Enterprises: The Burning Question

"Group of experts,"

So what is the right way for enterprises? Bapak feels it is very important now for the committee to start a group of experts people with real knowledge, experience and understanding of many different fields of business and works, so that this group of experts can give advice and guidance to people who want to start enterprises, so that Subud members who want to start enterprises can be assisted, advised, helped and supervised by this group of experts who really have a thorough knowledge and experience of the field in which the enterprise is working or will work. If you do this, there will be a very strong possibility that your enterprises will begin to be successful and will find their right way and their right direction.

New York 10 September, 1977

"Bapak still stresses the Importance of doing enterprises, and not only that he widens the understanding of what enterprises are."

1450 NESODDIANGEN NORWAY

Dear Herbert:

Bapak's visit in Scandinavia was - well, I have to say, the most successful of all his visits. The latihan is completely changed since he left, we must soon put up some showers outside the latihan room in our new Subud house! There was a complete change in our attitude towards Bapak, this time. Committee and helpers agreed that we would not "protect" him from the members. This has been done so many times before, and in so many countries, and suddenly we all felt that we were sick of it. If Bapak must be protected, he is capable of protecting himself, we understood. Too often, the "protection" we give him is only because we want to keep him for ourselves. This time we decided there would be no inner circle around Bapak and his party. Every member should have the same chance to be near Bapak. This is, if Bapak wanted it this way.

And he really did! He was together with all members, and children, every day through the week he stayed in Oslo. A big housewarming party in the new Subud house (finished painting ten minutes after Bapak's arrival), boat trip, picnic, singing, jazz music, everything.

We were relaxed. I guess we understood at last that there is no use trying to hide ourselves from Bapak, or to act better than we really are. There were no closed doors in the Subud house, no guardians. Everybody who wanted to help in some job was welcomed.

We found that many had a wish to try the job as Bapak's driver. All of them got a chance. So, every time Bapak came to his car there was a new face behind the wheel The last day it was Husein's turn. Bapak entered the car, grinned and said, in English: "Oh, new driver again !" Then he added, in Indonesian, and Sharif translated: "This is a sign that there is true democracy in Norway." Of course, one of Bapak's jokes, but still we are happy about the remark.

And we feel there is something significant in it. There have been an amazing number of decisions this last year that have been resolved by general vote, after open and quite hard discussions. I also think that we have passed through the period -- known in most countries, I believe when helpers find that almost every problem has a spiritual side, and therefore has to be solved by testing among helpers only. It's almost embarrassing to admit that during the last year or so, Helen and I have not had any question to test for the National Committee. Sometimes I tell myself, "I'm a helper. It's my duty to test (privilege?)." And then I find something that should really be tested with the committee. Every time when I have told Halstein about these ideas he has been reluctant in his own, quiet way. Sorry to say, I'm not always so quiet myself, so I argue. Halstein says, "Well, if this is the way you feel, perhaps the best thing is to test ! But what fun is it, when you get an answer like that? I tell him, "Okay, we just leave it for a day or two, and then we see how we feel." The sad thing is that after a day or two, I get the strangest feeling that he was right, and I was wrong all of the time. So I have to tell him this, and he is very quiet once more, never saying, "This was what I knew from the start."

This is bad enough. Still worse, that after a week or two, it is always evident that the decision we made after discussion and agreement, not by testing, was the right one, and didn't lead to chaos.

This, of course, does not strengthen my prestige as a helper, and it also does not build up my self confidence as a Councillor Kejiwaan and Zonal Co-ordinator. Thank God for that.

Once I got a letter from the ISC helpers marked: "Dear Spiritual Councillor Simon ..."

The people in our small local Post Office have been treating me as a royal celebrity since that. They didn't know that they had a Dear Spiritual Councillor living just like an ordinary human being in their own district.

(Herbert, I have no time for this. I am sitting in my office, and of course everybody believes I am writing a serious article about the Common Market or the influence of oil in the Northern Sea upon the economy of Norway.)

Where was I?

One of the helpers in the Oslo group, Raphael, has been talking for a long time about Bapak and enterprises. He is from the same small fisherman's town as myself (and Rukman, and many others of our group in Oslo). He puts things in a very direct way when he is talking to me. He has said: "When Bapak comes, we have to tell him the truth." "Yes, Raphael." "We have to ask him what he means with all this talking about enterprises." "You are so right, Raphael, brother." "Yes, and we must ask him, Bapak, are you out of your mind, or what?" "No, Raphael, dear brother." "We have to say to him: Every week we are sitting in the house listening to all this talking about enterprises. Every talk starts with nice spiritual things, and in the end it's always the same: Enterprises. What do you think, is he mad, or what? We have to ask him this." "By no means, Raphael," "If you don't have the courage to ask, I am going to ask myself. I will say to him, Bapak, either you are mad, or we. Every time we listen to this enterprise stuff. Every time we just want to do one thing, turn the tape recorder off, and have a nice time, not thinking about this problem any more. I have a good job. have a bad conscience because I have a good job, I don't want to quit my job. (Raphael is a professor in Mathematics at our University, very talented, world famous. I believe there are two or three persons in the world who really understand what he is writing about.) Now, I must ask Bapak: Are you mad, or are you planning to drive us mad with this endless enterprise talking?"

Of course, I was horrified, although I have sometimes had the same problem as Raphael, and I know many feel the same, all over the world.

So, at our enterprise meeting in one of the enterprises, Bapak gave explanations about enterprises - again ! I was quite frightened when I saw Raphael had turned up but everything went smoothly. Bapak finished his business, and said, "Okay, this seems to be all. Good bye. Farewell. Bapak is now going to leave with his party." He rose from his chair. I sent a prayer of thanks that everything had been so nice and nobody had tried to be nasty and ask undesired questions. Bapak headed for the door, everybody smiled, "Thank you, Bapak."

Then Raphael shouted: "Excuse me. Bapak, there is one question I have to ask, if you forgive me!"

For me everything turned black. Bapak smiled, sat down again and waited for the question that ninety percent of the Subud members in the world wanted to put to him, but nobody has dared, until Raphael.

Of course, Raphael doesn't treat Bapak like he treats a fellow fisherman from the old town. He did not use the words he had used when he talked to me. He asked questions, he got his answer, and it was all taped.

After the meeting, Sharif came to me and said, "This is a question that has been burning in many members all over the world. Please write it down and send it to Herbert for publication in the World News."

In his next talk Bapak came back to the same question.

In his third talk Bapak again talked more about it.

When the party was leaving, Muti came to me and said, "Simon, please write down and send to Herbert for publication Bapak's answer to Raphael's question. It concerns all members."

I suggested that I should also send you what Bapak said about the same things in his other talks in Oslo, and she agreed. So, here it is. Use what you find necessary. I don't like to cut and just use some short passages from Bapak's talks. This easily leads to theology. For this reason I have not just taken the sentences that really concern this particular question. If you want to cut, that's your business. It's important, I feel, that it is quite clear that Bapak still stresses the importance of doing enterprises, and not only that he widens the understanding of what enterprises are.

This became a long letter. Please, feel free to read it, or not (easy to say in the end of the letter), and if you find something in this that can be used in the SWN as a notice about Bapak's stay in Oslo, you can use as much or as little as you want.

Everything is nice in Oslo. Harmony is perhaps the best word for what we feel. As real brothers and sisters we often disagree, argue, quarrel sometimes, and then are good friends again. This is perhaps the only way, until we (God willing) go to Heaven. No misunderstandings between committee and helpers, no false prestige feeling, I think, just sometimes one or two who want to do things a little faster than others feel necessary. That's only good. We need some kicks in the bottom (Can I put it like that in English?) sometimes.

Best wishes for everybody in the ISC. Be nice and kind to the helpers. They need it. If a helper knows that he is liked and loved, he is not going to be of much trouble. (My experience after 16 years as a helper). It's really a heavy task, that I can tell you.

Your brother, Simon

Raphael's Question

The problem in Norway in making enterprises, as I feel, is not the lack of opportunities because the Norwegian currency is so high compared with other currencies that it is very easy to import things with a great profit. You all have seen how expensive everything is here compared with other nations and there is a free import-export situation. What we lack is more people doing this.

In the group here we are mostly professional people who have established jobs, who are not easily moved, and this is in accordance with what Bapak told us early to find the job you like and go on doing that. I mean to say to find the right job. In the last years Bapak has very much emphasized enterprises. What wonder is what this means for the people who have different jobs like myself, I am a teacher of Mathematics, professor at the University. For me actually the situation is a concrete problem. I have a small business selling clothes which someone is running for me and I am wondering if I should try to develop it into an import firm for clothes, which easily could be done, I think. But it is difficult. I could not do it and at the same time follow my career fully. So maybe it is a personal problem but I do not think so entirely, because in this group alone we are mostly professional people - teachers, doctors, psychologists and so on, who cannot be moved very much around.

Two of our members are businessmen in already established businesses which cannot easily move.

Bapak's Answer

"Bapak does not mean by this that everyone should become a businessman. In your case you have a job which already satisfies your needs, and your family's. But what Bapak does mean is that if somebody has a job as an employee, which he finds not completely satisfying, because he has to work according to the orders of somebody else, then it is better for that person to find the way to stand on his own two feet. To some extent there is a sign of this in you yourself, because although you are a professor of mathematics you have still taken the trouble to start a little business on the side, and this is a good thing to do. If you find that this business shows signs of sufficiently being profitable to be more complete and more independent and more satisfying than your job, you can of course later transfer to that. So it is a question of choice of which is better for you.

But in general Bapak prefers that we find the way of standing on our own feet. When we are still employed by big organizations or somebody like that, we regard this as an experience or training with the aim of eventually standing on our own feet."

In Bapak's next talk in Oslo he said:

"So this is now to make Bapak's advice to you quick and to the point. Bapak is always advising you to do enterprises. And the point of enterprises is that when you do them, you should be guided by the power of God that is within you, and not by the nafsu as you have done before you joined Subud. In other words, in your enterprise you should be always aware and moved by the latihan in the way that Bapak has demonstrated to you just now in the testing. And that is why Bapak advises you to do enterprises. This is even possible for people who, like many of you, are stuck in jobs where you are not in Subud enterprises but you are let us say working as teachers or working for the government or something like that. You can still experience this, because what is important is that in your work you are now no longer moved just by your own will, by your own thinking, but by something else. So that for example you are a teacher, you are teaching children, your teaching doesn't only come from your brain so that it leads their brain. But with it there comes some influence from your jiwa which will, as it were, also touch their jiwa. So that these children will, as a result of learning from you, tend to be moved more by their human jiwa than by their nafsu as before. The result of which is that the learning that you give them will not later be misused, but it will be used rightly. Bapak talks in a metaphor. It says that when you teach a child you give him a tool. For example you give him a chalk to write on the board. So then he will use it to write on the board, and not throw it on somebody. Or you teach him to make a knife. So, later, when he makes a knife he will use it for cutting sausages or something useful, and not for sticking into people. His knowledge will then be something useful.

And this is something that you can already experience, and put into practice in your profession. But it's even more clear and evident and even more complete if you are working in a Subud enterprise. Because then one can say that it's then not only going on in your old job, but in a new way. You are really starting from the beginning with the guidance of God. It will really be from the bottom up. You are building it in accordance with God's guidance. And therefore, when you are finally successful and rich, then your wealth will be something that you won't use to harm other people and yourself. You will really know how to divide it. You will know, this is for this, this much is for me, this much is for helping others. You will have a true social morality and you will really be helping society.

This is the real meaning of social democracy. And this is actually the will of Almighty God. No matter how much people nowadays pretend that they think of it themselves, and it has nothing to do with God, and they invent things, actually it is all from God. Actually everything that man knows and everything that man has thought out that is right, is from God. But man prefers to say, this is not from God, this is from my mind. But they forget that if God had not made their mind like that, they wouldn't have been able to think of these things. Actually this is the will of God, that society should be organized like that, according to these principles of what Bapak calls the real social democracy."

In his third talk, Bapak talked about it again:

"In order to learn to distinguish between the influence of the various forces within us, Bapak always advises us to start from the bottom. And that is by doing enterprises. The purpose of which is that we should begin to learn and experience the various types of influence within our everyday work.

Now, Bapak wants to explain once again, so that you don't misunderstand. If some of you are maybe professional people, doctors or lawyers or teachers or something like that who happen to have a very good job with the government or something like that, it doesn't mean that you then necessarily have to leave this and set up in business on your own. What you are doing can already be regarded as an enterprise, depending on how you do it. But there are many people that are not yet in this position, still looking for some opportunity or something, they are still not working in what they consider a good situation. And for those people, Bapak really advises them to find the way to start enterprises. Because this will give them a way whereby they can really begin to stand on their own feet. And secondly it gives them an opportunity to learn to tell the difference between the closeness of their mind and their nafsu and also the closeness between their mind and their bodies, and the power of Almighty God. And if they then eventually succeed in making a profit, getting some fruit from this work, when they really earn the fruit from their labours, then those fruits will be, not forbidden fruits but allowed fruits. In other words, fruits that are hal'al, that is, they are really right for them to possess and have. What Bapak means by this can be explained very easily. You have often heard of people winning the first prize in a lottery. But Bapak asks you, have you ever heard of someone who has won the first prize in a lottery, who benefits from what they have won? If you look again after a long time, can you say, yes, they have really made use of that money in the right way, so that they have earned the benefit of it? In general, the money is lost very quickly. Similarly, people who may be working, and they get rich very fast As a general rule, they cannot benefit from the money, and it disappears. But if we get the fruits of the work that we have done in enterprises, according to the guidance of the power of God, those fruits, even be they little -- though of course, Bapak hopes that they will be lots - even if they are little, they will be fruits that are truly ours. That is, they become our permanent benefit. There is a real hope that they will not only benefit us, but will be inherited by our descendants.

So, Bapak wants to be very sure that you do not misunderstand, Bapak is not forcing all of you to immediately start enterprises. Or trying to make you change your way of life, or turn your lives upside down. Bapak is on the contrary trying to encourage you to put yourselves in a position in life where you can truly get some benefit from your work. So that the work that you do will really put you in a situation that is good and secure. So that you really earn the benefit of your labours. And this is important, because in the past it has been normal for a man, when he turns his attention to the kejiwaan and spiritual matters, to completely leave aside everything that has to do with this world and with the needs of this world."

"He told us we have a pretty good deal."

Bapak's visits to the enterprises in Seattle were notable; in little more than half a day, he was whisked to and from Manna Milling, an organic flour mill; Bima Industries, producers of sprouting equipment; and Seashore, Inc., a graphic design and printing company. At Bima, while regarding the distinctly upward trend of a progress chart being displayed for him, Bapak stepped up and made a sweeping upward gesture, figuratively accelerating Bima's gross sales into the stratosphere.

On another day the party visited the downtown office of Subud- USA. The normally spectacular view was somewhat obscured by inclement weather, unfortunately, and the conversation leaned toward the subject of office space in general. Bapak asked how many square feet of space were in the office, and also how much rent was being paid. He then did some quick calculations and told us we have a pretty good deal. Since he's the Chairman of the Board of a new office building, he should know!

Elisha, U.S.A.

"Five Subud enterprises before lunch."

First thing Friday morning, a fleet of cars set off to visit Subud enterprises in and around Edinburgh. After inspecting Edinburgh's Subud Hall, the Murray's shop Abacus was visited, Howard Restaurant in Rose St. was toured, and his main Farmhouse Restaurant in Princes Street became the scene of ice- cream sampling as well as coffee drinking. The huge Rootcrop factory was next on the list and here fried chips emerging from the process were sampled by Bapak and members of his family between serious discussions on the processing, sales, costing and marketing. Later, what was to be a visit to Marigold, the Subud shop and fish and chip cafe and ice cream parlour in South Queensferry became a sit- down sampling of its unique recipe ice cream and fish and chips for luncheon, at Bapak's request. It was too far to visit The Hand Pottery at Dunbar, but many examples of Pat's work were to be seen and in use at Bankhead Farm. Five Subud enterprises before lunch and prospects of a talk and testing by Bapak that evening gave adequate excuse for enjoying a relaxing afternoon.

Richard, Scotland.

"Visiting enterprises with Bapak.

There was such a strong feeling of the latihan taken to the places he visited."

Harlan, England.

The play unfolds

Long after Bapak has gone, the silver is put away and the furniture returned to its owners; when the latihans are again of manageable size, the miracle changes accepted and the 'new selves' beginning to feel broken-in; we see hints of the results of Bapak's visit. These excerpts from the French Report for 1977, dated December 9, 1977, tell such a story.

BAPAK'S VISIT

We had the honour and joy of receiving Bapak and party in Paris from 16th to 23rd August. About 150 brothers and sisters were present during talks and testing. Bapak visited our new centre in rue d'Aboukir and the Subud house in Aulnay. Bapak stressed the need for harmony especially during a helper-committee meeting with him, told us not to be frightened of enterprises and recommended the formation of a committee of experts.

An SES specialist committee was formed during our congress on 30/31st October.

During their first meeting this month it was decided to hold an enterprise seminar next year with a view to firstly giving courses to the members interested in the financial, legal, management and marketing aspects involved in founding an enterprise and secondly to explore imaginative and concrete possibilities by means of enterprise games.

CONCLUSION

In the last year certain material problems have been cleared up. Subud Paris has a new centre. Subud France has now a committee of enterprise experts. Local communications are restarting. Still lots of problems, but still lots of Latihan, and things are moving on.

"Then we understand the pattern."

Once we have worked in Subud enterprises, we are able to experience for ourselves that, instead of the material forces becoming an obstacle to us, they become the helpers who fulfill all the needs of our life in this world which makes it possible for us to worship God. Then we understand the pattern: that Almighty God creates the material forces, creates the material world and material wealth which can become our tool, which then permits us to worship God. So that it is, as Bapak has said: 'From God comes the material and then the material returns again to God through us'.

Rotterdam, 15th July 1977