The revitalization of the SICA-USA website is a slow and ongoing process, but there are rewards when communication is open and respectful and our recent postings have resulted in good content regarding culture from a Subud perspective. Rashad Pollard responded to our recent questionnaire (which is still open for those who have yet to chime in) with:
Hi, Paul:
I have filled out the questionnaire. However I have some more to add. Before the World Congress in Freiburg I was asked to join a team to look at what Bapak’s Guidance was for our Association and its Affiliates/Wings. I thought it might be interesting to send you the attached document concerning the inputs about SICA. This has been shared with Rusydah as far as I know. Of course it is not our job to advise anyone what to do, only to address the issue of what Bapak’s advice and guidance was! With my very best wishes, Rashad
A PROPOSAL CONCERNING SICA for discussion and debate
Prepared by The Bapak’s Guidance Task Force.
DRAFT January 30, 2019
- Bapak’s Guidance Task Force
The WSA Executive established the Bapak’s Advice and Guidance Task Force in 2017 as part of the preparatory work for the World Congress in Freiburg. The Task Force was asked to continue after the Congress to provide inputs and support to considerations of policy for our Association and its Affiliates.
The overall objective of the Task Force was to appraise to what extent the recommendations and guidance that Bapak gave us through his talks, and through the policies enacted at the World Congresses he guided, had been achieved and/or implemented, and how much had they been changed at subsequent Congresses since Bapak’s passing.
The Task Force is headed by Georges Ivanoff who was, at that time, the Committee Counsellor for Subud France, with Rashad Pollard. Documents reviewed included a paper on Bapak’s advice & guidance that had been written by Rashad Pollard; a comparative review of all World Congress recommendations and resolutions while Bapak was with us (seven Congresses) and after he left us (also seven Congresses) as well as relevant talks of both Bapak and Ibu Rahayu, and ISC/WSA/WSC reports. The Task Force also included inputs from numerous members: International Helpers; Zone Representatives, and Congress Delegates.
- Notes and Inputs Concerning SICA
The Task Force made a very brief summary of the policy decisions regarding all the Affiliates/ Wings before the World Congress. The report concerning SICA was as follows:
SICA – Bapak gave many talks about culture and its importance but was not particularly clear about what an Affiliate that was expressly set up concerning culture (apart from simply expressing it) would undertake as part of its activities that Subud would fund. On this issue it is worth reporting that Hartati Horthy when she was involved with SICA reported that Bapak had advised her that the work of Susila Dharma was to rectify the mistakes of the past; that of SICA to show the way to the future. When pressed to suggest a particular project that SICA might undertake she reported that Bapak responded by saying that Bapak knew that in California, for example, there are many Subud members who are quite successful in the arts – in the culture of film and music. Some of them are quite wealthy it seems. Bapak also realizes that being in this cultural world of film and the arts in California is quite difficult and has very serious problems and risks for Subud members concerning morality and so forth. Therefore, perhaps these wealthier Subud members could join together and really find ways to give services and help those brothers and sisters in these professions that need support and guidance. Perhaps they could even start a university that would not just show people how to undertake arts but also the meaning of the nobility of true human beings and thus change the culture in California! WSA might consider whether this kind of actual project to support a need of the Subud membership is appropriate for SICA to consider.
- More detailed inputs for support to a clearer focus for the work of SICA.
- Scale and scope
Bapak himself expanded the original proposal for SICA from “arts” to the whole of culture but he never formally proposed what kinds of projects SICA (meaning the whole of Subud) would implement, as far as our research could find, aside from the comment made to Hartati Horthy above. This gave progressive Chairs and members of SICA such a broad platform that it completely overwhelmed any realistic probabilities for defining what projects, specifically, SICA should fund or the realities of the limitations of funding. To try to resolve this issue the Task Force found that, in respect to Bapak’s very clear statements concerning the kinds of projects that should be funded by SESI, SDIA and SYA and how the relative Affiliates/ Wings should relate to the Association as a whole we might start there in our contribution to better defining the work of SICA.
- Relationships with Subud Committees and the Wings
All references that Bapak made concerning the aims and purposes of the Affiliates and Wings to the Subud organization were quite clear. They were tasked with providing technical support to projects initiated by our Subud Committees aimed at meeting clearly defined projects and programs of the Association. It was never considered that the Affiliates and Wings would operate projects and programs independently of the Association’s work that is, of course, meaning projects implemented by Subud Committees.
Very often when Bapak travelled round the world and visited Subud Groups the Task Force noted his most common comment was that Bapak was quite pleased with the latihans that he had observed but, at the same time, when it came to putting that latihan into practice in communal ways (as part of the work of the Association) then the group seemed to be asleep! What to do? Well, we need to bring the membership together so that the life of the Center (and the Country) will awaken and become active not just to do latihan together but to work together — in addition to the work we each did on our own account, to look after our own needs.
So, those members in business should come together to establish enterprises because, otherwise, the purpose for Subud in the world could never be adequately financed. Meanwhile as regards social projects, these were defined, specifically, as services provided by technical specialists who were also helpers, to establish schools for our Subud children, notably those with special needs; homes to care for the Subud elderly also with special needs (including access to latihans), as well as projects to support Subud members facing financial, health or social hardships.
So, the question made to Bapak was, how can our Committees arrange such things? An obvious problem was that we did not know who was a specialist, so how could they decide what to do?
Bapak’s response, given in many talks, and as policy decisions at Congresses was to establish specialist groups of members and then each specialist group would become a Wing (later an Affiliate) of the Association. Their primary task was to provide technical experts to any Center or Country Committee that needed them from databases of experts that each would create. This would ensure that projects were well chosen (in accordance with the skills available); were well managed, and properly overseen (on behalf of the Association).
Now, it must be pointed out that while this system worked reasonably well while Bapak was with us – schools for children with educational needs and a home for the elderly were very quickly established by Subud members in the UK in early days, over the years and from one World Congress to the next World Congress the remit of our Subud Committees to focus on creating projects fell away (they fell asleep as Bapak stated) and the Affiliates and Wings no longer imagined that they were actually supporting projects to be initiated by Subud Committees on behalf of the membership. They shifted to the idea that their task was to help individual members to start projects directly without any reference to any Subud Committee or to the Association itself. In this way the activities of the Affiliates/ Wings lost contact with the Association itself.
This is very clearly a remit of all the Wings and Affiliates at this time, including the stated work and objectives of SICA. This remit was reconfirmed by the delegates at the Freiburg World Congress, as follows, as a matter of approved policy:
It is also worth noting that the policy of our Association can, in legal terms, only be made by the delegates at Congress. But, in reality what has happened is the policy has gradually shifted and changed over time. However the policy as regards Subud Committees (Centers and National Bodies) engaging in outer works was clarified at the Congress in Freiburg through the delegates unanimously passing the following:
“In order to broaden the life of Subud Centers and countries, and the work of Subud as an institution in the world, as mandated by the first Subud World Congress and reconfirmed at Wolfsburg, New Zealand and Puebla; it is resolved that the original remit of Subud committees on all levels of our association, that they facilitate the development of social, cultural and profit-making public enterprises is confirmed”
It is not, of course the job of the Bapak’s Guidance Task Force to suggest that present activities or policies be changed but our Task is to define the policies that existed when Bapak was with us to see if the Association can make use of these inputs to reconfirm or change existing practices.
- A realistic focus for SICA
- Form a small Task Force to consider a clear policy statement for SICA and how it may support Center and National Committees to implement projects relating to culture in their Centers and Countries.
- The Bapak’s Task Force suggests a process whereby they may best understand what the needs are, within the Association, that they may provide services to, and what those services might be as follows:
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- SICA begins the process, through National bodies, to register all members of Subud who are involved in any subject or profession associated with the broad topic of “culture”. These lists of experts or interested parties would be listed by type of interest and willingness to engage in collective activities with other Subud members either as a social activity or as a specific project that may need financing. At the same time the list enumerates those members who may have an ability to help finance projects. In these ways, where the whole Center supports a SICA project there are more opportunities for the latihan and the Grace of Almighty God to influence the work. This is why Bapak called us to collaborate and work together. So, whatever is done under the name of SICA is done by a Subud Center or a National, Zonal or International part of our Association and not by SICA trying to support individual members themselves, directly. In this way, too, the actual role of SICA will evolve and mature as time goes by.
- The lists of members who wish to be associated with SICA would be established by Subud Center and by Country. SICA then supports national bodies to motivate each Center to bring together those members in any Center to meet together; do a specific latihan together and consider what they would like to do together to initiate programs or projects that can then be supported by their National level, that is supported by the international level (also through bringing together experts within each Zone to plan Zonal projects). It is noted that when Bapak suggested that the Californian members should come together, that not a few of them had established their own non-profit activities to help various social causes relating to people in the arts field. Why not suggest that they expand their social work by involving more volunteers and by involving their own Subud Center, formally, in supporting these projects? It thus becomes a Subud project, that is sponsored and supported by Subud and its structure. Why not even ask a member who wishes to start a project or get better training to be “sponsored” by their local Center? Why not turn the local Center into a formal place for the arts to flourish (Amadeus Center in London is a good example, or into an art gallery and make some income from it?) In this way the work of SICA is clear and is integrated into the work of the Association.
- It is worth adding that when Bapak was asked whether SYA should establish itself as a kind of club for our youth Bapak’s response was that this was OK but the primary role of SYA was to provide services to youth that had special needs. Following this there is every good reason to suggest that SICA continue to regard itself as a platform and forum for members engaged in the arts or culture in any way, as well, within the limits of their budget and their remit to serve the needs of members (particularly those with special needs) through their Centers as described here.
- It may also be considered that as each Affiliate/ Wing is asked to collaborate with each other then all the Affiliates/ Wings might establish (according to the original policy) similar processes for creating Subud projects on all levels of our Association in consultation with each other.
The idea that someone who plays a musical instrument or performs from their nafsu is culture is not what Bapak tried to clarify for us. When he tested Paula Mason in Hoboken he asked her to dance from her jiwa and then explained to her that if she would have done that after she was opened, she would have become world famous. But since she did not do that it was too late for her now. So unless we actually perform our talent from our jiwa, we are missing the point of what SICA really is. In my understanding, this is what SICA-USA needs to be discussing and passing on to the members in the USA. I would be willing to participate if that was the direction that SICA was willing to take.
Muhammad Isman Kanafsky
Dear Brother Isman, there was a huge amount of work your Brothers did in Germany, gathering some of the brightest Subud members in the world. Surely you have a comment about their findings?
Paul, what seems to be lacking is actual experience in writing and performing from the jiwa. When I sang for Bapak in 1971, the songs that I had been receiving, I had the thought,”Am I doing it right?” and Bapak opened his eyes , smiled and nodded and said, “Ya, Ya.” So it was really then that I understood about my cultural receivings. So it sounds to me that we are still trying to understand what Bapak meant when he set up SICA. He said that in the future Subud performers would open the whole audience when they performed. The world will be shocked. But it seems that we have not yet reached that point. If you would like me to participate in any way, I am willing to do that. Last night in latihan, I was made to say SICA, CULTURE, more than once and this morning I found your email. When I was SICA-USA chair I started doing SICA workshops and if the board would like, I am willing to do those again or to participate in any other way also.
Praise be to the One Almighty God. Amin!
The emphasis on following guidelines set down by Bapak worries me. It worries me, not because of any doubt about Bapak’s receiving, but because it can lead to a kind of dogmatic approach to all the work that we do and a guilty feeling that we aren’t using our Jiwa in our work, our art, our friendships and family relationships.
But that thinking is kind of backwards. As I understand it, it is the Jiwa that seeks to use our material selves for its proper expression in the world. The problem is not that we don’t use the Jiwa properly or that we don’t follow Bapak’s guidance: it is that we do not receive clearly enough to allow the Jiwa free expression (free from influence of the Nafsu).
As for “culture,” in English the word culture does not necessarily refer to the arts alone. What it does, always, refer to is the way a community of people interact to create a recognizable expression. We call the expression of the community, culture. In Subud we are concerned with our own, individual Jiwa, but, on a larger scale, with the Jiwa of the community, the nation, the people, etc..
Alas! there is no rule book, there are no guidelines that will free the Jiwa from the Nafsu prison so that we can act in the world as spiritual beings and use the Nafsu, rather than being used by them. That is why we have the latihan, which doesn’t operate on a a set of rules, but from the guidance of God. Tolstoy’s famous question, “What then shall we do?” is a hard one. We don’t want to just go passive and wait for God to move us. Mostly, we try to act in the world, we get things wrong, we go back to the latihan and adjust. This is the learning process. This willingness to get things wrong is, I believe, essential in order for the Jiwa to come forth.
“The emphasis on following guidelines set down by Bapak worries me.” Agreed. This is why I was so excited to see what was determined at the last World Congress in Germany. I would love for folks to comment about specifics from that, admittedly long, document which is the focus of this post. Grateful for your participation.
There is a lot of very good information here. But the writing is a bit florid. Perhaps it could be simplified or streamlined for presentation to the Subud membership at large. For instance, the word remit. I can figure out what it means in usage in these paragraphs but it isn’t commonly used here. As ,”and their remit to serve the needs of members”. This is good information but I’m only guessing what it means. Thank you for your work on this. We really do need some big changes in Subud but there are till so many members struggling with their daily lives. It is fabulous that you are giving time to this.
Deanna, thank you for reading and commenting. I joined SICA’s board in November and so inherited a website that has a lot of useful information and a lot that needs updating. When referring to a particular part of the site, if you could include a url, that will lead me directly to the place I need to look to determine if this is serving our best and highest use right now. 1,000 thanks.
If you are saying the use of the word “remit” is in the Freiburg report, I can only say that it was not written by SICA-USA’s board and would urge you to contact Rashad Pollard.
This was written by the UK delegation at Congress as a Resolution, not by me! I guess they were writing from their own inner culture!! Rashad
Brother Isman, I am grateful for your participation. SICA-USA is conducting a survey of membership and plan to end it and report on what members are saying about the current state of SICA-USA. Your efforts to gain 501(c)(3) status and other organizational developments is to be appreciated. Thank you. We are working with Subud USA to have a members/visioning meeting at the National Gathering in Albuquerque this summer and would appreciate your attendance. I do see signs that little culture on this continent, addled by dominance of the material life force, is from the jiwa. I also think that art and culture coming from younger members and sourced in the jiwa may surprise older members and I think we should do our best to be open to those gestures and to help support them. When we do this, I think we’ll see similar kinds of developments with Subud membership and demographics which have been the source of much dialog. Yours in Subud.
It makes me so happy that so many are working together to get a deeper understanding of each of our roles in fulfilling our talents in SICA and the other wings as directed by Bapak. Thank you all for your efforts in this direction.
Thanks for chiming in Camille.
I will try to attend the SICA meeting at the Congress.
I find myself drawn to the reference of Bapak’s comment that ‘the work of Susila Dharma was to rectify the mistakes of the past; that of SICA to show the way to the future’. I have a feeling about what this means. I liked what Cassidy wrote and wonder if we can talk about Tolstoy’s question, “What then shall we do?”
It can be easy to see the mistakes of the past but it is not so easy to fix them. It can be hard to come up with a collective idea of “showing the way to the future”, but maybe we can help individuals find their own path to the future and then support them when they do.
I should add that I think SICA should include any creative activity including the sciences and technologies. For example I think we are discovering that other species on the planet have something close to what we would call culture. How does understanding their culture change ours?
One final thought is to mention one of the themes talked about by Ibu at the last world congress. She referenced Bapak’s talk about the 4 steps, Zat, sifat, sama and af’al. You can find this on the Subud library 71 TJD 15. I find understanding this personally helps me with the question “What then shall we do?”
These are my individual and personal thoughts.
With love.
Many thanks to my brothers and sisters for sharing and working to stay in reality. An animal knows it’s culture, but a tiger needs the proper environment to practice that in. The coming together in our groups to make a better environment may be extremely crucial . The analogy from Bapak is to simply continue letting the tiger stay inside a house with a bowl of milk put out for it. I didn’t see the reality early enough. But by coming together in our groups this may change if we work for it rightly and keep to reality that is in our receiving and to self discipline, particularly when things begin well or go well.
David Mc
I just returned from 6 trio concerts in 7 days in the Bay Area in various venues including some retirement homes, and I’m feeling gratified and exhausted. I am also encouraged by the dialogue here. With love from Hamilton Cheifetz