Volume 6, Issue 9, page 13

Learning Houy to BAGBY
'Live' Offer UJe 'Die'
By I
N ONE of Pak Subuh's New York lectures
he said, "In Subud, we are learning
how to live after we die." Many of us
were struck with this simple statement, for it put a new light upon
Subud, and indeed, upon all spiritual
methods. Pak Subuh further explained
that in the spiritual exercise, or
latihan, we are learning to live
properly as human beings, free from
material, vegetable, and animal forces,
in a state which can be called Heaven.
After we die, he said, we are the same --
just in a different place, which is also
Heaven. Hence, when we walk in latihan,
we are learning how to walk in Heaven --
getting our Heaven-legs, as it were.

I was impressed not only by this implication of life after physical death, and how it
is, but by the similarity between this description of Subud and many of the other great
religious teachings, In Buddhism, the world is
seen as an illusion, and achieving freedom
from the Wheel of Rebirth is the goal of the
adept, In Hinduism, " neti-neti" -- "not this,
not this" -- shows us that nothing in this world
is the Reality or Self that we seek. In
Christianity, we are exhorted to seek the
Kingdom of Heaven, which is within, and thus
exists here and now as well as after death.
The comparisons are endless.

In any case, this simple statement of Pak
Subuh' s - -which he gave not as teaching or
dogma, but in an effort to describe what goes
on in the latihan -- sums up the essence of the
spiritual life. For whether or not one is
planning for a future life, in spiritual
training one is endeavoring to rise above the
influences of the world, become their master
instead of their slave, and win a new freedom
and fulfillment. Thus Pak Subuh's statement
can be taken in two ways -- as an actual hint as
to conditions after death, and as an indication of the method whereby we gain our freedom
and true human quality while still alive on
earth.

The Subud latihan is unique in that it
enables the individual to experience spiritual
facts and processes, Hence, taking Pak Subuh's
statement into my latihan opened my eyes still
further, I actually felt for a moment how it
was to be entirely free from earth influences,
while yet remaining alive and conscious. One
was no longer an organism of constant response
to outside influence, but a truly innerdirected creature capable of much more
significant activity. Instead of the terrible
waste of energy spent in battling the habits
and conditioning of the past, one was a free
agent, even while manifesting the particular
quality or tone which was the sum total of
hereditary and social influences -- one's karmic
pattern, as it were, No longer did the parts
of oneself conflict, nor were the subtle responses of the soul overwhelmed by buffetings
from the outside world. One had entered a new
dimension -- Eternity . The clamor of the body
was stilled by a new kind of balance; the
senses and nerves stopped their ceaseless
broadcasting. Nothing from the earth world was
relevant