IBU RAHAYU'S OPENING PLENARY ADDRESS TO THE 1Oth World Congress, Spokane, WA

Wednesday, 6th August 97

THE CONTENT OF SUBUD

Subud brothers and sisters whom I respect and love, on the occasion of the opening of this tenth Subud world congress, I will say a few words which express the content of Subud.

We start from the beginning, when each of us was decreed by God to become a human being. A human being is one kind of entity (sifat) created by God. I say one kind of entity, because the power of God envelops every entity that He has created. And every entity that has come into being or been created by God lives, works and moves.

And by God's grace everything that He has created is accompanied by the essence of God, which exists within each creature. And we all know that every religion certainly has within it or acknowledges the existence of this essence of God, although they call it by many different names. In Islam---because I happen to be familiar with Islam---it is called khatir ilham. And this essence of God is connected to a human being by way of his human soul (jiwa), and this is the reason why we call this Subud training we receive the 'training of the soul' (latihan kejiwaan).

As the latihan makes progress in the soul of each one of us, it will give rise to something new, leading to the arising of human culture. This is why we have established an organization for this development in Subud, which we call SICA (Subud International Cultural Association), which will later become a vessel for whatever develops by way of our soul that has the character of culture. This development will be very broad because it embraces every kind of talent that exists within our membership. So, for example, one who is a dancer will become a beautiful dancer, a singer will become a beautiful singer, and if this flowering takes place in the human intellect it will lead such a person to excel in medicine, architecture or some other discipline.

Apart from that, as people who enjoy God's grace and God's love of humankind, we must in return express our gratitude by demonstrating our worship of God through loving each other. We have an obligation to love our fellow human beings and help them with their needs. That is why in Subud we have Susila Dharma for our social and charitable activities.

And in order to put this social work into practice and to prepare ourselves to help our fellow human beings, we need to become strong and ready to shoulder the burden so that, if possible, we don't have to rely on others. That is why Bapak always used to say that before we can help others we first have to be strong. That is why he advised us to start enterprises and implement enterprises in Subud. And that is why in Subud we are urged not to neglect enterprises besides deepening the life of our soul.

Besides that we are all aware that we will not live in this world forever, the young will become old, and therefore it is essential that we are always preparing the next generation to be ready to continue the development and challenge of Subud. Therefore in Subud it is very necessary to train and direct the young generation who are our hope. That is why we have an organization for young people known as Subud Youth.

And I know that you have already started all this to take care of all that is needed in Subud now and in the future. For it is our duty to thank God and not forget what Bapak received, which is God's grace. You are witnesses of what Bapak received and passed on to each one of you. As a Subud member you have a responsibility and duty to continue what Bapak received.

Actually what we have to do is not so overwhelming. If we can just do the things I have talked about, if we can really put them into practice in our lives, then what we have set out to do in Subud can materialise and succeed.

I believe that I do not need to say more in this opening and in the next few days there will be opportunities for me to talk more about spiritual matters.

Thank you, until we meet again.

(END)

"Official Translation by Sharif & Tuti Horthy

Copied from 'Gee Wa' no. 3 by Cherpitel

Notes: by Cherpitel

I regret that I was too busy working to attend this talk. To me, it seems that Rahayu is reaffirming the general organizational structure of the Subud 'wings' or 'branches' (as I prefer) that were established during Bapak's life, thus also affirming his final words: "It is finished."

Re SICA, it seems to me that this means our 'cultural association' "which will later become a vessel for whatever develops by way of our soul that has the character of culture" needs to evolve into the sort of coordinating centre that will serve the needs of all the various cultural expressions, such as the visual artists and performers already represented, and the healing arts group, as well as writers (which I once served as co-ordinator), and other fairly defined groupings, like architects, educators, lawyers, and other professions through whose practice we may give inner content, that is, any profession that it might be said has a nature of connecting with the world. And there are obvious cross-overs here with SDI & SES, while SYA represents the younger, developing practitioners. It seems to me that we have to always recognise and be aware that really we're all one, that all the various WSA branches are interconnected.

S.