A Life in Subud

by Raymond van Sommers
   
Published: 1 Jan 2004

Dawn Books, Australia

Price: £ 11.00

Whereas my life started as an exploration of the world around me, it changed radically at twenty-six to a search for the purpose of life. As a result this memoir is as much about inner experiences as it is about outer events. The ideas that triggered this change in 1954 were those of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. Becoming a follower of their teaching with JG Bennett led me, three years later, to receiving the spiritual exercise of Subud and practising it for the rest of my life, including ten years in Indonesia with Pak Subuh (Bapak), the founder of the Subud movement.
The story is divided into two parts and a reference:
Part One contains an account of my Gurdjieff training, my childhood and my early working life, and the first twenty years after finding Subud and learning to follow the guidance of the latihan (spiritual exercise).
Part Two recalls the next twenty years, putting the latihan into practice in life