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Post subject: Ibu Rahayu's Talk to the WSC - Spinkhill, 10 August 2002
 Posted: Sep 27, 2002 - 06:22 PM
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Ibu Rahayu's Talk to the World Subud Council
Mount St. Mary's College Spinkhill, Sheffield, UK
10 August 2002
02 SHF 1
Final translation by Raymond Lee
Brothers and sisters, WSC Chairman, council members and other guests (...are there any?) whom I love and respect, of course I am delighted and fortunate to attend this WSC meeting here in England. But, as I have not been in a cold climate for a while, I feel cold right now. Hopefully I will still have a voice to speak!
Brothers and sisters, as we know and have experienced, the age ... or the spread of Subud has proceeded for nearly three quarters of a century since it first arrived. Yet we don't sense that Subud makes progress or develops. This is because we don't make an effort to feel about this.
Now it's the job of the council and the helpers' dewan to remind members of this - that is, those members who have followed the latihan diligently all this time and still don't understand their own shortcomings. So the prime function of this Council - and this includes the committee, the wings, and the helpers - is to be a body that stays in touch with developments in our Subud community, so that our organization remains secure and on the right track.
Aside from that, the helpers' dewan must never forget that Subud members exist because of the latihan. So the committee and the helpers' dewan must always work side by side. Don't think that the committee is just a body for handling worldly matters. That's not so! The same applies to helpers. Don't think that because you deal with spiritual matters you should not get involved with, or you can ignore worldly matters. Don't do that either.
This is why Bapak recommended that the helpers and committee should always work in parallel. In that way you will complement each other, and our spiritual needs and our worldly needs won't clash and you won't start to blame one another. Rather, you will support and correct each other. Then if we say something is right, it really will be, so what's right won't just be words, something we just talk about, it will be real and something the whole membership can feel.
Now as you are the council - while you won't always be council members, for now you are - you are under the scrutiny of the members who are expecting and waiting to see what you will contribute or give to the membership. Remember that at the last Congress various programs were formulated or planned. Hopefully these plans will become reality.
So it shouldn't be that as soon as we tackle a problem we are criticized, even though criticism has its value. But, at the same time we must be able to handle criticism and improve to meet new developments As long as the criticism does not block the growth of Subud, and it is a positive contribution to bring about change for the better, then after being discussed and approved by the council and helpers dewan, the criticism may be accepted.
So if a member or a group is critical or dissatisfied they should not come to me. It is not my job to run this organization. In our spiritual association, congress has the power. I remember Bapak saying that above Bapak, or after Bapak is no longer here, congress will make the decisions. Congress is a big gathering, a large international meeting where we discuss things together.
Maybe these members don't know whom else to turn to or to ask. This is just an example. So it is not as if I am the person who can make decisions or who has the final say. Many members think that I make decisions, but that's not true. Congress is the body that makes decisions, that can change something if needed, that does away with something if necessary, through meeting together, through the helpers and the committee working together.
Now brothers and sisters, I will not give you a spiritual explanation today - an explanation about the structure of the spiritual world - even though you enjoy those explanations. Nowadays many of you are eager to know how the structure of the spiritual world works, but I can only give you explanations about it. What I mean by an explanation is that when I explain something in a talk I do not use my mind. But if someone asks me a question, I have to go back and think about what I just said. And now, because I explain this often, you ask many questions!
Actually, I will just explain that you can read about this structure in Bapak's talks. I just repeat what's there. And the way to understand this structure is not by asking questions, but to feel about it. So just feel it. Don't ask questions; use your feelings. You will understand with your feelings. Why is that? It is because it is not your job to understand for example this force or that force, should we use this force or that force. Human beings can't do that. We can only work. As for whether it is this or that force, the material force or whatever force, as long as we work well and as long as we act properly - in other words we work with a feeling of acceptance and submission - then as you use your low forces, whatever you do will be filled by your soul.
So there are no rules for this. If you want me to tell you how to stay safe and avoid using this force or that force, I can't. It cannot be explained - you must experience it. You get the proof by testing. When I test with you, you feel it. This kind of test is to help you understand the difference between one force and another force, but you cannot then say, "Oh, I only want to use this force!" You can't do that because you need to use many forces in your life.
If you have been in Subud a long time, you can prove this by remembering or recalling ... perhaps you can feel this now ... "Am I the same today as when I joined Subud?" Then you will know the difference. You can check your own self. "Oh yes, before I was always angry, so why am I not angry anymore?" You don't even know who brought about this change in you. You just know that now if you get angry you get sick.
This happened by itself, but you are not aware of all the individual changes. The changes came about little by little as a consequence of your latihan. If you recall, "Oh my life used to be like this ... now it's like that!" It was not God who changed you. You changed yourself. You did the work, not God. God will work only after you do your work. Do you understand this or not?
Some of you misunderstand even this, and you think that because you do latihan God does everything - God will correct you, God will keep you in check and so on. You do the work and God will work after you work; meaning that the essence of God will work - not God, but the essence of God, the power that is inside you.
So for example when you eat, you do the eating, you do the work, but depending on the way you eat, for example if you invoke God's name, then God will work to ensure that what you eat will not become a burden for you. This is just one example.
So don't think that just because you do latihan all your sins will be wiped away and you will automatically go to heaven - that's not so! Human beings must work, but then God carries it out.
Of course, as we develop, as our latihan progresses, we don't just have happy experiences or feel good all the time; sometimes we have difficult times. Then we must be able to feel what it is that causes the difficulty or heaviness. Don't jump to the conclusion that this is a result of being in Subud, or that you are doing latihan the wrong way. That's not so.
Naturally, if something unpleasant happens, then of course something is wrong inside you, you are maybe using something wrongly. Maybe you are neglectful, or you have forgotten (your self), or you are too sad, or too despairing, and inwardly you no longer occupy your rightful place, and as a result something else occupies that place. That's what I mean by neglect.
So life in Subud can be pleasant and can be unpleasant; it has advantages and drawbacks.
But if a person can be completely self-aware and know their strengths and weaknesses, we can say that person is self-regulating, their true self or individuality is present.
So we can say that experience is our teacher, because it is through experience that we learn to understand and know what's wrong and what's right for us to do.
Now I know that in the spiritual realm there are no limits, yet our human faculties are not everlasting or eternal. For instance, these days the number of letters I receive never diminishes. On the contrary, I get more and more, and the problems can be complex. So I wonder if I have the capacity to keep doing this work. As a human being there is a limit to my capacity.
This is why our Chairman, Daniel Cheifetz, plans to compile all my replies to these letters. There are a great many to compile and if you just want to select the important ones ... they are all important!
I hope this will really help and assist me. The aim is not just to publish them, but it is so that members with the same problem can read my reply. Well, maybe the reply, or rather the problem is actually different, although it appears the same, but that's OK, as in reality questions don't just come from members; even helpers ask about many things they don't understand.
This is why I really agree with holding many kejiwaan gatherings, so that helpers can help one another and prepare to become real helpers to the members. So they won't just be helpers in name who can't help the members yet.
Of course if we follow what members want, they want the best, they want what's true. But if we remember that all that is true comes from God, even for me it's not certain that what I say is true. However, when I work I always ask God to help, and perhaps that's why members feel my answers help. Sometimes my answer is the same as the helper's reply. So why do people say that unless Ibu Rahayu answers them no one else can? That cannot be true! So once again, here we need the true self that I spoke of - we must build ourselves from our true self, so that when you help someone else you have an authority that you can call on.
So brothers and sisters, this is my experience; this is how I work. I hope you will do the same. Then maybe a time will come when I won't receive letters any more. Maybe! I hope that the helpers are willing and ready to receive what is expected from them.
And in fact, the problems in these letters become more complex as time goes by. It is impossible to deal with them with the mind. That's why, if I get a question that I can't answer, I leave it. I go to sleep. I leave it for three days, or a week, or even a month! But then it is as if someone tells me how to answer it, and finally I answer. Then the person concerned writes back to say they accept my answer. This is a Grace. If I force myself to answer it with my mind, I don't get an answer. I myself wonder how I can answer the letter.
Well, this is just to fill the Council's program today. I hope my short talk will be helpful to you ... the committee and the international helpers. Is this all the international helpers? I know the international helpers want me to meet them too, but if you are all here, we will just have this one meeting. I hope the international helpers will figure out their duties and responsibilities for themselves. It shouldn't be that every time there is a new dewan of international helpers they ask me for guidance. This is why we need to retain some experienced international helpers who can advise new ones and guide them, so that their work will not be disrupted from one dewan to the next, and that whenever there is a new dewan they ask me for guidance. Well, if I am still here ... but who knows? I hope the helpers will address this as part of their program.
Thank you. |
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