A letter from Robert Mertens, Chair, Subud California
Hello California Brothers and Sisters,
Helena and I just returned from our Subud World Congress. I can summarize my experience in Freiburg as “2 weeks with a larger part of the rest of me”… a simmering, nutritious, human soup where my flavor mixed with 2,500 others in a unique kitchen.
Vivid Personal Experiences
My experiences at Congress were many. As one small but significant example: I wanted to meet up with Matthew Cooke, one of the many milling around in the huge conference center, and he walked right up to me in the next instant. Then, the two of us wanted to see Ethan Harris about connecting our California APP team to the larger world effort, and Ethan walked right up!
The next day, our meeting convened with Sebastian Medina (the WSA IT coordinator) started out with a small group at a table out of the way of the main traffic, but others who were to become part of an ad hoc team kept showing up spontaneously and sitting down.
Pledges of funds to support the global IT plan were immediately undertaken at the table, raising $1,800 to prime the pump for further cooperative effort. Within 24 hours, a logo, introductory video, and website for a global fundraising initiative were developed and then presented at the SESI awards ceremony (see related article).
Another seeming coincidence occurred in the “Bazaar” where members from around the world showed arts and crafts along the main hallway. Crafts from Venezuela were being shown by Venezuelan Subud members on the same table as my art, so I got a chance to meet with them personally and receive their gratitude for the food that Subud California has been sending them.
They told me that the first shipment of food arrived at their darkest moment and I was able to pass this information on to Henrietta Haines (who initiated and has been managing this effort during the last couple of years (see related article).
These are just two of a great many meaningful personal experiences that happened to me at Congress.
Witnessing the selection of the next chair of the World Subud Association
Now I’d like to focus on one event that seems to me to be especially meaningful from the perspective of Subud’s role in the future of the world.
We left a political scene in America where our government representatives are mostly picking sides to fight with each other daily, with one side and then the other temporarily ascendant. What I witnessed at our Congress was in marked contrast.
There were a dozen or so candidates from all over the world for the post of WSA chair. As is our custom, the women candidates were tested first with the women International Helpers receiving with them, while the men remained seated and witnessed. The situation was then reversed with the men.
Only one question was tested for each candidate, a general question: Show through your latihan, if xxx is able to perform the duties of WSA chair for the coming term”.
After we members and delegates from 50 countries witnessed the testing, the helpers huddled and emerged with a clear recommendation to the delegates that Nahum Harlap of Subud Perth in Australia (originally from Israel) be the next chair.
It was now time for the delegates from the 50 countries to decide whether to affirm the choice or not, with a vote. So Elias Dumit, the current chair, asked the delegates if they were ready to vote. A large majority were ready, but a significant and vocal minority were not.
It seemed that some of the delegates were questioning whether more testing should take place around various aspects of the job and each individual’s fit to what is needed in our next administration. Some delegates spoke up and said, “Let’s trust the helpers’ receiving.” Others said, “ It’s not a question of trusting the receiving, but fulfilling a duty to make the best choice.”
It was then asked if it was received that there were 2 or more candidates that were close to each other in their ability to do the job. The helpers replied that was not the case, Nahum was the clear choice.
There were still significant voices among the delegates who indicated that they were not yet ready to vote and a second question was tested before the assembly: For the growth and development of Subud is Nahum the correct person to serve as WSA chair.
The answer was clearly yes.
The delegates were asked again if they were ready to vote and they affirmed that they were. This time the vote was nearly unanimous to accept the helpers’ recommendation to approve Nahum as the new WSA chair and it was done.
There is still a significant belief that the process of choosing our officers is a work in progress. The helpers had decided to test only the “ability” of each candidate, agreeing among themselves that the word ability was meant to embrace all aspects of each individual’s “fit” for the job and meant to include not only practical skills but, for example, health, family situation and ability to harmonize with the new team, as well.
There was some difficulty among the helpers and delegates around the word “ability” because, when that word is translated into each language and culture, it can have very different meanings. For example; ability can mean just skill(s) and the outer aspects, while not addressing the inner feeling dimensions.
I spoke last week with a delegate and an international helper, who were witnessing and doing the testing respectively, to help clarify for me what I observed, and I learned a few interesting things.
There was some concern among the delegates that since Nahum had been active as an international helper, the helpers’ familiarity with him might have unconsciously skewed their testing in his favor.
In fact, the Greek delegation had entered a proposal (which they subsequently withdrew) that the international helpers receiving the test should not interpret their test for the delegates. Rather, the delegates should witness the testing and make their choice only from what they witnessed. The delegate that told me this noted that Greek culture was a foundation for our western tradition of democracy and found it interesting that Greece proposed this change.
I got some further clarification on the testing process from one of the international helpers. Each of the helpers doing testing had a clipboard to record their testing for each candidate. They decided, in advance, that each helper would record only “yes” or “no” in their receiving, and then they would tally only those results for each test.
At any rate, it seems clear to me that we have before us the continuing task of balancing and harmonizing our understandings of inner and outer reality across many world cultures.
Personally, I was elated from observing that the “outer” and “inner” both had voices in our electoral process, with the “outer” (delegate part) being more than just a rubber stamp for the “inner” (helper receiving part). Here is full list of the new WSA officers who will lead us for the next four years.
Hopefully, our process may be a harbinger of the next phase in world politics as well as in Subud.
Helena often has an eye for what we can do better when I am somewhat over the top in my generally optimistic view of what happened. She suggests that in the national pretesting, the helpers explore with the applicants, individually, their strengths and areas where each needs support.
To wrap up this brief letter, I’d like to share feelings and summarize meaning I brought back from Freiburg with a song, “Be Ready to Sail” by Claire Lynch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCAlD3oWfRA
and with a picture: Aurora (Angel at Dawn)
Love and Blessings to each of you,
Robert