Volume 6, Issue 1, page 13

dEa
EdmiTio t'
"We've been to New York and
spent about ten days in the
company of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett and it has been a most
unusual experience. From my own
experience, and from my observation of others, there seems
no doubt at all that something
very definite occurs when the
'contact' is received. Talked
to a lot of people who, like
ourselves, had only recently
received this, and with them
all, it was a similar story --
' something' had happened , and
they knew for sure that it had
happened, but it was most difficult to describe.
"And so it is in my own
case -- I know something has begun and that something now goes
on -- but I find it difficult if
not impossible to tell about
it. Subud is certainly not a
teaching nor a creed, as there
is nothing to learn or believe
in, nor any leader to follow --
there is only a process to
start, and then to continue. I
think, in the beginning, it is
like planting a seed in the
ground -- we know it is lying
there quietly (altho we can't
see it or examine it) and germinating -- after it germinates,
it will put out little roots,
and after that (and only after
that) it will send out a shoot
thru the soil, into the light.
Even yet it will hardly be
distinguishable from other
little shoots, and it is only
after it has grown somewhat
that it becomes possible for
anyone to know just what sort
of a plant it is destined to
become.
"There is certainly nothing
dramatic about it -- one simply
stands quietly, with the others, and receives this contact
-- or, as it is also called, is
'opened'. In a previous issue
APRIL, 1959
of The ABERREE it was mention- They guarantee to 'get you fined that anyone who has been to print'. Who could ask f9r
'opened' could be readily dis- more? " -- Dr. James Clark, Daltinguished from a person who beattie, Scotland.
hasn't, and with this I must (ED. NOTE -- Well, you're "in
disagree. There seems to be print " -- and it didn 't take you
little apparent change at first five years nor cost you $50,
-- after all, unless we mark either. To repeat, "Who could
the rows of planting in the ask for more ? " 1
garden, who is to know where
4
the seeds lie until they stick "I have never read Hiram A.
their little noses up thru the Cromwell's 'Escape This World
ground? (sic) Alive', but your review
"L ast week-end, Mr. and of it shows that he has plenty
Mrs. Bennett came to visit us on the ball.
here, and about 40 people came "That to which you give
out to be opened, and stayed power 'becomes your God' is an
most of the week-end. These occult axiom -- a truism that
were strangers for the most has been preached at man by
part, both to us and to each the founders of religions for
other, but this time, we did millenia -- but 'having eyes,
see something observable at they see not, and having ears
work. This was the way this they hear not, and they do not
group of total strangers be- understand' -- a statement of
came knit together into a close Jesus.
and cohesive friendship, al- "We are not our bodies.
most overnight. So striking They are our instruments for
was this that many of them manifestation in this 3rd dispoke to me about it, and said mension. Our bodies today are
what an experience it had been the composite result of our
to find such a wonderful thoughts and feelings thruout
friendship in such a very short this lifetime plus whatever
time. I was told by Mr. Ben- influence we brought to bear
nett that this has always hap- on our body at birth from past
pened wherever they have lives.
started a group in Subud. "Mind is all-powerful. If
"I am afraid this falls thoughts and feelings can make
short of being a good report, our body old and sick, they
and certainly isn't an evalua- can also make it young and
tion, because this is certain- healthy -- or keep it that way.
ly something that no one can "However, I take issue with
evaluate f o r someone else. Mr. Cromwell when he says the
Since nothing is taught, body has no intelligence, that
preached, or propounded, there neither does the food we eat
can be no argument either for have intelligence. Even a rock
or against. it. To know what it or a fencepost has innate inis, a person must try it for telligence. The atoms therein
themself, and then make their carry out the qualities they
own decision as to its value." are charged with. Feed the body
-- Mort Jaauays, Sutton, Que. strychnine and it has the in