May 2011 - Subud Voice

So I travelled all day, trying to go south. It got to be six o’clock in the evening. I finally got to the end of Jakarta and
asked someone ‘Where is Cilandak?’ she told me it was at the wrong end of the south. I had to go to the west side!
The next day I started from there. Again all day I travelled. At last I arrived at Cilandak and then I saw a military
camp. I went to the guards and asked, ‘is this Cilandak? Is this the Subud World Congress?’ They answered ‘yes,
this is Cilandak, but the Subud World Congress is really far away!’
So I went back again.
On the Third Day
On the third day I arrived at Wisma Subud.
The little guard post was there, where the guards
were sitting. I said ‘I should like to have information
about Subud.’ They said ‘there are 2000 people here!
We are too busy for a man coming to ask for information!’
Then I really became angry, after three days of
searching! I said ‘I’ve come all the way from New
Guinea!’ It made a little bit of an impression.
Someone went away and when he came back he said
‘come back tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock and
there will be someone here then, who will give you
information about Subud.’
‘
Wilbert Verheyen
’
So the next morning I was met by a young man. I got the impression he was studying economics at the University
of Bandung. He asked me where I heard about Subud. I felt a little awkward having to tell him it was only out of
the newspaper. He said at once that Subud is very good for a type of person who is making certain kinds of
mistakes. This and this and this… He mentioned five
things that were like my moral fingerprints!
I asked him when I could start. He told me that at a
Protestant secondary school not far from my convent
they had a Monday and Thursday latihan and also that
I was welcome there at Wisma Subud on Sunday
mornings as an applicant. So I immediately went as an
applicant to the next meeting on Monday… it was very
interesting. You got special cake and nice ginger tea…
The waiting room for applicants was at the end of the
corridor. There was a staircase I could see, from
where I was sitting and waiting. I saw a very old lady
being taken upstairs by a Japanese woman and for
some reason I began to cry. It was such a heavy crying
that my shirt became wet. So I finally asked
someone ‘who is that old lady going up the stairs?’
and he said ‘that is Bapak’s mother.’
Wilbert found out about Subud just as the 1971 World Congress was
being held in Jakarta. The Wisma Subud residential compound had
been transformed to provide accommodation for 2000 people in bamboo
longhouses designed by the architect Ramzi Winkler
I think Bapak’s mother died in 1971 or so. I think it was after my opening. There was a big reception after the
funeral for us to tell Bapak we were sorry about the death of his mother.
Patricia: You hadn’t met Bapak yet?
Wilbert: I think that was the time when I felt I hated Bapak! That’s another story.
It was very interesting though. When we came to the reception in front of Bapak's house, there was a big queue
SUBUD VOICE PAGE 14 MAY 2011