WHAT IS SUBUD

CHAN RASJID KAH CHEW

9 July 2020

[NOTE : 中文翻译, With Chinese translation, 21 Feb 2024]

The word ‘SUBUD’ is an acronym for the Sanskrit words ‘Susila’,

‘Budhi’ and ‘Dharma’. The three words together may be translated

to mean ‘right living following the inner self of man’. Subud is not

a new religion. It is a spiritual movement started in Indonesia in

the 1930s by a Javanese Muslim Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwid-

joyo (1901 - 1987). The followers of Subud address the founder as

‘Bapak’, an Indonesian word that translates literally as ‘father’ but

is used as a manner of address to any elderly male. The basis of

Subud is the practice of the ‘latihan kedjiwaan’ or spiritual exercise

of Subud. Hussein Rofe, an English Jewish Muslim convert, arrived

in Indonesia in 1950 in his search for a spiritual master. He came

to hear about Subud and eventually became the ﬁrst Westerner to

be opened in Subud. In 1954 he visited Hong Kong and Japan. He

started the ﬁrst Subud group in Japan, the ﬁrst outside of Indonesia.

He then started a group in Hong Kong, then Cyprus. It is to the credit

of Hussein Rofe that Subud was introduced to the West. At present,

there are international Subud centers in most countries in the world,

the notable exceptions being China, Taiwan and South Korea.

Bapak described how he came to receive the latihan kedjiwaan of

Subud. In 1925 - as a young man of 24 - he was having a late night

walk about the neighborhood near a construction site. Suddenly, a

very bright ball of ﬁre appeared above him in the sky and it descended

and enveloped him. Very quickly, he headed home and laid down

in his bed, probably expecting to die; he did not die. Instead he

was made to rise and go to his study room, did the Muslim prayer

ritual and then was made to return to bed. He was surprised at what

happened as it happened without his intention; there was an inner

force which led him do what he did. Bapak described how for the

next thousand nights, such involuntary exercises would come to him.

They may come as physical movements, dances, speaking in different

tongues or singing in hymns and others.

Bapak later received that what he received is to be made available

to anyone who ask to receive it. Bapak explained that the Subud exer-

cise is ﬁrstly a spiritual puriﬁcation, but a process that comes directly

from the power of God free of the will or intent of man. In Subud, the

direction or path of puriﬁcation may not be easily understood by the

WHAT IS SUBUD 2

person undergoing the process. Traditionally in the past, the method

of man towards spiritual progress is through an effort of the will,

usually accompanied by some forms of ascetic practices; the practi-

tioner too usually has an aim that he works towards. In the case of

the Subud latihan, a person has no particular spiritual result towards

which he aims for - except ‘right living’ in accord with the true self of

man. Bapak explained that man in general cannot aim to purify his

inner-self through his own will power; the will of man comes from the

lower forces of life and man will not be able to achieve such spiritual

progress through will power. Only the power of God may purify the

inner-self of man in order that he could ﬁnally live rightly in accord

to his true self.

Puriﬁcation is a necessary step towards the advancement of the

inner-self of man, towards the soul following its true destiny accord-

ing to the Will of God. Spiritual puriﬁcation generally brings about

marked changes in a person, especially in his habits and physical

health. In the course of spiritual puriﬁcation, the person may some-

times receive ‘spiritual’ experiences. There was even a story of how

one person - for a period of time - began to understand the speech

of fowls. So he bought some chickens and have them running about

his place. To while away time, he would just sit around and listen in

to the fowl talks. A friend of his found out and asked: "What do the

chickens usually talk about?". He answered: "It is food and sex and

sex and food".

Bapak explained that the latihan kedjiwaan is an exercise that comes

as a result of a person’s willing to surrender to God - surrendering his

heart and mind. In a state of surrender, the person would receive a

vibration of the power of God within his being; it is this direct contact

with the power of God that cause the inner movement giving rise to

the outer observable manifestation of the latihan kedjiwaan. Bapak

at times did compare Subud to the receiving of the Holy Spirit as with

the early Christians. Bapak said the coming of Subud ﬁts the present

time as man cannot nowadays believe in God. Man’s mind has be-

come very strong and it is usually a very strong mind that cuts off a

man’s willingness to surrender to God. Bapak said that mankind to-

day may only be brought back to God only through evidence - words

alone would be of little help. The Subud latihan is the evidence that

God has given to mankind that He exists. In the present age - es-

pecially in our internet age - there is never any lacking of talks and

teachings. You could easily ﬁnd people all over the world giving talks

about how God exists and why man should believe, etc. But because

of the very strong mind of man, explanations through words alone

seems insufﬁcient to convince the more cerebral among men about

WHAT IS SUBUD 3

the existence of God. If a man is willing, he could receive and expe-

rience the working of the power of God within his being - the very

evidence that the power of God exists.

After Bapak received his thousand nights of training, he was able

to pass the exercise to others who are willing to receive it. The only

precondition is that a person is willing to surrender to God. There

is something called the ‘opening’ in Subud; it is the initiation of a

person into Subud. After the opening, a member would join the group

latihan which consists of a half-hourly session, twice a week done in

an empty room. Men and women exercise separately. After a person

has been opened in Subud, a person too may be able to pass on the

Subud contact to others - that is, to initiate others into the Subud

latihan. Though any Subud member may open others, it is not done

this way. In the early days, Bapak would appoint some members as

helpers and the opening would be initiated through these helpers.

Nowadays - as Bapak has left the world - helpers are appointed in

some manner by the international Subud organization.

Although Subud has spread to most countries of the world, it is

still a relatively small and unknown movement. Bapak did not al-

low proselytizing. We could only talk about Subud to people who are

willing to listen or when people themselves come to ask for explana-

tions about Subud. Hopefully, if more people in the world practice

the Subud latihan, it may bring down the heat within men which is

the real cause of the very many problems currently facing mankind.

1. 什么是苏布道

单词“SUBUD” 是梵语单词“Susila”、“Budhi”和“Dharma”

的首字母缩写。这三个词合在一起可以翻译为“ 跟随人的内在自我

正确生活” 。苏布道不是一个新的宗教。这是20世纪30年代由爪哇

穆斯林穆罕默德·苏布赫·苏莫哈迪维乔约（1901-1987）在印度尼

西亚发起的一场神运动。苏布的追随者将创始人称为“Bapak” ，这

是一个印尼语单词，字面意思是“ 父亲” ，但被用作对任何老年男

性的称呼。苏布的基础是实践 “latihan kedjiwan” 或苏布道的神锻

炼。侯赛因·罗夫（Hussein Rofe）是一名英国犹太穆斯林皈依者，

他于1950年抵达印度尼西亚寻找神导师。他开始听说苏布，并最终

成为第一个在苏布道开业。1954年，他访问了香港和日本。他在日

本创办了第一个苏布集团，也是印尼以外的第一个集团。然后他在

香港成立了一个小组，然后在塞浦路斯。苏布道被引入西方是侯赛

因·罗夫的功劳。目前，除了中国、台湾和韩国，世界上大多数国

家都有国际苏布中心。巴帕克（Bapak）描述了他是如何来接收苏布

法的拉蒂汉·吉瓦恩（Latihan Kedjiwaan）的。1925年，24岁的他

深夜在一个建筑工地附近的社区散步。突然，一个非常明亮的火球出

现在他头顶的天空中，它下降并包围了他。他很快就回家，躺在床

上，可能是在等着死；他没有死。相反，他不由自主地站起来，走进

书房，做了穆斯林祈祷仪式，然后被迫回到床上。他对所发生的事情

WHAT IS SUBUD 4

感到惊讶，因为这是他无意中发生的；有一种内在的力量引导他做他

所做的事。巴帕克描述了在接下来的一千个夜晚里，他是如何不由自

主地进行这种锻炼的。它们可以是身体动作、舞蹈、说话用不同的语

言或唱赞美诗等。

巴帕克后来明白，他所得到的应该提供给任何要求接受的人。巴帕

克解释说，苏布练习首先是一种神净化，但这是一个直接来自神力量

的过程，不受人的意志或意图的约束。在苏布，净化的方向或路径可

能不容易被接受这个过程的人理解。在过去，传统上，人类神进步的

方法是通过意志的努力，通常伴随着一些形式的苦行；从业者通常也

有自己努力的目标。在苏布练习的案例中，一个人没有他所追求的特

定神结果，除了与人的真实自我相一致的“正确生活”。巴帕克解释

说，人一般不能通过自己的意志力来净化内心的自我；人的意志来自

于生命的下层力量，人不可能通过意志力实现这种神进步。只有神的

力量才能净化人的内在自我，使他最终能够按照真实的自我正确地生

活。

净化是人内在自我进步的必要步骤，是灵魂按照神的意志遵循其真

实命运的必要步骤。神净化通常会给一个人带来显著的变化，尤其是

在他的习惯和身体健康方面。在神净化的过程中，一个人有时可能会

获得“神”体验。甚至还有一个故事，讲的是一个人如何在一段时间

内开始理解鸟类的语言。所以他买了一些鸡，让它们在他的住处到处

乱跑。为了打发时间，他就坐在那里听家禽说话。他的一个朋友发现

后问道：“ 鸡通常都在说什么？” 。他回答说：“食和性，性和食

”。

巴帕克解释说，苏布练习是一种锻炼，是一个人愿意向神屈服的结

果——交出他的心和思想。在一种屈服的状态下，这个人会在他的存

在中受到神力量的振动；正是这种与神力量的直接接触，导致了内在

运动，从而产生了拉提汉·凯吉万的外在可观察的表现。巴帕克有时

确实把苏布比作接受圣灵，就像早期的基督徒一样。巴帕克说，苏布

道的到来符合现在的时代，因为现在的人不能相信神。人的心智已经

变得非常强大，通常是一个非常强大的心智切断了一个人向神投降的

意愿。巴帕克说，今天的人类可能只有通过证据才能回到神身边——

光靠语言讲道是没有什么帮助的。苏布道是神给人类的证据，证明了

神是存在的。在当今时代，尤其是在我们的互联网时代，从来都不缺

少用言语的教导。你很容易发现世界各地的人都在谈论神是如何存在

的，以及为什么人应该相信神等等。但由于人类的思维非常强大，仅

靠言语的解释似乎不足以说服那些更理智的人相信神的存在。如果一

个人愿意，他可以在自己的存在中接受并体验神的力量——这正是神

力量存在的证据。

在巴帕克接受了他的千夜训练后，他能够将训练传递给其他愿意接

受的人。唯一的前提是一个人愿意向神屈服。在苏布有一个入会练

习，让一个人进入苏布。入会后，一名成员将加入训练小组，该小组

由每半小时一次的会议组成，每周两次，在一个空房间里进行。男性

和女性分别锻炼。在一个人被引导进入苏布之后，一个人也可以将苏

布联系传递给其他人——也就是说，引导其他人进入苏布锻炼。尽管

任何一个苏布成员都可以发起其他人，但不是这样做的。在早期，巴

WHAT IS SUBUD 5

帕克会任命一些成员作为助手，并通过这些助手进行入会。如今，随

着巴帕克离开世界，国际苏德组织以某种方式任命了助手。

在巴帕克接受了他的千夜训练后，他能够将训练传递给其他愿意接

受的人。唯一的前提是一个人愿意向神屈服。在苏布有一个入会练

习，让一个人进入苏布。入会后，一名成员将加入训练小组，该小组

由每半小时一次的会议组成，每周两次，在一个空房间里进行。男性

和女性分别锻炼。在一个人被引导进入苏布之后，一个人也可以将苏

布联系传递给其他人——也就是说，引导其他人进入苏布锻炼。尽管

任何一个苏布成员都可以发起其他人，但不是这样做的。在早期，巴

帕克会任命一些成员作为助手，并通过这些助手进行入会。如今，随

着巴帕克离开世界，国际苏布组织以某种方式任命了助手。

尽管苏布德运动已经传播到世界上大多数国家，但它仍然是一个相

对较小且不为人知的运动。巴帕克不允许传教。我们只能向愿意倾听

的人谈论苏布，或者当人们自己来要求解释苏布时。希望，如果世界

上有更多的人练习苏布锻炼，它可以降低人类内部的热度，这是人类

目前面临的许多问题的真正原因。

REFERENCES

[1] Prio Hartono. Inner Wisdom. http://www.undiscoveredworldspress.com/

[2] Link. Undiscovered Worlds Press. http://undiscoveredworldspress.com/

[3] Link. Reminders Of Reality. http://remindersofreality.weebly.com/

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