WSA F.Y.I World Subud Association December 2020
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WSA F.Y.I World Subud Association December 2020 MESSAGE FROM THE WSA TEAM INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Dear Brothers and Sisters, Message from The WSA Team Celebrating Bapak’s Birthday, The year 2020 is drawing to a close, and hopefully 2021 The second part 2 will see us revert to normality. The WSA Team would like to sincerely wish you all a blessed and joyful Christmas International Helpers AREA 1 2020 and a Happy New Year 2021. Srilanka 8 New Zealand 10 We have to be grateful for the advance communications AREA 2 Congo 14 technology, despite travel restriction, the council has Portugal 15 AREA 3 been busier than ever attending to the needs of the world General 17 Subud community. Zone Countries You all know that this council has been given an extended Subud Spain Congress 18 Zone 8 Annual Meeting 20 term, with the next World Congress now due only in Zone 9 Annual Meeting 22 January 2024. For members of the council this is a privilege and an honor, which we, with God’s guidance, intend to make good use of in serving you. We hope that we will be soon given the chance to meet as many of you as possible in person. Nahum, Rosario, Suyono, Hannah, Pudji & Elwyn 28 December 2020 1 CELEBRATING BAPAK: SUSILA BUDHI DHARMA, THE BOOK RECEIVED By Daniela Moneta and Solihin Garrard, WSA Archivists (Second Part of Two) The 1975 edition of Susila Budhi Dharma The 1975 publication is titled Susila Budhi Dharma: A poem received and written down in High Javanese and Kawi, and later rendered into Indonesian by Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, with a new English translation from the Indonesian made at Wisma Subud, Cilandak, published by Subud Publications International for the International Subud Committee. United Kingdom: Subud Publications International, 1975. 391 pages. Here are some notes gathered about this edition: “In the Javanese text the pre-1972 spelling has been retained but the Indonesian has been brought up to date.” Hardback and paperback editions are made available and the sections of the poem are numbered for the first time. The translation team was Bapak’s daughter Ibu Hardiyati along with Hamidatun and Reynold Sullivan. 1 A note was recently found in an unpublished version of Susila Budhi Dharma translated in 1971 by Herbert Sinewardene, a Subud member from Colombo, which states that the team found his translation helpful in translating the 1975 edition.” The archives do not have a copy of the 1971 translation by Sinewardene; please consider donating a copy to the archives, if you have one. The 1990 Commemorative edition of Susila Budhi Dharma There is an edition of Susila Budhi Dharma that was printed in commemoration of the thousandth day selamatan of Y. M. Bapak which took place on 18 March 1990. This publication contains an introduction by the Chairman of Subud Indonesia National Committee which states that a Working Group, consisting of several Subud brothers and sisters who are familiar with the Javanese language and its art and poetry has voluntarily worked to adapt the spelling of the Javanese language into a standard spelling, as decreed in 1974 by the Minister of Education. The English translation is the same as the 1975 edition. This edition was published by Subud Indonesia Publication by permission of the International Subud committee for the Family of Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. [Jakarta]: Subud Indonesia Publication. [1990], 385 pages. 1 In Ibu Yati’s Memories of Bapak interview on the Subud Archives website, she mentions that when Husein Rofé lived with her family in Yogyakarta, in the early 1950s, that he taught her English. Bapak wanted all of his children to learn English. 2 The 1993 Translation directly from Javanese to English The WSA Archives was given, by Sylvia des Tombe, an original copy of Mansur Medeiros’ translation from the Javanese into English2 of the first five chapters of Bapak’s spiritual poem. The title was translated from the Javanese and written as follows: Susila Budi Darma. The manuscript is 59 pages (8.0 X 11.0 inches) with a two-page Dictionary for Translating at the end along with an alternative arrangement of lines for Chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and part of 3. Mansur, a long-time Subud member who lived at Wisma Subud for many years, was known in Indonesia as the foremost Javanese scholar for translating Javanese to English. He was educated at Harvard University and graduated with honors. He spent the majority of his life living at Wisma Subud translating Bapak’s talks and teaching. 3 He was an advisor to the archives from 1988 to 1993, after Bapak’s passing, when Bapak’s Archives were organized and preserved. Some of Mansur’s other English translations from the Javanese of works by Bapak are in the Wisma Subud archives. Mansur returned to his home after translating these first five chapters of Susila Budhi Dharma to take a post as a professor at Harvard University where he had an office until his death. This is the only known translation of Susila Budhi Dharma from the Javanese by an English speaker. You can read more about Mansur, his translating, his relationship with Bapak, and a tribute to him in Subud Voice, November 2007, pages 1-2, 13-14. Here is an example of the first page of Mansur’s translation made in November 1993. The title page of the translation reads: A Literal Line-by-Line Translation of SUSILA BUDI DARMA by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwijoyo Prepared by M. M. Medeiros To Guide Listeners to the Recorded Version. This may have been Mansur’s attempt to provide an English version to the Javanese when the Javanese portions of Susila Budhi Dharma were sung. Mansur’s translation was recently read by members of the Subud California group at Palo Alto/Santa Clara Valley this past Ramadan. 2 The archives are looking for Mansur’s complete translation from Javanese into English beyond chapter five, if it exists. Please let the archives know if you have any further information. 3 You can read more about Mansur’s work in a book about Barack Obama’s mother called A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother by Janny Scott (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011). It has interesting comments about Mansur and several other Subud members who worked for Ann Dunham in her language school. See page 121. It says “Mohammad Mansur Medeiros, a reclusive and scholarly Subud member from Fall River, Massachusetts, and Harvard, whom Ann hired as a teacher, had immersed himself so deeply in Javanese culture, language, and religion that friends nicknamed him Mansur Java.” 3 4 The 2001 edition of Susila Budhi Dharma This 2001 edition of Susila Budhi Dharma was published by Subud Publications International, translated by Sharif and Tuti Horthy, and edited by Manuela Mackenzie. It has a new English translation of the Indonesian prepared for this centenary edition. Siti Rahayu, Muhammad Subuh’s eldest daughter, contributes a forward. In the 2001 edition we have a quote from Bapak’s 1981 talk in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 20 July 1981 (81 YVR 4) which reads: In the holy books it is said that the way that leads to the completeness of life is not a path that can be made up, explored or planned by human beings – only by Almighty God. Human beings are required only to surrender; to surrender with acceptance and a willingness to let go. If one were to investigate, step by step, realm by realm and journey by journey, it would be impossible to calculate how many hundred million years the journey from this world to heaven would take, the journey to the level we refer to as God. Susila Budhi Dharma will give you some idea of that journey. The third appendix of this 2001 edition has this further explanation concerning Susila Budhi Dharma in response to a letter in 1971 to Bapak from Matthew Sullivan which gives Bapak’s clarification about his translation from the Javanese of Susila Budhi Dharma. 5 6 How to Request Access to the Subud Archives website All of the material mentioned in this article is available digitally for Subud members only on a secure website. Subud Archives Online website uses technology to take a further step on the road to making our archives more accessible for Subud members today and in the future. In so doing, we are able to make visible and available archival material previously held only in remote storage areas. The Archives website gives access to historical documents, videos, films, photographs, books, newsletters, interviews, and stories that tell the history and development of Subud today as it is being made and back to the very beginnings of Subud and its spread around the world. This website is intended to be of use to incoming officers and helpers who wish to learn more about their job and what others have done in that job before them; to help those who work in wings, affiliates, and related entities; to provide source material for Subud historians wanting to write the history of their country, region, or group; and for Subud members who want to progress in their personal development in the latihan and understand more about Subud and its history. You can apply for access to the Subud Archives Online website by emailing [email protected]. A request form will be sent to you asking you to observe copyright and not share links or your password with others. Return the form to the address listed and you will be notified when your registration is completed.