us in ancient myths and legends and epics in
which man is depicted as searching for the secret of immortality. The
instability of external conditions created a natural background for the
realization that life on earth is precarious, and that salvation must be sought
in the invisible world. It was during this Epoch that knowledge of the
mysteries of life and death began to reach ordinary people from the hidden
societies that were still in conscious relationship to the Angelic Powers.

The next Epoch coincides with the beginning of written history, and the
appearance of priest-kings or semi-divine beings as rulers of the various
nations of the earth. The founders of the earliest dynasties of Egypt,
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Mesopotamia, India, China and the Malay Archipelago were looked upon as
half-god, half-human, and for this reason I have called the era that lasted
from 3,200 B.C. to 600 B.C. the Hemitheandric Epoch. Its Master Idea was
that of the dependence of the common people upon the Hero for their
welfare in this life and in the life beyond the grave. History proper begins
about the same time, towards the end of the fourth millennium B.C., not
only in the form of written accounts of dynasties and their achievements, but
also in clearly decipherable records of events preserved in the ruins of
ancient cities and monuments.

Mankind entered upon the Heroic Epoch with an immense heritage of

languages, cultures, techniques and social organization built up over
thousands of years. Once again there was an explosion. During a brief period
of a few centuries, extraordinary advances were made in every department of
life. The Hemitheandric Epoch ended about two thousand five hundred years
ago with the unspoken discrediting of the notion of the Semi-Divine Ruler.
It was followed by the Megalanthropic Epoch, of which the Master Idea was
that of Individual Salvation. We shall return to this later, since it leads
directly to the theme of the present book.

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3. Divine Providence

The theory of Epochs as a cycle of concentration, explosion and

expansion requires that there should be a concentrating force that
accumulates the energy needed for the explosion. This we ascribe to the
Angelic Power, but the theory is not complete unless we go further and
assume that the source of the Power itself is altogether beyond this visible
world. An internal combustion engine is constructed so that compression
comes from its own momentum, but the fuel that produces the explosion
comes from beyond. Similarly in human affairs the new impulse that comes
with each succeeding Epoch reaches mankind from beyond the earth itself.

Arnold Toynbee in his great Study of History reaches virtually the same
conclusion: that we are forced to believe that human history has been
directed by a Merciful Power that comes from God and manifests through
the Saints, Prophets and Founders of the great religions of the world.
Without presuming to challenge Toynbee's deep historical insight, I would
say that through fixing his attention upon Civilizations, which are but
secondary human consequences, he has overlooked the significance of the
Epochs that are the primary manifestations of Divine Providence in human
affairs. Nevertheless, Toynbee strongly reinforces the argument for
conscious intervention of the Angelic Powers by the distinction he makes
between true and arrested civilizations. He estimates that there are now on
earth many hundreds of human communities that were formerly under the
direction of conscious leaders, but having at some time lost contact with
them, failed to develop, and so have lingered on, preserving, in the form of
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customs now almost devoid of sense, traces of an ancient wisdom whose
origin may go back before the beginning of written history five thousand
years ago.

We are thus not leaving explored territory when we add to the theory of
Conscious or Angelic Powers the principle of belief in Divine Providence.
This belief cannot be called a 'theory,' for it belongs to a realm that the mind
of man is powerless to explore.

4. Times and Seasons

We know the history of the earth from a most fragmentary and unequal
record, but even this is enough to convince us that from the remotest past,
organic life on this planet has adapted itself to great changes of climate, has
survived prodigious catastrophes and has gradually but surely moved
forward to prepare a place for the coming of mankind.

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We cannot fail to be impressed by the timeliness of the explosions that have

occurred as one form of life has given place to another. To an observer with
ordinary human understanding watching the course of events, it would have
seemed, time and time again, that life on the earth must perish or degenerate
into a miserable remnant of forms too insignificant to challenge the
cataclysmic forces that disrupted the earth's surface and played havoc with
its climate. And yet each time, by a wise manipulation of the genetic
potentialities inherent in existing families and orders of plants and animals,
the Angelic Power brought forth new genera and species that could not only
survive, but prosper in the new conditions.

When man appeared, our earth entered the great ice ages, when at times all
life was threatened. According to some theories, such as that of Hoerbiger,
there were other catastrophes caused by the destruction of a former satellite
and the capture of our present moon. Whatever may be the truth of such
theories, it is certain that during the million or more years of his existence on
the earth, man has survived appalling changes of climate that required
powers of adaption quite different from those that saved the plants and
animals of earlier ages.

I am sure that Saurat* is right in concluding that survival was achieved

only by the timely direction of human energies into the sole channels which
gave hope of safety—as for example in the Epoch of the Great Migrations
away from Central Asia and North Africa when these regions dried up and
fertile soil became desert sand.

Guidance in the outer life has always been based upon the renewal and
strengthening of the inner life, and we can trace the gradual penetration of
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religious belief from the inner circle of those who had direct revelation of
the Divine Purpose outwards through the masses of mankind. In the earliest
periods, the superhuman beings who guided human destiny were very far
removed from the savage hunting tribes that looked to them for help. They
were disguised as magicians, and their rule was based upon dread of the
powers that they were able to evoke. During the Neolithic ages—which
probably included three distinct Epochs—there was a great transformation of
social conditions, and the new stability and continuity of external life made
it possible to impart to the masses forms of religious worship, of private and
social morality based upon belief in the division of man into a mortal and an
immortal part.

* cf. Denis Saurat, Atlantis & the Giants, Faber & Faber, 1957.

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Many students of the early history of mankind are now convinced that
from the earliest times man has believed in one God, the supreme power in
the world, and that the crude animism observed in many savage tribes is not
primitive at all, but the result of degeneration in the absence of guidance
from conscious beings. If this conviction is justified, it must follow that there
have always been teachers of mankind who have gradually prepared man to
understand the true significance of our life here on earth. Such teachers
could not have received their knowledge from any human source, for it is
not given to man to know the Divine Purposes. It is in this sense that
teachers or prophets are termed Messengers from Above. The proof of their
missions lies not so much in the loftiness and grandeur of their ethical
teachings as in the timeliness and efficacy of their intervention. We do not
attempt to teach metaphysics to infants, nor did any of the prophets
throughout history attempt to teach men truths for which they were not
ready. Each explosion that inaugurated a new Epoch corresponded exactly to
what people were able to receive at that time.

We can take one or two examples to illustrate this theme. The city of Ur
upon the river Tigris was already a great city at the beginning of the
Hemitheandric Epoch in 3,200 B.C. It flourished far more than two thousand
years and was the centre of high cultures. When the Epoch was moving
towards its period of degeneration about 1,500 B.C., there was an exodus
towards the west of which an account has been preserved in the book of
Genesis, and of which hints can be found in old cuneiform writings of
Chaldea. The leader of this exodus was a prophet whom we know by the
name of Abraham. The story of Abraham is both true history and also an
allegory of the power of faith. Through Abraham, the ancient monotheism
was preserved from the universal degeneration that finally destroyed the
hopes of the Epoch. The lesson for us in the story of Abraham consists in the
extreme simplicity of his faith and his childish inability to understand the

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workings of Divine Providence. Abraham's very simplicity was precisely
what the age required, and it is to be contrasted with the marvellous
scientific attainments of the Chaldean Magi and the Egyptian priests of the
eighteenth dynasty who were his contemporaries. A similar contrast is to be
found in the story of Moses, illustrated by his legendary contest with the
Egyptian priests.

The Hebrew Torah is concerned to show how the prophets were endowed
with a power from God that does not depend upon human science or human
abilities. It insists upon the duty of preserving the ancient traditions, and
calls for belief in the One God and in His providential ordering of human
affairs. Nevertheless, if we were to attempt to transfer into our modern world
the message and the example of Abraham, Isaac and Moses, we should see
at once that they belong to a different Epoch from ours, and that the validity
of their message consisted precisely in its combination of timeliness and
timelessness. The fundamental truth that God will help those who turn to
Him belongs to all Epochs, but the form of Abraham's message belongs only
to the Epoch when men could readily believe that their prophets could 'speak
with God,' and were therefore ready to accept their autocratic leadership.

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In order to grasp the significance of the Message brought to mankind by

the early prophets of the next, that is the Megalanthropic Epoch, we must
picture to ourselves the almost universal wretchedness of the peoples of
China, India, Assyria, Egypt and Greece at the beginning of the first
millennium B.C. Some of the prophets, like Confucius and Solon, were
mainly concerned with the social misfortunes of their nations, but the
greatest of all were sent with a deeper message of hope for the afflicted.
This was no less than the promise of individual salvation for every man and
woman who was ready to pay the price. We are the descendants of a
hundred generations who have lived with this promise, and we cannot
readily picture the misery of those who believed themselves to be entirely
dependent upon the Hemitheandros or Divine Ruler, and yet could see in
their kings and pharaohs only monsters of cruelty and oppression. The words
of the prophet Isaiah, "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money come ye, buy and eat" conveyed an entirely
different meaning to the children of the Captivity to that which they would
bear in our modern world. We cannot understand that the very hope of
eternal life was destroyed for those who believed that only the Divine Ruler
could ensure welfare beyond the grave and saw that their priests had become
servants of the oppressor, extorting impossible payments for the performance
of complicated rituals believed to be indispensable for the welfare of the
dead. It was the hope of liberation from spiritual oppression that drew the
Indian multitudes to Gautama Buddha and the Israelites to their prophets.

Within five hundred years was fulfilled the sombre prophecy of Gautama
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Buddha that his Dharma would deteriorate and the Sangha break up into
warring sects. All over the world the gospel of individual salvation had been
misinterpreted and misapplied. And yet everywhere there was a sense of
expectancy, made explicit by the Jewish belief in the coming of the Messiah
and the neo-Buddhist doctrine of the Bodhisattva. The Greco-roman world
was disgusted with itself and its own moral failures. The Persian empire of
the Seleucidae was sunk in impurity. India had lapsed grievously from the
reforming zeal of King Asoka. Those who sought for purity, the Jains, the
Pharisees, the Stoics, were discovering that purity could not be achieved by
any human striving.

In response to a desperate human need, Almighty God sent into the world
Jesus Christ, whose perfect purity is symbolized in His virgin birth. The
message of Jesus was as simple and direct as those of His predecessors—by
faith alone can man be purified in body and soul. Jesus was endowed with
the power to work miracles because He was completely free from the
impurities that in ordinary man obstructs the working of the spirit of God.
What He taught he practised, and He proved by His death and resurrection
that the pure spirit is indestructible. His message and His evidence gave an
entirely new meaning to the doctrine of individual salvation, liberating it
from all worldly considerations, placing the hope of mankind in the invisible
world of the spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven.

17

Another six hundred years passed and once again the message had been
distorted. The Kingdom of Heaven had become an earthly power, salvation
was no longer sought in pure faith but in the toils of an enforced external
discipline. Worst of all, the message of pure Love had been twisted into a
mass of superstitions that even a true man of God like St. Benedict was
powerless to overcome. The dark ages had descended upon the western
world, and men were again living without hope and yet obsessed by the fear
of damnation. A cardinal error had crept into Christian dogma—the belief
that the celibate state is pleasing in the sight of God. Strangely enough, the
repudiation of marriage and the belief that only ascetic practices can lead to
liberation had taken possession also of the eastern stream of spirituality—
especially in the forms of Buddhist monasticism and the solitary withdrawal
from the world recommended by the Hindu Sannyasis and Yogis. Even those
who still were seeking salvation did so in ways that can only in the rarest of
cases lead to the complete human being that each man must become in order
to enter into eternal life.

Once again a new message was needed, and it was brought by the Prophet
Muhammad, who exemplifies the complete man who fulfills all his earthly
obligations and yet whose will is wholly surrendered to the service of God.
The message of Islam cannot be understood by those who have not realized
something of the meaning of the complete man. Muhammad was rejected
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and denied by those who saw in his very completeness a lack of perfection,
and who imagined that asceticism was a necessary mark of holiness.
Nevertheless, the power of the Islamic revelation was so great that within
two centuries a great belt of Islamic peoples stretched from end to end of the
inhabited world from Morocco to the Malay Archipelago. By the tenth
century A.D. Islam had become the greatest spiritual power in the world, but
unfortunately Moslems, Christians and Jews, destined to unite and
demonstrate to the world the invincible power of the Sacred Impulses of
Faith, Love and Hope, succumbed to the disruptive forces of materiality, lust
for power, and fear. From the end of the first millennium the degeneration of
the Divine Message of Individual Salvation into the cult of human self-
sufficiency had become inevitable.

5. The Ages of Mankind

During recent centuries, the material forces in human life have gradually
gained the mastery over the spiritual forces. Thus we have before us in the
history of our own times the demonstration of the twofold nature of human
potentialities.

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The Master Idea of an Epoch is the highest expression of man's capacity for
understanding his destiny at the spiritual age he has reached. Taking the
rough estimate of twenty-five million years for the entire life-cycle of the
genus Homo on this earth, the two or three thousand years occupied by an
epoch is the equivalent of one week of our ordinary lives. Each week brings
a new lesson that the child assimilates as best it may. So in each great epoch
a new message is sent to mankind. Owing to the youth and inexperience of
the human race, and to our inability to perceive what is beyond the senses,
we make over and over again the mistake of interpreting the message in
terms of this visible world and its passing values. If we look back to the
messages of the past, we can see how this hazard has always been present,
and how mankind has never learned to value the eternal above the temporal.
But this must not be regarded as 'failure.' We do not expect children to
acquire at one step the same learning as their teachers. Week by week new
lessons are given—and mostly forgotten—but the process of education goes
on.

If we look at history upon too small a scale of time, it looks like a story of
material progress and social improvement, but of spiritual stagnation. Many
people today say that although we have far more knowledge and far better
social conditions than those of two or five or ten thousand years ago, we are
just the same human beings; as selfish, as short-sighted and as discontented
and full of fears as people have ever been. This diagnosis is only valid if we
think of humanity as an already fully developed adult being. We must lift
ourselves above the preoccupation with our immediate present. If we wish to
understand human destiny, we must study it in relation to a much greater
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time-scale than that of the history of the past few centuries. When we are
able to survey—even with our meagre knowledge—the history of mankind
over half a million years and by applying the general law of cycles to make
some estimate of future time—we begin to see a great and consistent pattern
emerge from the confusion, and our faith is confirmed that Divine
Providence has never failed to intervene at moments of need to give
mankind new lessons and new opportunities.

6. The Coming Epoch

The 'End of the Age' or the 'End of the World' are strange phrases that
have been on men's lips for thousands of years. Sometimes they have
conveyed a sense of urgency, as when the early Christians were awaiting
literally from day to day, the coming of the Lord, and thought it foolishness
to be occupied with the affairs of a world that was soon to be destroyed or
superseded by the Reign of Christ. Even when the 'latter days' belonged to
some indefinite future, the belief remained that history would have an end,
and utterly different conditions of existence would await those who 'endured
to the end.'

19

Belief in the Second Coming was not confined to the Christian churches.
The Prophet Muhammad also foretold the future degeneration of religion and
the coming of a time when men would give themselves up to the material or
satanic forces. When certain signs were fulfilled, Jesus was to come again to
the earth and separate the believers from the unbelievers, after which the
final conflict of the good and evil powers was to come and end in victory for
the righteous. According to some traditions this victory was to be the signal
for the immediate end of the world. According to others, it was to inaugurate
the millenium, when the earth would be peopled only by the righteous, and
only after a thousand years of earthly felicity was the last trumpet to sound.
Since these prophecies are preserved only in the form of verbal traditions
collected long after the death of Muhammad we cannot hope to reconstruct
with any accuracy what he really foretold. Moslem eschatologists of the
present time attach great importance to the hadisat—sayings of the Prophet
—to the effect that in the latter days men would invent carriages that would
run without horses and build houses as high as the hills. These and other
portents of the End of the Age have now been accomplished, and I have met
many Moslem learned men who believe that the Second Coming is
imminent.

It is not possible to draw any definite conclusions from all the Jewish,
Christian and Islamic traditions of a future 'End of the Age' beyond the most
important of all—that is, that the future degeneration of religion was clearly
foreseen by Those whose messages founded the Megalanthropic Epoch, and
that they predicted a fresh intervention of Providence at the very time when
the material or satanic powers would seem to be in the ascendant.
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Again and again, men have believed that the latter days must have come
and have expected the end of the world. The perennial disappointment of
these expectations has led in modern times to a complete distrust of any
literal eschatology, and those who look for the early Second Coming are
generally regarded as dreamers or cranks.

Nevertheless, we have still with us the mysterious warnings of Jesus that

the Son of Man would come as a thief in the night and that few would
recognize his coming. It is scarcely surprising that the world has failed to
understand a message that was 'told in darkness'—that is, to people who had
not yet been awakened to the spiritual realities.

20

Copyright© 2007, Undiscovered Worlds Press

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 2

A Personal Approach

1. Gurdjieff

In the present chapter, I shall give an account of the experiences that led me
by the end of 1955 to expect that in the near future an important event
connected with the New Epoch was to occur in England, and that this event
would be heralded by the arrival from the East of a man endowed with
special powers.

The story begins with my return to Gurdjieff in July 1948, after twenty-
five years of separation. At our first meeting, he asked me to read three times
the Ashiata Shiemash chapters of All and Everything—then still in
manuscript form—adding that these were most important for me. Later, he
returned to them often in conversation, and from his explanations it was
clear that he regarded the awakening of Conscience in the soul of man as the
only hope of achieving the 'Harmonious Development of Man' which was
and is the aim of his system.

Here it is necessary to add a few remarks upon Gurdjieff himself. He was

a real teacher—that is, one who brought an original lesson that he himself
had learned from some higher source. Gurdjieff was no mere syncretist who
weaves, more or less skillfully, into a single thread, strands taken from many
older traditions. It is true that nine-tenths of what he taught could be traced
to known sources—Greek Orthodox monasticism, Sufi mysticism, the
Kabbalistic cosmology, neo-platonism, the Areopagite, Pythagorean and
Egyptian numerology, Buddhist and Lamaist psychology—to name only a
few of the best known—and that his psychological exercises, including his
remarkable rhythmic movements and ritual dances, were mostly of Moslem
Dervish and Central Asiatic origin. But, when all that is derived from the
past has been accounted for, there remains in Gurdjieff's system a residue of
authentic

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innovation, not so much a specific doctrine as a new point of view that

breaks with the past and sees beyond the disputes that have divided the
religions of the world for the past thousand years. Gurdjieff points the way
to the New Epoch, even though he himself may not have been permitted to
enter the promised land.

Who and what Gurdjieff himself was, has always been an enigma. Those
who were closest to him were the most certain that they had never
understood him. I myself met him for the first time in 1920 at Kuru
Tcheshme, the palace of Prince Sabaheddin of Turkey on the Bosphorus.
Later I spent a short time at his Institute at Fontainebleau in France. I saw
much of him at the end of his life, and was with him for the last time a few
days before he died. I have read his unpublished autobiographies—for there
are more than one—and I have heard stories of his early life from members
of his family, and of the period before 1920 from friends who had known
him since the early years of this century. Each person gives a different
account of him. He is already a legendary figure—the hero or villain of
fantastic stories connected with the Dalai Lama, Stalin, the Emperor
Nicholas II, Hitler and George Bernard Shaw. Some say he was admitted to
a hidden brotherhood in Central Asia, whose secrets he stole in order to set
himself up as a teacher in the West. I am sure that all such tales are wide of
the mark. The mystery of Gurdjieff was much deeper than sham occultism or
political intrigue. He made upon me the impression of an exile from another
world who must always be a stranger in any company. There is undoubtedly
much autobiography in Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, and when asked
outright if Beelzebub was a portrait of himself, Gurdjieff often hinted at an
affirmative reply.

I am not concerned here to make an assessment of Gurdjieff or his

teaching, but only to suggest that he must have foreseen the coming of
Subud and even drew in Ashiata Shiemash a picture of the messenger who
was to come in our time.*

* cf. All and Everything, pp. 347-90. Gurdjieff explained that these chapters are prophetic and
that Ashiata Shiemash the Prophet of Conscience was still to come.

22

Apart from the predictions made in his writings, Gurdjieff in the last months
of his life referred many times to his own imminent departure from this
world and to the coming of another who would complete the work that he
had started. He even said once that the one who was to come "is already
preparing himself a long way from here" (i.e. from Paris). At another time,
in 1949, he gave a clear indication that his pupils should seek for links with
the islands of the Malay Archipelago. I must say that I did not at the time
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believe that Gurdjieff was soon to die or that the coming of the promised
Teacher would occur in my own lifetime.

It will, therefore, be understood that after Gurdjieff's death in 1949, many

of his followers* awaited the coming of another teacher who would take up
the work that Gurdjieff had left unfinished.

2. Alice Bailey and the Arcane School

Gurdjieff was by no means the only writer to predict the imminent

appearance on earth of a Messenger who was to renew the hope of mankind.
One of the chief exponents of the doctrine of a spiritual hierarchy now
working in the world to prepare for the second Coming of Christ was Alice
Bailey, Founder of the Arcane School. I had hoped to meet Mrs. Bailey
when I went to New York with Gurdjieff in January 1949, but unfortunately
she was then near the end of her earthly life, and I know her only through
her friends and her writings.

In one of her later books, The Reappearance of the Christ, published in

1948, Alice Bailey declared boldly that throughout the world preparations
were being made for the Second Coming of Christ who would appear, not
alone, but with helpers with different degrees of spiritual power. She starts
with the doctrine of Avatars which she interprets to mean Messengers
"coming down with the approval of the higher source from which they come
and with benefit to the place at which they arrive."

* cf. Kenneth Walker's Venture with Ideas, the last pages.

23

The prediction is made in very general terms: "Humanity in all lands today
awaits the Coming One—no matter by what name they may call Him. The
Christ is sensed as on His way. The second coming is imminent and, from
the lips of disciples, mystics, aspirants, spiritually-minded people and
enlightened men and women, the cry goes up, 'Let light and love and power
and death fulfil the purpose of the Coming One.' These words are a demand,
a consecration, a sacrifice, a statement of belief and a challenge to the
Avatar, the Christ, who waits in His high place until the demand is adequate
and the cry clear enough to warrant His appearance.

"One thing it is most necessary to have in mind. It is not for us to set the
date for the appearing of the Christ or to expect any spectacular aid or
curious phenomena. If our work is rightly done, He will come at the set and
appointed time. How, where or when He will come is none of our concern.
Our work is to do our utmost and on as large a scale as possible to bring
about right human relations, for His coming depends upon our work."*

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Although the general conceptions set out in Mrs. Bailey's book are not
very original and have much in common with the earlier prophecies of the
founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatsky, there are suggestions
of a more specific insight into the nature of the task to be accomplished.
Thus she writes: "We can freely aid in the reconstruction work which the
Christ proposes, if we will familiarize ourselves and all men whom we can
contact with the following facts:

"1. That the reappearance of Christ is imminent.

"2. That the Christ, immanent in every human heart, can be evoked in
recognition of His appearance.
"3. That the circumstances of His return are only symbolically related in the
world Scriptures; this may produce a vital change in the preconceived ideas
of humanity."

* Alice Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ, Lucis Press, 1948, p. 188. There are also
references to the Second Coming in the Autobiography.

24

She adds "a world at peace" as a fourth requirement. Mrs. Bailey further
recognizes that the mind of man must of necessity be unreceptive to the new
message. "It is possible surely that the ancient truism that 'the mind is the
slayer of the real' may be fundamentally true where the mass of humanity is
concerned and that the purely intellectual approach (which rejects the vision
and refuses to accept the unprovable) may be far more at fault than the
anticipation of the Knowers of God and the expectant multitude."*

The central theme of Alice Bailey's writing is the presence on earth of a

Hierarchy of conscious beings responsible for guiding human destiny and, at
the present time, of preparing the coming New Age. At the head of this
Hierarchy is Jesus Christ, but Alice Bailey refers to a mysterious Being, the
Avatar of Synthesis, incarnated for the first time on earth, with the task of
bringing about the unification of humanity.

She affirms that, "As a result of Christ's decision and His 'spiritual fusion'
with the Will of God, The Avatar of Synthesis has become for the time
being His close Associate. This is an event of supreme and planetary
importance." She describes the coming task as comprising three parts,
functions or activities:

"(a) The production of a human synthesis or unity which will lead to a

universal recognition of the one humanity, brought about through right
human relations. "(b) The establishing of right relations with the sub-human
kingdoms in nature, leading to the universal recognition that there is One
World. "(c) The anchoring of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Hierarchy of
our planet, in open expression on Earth, thus leading to the universal
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recognition the the sons of men are one."†

The Avatar of Synthesis seems to be a symbolical representative of Subud

in much the same way as Gurdjieff's Ashiata Shiemash. Alice Bailey refers
also to a new Group of World Servers whose functions seem much akin to
the Brotherhood Heechtvori of Gurdjieff.

*Ibid. pp. 58-9. † Ibid. p.78

25

3. General Expectancy in the World

If we should not attach too much importance to the predictions of

occultists and kabbalists and astrologers, we cannot disregard the universal
expectancy of some great event that is to change the course of history and
save mankind from what otherwise would seem inevitable destruction. The
expectancy of an Event has been particularly strong throughout Asia, South
America and Northern Africa, but it has not been absent in Europe and the
western states of North America. That there really is a general sense of
expectancy can be tested if we compare the present state of the world with
that of thirty to forty years ago when the peoples of East and West emerged
from the Great War hoping that their problems had finally been solved and
that a tranquil, prosperous future awaited them. It seemed then that the future
would be like the past—but exempt from the fears and injustices that had
marred the social life of the nineteenth century. Even when these hopes were
shattered by revolutions, economic crises and war, it still seemed as if a
solution might be found. But by 1948 the threat of a disastrous third world
war had cast its shadow over all people, and the great majority could see no
way of escape.

Indeed, according to all precedent, war should have come during the tense
years from 1948 to 1957. The piling up of weapons of destruction has been
on a more alarming scale than ever before in history: the statesmen of the
world have made the same grievous mistakes that they have always made;
the perennial suspicions among allies have been no less rife than they have
always been since Thucydides wrote, and yet war did not come. Only
arrogance near to madness could lead any nation or statesman to claim credit
for the continuance of a precarious peace. Much the same could be written
of threatening economic disasters, of food and population crises and of
racial conflicts. The world has been in a terribly disturbed state, and the
simple truth is that human affairs have gone far better than anyone had the
right to expect. We are too close to events to see how strange they are, but if
we view them from the perspective of all human existence on the earth—as
we have attempted to do in the first chapter—we are bound to recognize in
our present time the intervention of a Higher Power that is protecting
mankind from the worst consequences of its own folly and unbelief.

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26

Evidence of the real presence of a new force in the world can be found in
the very great numbers of people—hundreds of thousands in each of the
greater nations of the world—who have been moved to search for a way of
salvation that they cannot find by conforming to the precepts and rituals of
organized religious bodies. The revolt against Christendom inaugurated by
Kierkegaard in 1850 was profoundly religious, and so also is the revolt
against the churches that is so widespread in all countries today. It is very far
from the indifference that emptied synagogues, churches and mosques in the
years between the two wars. The best way to test for oneself the truth of the
assertion that a new force is working in the world is to travel in many
countries and mix with many people; one then sees that the phenomenon is
not confined to any one continent, race or creed, and that it is all the more
significant in that for the most part people are unaware that their experience
is shared by millions of others. There is a general thirst for a new life,
combined with the belief that it must be possible to find it.

When we bring together the various threads, we can see that the human
race is about to enter a new Epoch, and that people are looking for an inward
change rather than for some reform of the outer life. The clearest indication
of the form this change will take comes from Gurdjieff—it will be the
awakening of the sacred impulse of conscience, made possible by the
appearance of a man himself awakened and capable of transmitting the
contact to others. Concerning the change of Epoch, I will quote what I wrote
in 1947:

"...our responsibility towards ourselves, towards other people

and towards those things which are beyond our personal
concern, is that we should seek a way to ensure that our ears
shall not be closed and that our eyes shall be able to see when
the time comes. This is the aim of the psychokinetic attitude to
man, the opening of possibilities in our essence, the opening of
the inward eye and of the inward ear, which are able to
perceive indications coming from a different level. If we have
seen the character of the situation which confronts the world,
and if we look ahead over the next period, we see that we
entirely depend upon help of a very different kind from any that
we can see around us today. The essential difference between an
Epoch and Civilizations is that the former originates in
Revelation from beyond humanity, while the latter are the work
of schools within humanity itself. If I am right in the conclusion
that we are witnessing the end of an Epoch and not the
transition from one form of civilization to another, we must
place the hope of the world in a fresh Revelation of the Divine
Purpose of Mankind and prepare ourselves to be ready to
receive it."*

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The prediction embodied in this passage was to be fulfilled within ten years
—much sooner than I myself dared to expect.

* cf. Crisis in Human Affairs, pp. 230-31.

27

4. Personal Experiences

In the last section, I tried to show that there have been many indications
that we are about to witness positive manifestations of the Master Idea of a
New Epoch, as distinct from the break-up of the Old Epoch that dates back
to 1848. No one will be convinced by these indications unless he himself has
felt the urge to search for a new way of life. Those who have found them are
under an obligation to show the way to those who are still searching, and it
is in fulfilment of this obligation that this book has been written. Since the
content cannot be conveyed by words, and the outer form has no importance,
the best I can do is to describe as well as I can my own experience before
and since meeting with Subud.

It was Gurdjieff who first taught me and many others to look for the
awakening of a higher consciousness, or higher centres, that cannot be
reached by way of thought. It was he also who led us to expect the advent of
a man who would hold the key to this awakening. In conversations during
the last weeks of his life, Gurdjieff impressed upon me personally my
obligation in connection with these future events. He told me certain things
that have in part been fulfilled—others, including the most important, are
still to come. The time has not yet arrived when these predictions can be
disclosed.

When Gurdjieff died, he left behind him numerous groups of followers

that he made no attempt to weld into a single body. On the contrary, he
seemed to have entrusted each group with different tasks to be accomplished
independently. As far as I was concerned, it was clear that my duty was
towards several hundred pupils who had gathered round me at Coombe
Springs, the headquarters of the Institute for the Comparative Study of
History, Philosophy and the Sciences, that I had founded in 1946 with the
aim of studying "the factors making for development and retrogression in
man." The lectures and courses given at the Institute were based upon
Gurdjieff's system for the Harmonious Development of Man. Numerous
study groups were organized. These, by 1957, had more than five hundred
members in London, the provinces and abroad, who were being trained on
the basis of Gurdjieff's psychological and physical exercises.

5. Emin Chikhou

I must here mention that throughout my life I have received indications in

the form of an inner voice that I recognized as not coming from my ordinary

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self. Long experience has taught me that whenever I have neglected these
indications I have run into trouble, and when I have trusted them I have
been shown very clearly the way that I should go. It was in response to such
an indication that in the autumn of 1953 I left for a time my work in England
and travelled in South West Asia, where my knowledge of the languages of
these countries enabled me to meet people not usually encountered by
European visitors.

28

This journey was for me an extraordinary experience, for it brought into

the open all the vague intimations of a coming event that I had previously
placed in the distant future, long after my own death. I met members of the
Nakshibendi Order of Dervishes, and spent three weeks with one of their
brotherhoods whose headquarters is in Damascus. I found another group in
an Anatolian village near the Euphrates, and yet another in Mosul on the
Tigris. All these dervishes or sufis were convinced that the End of the Age
was imminent and urged me to prepare myself for the arrival of the Prophet
of the Latter Days, who they assured me was already living on the earth and
had sent news of his presence to the heads of the brotherhood. While in
Damascus I met almost daily the Sheikh of the brotherhood, Emin Bey
Chikhou, who spent most of his time endeavouring to prove to me from the
Qu'ran and the Hadisat that the signs of the end of the age were now being
fulfilled. All this did not surprise me, for I was aware that Arabs are
addicted to such speculations. I was, however, astonished when he assured
me that I, John Bennett, was destined to to be an opener of the way for
Western people, and that when the chosen one arrived I was to stand beside
him and be one of the witnesses to the authenticity of his mission.

6. Sheikh Abdullah Dagestani

I must say that Emin Bey's arguments did not convince me, and when I
returned to England I said very little about this part of my journey. Two
years later, however, I again received an indication: this time that I should
go to Persia, and again I met several remarkable men, among others a
Sheikh Abdullah Dagestani, whom I found under strange circumstances.

The whole story is worth recounting, for it is linked with many later events
connected with Subud. On my journey to Persia by way of Damascus and
Baghdad, I received a message through a complete stranger I met in Nicosia
that I should visit in Damascus a certain Sheikh Abdullah al Dagestani. I was
given no address, but told that I should ask for a barber called Ali the Turk
whose shop was opposite the Tomb of Sheikh Muhiddin ibn Arabi. I decided
I could not go, as my time-table did not allow a stay in Damascus. However,
the transport over the desert was delayed, and I found myself with a free
evening. I went up to the Kurdish quarter of Damascus which I know fairly
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well, and found Ali's shop, only to learn that he had been taken ill to
hospital, and no one knew where I could find him. No one I asked had heard
of Sheikh Abdullah. This did not surprise me, for in that quarter they are not
very forthcoming to strangers.

29

Before returning to the city I went through the Mosque down into the
crypt, where the Tomb of the Saint is visited by pilgrims. On an impulse, I
prayed before the tomb, and felt once again the presence of a living force
that I had experienced on my previous visits. When I came out of the
Mosque again, I ran into an old hadji who had been my guide on an earlier
visit, when I went up to Arbaein, a place of pilgrimage for Muslims as the
legendary site of Cain's killing of Abel. There, according to tradition, the
rocks were about to fall on him to avenge the fratricide, and were stayed by
the Archangel Gabriel since it was the Will of God that Cain should live and
beget children. This time the same guide was waiting as if expecting me, and
asked where I wanted to go. When I told him, he said that he knew the
Sheikh well and would take me to his house. Being sunset, he would
probably be in a tiny mosque built for his private prayer beside his house.
However, when we arrived Sheikh Abdullah was waiting for me on the roof
of his house. I was relieved to find that he spoke excellent Turkish, and after
the usual greetings he began to speak to me about myself.

Sheikh Abdullah is a true saint in whom one feels an immediate complete

trust. With him there were no lengthy arguments or quotations from the
scriptures. He simply said to me, "I was expecting you. Last night an angel
appeared to me and told me to give three messages to a stranger who would
come to my house." The first two messages were clear and unmistakable
answers to very important questions that were troubling me about my work
in England, and about which the Sheikh could not possibly have known by
any ordinary means. They convinced me that he must have powers of a kind
that I had already seen in Gurdjieff and one or two others, and prepared me
to take very seriously anything that he might say.

We were sitting in the evening on the open roof of a house on the hills
overlooking the ancient city. The Sheikh was a man of over seventy, dressed
entirely in white, with a turban and white beard but with a youthful
complexion and a steady humorous eye. One could scarcely imagine a
setting more appropriate to the transmission of a solemn message, and just
as the sun was setting be began to speak to me of the manifestation of the
power of God in the world. The Old Age was dominated by satanic
influences, but the time had come when all was to be changed. He spoke of
the man who was soon to appear and through whom the power was to be
manifested. It would not be right for me to set down here all that he actually
told me, for the event is not yet complete. My only reason for telling the
story is that it was an important factor in my subsequent decisions.
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30

After saying that someone would come from the East, Abdullah startled
me by telling me that not only was I chosen by God to be an immediate
helper of this 'someone,' but that he would come to England and even live in
my house. He added that when I returned to England I should prepare a
place for him, and assured me that henceforward I would be guided and
protected in all my doings. It is hard to explain why I found myself taking
seriously such a fantastic story and why, on my return to England, I began
without explaining my reasons, to prepare Coombe Springs to receive an
extraordinary visitor.

7. Hadji Ahmad al Tabrizi

Kerind in Northern Persia is an ancient village set in a mountain gorge of

uncommon beauty. For more than a thousand years the villagers have
worked in steel and copper. It is a blessed place where there are no
newspapers or radio and where a hundred yards from the main street a
foreigner will draw crowds of amazed sightseers.

Through Kerind village gush innumerable streams, and waterfalls are

everywhere. Above the village the valley opens and Kurdish herdsmen come
down from the mountains with their flocks. Living in a hut beside the tomb
of a forgotten Moslem saint, I met an old Dervish, Hadji Ahmad al Tabrizi,
whose North Persian Turki dialect was reasonably easy to understand. He
has a place in this story because, looking back three years, I see him as a
link between Gurdjieff and Subud. Ahmad Tabrizi is a man who inward
peace and complete surrender to God cannot be doubted by anyone who
meets him—even if they cannot understand what he says. I had a long talk
with him—arising from my question: "What makes a true dervish?" He
replied:

"I can only speak from my experience. I have never belonged to

any brotherhood, but I have wandered over the world from the
Gobi to the Arabian Desert. Wherever I have found someone
from whom I could learn, I have stayed with him as long as was
necessary—then I resumed my wanderings. This continued for
forty years and then I found that I would not receive the
teaching I needed from anyone except God. For the last ten
years I have lived where I happened to be, when I was no
longer wanted I went away. Now I am in this place and I would
like to stay to the end of my life—but if it is not the Will of God
I shall move again. Wherever I am, I have peace and prosperity
for I can supply all my needs with my own hands. I am now
more than seventy years old, but I could walk ten thousand
parasangs to visit Kerbela again or Mecca, if it should be the
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Will of God.

"You ask me the secret of the true dervish. I say that it is

surrender to the Will of God. Some people believe that it is good
to enter a brotherhood such as the Djellalis or the Kadiris. Even
in these present days there are good brotherhoods devoted to
God's Will and whose dervishes call constantly upon His name.
But we do not really need such practices, for His angels will
protect us in everything. The man who does not surrender to
God's Will becomes inevitably the slave of this world and
cannot escape from it even if he unceasingly calls upon the
name of God."

31

These simple statements, made as if they were self-evident, produced a

strong impression on me. I could see for myself that I was sitting with a man
in whom Conscience was awakened, and who lived by his conscience at
every moment of the day. I had met one other such old dervish, a Mevlevi,
Farhad Dede in Aleppo. Though both these old men had never been in
contact with Europeans, I felt that if I could bring them to England they
would be witnesses to many of the powers that enter man when his personal
self-will is surrendered. Moreover, I realized that both would cheerfully have
faced the complete disruption of their peaceful existence and would have
accepted my invitation, had they felt that in doing so they would be serving
the Will of God. When I left Hadji Ahmad Tabrizi, I knew that I had
received a lesson that I must never forget. All my life I had tried to 'do' too
much, and was still the slave of my own self-will. If I was to make a step
forward, I must find the way to leave my self-will behind. In some way
Hadji Ahmad had reinforced the feeling that when I returned to England
many things would begin to change.

8. Intimations from the Far East

During 1956, I first began to receive indications that a new force had
appeared in the Far East. Letters from Japan referring to a 'Master' whose
pupils were following Gurdjieff's teaching without having heard of
Gurdjieff. A friend in Hong Kong wrote guardedly about a strange invitation
to take part in 'spiritual exercises' which he did not understand. Later another
old friend in Cyprus told me that he had made contact with an English
Moslem, Husein Rofé, who had spent some years in Indonesia and claimed
to be able to transmit a contact with a great Force, and who seemed to be
familiar with the works of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. Several references to
Indonesia reminded me of Gurdjieff's hint that we should keep in touch with
the Dutch Indies. Finally, in September 1956, I met Rofé himself, and was
confronted with the question whether or not his Master or Guide,

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Muhammad Subuh, was the one whose coming Gurdjieff and others had
prophesied.

In November that year I went to America to see Madame Ouspensky, the

widow of P. D. Ouspensky, who is recognized by the pupils of Gurdjieff
throughout the world as the wisest counsellor and friend of all those who
follow his system. I told her much of what I have written in this chapter and
asked her advice. She said, "Ever since Mr. Gurdjieff went, I have been
expecting someone to come—now seven years have passed, and no one has
come. Whether he will come during my life or not, I do not know. But we
must try everything and see for ourselves. If you wish to try this, why not do
so? I advise you to keep it to yourself and a few friends with long
experience."

32

On my return to England, I joined with eleven other former pupils of

Ouspensky and Gurdjieff who had previously asked Rofé to give them the
contact of which he had spoken. It was clear to me from the start that we
had met with something very different from anything we had known before.
After a few weeks some of us met to talk over our experiences, and we all
agreed that they corresponded to the 'awakening of Conscience' that
Gurdjieff had described.

In March 1957 I went again to America and met there both Madame
Ouspensky and Madame de Salzmann, who is the recognized leader of the
Gurdjieff groups in France, England and America. When I had recounted
my experiences and impressions, both ladies agreed that it was necessary to
investigate Subud thoroughly. I said that we had learned that Pak Subuh
himself would come to Europe if he was invited. It was agreed that we
should send the invitation and withhold judgement until we had met him.

Madame Ouspensky asked me how I would recognize a real teacher. I said

that I had met many unusual men, but none so extraordinary as Gurdjieff. I
did not think I could be deceived if I met a man who might have strange
powers but not real Being. Madame Ouspensky said, "That is perhaps true.
But you cannot rely on yourself. My advice to you is to pray. Only prayer
will help before such a question.

The stage was set and the invitation was sent. Pak Subuh with his wife and
three Indonesian helpers arrived in London on the 22nd May, 1957. I met
him at the airport, having received permission to go through to 'Immigration.'
I found him sitting quietly on a chair waiting for the others to come through.
In the midst of the usual tumult of arrival, I was impressed by two things:
one was the ordinariness of his appearance, and the other was the sense of
complete calm and detachment which not only came from him but entered
into me as soon as I saw him.
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33

From the first evening of his arrival, I saw and learned many things that
convinced me personally that I was on the right path. My conviction was not
shared by others who are leaders of Gurdjieff's groups, and to whom it
appeared that Subud was something new to be entered only at the price of
breaking away from Gurdjieff. Since respect for the beliefs of others is
common ground for any sane attitude towards life on this earth, I do not
question the decision of those who have elected to follow strictly in the path
traced by Gurdjieff and his principal exponents, P. D. Ouspensky and
Maurice Nicoll. I have given my own reasons for believing that the coming
of Subud was foreseen and foretold by Gurdjieff. Those reasons are
necessarily subjective, and cannot be valid for another person who has not
passed through the same experiences.

In any case it is quite clear that Subud was never intended to be

transmitted only to Gurdjieff's followers. Pak Subuh himself says that it is
not tied to any religion or method. For Christians, Subud can be a means—
indeed a miraculous means—for deepening their Christian faith and enabling
them to see the literal truth of words that are too often uttered without
inward conviction. The same is true for Jews and Moslems as well as for the
followers of the Eastern religions. For those who follow special ways and
systems, such as that of Gurdjieff, that seek the awakening of the higher
consciousness latent in man, Subud seems to me to offer a most powerful
instrument for achieving what they know to be necessary but find in practice
to be beyond their powers. I can say for myself that not only has my
Christian faith been strengthened, but I have found it possible to achieve
much of what I had for many years striven for through Gurdjieff's method.
But I believe that it would be possible for anyone to achieve exactly the
same results if he had never heard of Gurdjieff. Moreover, I have seen for
myself—what I have always believed to be true—that the Christian faith is
in no way incompatible with the beliefs of Judaism and Islam. The more one
sees the more one understands that all the great religions are deeply and
fundamentally true. It is not only their ethics or their belief in a higher
human destiny, or even the belief in God, that is true, but the very dogmas
that appear to be in contradiction with one another—each is true, and true,
moreover, literally and with no need for gloss or compromise.

It is the growing realization of the unity of the Divine Purpose throughout

all human history that is for me the strongest evidence that Subud is also a
Manifestation of the Divine Purpose, and has been sent to the world at a
time when help is most needed.

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Concerning Subud

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 3

The Coming of Subud

1. Birth and Early Years of Muhammad Subuh*

The events recounted in this chapter up to 1956 are known to me only

through what Pak Subuh has told me of his own experiences, and what we
have heard from his Indonesian followers. I cannot reproduce all that we
have been told, for Pak Subuh wishes that 'hearsay evidence' should be as far
as possible excluded from this account. I am obliged therefore to confine
myself almost solely to those events which, having been witnessed by others
than Pak Subuh, could, in principle at least, be verified independently. The
deep impression made upon those to whom Pak Subuh has spoken of his
own personal experiences is necessarily lost by this restriction, but it seems
right that some account should be given of the manner in which Subud came
into the world. Of course, this can only be known 'externally,' that is, on the
level of our sense experience which belongs to the lowest or material world.
What we call 'facts' are really only shadows of shadows—but since they are
all that we see, they are all that we can describe. My facts are meagre, but
they may help the reader to form his own picture.

Though of noble descent, Pak Subuh's parents were small farmers in

Kedung Djati near Semarang, a town in Middle Java. He was born on 22nd
June, 1901, and it is recorded that many volcanoes erupted and earth tremors
were observed in Java in those days. According to custom his father chose
his name and called him Sukarno.

*SUBUH, the personal name, comes from an Arabic word meaning sunrise or dawn.
SUBUD, the name given to the activity as a whole is the contraction of three Sanskrit words
explained in Chapter VI. To avoid confusion, I shall use the prefix Pak which means father, a
common Indonesian term for respected elderly gentleman, to designate the man Muhammad
Subuh.

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The child fell sick and for several days could not take food. His death
seemed inevitable and the women of the house were wailing their laments,
when an old man passing by asked the reason, and on being told that a child
was dying, asked his name. He said that the name was wrongly chosen and
that he should be called Muhammad Subuh. His father accordingly changed
his name and from that moment, the child began to take food and grew up
strong and healthy.

His mother being occupied with her younger children, his upbringing was
mostly left to his grandmother. As soon as he could speak, the child gave
proof of clairvoyant power, discovering lost objects and foretelling events
that were to occur to people he met. When asked by a journalist to give an
example, Pak Subuh said that when less than three years old, his
grandmother had taken him to a betrothal ceremony. He declared that the
couple, who had not yet seen one another, were incompatible and would
separate within a year. When his prediction was duly fulfilled, his
grandmother refused to take him to any more betrothals. Apart from such
external indications, the child frequently received inner indications about his
life and behaviour. He found especially that when he was in the company of
other children who told lies to hide their faults and misdeeds, he could not
bring himself to imitate them. He even tried, as an experiment, to see if he
could speak falsely and found that his voice always refused to make the
required sounds.

When about sixteen years of age, Subuh received clear and repeated
indications that he was to die on reaching the age of thirty-two. Since his
experience had led him to accept such indications as completely reliable,
Muhammad Subuh decided to leave school and search for the reason for his
strange fate. In Java, there were many teachers or Gurus. There were
Christian priests, Catholic and Protestant, orthodox Moslem Ulema, as well
as Sufi murshids. There were also Chinese Taoists and Buddhist monks,
Hindus, and ancient Javanese communities that had preserved traditions of
the Far Eastern archipelago that probably go back more than five thousand
years. Muhammad Subuh went from one to another of these teachers. One of
them was Sheikh Abdurrahman of the same Nakshibendi order of dervishes
as Sheikh Abdullah Dagestani. This is now the most flourishing of all the
Sufi sects, with members throughout the Moslem world. Muhammad Subuh
soon observed that the Sheikh would not impart to him the same teaching
that he was giving to other pupils, and was sad to feel that he was neglected.
When he asked the reason, Sheikh Abdurrahman replied, "You are not of
our kin—it is not meet that I should teach you." Muhammad Subuh
wondered what this could mean, and even asked himself if he was of the kin
of Satan that no one should wish to teach him. Another time, when he was
only twenty years old, he visited an old woman in East Java who was
famous for her wisdom and spiritual gifts, and to whom many of the Ulema
and learned men came for teaching. When he entered the room, where she
sat surrounded by her pupils, she astonished them all by rising, paying
reverence to him, and asking him to occupy her place.

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36

Again and again, he found that the teachers he went to refused to answer
his questions and declared that he was not of the same stuff as they. When
pressed, they told him that his answers would never come from man, but by
direct Revelation from God. None of this satisfied Muhammad Subuh, for
his chief wish was to be an ordinary man and to live an ordinary life.

Realizing finally that his quest was fruitless, Muhammad Subuh decided
that his right course was to undertake and fulfil the normal duties of man on
this earth—that is, to take care of his parents, to marry and beget children, to
earn his living and to take his place as a member of the society to which he
belonged. He became a book-keeper and worked for fourteen years, first in
commerce and later in local government service as assistant to the treasurer
of the town of Semarang. In speaking of his years as a householder, Pak
Subuh has described the success of the various undertakings he served. In
his last post, he saw within two years a municipality that had always been
insolvent balance its budget and find money for various undertakings needed
for the people's welfare.

2. The Beginning of the Latihan

In Muhammad Subuh's twenty-fourth year, he had the first of a series of

remarkable experiences that led to his final understanding of his mission in
life. One night in the summer of 1925, he was walking in the open under a
moonless sky, when he saw high above his head a ball of brilliant light that
seemed brighter than the noonday sun. While he was wondering about the
meaning of this apparition, the light itself descended and entered him
through the crown of his head, filling his body with radiance. The vibrations
produced in his body and feelings by this experience were the first
intimation of the working of the spiritual exercises which later were to be
known by the name of Subud. That the apparition of the ball of light was not
a subjective hallucination peculiar to himself is indicated by the fact that
many friends in the town and even many miles away also saw it and came
the next morning to his house to enquire what had happened. On subsequent
occasions, others, especially his mother, witnessed the same phenomena as
himself and often could verify and amplify his own descriptions.

For nearly three years, such experiences were a nightly occurrence, so that
he scarcely slept by night, and yet he found the strength to fulfil his life
obligations by day. He neither sought nor welcomed the inner working,
chiefly because he did not wish to be different from others or to receive
gifts that were not given to all men. He tried to drive away the experiences
by going to the cinema, but found that however he might keep his attention
on the screen, the inner state would return and remind him that a quite
different process was present in him also. He sought, by throwing himself
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wholeheartedly into his professional duties and his family life, to bring about
the cessation of his inner experiences. During this time he studied
accountancy more seriously, and five children, two boys and three girls,
were born to him and his wife, whom he had married in 1922.

37

The nightly visitations ceased early in 1928, and for the next five years he
almost ceased to be aware of the inward working that had started in his
twenty-fourth year. Nevertheless during this time his friends began to resort
to him for advice and help, recognizing that he had the word of truth which
could penetrate to their real needs. He was not regarded at that time as being
above the ordinary human nature, but as a man of exceptional insight and
understanding of his fellow men and their problems. As the years passed he
came himself to feel that he had found his place, and although he realized
that his abilities were wasted as a book-keeper in a small municipal office,
he had no ambition to achieve worldly success.

To avoid any misunderstanding as to the nature of Pak Subuh's

experiences between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two, it may be said that
during the three years from twenty-four to twenty-seven, the spiritual
exercises, subsequently given to thousands of others, were enacted in him
almost nightly and he experienced in himself the completion of the four
stages of purification to be described later. Indications are often received in
the exercises that show what is necessary for one's own inner and outer life.
One example cited by Pak Subuh, from his own experience, may give some
idea of the combination of symbolic or pictorial representation with a more
direct prehension that frequently occurs. About one year after the process
started in him, Muhammad Subuh began to be troubled by his inability to
understand the meaning of his experiences and the impossibility of receiving
help from any outside source. One night, he received the answers that he
needed, and realized also that he was neither to receive nor to transmit a new
'teaching.' This raised a new question for him. He was fully aware of the
importance of the transformation that was taking place in his own nature, but
he felt that it could not be right that he alone should receive the contact. If
he was not to teach anything, how was his experience to be transmitted to
others? He felt that he would rather not receive it at all, than enjoy it alone.

After some time, he received a clear indication that he had been chosen as
a means whereby everyone who wished to do so could receive exactly the
same contact and pass through the same process of transformation as he had
himself. This is indeed what occurred later, and herein lies the crucial and
extraordinary quality of Subud that distinguishes it from any other kind of
spiritual work of which I have heard or read—namely, that it can be
transmitted integrally and without diminution from one human being to
another. This is contrary to reason, for it violates the natural principle that
every irreversible action must involve a loss of quality. Therefore the
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contact is what matters, since, unless it can be made by everyone directly,
diminution, adulteration and distortion are inevitable. This is the common lot
of all teachings, and it can well be understood that Muhammad Subuh found
himself shrinking from the possibility that he might become a teacher,
having the contact himself and seeing others deprived of it.

38

When he reached his thirty-second year, Muhammad Subuh had become,

to all appearance, a normal householder busied with the cares of a growing
family and his everyday duties. On the night of 21st/22nd June, 1933, there
occurred an event of which it seems wrong even to attempt a description.
We have heard Pak Subuh speak of it several times, but always in conditions
when our own consciousness was set free from its usual limitations.
Nevertheless, this date is so important for the history of Subud that it is
necessary to record the fact that on this day Muhammad Subuh became
aware of the true significance of his life on earth. He understood that it was
his mission and his task to transmit to everyone who asked for it the inner
working of the spirit that he himself had received.

3. Transmission of the Contact

From this time onward, Pak Subuh began to withdraw from his official
duties; and, after the time needed to train his successor, resigned from
government service, and devoted himself thenceforward to the transmission
of the spiritual contact. The first to receive it was the chief disciple of the
Nakshi Sheikh to who he had gone for explanations. Later the Sheikh
himself, by then a very old man, set out on a journey to receive the latihan,
but died before he could meet Pak Subuh again.

Since Pak Subuh himself had made no attempt to propagate a teaching and
indeed repudiated the role of teacher, the spreading of his work was at first
very slow. Only a few friends and former fellow-seekers came to him, and
of those not many could grasp the simplicity and universality of what he had
to give. It was not until 1941, when Java was soon to be occupied by the
Japanese, that news of the benefits bodily and spiritual obtained in the
latihan began to spread abroad. The Japanese occupation once again retarded
the extension of the movement and it was not until after the war that it
moved from Jogjakarta, the capital of one of the ancient kingdoms of Java.

An incident of the Japanese occupation illustrates both Pak Subuh's

submission and the difference between his role and that of a teacher. At one
time, it appeared that no one's life was safe in Java, and Pak Subuh thought it
might perhaps be his duty to write down all that had been revealed to him
concerning human and cosmic mysteries, lest it all be lost if he should
prematurely leave the earthly scene. He accordingly set himself to write, and
in six months had completed twelve volumes of manuscript. Soon afterwards
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he left home to spend a few weeks in another town. When he returned he
found that the family, being short of fuel, and mistaking his manuscript for
waste paper, had burned it all. He realized that this was an indication that he
was not intended to transmit a teaching and wrote no more of the mysteries
of heaven and earth.

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4. The Foundation of Subud

On 1st February, 1947, Subud was established in Jogjakarta as a

Brotherhood with simple statutes, the main theme of which was that the aim
of the movement is to enable people of all races and creeds to share in the
worship of God. For this no organization is needed, but since we have to live
in the world, it is necessary to provide external conditions for a harmonious
social life. The wording of the preamble to the original statutes gives an idea
of Pak Subuh's intention in founding it:

Preamble to the Statutes of the First Subud Brotherhood 1947.

"Inasmuch as we are certain with all our being that it is the Will
of God that we should rightly fulfil our earthly obligations, we
must in the conduct of worldly affairs make the fullest use of all
the instruments bestowed upon us for that purpose by Divine
Decree. "Inasmuch also as, for the perfecting of eternal life, we
have been endowed by God with a Spiritual Essence , this
essence also requires both the means and the opportunities
necessary for its harmonious development in such a manner as
to give true meaning and significance to all our inner impulses
and outer activities in the station that we happen to occupy in
life, as well as in our relationships with our fellow men, in our
attitude towards ourselves and also in our way upon the path
that will lead us back towards our Source. "In the course of our
search for Spiritual Development and in our desire to share
with all Mankind the common aim of true Worship of God, we
are confronted with the world and with its questions. Upon the
path, there thus arise sundry questions concerning, for example,
the formation of groups and hence of directors and those under
direction, the respective needs of young and oldÑin general, all
questions that concern the organization of people who are
brought together by a common aim: namely, in this instance,
that of achieving unity of understanding and hence to the
performance of our duties in perfect harmony of intention and
action."

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5. Susila Budhi Dharma

Soon after the foundation of Subud, Pak Subuh was inspired to write a
lengthy poem in high Javanese with the title 'Susila Budhi Dharma.' The
subject matter of the poem is the array of forces that act upon man during his
life on earth. A recurring theme is the working of the latihan as a means of
liberating man from the sway of all the lower forces, and of bringing them
under his control.

High Javanese is rapidly becoming a dead language, known only to those

of royal or noble descent, and even among these it is now seldom taught to
children. Those who know the language affirm that the poem Susila Budhi
Dharma is a literary masterpiece, but we have it only in an Indonesian
version which is a prose interpretation of the contents of the poem, written
by Pak Subuh himself. It is hoped that an authorized English translation may
soon be published. An edition in three languages was issued privately in Java
by the Subud Brotherhood. It conveys, by unusual imagery, the working of
material, vegetable, animal and human forces in the life of man, and ends
with an account of the true relationship of the sexes in marriage and
parenthood.

6. The Expansion of Subud

After the independence of Indonesia was proclaimed in 1949, Subud first

began to acquire an international character. Husein Rofé arrived in Java
early in 1950 and soon was received as a member of Subud. After spending
nearly two years as a member of Pak Subuh's own household, Rofé became
an active missionary and helped to make Subud known in many centres
outside Java. It was at this time that news of Subud first began to reach
Western countries, chiefly through articles written by Rofé for various
Islamic journals. Several Dutch and other European people came to the
latihan. By 1954, branches had been established in several of the Indonesian
islands, in Hong Kong, and in Japan. An article by Rofé attracted the
attention of Meredith Starr, a well-known authority on methods of spiritual
training, then living in Cyprus. Arriving there towards the end of 1955, he
transmitted the latihan to a number of interested people. This in turn led to
the decision that Rofé should come to England, where he arrived in the
summer of 1956.

Meanwhile, the expansion of Subud in the Indonesian Islands was

proceeding steadily. More than two thousand men and women had received
the latihan, which was regularly practised in Djakarta, the capital, as well as
in many outlying places.

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Reports of remarkable cures of illness were undoubtedly one of the main

factors in the growing interest in Subud. On the whole, the orthodox Moslem
authorities, the Ulema, were lukewarm towards a movement so catholic in
its scope as Subud. Pak Subuh did not make, and has never made, any
distinctions of race or creed among those accepted for the latihan,
emphasizing that Subud is not a new religion nor a system of thought, but
simply a means whereby the spiritual life can be awakened and strengthened
in each person according to his or her personal faith and practice. Since it is
very hard for most people to separate the pure religious experience as such
from some particular dogma concerning Divine Mysteries, the simple
message of Subud often seems like a call to abandon, or at least to change
one's own beliefs and practices. It is only by degrees that the real
significance of Subud as the way to find the true content of every teaching
and every creed becomes apparent. This must largely account for its
relatively slow progress in the twenty-one years from 1933 to 1954.
7. Subud in England

When Subud came to England, it found a propitious soil among many

hundreds of followers of Gurdjieff's system for the Harmonious
Development of Man. Gurdjieff's system is catholic, and founded in the
belief that in all men there is the inherent potentiality of a conscious
awakening of powers that are not temporal but eternal. This potentiality lies
dormant in the man who has not accepted the obligation of working upon
himself to eradicate the influences of the sub-human forces by which his life
is dominated. No previous preparation or training is required for admission
to the latihan, and its action is as effectual in those who have had little or no
experience of spiritual exercises as in those who have devoted all their lives
to such matters. Nevertheless, it also cannot be gainsaid that the working of
Subud is mysterious and incomprehensible to the logical thought of the
average cultured man or woman of our times. For those who have already
grasped the distinctions so clearly made by Gurdjieff between the higher and
lower centres, between the essence and the personality, between conscience
and morality, the working of Subud, though still mysterious, is nevertheless
wholly acceptable. Gurdjieff's insistence on the uselessness in the spiritual
life of that which he calls the 'formatory apparatus', that is, the mechanism of
associative thought and linguistic analysis, fully accords with Pak Subuh's
reiterated advice to put aside efforts of thought and feeling and await the
experience of a purified and thereby empty consciousness.

It was, therefore, not surprising that when Husein Rofé arrived in England
he found the readiest response in a small number of men and women who
for many years had studied Gurdjieff's method, but were convinced that it
was not complete unless a way could be found to achieve the awakening of
the higher centres of consciousness by a direct contact.

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8. The Arrival of Pak Subuh

Muhammad Subuh with his wife and helpers arrived from Indonesia on 23rd
May, 1957, and within a week had accepted an invitation from our Institute*
to make his headquarters while in England at Coombe Springs. Many
members of the Institute were soon admitted to the latihan, and it seemed
possible that all the groups in England interested in Gurdjieff's ideas would
join forces in Subud. I have already described the events that led to the
suspension of this expectation.

Cardinal Wolsey's Spring House at Coombe Springs

I may be forgiven if I describe one strange incident that occurred during the
first week of Pak Subuh's stay at Coombe Springs. Though the house is not
old, the grounds contain very ancient springs, the waters of which were
believed to have healing power. In 1514, when Cardinal Wolsey built
Hampton Court Palace, he sent for an Italian engineer—reputed to be pupil
of Leonardo da Vinci—to bring water from Coombe Springs to the Palace.
Numerous oak conduits lined with lead collected the waters from Coombe
Hill and brought them to a central point now in our grounds where two
conduit houses were erected, joined by a long subterranean tunnel. Two lead
tanks were sunk in the ground to enable, so it is said, the local people to
maintain the practice of dipping sick children in the water. Round the
conduit houses oak trees were planted, some of which—now nearly four
hundred and fifty years old—are still standing. There has always been an
atmosphere of mystery and constraint about this corner of the grounds, and

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some have believed that ghosts or troubled spirits haunted it. I myself, going
to the springs in the middle of the night, have often often experienced a
strange unease, as if entities both friendly and unfriendly were aware of my
presence.

43

In the middle of June, a sense of oppression and foreboding seemed to

have invaded Coombe Springs. One evening, there was an extraordinary
force present in the latihan. Everyone living at Coombe went to bed with the
feeling that they had been witnesses of some gigantic though invisible
struggle. At about three o'clock in the morning, nearly all the fifty or so
people living at Coombe Springs were awakened by the sound of an
explosion that was like a thunderclap in the very grounds, and yet somehow
different. Someone compared it the next day to the sound she had heard
during the war of an aircraft exploding overhead. It transpired that
neighbours in the adjoining houses had heard nothing. And yet one woman
living ten miles away telephoned the next morning to say that she had heard
the explosion at three o'clock and had somehow connected it with Coombe
Springs. Everyone noticed next day that the atmosphere had lightened and
that the sense of oppression had entirely disappeared.

When Pak Subuh was asked about this, he explained that evil forces had
been resisting the coming of Subud to Coombe, but that they had now been
destroyed. Such incidents can mean little to those who hear of them at
second hand. They are not 'evidence' of anything; but those who were
present that evening could not doubt that some kind of battle had been
waged and that the 'good' forces had conquered. This is but one of the many
strange experiences that occurred both to individuals and to groups of people
during the months of June and July. I have included it only so that the record
may be reasonably complete.

There were weeks of intense activity that made us recognize the change of
tempo that is characteristic of Subud. One of Ouspensky's former pupils
having, in April 1957, attended a film of some of the Gurdjieff rhythmic
dances at which nearly a thousand of his followers were present, remarked
that it had taken thirty-six years since Ouspensky first came to England in
1921 for the movement to grow from forty to a thousand members, and
predicted that to establish Subud in the West might take no less time. In the
event, Subud has established itself in England in fewer weeks than other
movements have taken years. It is already known throughout Europe, and
the chief difficulty is to keep pace with its growth.

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9. The 'Healing' of Eva Bartok

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Obvious contributory factors to the growth of Subud have been first, that
several hundred people were able, at least a little, to understand the
significance of Subud, and second, the publicity given by the press in
November 1957 to the circumstances attending the birth of Eva Bartok's
child Deana. A far more important reason for the spreading of Subud had
been the rapid and unmistakable action of the latihan upon all sorts and
conditions of men and women. The greater number of those who have come
to the latihan after the initial stages have done so on account of the clearly
visible changes for the better in their friends and relatives who had already
started.
Eva Bartok at Coombe Springs
circa 1957

In view of the interest that has been aroused

in the case of Eva Bartok and the misleading
accounts that have appeared in the press, it
may be wise to include here the history of
the events as we witnessed them ourselves.
Miss Bartok has for several years been
interested in Gurdjieff's method, and had
impressed us by the tenacity with which she
has held to the work under the most adverse
life circumstances. A refuge from Hungary
at the time of the Communist occupation in
1946, exposed inevitably to pressures that
would either have turned the head or ruined
the character of most women, she retained
nevertheless her religious faith and the belief
that a way of inner life could be found. The
more sensational events of her life are well
known and need not be recounted. Her first
chance of making a film in Hollywood, still
the Mecca of film stars, came in the summer
of 1956, but she went there a tired and
distressed young woman, having failed to
achieve a harmonious marriage with a
charming and brilliant, but headstrong,
German film actor. In April 1957 she
telephoned me from Hollywood to say that she was very ill, and that a
serious operation was unavoidable. She wished to have the operation in
England, but only after she had spoken to me about preparing for death. As
she was speaking, a clear indication came to me that she was destined to be
cured through Subud, and that this would have many consequences that I
foresaw with very mixed feelings. Since the Institute was founded at
Coombe Springs, in April 1946, we have carefully avoided publicity, and
indeed had been remarkably successful in turning aside requests for
permission to photograph and write articles about our work. It had always
appeared to us that spiritual work could only prosper if it were kept out of
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the limelight. At the time I did not understand that Subud was under
different laws from those of most spiritual undertakings.

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Miss Bartok reached England on 18th May, a week before Pak Subuh
arrived, and having grown considerably worse consulted two surgeons both
of whom appear to have advised her very earnestly to submit to an operation
without delay. Although her disease was not malignant, there was a danger
of complications that might prove fatal.

In this situation a very grave decision had to be taken: one that I would not
wish to be faced with again. A young woman was threatened on the one
hand with the danger of fatal complications, and on the other with the virtual
certainty that if she had the operation she would lose her child and even all
hopes of motherhood. There was the possibility that the Subud latihan might
save her. Pak Subuh himself had not then left Java, and our only direct
evidence of the healing power of Subud came from three or four cases in the
original small group, whose members had found an undoubted improvement
in their health. The position was explained to Miss Bartok, and she elected
to wait, saying that it seemed that she had now the possibility of the spiritual
awakening for which she had been waiting since her early youth, and that
she would take any risk rather than lose this chance.

When I was driving Pak Subuh to London from the Airport I told him of Eva
Bartok's situation. After waiting, as he always does when confronting serious
questions, for an inner indication, Pak Subuh said that she should receive the
latihan, and for this she should be moved down to Coombe Springs. The
next day Pak Subuh sent his wife Ibu and Ismana Achmad to the Lodge at
Coombe Springs where Miss Bartok was staying with Mrs. Elizabeth
Howard. She was thus the first person in Europe to receive the latihan
directly from Ibu Subuh. The only visible change was a relief of certain
distressing symptoms, and for a fortnight very little seemed to be happening.
Her own doctor, who saw her daily, confirmed that she was in no immediate
danger, but added his own advice to the recommendations of her surgeon
that she should agree to the operation as soon as possible. She accepted this
advice, and arrangements were made for her to enter a London hospital on
the evening of 10th June.

46

During these nineteen days Pak Subuh himself did not once see Miss Bartok.
The absence of any apparent improvement in the clinical symptoms only
seemed to emphasize the reality of the inner psychic change. Everyone who
saw Miss Bartok at this time was impressed by the change of her expression,
and by the serenity with which she was facing the prospect of a dangerous
operation. It is here worth remarking that several months later a

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distinguished prelate who asked for information about Subud affirmed that
his interest had been aroused by the unmistakable spiritual transformation
that was disclosed by the photographs he had seen of Miss Bartok before
and after she came to Subud.

When the hospital arrangements were reported to Pak Subuh on the morning
of 10th June, he personally went down to the Lodge, and with Ibu, Ismana,
Elizabeth Howard and myself, entered into the latihan standing round Miss
Bartok's bed. This was for the two English people the first demonstration of
the indescribable power of the Subud latihan. The little bedroom was
charged with energy that annihilated all personal feeling and produced a
state of consciousness in which all seemed to be sharing in one and the same
experience as the sick woman. We felt the same physical pains, the same
fears and the same weak but growing faith in the power of God. None of us
could have said how long the experience lasted, but afterwards we found that
it was barely forty minutes. Then without having spoken a word Pak Subuh
went away. Miss Bartok herself was in acute pain which persisted through
the day. When Pak Subuh was consulted, he said, "Let her doctor give her a
good sedative. It will not interfere with the exercise. Now the crisis is over,
and she will not need an operation."

It transpired as he predicted. From the morning of 11th June, Miss Bartok's

condition began to improve, and within three weeks she was confident that
she would have a living child. This was soon to be confirmed by
experienced obstetric surgeons, and the baby was successfully delivered in
October and is already strong and thriving.

47

For those of us who were witnesses of the whole event, it was far more
astonishing than can be described in words. It was not the fact of a cure that
impressed us, but the unmistakable evidence that the psychic or spiritual
change preceded the somatic. The healing of a distressed soul is more
remarkable than recovering from an illness. When one sees the two in
juxtaposition and can follow the course of the transition from the psychic to
the somatic, one cannot doubt that a very great and good force is at work.
Since then we have seen many other such cases, and the link between the
psychic and the somatic has always been clearly in evidence.

10. Subud in Europe

On 1st September, Pak Subuh with his party left England for a six weeks'
visit to Holland, and new branches of Subud were established at the Hague
and in Eindhoven. He returned to England on 14th October.

Pak Subuh's visit to England ended on 16th December, when he and most
of his Indonesian helpers left for Germany. From his first arrival in Munich,
it was evident that the response to Subud would be positive though perhaps,

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in the absence of preparation, slower than in England. Within six weeks
more than two hundred men and women had been admitted to the latihan.
This was the more remarkable in that there was no pre-existing group to
prepare the way. The arrangements were mainly undertaken by Frau Ruth
Gruson, herself a follower of the work at Coombe Springs of many years
standing. Her father, Professor Wüttig, at the age of eighty-six, asked to be
admitted to the latihan, and though now probably the oldest member of
Subud in Europe, looks ten years younger than when he started.

11. The Influx from Overseas

The story of the coming of Subud would not be complete without

reference to the remarkable influx of people from all parts of the world—in
many cases without prior knowledge of what they were to find. A mere list
of the countries from which men and women have set out to find Pak Subuh
is sufficiently impressive. They include Singapore, India, Ceylon, Pakistan,
Turkey, Cyprus, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Holland, Germany,
Sweden and Norway, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa,
Canada and the United States, and finally two came from Kodiak Island in
the North Pacific, having travelled 11,300 miles. But the circumstances of
the visits were more extraordinary than their number and variety. One of two
examples must suffice.

48

An Indian lady, Mrs. Bulbul Arnold, came to Coombe Springs at the

suggestion of her sister-in-law, and asked for advice on behalf of her
husband, who was suffering from an acute asthma with complications for
which no medical remedy had been found. He had been flown to
Switzerland to see a famous specialist, but could get only temporary relief.
In the outcome both husband and wife joined Pak Subuh in Holland, and not
only was Mr. Arnold's condition radically improved, but remarkable changes
occurred in their lives that have already benefited many others.

About the same time, a well-known journalist from Ceylon felt during
June a strong urge to come to England, although he had no clear business
reasons for leaving Ceylon. On arrival, he telephoned to Coombe Springs,
and that evening was told about Subud and at once recognized that it was for
this that he had come to England. Returning home after four weeks, he was
instrumental in preparing several score of people, and a letter was received
inviting Pak Subuh to visit the country on his way back to Indonesia. In
January 1958, Subud was taken to Ceylon by Ichsan Ahmad and Bulbul
Arnold, and within three weeks three hundred and twenty-six people had
been admitted to the latihan. Thus from two apparently unconnected and
personal impulses, Subud had reached a country where the sense of
expectancy in recent years has been exceptionally strong.

George Cornelius, who had come in 1940 to Gurdjieff's work while

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working in the office of the American Naval Attache in London, had retired
with his wife Mary to Kodiak Island, and we had little news of them for
seven years. There seemed to be no likelihood of their returning to England.
Friends at Coombe Springs had written to Mary about Subud, but her
impressions had apparently been unfavourable. Nevertheless, in November
1957, both George and Mary had begun to feel unaccountably drawn
towards England. News of her mother's illness was a reason for Mary to
make the journey, but her husband was occupied with a new business
undertaking and could not get away. Suddenly an unexpected opportunity
presented itself—heralded as has often happened by a symbolic dream.
When they arrived in England, Mary Cornelius said that she did not wish to
come near Coombe Springs for fear of becoming involved. Almost in spite
of themselves, both did come, and were so strongly impressed by the change
that they found in their friends whom they had known seven years before
that they asked to be opened. In both there was an unusually quick and
positive response, and they returned to Kodiak after a few weeks convinced
that their coming to England had been providentially ordered. I have
recounted this story to illustrate what frequently occurs—the personality is
reluctant and wishes to escape, but the essence is drawn by a force that
cannot be denied.

49

Such events taken singly could scarcely be evidence of a conscious

directing power working behind the scenes in Subud. When scores of similar
cases can be cited, it is still possible to invoke coincidence or the natural
tendency of man to generalize from inadequate premises. When taken in
conjunction with the altogether unusual and inexplicable experience of more
than a thousand people from many races and religions drawn from all parts
of the world, it is hard to explain the events except by invoking the action of
a Conscious Angelic Power, the presence of which man himself in his
ordinary states of awareness and sensitivity does not even suspect.

It should not be inferred that all who come to Subud continue with the
latihan. A proportion—less than one-tenth—go away almost at once, either
because they are afraid or because they expect some strange or miraculous
experience which they do not find. The chief obstacle is the tendency to
'compare' and so to be influenced by what appears to be happening to other
people. Indeed with so many reasons for giving up, it is really remarkable
that so high a proportion has remained.

Subud has made its mark in Europe more rapidly and more surely than
any other movement that, having originated in some remote Asiatic country,
has been brought to the West. Once, when an Englishman commented to Pak
Subuh upon this rapid assimilation of a foreign movement, he replied:

"Subud is not foreign. It belongs to no country, just as it belongs

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to no race or creed. It did not 'originate' in the East, and it did
not 'come' to the West. It comes from the Spirit of God, which is
nowhere a stranger. So when we arrived in England we did not
feel ourselves as foreigners, nor did you feel that we were
strangers from a strange land. From the beginning we could be
like brothers, because there is one and only One Spirit that
works in us all. That is the true meaning of Subud."

Pak Subuh and J.G.Bennett at Coombe Springs 1957-9

50

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Concerning Subud

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 4

Working from Without and from Within

1. Two Principles of Existence

The significance of Subud can be understood only if we recognize the

distinction between two processes by which man can fulfil his destiny here
on earth. The first can be called 'working from without' and it comprises all
the actions undertaken by a man directed towards an ideal formed in him as
a result of external influences. Such actions can range from conforming to a
code of behaviour dictated by religious convictions or by social
responsibility, to the search for a complete inner transformation or liberation
by way of some self-imposed spiritual discipline of effort and suffering. The
second process can be called 'working from within,' and it operates from
some source within man himself. In its true sense, working from within is
the action of Divine Grace operating in the depths of the human soul. There
can, however, be other modes of spontaneous inner working where the
contact with the Source is indirect only.

This distinction is an ancient one, for it is the origin of all theological

controversies concerning salvation by works and salvation by faith. The
distinction is beyond human understanding, for it involves comparison
between two completely unlike factors or effects. We can see and know
what it means to go by the way of effort and suffering. Even when efforts are
directed towards a right state of consciousness, they are not different in their
essential character from the muscular efforts made by a ploughman or a
blacksmith. All effort requires attention, choice, decision and persistence and
these are the operations of the will of man. It is quite impossible to reduce
the action of Grace to similar terms, for it does not operate from or even
through the will of man.

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For those who are familiar with the distinction between time and eternity, it
is possible to say that all working from without is temporal, but that the
action of Grace is eternal and can never be observed as an event.* Man in
his ordinary state of consciousness is 'eternity-blind' and is unaware that
there are different levels in eternity. Unconsciously he projects all his
experience on to the level of sensation and thought, and this creates a
tendency to believe in 'works' which can be seen, and to misunderstand the
very nature of 'faith.'

The same distinction is made in another form by Gurdjieff in All and

Everything as that between what he calls the Itoklanoz and the
Fulasnitamnian principles of existence. The former refers to the mode of life
of people who exist by reacting to external influences through the automatic
mechanisms of instinct, emotion and thought. Gurdjieff compares this mode
of life to the operation of a watch that can go only as long as the spring
remains in tension, and when unwound can no longer perform its function.
He also uses the simile of a gramophone record that can only play the tunes
that have been registered upon it. The condition thus depicted is one of
complete dependence upon external influences. It is like that of a machine
that can only work when energy is fed into it, and a machine moreover that
must ultimately wear out and and, having no means of renewal, must, when
it ceases to be usable, be cast upon the scrap heap. The second principle
cannot be described in words. It is an operation not only beyond the senses,
but also beyond the mind of man. The man who lives according this
principle does not depend upon external influences to maintain his existence.
He is sustained from within and his life on the earth does not end through
old age or disease but continues until his task is performed and he is free to
return to his Source. When such a man dies, he passes directly into the state
of full consciousness of the imperishable, eternal life of the soul. Living
from within is normal for man, whereas dependence upon external supports
is little more than a vegetative or animal existence. Nevertheless, owing to
man's voluntary surrender to sub-human forces, the idea of working from
within has almost disappeared from the earth and people are compelled, as
best they may, to find ways of salvation under the limitations of working
from without.

The word 'salvation' means to have entered into our own place where we
are eternally at home and where our true work is to be done. That place is
not in this world. To live in it, we need forms of perception, instruments of
action and a 'body' that are all quite different from those that serve for our
life on the earth.

* cf. The Dramatic Universe, Vol 1, p. 161.

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Our physical body with its five outer senses, its inner instincts, feelings and
thoughts are all needed for our existence amid material objects—but it and

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all its instruments are useless where there are no material objects. For the
world in which there are no material objects quite other instruments are
needed. These are not 'temporal' but 'eternal.' They are the direct
manifestations of the purified will and they include such powers as choice
and decision, surrender to the Will of God, patience, trust and sincerity,
faith, hope, love and conscience. I have called them Sacred Impulses and
shall discuss their significance later (Chapter 8, Section I). Their operation is
independent of the senses, the feelings and even the mind of man and they
do not require material objects for their manifestation. In truth, they cannot
manifest through the thoughts or feelings which can only imitate and falsify
them.

The Sacred Impulses are the instruments that 'work from within' and they
belong to the truly human soul that must be awakened before they can take
any part in our lives. It is a hard saying but true, that in people such as
mankind is today, the sacred impulses or eternal instruments are impotent
and their very names have ceased to have a meaning. It is possible, but very
hard, to achieve contact with the inner instruments by any form of working
from without. To understand this better, we have to examine the way in
which the ordinary man or woman is brought into the world and grows up to
adult or responsible age.

2. The Formation of the Human Essence

We should start with a brief examination of human nature and the forces
that form and act upon it. Long before Aristotle, and ever since he wrote the
Nicomachean Ethics, philosophers have tried to describe human nature—but
all descriptions have proved inadequate. Reality has more dimensions than
language, and the real man can never be described in words. Even if we
concern ourselves only with those elements of our nature that are within the
range of the mind, we shall find that we are unable to reconstruct from the
disjecta membra the living whole that is man.

When a child is born, it is already endowed with an essence or pattern of

existence, formed at the moment of conception and resulting from the action
of at least three independent factors. These comprise (a) hereditary, (b)
influences at the moment of conception, and (c) results of previous
existence.

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(a) Hereditary Factors in the Essence

Each one of us carries in his or her genetic constitution in the

chromosomes of the fertilized ovum, a definite but immense complex set of
potentialities for development and growth. These are transmitted according
to well-established genetic laws; and owing to the great number of
independent factors present, an almost endless diversity of essence types is
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possible. Some types are common, others exceedingly rare but, except in the
doubtful case of identical twins, no two human beings are every likely to
acquire the same inherited pattern. We thus start with a material basis, the
genetic pattern transmitted through physico-chemical agencies that determine
the physical potentialities of each individual life. This is, however, not the
whole story, for it is now generally recognized that, in addition to the
definite positive factors, parents also transmit a variety of degenerative
influences. Apart from the obvious examples of inherited disease and
insanity, weaknesses pass from parents to children as tendencies to the
formation of various habits of body, feeling and thought that obstruct and
reduce the potentialities of the essence.

Every child bears the consequences of the lives and deeds of its
forefathers in the form of an imprint upon the essence, as a careless hand
might mar the outline of the sculptor's modeling in soft clay.

(b) Conception

The second factor concerns the moment of conception. It is characteristic

of human indifference to the invisible and the eternal, that the supreme
importance of conception is almost universally disregarded, and men and
women engage in sexual union under conditions that are utterly incompatible
with so sacred an act. There is more than mere symbolism in the assertion
that the union of man and woman reproduces the state of the eternal Adam
who when first created was neither male nor female, but carried in him the
potentialities of both. The human essence formed at the moment of
conception is sexless, but holds the principle of a differentiation that later
determines the sex of the foetus. Prior to the onset of differentiation, the
essence is subject to all kinds of forces that are operating in the environment.
These combine to establish the fate of the new being. Whereas the pattern of
potentialities is hereditary, the pattern of fate is the result of the influences
acting on the essence at the moment of conception and birth. The study of
this pattern belongs to, not to genetics but to astrology.

54

This science is difficult to place in the order of the natural sciences, and yet
there is incontestable evidence that the moments of conception and birth do
influence in some decisive manner the trend of events that will occur in a
given life. I do not pretend to understand the subject and fortunately it is
irrelevant for our purpose whether there is a valid science of astrology or
not. The fact is that the events as distinct from the potentialities of different
lives do follow regular patterns that can be observed and classified.
However, as in the case of heredity, the parents can do much to make or mar
the life picture. Sexual union in states of passion, inebriation, fear or hatred
must inevitably damage the essence that is conceived.

(c) Pre-existent Elements of the Essence

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These effects are, however, not the most serious, for the state of the
parents at the moment of conception also influences the entry of material
derived from previous lives. There is a certain indestructible substance that
enters into all living forms and takes on their nature. This can be called the
'soul-substance,' and it is required for the formation of every essence. It must
be distinguished from the Spirit that plays no part in the production of the
essence and comes from a region that is beyond our understanding.

Whenever there is sexual union, an invisible attraction is exerted upon the

ambient 'soul-substance' that requires to enter some living form in order to
continue its existence. The quality of the soul-substance attracted
corresponds to the state of the parents at the moment of union. I cannot here
examine all the varieties of incarnation, reincarnation and transmigration that
can occur, nor do I possess more than the most rudimentary notions of the
working of this mysterious process. Gurdjieff and Pak Subuh agree in
asserting that it is possible for human soul-substance to enter an animal
essence, and vice versa. Even when the soul substance in a man or woman is
of human origin it may be tainted with degenerative factors, especially if the
conditions of sexual intercourse were such as to attract debased material.

Thus the formation of a human essence is beset with hazards that would
make liberation from earth forces well-nigh impossible if there were not a
factor independent of the parents and all influences acting in space and time.
This factor that we shall call the Spirit is, in its very nature, eternal and
indescribable. Its presence cannot be detected by any kind of test, nor can it
be an object of thought.

55

We do not know whether we should say that in the ordinary man the spirit is
asleep, that the soul is still unborn, or that the soul languishes in helpless
isolation until the spirit descends like Orpheus to bring it back to life.

In some sense, that cannot be reduced to any verbal formula, the human
essence is a threefold entity composed of the corporeal, the psychic and the
pneumatic factors, and from the action of these three factors there is formed
a man or woman with body, spirit and soul. But we must be very careful to
remember that we do not know, and cannot know, what the words 'spirit' and
'soul' really mean.

Thus a child is born into the world already equipped with an immensely
complex pattern of potentialities, encumbered with hereditary and other
consequences of the past, and endowed with faculties or powers which are
destined to bring into being a fully conscious, fully integrated, free,
responsible, immortal and imperishable human soul. Whether or not this
great destiny will be fulfilled depends upon a multitude of factors, partly
known, partly unknown but knowable, and partly altogether beyond the
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limits of any possible knowledge.

3. The Human Personality

Before birth, all influences that act upon the foetus are of human or
superhuman origin—apart from the possibility that animal soul-substance
may enter at conception. After birth, the first influences are animal in
character. They are mainly concerned with warmth and food and come from
the mother or some other large mammal such as a cow. After a few weeks
the child begins to be aware of its own body, first however with the animal
and vegetative functions, and only much later does it begin to recognize
material objects and to acquire a relationship with the inanimate world. It
can be said that the incarnation of the human spirit is not complete until it
recognizes the material world as the environment in which its life-pattern on
earth is to be worked out.

The world of our familiar experience is a world of material objects—

including of course living animals and human bodies—but this is not the
world entered by the new-born child. That world is not visible and tangible
—for the child does not yet know what seeing and touching are. It is a series
of worlds composed of human, animal and vegetable essences, in which
forces are working that cannot be reduced to the play of atoms and quanta.

56

We are not yet ready to discuss these unseen worlds, and must pass to the
arising of the common experience of man as a person. The new-born child is
impersonal, but very soon people about it begin to elicit personal reactions.
From them it learns that its cries can attract attention. They engage its
interest in them as persons. So little by little a new personality is formed.
This is an artificial construction that is produced by influences completely
different from those that formed the essence. The personality comprises all
that one learns from the outside world; and, since the child learns mainly
from or with the help of other people, the personality inevitably bears the
imprint of all the other personalities that it meets during its formative years.

The main instruments of the personality are the associative mechanism of

the cerebral hemispheres, that is what we usually call the 'brain,' together
with the complex apparatus for emotional and instinctive reactions furnished
by the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine glands. The head brain
is supplied with means for storing sense impressions, and for sorting and
classifying them with the help of signs. Signs take the form of language,
which again the child learns from other people. Although sense impressions
themselves are received directly, they are put into the form of usable
memories almost entirely by what is learned from others. Thus the innate
capacity of the essence to perceive the real world is gradually supplanted
and replaced by thinking about sense impressions with the help of language.

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It would be tedious to recapitulate the whole process of personality-
formation, but it should be evident that the 'person' cannot possibly be the
same as the 'real man' of the essence. Thus all people as they reach adult age
are composed of an essence that they do not know and of which they are not
even conscious, and a personality the activity of which becomes to all
intents and purposes their effective self. It is the great merit of Freud and the
schools of analytical psychology that they have established the fact of the
dualism of the conscious and unconscious selves of man, though few have
recognized the origin of this dualism and its true character.

For our purpose, it is most important to take cognizance of the fact that
almost everything that enters human experience from the external world—
after the first few years of life—must pass through the personality. Nearly
always it is the personality alone that reacts to such external influence.
Nevertheless the personality itself is also at times influenced by the essence
without being aware even of its presence.

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4. The Variety of Influences that act on Man

A simple but valuable distinction can be made between two kinds of

external influences that act upon man. This is based on the assumption that
there are levels of experience that have a direct contact with real or essential
worlds higher than this earth. These influences are transmitted through
human sources, and their effect is to awaken in man the realization that his
destiny is not to live, grow old and die and perish on this earth, but to attain
the conscious freedom or immortality of the human soul as the vehicle of the
spirit.

Some such assumption is common to all religions and to all philosophies

that acknowledge God as the Creator and Ruler of all worlds. But, as Kant
showed in his Critique of Practical Reason, it is even prior to belief in God,
for it derives from the conviction that we men have an obligation to live our
lives according to certain standards that are in themselves of more than
human origin. This obligation, the categorical imperative, is not reached by
way of thought or even experience, but, because it comes from within
ourselves, it is the only sound foundation for all ethics and all morality. If it
is denied, then ethics reduces to the unworkable doctrine of the 'greatest
good of the greatest number,' that would find few defenders or advocates
today.

We can all see that we live under two kinds of influence that are different,
not merely in form, but in their origin, their action and their result. They can
be described as the worldly and the other-worldly, as the temporal and the
eternal, as the material and the spiritual, and as the religious and the
irreligious. But we must make sure that such names do not mislead us. It is
by their origin, their action and their results that such influences must be
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judged. The first kind originate in the mind and feelings of men who only
see the visible world. They act upon the personality to strengthen its belief
that there is no other world but this. The result of their action is to bind man
to the earth and deprive him of of his essential birthright. The influences of
the second kind originate beyond the mind and feelings of man, and they act
to undermine and eventually to destroy the slavery of the personality. Their
result is to open man's eyes to the possibility, latent in his essence, of dying
to this world and of rebirth to another and better world.

Since influences of the first kind leave the psychic nature of man
unchanged, they have been called pyschostatic. The second kind set the
psychic in motion upon a path that can lead to an endless progress, and so
have been called psycho-kinetic.*

*cf. The Crisis in Human Affairs, p. 131-44.

58

Unless this distinction is clearly understood and remembered, we are likely

to fall into the common error of supposing that we can reach paradise or
enter the Kingdom of Heaven—remaining such as we are. All the parables
of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of Heaven agree as to the need to pay a
great price for it. It is still more strongly expressed in the phrase "except ye
be born again, ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom."

The words in no wise—in Greek —emphasize with all the

authority of the Son of Man that there is no possible way of attaining the
eternal world and the everlasting life of the soul except by death and
resurrection. The same warning was given by God through Moses in the
words of Deuteronomy, "Behold I have set before you this day life and
death, blessing and cursing—choose therefore life that thou and thy seed
may live." The Word of God revealed to Muhammad gives the same
warning, "Submit to no power but God, lest thou be of those consigned to
torment" (Sura 26).

5. The Twofold Flow of Influences

All the scriptures insist upon the need for a positive, conscious and
decisive act of choice, and it is the disregard of this uncompromising
demand that has in all ages caused the downfall of religion.

We thus come to the question of how the choice is made. The personality
is formed under the influences of both kinds, and it has no power of
distinguishing between them. But the essence has elements that do not
belong to the temporal, visible world. By the action of these elements each
man has an urge to seek for the invisible, the imperishable and the eternal.
In so far, therefore, as the essence is not wholly trapped in the personality,
there arises a discrimination that can recognize the value of those influences
that draw man towards the fulfilment of his essential destiny.
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We are drawn towards eternal life because there is in each of us a part of

our being that is eternal. But that part is potential only, and it is covered and
closed by the experiences, memories, desires and thoughts of the personality.
So long as we live in our personality the essential reality sleeps. If the
awakening comes in the personality there remains a long process of
preparation and purification before the way to the essence is opened. If the
awakening comes in the essence the same process is still necessary, but it is
accomplished through the far greater powers that operate in the essence.

59

There are not so much two ways as two opposing directions of flow of
forces. The origin of the force is always the same—it is the Will of God that
man should be enabled to return to his Source—but when the force flows in
from the outside, it has first to pass through many channels, each of which
takes something from it and adds something to it, so that by the time it
reaches the human individual it is not and cannot be pure. When the force
flows from within, it enters the spirit of man directly in its full and perfect
purity—so awakening the soul to consciousness of the Presence and the
Power of God. Herein lies the difference between justification by works and
justification by faith. The first is contingent and hazardous, the second is
complete and infallible.
6. Working from Without

We are not concerned with theories or explanations, but with the actual
experience of the man or woman who chooses to fulfil his or her true
destiny. The choice is made not once but incessantly, until complete unity of
being is attained, and he is able to choose finally and utterly with the whole
of himself. It is very necessary that we should realize that the final choice is
indeed final, and that it belongs to the end and not to the beginning of the
way. Even in those ascetic orders which require complete renunciation of the
world and all external attachments, and which, because of the austerity of
their rules, impose a long period of probation upon their aspirants, it is well
understood that the habit does not make the monk and that choice, which is
really the same as repentance, must continue to the very end.

When we represent to ourselves an ideal state of being that is remote from

what we now are and yet inherently attainable, we may choose to impose on
ourselves a discipline that will bring us nearer to the ideal. This is the type
of all 'working from without.' Even the Imitatio Christi is working from
without, for Christ as the ideal Man is a representation of our own minds,
and the efforts we make to follow in His footsteps are our own efforts. When
the Yogi sets out to find the Great Self, the Atman that he represents to
himself as identical with Brahman, the One that is beyond all form; he still is
making a mental image, and his self-discipline is self imposed.

We men and women, who fancy that we decide and act from our own
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choice, do not pause to ask ourselves how the possibility of choosing comes
to us. If we were to do so, we should see that it has come through our
senses; through what we have seen and heard and known of.

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If we are Christians, we are so because we have been brought up in a

Christian community. If we have ideas of right and wrong, it is because from
earliest childhood such ideas have reached us through hearing what people
say, through watching what they do, and later through reading books and
through participating in the life of the community to which we belong. As a
result of all external influences we may have formed some picture of the
ideal man or woman, and we may try to make our own lives conform to that
ideal. Whether the ideal is supremely great, as when we survey the life of
Jesus Christ or of the Prophet Muhammad, or whether it is the glamour of a
film star that attracts us, the action is the same. The ideal is outside of us,
but somehow like us and attainable. The same applies to all ethical and
moral codes. The Ten Commandments, the precepts of Confucius, the Oath
of Hippocrates, the American Constitution—all are the same in principle:
they prescribe forms of external behaviour that we accept willingly or
unwillingly as obligatory upon ourselves, and we try more or less faithfully
to discipline our lives accordingly. Receiving from without applies also to
our beliefs. Each religion has its own creed, and each sect within each
religion its own variant of the creed. Some are more and some are less
tolerant of the beliefs of others—some are more sincere and wholehearted
than others in their acceptance of the creed and dogmas of their own faith.
But whatever these may be, all are received from outside in the form of
verbal formulae, symbols or pictures. Nowhere is it recorded that anyone has
professed the Christian or any other faith except he were first taught the
creed and its meaning.

It follows, beyond possibility of dispute, that all discipline that derives

from:

(a) The contemplation of an ideal Man or state of existence.

(b) Obedience to commandments or moral codes, and
(c) The acceptance of creeds or dogmas of whatever form or content,

must belong only to the category of working from without.

The phrase 'working from without' must not be understood in a

disparaging sense. The whole structure of human society depends upon
discipline, and it is only redeemed from tyranny when there is at least as
much self-imposed discipline as external restraint. But we must not overlook
the limitations of any way of self-perfecting that depends upon external
influences. Since it comes from our own will it can only liberate us from our
own will by way of failure.

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61

Thus Kierkegaard: "To tear the will away from all finite aims and conditions
requires a painful effort and this effort ceaseless repetition. And if, in
addition to this, the soul has, in spite of all its striving, to be as though it
were simply not, it becomes clear that the religious life signifies a dedication
to suffering and self-destruction." Thus also Gurdjieff: "We men, owing to
the data crystallized in our common presences for engendering in us the
Divine Impulse of Conscience, 'the-whole-of-us' and the whole of our
essence, are, and must be, already in our foundation, only suffering."
Gurdjieff goes on to explain that suffering is inevitable so long as we remain
under the action of two incompatible sets of forces—those of the temporal
world acting on our bodies and those of the eternal world that act upon our
Conscience.

Those who follow any way of self-perfecting that is a form of working

from without, must come to a point where they are powerless to go further
because they can never, by their own will, overcome their own will. If at that
point they are resolute and choose the impossible ideal in place of any
possible compromise, they can die to their temporal earthly self and be born
again to their eternal other-worldly self. Without such 'death' and
resurrection' no transformation of human nature can be completed.

There are many ways by which a man can arrive at the 'point of no return.'
One of the attractions for modern people of Zen Buddhism is that it makes
this position perfectly clear without dogma and without even the demand for
religious faith. The works of my honoured friend Daitaro Suzuki abound in
examples of the working of such methods as the Koan exercise. The system
of exercises used by St. Ignatius Loyola and his followers is equally clear in
its purpose: to confront the impure sinful human soul with the image of the
absolutely pure and sinless Saviour in such a manner as ultimately to destroy
all hope of attaining such purity by one's own will. By such means the
experience of death and resurrection is repeated at each retreat and
especially during the second novitiate. The exercises taught by Gurdjieff
have a more flexible quality than those used in Zen Monasteries or in the
Society of Jesus. They aim at the awakening of the essence in such a manner
that the ability to 'see one's own nothingness' is attained together with the
strength to bear the experience. Moreover, Gurdjieff attached special
importance to the balanced development of body, feelings, mind and
consciousness, so that his exercises are constantly varied and adjusted to
meet the changing needs of the pupil who works seriously and makes real
progress.

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7. Schools and Teachers

At this point I should refer to the role of 'schools' and 'teachers' in the
work of self-perfecting. Any 'teaching' whether it is of the most general kind
like the 'Ten Commandments,' or whether it is a specialized system of self-
discipline, is inevitably standardized, that is to say, it is received in a set
form that is the same for all those who wish to follow it. But human beings
are not standardized. There are very great differences in the capacities and
limitations that each individual brings to the task of self-perfecting. Thus
anyone who follows a fixed system of teaching must submit himself to a
procrustean bed on which he will be stretched or chopped until he is made to
fit.

The world is full of psychic misfits who have attempted to adapt

themselves to some standard code of discipline, whether moral or practical.
Those who try to achieve the highest perfection suffer most from this
incompatibility of their individual powers and limitations with the
requirements of the way they have set themselves to follow. One of the chief
causes of the decay of religion lies precisely in the general rigidity of
religious discipline. Even those who are capable and desirous of adopting a
severely ascetic way of life seldom find what they need in any standardized
discipline.

The true significance of schools lies not in the possession of special

methods, exercises and the like, but in having the knowledge and experience
requisite to ensure that the methods are adapted to the needs of the
individual. It is this understanding that marks the true spiritual director or
teacher. Such teachers have always been rare, and they can hope to give the
necessary detailed and intimate guidance only to a few chosen disciples.
Those who receive only indirect or distant indications from a school cannot
go far without danger of losing the vital harmony of the many partial
processes with the total process. Man is a most complex being who exists on
several levels, each of which is governed by its own laws. These laws,
though quite distinct in their operation, are connected with one another. A
simple example will show what is meant by the 'laws of different levels.'
The activity of the human body is governed by mechanical laws (levers, heat
engines, hydrodynamic apparatus), by physico-chemical laws (digestion of
food, oxygenation of blood, synthesis of special proteins and amino-acids,
etc.), by biological laws (development, regeneration, reproduction) and by
psycho-nervous laws (thought, feeling, instinct, etc.).

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These laws belong to different levels yet they are interdependent and we
cannot understand the activity of the organism unless we recognize both
their distinctness and their interaction. Besides these, there are also higher
laws connected with the attention, with the power of choice and its exercise,
with the will and the understanding, and the still higher realms of the soul
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and its powers. Each and all of these laws is involved in the process of self-
perfecting, and if a man seeks to direct this process by his own will and
understanding, he needs to know—if not the laws themselves—at least the
critical phases of their operation.

Those who believe that it is possible for man's nature to be transformed by

self-discipline usually take far too lightly the complications involved in the
harmonious development of body, spirit and soul. They may point to the
lives of saints and mystics as examples of the attainment possible with little
or no knowledge of the laws of the human psyche, but they forget that for
one who attains to blessedness or sainthood, there are many thousands who
fall by the way. Moreover, the saint is not necessarily a complete man. Some
like St. Francis or St. John of the Cross died young, having destroyed the
equilibrium of their bodies by excessive austerities. Others were lacking in
practical judgment, as we see in St. Bernard of Clairvaux in his direction of
the second Crusade. Moreover, the greatest saints must not be regarded as
examples of 'working from without'—on the contrary, their strength and
their guidance came from within and were bestowed upon them through
faith. Their lives are truly unfathomable by the ordinary mind of man.

If we confine our attention to all ways of self-perfecting that are either

wholly or predominantly working from without, we must conclude that:

1.   A school and a teacher is always necessary.

2.   Persistent austerities, physical, mental and emotional, are needed over a
      long period in order to purify the lower nature.
3.   It is at the present time hard to find conditions that make such work
      possible.
4.   It can be successful only with comparatively rare people specially gifted
for       such an undertaking.

These four conclusions have been amply confirmed in my own experience

by the observation, over a period of more than thirty-seven years, of many
thousands of students who have followed Gurdjieff's system for the
Harmonious Development of Man. I am convinced that this system offers
the most complete and effectual method of working from without known in
the world today, and one moreover that is particularly well suited to the
needs of people of western culture.

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It has attracted men and women of high mental attainment, emotional

sensitivity and practical ability—scientists, doctors, writers, artists and
successful men of affairs, besides a solid core of 'ordinary' people. All who
have persisted in following the discipline, under the guidance of Gurdjieff's
own approved instructors, have attained some measure of harmony and a
better understanding of life, and few feel that their efforts have been wasted.
But, out of many thousands, only a bare handful have achieved any high
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degree of spiritual development. No defect is to be imputed to Gurdjieff's
system on this account. The truth is that any and every form of working
from without is beset with hazards and few can hope to surmount them
successfully—even with the strongest desire to do so. Folk-lore and legend,
from the old epic of Gilgamesh that speaks to us from the Epoch of the
Search, have always contained allegories of the quest for eternal life as
being full of perils that only the rare hero is able to survive.

We need to see the present situation clearly if we are to appreciate the

change that has to come. We may be certain that the completion of his being
and the fulfilment of his destiny is possible for the man who finds the right
teacher for him and who brings the necessary gifts of single-mindedness,
sincerity and humility; but we must acknowledge that for the majority, even
those who set out resolutely upon the way, only very few can hope to go far
by the methods of working from without.

8. The Inner Working

There are seven principal functions or centres in man: instinctive, motor,

emotional, intellectual, sex, higher emotional and higher mental. The first
four of these operate in our ordinary states of consciousness; they are
essentially instruments for this present life, and they are incapable of giving
us true knowledge either of our own destiny or of objective reality. The sex
centre occupies an intermediate position in that it can be an instrument of the
lower world, but also a means of lifting man into the truly human world in
which there is no separation. The two higher centres are the true instruments
of the eternal imperishable 'Man of the Soul.' The first is the instrument
whereby man can know his own true nature and everything that concerns his
own destiny, and that of all other men with whom he is related. The second
instrument gives access to the eternal mysteries; it is conscious of the
Objective Reality that is beyond eternity as it is beyond time.

65

The distinction between lower and higher centres between temporal

instruments for use in this visible world and eternal instruments that can
serve in all worlds is vital for the understanding of inner and outer work, and
it has been, to me, of the utmost value in my approach to Subud. We can
find much to instruct to us on the subject in the mystical writers, and
especially in the Sermons of Meister Eckhart. "According to the philosopher
who is our chief authority upon the soul no human wisdom ever can attain to
what the soul is. That requires supernatural wisdom. What the powers of the
soul issue from into act, we do not know: about it haply we do know a little,
but what the soul is in her ground, no man knows. Any knowledge thereof
that may be permitted to us must be supernatural; it must be by grace: God's
agent of mercy." It would indeed be sufficient to refer to Eckhart all that has
to be written in this section, for he is wholly concerned with 'working from
within' and came nearer to expressing the nature of this working than I could
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ever hope to do.

The starting point can be stated in Eckhart's words: "There is something in

the soul, intimate, mysterious, far higher than the soul herself, whence
emanate her powers of intellect and will." The lower centres, or ordinary
self of man and his lower nature, are cut off from this mysterious
'something.' In it lie sleeping, or more truly, still unborn, all the potentialities
of eternal life. The aim of all religion, of all asceticism, of all 'work on
oneself,' of all the striving of man for perfection, is to reach and awaken this
inner 'something.' And this is equally true of working from without and of
the working from within, that we are trying now to understand.

In the truest and fullest sense, working from within can start only when
the inner 'something' is awakened. There then flows from within a stream of
influences that act first upon the higher centres—the instruments of the soul
—and from them penetrate outwards into the lower centres and the bodily
organism. These influences then produce reactions in the lower centres
exactly similar to those of intentional self-discipline except that they are not
standardized. Each individual is subject to an influence that, having passed
through his own higher emotional centre, corresponds exactly to his own
needs, and moreover to his needs at each stage of his inner development.
Thus working from within is analagous to the development of the embryo
from the time that the ovum is fertilized. The organism with all its limbs,
organs and functions is not imposed from without, but arises under the
influence of the genetic pattern with which the child is endowed at the
moment of conception. Modern embryologists with their marvellous
techniques are still quite unable by 'working from without' to reproduce a
thousandth part of the minutely adjusted regulative process by which the
embryo develops.

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This analogy might seem to suggest that 'working from without' is as useless
as the attempt to 'synthesize' a human child in a laboratory. The truth is that
the growth of being must always occur spontaneously from within. Our
efforts can create favourable conditions for this growth, but they cannot
compel it to occur. We have many obstructions that have accumulated in us
—some from our heredity and the influences of our early lives—others the
results of our own voluntary or involuntary submission to negative impulses
coming from without. We can do much by our own efforts to remove these
obstructions so that the life-giving energy can flow freely through all our
centres and all our organs. But when we try to go further and mould
ourselves upon some ideal pattern received from without we run into the
danger of standardization, and are liable to find ourselves stretched upon the
procrustean bed without powers to rise from it again. This is called by
Gurdjieff 'wrong crystallization' and he paints a vivid picture of the plight of
those who make the mistake of relying upon their own strength. Right

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crystallization means the unification of the whole being and nature of man
according to his own essential pattern, and it is achieved by a process of
development that must be directed from the pattern itself and not from
without. But although 'we,' that is, our ordinary self, cannot direct the
process, we can watch over it and protect the being in us that is later to be
born and become the true self or man in us. When working from without is
understood in this way, it is more than useful—it is really necessary.

The emphasis placed upon the awakening of the soul and the rebirth to
which it leads requires also that we should state plainly how the awakening
comes about. Here we have all the authority of Scripture and the evidence of
the great mystics that it is only the Holy Spirit that awakens the mysterious
something that initiates the train of events that I have called 'working from
within.' Indeed as Kant showed in his Critique of Practical Reason, it is the
awakening of the soul that validates our belief in God and Eternal Life. The
central point of all religious experience is the contact between man and God,
mediated by the Holy Spirit and made through the mysterious 'something' in
the soul that is in neither time nor space, and cannot be said to exist at all
until it is awakened.

It seems to me that we come nearest to the truth if we say that the ordinary
man has no soul but only the possibility of acquiring one, and that he cannot
enter into eternal life unless and until his soul is born. The saying of Christ,
"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul?" can only mean that the man who closes himself to the contact with
the Spirit of God by attaching himself exclusively to the values of this world
loses the opportunity of gaining the soul that is—until it is awakened—a
possibility and no more.

67

We understand then by 'working from within' the process that starts in man
when his soul is awakened. He is brought thereby into contact with the
power of the Holy Spirit—the Lord and Giver of Life. This power of life
streams downwards from the highest point of the man's being and flows
through all levels. Because it is a life giving power it brings to life every part
that it reaches. Thus there comes about a true rebirth that is also a
resurrection.

In this operation the action of our will can only be that of consent and
acceptance. We cannot 'will' the process, nor can we direct or regulate it. It
regulates itself by the very fact that the life-force flows through our essence
pattern, thereby acting constantly to restore us to ourselves, to enable us to
become the real man or the real woman that from the moment of our
conception we were destined to be.

Although we cannot, from our ordinary self, initiate or direct a process

that has its source at an immeasurably higher level of consciousness, it does
not follow that we remain unaware of the process or unable to co-operate
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with it. We experience the working from within as an inner urge or
prompting that shows us what we have to do and gives us moreover the
power to do it. I cannot do better to end this chapter than by quoting Meister
Eckhart's final message to his friends. He said: "I will give you a rule which
is the sum of all my arguments, the key to the whole theory and practice of
the truth. "It very often happens that a thing seems small to us which is of
greater moment in God's sight than what looms large in ours. Wherefore it
behoves us to take alike from God everything he sends us without every
thinking or looking to see which is greatest or highest or best but following
blindly God's lead, that is to say, our own feeling, our strongest dictates,
what we are most prompted to do. Then God gives us the most in the least
without fail.

"People often shirk the least and prevent themselves getting the most in
the least. They are wrong. God is everywise, the same in every guise to him
who can see Him the same. There is much searching of heart as to whether
one's promptings come from God or no; but this we can soon tell for if we
ourselves aware of, privy to , God's will above all when we follow our own
impulse, our clearest intimations, then we may take it that they come from
God."

Herein lies the best assurance for those who are beset by doubts and
scruples about following the promptings of conscience, lest that which
seems to be the voice of conscience may be the voice of the tempter.

We have come now to the threshold of the Subud experience, and I shall
try to show how we may recognize that this is really the awakening of the
soul for which we all search.

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 5

The Latihan

1. The Meaning of 'Latihan'

The Indonesian word latihan cannot adequately be translated into English.

Its root—latih—conveys the notion of becoming familiar with something, to
assimilate and take it into oneself. The nearest equivalent is probably
training. The common translation "exercise" is misleading in so far as it is
associated with the idea of some set form of work such as physical, mental
exercise or religious exercise. All these relate to the "working from without"
that is the exact opposite of the latihan. After the initial act of will by which
we submit to the process, the training received in the latihan does not come
from any intentional action of our own. In the latihan, we are gradually
pervaded and permeated with the life force that flows into us from our own
awakened soul.

Although latihan is a training of the whole man, it is not undertaken for

the sake of the result. Pak Subuh insists that the true meaning of the latihan
is worship of God. The training is the result of worship, but it is worship that
is essential; the result is incidental. The phrase "worship of God" requires
explanation, especially in these days when so many people have revolted
against religion because they imagine that worship is incompatible with any
acceptable conception of Deity. They argue that a God who demands
worship of His creatures is an anthropomorphic conception; a relic of tribal
theology, when God was pictured as a King reigning in the heavens and, in
His demands, little different from a human tyrant. "For I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third or fourth generation of them that hate Me." When we read such
passages we must remember that they belong to the Hemitheandric Epoch,
whose Master Idea was that of human dependence upon Heroic help. With
each succeeding lesson, infant humanity has gained a deeper realization of
the meaning of Deity. If we no longer entertain such naively
anthropomorphic conceptions of the Creator, it does not follow that worship
has ceased to have a meaning. It has already long been clear to theologians

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that God does not demand worship because He needs it or desires it, but
because it is the means whereby the soul of man can return to the Source
from which it came. It is also well understood that worship is the state or
condition in which man stands in the presence of his Creator: it is the
recognition or awareness that there is an immense Power that is greater than
all other powers, and that this Power is benevolent towards all creatures,
including man.

69

What is not so well understood, even by theologians, is that the state or

condition of worship cannot be reached by the temporal instruments of man
—that is, by the lower centres. We may with our minds and feelings, and
even with our bodies, wish to worship God, but these are merely
instruments; they cannot be the worshipper himself. Worship is a power
exclusive to the soul of man, for it is only in the soul that there can be a
direct consciousness of the Power and Love of God. Worship cannot
originate in the mind or the heart, however much we may know with our
minds that worship is necessary and feel with our hearts the desire to
worship. True worship is the conscious acceptance of the condition we shall
be in at the moment of death when our personal will is taken from us.

A simple observation can convince anyone of the truth of this apparently

hard saying. Sometimes in the presence of a great natural phenomenon such
as a mighty storm at sea or even a great range of mountains white with
snow, the sense of our own nothingness in comparison with the powers of
nature overwhelms us, and we experience a state of awe that is at the same
time filled with peace and thankfulness that such great things should be
revealed to us. It is easy to verify that such an experience does not originate
in the mind or feelings, nor is it the result of our own desire to admire or
"worship" nature. If we begin to "think about" the experience into which we
have been lifted, we fall back at once into our ordinary state; likewise, if we
begin to enjoy the state, it changes into something personal and false. If
earthly nature can lift us to an intensity of experience that is beyond the
mind and the feelings, how much more should we expect that worship of
God should be a condition entirely beyond the reach of our ordinary
functions.

It does not follow that in the latihan the body, feelings and mind have no
part to play, but they are the instruments, not the actor. When, and only
when, the higher centres are awakened, an action begins in the lower centres
that eventually brings them into harmony with the higher centres. This is the
"training" to which the word latihan refers. When all the organs and their
functions are trained to be receptive to the fine influences and impulses that
proceed from conscience in the depths of the soul, then all participates in
worship. True worship comes from the whole man from his highest soul
powers to the skin and bone of his body. Worship is training, but it is a

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training that comes wholly from within.

Religious people tend to assume that, if their minds and feelings are active
in worship, then their soul is worshipping also. They refer to mind and
feeling as "powers of the soul" and this leads to the error of supposing that
the soul must be awake whenever the powers are exercised.

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The truth is that whenever worship originates in and is directed by our own
will, it can only be worship by and of the instruments, not worship by and of
the soul. This is a hard saying, but unless it is understood, the defects of
human worship can never be grasped.

2. Approach to Subud

Since we cannot of our own will initiate the "working from within" of the
Subud latihan, the question naturally rises, "What then is the role of our own
will, of our own power of choice and of our ability to make efforts?" The
answer to this question must be understood by everyone who wishes to
approach Subud rightly. We cannot do anything, but we can ask. To ask is to
to commit oneself to the results that will follow if we receive what we ask
for. Thus, to ask should be a responsible exercise of the freedom of choice
that is man's most precious gift. In order to ask responsibly, we should at
least know what we are asking for and be able to foresee and understand the
consequences of receiving it. But who are "we" that ask? The ordinary man
is not one. He exists on various levels, but is aware only of two: that of
material objects and that of his thoughts and feelings. On each level he has
different functions that are only loosely connected with one another. He is a
multiplicity of selves, a succession of states, a being who does not and
cannot know himself. There is no "I" that rules over the many selves, for the
"I" that should be the ruler lies unborn in the depths of his unawakened
essence. Since at any given moment one of the many selves that make up
our personality is uppermost, that single self can ask. Later, another self may
repudiate the asking, if its needs and wishes lie in quite a different direction.
Those who do not understand this, and who trust themselves and believe that
whatever they say and do comes from the whole of their being, may not feel
the incongruity of asking from some transient, superficial self for the
awakening of their innermost soul. Those who have begun to understand
their true situation are likely to be very diffident in asking and to doubt
whether their power of choice can extend to so momentous a decision.

To protect those who with the impulsiveness of ignorance are ready to ask
for what they cannot understand, and to give confidence to those who have
realized something of their own limitations, the approach to Subud is made
subject to a period of probation. Under special conditions—as in the case of
people coming from afar with little time to make the contact—the probation
may be reduced to a nominal period of waiting. Nevertheless, the principle is
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unaffected: it is that one must first ask oneself the question whether one
truly wishes to receive, and only after receiving from oneself an affirmative
answer, to ask from another that the contact should be given.

71

Let us suppose that William Jones enquires about Subud, having read in the
papers or heard from friends an account that is almost certainly misleading
in many aspects. After sundry attempts he finally receives explanations of
the kind given in this book. It is impressed upon him that Subud is not a kind
of faith healing nor a system of mental or spiritual exercises. If, after various
misunderstandings are cleared away, William still wishes to enter Subud, he
places his name on the probation list, which entitles him to put any question
he wishes and to receive answers, even if these involve Subud members in
speaking about their own personal experiences in the latihan.

Here it is necessary to explain why such answers can be given freely,

whereas it is usually understood that schools possessing knowledge of
spiritual methods are very careful in selecting those to whom these methods
should be transmitted. Herein lies one cardinal difference between working
from without and working from within. The effect of spiritual exercises
should be to break down the crust of illusions and bad habits that separates
the personality from the essence. This often requires a powerful action that
can be very disturbing to the psyche. Again it is sometimes necessary to
awaken a particular function by forcing it to attain—for a time—a high
degree of activity. Unless great care is taken this may disturb the working of
other functions.

Breathing exercises provide an example of the dangers. The human

organism is so constituted that there is a delicate instinctive balance between
the rate of breathing, the speed and volume of the pulse, and the discharge
into the blood of hormones and other substances known and still unknown to
science. The respiration is also closely related to the rhythms of the brain
and nervous system. If the rate and pattern of breathing are intentionally
altered, all the other functions connected with it must be adjusted, or harm to
the organism will result. But those who teach the so-called Pranayama, or
the control of breathing practised by Yogis, seldom know about all these
connections. Therefore in true Yogi schools—which it must be said western
students scarcely ever come in contact—the secrets of Pranayama are
carefully guarded. The most powerful exercises are never taught except by
specially selected disciples, who must remain under the close supervision of
a guru. The same applies to mental and religious exercises. Many a yogi and
many a monk has died prematurely or lost his reason through following such
exercises without an experienced and responsible guide.

The reason for these precautions can be understood at once if we recollect

that all exercises are standardized whereas man is not standardized. The only
safeguard against the dangers is secrecy, and there is no other motive for
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secrecy except to protect people from forces that they do not understand and
cannot direct.

72

It is entirely different with "working from within." First of all, there can be
no imitation, no stealing of ideas and methods before the pupil is ready.
Since the work proceeds from within and adapts itself to the needs of each
person, there is no need for secrecy; and there is no need for precautions,
except to ensure that the seeker abstain from introducing his own ideas and
bringing his own wishes, his own will into operation. If he were to do so, he
would expose himself to a mixed action that comes partly from his own soul
and partly from his self-will, and that would create a danger; but it is not a
danger that can be averted by secrecy. On the contrary, the more people
know about the experiences of others, the less are they likely to mistake their
own self-will for the Will of God. Therefore, in Subud, everyone is free to
speak of their own experiences and of what they receive in and from the
latihan. Since no one can induce for himself the action of the latihan,
whatever may be told remains "outside." Nevertheless, it enables those who
wish to approach Subud to understand what is needed before they ask to be
admitted.

The need can be stated very simply. We ask that we should be put in
contact with the Holy Power that gives Life to the soul of man. We
recognize that the contact must be made beyond ourselves—not "beyond" in
the sense of outside—but beyond our minds and feelings, in the higher, the
eternal part of ourselves. Since we are imprisoned in the lower, temporal part
of our nature, we cannot, of our own will, reach the place where the contact
is to be made, and therefore we must ask for help. This asking is an act of
our own, and we can only make it with that part of us which is aware of
what it means. That is, for nearly all people, their personality, since the
essence is still asleep. Thus, our asking is inevitably incomplete. The latihan
itself is the means whereby the incomplete, imperfect asking can be
completed and made perfect.

If all this can be made more or less clear to our William Jones, he sees
that he must ask not for results, but for the opening of possibilities. He does
not ask because he understands what he wants, but because he realizes that
he does not understand.

3. The Opening

It seems to me that the easiest way to understand the "opening" is to

compare it with Christian Baptism. The mystery of baptism is that the child
is received into the number of Christ's flock without understanding or even
being aware of what is being done for it. Even in adult baptism the mystery
remains, for it implies a profound change of the entire nature, of which the
person received into baptism can only be dimly aware.
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73

In baptism, the question is put and answered, not by the child but by the
godparents who stand as witnesses. They are presumed already to have
experienced the inward change that comes from the awaking of the soul's
powers, and when they ask for baptism on behalf of the child they bear
witness to the truth and reality of the transformation. Unfortunately, baptism,
this holy symbol of the Christian faith, has lost nearly all its meaning, so
that even sincere Christians do not understand their responsibilities. The very
form of the Christian service suggests "working from without," since the
godparents are enjoined to see that the child is taught the Creed and the
Commandments, and is brought to the bishop for confirmation. Thus what is,
in reality, solely a matter of faith in the Grace of God is made to appear as a
promise to fulfil certain external obligations.

Those who have received the latihan come to understand from their own
experience the meaning of faith and of Grace, and if they belong to the
Christian profession, they find that all the Sacraments of their religion
acquire a new depth and a new power. If they are called upon to be
godparents, they see for themselves that the moment of baptism is indeed a
moment of opening, when the Holy Spirit enters and gives birth to the new
man.

In Subud the opening is performed without ceremony and without any

kind of ritual. The trainees stand—or, if they are aged or infirm, sit—and the
man or woman who is to open them reminds them that they have come
because they wish to find the way to the true worship of God.

Many people have asked how the opening is "done." The answer is that
nothing at all is done, either by those who receive the contact or by those
who are witnesses. Faith cannot be transmitted from one person to another.
But the "witness" has been accepted by God as an instrument, and the faith
which has been been given to him makes the contact possible for the other.

Although the contact itself is made not in time, but in eternity, the latihan
itself lasts for half an hour or more. This makes it possible for the inner
working to begin, even though most of those who receive the contact are at
first aware of nothing at all. When there are physical sensations and
movements, or new states of feeling, the newcomer recognizes that
"something" has happened, but the true nature of this something cannot be
grasped at all.

74

When the opening is completed, many trainees enjoy a feeling of deep

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relaxation and peace, and realize with astonishment that they have been
more fully conscious of themselves, for a longer time and in a more
continuous state, than is possible by any effort of attention that they are
capable of making.

There are a few, very few, whose experience is much stronger and deeper,
and who have no doubt from the first that they have been in the presence of
a Holy Power. There are also many trainees who at first experience little or
nothing and are disappointed that "nothing seems to have happened." To
such, patience is advised and persistence, for our practical experience has
shown that not one in a hundred who persists with the latihan fails, within
two or three months, to become aware of a new force working in him, and
sees results that convince him that something has occurred that has not come
from his own thought, feeling or desire.

Some experiences of the opening are definitely unfavorable or painful.

Some trainees are convinced that there is indeed a force, but an evil one.
Others are simply afraid. Others again feel resentful or suspicious, or simply
are embarrassed, and do not wish to continue. Those who have seen much of
Subud and its action on many people, recognize that these are all reactions of
the personality which soon cease to trouble those who can bring themselves
to persist. Since everyone sooner or later, encounters difficulties due to the
reactions of the personality, the act of will that consists in choosing to
continue, has to be repeated. This is indeed important, for it makes it clear
that the transformation of man does not take place against his own will or
without his consent. Indeed, Subud demonstrates in the most practical
manner what St. Augustine and other theologians have taught about Grace
and the human will.

4. Helpers

Those trainees who have had enough experience to recognize, if not to

understand, the action of the latihan can become "helpers" to those who are
still at the beginning. The role of helpers is very important. It is they who
can answer the questions of probationers from their own experience. They
can also reassure those who are beset by fears and misgivings in the early
stages. Helpers also have a part to play in the latihan itself. They are chosen
by Pak Subuh himself or by his appointed representatives, and they are
permitted to do the latihan more frequently and to receive explanations that
will help them to fulfil their duties.

75

It is a principle of all true spiritual work that he who has received must
repay, but this can be done only by helping one's neighbour. The work of a
helper is onerous, for he has to bear the burdens of others. This burden-
bearing is not a matter only of giving time and attention to the work, but of
being ready to take upon oneself the inner state of other people. The helper is
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more open and more sensitive than those who are still wholly imprisoned in
their personalities and in their physical natures. The latter are in process of
throwing out the poisons that have accumulated as a result of their past lives,
and these poisons enter—in part at least—into more sensitive people in their
vicinity, namely the helpers. This can produce very painful or unpleasant
experiences. One of the reasons why the helpers are permitted to do the
latihan more often is that they can thereby throw out again, or "cleanse"
themselves of, the impurities or poisons they have picked up.

Those trainees who become helpers are soon aware that Subud is not a
short cut to an easy life, but rather the acceptance of a heavy burden.
Gurdjieff's famous formula, "self-perfecting by way of conscious labour and
intentional suffering," is indeed applicable to Subud. As with many other
such formulae, the real meaning of what Gurdjieff taught only becomes
apparent when a person experiences for himself the inner working, and sees
the true nature of human freedom. He is then liberated from the illusion of
"doing," but understands that it is open to him to accept or reject a burden
that no one obliges him to bear. His acceptance of the burden involves him
in "conscious labour and intentional suffering." The suffering is not of the
soul, that is his "I" or true self, but of the instruments, that is the body, the
feelings and the mind. Furthermore, this suffering is necessary for his own
purification and completion. It is effectual in this only because it is
"conscious and intentional;" that is, accepted by his own free will. Such
suffering is compatible with a deep and enduring happiness. Indeed, those
who have been privileged to act as helpers are all agreed that they
experience a sense of unfailing joy, that comes from realizing that what they
are doing is best for themselves.

The role of the helpers in the latihan requires that they should be able to
preserve their own state of conscious surrender to the inward working of the
latihan, while at the same time keeping some contact with what is happening
to those around him. This is accomplished, not by letting one's attention flow
outwards towards others, but by intensifying one's own surrender. It is by no
means easy to find the inner balance between one's own worship and
"concern" (in the Quaker sense) with those about one.

76

One learns in the latihan that the two commandments of Jesus—"Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
they mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"—have a very
precise and literal meaning. The helpers begin to see that it is in our power
to fulfil these commandments providing we do not attempt to "do" anything
from our own will. Those who wish to help their neighbours from their own
strength and their own understanding shut themselves off from the very
possibility of helping anyone.
5. Openers

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The "contact" was first received by Pak Subuh himself. Later he
transmitted it to others. When these in their turn had reached a stage of clear
conviction as to the reality of the contact and had been strengthened by the
latihan to the point where they could bear the forces involved, they could
become in their turn "openers."

When Pak Subuh came to England he soon designated a small number of

men and women as being qualified to act as openers. As I was one of these,
I can give some account of the opening as it is experienced by those who are
witnesses for the newcomer.

Those who come to the latihan often ask, "What is it that Pak Subuh does?
Does he pray for us? Or has he a power that he directs towards us?" Some
think that some kind of hypnotic influence is at work, or even that it is a
form of magic. No one who himself has acted as opener can have any
doubts on the matter. We do nothing whatever to the people, or even for
them. The opener enters the latihan exactly as if he were alone in the room.
Indeed the sense of being alone in the presence of a great Power is the
strongest and clearest element of the whole experience. It is that Power that
gives new life to the soul, and not ourselves, nor anything that we do. Pak
Subuh says that the witness must have true faith, but I am bound to say that
I, for one, am aware of nothing in myself, not even faith. I can say,
however, that I have been aware, without any doubt, of the presence of
angels during the latihan.

For a time one may cease to be aware of the presence of the others, but
there comes a moment when one is conscious of participating in their
experience. One knows when someone is being disturbed by his thoughts or
his feelings, or whether he is obstructing the process by trying to do
something of his own. Those who feel that they "ought" to be doing
something to co-operate with the process communicate their anxiety to the
openers.

77

Sometimes there is a feeling of great heaviness, due to the presence of one

or more people who are weighed down by their own personality.

A most extraordinary moment of the latihan comes when one is aware that
the contact has been made. It is as though the heat of the human passions is
quenched for a moment, and the coating of the personality is pierced so that
a new life can begin to flow. One is then aware of the presence of a very
fine substance or energy that itself is conscious. It would not be appropriate
to describe this energy as a "suprasensible light." This energy envelops us all
and makes it possible to participate in the inner experience of others.

The burden upon those who open is heavy, for they are bound to absorb
some of the passions or poisons that are driven out of a person at the
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moment that the contact is made. Sometimes one feels ill for several days
afterwards. In the case of one man who rashly took upon himself to open
more people in a given period of time than Pak Subuh had authorized,
several months of ill-health were the penalty he had to pay. This alone
places a limit upon the transmission of the contact. Generally the burden is
greatly lightened when two or more act as "witnesses" in the opening.
Indeed, Pak Subuh lays down as a general rule that one should open while a
second stands beside him to share the burden. Nevertheless, when the need
arises, all limitations are swept away. Recently, three hundred and twenty-
six men and women were opened in Ceylon within three weeks by one man
and one woman with the help of two Ceylonese who had themselves been
opened during a brief visit to Coombe Springs.

6. Conditions of the Latihan

The Subud latihan is invariably arranged separately for men and women.
Men are opened by men and women by women. Not only are the men's and
women's latihan separate, but it is recommended that while the state of
openness persists—which may be for one or two hours after the latihan—
men and women should as far as possible remain apart. An obvious
justification for this rule is that, when open, men and women are in a
sensitive state and can readily be influenced by one another. There is a
deeper reason connected with the very nature of man. In effect, it means that
in the spiritual life it is necessary to accept a strict discipline in regard to the
relations between the sexes, for the very reason that deep and strong forces
are aroused when the soul of man is given a new life. These forces are
necessary, but they cannot be regulated by the human personality. They
belong to the essence, and only an awakened essence can direct them aright.

78

The latihan can be made at any time, but usually not more than thrice a
week in the early stages. Some twelve to twenty sessions are usually
required before the process is well established. There are, however, great
differences between individuals, some receiving almost at once, others
requiring many months or even years to become conscious that a new force
is working in them.

It is most important that trainees should understand that they are

completely free in the latihan. It begins in them because they ask for it, and
it stops when they ask it to stop. Moreover, there is never any loss of
consciousness or of the power of choice. It is only when the trainees try to
play tricks with the latihan, whether by forcing the pace, by imitating others,
or by thinking that they already understand what is still a mystery for them,
that they can bring trouble on themselves. Whoever enters the latihan and
continues with patience and sincerity, experiences no disturbance.
Nevertheless, as I said previously, many trainees imagine that they are being
acted upon by Pak Subuh or whoever may open them, that they are being
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hypnotized or that they are the victims of hallucination. Such notions can
easily be dispelled by the simple test that any trainee can apply of seeing
whether or not he is free at any moment he chooses to stop the latihan and
walk out of the room. Still more cogent for those who understand something
of the meaning of will and consciousness, is the observation that one
remains at all times fully conscious of oneself—even if one ceases to be
aware of one's surroundings. Since one effect of the latihan is to bring to the
surface of one's consciousness states of mind usually buried in the
subconsciousness, people with hidden fears find themselves afraid, those
with concealed suspicions become overtly suspicious, those rooted in self
concern become become obsessed with the idea that they are doing better or
receiving more than they are. All such effects create problems and
embarrassments and put people in need of help from those with greater
experience.

Usually, after a few months, such difficulties have been overcome and
trainees understand clearly that their freedom of choice is never for a
moment removed from them and that there is no danger at any time of losing
consciousness. They also become convinced that the action in the latihan
comes from within themselves, and not from any other person. When this
stage is reached, people are authorized to continue the latihan alone in their
own homes. Usually, they can then become helpers for others.

In this chapter, I have described the latihan, but not its effects. In later
chapters, I shall give examples of the manner in which the latihan works in
people of different types and conditions.

79

There is no "normal" latihan. This is disconcerting for those who are

accustomed to base their judgments on comparisons with some accepted
standard or norm. They want to ask the question: "Am I getting on better or
worse than the others?" But this question, which is intelligible as applied to
working from without, has no meaning when we enter the process of
working from within. Since there are no standards, there can be no "rate of
progress." Each trainee is what he is, and his inner development must follow
his own laws. The uniqueness of the human soul is part of its dignity, and
those who seek for comparisons or external tests of their progress belittle the
soul as much as those who imagine that it can be changed against its will.

7. Worship and Magic

The latihan cannot be rightly understood unless we clearly distinguish

between magic and worship. Magic is a real power, and so far from
belonging to a dead past, it has never been as widely practised as at the
present time, although it is called by other names.

Magic is the use of the forces that act upon man through the lower parts of
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his nature. There are four such forces:

1. The Material forces. These come from the attraction exerted upon man by
the energies of the material world. They are properly called "Satanic Forces"
and those who employ them are "Black Magicians."

2. The Vegetable forces. These act upon man through his instincts. They are
natural forces, and those who use them are called "Red Magicians."

3. The Animal forces. These act through the emotions and passions of man,
and those who are able to manipulate these forces are called "Yellow
Magicians."

4. The Human forces that act through the nature of man himself. Those who
are able to use these forces are called "White Magicians."

In all magic without exception the action is by one man upon other men.
The human will is the directive influence, and the power to use it in this way
depends upon special training and special knowledge. This knowledge is not
"occult" or "transcendental," for the lower forces are within range of our
ordinary human understanding, and their laws can be discovered by
observation and experiment.

80

Magic always requires a surrender of freedom. The magician acquires a

special influence over his clients. If he is a "white" magician, his influence
can be beneficial—upon the human level. If he is a black magician, the soul
of his client is brought under the domination of Satanic forces, and any
benefits he may receive are only on the level of material things.

To understand magic, we do not need to study the customs of savage

tribes with their "medicine men" and "witch doctors." Magic is practised
currently in all civilized countries. It must be said—without any wish to
cause offence—that nearly all advertisement is a form of black magic. It acts
upon people to take away their own judgment and initiative and induce them
to act under the dictates of the magician—that is, the advertising expert.
Advertising makes use of the suggestibility inherent in all people that arises
from their attachment to material possessions and all that belongs to this
earthly life. The essence of black magic is that it promises "something for
nothing"—usually in the form of "happiness." True happiness can be
achieved only by the purification of our nature, that is, through suffering. But
people are made to believe that they will be happier if they have one or
another material possession, or if they can be saved effort or trouble by the
use of some "labour-saving" device, or that they can have health by using
some remedy that will make it unnecessary to change their own bad habits.

When objectively analysed, all such means of influencing people

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correspond to the definition of black magic. The same is true of all the
political and other propaganda that relies upon the desire of people to have
more money, and easier life, and more personal security. All political parties
in all countries rely upon black magic to secure the support of the electorate.
Even those who sense and become sincerely aware that such methods of
influencing people are satanical, cannot easily free themselves from their
toils, because we are living in an age when black magic is the greatest force
in the life of man.

Red magic is much less common than black. It comprises all kinds of
hypnotism and suggestion that act upon people primarily through the nervous
system and the blood. It also includes the use of "magnetic" powers. Most of
the psychiatric techniques, including psychoanalysis, belong to the category
of red magic. Here it must be emphasized that the sincere aim of the red
magician may be to benefit his client, and that good results can be obtained
by these means. They have, however, one common and fundamental defect
—that they transfer the initiative from the patient to the practitioner, who
afterwards finds it very hard to restore the freedom he has taken away.

81

Yellow magic comprises all forms of spiritualism as well as spiritual

healing, clairvoyance, telepathy and other faculties studied by psychical
research workers. The animal forces are much more subtle than those of the
material and vegetable worlds, and they can penetrate into different levels of
consciousness. Nevertheless, they are lower than the true human forces, and
they cannot raise man to a higher level of being. When they are used to
attain definite aims, they require the transfer of initiative from the client to
the medium or clairvoyant. The latter, in his or her turn, comes under the
influence of the animal forces only at the price of a loss of conscious
control. This is called "trance" or sometimes "ecstasy," but all such states are
tainted with magic inasmuch as they involve surrender of human freedom to
a sub-human force.

White magic, properly speaking, comprises all forms of "working from

without" that are directed towards the improvement of man's nature. The
spiritual guide or teacher is a white magician. He helps his pupils to acquire
control over their own human and sub-human forces, but since they more or
less depend upon him and his initiative, the relationship is still that of magic.
The really good white magician takes every opportunity of throwing his
pupils or clients back upon their own initiative, and refuses to take away
their freedom even if they wish to lay it in his hands. Thus the teacher
becomes a true spiritual guide only when he ceases to be a magician. He
may find it necessary to use magic up to a point, in order to help people who
cannot help themselves, but as soon as he gives even the smallest help
beyond what is indispensable his white magic becomes a destructive
influence that arrests the progress of the soul.

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It will be clear now that all forms of magic are essentially opposed to the
true worship of God. Worship is a state of complete freedom and full
consciousness, in which the soul is aware only of the Power of the Holy
Spirit. No lower power can come between the soul and the Holy Spirit, and
yet all the lower powers are themselves brought into harmony with the soul
that turns towards its Maker. This comes about through the vivifying power
of the Great Life Force that flows back towards its Source in and through the
act of worship. It soon becomes evident to all trainees that in the latihan
there is no diminution of freedom or loss of consciousness. In so far as we
are aware of the existence of others, they enter our consciousness as beings
passing through the same process in ourselves. If they appear to us to be
influencing us or influenced by us, the latihan itself either stops or loses its
power. We can thus verify in the most direct manner that there is no magic
in the latihan. The ideal state of man is to live wholly without magic. This is
non-identification or non-attachment—that is, complete freedom and full
consciousness. It is theoretically possible to go by way of magic to attain
freedom from magic, providing we fully understand at all times that magic is
the use of the lower powers of the human essence. It is better, if we can find
the way, to dispense with magic altogether.

82

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Concerning Subud

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 6

The Subud Emblem

1. Susila Budhi Dharma

The word Subud is a contraction of three words—Susila Budhi Dharma. The

ancient Sanskrit language from which these words are taken belongs to the
Hemitheandric Epoch, and has not been a spoken language for nearly three
thousand years. Nearly all the wisdom of the old Epochs has been lost, and
we do not understand much of the symbolism of the Vedas and Brahmanas.
Yet the three words Susila—Budhi—Dharma convey a deep and vivid
meaning as they are interpreted by Pak Subuh.

Susila means literally to have good morals. Pak Subuh describes it as

"Right living according to the Will of God."

The word Budhi has baffled the commentators. Some understand by it the
Power of the Intellect, others Consciousness, and others again explain it as
the inner agent, or will of man. Pak Subuh takes it to mean "The inner force
or power that resides within the nature of man himself." It is not the
individuality or self-hood of man, nor even his soul, but rather the limitless
potentiality for development and progress that is the true motive power in the
spiritual life.

Few Sanskrit words have been so misused as Dharma. In the motto of the
Theosophical Society—Nasti Satyat para Dharmo—it is translated as
religion. It is often taken to mean law, or the world order. Others again
translate it as duty or even fate. The Pali equivalent, Dhamma, occurs in one
of the most ancient Buddhist scriptures—the Dhammapada—as the
description of the way of life of the Bhikkhu or Buddhist mendicant priest.
Pak Subuh interprets Dharma to mean "Submission, surrender and sincerity
in receiving the gift of Grace from the Almighty."

When the three words are combined, they denote the perfect harmony of
the inner life (Budhi) and outer life (Susila) that is attained when our entire
being is submitted to the Will of God as it is revealed to us through the
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highest centre of consciousness, seated not in the brain but in the soul.

83

Subud is a way of life. It is neither a dogma nor creed nor is it a teaching

nor a philosophy. It presupposes an act of faith; namely the acceptance of
the possibility that the Will of God can be revealed to the individual man or
woman whose soul is brought to life and whose lower instruments of thought
and feeling have been purified. It does not require that the act of faith should
precede the awakening, but only that one should be ready to enter upon a
way the end of which may be the complete transformation of one's inner and
outer life. Subud means not merely to live rightly, which would apply
equally to living according to the commandments we receive from without.
It means to live rightly from within, by the Will of God and by His Grace.
We have obligations here on earth—represented by the word Susila—and we
have the power so to fulfil them that we do not offend against Divine
Ordinance. This is the way that leads to felicity not only in this life, but in
the life to come. The way is limitless, for it is the way of return to the
Infinite.

This suggests a second and deeper meaning for the word Subud. Pak
Subuh has explained that it should also be taken as a reminder of the great
universal law: "Everything that arises from a Source must return again to its
Source" or "That which proceeds from God returns to God again."

2. The Subud Emblem

Seven golden circles transected by seven radial lines is the emblem of

Subud. The circle has always been regarded as the symbol of endlessness,
for is has no stopping point. The circle as a symbol means that belief in the
possibility of unlimited development, endless progress of the human soul.
The seven circles indicate that this development implies different levels, and
that within each level there is a source out of which all proceeds and into
which it returns. The seven radial lines indicate that the qualities of all levels
are reproduced on each level. There are thus seven levels and seven
qualities, making forty-nine different states, stages or conditions.

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This symbol with seven circles, seven lines and forty-nine points was
revealed to Pak Subuh as the emblem of the Subud Brotherhood. The
purpose of such an emblem is to serve as a constant reminder of the aim and
the way that we follow. The symbol is not a new one: it is familiar in the
Kabbala and elsewhere both as seven circles and also as the sevenfold
candlestick each branch of which has seven joints, again making forty-nine.
Indeed, "seven times seven" is a notion that occurs in many ancient
mysteries. In taking it as a symbol, Pak Subuh is true to his own assertion
that he brings no new teaching or dogma. He happens to make use of the
Kabbalistic formulae that have been taken into the Sufi mysticism of Islam.
His descriptions and explanations of the spiritual life could equally well be
given in the languages of ancient Egypt, Babylon or China; in that of the
Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite, or in that of Gurdjieff's psycho-
cosmology. Since it is a cardinal point with Pak Subuh that the ultimate
realities can never be expressed in any language, he is content to make use
of symbols and forms that are already familiar. It is necessary to have some
means of communication—chiefly to help people to understand what they
themselves experience. But description without experience is worse than
useless, for it conveys a false sense of knowing what in fact never can be
known with the mind. All that is contained in the present chapter will be
familiar enough to those who have studied hermetic literature but, so long as
the familiarity is with words and forms only, it is an obstacle rather than a
help towards real understanding. Hence Pak Subuh's reiterated advice is
"Experience first—explanations second." This can also be expressed in the
Chinese saying, "He who has not tasted cannot know."

No emblem teaches anything. Its sole use is to serve as a reminder, and a

means of unifying the fleeting glimpses of the unseen reality that come to us
when our inner consciousness is awakened. Moreover, being a reminder that
is shared by all who have access to similar experience, it serves as a unifying
factor by which people can recognize that they are following the same path.

As the letter Alif is the emblem of Islam, signifying the Oneness of God
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and the power of God penetrating through all worlds, and the Cross is the
emblem of Christianity signifying the union of the Divine and human
worlds, so has every faith its own reminding factor. The emblem of Subud
indicates that it does not take the place of any faith or profession. It has no
beginning, and therefore no Founder. It has no end, and therefore no place. It
is a means that is universal and open to all who realize that they cannot live
completely unless all levels of their own being are penetrated and pervaded
by the universal life giving Power of the Holy Spirit of God.

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3. The Seven Soul Powers

The seven circles represent the seven great spheres of universal life, and
they also signify the seven modes in which this life is manifested. These can
be described as souls or powers. It is always hard to find a suitable word to
describe the quality that characterizes a particular class of essences. The soul
itself cannot be separated from its own qualities, nor can the qualities be
found elsewhere than in the kind of soul to which they belong. Nevertheless,
it seems best to use the word power to designate the seven modes of
existence which influence human life. These are:

7. The Power of the Supreme Lord.

6. The Power of Compassion.
5. The Power of the Complete Man.
4. The Human Power.
3. The Animal Power.
2. The Vegetable Power.
1. The Material Power.

Only the four lowest of these seven are accessible to the mind of man and
can, therefore, be described by means of words and images. The three
highest levels are entirely beyond the apprehension of the human mind, the
fifth and sixth are accessible to the two higher centres in man, but the
seventh is beyond the highest possible human consciousness.

We cannot have a right attitude towards Subud unless we grasp one very
simple truth. The human mind cannot know anything except what reaches it
through the human senses: sight, touch, hearing and the rest. The scholastic
philosophers used to say: there is nought in the mind that was not first in the
senses. This truth is accepted today, as it has always been by anyone who
takes the trouble to examine what our thoughts are made of. It does not,
however, follow that there is no reality that our senses cannot perceive. On
the contrary, we can see only a small part, and hear and touch a small part of
what is actually around us. Our minds cannot know this, because they really
are limited by our senses. So that although we may talk and write about an
invisible world, about eternal realities, about life after death, about the soul
and conscience and even about God—we cannot know anything at all about
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these suprasensible objects. Neither can anyone else know them. Our minds
are shut in by a barrier through which thought cannot pass. But we are not
the same as our minds, any more than we are our head or our hands. All
these are instruments of man, not the man himself.

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We could not even suspect the existence of powers higher than our human
powers, if there were not in us instruments that are themselves higher than
the mind. But, just because these instruments are indeed higher, they cannot
be brought under the control or expected to obey the orders of the mind.
They will obey the soul, whose instruments they are, but if the soul is asleep
or unborn, then they have no master, and they must wait in peace until the
master comes.

All that can be said about the three highest powers is that they do not arise
and grow out of the lower ones, as plants grow from minerals, animals from
plants and man from animals. The power of the complete man enters him
from above—it is a gift that depends solely on the Grace of God. Only when
the human soul is filled with this power can it reach perfection and enter the
realm of the just man made perfect that is beyond anything that our senses
can perceive.

The sixth power is far higher and greater than that of the complete or
perfect man. It is universal—not confined within the limits of our solar
system. The soul that is illuminated by this sixth power participates in the
Divine Compassion by which all worlds are sustained.

Of the seventh power we can say nothing at all. It seems that it must arise
from beyond the whole existing universe—but these are mere words. We
cannot even know what we mean by the "Power of God." The soul into
which this Power enters is wholly united in its Will with the Will of God.
But since the soul itself is a creature and can never be the same as God, we
cannot hope to understand this unity of Will, unless God Himself chooses to
reveal it to us.

Even if description is useless, there is a value in setting before ourselves

the names of the Higher Powers, if only so that we can remember that
human nature, even when raised to its highest level of perfection, is still two
degrees removed from the Power of the Supreme Lord.

4. The Lower Powers

Since in all men one of the four lower powers is predominant, it is

important that we should understand their nature. Even this is impossible for
the mind of man, because we are able to think only about the external,
visible forms. The inward essence cannot be represented by means of
images. We can, however, learn to recognize the working of the different
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powers, and so become sensitive to their qualities as they are manifested in
ourselves.

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The first of the essential powers is that which works through material
objects. It is this power that acts upon our senses and enables us to see and
touch and form images. The words that we use in speaking and thinking
acquire their meaning from these sensible images. Thus when we say the
word "table," we evoke in ourselves the forces that act on us when we see
and touch a table, so we have an image of a table. We have the same kind
of images when we say "tree" or "cow" or "man." This means that all our
images belong to the power of material objects.

We cannot doubt that there is such a power, because material objects are
able to attract our attention and arouse our interests and our desires.
Nevertheless, this power belongs to the lowest world, and for this reason it is
also called the Satanic Power. Those whose souls are dominated by the
power of material objects feel themselves secure only when they have
possessions around them. They are afraid of losing their possessions because
their soul can find no other support. Men will even kill themselves if they
lose their possessions, and they will kill or harm others in order to acquire
them. Even if they are restrained from such violent actions, by training or
habit or fear, they are nevertheless dependent on material things, and value
themselves and others by the quantity and quality of the possessions they
can collect around them. Such people cannot even imagine that they are the
slaves of the Satanic power, because they have no other experience with
which to compare their own.

It is a hard saying, but true, that nearly all people in the world today live
under the power of material objects and cannot exist without them. The
Satanic powers also dominates the earth itself—that is the material planet
with its earth, water and air. Therefore people who are under the material
power are imprisoned on the earth. They can exist only on the earth, and
when they die their only possibility of further existence is to return to the
earth. If, however, the soul is not brought to life the essence cannot easily
find its way back into a human form, and is likely to be absorbed into the
material objects to which it is so much attached.

The second Power is that of the plant essence. This power is far more
highly differentiated and more "alive" than the material power. It is the
support of all life on the earth, not merely in the form of food for our bodies,
but as the source of all the diverse impulses that form the "nature" of men
and animals. For this reason the vegetable power is sometimes called also
the force of desire. Those who are dominated by the vegetable power are
clear and strong in their impulses.

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The "world of plants" is far higher than the world of material objects. It is an
invisible world, for it is composed of the essences that are hidden in the
plants. To understand this we must refer again to the Subud emblem, and
remember the seven lines that transect the seven circles. Thus a man may be
under the influence of plant powers and yet be able to perceive only that
which reaches him through his senses. Then he sees plants only as material
objects and has no respect for the essences that are hidden in them.

The third Power, that of the animal forces, is the source of the "character."
Thus, some men have the character of a dog, others of a bull or a pig or a
tiger. These "characters" are hidden by the external human form and by the
outer human instruments, especially the mind; that is, all that I have called
the "personality." Consequently, we do not easily recognize the essential
characters of people, and suppose that all "men" are really men. The quality
of the essence depends upon the powers that predominate in it. Thus it is
possible for a "man" to have the character of a dog and to be dominated by
material or Satanic influences, and yet he and other people take for granted
that he really is a man. Many such strange combinations are possible, and
when we begin to acquire the faculty of perceiving the hidden realities, we
understand that "humanity" is still very far from being truly human.

The comparison of mankind to a child is far from adequate for it does not
allow for the immense complexity of the whole human situation. In one
aspect, humanity can be compared to a child of four or five years old. In
another, we must think of the slow emergence from the animal essence into
the human essence that started a bare million years ago, and may take
several more millions of years to complete. Our human organs and functions
are subject to predominantly sub-human powers in our nature. Again,
mankind is an integral part of the entire life of the earth—the biosphere—
and can never be understood apart from this whole to which we all belong.
In this respect, the entire human race is rather more in the situation of an
embryo still contained and nourished in the womb, than a child already born
and in some measure competent to see to its own needs. Thus, the influence
upon men of the animal Power is more important and penetrates more deeply
into our nature than those of the material and vegetable Powers. In the
Megalanthropic Epoch, with its emphasis upon the salvation of the
individual, the organic significance of mankind—of the whole human race—
was almost lost to sight. It is a clear indication of the coming of the new
Epoch that men are turning more and more towards the realization of human
solidarity and interdependence.

89

We may expect that during the next two or three thousand years humanity
will come to the consciousness of its unity with the rest of life upon the
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earth. Then people will begin to be aware of the immense significance of the
Animal Essence and the Power that flows through it.

The fourth or Human Power is that which flows through the human
essence. Inasmuch as mankind has not yet evolved to the stage at which
there is a true social consciousness, the mutual influence of human beings
upon one another very seldom comes from the Human Power. Nearly always
the action either proceeds from the lower powers, and especially those of the
material world, or else it comes from the personality, that is, the artificial
covering by which the essence is enveloped. The true brotherhood of
mankind must come from the operation of the Human Power—but so long
as men are closed up by their personality and subject even in their essence to
sub-human forces, there can be no "brotherhood from within." Consequently
the social relationships of mankind as we know them today are almost
exclusively the result of external attractions and outward restraints.

We must not blame people for this situation. It is inevitable in our present
immature state, and thousands of years may have to pass before a truly
human society can arise on the earth and embrace all organic life within a
single family. Nevertheless, we can already see in the working of Subud that
those who can persist through the early stages come to a new and essential
realization of what a human society should be, and can begin to experience
the working of the Human Power in their relations with their fellow man.

Although nearly all the wealth of experience that enters through the
Human Power is closed to those whose soul is not yet brought to life, there is
one manifestation that is necessary for human existence and is therefore
made to operate independently of the inner condition. This is the power of
sex. The relationship between man and woman is a true human relationship
that penetrates through the personality and acts in the essence. Consequently,
the relationship of the sexes, at all times and for all people, has provided the
greatest opportunities and has also been fraught with the greatest hazards for
the human soul. Pak Subuh reminds us that the sexual force is the very first
to enter a man's life, since it is present at the moment of conception. The
Subud Emblem reminds us that every Power cuts through all levels, and it
can therefore happen that a high Power in the soul comes under the
domination of a lower Power in the essence.

90

This is indeed what almost always happens with the power of sex: in nearly
all men and women it is directed by the animal Powers, influenced by the
vegetable passions and brought to shame by the material or Satanic powers.
When the Human Power is rightly manifested in the human essence, it is the
means for the completion of man and for his preparation for the Divine
Grace of the perfected human soul.

5. The Two Universal Essences

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There is in the Subud Emblem an invisible as well as a visible content.

We are shown in the seven circles and the seven rays how the seven
qualities appear in each of the seven levels, but not how it is possible to pass
from one level to another, nor how all are united into a single whole. The
emblem is completed by the addition of two further essences that cannot be
shown by points or lines or circles or any other geometrical symbol, for they
are omnipresent, pervading all that exists. These are the Primal Essence and
the Holy Essence, or Holy Spirit.

The Primal Essence is also called the Great Life Force that flows through
everything from the highest to the lowest, and from the lowest to the
highest. It is called by Gurdjieff the "common-cosmic-Ansanbaluiazar,"
which he defines by the formula "Everything issuing from everything and
again returning into everything."* The flow of the Primal Essence from
above below and from below above is called Involution and Evolution, and
it is responsible for the common cosmic exchange of substances by which
the life of the entire universe is maintained.

The Sacred Essence that proceeds directly from the Will of God, and
surrounds and pervades everything is the Power that makes possible the
return of all essences to their source. Thus in the Creed it is also called The
Lord and Giver of Life.

It would be useless even to attempt an analysis of the innumerable ways in

which the two Universal Sacred Essences have been described in the
scriptures of all religions, as well as in the hermetic books of all ancient
schools. There is no new teaching in Subud and it is unnecessary to spend
more time in seeking for parallels.

Although names can be given to the Sacred Essences and even some kind
of description of their characteristics can be attempted, the truth is that,
being

* cf. All and Everything , p. 761

91

limitless and omnipresent, it is quite impossible for the limited, localized

human functions of thought, feeling and imagination to form any picture of
their true nature. Nevertheless, we can recognize their working in ourselves,
and especially in the latihan, for it is the Great Life Force that flows through
the entire being to give it new life and new powers. It is the Holy Spirit
whose contact awakens the soul and enables it to conform to the Will of
God. As the Apostle says: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure."

Thus, although the Sacred Essences and their Powers are utterly beyond
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our understanding , they are not remote from us. On the contrary, our very
existence and all our potentialities depend upon them alone. Without them,
the whole universe and all its contents would collapse into nonentity and
chaos.

6. The Four States of Matter

Pak Subuh adopts the ancient symbolism of light or fire, air or wind,
water, and earth, to designate the four states of the prime source cosmic
substance that I have called Hyle. Each of these states is capable of entering
our experience in four degrees of materialization. These are essences,
elements, forms andbodies.

Bodies are the content of the sensible world. We can see and touch them,
and they are the raw material of our thoughts. Bodies come under the laws
of space and time: for example, two bodies cannot occupy one place. Natural
science studies the behaviour of bodies of all kinds, but its results are
expressed in terms of forms. Forms are the eternal patterns from which
bodies are derived. Thus there is human form, that is brought into existence
at the moment of conception and directs the subsequent development of the
embryo and continues throughout life to regulate existence. The elements are
the forces that project forms into existence. We can become aware of the
elements only through the higher instruments. They cannot be objects of
thought, for they are not limited by forms. The essences are the ultimate
realities that are free from determination. They can be apprehended only by
the power of objective consciousness.

I shall not attempt here to develop Pak Subuh's scheme or show how it
serves to harmonize natural science, psychology, transcendental philosophy
and theology. The second volume of The Dramatic Universe, which was
written before I met Subud, contains my own interpretation of the
relationships between matter and consciousness, between existence and
essence, that does not seem to me to contradict anything in Pak Subuh's
presentation. I should however, emphasize that Pak Subuh is not all
concerned with constructing a rational system of philosophy or a theory of
existence. He makes use of terms only when they are necessary to help
people to understand the various experiences that occur during the latihan, or
as a result of its action.

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 7

The Resurrection of the Body

1. First Effects of the Latihan

After the first few latihans, most trainees report that they observe a sense of
deep relaxation and well-being. Both during and after the latihan, they
experience an exceptionally clear state of consciousness that persists for one
or two hours. These effects are very different from those obtained in
voluntary relaxation exercises, which usually produce drowsiness and
contentment rather than a state of vivid consciousness. Again, many trainees
report that, although they may arrive at the latihan tired and out of temper,
they invariably experience a reversal of state and leave the room fresh and
cheerful. Such results are to be expected from mild physical exercises that
can restore a normal blood circulation after a prolonged period of mental
effort, or other sedentary work. Nevertheless, there is a quality that
distinguishes the latihan from relaxation exercises and gymnastics, and also
from breathing exercises or the use of special postures such as those
practised in Hatha Yoga. This quality consists in the progressive character of
the latihan. So long as the process is not interfered with by any effort of
attention, expectation of results or anxiety of any kind, the latihan
progressively changes its action, as if some inner energy were opening for
itself ever new channels through which to flow. Trainees often show surprise
at the sense of novelty and unexpectedness that accompanies almost every
latihan. This is characteristic of "working from within," which reproduces in
the outer parts of the self the changes that are taking place in the essence.

One difficulty that was encountered at first by many trainees, but now is
gradually disappearing, is in understanding what is meant by "not thinking."
The effort to exclude thoughts is no different from the effort to keep
attention upon a single idea or image. The psychological experiment "How
long can you not think about a white elephant?" illustrates the point. So long
as one tries to keep the image or thought of a white elephant out of one's
attention, it constantly recurs. If one ceases to try, the image soon disappears
—"we forget about it." Thus all that commonly passes for "meditation" and

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"concentration" is a form of exclusion and is really negative. It closes the
channels through which influences of the higher centres should flow. Only in
rare cases is true meditation as a prolonged state of complete openness and
freedom every attained, even by those who devote their lives to the practice.

93

With the latihan, exclusion of any kind is a barrier. Those who try to hold
their thoughts upon any idea—even that of worship—obstruct the exercise.
Since the inner force is present from the moment of opening, such an effort
is a "kick against the pricks," and those trainees who make it, often complain
that the day after the latihan they feel ill or exhausted. Those complaints are
an indication that the advice "not to think" has been misunderstood. Such
effects in the latihan are mainly responsible for the negative reactions of
about one in ten of those who are opened.

The preliminary stage of the latihan may last from one to six months.
During this time the effects are mostly transient, and the trainees experience
chiefly a sense of well-being that is due to an improvement in the instinctive
bodily functions. Even where there are strong emotional reactions, these are
usually due, when positive, to the release of tensions in the organism, and
when negative, to the resistance of some bodily habit to the inward Power.
Pak Subuh has compared this stage to that of a child's first visit to the
kindergarten where it is shown the various implements and toys—but has
not begun to use them. In order to understand the further process a little
better, it is necessary to return to the theme of the last chapter.

2. The Great Life Force

The Primal Essence is the vivifying power by which all existence is

sustained. It is the link between the powers of the seven levels of Being. All
creation is pervaded by three powers or "Cosmic Impulses."* These in
Subud terminology are:

The Seven Powers that together make the totality of all Existence.

The Great Life Force that is the Essence of all essences.

The Holy Spirit that is the Power of God enveloping the world.

The Subud contact is made by the Holy Spirit that descends upon the soul
of man who is opened to receive it. When the soul is opened, it becomes a
receptacle or a channel for the great life force. Through this force, an action
is initiated that brings to life all parts of man on all levels, and brings him
eventually to the true human soul.

* Cosmic Impulse is the term I have adopted in The Dramatic Universe, Vol. II, and which I
propose to retain for the purposes of my own personal exposition.

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Since there are four lower powers, there are four stages of purification or
preparation. These can be represented by the diagram below.

In the diagram, the four circles represent the four lower powers: material,
vegetable, animal and human. They also stand for the physical organism, the
feelings or passions, the understanding or intellect, and the true self of man,
or consciousness. The four circles are also described as four "bodies," but
these must be understand as essences. Thus the material body is not the same
as the physical organism, but the life force that regenerates the organism and
is the seat of the true bodily consciousness or sensation.

The point in the centre represents the Spirit, which is the point of contact
at which the Great Life Force enters.

In the latihan, channels are opened by which the life force

or life-giving energy flows from the spirit into the physical organism, and
regenerates or "reconnects" it. It is the beginning of this regeneration that is
experienced by the trainee as a sense of relaxation, accompanied by a vivid
consciousness of being "present" in his body.

The Four Powers of Man

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The life force is unable to flow freely through the organism so long as there
are diseased conditions. These vary from recognized pathological states to
hidden tensions and trivial physical habits. The life force releases the
tensions and so produces the spontaneous movements that occur in the
latihan. Herein lie the value and power of "working from within." The
trainee himself could not possibly know the movements that he requires—on
the contrary, they are movements that he would usually avoid—just because
of the tensions that they they release. Often movements deliberately made to
release tensions are very painful, for example, when nerves are affected as in
sciatica, or in the many forms of rheumatism and arthritis, where the
tensions affect not only the nerves, but also the blood circulation and the
activity of the lymph glands. Very often it is observed in the latihan that
trainees suffering from such complaints make movements that would be
agonizingly painful if produced intentionally by force, and afterwards report
that they felt no pain at all.

Not all the movements in the latihan are externally visible. Sometimes
they are felt like an inner vibration accompanied by a strong sensation of one
or other limb or organ. Often again they are so fine as to be unobserved even
by the trainee himself. The whole process is one of cleansing of the
organism so that the life force can enter. This leads to a general state of
bodily health.

When the first "essence-body" begins to take shape in man, his physical
organism is brought to life. This also means that it becomes "his" own body.
So long as the life force has not entered it, the body has no contact with the
spirit. It has no master, and the master—that is, the spirit—has no body. This
is a strange saying that cannot readily be understood with the mind. But the
Subud trainee comes to recognize the truth of it. He realized that his hands,
his eyes, and all his limbs and organs do not belong to "him" except when
the life force is present in him. It can make its home in him only when the
body is purified of its defects.

Since the purification proceeds by stages, it can happen that a trainee starts
by discovering that one of his limbs or organs has come to life. He
recognizes that it is "his own" in a real sense, the very possibility of which
he had never previously imagined. When the process is complete, then the
essence-body fills the physical body with life and brings it into submission
to the spirit.

96

This is the true meaning of the resurrection of the body and of the words of
the Apostle: "it is raised a spiritual body..." The resurrection of the body
must be completed in this temporal life, if it is to be an eternal reality. This
is the first stage of the "completion" of man.

The second stage is the purification of the feelings, symbolized in the

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diagram by the arrow that goes from the first to the second circle. To this
and the succeeding stages, we shall return in the next chapter.

3. The Latihan and the Body

The first and most obvious change produced by the latihan is an increase
in physical energy and the ability to do work. When Subud first came to
Coombe Springs heavy new burdens were placed on an already over worked
household. A small number of men—resident students of the Institute—had
set themselves to complete the New Hall several months ahead of schedule
to make it available for the latihan. Visitors began to arrive from all parts of
the world, and all required help which no one was qualified to give them.
Moreover, in place of regular study groups held on Saturdays and Sundays
with relatively quiet evenings during the week, two or three hundred people
were arriving nearly every night for the latihan and turning the house upside
down. Under such conditions one might have expected frayed tempers and
physical collapse. In the event, not only was the burden carried, but there
was an all-round improvement in health and vigour, and the house became
quieter than ever before, notwithstanding the avalanche of trainees that
descended upon it five nights in the week.

Very soon trainees began to report, with some surprise and diffidence, that
they were observing that various complaints had disappeared. Often these
were minor chronic conditions of the kind that people get used to without
ceasing to be troubled by them. Since the symptoms usually come and go, it
is not at once obvious that they have disappeared for good. It was, therefore,
not for several months that it became certain that permanent improvements
in health had occurred to at least a hundred of the trainees. Typical
conditions cured in this way include various skin troubles, colitis, gout,
haemorrhoids, lumbago, migraines and insomnia. Only the person concerned
can be really sure that something has changed, and people are often inclined
to be over-hasty in reporting an improvement. Nevertheless, after some ten
months, it is no longer to be doubted that there has been a noticeable
improvement in health among the trainees.

97

There is something much more telling than all these reports, and that is the
quite obvious change in appearance that comes when people are really
opened. The impression made upon Mary Cornelius after seven years has
already been reported. It happens constantly that people are startled to see a
friend's face looking years younger and more beautiful after the latihan. Not
only do the trainees themselves feel younger and full of energy, but they are
seen by their friends to be so. The presence of the Great Life Force makes
itself visibly apparent. The body that is rejuvenated from within, acquires a
finer texture of complexion and more harmonious movements and gestures.

Nevertheless, it must not be thought that everything is plain sailing. From

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the first, we observed that some of the trainees began to make very violent
movements and to give vent to loud, harsh sounds. The forms of sounds and
movements fall into a limited number of classes, from observation of which
we have learned to recognize various traits of character that are being
eliminated or purified. The purification itself requires that what is inside
should come outside. The results can be very disconcerting. A mild, reserved
person becomes for a time aggressive and even violent. Tendencies towards
jealousy, fear, worry, inner criticism of others, self-importance and the like
leave their traces in the physical organism. When the life force enters, these
tendencies are driven to the surface, and the overt behaviour is at once
affected. In consequence of all this, we have had many difficult moments—
especially when a hundred or more people were passing through similar
crises. Such crises are usually of short duration, and once they are
understood no one is disturbed by them.

The same applies to the crises that occur in sick people. In the course of
eliminating the poisons, their symptoms are sometimes aggravated. When
this occurs it is a good indication that the latihan is working in the organism.
Even with people who are not sick, latent traces of old illnesses are soon
brought to the surface. I myself within the first three months (January to
March 1957) twice passed through two or three unpleasant days when
symptoms of dysentery and tuberculosis flared up in me. I suffered a severe
attack of dysentery in 1919, and contracted tuberculosis in 1935: though
both had been "cured" I had always been aware that I had weak spots in
consequence. After the two crises (about three weeks apart), I felt sure that
the last traces of these old illnesses had been eliminated. Later, I had
positive evidence that this had in fact occurred. This helped me to give
confidence to others who were disconcerted to find they had to "get worse
before they got better."

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Subud is not easy to understand, because we are not accustomed to "working

from within." Most human activity consists in trying to "do" something to
get what one wants. If the results are contrary to expectation we either give
up or try again. We work "from the outside upon the outside." Unavoidably,
we overlook many factors, and some we could not discover if we tried,
because they are in the "invisible" world. This is why human "doing" is so
hazardous. When the working is from within, there is no "doing"—but we
have to adapt ourselves to the results. This is possible, for we can see the
results and we can (if we have been trained to do so) also see ourselves.
Therefore working from within is really much less uncertain and hazardous
than working from outside. The most difficult part—the adjustment of the
visible process to the invisible pattern—is done for us.

The situation just described may seem strange and even fantastic, and yet
we can confirm from our own experience that is possible to live so that we

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adapt ourselves to results and do not waste our time trying to create causes
that are beyond our power to control.

A very simple example is the treatment of diabetes. Some people cannot

regulate their sugar metabolism. They must either avoid carbohydrates, or
take insulin injections, or both. Doctors know the facts, and can keep people
in normal health for many years, but medical science does not know the
causes of diabetes, beyond the observation that it tends to attack people of a
particular temperament, and is aggravated by emotional disturbances.
Diabetes is really due to a psychic injury, and the effects on the body are
secondary; there are therefore many ways in which diabetes can be
contracted. Doctors do not know how to deal with the psychic injury, and
therefore regard diabetes as "incurable." They can only alleviate the
symptoms by regulating the sugar metabolism.

In the latihan, the psychic injury itself is healed. We have observed

numerous cases of diabetics who after starting the latihan have been able
progressively to reduce their insulin doses. The improvement has continued
over a period of months. I am told that diabetes is prevalent in the
overcrowded city of Djakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and that several cases
of complete cure have been observed. Patients have not only discontinued
insulin but ceased to need their sugar intake. This illustrates what I mean by
"dealing with results" and not attempting to create or destroy causes.

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4. Subud and Healing

It is scarcely necessary, at this stage, to correct the false impression

newspaper readers may have formed that Pak Subuh is a "spiritual healer"
and that Coombe Springs is a "Nature Cure Centre." It is a fact that illnesses,
some of them serious, have been cured through the latihan, but this occurs
only in so far as it is necessary for the spiritual development of the trainees
concerned. There can, therefore, never be any assurance that any particular
sick person will be cured of his disease, or, if he is to be cured, that it will
happen within a short space of time.

I do not propose to cite any case histories. This is a matter for doctors,
and even for them it is seldom possible to assert definitely that a condition
would not have improved without the help of Subud. My own view is that
the general effect of the latihan upon the human organism has already been
clearly established. It is brought to life, rejuvenated in all its functions—
including the sexual function—and it acquires a higher resistance to
infection and overstrain that it had before. Where there is a pathological
condition, no improvement is observed until the psychic state is changed.
When calmness and confidence are restored the natural regenerative
functions of the organism can begin to assert themselves. This is enough to
account for most of the cases of "healing" that we have observed.
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Hence it may be said that Subud is likely to be of special value in

connection with psychosomatic illness; that is, all forms of disease where the
root of the trouble likes not in some infection or lesion in the body itself, but
in a psychic disturbance of which the patient is often not aware. Doctors say
that this kind of illness is likely to be the greatest medical problem of the
future, when specific remedies will have been found for most infectious and
deficiency diseases, but true health will still depend—as it always has—
upon the psychic state of the patient. One need not be a doctor to recognize
the truth of the saying, "There's none so ill as he who won't be cured."

It seems to me that there is an immense scope for Subud in medical

practice, even if it is looked upon as no more than a means whereby a
normal psychic condition can be restored. Pak Subuh himself has repudiated
all suggestions that the latihan works miracles against the laws of nature.
Nor is it the kind of magic depending upon the lower powers of the soul
(material, vegetable and animal) which is used unwittingly in nearly all
healing by touch or prayer. It is the awakening of the higher powers of the
soul that brings about the "normalization" of the whole being, starting with
the physical organism.

100

Pak Subuh has emphasized that he wishes to do nothing without the co-
operation of the medical profession. It has been wrongly stated that Miss
Bartok rejected the advice of her doctors when she came to the latihan. In
fact, her own doctor, though frankly sceptical, said that he saw no harm in it,
because in any case she needed a rest and to have her confidence restored
before undergoing the operation.

5. Brookhurst Grange Nursing Home

In July 1957, the whole position was placed before a group of doctors who
were interested in Subud from the spiritual standpoint, and they agreed that
the best course would be to open a nursing home under medical supervision
and with a fully qualified nursing staff, to which patients could be sent. This
would enable a serious experiment to be made that could within a few years
enable the benefits of Subud to be assessed objectively.

Thanks to the generosity of a small group of people, all former pupils of

Gurdjieff, it has been possible to buy and equip a nursing home at
Brookhurst Grange in Surrey. This was duly registered with the Surrey
County Council, and opened to receive patients on the 1st February, 1958. It
would clearly be quite inappropriate to attempt at this stage to forecast what
this experiment will lead to. Pak Subuh has made it clear that his interest
lies, first, in convincing the medical profession that there is no suggestion of
substituting the latihan for normal medical treatment and, second, in
demonstrating that the benefit of any form of medical treatment is enhanced
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by the change in the psychic state of the patient. A well-known difficulty in
assessing such cases arises from the fact that almost any stimulus that
arouses interest and renews hope and confidence in the patient will result in
alleviation of the symptoms and sometimes an apparent "cure." Only rarely
do permanent cures come about through such means. Many months must
pass before we shall know very much more than has been written in this
chapter.

6. The Natural Body

Each stage of development reproduces in itself the seven stages of cosmic

completion. Thus, although in the first stage it is only the first or natural
body that is transformed, the process is experienced also in all other parts of
man. The pure, natural body of man does not respond to negative impulses.
The vivification of the limbs and organs of the body makes them sensitive to
the quality of the impulses that act upon them.

101

The sense of relaxation and physical awareness already described is followed

by the observation that small, but undesirable, bodily habits lose their hold
and disappear by themselves. These are connected with the material forces,
and certainly time and patience are required before the body is liberated
from all the satanical forces that oppress it. Moreover, it must not be
forgotten that nothing in the latihan happens against our own will. Once Pak
Subuh was asked how it was that certain bad habits persisted in someone
who had followed the latihan for a long time. He smiled and said, "Because
he himself does not wish to be free from them. He wishes for spiritual
development, but he does not want to change. Later he will see for himself,
and then he will begin to wish to change."

The second stage is connected with food and breath. Trainees find that
they eat more in accordance with their needs and less according to their
appetite. Those accustomed to alcoholic drinks find that their need and
desire for alcohol steadily diminishes. Those with irregularities of breathing
—such as asthmatics—begin to observe alleviation of their symptoms. At
the same time, trainees become more sensitive to the quality of food. They
eat less, but it matters more to them whether the food is well prepared or not.
In this connection, Pak Subuh has laid emphasis on the great responsibility
that attaches to the preparation of food. "Rightly speaking, the cook should
be himself or herself in a state of purity—then the food will also be pure,
and people will be made happy by eating it."

There is a further stage in which the eyes really begin to see and the ears
to hear, when the hands really touch the instruments they use. This
quickening of the senses is something unmistakable which scores of people
have observed without being told to expect it. At first, the experience is
transient, but slowly the new "natural body" enters into the old body and the

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sense of "seeing with one's own eyes" becomes an established fact.

When the organs and limbs are filled with the new life, they begin to obey
the voice of conscience, and not that of our own self-will. Thus trainees
begin to notice that when unpleasant or malicious thoughts arise in their
minds, to which they would habitually give expression, the words stop in
their throats and the expression of their face changes by itself. It is chiefly
due to this, that friends remark upon the alteration in the appearance of those
who follow the latihan.

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7. Elimination

The positive results described in the last section are by no means the most
obvious consequences of the latihan. There are also negative manifestations,
due to the elimination of impurities, or as it is sometimes called, "throwing
out." The physical organism of man is like a sponge that absorbs all kinds of
influences from the moment of birth. Unless he is able to come under the
law of "working from within," the traces of all these influences accumulate
in him, and enter his "personality."

There are, undoubtedly, some very fine sensitive substances that absorb
and store up all these influences, and are responsible, among other things, for
the phenomenon of memory, that strange and important property of the great
life force. I have called them elsewhere the "sensitive energies." These
energies thus become tainted with all the bad habits of movement, instinct,
feeling and thought that are formed in the personality. In the latihan, the far
higher energy that is released from the higher centres seeks to fill the
organism with new life. It is obstructed by the tainted sensitive energy,
which it drives to the surface. The result is that memories lost in the
subconsciousness and habits that are suppressed in the external behaviour all
begin to produce visible reactions. Put simply, the trainees begin (a) to see
themselves as they really are, and (b) to show themselves to others also in
their true character.

This produces, in the early stages of the latihan, situations that can be
difficult or embarrassing. It has been observed that in every centre where
Subud has started, there has been a period when every kind of personal
misunderstanding has run riot. People have quarrelled, and disagreed on all
kinds of practical issues that ordinarily would be settled without trouble.
Doubts, suspicions, jealousy, impatience, wounded vanity—in fact the whole
gamut of unpleasant and negative emotions are brought to the surface.
Among people accustomed to self-observation, such consequences cause
neither surprise nor consternation. Indeed, they are a clear proof that the
action of the latihan is a genuine purification.

There is no doubt that the elimination is not merely a change of state, but
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the effective removal of "psychic toxins." The elimination is experienced by
the trainee himself as producing a state of inner cleanness. Trainees remark
upon the sense of being inwardly clean that they enjoy after the latihan. But
while the poison goes out of the trainee, it can enter into another person
whose purification is further advanced, and is therefore more sensitive.

103

This can result in very unpleasant experiences for the helpers, who are
sometimes even physically sick as a result of some uncleanness that has
been eliminated by another. Another strange, but unquestionably objective,
proof that an actual substance is eliminated is the foetid odour that is often
observed in the vicinity of a trainee who is eliminating some unpleasant
habit. The odour is perceived by all the helpers present, and it suddenly
disappears when the elimination has occurred.

The absorption by one person of the poisons eliminated by another has

results that, at first, were very disconcerting. We found that we experienced
various negative states without being able to trace their origin. Later it was
explained to us by the Indonesian helpers that we were picking these up
from other people, and that we could easily get rid of the poison if we were
to do a latihan by ourselves or with the other helpers.

For me personally, this threw light upon a problem that had vexed me for
years. I had observed that when I was sitting in front of a group of students
following Gurdjieff's exercises, I very often found myself with a headache,
or very exhausted and sometimes physically sick. I had asked other people
who were instructing groups, and found that they had the same experience,
but ascribed it to their own weakness, being confident that when they could
be more fully conscious and stronger in themselves they would cease to be
affected. However, as far as I was concerned, this trouble, instead of
improving, grew steadily worse, until I came to dread the days when I had to
instruct groups or give general talks.

Very soon after the coming to the latihan, I understood for myself exactly
what had been happening, and found the way to cleanse myself of the
poisons that I had been absorbing. This was for me a real blessing, for I have
since been obliged constantly to be with people in whom some kind of
elimination was occurring, and have never suffered in the way I did before.
Trainees who in the course of their work have to meet sick, mentally
disturbed, nervous, angry or simply negative people, have reported the
immense benefit it has been to them to be able to "clean themselves out" by
a latihan at the end of such meetings.

All the experiences described in this chapter refer to the first stage of
purification, by which the natural body of man is brought to life and filled
with the Great Life Force. This is what I understand by the resurrection of
the body, for it means that within the mortal perishable body is formed a
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second body that does not perish when the physical body dies.

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 8

The Completion of Man

1. The Sacred Impulses

The true man in us is not of this earth and, although he lies sleeping in the
depths of our essence, he has not lost the thread that connects him with his
Source. From this connection, there arise in us impulses that are truly sacred
inasmuch as they are the means whereby we are drawn back towards our
place of origin.

Four of the Sacred Impulses are of especial significance for Subud. These
are: surrender, patience, trust and sincerity. They do not originate in the
mind and the will of man, but they are operative in us only by our own
consent. Their connection with the latihan has already been mentioned and
by understanding them better we can come to appreciate the true role of
human freedom in the completion of our nature.

By Surrender is meant not a state of passivity or irresponsibility, but the

recognition that we men are not the masters of causes—that is, we cannot
"do." To see for ourselves that our "doing" cannot go beyond the mechanical
processes of this world and to realize that we must put aside the idea that we
can set ourselves free by our own efforts—these are the conditions of
surrender. In its full significance, surrender is to place oneself wholly in the
hands of God—but we cannot have any idea of what this means until after
we have become conscious of the link between our own spirit and the Holy
Spirit. In practice, therefore, surrender means to put aside our own desire to
"do" something and to allow the action of the latihan to proceed in us. This
has already been explained in connection with "not-thinking." Many trainees
object when they are told to "surrender" that they cannot picture to
themselves how it is possible to submit oneself to a Power of which one is
not even aware. What cannot be pictured or thought about is not necessarily
hard to realize in practice. All that is required is that one should consciously
and willingly allow all one's functions to work spontaneously and
automatically. This "allowing" is the beginning of surrender.

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105

The second sacred impulse is Patience. This is the acceptance of the times
and seasons that are not of man but of God. So long as we look for or expect
results, we hinder the inner working. Impatience is always a manifestation of
self-will. Even if our aim is our own perfecting or the true welfare of others,
we trip over ourselves if we "try to go faster than God." I have referred to
the two streams of life and mechanicalness; true patience enables us to be
carried safely and surely in the stream of life. All impatience throws us back
into the stream of mechanicalness that leads to destruction.

Patience is a sacred impulse. As St. Paul declared, it is one of the

manifestations of charity. But true patience can come only from within.
Patience imposed from without is weakness.

Trust in God is both the condition and the fruit of spiritual awakening.
Trust, like patience, must come from within. Trust of the personality is
stupidity. The personality of man cannot trust God and indeed has no reason
to do so, for the personality is merely an earthly artefact, not a creature of
God.

Trust in God is the assurance that His will is accomplished in all things.
Trust in man is the expectation of outward actions, but trust in God is the
work of conscience. A pupil asked Ibrahim Khawwas about trust (tawakkul);
the story goes on: "He replied 'I have no answer to this question just now,
because whatever I say is a mere expression, and it behoves me to answer by
my actions; but I am setting out for Mecca: do thou accompany me that thou
mayest be answered.' I consented. As we journeyed through desert, one day
an old man rode up to us and dismounted and conversed with Ibrahim for a
while; then he left us. I asked Ibrahim to tell me who he was. He replied
'This is the answer to thy question.' 'How so?' I asked. He said: 'This was the
Apostle Khidr, who begged me to let him accompany me, but I refused, for I
feared that in his company I might put confidence in him instead of in God,
and then my trust in God (tawakkul) would have been vitiated.'"

Within the working of the laws of nature, there is the manifestation of

God's Will directed towards the salvation of creatures. Trust is to rely upon
that manifestation without expecting the laws of nature to be violated.

The fourth sacred impulse is Sincerity. This means harmony between the
inner and outer life. Concerning sincerity, I will quote a passage from the Al
Hujwiri.

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"Men in their dealings with God fall into two classes. Some imagine that
they work for God's sake when they are really working for themselves; and
though their work is not done with any worldly motive, they desire a
recompense in the next world. Others take no thought of reward or
punishment in the next world, any more than of ostentation and reputation in
this world, but act solely from reverence for the commandments of God.
Their love of God requires them to forget every selfish interest while they do
His bidding. The former class fancy that what they do for the sake of the
next world they do for God's sake, and fail to recognize that the devout have
a greater self-interest in devotion than the wicked have in sin, because the
sinner's pleasure lasts only for a moment, whereas devotion is a delight for
ever. Besides, what gain accrues to God from the religious exercises of
mankind, or what loss from their non-performance? If all the world acted
with the veracity of Abu Bakr, the gain would be wholly theirs, and if with
the falsehood of Pharaoh, the loss would be wholly theirs, as God hath said:
'If ye do good, it is to yourselves, and if ye do evil, it is to yourselves.'"
(Qu'ran xvii, 7.)

Sincerity in the latihan means to be observant and conscious of the reality

of one's actions, so as to be aware whether they arise spontaneously from
within or whether they are tainted by imagination or imitation. But true
sincerity belongs to the whole of life: it is the impulse to be the same
outwardly as one is inwardly and the same inwardly as one is outwardly.

Surrender, patience, trust and sincerity are all manifestations of the

Conscience that is latent in the depths of the human soul. They are sacred
impulses like charity and good will towards men and faith and hope in God.
These impulses cannot be simulated by the mind and feelings of man, but
must arise spontaneously from within. They work in us only by our consent,
but they cannot work unless they are awakened.

Through these sacred impulses man is drawn towards his source and to the
place that has been prepared for him beyond all private worlds. They are the
means given to us for attaining to complete Manhood.

2. The Seven Stages of Completion

The Subud Emblem symbolizes the seven levels and seven qualities of every
completed whole. The ultimate perfection of every created essence requires
that it should return to its Source enriched and transformed by having passed
through all levels of existence and realized its possibilities.

107

Since man is a being incarnated on earth, his completion begins with his
earthly body. The first power is that of the material soul. This is subject to
the mechanical laws of earthly existence. In Gurdjieff's cosmo-psychology
the material soul is represented by the lower or mechanical part of the
centres of instinct, movement, feeling and thought. The material soul is
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earth-bound and can exist only in conjunction with an earthly body of which
it is the life principle.

The second power is not, in the ordinary sense, material, or rather it is

composed of substances much finer than those of the physical organism. It is
the seat of the strength of the essence. When this soul power is dominated by
earthly qualities, its strength is no more than the force of desire. It is polar or
dual in nature. For example, it is subject to likes and dislikes, desires and
aversions, hopes and fears, and all the other "pairs of opposites." When in
this state, the vegetable power is not a true soul, but merely the instrument
by which a man is attracted to the external world while at the same time
enslaved by his own egoism. When the vegetable powers is liberated from
its identification with earthly attractions, it becomes the main source of
strength by which man gains mastery over his physical body.

The third power is that of the animal essence. When dominated by earthly
forces—that is the state of unregenerate man—the third soul power is the
source of self-will and all motives that flow from self-will. When it is
purified it gives unity and consciousness by which a man becomes a stable,
independent being.

The fourth is the true human power. Its principle seat is in the sex
function. It is the natural human soul that is characteristic of man. When the
Human Soul is purified of earthly attachments, it becomes the centre and
source of the individuality, of the 'I' that is truly human. There are thus two
different conditions of the human soul. The first is that of the man who has
become conscious of his real human nature and in whom all the functions are
harmonized. The second is that of the man who has achieved individuality
and has a permanent self or 'I.'

The fifth degree is that of the complete human being. This cannot be
attained by evolution from below. It is a gift of Grace that God bestows
upon those human essences chosen to serve His Purposes on the earth. Pak
Subuh has said that during the coming Epoch there is the possibility that
seventy thousand men of the fifth degree will appear on earth. If this
possibility is fulfilled, human existence on earth will be protected from all
disasters that human folly might otherwise bring down upon the race.

108

The sixth degree is that of the man into whom the Power of Compassion has
entered. He is complete within the limits of all finite worlds. It is said that if
two hundred such men were present on the earth, all human life would be
transformed and there would be peace everywhere. Nothing can be written
of the man of the sixth degree, for his highest soul power comes from
beyond the knowable worlds.

The seventh and final degree is the soul of the perfect man whose will is
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eternally conjoined to the Divine Will. No ordinary man can have any
conception of this gradation, for the Divine Soul comes from the Source of
Creation and is not subject to development or transformation.

If we accomplish the journey of self-completion, we have to pass through

the various stages of training and purification. A fourfold preparation is
needed before the real man—the Man of the Soul—can find a home in our
essence. The fourth degree is a meeting point of the two streams of evolution
and involution. By the first stream, man rises from the material world to
acquire his own human soul, by the second stream the Holy Spirit descends
upon man to endow him with an immortal spirit. When the two are joined
and become one soul and one spirit, then comes forth the Complete Man of
the fifth degree. No man can, by his own merit, pass beyond the fourth
degree. The immortal spirit of the complete man is bestowed by the Grace of
God.

3. Gradations of the First Stage

In the last chapter I described some of the observations made at Coombe

Springs by trainees who have entered the first stage of purification. I did not
attempt to assign any particular order or sequence to these experiences—
simply because I do not understand them well enough.

I shall set down some of the explanations that Pak Subuh himself has
given. This is contrary to his own dictum "Experience first; explanation
second," which reminds me of my old friend Clarence Seyler's advice to
young scientists, "Facts first, and then more facts, and theories after." Even
this safeguard does not wholly suffice, for it is not easy to distinguish
spiritual realities from subjective imaginings. However, even this hazard can
be surmounted by patience and persistence—one great merit of the latihan is
that in it we come to see ourselves only too clearly and to know when it is
our own voice that imitates the tongues of angels.

109

The first act in the drama of purification is enacted upon the level of our
earthly existence. If experiences belonging to a higher world come, they do
so only as fleeting glimpses that we must learn to assess at their true value.
They are signs of things to come, not evidence of attainment.

In the material world, are reproduced each of the seven conditions of the
soul. For example, Pak Subuh speaks of saints and prophets of the material
world. Solomon represents the archetype of the prophet of materiality: he
had great powers, but all came from the material forces. Pak Subuh called
him once "the prophet of the successful man of affairs!" Those who are
satisfied with earthly existence can, through the latihan, pass through all the
seven gradations and acquire health, wealth and power, but remain attached
to the earth and must return to it again and again.
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The second stage is beyond sense experience. It belongs to the world of

the Vegetable Essences. This world is the first of the Abodes of the blessed.
Three transitional stages lead from our earthly existence to this Abode. Each
of these three spheres corresponds to a particular condition of spiritual
purity, when a man ceases to be affected by material forces. Only when the
power is liberated from the material forces can the soul enter these heavenly
realms.

The energies of the First Abode are much finer than those of the world of
material objects and they can be perceived by man only when his senses are
purified. Although a man may have the qualities that correspond to this
world, he cannot enter it until he is prepared. Thus there can be men whose
soul qualities correspond to the second and third degrees who are
nevertheless wholly dominated by material forces and therefore can know
only earthly existence. We have therefore to distinguish again between levels
and qualities. Failure to make this distinction can lead to mistakes regarding
the stage which a given person appears to have reached. The Sufis
distinguish between hal or state and makam or station. In conversations with
Arab and Turkish Sufis, I have tried to get explanations of these two words,
but was never fully satisfied that they were understood. One of the
remarkable features of the latihan is the light thrown upon the obscurities of
various systems and teachings. It has undoubtedly helped me, more than
anything I have met, to understand Gurdjieff's cosmo-psychology, but it is
equally illuminating in the new meaning it brings to all mystical literature. It
is by an accident of birth that Pak Subuh has chosen the Sufi terminology to
describe the stages of the Subud path. Systems are like maps—they are
amusement for the man who stays at home and dreams of travel, but a very
real help to the man who journeys through unknown country.

110

I make these comments here because it was only through the latihan that I
came to realize the all-important distinction between a quality or hal that can
be experienced and a level or gradation or makam that can be one's home or
Abode. Many people are deceived by "experiences" and imagine that they
are evidence of attainment of a higher level of being. The makam or station
can be occupied only if one has the necessary powers—that is the organs,
limbs, modes of perceptions and a body of the requisite fineness of
substance to be able to exist upon the level in question.

This is illustrated by the transition region between the first and second
worlds. This region contains three stations or 'heavens.' These are often
described in mystical literature. When I have read about them I have passed
them over as incomprehensible. In the latihan, the reality of these
intermediate regions is unquestionable. More than one trainee has 'seen' the
first heaven as a vast expanse of blue ocean, and has realized that it could
not be entered with one's ordinary body. The value of such experiences is
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enhanced by the fact that they occurred to people who had never heard of
these Abodes and their significance. The possibility of entering the
intermediate stations or heavens while still on this earth depends upon
purification.

4. The Purification of the Feelings

I shall write about my own experience of the second stage, without

wishing to suggest that I know anything of its completion or of the
experience of higher worlds.

The first recognition that something was beginning to change in my

feelings came when, for several days, I found myself almost uninterruptedly
in a state of self-observation. Not only could I see myself as I then was, but
I could not help doing so. Moreover, I could see my past life as a whole,
with all the mistakes I had made, and the harm that I had done to myself and
to others. This was an indescribably painful experience, and I had no idea
when it would end. At that time Pak Subuh was still in Indonesia, and I was
so desperate about my condition that I wrote to him for advice—the first
letter that I had ever attempted in the Indonesian language that I had begun
to study. His reply was to the effect that this stage was necessary and would
soon pass: by the time I had received his letter, the experience—in that form
—was over. But I began to live in a state of 'separation' in which I was
aware of two distinct lives constantly present in me. This coincided with a
great increase in sensitivity, so that I found that I was aware of the bodily
and emotional states of people who were near me, or even about whom I
happened to be thinking.

111

I received at this time one of the greatest blessings of my life—that is, to

find myself liberated from the exasperating sexual attraction that Gurdjieff
calls 'type and polarity.' I write of this personal experience because to me it
was clear proof of the purity and rightness of the Force that works in the
latihan. For years I had wrestled with this problem, and although I had
learned more or less to discipline by external behaviour, I had never found
the way to be free from the inward action of this force. The freedom that is
received through the latihan is entirely different from the weakening or
mortification of the sexual impulses that is achieved by ascetic practices. On
the contrary, the natural powers are brought to life and invested with an
entirely new quality. The difference is that they acquire an inherent
discrimination that automatically stops them from flowing outside their
legitimate channels.

Pak Subuh insists with unusual firmness upon the sanctity of marriage and
upon the terrible harm that results from any kind of sexual promiscuity. I
could see for myself that this is not only fundamentally right, but attainable
in practice without difficulty or hardship by those who follow the latihan and
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succeed in entering upon the second stage of purification. It is impossible to
describe the sense of gratitude with which one becomes aware that one is
free from the action of forces that are so disturbing an influence in human
relationships.

The force of sex belongs to the human world; that is, the fourth power of
the soul. It is the first of all the human powers, since it enters man at the
very moment of conception before his physical body begins to take shape.
Although it belongs to the essence, it manifests in all worlds. In the material
world, it is simply a force of attraction between men and women and it is
without discrimination. In our present age, when people are almost wholly
under the influence of material forces, the power of sex has become divorced
from its true human significance. It is hard to imagine a much greater
blessing for contemporary humanity, than that a means should be given for
the purification of the sexual power and the restoration of marriage to the
sacred place that it should occupy in the life of man. I am sure, not only
from my own experience, but from that of several others, that the latihan
does in fact lead to this result.

During the same period, I observed in myself the process of liberation

from 'like and dislike.' This is another of the polarities that dominate in the
material world. To find oneself drawn to some people and repelled by others
is a terrible slavery from which it is hard to free oneself by one's own
efforts. However clear to our minds may be the need to be free from
personal preferences we can attain this only when we are in a state of inward
quiet and detachment. This can be achieved through spiritual exercises, but
only for a time.

112

When the effect of the exercise wears off, we return to our usual condition
of inward agitation. We get a taste (hal) of detachment or non-identification,
but we do not reach the Abode (makam) where it is a natural state. In the
second world, the polar forces of attraction and repulsion are replaced by the
triadic relationship of affirming, denying and reconciling impulses.
Liberation from like and dislike is far from indifference or apathy. On the
contrary, the qualities of situations and of people stand out more vividly than
ever before. The difference is that a reconciling force is present that enables
one not only to see the positive and negative aspects of every situation, but
also to see beyond to the place they occupy in a larger whole.

This is put rather abstractly. The experience itself cannot be described. It

is to feel the duality and conflict in all things, and to see quite clearly that
beyond the duality there is a harmony that takes away its sting.

Peace of mind and a cheerful heart are not small blessings. These are the
first-fruits of the second stage of purification. When Pak Subuh arrived with
his Indonesian helpers, we were all impressed by their constant gaiety and
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the unruffled calm with which they met the chaotic conditions of the first
weeks. We could see that these qualities were the outward result of an inner
state, or rather of a station, that they had reached and passed. Later we saw
that this Abode is one where there is genuine liberation from like and
dislike. It is the true non-attachment that is one of the aims of every
discipline and system of self-perfecting followed by man.

5. Freedom from Fear

Attachment to the material world is the principal cause of human fears.

Men are afraid because they depend upon supports that have no foundation.
The personality of man can find safety nowhere. It must therefore constantly
suffer, unless it is able to forget its fears. In order to forget, it turns to what
seems secure, since it is visible and tangible: that is, to the material world
under whose influence it was formed, and to which it really belongs.

Therefore, people are afraid of one another both individually and in the
mass—that is 'public opinion.' They depend upon external possessions and
are afraid of losing them. They are dimly aware that their personality cannot
exist out of this world, and so they fear death. When the great life force
enters the body it drives out fear, but the personality continues for a long
time to be the centre of initiative. Consequently, many fears remain until the
personality becomes wholly passive.

113

This is attained only in the second stage of purification. If we could see into
the heart of man we would find many fears that are deeper than the
personality. These come from the realization that even in our essence we are
still blind to reality. We do not know who we are, nor where we are going.
Even that part of man—his essence—which is not destroyed by death, is
blind, unconscious and helpless. Dying in that state, it is lost and bewildered,
and must inevitably be drawn back into some form of earthly existence. To
die consciously has always been the aim of people who had any
understanding of the real nature of man. But the consciousness that is needed
at the moment of death must be of the essence and not of the personality,
and unless that consciousness is present, fear of death is inevitable. When I
was at school I was made by my headmaster, Lionel Rogers, a true mystic at
heart, to learn by heart Robert Bridges' Lines on a Dead Child, which I
quote, probably inaccurately, from memory after nearly fifty years:

"Ah, little at best can all our hopes avail us

To ease this sorrow, or cheer us when in the dark
Unwilling, alone, we embark,
And the things we have seen and have known
and have heard of—fail us!"

These lines were somehow a formative factor for my understanding. Two or

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three years after I learned them I was severely wounded in France on 21st
March 1918, and I certainly then had the experience of leaving my comatose
body and entering into a state of discarnate consciousness. In this condition,
I was quite unaware of the presence of other bodies, but I could perceive the
inner experiences that were proceeding in people near by. I then saw without
doubt that the fear of death comes from the illusion that our real existence is
dependent on our bodies.

Later, when I was slowly recovering and regaining the use of my

paralysed left arm, I remembered Bridges' poem, and saw how true it is that
the "things we have seen and have known and have heard of fail us," but
that we have something in us that is unseen, unknown and unheard of, and
that this will never fail us. Only, we need to be conscious of it, if we are to
be delivered from fear of the unknown.

I refer to these early experiences of mine because they are directly linked
with much that happened to me in the latihan forty years later.

114

I can only describe the state as one of complete clarity as to the continuity of
consciousness after death, and the realization that it is the greatest blessing to
be able to leave this life and enter into the next—providing one is ready for
it. I was able to say, with full assurance of its truth, that my happiest day on
this earth would be my last. Constantly to remember one's death, and to
know that one is ready for it is, I believe, a characteristic condition of the
latihan. With this, comes the end of fear of any of the forces of the material
world.

6. Further Stages

I am not qualified, from my personal experience to write about the third

and fourth stages. These are the purification of the intellect or
understanding, and the purification of the consciousness, that is of the true 'I'
or self of man. These stages open the way for man to higher worlds that are
far from any ordinary human experience.

Nevertheless, before we reach a certain Abode we are given a taste or

glimpse of what it will contain, and I can write of the states that I myself
have witnessed.

The first observation concerns language. Several years ago in The

Dramatic Universe I wrote about three degrees of authentic language, of
which the second belongs to the world of Being and is symbolical. I said
that symbols can convey an unlimited range of meanings, and differ thereby
from signs that can have only one meaning. Signs belong to the realms of
science and philosophy, whereas symbols belong to the realm of
consciousness and being. I added that the third and highest language is that
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of gesture, which is the direct expression of the will. I do not know how I
came to make this distinction, which I certainly did not understand very well
at the time.

In the latihan, about the time Pak Subuh arrived in England, I began to see
various symbols; some familiar, some quite new to me. Some of these
symbols seemed to have a universal meaning—as, for example, when I saw
the disc of the sun with the Cross in the midst of it, shining more brightly
than the sun itself. Several times I was able to tell Pak Subuh about what I
had seen. In nearly every case he showed me that the symbol was an
indication of my own state, of my own progress and of my own future, and
not a revelation of objective reality. As soon as he gave these explanations I
saw that they must be right, and yet I had not seen them for myself.

115

From this I came to understand in a new way what Gurdjieff had taught
about higher emotional centre. I realized, for example, that the language of
this centre is symbolical, and that it's power lies in telling us about
ourselves, our state and our needs. I will only give one example of a
'personal' symbol. Once in the latihan I put out my hands and felt that a
globe had been placed in them. Its surface was as smooth as glass, and I
turned it over and over to make sure it was perfectly spherical. Although my
eyes were closed I could see that it was perfectly transparent, like a crystal.
It was heavy and yet it had no weight. As I was wondering what it meant, I
opened my mouth and this great globe—as large as a pumpkin—entered my
mouth and I swallowed it. I could feel it inside myself gradually being
absorbed.

All this had no meaning for me whatsoever, but the same evening, after
latihan, I was able to describe it to Pak Subuh. He said that this was to show
that my understanding had been purified and that in future I would be able to
see the true meaning of ideas presented to me from outside or from within.

Soon after this, I saw a number of symbols that referred to Subud. Once I
saw an angel appearing from beyond the sun and bringing a message to the
earth, and I understood that this meant that the origin of Subud was from
beyond the Solar System. At another time I found myself lifted far above the
earth into the space between the earth and sun. I saw the earth below me as a
tiny ball, and then I saw that a great force was taking hold of the earth and
shaking it. This I understood to mean that the Power that had sent Subud to
the earth was great enough to shake it to its foundations. Whenever such
visions have come to me, I have felt myself entirely detached and unmoved
by them—almost as if I were being shown pictures in a book that did not
concern me personally at all. As soon as the symbols withdrew, the latihan
continued as if nothing had happened.

Many times I realized that what was shown to me could not have been
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expressed in words without being far too definite and committal to be right.
Symbolism is not only a powerful language, but also a protection against
misunderstanding. A symbol may have many meanings, but we can only
apprehend them in so far as we are ready to do so. Verbal communications
can be very misleading, for words always seems to have a definite meaning
that the mind can grasp. True symbolic language is altogether beyond
thought and it must lose the greater part of its content when it is translated
into words.

116

There is, certainly, far more in the further stages of purification than to
receive new means of communication. The third stage is essentially that in
which our motives are set free from personal elements. For example, there is
in man a sacred impulse to serve. Often people come to some form of
spiritual training for the professed reason that they wish thereby to learn how
to do the Will of God and to serve their fellow men. This profession may be
quite sincere, within the limitations of the personality that makes it. In the
latihan, the trainee begins to see himself as he really is, and he is obliged to
acknowledge the impurity of his motives. In the first stages, self-observation
affects his feelings and thoughts about himself and perhaps diminishes his
self-assurance, but it does not touch the source of his motives—that is, his
own self-will. It is not until after the purification of his lower nature that
there begins to arise in him a deeper consciousness that enables him to get
inside his own motives. This is the only way in which he can be liberated
from his self-will and so prepare himself to become a true normal man—that
is, one who acts in everything from a full awareness of the reason for his
own existence. Then all motives are subordinated to the single motive of
achieving manhood and the 'man' becomes a conscious individual, no longer
a collection of warring motives hiding a sub-human self-will.

To be a man one must become one whole. This may seem simple, but it is
far removed from any condition that we know. On this earth, men are not
men, but only shadows of shadows. In the latihan, we begin to see our own
insubstantiality, and realize that we would not exist at all if we were
translated into the world of the true man. In that world, it is necessary to be
oneself wholly and without admixture of any sub-human elements. Until this
requirement is satisfied we should find ourselves like Peer Gynt standing
before the Button Moulder, compelled to admit that there is no one to answer
to our name.

7. The Way of Completion

Our life here on earth in the midst of material objects is the lowest to
which human consciousness can descend. That which is below the earth is a
negative world out of contact with all reality. When man descends into that
world he loses every semblance of human nature.

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The transition from earthly existence to that of the second Abode requires
a completely new equipment of organs, faculties, functions and
consciousness. Man in his physical body is an earth-bound creature.

117

He has in him the materials from which a second body can grow, but they
have neither form nor function. The arising of the second body is an
immense transformation of the whole nature of man. He is no longer mortal
within the limits of earthly existence, but can enter the next life conscious of
the way before him. He can see and hear things that our physical eyes and
ears cannot perceive. These possibilities have been tested and demonstrated
to the Subud trainees, who discover that in the latihan they acquire an
entirely new sensitivity to impressions that leave no trace upon the senses.
All this is connected with what I have called the 'resurrection of the body.'
One of the most impressive features of the early stages of Subud is the speed
with which trainees begin to be aware of the appearance of a new life within
the body, and can verify for themselves that this new life is endowing them
with powers that seem almost supernatural. Indeed, in the literal sense, they
are supernatural, if we understand by 'nature' this visible world of material
objects.

Pak Subuh has many times enabled selected trainees to verify for
themselves that existence in the second Abode is entirely different from the
world we know; the second body of man is composed of materials so fine
that it cannot be injured by material agencies. For example, it cannot be
burned by fire. Once, when this was being confirmed by test, I understood
how the martyrs who had received the second body were able to enter the
fire unmoved, and to pass through death with no disturbance of their inward
serenity and without any loss of consciousness.

It is hard to realize that the second body, so often and so lightly spoken of
as the 'astral body,' is really a complete independent organism that must be
equipped with its own organs of perception, its own functions and its own
consciousness. Contrary to what is so often asserted in theosophical
literature, the second body does not exist in the ordinary man who has not
earned it. It must be conceived, developed, born and matured before it can
have an independent existence. Without it, the soul that enters the heavenly
regions is completely lost, and must inevitably return to the earth and re-
enter a body of the first kind.

For man, the way forward is from world to world, until he returns to his
Source. In each world, he requires a different body and new instruments to
fulfil new functions. Beyond the second body, anything I might write would
be mere hearsay. There is no small risk of distorting into nonsense, what one
has heard but never in any degree experienced.

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118

I shall, therefore, not attempt to write about the third and fourth bodies of
man, but all teachings that have authentic knowledge agree in affirming that
man must require four bodies before the soul is ready to receive the divine
gifts of Spirit.

8. The Relationship of the Sexes

The complete human being is achieved through the fusion of the male and
female parts of the soul. The myth of Adam represents the undivided state as
primary, and the separation of the sexes as subsequent. This is a symbol of
generation, for at the moment of conception the parents are united, and the
power of sex acts by way of fusion of the male and female gametes. Sexual
differentiation is subsequent to the fusion. Thus not only is the force of sex
the first to enter the human essence, but it is also that which reunites the
separated parts to produce the androgyne fourth gradation of the human
essence. This prepares the place for the entry of the power and attributes of
the perfect human soul.

The relationship between the sexes is thus not only the foundation of
human existence here on this earth, but also the means whereby the
completion of man is realized. This need not imply that the way to
completion of man is closed to the man or the woman who does not wish to
marry during their present life here on earth. All that it does imply is that the
unification of the male and female elements of the soul must be
accomplished either before or after the death of the physical body.

Here I should refer to some misunderstanding of Pak Subuh's position,

owing to his insistence upon the sacred character of marriage and the part it
plays in the completion of man. It appeared from this that those who did not
marry were in a hopeless position, and it was even suggested to us, before
Pak Subuh's arrival, that unmarried women beyond marriageable age should
not be accepted for Subud. In his early talks in England, Pak Subuh gave
special attention to married couples, and impressed upon them the mutual
need of husband and wife. It was not until later, when we remarked on the
very striking progress made by several unmarried men and women, that he
gave a further explanation. He said that if the wish to serve God is stronger
in a man or woman than the wish to marry, and if the wish to marry
disappears automatically in the latihan, then it is possible for such a person
to pass through all the stages of preparation in this life and come to the
unification of the soul—that is, to meet with their true spouse—after death.

119

He added, however, that this is no justification of the monastic life in

general. The monastic vocation is exceedingly rare, and it happens too
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frequently that Christians and Buddhists (the two religions in which
monasticism is widespread) enter the solitary life in imitation of the Christ or
the Buddha. The two situations are quite different, and Buddhism does not
greatly concern us here. Jesus Christ was and is eternally the perfect Man
Who possesses the complete sevenfold nature that is in the origin of
Creation itself. Jesus, alone among men, was born with the complete soul in
which male and female is undivided. He, therefore, along among men, had
no need for marriage in order to fulfil His mission here on earth. He
represents, not only for professing Christians, but for all men of all faiths, the
ideal of human purity and perfection. But this does not mean that He can be
imitated. Indeed, it is blasphemy for man born of woman to suppose that he
can imitate the life of the incarnated Son of God. Jesus having come to the
world with the complete human soul received also the Divine Soul from
God, and so was in a true sense both Son of Man and Son of God. All
conditions were, and are eternally, not merely different but infinitely
different, for a Man already complete and perfect in both the human and the
divine worlds and for one who is upon the way to the completion of his
human nature and preparation for the Grace which was already in Christ
before He came to the earth.

Therefore those who suppose that the virginity of Christ and His Mother
Mary is in any like human virginity are in grave error. Their virginity was
present in them because they were already complete, whereas human
virginity is the rejection of completion. The refusal of marriage can only be
justified when it is made with the humility of one who is conscious of his
inadequacy, not with the arrogance of one who deems that he has chosen the
'better way.' When the inferiority of the unmarried state is fully recognized
and accepted, it need not be a bar to progress any more than all the other
defects that are present in human nature and human life on earth.

The relationship of the sexes is entirely different in different worlds. In the

material world it is a blind attractive force without discrimination. In the
vegetable world, it is the polarity of type and essence. In the animal world, it
is the transformation and purification of motives. In the human world, it is
the unification of the soul. In ordinary human experience, the three higher
modes of sexual relatedness are unknown. But by the law of sevenfoldness
all seven qualities are repeated on all levels—hence ordinary men and
women can experience some of the qualities of the fuller relationship, but
not possess their essence.

120

From this arises all that sadness in the lives of men and women that comes
from seeing glimpses of the unattainable. The full glory of the married state
is revealed only to those who can reach the fourth stage of human
completeness and discover for themselves what is meant by the words:
"They shall become one flesh."

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The completion of marriage certainly requires the procreation of children.
Since nearly all men and women living on earth are spiritually unborn, they
can have children only upon the material level of existence—that is, under
the laws of this earth. Ideally, a man should wait to have children until his
own soul is awakened. The reason for this is that at the moment of
conception—as already described in Chapter 4—the essence is open to every
kind of influence. A pure state in the parents is the only protection against
the entry of sub-human soul substance. This is not the only reason why
parenthood can be right only when rightly timed. We need to be protected
against mechanicalness, which we can visualize as a great stream that flows
from the past through the present into the future, carrying with it the
consequences of all future events. We have no power to arrest this stream or
change its course. But the higher parts of the soul are not subject to the laws
of cause and effect.

This is why Pak Subuh has said that the latihan is a frontier through which
the stream of causality cannot pass. It is literally true that the iniquities of the
fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
The terrible scourge of the past threatens the health, happiness, character,
and the very possibility of completion of our children and grandchildren.
Many a parent can dimly sense the tragedy of the situation but see also that
he is powerless to change it. One of the greatest blessings of the latihan is its
powers to obliterate the past and set us and our children free to enter the
future without the burden of sins that they themselves have not committed.
The purification of the sexual life belongs pre-eminently to the fourth stage
of completion—that is, the truly human stage. It is only when they are truly
human beings that husband and wife can be joined in the full union that is
the reality of marriage. Indeed, it is only to such a marriage that the words
"Whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder" truly apply. Such people
are blessed in their union, and they are blessed in their children, in whom a
human soul can arise even before they reach the age of responsibility.

We cannot leave the subject of the sexual relationship without making

clear the position of those who treat the sexual relationship lightly. In the
sexual act there is a contact between the male and female essences, and
whether it is made in wedlock or in wanton promiscuity it leaves its mark
upon the essence.

121

Since woman is the passive or, more correctly, the receptive element of the
complete soul, the results of the contact are stored up in her. She, therefore,
inevitably must suffer if the relationship is broken. Men who take advantage
of the receptivity of women commit a grave injustice, for which soon or
later they must atone. That these are no empty words can be seen in the
latihan, when men whose sexual lives have been irregular have to pass
through a period of purgation before they can be liberated from the results.

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But in this earthly existence where the material soul is dominant, it is not
men but women who chiefly suffer the consequences of broken unions. The
mysterious laws of the interpenetration of essences act in such a way that, if
a man comes into sexual contact with a woman who has had many irregular
relationships, he picks up the influences of the other men, and his own state
is thereby poisoned. We were given a vivid picture of a wealthy Japanese
whose sexual life had been deplorable, and who when he came to the latihan
began to throw out the characteristics of many men he had not even known.

It must therefore, be understood that it is equally disastrous for men and

for women to allow themselves sexual irregularity. Nothing traps us more
helplessly in the stream of mechanicalness, or does more to diminish our
potentialities, than to allow our essence to become contaminated with the
results of other people's lives. This we do when, without discrimination, we
come into the essence-contact that is inseparable from the sexual act.

Thus it is rightly said that the power of sex can be the greatest curse of
man, and that it can and should be the greatest blessing. By sex our
humanity can be degraded and by sex it can be perfected. As long as people
are still in the early stages of purification, they must be protected against the
power of sex. For the complete man sex has no longer any outward force, for
the cleavage of the male and female elements has been healed.

When I started to write this section, in a suburb in Munich, where I have

come to be with Pak Subuh, I would have said that to my knowledge no man
had opened any woman but his own wife without incurring serious
consequences. I had never heard of Pak Subuh himself opening a woman,
not because of possible harm to himself, but because she might place her
trust in him and not in God.

By one of the countless strange coincidences of Subud, it happened that I

had to speak to Pak Subuh about some letters I had received, and while I
was with him an old German woman of seventy-eight years came into the
house and asked to see him.

122

Although we were all snowed under with work, he went and spoke to her,
and learned that she had been for five years a widow, was totally deaf, and
could not sleep for terrible noises in her head. She begged him to help her.
We wrote on a sheet of paper that Pak Subuh is not a healer, but she sat
weeping in her chair, moaning that she must go mad if the pains continued. I
could see that she was already afflicted with senile dementia. After testing
her condition, Pak Subuh at first advised that she should drink the juice of a
tamarind every evening. When he learned that tamarinds are unobtainable in
Germany, he told her to close her eyes. Then without any explanation, he
stood before her and opened her, with myself and two other men, who had
been trying to interpret for her, standing by. After about fifteen minutes she
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was opened. When told to open her eyes she said the pains had gone. An
American trainee drove her back to her house, where she was to renew the
latihan by repeating the Lord's Prayer each evening before going to bed. I
should add, that during her opening I myself felt without doubt that a contact
had also been made with her dead husband. I also remembered the saying,
"Thy faith hath made thee whole."

9. The Three Higher Constituents of the Soul

The complete man, or man of the fifth degree, is not a product of evolution
alone. Pak Subuh has repeatedly emphasized that the fifth power is a
superhuman soul. It does not belong to the human world, but descends upon
man from above, when he is ready and when he is needed. It has already
been noted that 70, 000 men endowed with the fifth power of the soul could
arise in the world in the coming Epoch. Beyond the fifth level is the far
higher, truly Sacred Essence of the compassionate soul. Pak Subuh has said
that one such soul could save a million others. The seventh and highest spirit
comes directly from God: it is the soul that distinguishes the great Prophets
from all other beings who have appeared on the earth.

We have thus a complete scheme to represent all stages of evolution

possible for the human soul. In its ultimate perfection, the soul is sevenfold.
But the lower souls can be taken up and left like clothing. The three higher
souls are beyond individuality, and can enter into many human forms at
once. The soul of the Saint can enter into thousands of people and bring
them into that profound unity of will and consciousness that is the
Communion of Saints.

I have already written too much of matters that are beyond my

understanding. I have included these hints chiefly to give some meaning to
the statement that the way of perfection for man leads on and on without
limit.

123

Copyright© 2007, Undiscovered Worlds Press

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Concerning Subud

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Concerning Subud

Chapter 9

The Potentialities of Subud

1. The Real Miracle of Subud

Amidst the welter of impressions engendered by Subud and its action upon
people, two clearly established facts stand out as supremely significant. One
is the reality of the contact, and the other its independence of any particular
person—including Pak Subuh himself. Since I myself did not believe that
such an effect was possible, and nothing that I had ever heard or read about
suggested that anything similar has occurred before in known human history,
I was for some time sceptical as to its reality. When I saw for myself that
more than a thousand people were able to receive the contact merely by
asking for it, I was obliged to accept that a miracle had happened. By
'miracle' I understand the direct intervention of the Power of the Holy Spirit
in human life, in such a manner as to make possible an event that does not
violate the laws of nature and yet could not be brought about by any natural
agency, including the will of man himself. There is, I believe, another
characteristic of miracles that is commonly overlooked—that is, their perfect
timeliness. Miracles do not occur either capriciously without apparent rhyme
or reason, nor do they occur just when someone happens to want them or
look for them. They occur only when they are necessary for the renewal of
human faith. I believe that isolated or sporadic miracles have occurred and
still do occur, and that they are always timely and effectual. Mass miracles
of the kind attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux must surely have been the
work of mass suggestion, and should be discounted.

The miracle of Subud is neither isolated nor is it explicable by the power

of suggestion acting upon a crowd. It came to me when I was alone and
completely sceptical as to the possibility of any essential change in human
nature otherwise than by conscious labour and intentional suffering. It
required the cumulative evidence of nearly two months' constant practice of
the latihan to convince me that a miracle had really occurred.

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124

Those who shared the experiment with me during the months before Pak
Subuh came to England were men and women who for long years had been
trained in impartial self-observation, and were so well aware of the immense
difficulty of an authentic inner transformation that they had even become
doubtful whether it was possible to follow Gurdjieff's system without his
personal help and guidance. We were convinced by the latihan against our
own firmly established belief that there is no easy way to develop the
potentialities latent in man. This does not mean that we doubted the
possibility, or that we did not believe that the possibility itself is given to us
by the Will of God. We doubted only that we could hope to find a means
that would really work for us such as we were.

Even when we saw for ourselves that Subud worked in us, we were still so
presumptious as to think that it must require preparation, and that only those
could receive it who had already gone a long way towards realizing their
own nothingness and were ready to ask for help without expecting any easy
way out. Once again, we found that the miracle was far greater than we had
imagined possible. Within two months of Pak Subuh's arrival more than five
hundred men and women had asked for and received the contact. Among
them some, with little or no experience of the spiritual search, made progress
that was clearer and more rapid than that of others with every apparent
advantage of preparation, combined with greater intellectual powers and
more energy and determination. All our preconceived plans for the gradual
introduction of Subud, starting with a few carefully chosen and serious
people, went by the board.

What occurred was an explosion of the very kind that I had learned to
expect as the first stage of any great step forward in natural or human
evolution. I could see moreover, that there was no suspension of the natural
order. The powers that I could see emerging in so many people were those
that I already knew to be latent in the very nature of man. The miracle was
that the process should be set in train so surely and so easily just for the
asking. Moreover, I soon realized that my early scruples were unfounded.
There is in Subud no question of 'something for nothing,' nor any violation
of the principle that everything worth having must be paid for. One has to
sacrifice and to suffer—but it is consciously and intentionally that one does
so, because one sees where one is going and what has to be done.* There
are great burdens to be borne, but one sees the reason for them, and one is
given the strength to carry them.

* In the last part of All and Everything, with the title "Life is Real Only Then, When I Am,"
that Gurdjieff wrote in 1933, he refers to the difference between 'voluntary' and 'intentional'
suffering. It is not voluntary self-imposed suffering that is required, but intentionally to submit
oneself to a process in which suffering is inevitable.

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The miracle is thus the total one—that a new possibility has been opened for
mankind that is beyond our power to understand, and that we could never
have discovered for ourselves. Isolated cases could have been explained
away. the fulfilment of prophecies and the realization of predictions carry
little weight with the sceptical. The instances of healing of disease that we
have so far observed have little evidential value. The strange confluence of
people from all over the world may be no more than a coincidence. The fact
that remains incontestible is that within eight months more than a thousand
men and women have found a new force working in them, the power and the
beneficence of which they cannot doubt. They have seen, moreover, that this
force is quite independent of the presence of Pak Subuh himself, and that it
works in all people who ask for it, and who can find the way to put aside the
obstruction of their own thoughts and imaginations.

2. The Visible Evidence

In Chapter 7, I have tried to describe some of the inner changes that occur
in the trainees. There are also changes in the outer life that can be observed
and verified by others. After the first influx of people who had been
prepared for Subud by study of Gurdjieff's system, a new flow began of
people attracted chiefly by manifest changes for the better in their relations
and friends. A group of examples comprising at least two score of people is
particularly significant. Among those who had been members of groups
following Gurdjieff's system were many whose husbands or wives or parents
or children had been hostile to the work, and painful situations had arisen, in
which jealousy and a sense of injustice at being deprived of companionship
had embittered family relationships. We observed with real surprise that
within one or two months of the coming of Subud, these 'recalcitrant'
relatives were asking to come to the latihan because they observed such
unmistakable improvements in those who had come.

A second group of examples can be taken from a number of mentally or

emotionally unstable men and women who came to Subud, and were
admitted with some reluctance and trepidation on the part of all but Pak
Subuh himself and his Indonesian helpers. We feared that the stimulus of the
latihan might result in over-excitement, in outbreaks of manic conditions or
of hysteria. The very opposite occurred. Although the response was by no
means always the same, in the majority of cases the latihan calmed the
excitable and brought about a marked improvement in sufferers from mild
schizophrenia and manic-depressive states.

126

On the other hand it also happened that some people outwardly normal and
apparently stable began in the latihan to show symptoms of deep-seated
disturbance. The effect of the latihan appeared similar to that of a well-
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conducted psycho-analysis, without the grave disadvantages of the latter that
a large proportion of patients remain dependent upon the analyst. The
potentialities of Subud in helping psychopathic conditions are still almost
wholly unexplored. I am concerned here only with the impression made
upon people who have seen their friends and relations, previously disturbed,
made calm and able to meet life with more confidence than ever before.

One interesting suggestion here comes from Java. This is the possibility of
rehabilitating criminals. We have no direct evidence in England, but we have
heard of several cases in Indonesia where criminals, including more than one
professional murderer, have come to to the latihan and have been completely
liberated from the impulses to steal, rob or murder. Since the criminal's
problem is usually not absence of desire to change, but the inability to
persist in the face of temptation, there is no reason why he should not ask for
and receive the latihan and find therefrom the strength that he lacks.

3. Subud and the Family

The degeneration of family life is one of the distressing symptoms of our

modern world. The increasing incidence of divorce—0.2 per cent in 1911 to
6.7 per cent in 1954—is of less importance than the far greater proportion of
'unhappy' marriages which 'somehow or other' are kept going. The isolation
of young married couples from the parental hearth leads to the breakdown of
the family unit, which should comprise three generations. It is true that many
old people are given homes by their married children—but this seldom
repairs the family unity which has been broken. Anyone with long
experience of helping people with their personal problems, as I have had for
nearly thirty years, knows that the tensions of married life are the main cause
of all psychological disturbances, whether in the parents themselves or by a
delayed action upon the children.

Therefore any means whereby a real help can be brought to a disturbed

family should be regarded as a major blessing for mankind. To facilitate the
dissolution of marriages that fail is merely to admit a deeper spiritual failure.
No evil is cured by alleviating its consequences. Help can come only from
within—that is, by the awakening of the soul to the reality of the bond
between the sexes.

127

One of the palpable benefits of the latihan has been in the help it has given
to scores of married couples in varying degrees of distress. We have even
observed several instances of actual separation where without any external
pressure or persuasion a wife has returned to her husband or a husband to
his wife. Certainly, so long as the purification is still in the first stage, the
difficulties do not disappear. The change of inner attitude has, however, in
nearly all cases been sufficiently definite and permanent to enable those
difficulties to be faced as they never were faced before by the people
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concerned.

The benefits of the latihan are equally evident in happy marriages. Even at
best there cannot be complete compatibility between two incomplete people.
Pak Subuh has said that every women has seven needs that she looks to her
husband to satisfy. These correspond to the seven basic qualities in every
human essence. No ordinary husband can satisfy all the seven needs. It is
indeed a fortunate couple who can find two points of true mutual
completion. In the latihan, latent qualities are developed in the husband so
that he and his wife become more fully partners of one another in all that
they need. An exclusive mutual attraction between husband and wife takes
the place of the undiscriminating sexual impulse. This creates a force that
can overcome all difficulties.

When the second stage of purification is reached, the sexual relation itself
is completely transformed. It is liberated from passion and desire and
becomes instead the fulfilment of the need for mutual completion.

All these are results that we have actually observed, and they have given
us confidence that the progress of Subud can do more than any other factor
to restore the sexual relationship to its true position in human life.

Not all married couples are compatible in essence. Where there is real
incompatibility there cannot be true marriage. On the whole, such cases are
rare, for the potentialities of each essence are exceedingly great, and a given
man or a given women may hope to find a true partner within a very wide
range of essences. Incompatibilities of personality are far more frequent than
those of essence, but even where a really painful or unpleasant tension exists
between two personalities, the purification of the feelings can uncover the
essence-possibilities of a successful union. Properly speaking, therefore,
divorce should be reserved for cases of proved incompatibility of essences,
and not based upon an artificial code of marital behaviour.

128

Adultery and desertion are not sufficient grounds for divorce, nor are their
absence any assurance of a true marriage. It will be a long time before these
fundamental principles are understood and acted upon. Meanwhile we can
look to Subud as a very present help for all married couples. This is
important not only for the man and wife, but even more so for their
descendants. Subud is a frontier at which the past is arrested, and it can
make possible a fresh beginning in almost every kind of human trouble.

4. Subud and Society

Social problems are mainly connected with motives. Difficulties arise

because people's motives are not pure, and so they suspect one another.
Moreover, through the operation of various kinds of magic, imaginary
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motives are created. People come to believe that many things are
indispensable for their happiness that are not only useless but often causes of
the very unhappiness or unrest of which they complain. Fear, suspicion,
jealousy, false pride, ambition, greed, indifference to the sufferings of others
and the other evil forces in human life, distort all motives and bring about
the degeneration of every attempt to create a normal, harmonious human
society. The sacred impulses that are really present in all men include
kindliness, good will, the desire to serve and to help one another. The two
kinds of motives become mixed, and so, when men wish to establish an ideal
society they usually end by shooting people—to make a better world. Even
when there is no shooting, the promised ideal society turns either into a
tyranny of well-meaning busybodies, or into an instrument for depriving
men of self-reliance and the capacity for independent initiative and
judgment and of the desire to work hard to supply their real needs.

This is not intended as a criticism of the modern world or a denial of

human progress. In every past Epoch it has been the same. The same evil
forces that destroyed the heroic age—the Hemitheandric Epoch—led the
Megalanthropic Epoch into useless wars, revolution and spiritual
degeneration. And yet, in many deeply significant ways, mankind in the
twentieth century is more enlightened and enjoys a better social order than in
former times. Only, as I showed in the introduction, we are seriously
threatened by the growing power of the external material forces, and if
progress is to be maintained and stabilized, a general spiritual awakening is
indispensable. The outer world forces have grown so powerful that fear,
suspicion, greed and the rest have a greater potency for destruction than ever
before.

129

The only way out—as indeed is widely recognized by serious people all over
the world—is the purification of motives. It need hardly be said that this
cannot be achieved by advice, or threats, or good example, or by any kind of
organized activity.* The only test is whether a proposed means does actually
work in practice. When this is applied to Subud, we find most hopeful
indications. For more than twelve years we have at Coombe Springs
experimented with a loose form of community in which fifty or more people
of diverse interests, ages, education, social status and even of different races
and creeds have lived and worked together. Thanks to the discipline of self-
observation and personal effort, as well as the spiritual exercises we had
received from Gurdjieff, we were able to surmount many of the difficulties
that arise from 'mixed motives.' But it could not be said that a real harmony
was ever achieved. Moreover, as always in such communities that are based
on 'working from without' the whole structure was too dependent upon me
personally, as the supposed 'leader' or 'teacher' of the groups.

When Subud came to England, the conflicts and misunderstandings

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described in Chapter 3 threatened considerable disruption. In the early
stages, the latihan, so far from helping, brought the negative forces to the
surface and made matters outwardly worse. Within six or seven months,
there was an unmistakable transformation. We can see the early beginnings
of a future society in which each member accepts and takes responsibility
for himself, and at the same time is able to respect the views of other people
and work harmoniously with them.

Subud has been with us for only ten months, and it is too early to expect
results that would be obvious to any casual observer. But to those of us who
have watched the whole process over many years, there can be no doubt that
Subud is a social force that can work the miracle for which we are all
waiting: to make it possible for mankind to make full use of all the
marvellous achievements of modern science and technology without
destroying everything—including mankind itself—through the scourge of
'mixed motives.' The ideal society cannot be based upon leadership, for this
implies dependence of the many upon the few, St. Paul's analogy of the
human organism still remaining the truest picture. Only when each member
is ready to accept his own place and fill it, can there be an organic society.

* Such as public education, youth movements, religious revivals, welfare organizations or

societies for the promotion of good will and international brotherhood.

130

But so long as motives remain attached to earthly interests, the acceptance

of one's place degenerates into slavery. It is hard to represent to oneself how
all human relationships could be transformed if the effect that we have seen
among a few hundred were to be shared by millions. This is no longer an
abstract ideal, but a practical possibility. It will be a society in which
guidance will take the place of leadership, in which authority will be looked
upon as a burden to be borne rather than an ambition to be attained, and in
which the desire to occupy a place for which one is not fitted will give way
to the realization that everyone can have what is most precious in human life
—contentment and security and the assurance of eternal welfare. In such a
society all the outer-world achievements of mankind can be a blessing, and
there will be no need to preach, like Gandhi, a return to the 'home-spun' life
of the past.

5. Subud and Religion

With all its extraordinary power for good, Subud cannot achieve its object
unless it is brought into the established religious life of mankind. Pak Subuh
has repeatedly insisted that Subud is not a new religion, and that it offers no
new dogma, no new forms of worship, no new church. If Subud had
appeared as a movement of renewal within the Church—like the Franciscan
Order or the Society of Jesus—it would have presented no special problems.

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The complete submission to the authority of the Church that characterized a
St. Francis or a St. Ignatius would have assured the acceptance of so
manifestly sincere a contribution to piety and faith.

Had Pak Subuh himself consented to remain no more than a pious

Moslem, he would undoubtedly have been accepted by the Ulema of Java as
a man through whom trust in God could have been restored, and religion
given a renewed strength among the Moslems of the Malayan Archipelago.
It is chiefly, perhaps solely, his catholicism that has so far impeded the
acceptance of Subud as a movement of Islamic revival among his own
people.

It must be difficult to accept the thesis that there can be a revival of

religious faith, the source of which is outside a church, without fear of
disturbance of dogma or authority within the church. Lay movements of
reform, even when held within the framework of established religion, have
often proved dangerous, and have led to schisms and heresies. The very
notion of a world-wide religious revival suggests eclectism of the kind that
reduces religion to a system of universal morality, and faith to a colourless
theism

131

It has been amply demonstrated that true religion cannot be restored by any
form of propaganda or mass suggestion. The immense and sincere efforts
that have been made by the Christian churches since the end of the war have
done little to restore faith. The Islamic revival that is an unmistakable fact
for anyone who has travelled in South West Asia has brought fanaticism in
place of faith, and has utterly failed to come to terms with the realities of the
modern world. I have no first-hand knowledge of the revival of Buddhism in
the Far East, but competent observers have told me that little has been
accomplished—chiefly owing to the obscurantism of the Buddhist monks,
except perhaps in Burma, where the Satipatthana movement has become a
real force. Even so, this system of organized meditation is rather a method of
'working from without' than a way to the renewal of religious faith.

All this is the more remarkable in that the need for religion is deeply felt
throughout the world. The materialism in which the Megalanthropic Epoch
has foundered is now discredited, even among many of the natural scientists
who were its chief exponents and prophets. The world is waiting for
something, but for the most part has no idea what to expect or what to hope
for.

We have therefore to face the question whether Subud can fulfil men's
hopes and allay their fears. I think the answer chiefly depends upon whether
or not Subud can be accepted by religious leaders as a means bestowed upon
mankind for the restoration of true worship of God; a way that can be
followed without sacrifice of any of the specific dogmas of any religious
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community, and without diminution of the authority which the Church must
maintain and preserve if it is to fulfil its function.

It seems to me that if Subud is rightly understood, it can be accepted by

everyone who believes in God and is ready to put his trust in Him alone. The
sacred impulses of sincerity, trust in God, surrender of one's own self-will
and patience in waiting for God to fulfil His times and seasons, are the
foundation of all religious worship. Whoever enters the Presence of God
with these gifts will not be deceived. They are all that is asked for in the
latihan.

Only the practical test counts. Those who have followed the latihan
confirm that so far from being separated from their own confession, they are
brought closer to it, and find a new depth and significance in their religious
observances.

132

Not only this, but they find that, where previously they were troubled by
doubts and scruples concerning some article of faith, they now see that these
doubts and scruples were grounded in human thought, and that they can
accept literally the truth of their confession. Thus one man recently told me
that he found himself in the latihan repeating the Apostles' Creed and seeing
for himself that every word he was uttering was true. This had astonished
him, for he had previously rejected the Creed as being incompatible with a
rational Christianity.

There is, in every great religion, a vast positive content expressed in the
form of dogma or teaching. The mind of man cannot understand the dogma,
for it belongs to the higher regions of the soul that are inaccessible to
thought. Therefore, people either believe or refuse to believe, in both cases
without understanding what it is that they accept or reject. When the soul is
awakened, it begins to see what the mind cannot think about, and then it
knows that what the mind could not grasp is true and necessary for salvation.
Tertullian's saying, Credibile est, quia ineptum est, et certum est, quia
impossibile ceases to be a paradox for those who follow the latihan.

The positive content of religious dogma is never lost in the latihan. There
is, however, a negative content that consists in denying and rejecting the
truth of other faiths. This is not religion, but fanaticism or narrow-
mindedness. This disappears with the latihan as the trainee sees that all
positive religious beliefs are compatible, and that all apparent contradictions
spring not from the soul but from the mind, if not indeed from the lower
nature of man. So long as the denial and rejection of heresy are thought to be
essential to true religious faith, there is certainly a stumbling block.

It is a sign of the times and foretaste of what is prepared for man in the
next Epoch—if he will accept it—that religious intolerance is much less
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prevalent today than in former times. People do not wish to go by the way of
denial and rejection, and it is a great merit in the priesthood that they
recognize that intolerance has grown much weaker during the present
century. Men of all religions are now more ready to accept that Revelations
of the Divine Purpose must have reached others who may be outside the
community to which they happen to belong. I myself have no doubt that it is
literally true—as Pak Subuh says—that through Subud a Christian will
become a better, more conscious Christian with his faith more firmly
grounded than ever before.

133

The deadly enemy of mankind is materialism, which really means belief in

this visible world and rejection of other worlds and other possibilities.
Materialism is an invidious satanic enemy, and the mind of man cannot
follow all its manoevres. Subud is a most powerful weapon against
materialism, for it enables people to see beyond it. No earthly weapon can
avail, because the material forces do in fact dominate the earthly life, and
those who see with earthly eyes only are fully justified in asserting that they
can find no evidence of a world that is beyond matter. Materialism cannot be
combated with its own weapons, nor upon its own terrain. Like Briareus, it
thrives and its arms multiply so long as it can keep its feet upon this earth.
When it is lifted above the earth, it weakens and finally succumbs.

The way of deliverance from materialism is the first contribution that

Subud has to make to the restoration of faith. The second is the direct
conviction that comes to those who follow the latihan that the religious
experience is real. This conviction is very rare in the modern world, and
even among those who are called to the priesthood it is seldom stable and
permanent. This is the cause of acute anguish to many, and in fact several
ordained priests have come to Subud in the despairing hope of rediscovering
their lost faith, and have not gone away disappointed. The third gift of
Subud is trust in God. When this comes to man, his life is transformed. It is
even rarer than faith in the reality of religious experience, for many who
have the latter continue to suffer from anxiety and doubt as to the fulfilment
of Divine Purpose. When there is trust in God, religion is restored to its
rightful place as the supreme human concern.

Since these great gifts—liberation from materialism, conviction of the

reality of religious experience and trust in God—can be received without
sacrificing one jot or tittle of the dogmas of one's own faith, it seems to me
that the leaders of religion throughout the world must eventually welcome
Subud as the answer to the universal prayer, "Oh God, make speed to save
us!"

I am not foolish enough to suppose that my writings will carry conviction

to those who have not experienced Subud, nor do I expect that the
acceptance of Subud by the churches will come quickly. But I believe that it
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may come, because I am sure that this is the Will of God.

6. The Expansive Power of Subud

We come now to the kernel of the matter: that which distinguishes Subud
from any other spiritual gift that has previously been known on the earth.

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This is the power of expansion that comes from the mode of transmission of
the contact. Subud is the manifestation of one of the grand laws of nature
that has hitherto been known only in physics and biology. This is now
familiar even to laymen as the Law of Chain Reaction, or self-accelerating
explosion. It is simply illustrated by the growth of the rabbit population of
Australia, or the spread of bracken in Britain. In both cases, a few
individuals were imported into a new country where the conditions of
existence—soil and nutrients—were wholly favourable. There were few
carnivorous animals to keep down the rabbits, and as each mother rabbit can
have several litters of half a dozen or more in a year, a pair of rabbits could
produce, say, a thousand million descendants in ten years. This happens
because each pair born can be the start of a new chain. Even with immense
wastage, the rate of growth is prodigious, and, as everyone knows, the whole
agriculture of Australia was threatened by the chain-reacting rabbits.
Similarly bracken, unknown in England in the eighteenth century, now
covers more than half of the common land of the country.

Another example is the chain reaction in nuclear physics that now holds
the entire population of the world in suspense. The discovery barely twenty
years ago that certain heavy atoms would explode when bombarded with
neutrons, and in doing so produced more neutrons that could explode other
atoms, has changed the course of human history. The devastating power of
the nuclear chain reaction comes from the speed with which the chain
renews itself, each generation occupying less than a ten thousand millionth
of a second.*

If we compare nuclear fission with the conventional explosion, we can see

that the latter follows a different law. There is also an exceedingly rapid
reaction, but not self-acceleration. The explosion wave is propagated from a
centre, and as it moves outwards, its energy is dispersed over a wider and
wider radius, and its intensity is correspondingly diminished. All such
processes follow what is called the Inverse Square Law. This governs all
actions that expand outwards from a centre. It is well known in physics. A
less exact form of the law governs the spread of new characters in a
biological genus. There is yet another law that operates when the expansive
process actually produces factors that resist its own development. This is
called in economics the Law of Diminishing Returns, or the principle of
saturation.

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All these laws are to be found working—though not in an exact numerical
form—in the spread of ideas and spiritual forces. Let us take the case of a
reformer with an immense influence upon his immediate followers.
Communicating his zeal to them, he initiates an explosion that soon passes
beyond the limits of personal contact with the reformer himself.

* N.B.—All figures are given from memory, as I am writing without access to books of
reference. I am only concerned to remind the reader of the principle of the chain reaction.

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At second hand, his preaching has less power, and it is transmitted less
exactly. The intensity diminishes with distance from the source. Moreover,
compromises and misunderstandings are inevitable, and the version of his
message that reaches distant places is very unlike the original. Still greater is
the diminution and distortion that occur as the message passes through time
from generation to generation. Only an initial impulse of immense power
can spread, by expansion, through many countries and peoples. The loss of
intensity and ultimate loss of content are both inherent in the method of
transmission from one man to other men. The source is limited and the
channels are obstructed, the flow is uncertain, and finally comes to a stop.

All movements of spiritual regeneration within the last five thousand years
have developed according to these two laws, and the utmost that might be
hoped for is that a fresh impulse might come, strong enough to spread
widely and affect a sufficiently large number of people to produce a new
force in the world.

With Subud, none of these limitations apply. Not being transmitted from
person to person by any outward means of communication, but by direct
contact with the Source, it does not suffer diminution or distortion. Since the
contact can be given many times over by everyone in whom it is fully
established, it does not depend upon proximity to the centre from which it
originates. It may by now have occurred to the reader that Subud could be
described as a 'spiritual chain reaction,' and this would be an accurate
observation. The power of expansion of Subud is unlimited because it is not
transmitted through a limited channel—that is, through a human being. It
can, given suitable conditions, develop at an ever accelerated pace. For
example, in England after three months, fourteen people, seven men and
seven women, had been authorized to give the contact. One of these, Bulbul
Arnold, gave it in Ceylon to one hundred and four women in three weeks.
Gurdjieff's Ashiata Shiemash required that each all-the-rights-possessing
brother of his brotherhood should be able to open the conscience of a
hundred others, and each of these in turn should be able to open a hundred
more. I remember, when I first read this chapter, making the calculation that
even if only four in each hundred acquired the power of transmission and
each required one year to transmit it to a hundred others, the whole of

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mankind could receive it within eighteen years.

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I was naturally deeply interested when Pak Subuh told us that, if mankind
would receive it, Subud could reach the whole world within eighteen years,
and that it had been revealed to him that his missionary journeys would
continue for the same length of time.

The essence of the chain reaction is that the whole force is transmitted
without change or diminution at each step. The tenth generation of rabbits
has the same fecundity as the first. The ten thousand millionth atom to
undergo nuclear fission produces the same excess of neutrons as the first.
When this happens, distance from the point of origin no longer has any
importance. Each point of contact becomes a new centre of expansion with
exactly the same power as the first. This is possible because the power is not
human and does not pass through a human channel.

If Subud has the property that we believe—of giving a direct contact with
the Great Life Force by which all existence is sustained—then it can develop
without limit and without diminution, and it can do so very rapidly. The only
limits to a chain reaction are the exhaustion of suitable 'fissionable' material
within reach of the reaction. With Subud this could include the majority of
all people living on the earth.

In such an idea, there is a vast satisfaction. We are reminded of Milton's

description of the war between the powers of light and darkness, in which
each of the Satanic weapons was matched by an equal but purer angelic
power. There is a strange justice in the possibility that the perils into which
the material chain reaction has plunged mankind should be averted by
another chain reaction—but this time in the spiritual and inner life of man.

7. The Ordinary Man

Subud does not make its appeal to the intellectuals or to those who are in
search of some esoteric teaching. It could well be called the 'Way of the
Ordinary Man.' It makes no demand beyond what is expressed in the phrase
'ask and it shall be given you.' Such asking does not presuppose any special
preparation nor even any special qualities. The scientist or philosopher has
no advantage over the mechanic or the bus conductor, but it is also true that
he is at no disadvantage. When we look at those who come to the latihan we
echo the words

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"Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." Sometimes we

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are tempted to go further and say "I thank Thee O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and
hast revealed them unto babes."

The future of the world depends upon the ordinary man. He along can
change the course of history; not the great thinkers nor the powerful rulers of
the world. These have had their day. The ordinary man is helpless so long as
he remains subject to the power of mass suggestion and depends upon
external supports in all that he does in life. But throughout the world, the
ordinary man is in revolt. His revolt is not political or social.

There is little danger of revolution and indeed that is not even a great
danger of war. The revolt is not directed against injustice and oppression,
but against the stupidity of life. The ordinary man has asked to be shown the
meaning of his existence and he has been given a television set. He knows
better than his leaders that no real problems are being solved and he is not
too proud to ask for help without insisting upon scientific or religious
'orthodoxy' in the source from which it may come.

The help must be simple and effective and these are two of the greatest
merits of Subud. We may, therefore, expect that as Subud becomes
accessible to the ordinary people in all countries it will appeal to them first.

Here I can report a conversation of Pak Subuh with a small group of

influential people in Germany who argued that he should, in the initial
stages, restrict the transmission of Subud to those who could 'influence the
masses.' They said that such recognized leaders would not wish to share in
the latihan with common people lacking in education, but that these latter
would quickly follow a lead. They assured Pak Subuh that there was a
widespread feeling in Germany that some new spiritual revival must come;
and, providing Subud carried the seal of approval of well-known names, it
might spread all over Germany like wild-fire.

Pak Subuh replied that he was in any case debarred from rejecting anyone
who might come, but that even if this were not so, Subud must rise upon the
foundation of the ordinary people. He said that when he was thirty six years
old he had been invited by one of the Rajas of Java to become his adviser in
the reorganization of his state. Pak Subuh had refused on the ground that this
might separate him from the ordinary people.

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The world today needs above all that the ordinary people of every race and
nation should regain faith in the Wisdom and Power of God and that trust in
Providence should be restored. In this way alone, can the 'inner-world forces'
be brought into equilibrium with the 'outer-world forces.' We should
therefore, welcome above all else a way and a method that is open to all who
ask for it and which can be followed in all conditions of life. Subud requires
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only helpers who are prepared to carry the burden of transmitting the contact
and places in which the latihan can be practised. Its chain reaction will
enable it to keep pace with any demand.

8. Concluding Remarks

I must end as I began, with apologies. I am far too busy to write this book as
it should be written, with careful selection of the almost unlimited material
at my disposal. Some of my examples have been weak, and some of the
discussion irrelevant, but I have written as I could. As a child of six recently
said to his mother—a Subud member from the start who apologized for
some omission—"I know you do your best, Mummy, and I think you are
very successful." I hope the reader will be equally indulgent.

I will try to summarize my own impressions and convictions. Firstly,

Subud does work. I have not been writing about some ingenious theory as to
how mankind could be saved, but about a process that I see working from
day to day. Secondly, Subud is supremely easy to enter. It is only required
that one should receive the necessary explanations, wait three months and
then ask. Everyone that sincerely asks can receive the contact. Thirdly,
Subud gives positive results in every sphere of human life; in physical
health, in family and social relationships and, most significantly, in the
spiritual and religious experience of man. Fourthly, Subud is open to all
without restrictions of race, creed or condition. It requires no preparation and
no special qualifications. Fifthly, Subud has an unlimited capacity for
expansion, and its rate of progress will be limited only by the number of
people who ask for the contact.

These are practical points that matter for any earthly undertaking. Subud is
more than an earthly undertaking—it is the way to Abodes that are far higher
than the earth, and Abodes, moreover, to which we human beings rightly
belong.

Subud will expand just as fast as it is God's Will that it should do so. It it
is to move very rapidly, indications will be sent that will attract the interests
and hopes of many people. If the process is to go slowly, it will pass from
friend to friend, from parents to children, until its value is demonstrated by
results that cannot be denied. A philosophy is tested by its consistency and
adequacy; a moral teaching, by its conformity with our intuitions of right
and wrong; a religious dogma, by its power to establish and hold the faith of
millions. But a process can be tested only by results. Subud is a process, and
it must submit to the ultimate test: "By their fruits ye shall know them—do
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"

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Pak Subuh and Ibu at Coombe Springs circa 1959

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Copyright© 2007, Undiscovered Worlds Press

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