SUBUD AND THE OPENING

CHAN RASJID KAH CHEW

28 February 2024

[英语和中文]

1. Subud

Subud is a spiritual training; the Indonesian term is ‘latihan kejiwaan’. The

founder of Subud, Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, had described and

interpreted the latihan in various ways. The latihan is basically a worship of

the One Almighty God. Bapak (father in Indonesian; used commonly to refer

to a respected elderly man; to refer to the Subud founder in Subud) had in the

past liken the latihan to be an exercise which is aroused in man when he surren-

ders to God free of the interference of his heart and mind; when in such a state

of surrender, the person would receive a vibration within his inner self which

would arouse the latihan movements; the movements may be of common phys-

ical movements, of sounds, singing, etc; or the experience may be inner experi-

ences. Bapak had even said the the latihan movements is actually activated in

man when his inner self is receiving a direct contact with the power of God. Al-

though the latihan may sometimes involve only physical movements similar

to our common daily movements, they are actually movements that accompa-

nies the person when his inner self is cleansed of spiritual impurities,impurities

that may have accumulated within man through his own living; or impurities

that have been passed down from his ancestors. Because we are all born dif-

ferent, our spiritual states are all diﬀerent; these diﬀerences may be manifested

through our diﬀerent latihan movements and receivings.

Subud is not a new religion as there is no speciﬁed ritual prescription nor

teachings. Subud is open to anyone who is willing to receive it, whether the per-

son has a religion or without a religion. The only condition is that the person

wishing to receive the latihan is willing to surrender to God. Even this "surren-

der to God" seems to have been waived aside for some who insist in not wanting

to surrender to God (the person’s reasoning may be that God, being Almighty,

should have made a direct appearance to him earlier). So even a person who

may not believe in God may be opened in Subud - "let him decide after the

opening whether God exists or not exists".

Bapak in his many talks seems to have said that all that could be gain through

teaching have been given through the various religion. God has not sent Bapak

to start a new religion. Bapak had been given the task to bring about this latihan

training and to spread it to whomever is willing to receive it. Our modern world

has no lack of teachings, especially in this twenty ﬁrst century when we have

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 2

the internet at our ﬁnger tips; there is actually a surfeit of all manners of opin-

ions and teachings so much so that most would not care much about teachings

anymore.

So what Bapak has brought to the world is not yet another spiritual teaching,

but a spiritual receiving - the latihan kejiwaan. The latihan is a receiving of ‘ev-

idence’, evidence of Almighty God that comes directly from God himself given

to man. So God is indeed Almighty! In this modern world where the inﬂuences of

the material is so strong that it is nearly impossible for man to believe in Him,

God has ‘bent down’ to adapt to man’s need and contact man directly through

His power! So this latihan is a gift, a Grace of God given free to anyone willing

to accept it. Bapak has even mentioned that this is like a last chance for man to

come back to God.

2. The Subud Opening

There is a general three months waiting period for an applicant to join Subud.

This rule was set by Bapak and is still in place. Its purpose is to allow a person

to ﬁnd out more about the latihan practice and to make sure an applicant has

no misunderstanding of what Subud has to oﬀer. During this waiting period,

an applicant may meet with the Subud helpers (experienced members who are

tasked to open new members) to resolve questions that they may have about the

latihan. After the waiting period, a date and time (usually at night) is chosen for

the applicant to be initiated into the latihan practice; this initiation is termed the

opening. It is a special ﬁrst latihan of the applicant. After a member’ s opening,

he would be able join the usual twice-weekly group latihan of a Subud group or

center.

An opening is a special latihan conducted by Subud helpers who have been

chosen to initiate applicants into the practice of the latihan kejiwaan. Helpers

are usually experienced members who have been specially selected to open new

members. An opening session may be for opening multiple applicants all at

once. The opening may be accompanied by just a lone helpers; more often, in

Subud groups, the opening would usually be accompanied by multiple helpers.

An opening (just as with any latihan) is done in an empty room with suf-

ﬁcient space. In an opening, the helpers would usually have a ﬁfteen minutes

cleansing latihan after which an applicant would be lead into the room with the

helpers facing him (in some cases, the opening may be done together with a

usual group latihan). One of the helpers would then read out a short prepared

text to the applicant; the text usually goes as :

"We, the Subud helpers, are here as witness to your wish to worship

and surrender to the One Almighty God...you should just relax ...

surrender to the One Almighty God... and need not think nor pay

attention to others in the room...and to follow any movements that

may arise spontaneously within you...".

After reading this text the helper would say "Begin". All the helpers would then

just begin their own individual latihan,i.e. the usual ‘practice’ to surrender to the

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 3

One Almighty God. This marks the very moment when the a person accepts to

surrender to God and to receive the training of the latihan kejiwaan - an exercise

training that comes ‘direct’ from the Power of God.

To Subud members, the receiving of the latihan is a miracle of God. Bapak

was the ﬁrst to receive the latihan as has well been described in the extensive

Subud literature available. What Bapak received may be that he was ﬁrst con-

tacted ‘directly’ by the Power of God without his choosing; it was all through the

will of God. Such an event as will by God would often be termed ‘a miracle of

God’. It is a miracle as man the created being would not be able to comprehend

God unless it is God Himself who reveal his reality to man.

The latihan was received by Bapak when he was twenty four. The latihan

came to him spontaneously for a thousand nights. After this, it may be said

Bapak complected his latihan training by God. He received that the latihan was

not for he himself alone, but for all of mankind - for anyone who is willing to

accept it. It was how Bapak started this Subud movement when he started to

initiate others into the practice. The way that the latihan could be passed on

from one member to another person in itself is also a miracle of God. When

Bapak opens another member(near him physically and ‘surrendered’ to God),

it is as if the power of God descends on the person through the ‘mediation’ of

Bapak.

As to how the Power of God works through the latihan opening is beyond

the thinking mind of man. If God is indeed Almighty, it is logical that man, the

created sentient being, would not be able to comprehend the Greatness of God.

It is for this reason that in religion, there is no great analytic discourse about

God, but just that man should accept the Greatness of God through faith - and

through faith alone.

There is now a rather great collection of articles and books (in English) writ-

ten by members to describe their personal spiritual experiences encountered

after they started the latihan practice. I was opened in 1972 in Singapore. Over

the years, I have read almost all the articles and books (now readily available for

free pdf download). Many members would describe their opening experiences;

the latihan opening may sometimes be accompanied by very strong eﬀects.

In the early days (1970s), it may be said the Subud group in Singapore was

rather weak - in numbers. We don’t have our own Subud premise (a room, hall)

to do the group latihan. We rented a conference room in the Regional English

Language Center (RELC) for our twice weekly group latihan, usually from 7.30

- 8.30 pm. Once, I was just in time for the latihan. I found a senior member who

was at the door, probably to attend to members who may be late for the lati-

han; he seems a little solemn and he said: "There is an opening tonight. Go and

stand behind the helpers". The opening was for an American, probably some-

one passing through Singapore and the decision was to have him opened here.

It seems the practice was to have an opening session to be a special latihan only

for the applicant/applicants and the helpers alone. In this case, the opening was

done together with the group - albeit a small Singapore group. The practice in

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 4

the opening is for the helpers alone to do a special 15 minutes ‘cleansing’ latihan

before the actual opening.

When I entered the room, the helpers must have just done their cleansing

latihan and was waiting to ‘Begin’. As usual, I took oﬀ my watch, wallet, etc. and

put them aside. The room was totally dark but I could clearly feel something

special tonight; there was a special quietness in the air (my ﬁrst experience of

someone else opening). Everything in the room seems to have come to a stand-

still - a tangible quietness! But then, there was something else besides. There

was a beating in the air - in the stillness - like a ﬂapping of wings, almost audi-

ble: ‘pap, pap, pap, pap...pap, pap, pap, pap...’. When the opening began,I could

feel the latihan was very strong. A strong blissful feeling from this opening re-

mained with me for about two days. When I mentioned this to a senior member,

he said the bliss is a precursor experience of what heaven means.

In my own opening, I almost experience nothing. I was opened together with

another applicant (again in a group latihan). There were two helpers, one is a

local helper and another was an ‘itinerant’ American helper. In the opening, I

‘surrendered’ myself obediently, standing in front of the helpers and ‘not using

my hearts and mind’ - just standing throughout the half-hour session. Only in

the next latihan that I started to move, walking about the room as if a power

was moving me from within to walk - nothing exceptional to talk about.

Once after the latihan, we were talking about our own opening experiences. I

mentioned that I felt nothing in my opening - I was just standing still through-

out the opening. A member (who was present in the opening) said:‘You say you

felt nothing, but the very moment I entered the room, I could feel a very strong beat-

ing in the air - he made the beating sign with his hands’. Although the Angels of the

Lord could have been beating their wings for the other applicant, I still had no

doubt I was properly ‘opened’. The very next day after the opening, I immedi-

ately did something which I had just left not done for the past few years - like a

special inner prompting that reminded me without my own will.

I think I could now understand the Christmas hymn ‘Silent Night’; when

Angels descend, there is silence, calm, holiness and peace:

‘Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin,

Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly

peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.’

3. 苏布和开仪式

苏布道(Subud)是一种神训练；印尼语是“latihan kejiwaan”。苏布

的创始人穆罕默德·苏布(Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo) 以各种

方式描述和解释了苏布训练。拉提罕基本上是对全能神的崇拜。巴

帕(Bapak,印尼语中的父亲；通常用来指一位受人尊敬的老人；在苏布

语中指苏布创始人）过去曾将苏布比作一种训练，当人向上帝投降

时，他会在内心和思想不受干扰的情况下被唤起；当处于这种屈服状

态时，这个人会在他的内在自我中受到一种苏布式振动，这种振动会

引起苏布运动；动作可以是常见的身体动作、声音、歌唱等；或者

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 5

该体验可以是内在体验。巴帕甚至说过，当人的内在自我与上帝的力

量直接接触时，苏布运动实际上在人身上被激活了。尽管苏布运动有

时可能只涉及与我们常见的日常运动相似的身体运动，但它们实际上

是当一个人的内在自我被净化了神杂质时伴随着他的运动，这些杂质

可能是通过他自己的生活积累在人身上的；或者从他的祖先那里传下

来的杂质。因为我们生来就不一样，所以我们的神状态也不一样；这

些差异可能通过我们不同的苏布运动和接受表现出来。

苏布不是一个新的宗教，因为既没有特定的仪式处方，也没有教

义。苏布对任何愿意接受它的人开放，无论此人是否有宗教信仰。苏

布唯一的条件是希望接受的人愿意屈服于真神。即使是这个条件似乎

也被那些不想相信神的人搁置一边（这个人的理由可能是上帝是全能

的，应该早点直接出现在他面前）。因此，即使是一个可能还不相信

上帝的人，也可以在被引入苏布 ——“让他在引入打开决定神是否

存在”。

巴帕在他的许多演讲中似乎说过，通过教学所能获得的一切都是通

过各种宗教给予的。上帝并没有派巴帕去开创一个新的宗教。巴帕被

赋予了进行这种苏布训练的任务，并将其传播给任何愿意接受培训的

人。我们的现代世界不乏教义，尤其是在21世纪，我们的指尖上有互

联网；事实上，各种各样的观点和教义都太多了，以至于大多数人不

再关心教义。

因此，巴帕给世界带来的并不是另一种精神教育，而是一种直接神

接受,一种“证据”的接受，即全能真神的证据，直接来自真神自己

赋予人类的。所以真神是全能的！在这个物质的影响如此之大，以至

于人类几乎不可能相信神的现代世界里，神已经“弯腰”适应人类的

需求，并通过他的力量直接与人类联系！因此，这个苏布训练是一份

礼物，是真神的恩典，免费送给任何愿意接受它的人。巴帕甚至提

到，这就像是人类回归神的最后机会。

苏布开仪式 (Subud Opening) 申请者加入苏布通常有三个月的等待

期。这条规则是巴帕制定的，现在仍然有效。它的目的是让人们更多

地了解苏布的实践，并确保申请人不会误解苏布所提供的内容。在这

段等待期内，申请人可以与苏布助手（负责开设新成员的经验丰富的

成员）会面，以解决他们可能对苏布训练的问题。在等待期结束后，

为申请人选择一个日期和时间（通常在晚上），让其开始参加第一次

苏布练习。这种启动被称为开启。这是申请人的一个特殊的第一苏布

练习。在一个成员开放后，他可以加入通常每周两次的小组练习的一

个苏布小组或中心。

开仪式是由苏布助手进行的一次特别的苏布实践训练，他们被选中

来引导申请人进入苏布的神实践。帮助者通常是有经验的成员，他们

是专门挑选来开设新成员的。开仪式会议可以同时开放多个申请人。

开仪式可能只有一个单独的助手；更常见的情况是，开仪式通常会有

多名助手陪同。

开仪式（与任何苏布实践训练一样）是在一个有足够空间的空S房

间内完成的。在一个开仪式中，助手通常会进行15分钟的净化实

践,然后将申请人带入房间，而助手面对他（在某些情况下，可能与

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 6

通常的小组实践一起完成）。然后，其中一个助手会向申请人读取简

短准备的文本；文本通常为：

"我们，苏布的帮助者，在这里见证你们崇拜并向全

能神屈服的愿望。。。你应该放松。。。只向全能

神屈服。。。不需要思考也不需要关注房间里的其他

人。。。并跟随你内在可能自发产生的任何运动。。。"

阅读本文后，助手会说“开始”。然后，所有的助手都会开始自己的

个人实践，即通常的实践屈服于全能神。这标志着一个人接受向神屈

服并接受苏布实践(Latihan Kejiwaan）的训练的那一刻，这是一种“

直接”从神的能力中的运动训练。

对于苏布成员来说，苏布的到来是神的奇迹。巴帕是第一个得到苏

布锻炼的人，正如广泛的苏布文献所描述的那样。巴帕得到的可能

是，他第一次被神的力量“直接”联系，没有经过他的选择；这一切

都是神的旨意。这样一个由神意志的事件通常被称为神的奇迹。这是

一个奇迹，因为除非是神自己向人类揭示了他的现实，人将无法理解

真神。

巴帕二十四岁时接受了苏布演习。这项锻炼他自发地进行了一千个

晚上。在这之后，可以说巴帕完成了神对他的训练。他意识到，这项

锻炼不仅仅是为了他自己，而是为了全人类——为了任何愿意接受它

的人。当巴帕开始引导其他人参与这项运动时，他就是这样开始了这

场苏布运动的。这种练习能够从一个成员传递给另一个人的方式本身

也是神的奇迹。当巴帕开引导另一个成员（在巴帕的周围并向神屈

服）时，就好像上帝的力量通过巴帕的“调解” 降临到了这个人身

上。

至于神的力量是如何通过苏布运动发挥作用的，这超出了人类的思

维能力。如果神真的是全能的，那么人类，即被创造的有知觉的生

物，将无法理解神的伟大，这是合乎逻辑的。正是因为这个原因，在

宗教中，没有关于神的伟大分析话语，只是人应该通过信仰——并且

仅仅通过信仰——接受神的伟大。

现在有一大批由成员撰写的文章和书籍(英文），用来描述他们

在开始修道后所遇到的个人神经历。我1972年在新加坡接受开仪

式。这些年来，我几乎阅读了所有的文章和书籍（现在可以免费下

载pdf）。许多成员会描述他们的启蒙经历；开仪式有时可能伴随着

非常强烈的效果。

在早期（1970年代），可以说新加坡的苏布集团在数量上相当

薄弱。我们没有自己的前提来进行锻炼。我们在RELC(区域英语中

心)租了一个会议室，通常是我们每周两次的训练，从7.30-8.30pm开

始。有一个晚上，我正好赶上训练。门外有一个高级成员站着，似

乎在等待迟到的成员。他有点庄严的说：“今晚有一个开仪式。去助

手身后站着。” 开仪式是为一名美国人准备的，可能他在经过新加

坡，决定在这里开仪式。似乎惯例是将开仪式设为仅针对申请人和助

手的特别仪式。这次仪式是与通常的小组会议一起进行的。开仪式的

做法是，在实际仪式前，由助手单独进行15分钟的特别净身练习。

SUBUD AND THE OPENING 7

当我进入房间时，助手刚完成了净身课程，并等待“开始”。像往

常一样，我脱下手表，钱包等，然后将它们放在一边。房间完全是黑

暗的，但今晚我显然可以感觉到一些特别。空中有一个特殊的安静

（是我第一次对别人开仪式的经历）。房间里的一切似乎都停顿在一

个有形的安静！但是，除此之外，空气中似乎有一种拍打声，就像翅

膀拍打一样，几乎可以听到快速的：“ 啪，啪，啪，啪,…啪，啪，

啪，啪…”。开仪式开始时，我能感觉到这项运动特别强烈。它给了

我一种强烈幸福感,持续了大约两天。当我向一位资深成员提到这一

点时，他说这经验是天堂意义的前兆。

在我自己开仪式中，我几乎什么也没经历。我与另一位申请人一起

开始(在小组练习中再次）。有两个帮证者，一个是当地的助手，另

一个是美国帮手。在开仪式中，我“屈服于神”，站在助手面前，“

不利用我的心灵”-站在整个半小时的仪式中。我只有在下一次训练

中开始移动，就在房间里走来走去，好像有力量正在使我从内心移动

走路-没什么值得谈论的。

有一次练习结束后，我们在谈论我们自己的开仪式经历。我提到我

在开场时什么也没感觉——整个开场我都站着不动。一名成员（他也

是有在我的开仪式）说："你说你什么都没有感觉，但是当我进入房

间的那一刻，我会感觉到空气中的强烈拍打"——他用双手做了拍打

的动作。即使神的天使们本可以为另一位申请者拍打翅膀，但我仍然

毫不怀疑自己的开仪式确定是成功的!开式后的第二天，我立即做了

一件我过去几年忽略做的事情——就像一种特殊的内心提示，提醒了

我，但没有我自己的意愿。

我想我现在能听懂圣诞赞美诗《平安夜》了；当天使降临时，那里

是寂静、平静、圣洁与平安：

平安夜，善夜！暗中，光射，照著母也照著，多少慈

也多少天真，享天安眠，享天安眠。

Email address: chanrasjid@gmail.com

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