What is Subud?
Something Simple and Natural

Subud is something simple, something natural.

We seek what we think will make us happy, but we are endlessly mistaken in our actions and thoughts.

Only sometimes, when we are quiet, or in some unusual state, can we be suddenly, brilliantly, aware of this other life going on. The process of Subud reconnects us and keeps this special awareness alive and active.

Subud was founded by an Indonesian, Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. He is usually referred to by Subud members as 'Bapak', which is an Indonesian word for a respected older man. The experience, the spiritual exercise, which we call by the Indonesia word for training - 'latihan', came to him as a revelation, suddenly.

He was able to share it, pass it on to others and it is now known in more than eighty countries and practiced by thousands of people. To practice the latihan is to stand relaxed in a group of people, men and women separately, and allow the process to take place. Many people feel a vibration, most soon feel an impulse to move, to utter sounds or to sing. The impulse is spontaneous, not suggested or controlled by thought, but during this time a member is fully alert, with mind and desires passive, reacting to their need at the time. The latihan continues for about thirty minutes and is repeated twice a week. The experience varies, indeed it is different for each person. For some the development is gradual and changes are noticed in the outer life before there is much movement in the actual latihan.

The process is one of cleansing, purification, which reaches more and more deeply into every part of one's being.

It is necessary to be a member before one may attend a latihan and for most people a waiting period of three months is asked before joining. This gives opportunities to meet people experienced in the latihan and to learn from them something of what may be expected and to draw near with respect to a movement which is likely to change one's whole life. The moment of actually joining Subud is when for the first time a person stands with other members who are doing their latihan and receives the contact. This is experienced by some immediately, by others after a while, as a quickening of their innermost being.

Often in life we do not know 'which way to turn', we do not know what is right. In Subud we learn to trust, to receive guidance through the latihan. The effect for most shows in a greater understanding of oneself and happier personal relationships, often something newly positive in work experience. Improved health is often a by-product of the latihan, discrimination about food and drink and in habits of living. There is guidance to find one's right work in life, and to use one's talents to best advantage.

For some there is a considerable pain. The process of purification brings out problems, reminds forcibly, agonisingly, of past mistakes. Many things have to be faced and in a way re-lived before they can be left behind.

The Subud organisation is worldwide. There are national and international officers and committees and there are local groups where people exercise. The association has been established in the west since 1959 and is working to help the world. Subud members are setting up business enterprises, the ultimate aim of which is to support the welfare projects of Subud, especially for children, refugees and old people. Much of this activity is in the Third World.

Religious terminology is often used, Almighty God, Submission to the Will of God, Bapak used this language. In all religions we have words which have evolved through human attempts to identify and describe another dimension of life; prayer, surrender and submission to the power greater than we can imagine and yet of which we are a part.

Subud is a process, a receiving, not a teaching. There are no teachings or theories in Subud. Nobody is expected to believe anything, only to recognise and trust what they experience. People of different religions find their faith deepened and practise the latihan in complete harmony with each other and with those who have no religion.

Gradually for most people, quite quickly for others, it becomes possible to recognise a little of the immensity of which we are a part and to live to some extent in harmony with it and with other people. This is what Subud is about.