Subud y la Religión

Es importante entender que Subud no es una religión. Y la razón por la que Bapak dice esto es porque la primera impresión que la gente obtiene sobre Subud es, con frecuencia, que es algo que se parece mucho a una actividad o enseñanza que puede ser descrita como una "nueva religión" o algo parecido. Pero el hecho es que Subud no es una religión porque si fuera una religión no sería posible para Subud recibir gente que todavía practica sus respectivas religiones. Y el hecho es que, como sabeis, Subud realmente recibe miembros musulmanes, cristianos y, dentro del cristianismo, diferentes tipos de cristianos como católicos, protestantes y todas las otras variadas formas de enseñanzas cristianas que hay. Y también otras religiones como el budismo etc. Además, Subud recibe personas que no tienen religión. Así todas estas personas pueden coexistir y experimentar o recibir Subud. Por tanto está claro que Subud no es una religión sino un recibir que surge de más allá de la influencia y el esfuerzo del corazón, la mente y el nafsu.   81 WOS 1

Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo


DEL LIBRO DE MATTHEW SULLIVAN, Living Religion in Subud:

Subud y el Islam

The fact that Bapak was a Muslim has given the great majority of us who are not Muslims a sympathetic feeling towards Islam which we would hardly otherwise have reached. Simply being with Muslims time and again as we practise the latihan has the effect of rinsing away age-old prejudices, and the effect of hostile images of Islam dwelt on in the western media.

Another link has been fasting. A large number of non-Muslims among us have taken part regularly, or for some years, in the annual Ramadhan fast, attempting to follow it the way Bapak often spoke of, with emphasis on inner watchfulness as much as on outer restraint (see page 60). After all, through the ages fasting as a means of inner discipline, cleansing and renewal has been a normal part of religious practice, and Subud is only bringing back, along with some other movements in the church, what has become of value. For my own part, the times of following Ramadhan were an education in the meaning of and the need to practise Lent, which Bapak has said has equal high value with the Muslim fast.

Bapak himself never sought to make converts to Islam, which would have been totally against the spirit of Subud. But, being himself a supreme exemplar of the breadth and depth of Islam, he could not help exerting an influence. Not a few westerners among us, having no roots or education in religion or being put off by the Judaism or Christianity they were brought up with, have embraced Islam, at least as a stage in their religious journey. Some of these converts, it must be said, having received a Muslim name and joined Islam in an elevated state, have found it difficult to follow the requirements of a faith outside their own culture and so have fallen away and reverted to their original names.

But how do those who are firm in Islam, it is asked – and they also ask themselves – stand in relation to the conservative and authoritarian forces which are at present sweeping through Islam on the one hand, and the modernising and westernising tendencies which oppose them on the other.

Those who write in 'Evidences' answer this question in a variety of ways. The Islam to which they bear witness is very different from the popular image prevailing in the West. The issue of human authority is avoided because the practice of the latihan enables Algerian-born Muslim who is also a psychologist suggests that Subud, being outside these conflicts, offers a new model, or paradigm, of change, through which the present divisions might in time be made obsolete.

Bapak and Christianity

Nothing about Bapak has moved me as much as his deep familiarity with my own faith. It was not the Bapak grew up in a society in which Christian missionaries were respected, or at least tolerated, and that when young he had close friends who were Catholics, nor that as a Muslim much of Jewish and Christian scripture were part of his own inheritance. It was far beyond this. Bapak spoke of Jesus more often than of Muhammad and when he did it was often with a freshness and intimacy and considerable inner knowledge, which to a Christian can be both unnerving and revelatory.

In his earliest talks Bapak would refer in the usual Muslim way to nabi, or prophet, Jesus. After a little while in the West he dropped this and, while use nabi for Abraham, Moses and Muhammad, always said simply Jesus or Jesus Christ. On one occasion he spoke of the light that came down into Jesus when he was born and remained with him as a child, adding that this Light was only visible to a few. At once something in me responded: but of course that must have been so! The mystery of the Christmas story suddenly was clarified. Only those who were clear and clean enough in themselves, such as the shepherds on the hillside and the three wise men, could be aware of a glow above and around Jesus. Had I been there, as an intellectual, I certainly would not have seen the light.

When Bapak alluded to Jesus feeding the multitude, the walking on the water or healing of sick and raising the dead, he would give these stories both a deep inner meaning and a psychological content: 'To walk on the water means to overcome and purify human emotions'.

'Be simple like children in order to receive the Truth,' Bapak would say, echoing the words of Jesus that we must be like little children if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. On the physical plane spontaneous movements in the latihan are, indeed, often like those of helpless babies or young children playing, for most of us start at that stage in the development of our inner selves.

Most striking of all is when Bapak spoke of Jesus and of the manner of his death. He points up the fact and reality of the crucifixion and empathises with the suffering on the cross in a way perhaps unprecedented for a Muslim.

Among those who sent in contributions to this book (not all printed here) no fewer than ten Subud members tell of an occasion when they were suddenly aware, in their feelings or visually, of Jesus being near to them or of the presence of Mary beside them. One member, going through a critical moment in his life, describes how he was in his bedroom and was spontaneously brought to his knees in latihan, aware only of a great light.

I sat back on my heels, eyes tight shut but as though open wide. The light dazzled and took the form of some immeasurable mighty presence that towered above me through the roof and into the night sky above. I touched the floor with my forehead, then came a dawning, an unbearable realisation, that I was at the feet of Jesus, there in front of me and within touch. I passed out. When later I told Bapak something of what had taken place, he said, 'You see Jesus when you are truly repentant.'

How can a Christian not feel awe for a Muslim from whom such personal words could come? Yet Bapak never wished us to feel awe towards himself, but only towards the power and source of his mission in the world. Only God may be called great.

The need to practise one's religion

In the last year of his life Bapak spoke more definitely than before about the need to practise a religion, giving two main reasons. If we think that attendance at latihan is enough, he said, this will lead to a feeling of separateness from our fellow men and women. It will also lead to 'a decline in the state of our souls'. Many of those who have found the latihan and the deep fellowship of Subud with, perhaps, a personal closeness to Bapak during his lifetime to be all in all may find this a hard saying. But I wonder if Bapak was not telling the great majority of us to be more in touch with the religious wisdom of the ages, and the whole wide realm of prayer.

At the same time, there are those who have sincerely wished to embrace or return to, say, Christianity but, when they go to church, find the services alien, or bland and routine. They seek in vain a minister or a congregation with whom they can feel comfortable. A few, on going to church, have even found themselves stigmatised as belonging to a cult and have been made to feel unwanted. Many of us, too, who never attend a place of worship are content to express their religious feeling of oneness with humanity by being active in the social field, and in regular private prayer.

Subud es conforme con las principales religiones

Habla Bapak:

"Sin embargo, con la llegada de Subud (aunque Bapak mismo no conoce su significado real pues todo depende de la voluntad de Dios), Dios trabaja dentro de nosotros, de modo que nosotros comenzamos a recibir y a entender la realidad y el valor práctico contenidos en los consejos de estos libros: el Zabur, la Torah, los Evangelios y el Corán. En subud, por tanto, no hay más necesidad de consejos, de teorías, de rituales para la adoración de Dios, pues Dios mismo os guiará en la adoración, de la misma manera que para llevar la vida correcta en este mundo y en el venidero.

"Así que Subud no es otra religión sino que es lo que Dios quiere para nosotros para la reazlización de lo que está contenido en las diversas religiones. Para aquellos de vosotros que seas cristianos, una vez hayais recibido lo suficiente en Subud, el cristianismo se hará realmente cierto porque vereis la clara prueba de su verdad y os hareis realmente cristianos. E igualmente aquellos entre vosotros que seguís el islam os convertireis en verdaderos musulmanes, y no uno de esos de los que se dice: 'musulmán ayer pero no mañana' o 'musulmán mañana pero no pasado'.

"Esa es la evidencia que Bapak ha escuchado de todo tipo de personas: desde cristianos, por ejemplo, que lo que ellos recibeny practican en Subud confirma sus creencias, de modo que Subud está totalmente de acuerdo con el cristianismo. Lo mismo ocurre con la religión de Moisés y Abraham: sus seguidores dicen que Subud está totalmente de acuerdo con lo que ellos han comprendido en sus libros. Y lo mismo dicen los musulmanes: que Subud está verdaderamente de acuerdo con lo que se encuentra en el Corán. De modo que Subud es verdaderamente adoración del hombre a Dios, lo que llega y comienza a actuar por la voluntad de Dios en el momento en que nuestros corazones, deseos y pensamientos detienen su actividad."