Enterprises

Enterprises.


I was on the phone to Abdullah Pope in Australia (by Skype by the way), talking about BookSurge, and in the course of conversation Abdullah asked me about his own book “Reminiscences of Bapak”. Was it an insider or an outsider book?

Well, no book is completely one or the other, but in my view his was an ‘insider’ book, mostly aimed at a Subud audience. It did not aim to explain, but simply narrated. However I expressed my admiration for the book, not just for the memories of Bapak, but also because he had worked hard and successfully as an Architect in his outer life.

“Oh” he replied, “I had not really thought of that.”

Well, I went on, this was also the virtue of “A Life in Subud” by Raymond van Sommers. Both authors were clearly absolutely devoted Subud men, and in both cases they were successful in their outer lives. They both worked immensely hard, Abdullah as an Architect and Raymond as an Engineer. This fact that they worked hard and successfully in their outer lives also reflected well on Subud.

Now Harris Smart has just written in the Subud Voice in glowing terms of the meeting concerning Enterprises, where he says it was like a 'ke-jiwa-an' meeting. Although there was mention of many enterprises, no details of these were forthcoming except for the mention of my honourable friend, Andrew Holloway, who runs a real timber business, in Hampshire in England.

There is a whole lot that Bapak said about enterprees, and his understanding of it was not narrow. If my memory serves me right, he said that a Ballerina could have her dancing as her enterprise, likewise a Clown. A Doctor asked Bapak about enterprises and Bapak made clear that solo efforts could also constitute an enterprise.

Unfortunately the history of Subud enterprises does not read well, from Brookhurst Grange to Whatcombe House, from Anugraha to the Widjojo buildings in Jakarta, and to the more recent Premier Hotel projects in England. Not to put too fine a point on it, almost without exception these have been badly managed and plenty of people have lost large sums of money, to the betterment of the legal world. Not everybody in Subud has behaved totally ethically, either, so I have been told. Is that correct?

Also many people have been very willing to meet and discuss things and ‘test’ about them, with a marked reluctance, except on the part of a very few, to use their functions, their nafsu to work hard. This is a great sadness, and is not a criticism of anybody – it is simply a matter of historical fact. Please correct me if I am wrong.

This has partly come about through a lack of understanding of the Visible and the Invisible. Though the Invisible may impinge on the visible, it is quite wrong to expect, say, the angelic forces to do that work for which we were provided with our nafsu, our functions and our talents.

Curiously enough, though Subud people are remarkably generous when it comes to giving money, almost foolhardily generous when it comes to supporting schemes which have no viable prospectus, even to the degree of mortgaging themselves up to the hilt, yet when it comes to making money, somehow my Subud Brothers often seem to recoil from the possibility of making real money for themselves.

Funnily enough, Bapak himself was a great entrepreneur, with remarkable foresight. He knew how to create capital, and how to buy well in advance, viz. the purchase of the land at Cilandak. Also Bapak was prepared to work in every possible way, and was engaging in new enterprises even as late as when he visited Wisma Mulia in England, when he was in his eighties, quite an old man. I have listened to the tape of his visit umpteen times. In it Bapak said that his ‘jiwa’ and his ‘nafsu’ were like two sides of the same coin.

Bapak was not afraid to create capital, without which it is impossible to run a business. But so many Subud people behave as if creating capital was something beneath them and not very nice.
We all know that as far as our spiritual development is concerned all we need is to Surrender. But as far as our outer lives, we need to make use of our lower forces. To quote Bapak “The Forces below man are accessories for man…” In fact, surely this is why Bapak laid such insistence on Enterprises (Enterprees in Dutch).

Do we perhaps sometimes make the mistake of thinking that Being is for the sake of Being, and not Being for the sake of Doing? Shades of J.G.Bennett – I can hear him saying to me even now, “Make it a task for yourself to succeed in life.”

Anthony Bright-Paul
May 2006