Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Those of us that usually open your eastside latihan facilities will all be at the World Subud Congress during the latihan dates of July 27th, August 3rd and 10th.  We know of no other person willing to take the key and open/close the facilities for those 3 dates.

As a result there will be no facilities available for latihan on the eastside until August 17th.

Latihans will continue in Seattle on their normal schedule.

Thanks, Oswald Norton
Subud Eastside Helper

We have just learned that Ibu Rahayu will attend the upcoming World Congress in Freiburg. This will be a wonderful opportunity to be with Ibu Rahayu in person.

Please spread the word to others.

For information and updates regarding World Congress, please visit: www.subudworldcongress.org

Just a few days to the start of the 2018 Subud World Congress!
The 2018 Subud World Congress in Freiburg, Germany, begins July 28 and runs until August 8. If you plan to attend Congress but have not registered and paid, please hurry up and do so, and make your travel plans. It’s not too late!

When my wife and I lived in San Francisco, Husein Rofé would come to visit the group and we’d go out and have dinner together.  He was such a gentle and interesting man and we made a connection. Because of that, every time he was coming into town we’d get together and he’d share stories of his life.

Sharif and Astuti Horthy have just published his autobiography, “Veil of Light”, through their Purple Pagoda Press.  They describe the book this way.

“In 1951 he arrives in Central Java, in newly independent Indonesia. Here he discovers an unknown spiritual practice called Subud, a transformative experience that is passed from person to person without any teaching involved. He becomes convinced of its universal significance and feels called to make it better known. Through a series of adventures and uncanny coincidences, he succeeds in bringing it to the attention of seekers in the West.”

To learn more about Husein and the story of the early days of Subud, please visit their site  where you can purchase a copy.

Also available there is the memoir of Sharif’s mother, Countess Ilona Edelsheim Gyulai, titled “Honour and Duty”.

Friday night after the Eastside latihan Oswald, Marston and Hadidjah brought goodies to share!  We sat in a circle and shared our various memories and experiences of Bapak.  It was a very nice evening and it was good to be reminded of what Bapak has brought us and how important is the gift of the latihan!  Danella mentioned she had shared some of her experiences in ‘Subud Reminders’, a web site with many Subud members shared experiences.

Bapak

See it here: http://remindersofreality.weebly.com/index.html

Photo of Bapak by Sim’on Cherpitel

The countdown to our 15th Subud World Congress is on!

Over 2000 Subud sisters and brothers from 69 countries around the world have registered for the World Congress. As of now, we are only 200 paying registrations away from our break even! This HAS helped us to keep the registration fee at €390 until the end of June. (the registration fee was supposed to go up to €450 ON the 15th of June already).
We are well aware that we in Subud love to decide at the last moment; never-the-less it would support the congress organizing team a lot if you register as soon as possible.

To register please go to www.subudworldcongress.org/registration

For on-going news updates, please visit: www.subudworldcongress.org

If you should have difficulties finding affordable accommodation, we still have
some beds left at the Old Town Hall! You just have to pay €180 for 13 days and €50 more for breakfast. Contact: viktor.boehm.wcot2018@subud.org.

Please click here to get a sense of the numbers involved in this World Congress!

Lucinda and I had excellent experiences at the national congress.

The Latihans were great for both of us, I suspect in no small part due to being during Ramadan.  Hadijah O’Bar is the new SPNW chair!  We will miss her as a helper, but our feeling is that her presence and experience will serve the region very well.
Another highlight for me was attending Isman Kanafsky’s session on Latihan in daily life.  I’ve been working on it ever since!  He shared some printed materials-here is a truncated excerpt from Bapak’s talk November 29, 1977, “If we want to experience the possibility of improving our being – that is, returning our being to its original state, to clean it out again – we have to receive the latihan every moment, every second, as Bapak showed with his pulse.  Every second, every heartbeat, we have to experience the latihan.”

It was great to reconnect with Subud brothers and sisters from throughout the country-and meet new ones.  Entertainment night was excellent with really great poetry, piano playing, guitar playing, and singing-plus a dance piece.

I left the congress feeling reinvigorated and reinspired!

Jim

Marston Gregory

My experience is that World Congresses are often life changing Subud events and so I have been moved to help our recently opened brother, Aarkarsh Gotthumukkala who is off at graduate school in Maryland and as with all students short of funds.  

I offered to do what I could to help him go including putting his airfare on a credit card.  

The next step is registration, food and lodging.

He has offered to work in the Childcare area so he certainly will be earning his keep…so to speak.  He has tutored young students in Math and is a Math wiz. He does latihan with the Washington D.C. group when there at college.  

I have set up a GoFundMe account to collect funds for his travel costs.

Please just click on this link to donate:  gf.me/u/iiym5d 

Thanks for any support you might give.

Sincerely,

Marston Gregory

Dear Subud PNW Members,

This coming Friday we will be selecting our new committee and regional helper teams.  I thought it would be good to reflect on where we are right now and where we might be able to go.

 We are financially sound

We have put aside money in our housing fund and in our reserve account so that we currently have the ability to take care of our financial needs.

 We have held a regular annual kedjiwan event for over 25 years

For over 25 years the Pacific Northwest Region has hosted a kedjiwan gathering at the Menucha Conference Center east of Portland. Organized by the regional helpers, this event has served thousands of Subud members in and outside of our region.

We have three centers we own

Our Portland, Bellingham/Skagit Valley and Seattle centers have buildings we use as places for the latihan, enterprise and hosting events throughout the year.  These centers, assets created through the hard work and dedication of the members of these areas, are important in showing new members that we are able to work together to achieve something.

We have four other groups who meet for regular latihans

In Boise, ID, Spokane, WA, Flathead Valley, MT and Eugene, OR we have members who meet on a regular basis to continue their practice of the latihan.

We have regular monthly latihans two times a month

Due to the efforts of your regional helpers and a member who has regularly emailed the announcements and taken care of our phone-in system, we are able to offer regularly scheduled regional latihans for isolated members who are not near a group.

We have a regional website where we tell our stories and make announcements

During this term your committee, with the help of Paul Nelson, we created our new regional website.  We have used the site to publish regional board minutes, tell each other stories and announce upcoming events.  The power of this website is that, with MailChimp technology a regional newsletter is created and sent to every member of Subud PNW with the news of the week.

We have men and women interested in joining Subud

Recently, in Seattle and Portland, we have begun to have a new group of mostly young men and women coming to find out about Subud and getting opened.

How much time does it take?

I did a brief survey of your regional committee and helpers on the time they spent doing this work for you.  Those details are below.  Please review and consider: Are you willing to add your time and efforts to help Subud grow?

Are you willing to help Subud grow?

Both at our annual Kedjiwan event at the Menucha Retreat Center and in local meetings, I’ve heard the phrase: “We’re shrinking.  What can we do about it?”  If you will be willing to be a part of the many hands it takes to keep Subud growing by volunteering regionally or locally, we’ll find out together.

With Love and anticipation of a great Regional Congress,
Oswald Norton
Regional Helper

Time spent in Committee Work

Time Spent In Regional Helper Work