WSA F.Y.I World Subud Association September 2020
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WSA F.Y.I World Subud Association September 2020 MESSAGE TO OUR MEMBERS INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Dear Brothers and Sisters, Celebrating Bapak’s Birthday…2 The form and pace of human communications have International Helpers……………8 been changing through centuries. The present change Subud Japan Congress………...12 is quicker than ever before. Physical travel and meeting are gradually evolving into virtual travel and PT PCB ………………................. 13 meeting. With those changes so do International Helpers travel and Subud gathering and meetings. In this edition, we are featuring the IH Zoom meetings, and a special article from Daniela Moneta and Solihin Garrand, which will take us back to the 20th century: the article is about Susila Budhi Dharma. We will feature this article in two parts. The first part in this September edition and the second part in our December edition. We have also been asked by the office of PT Pancaran Cahaya Bahagia (PT PCB) to include a survey for plot holders in Rungan Sari, Palangka Raya, province of Kalimantan Tengah, in the hope that it can reach Subud members who are plot holders in Rungan Sari. We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter. With warm wishes and may God keep you safe and healthy. WSA Executive Office Jakarta, 25 September 2020 CELEBRATING BAPAK: SUSILA BUDHI DHARMA, THE BOOK RECEIVED By Daniela Moneta and Solihin Garrard, WSA Archivists The WSA Archives has many versions and editions of Bapak’s book Susila Budhi Dharma. The Archives has scanned several of these editions and translations to make them available to members on its website for Subud members only. See the end of this article to learn how you can request access to the Archives website where this material is available. This article attempts to describe the various editions in detail and give some historical background for each. Susila Budhi Dharma was originally received by Bapak as a song poem in High Javanese. He describes his book in the first Chapter, SINOM, Verse 1 and 2: “In order to put into practice and give form to a spiritual reality that has been received both inwardly and outwardly, its entire essence is here expressed in beautiful melodies and metres, to help you obtain the evidence you need. These are the words of divine counsel received, and so far as was necessary written down, in the historic city of Yogyakarta in the year 1952.”1 Verses can be sung in various traditional Javanese melodies. Each chapter of the poem is written for a specific melody. On special occasions, Susila Budhi Dharma is sung by Bapak’s family and members of Subud Indonesia especially on Bapak’s Javanese birthdays, which are celebrated every 35 days. He translated the Javanese poem into Indonesian prose because not many people could read the old Javanese. This Indonesian version was then used to translate the book into various languages. Today, it is not always clear which English edition was used to translate the book into different languages. The Subud Archives Online website and https://wsaarchives.org/ and https://subudlibrary.net have many of these translations online for members to read. Currently we have translations from the English text into these 1 From the 2001 edition, translated by Sharif and Tuti Horthy and published by Subud Publications International (SPI), with copyright by World Subud Association (WSA). Bapak had written several other books that were precursors to Susila Budhi Dharma that are in the Subud archives. All were written in Javanese. One was known as Trikanda (Three Speakers) written in the 1930s which was verses or songs about “a perfect way of worship” as described in its first stanza. Another book was Djati-makna (True Teaching/True Explanation) written in Semarang in 1936. This is a long commentary in several volumes on spiritual matters. Bapak said, on several occasions, that his earlier writings were superseded by Susila Budhi Dharma and it was not necessary to translate and publish them. 2 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Norwegian, Russian, Vietnamese, Serbian, Japanese, and Greek. Italian and Dutch translations are currently being worked on. In a response to a request, by the authors of this article, for guidance about the breath and suitability of readership of Susila Budhi Dharma, Ibu Siti Rahayu, in June 2020, made it very clear that Bapak’s book should be read only by Subud members, and not made available beyond the Subud membership. First Published version of Susila Budhi Dharma The first published version of Susila Budhi Dharma was just the first half translated into English from the Indonesian by Husein Rofé and published privately.2 There was no introduction or preface to this publication. The Javanese is in italics, and the Indonesian and English appear on the same page. Vol. 1 ends with the 11th Chapter, which is the second ASMARANDANA, Verse 27. Volume 2 was not published at that time due to lack of funds. If you have not heard of Husein Rofé, here is a brief account of his travel to Indonesia in 1950. He went there seeking to learn more about Asian mysticism and Islam. This was where he met Bapak. Rofé was a linguist, fluent in many languages. You can read about Husein Rofé’s time with Bapak in his book The Path of Subud, published in 1959. He gives details about his adventures as a linguist and teacher and his time spent in Java. You can also see a four-part interview with Husein Rofé on the Subud Archives website.3 When Rofé met Bapak, he learned that Bapak had been waiting for him. Bapak had predicted many years before that there would one day arrive a foreigner who spoke many languages who was destined to bring Subud to the Western world. Rofé stayed in Indonesia from late 1950 to 1954, living near Bapak and sometimes in his home. He was asked by Bapak to travel to various places in Indonesia to talk about Subud and open people. Rofé lived for a while in Jakarta, around 1953, and in Palembang on Sumatra before leaving Indonesia for Japan.4 It was in Palembang that Rofé received a copy of Susila Budhi Dharma from Bapak with a request to translate the Indonesian into English.5 When Rofé left Indonesia in 1954, he first went to Tokyo. He learned Japanese on the boat ride to Japan and upon arrival he was able to give talks in Japanese about Subud and open people. Then he 2 Susila Budhi Dharma, Vol. 1, 172 pages; [Hong Kong]: [Ye Olde Printerie]. [1955]. Square brackets denote information not found in the publication but determined later. 3 This interview of Husein Rofé was made in 1998 in England. He was the first Westerner to be opened in Subud. Rofé tells us about his early life before Subud and his first encounter with Bapak. He tells about his conversations with Bapak before he was opened, about his opening, about his inkling after his opening that perhaps he might have something to do with spreading Subud, and Bapak's response. Rofé describes Bapak's unassuming manner. He gives us an intimate description of what Bapak was like in the beginning days of Subud. 4 Notes from and email from Michael Rogge, 1 June 2020, in the Archives. 5 See Harlinah Longcroft’s History of Subud, Vol. 1, Book 1, page 156, for a letter Bapak wrote Rofé about the writing of his book in Javanese as a receiving and the difference between the two when he then translated his own book into Indonesia. 3 moved on to Hong Kong. Michael Rogge, long-time Subud member from The Netherlands, was opened by Husein Rofé in Hong Kong in 1955. Rogge tells us that the translation into English of the first half of Susila Budhi Dharma, Vol. 1, was published in Hong Kong by Ye Olde Printerie, and that Rogge partly financed that publication. There was no money available to publish Vol. 2 and its whereabouts were unknown until recently. This unpublished Vol. 2 of Rofé’s translation from the Indonesian has since been found in the Subud Britain archives by Solihin Garrard, the archivist for the WSA Archives in the UK. Bapak with the Yogyakarta Group, 1951 (Rofé on Bapak’s immediate left) It is interesting to note that in the latter half of Rofé’s second book, Reflections on Subud,6 he included a commentary on Bapak's Susila Budhi Dharma. Bapak suggested that Rofé make a commentary and that he hoped others would make similar efforts. Rofé said about Susila Budhi Dharma: "The work is to him [Bapak] an inspired scripture; hence he believes that others who have been exposed to the same source may also have something constructive to contribute, despite differences in degrees of awareness."7 This may be an important comment made by Bapak relayed to us by, an eyewitness, Rofé, not long after Susila Budhi Dharma was written. It might to be an invitation from Bapak for all who read Susila Budhi Dharma to make an effort to understand it better and perhaps write about their own experiences in the latihan. 1954 Unpublished Vol. 2 of the first printed copy of Susila Budhi Dharma recently found This unpublished manuscript consists of 74 pages, typed on very thin paper of Foolscap folio size (8.0 X 13.0 inches). The title is written in block letters in pencil across the top of the first page. It was “re-discovered” by Solihin Garrard in the collection for which he has 6 [Tokyo, Japan]: Reflections on Subud, [1961]. 213 pages. 7 See page 14 in Author’s Foreword for this quote made January 1960.