by Leonard Robel

The Sonoma Subud Center recently received a loan from the Region for improving facilities at their hall in order to significantly increase their rental business income. A major upgrade is installation of vinyl floor in the main hall, side halls, kitchen, and men’s bathroom.

Additional upgrades underway include new sound baffling to make up for the lack of carpet in the main hall and a new countertop and microwave for the kitchen. See more photos at the Center’s website.

These upgrades will make it possible to do rentals for dance groups that need a bigger space than the back room (which already has flooring suitable for dance), people who want to do food-intensive events (such as weddings or parties) which aren’t suited to carpet.

The Center also has a colorful outdoor stage which can accommodate a range of activities. Being more accommodating to many kinds of events will increase positive word of mouth and referrals.

After the Fire

The Sebastopol Center is experiencing a significant drop in rental income due to the horrendous fires in Santa Rosa that occurred in October. Many of the Center’s regular renters are temporarily out of the area or dealing with fire damage.  It is expected that the Center’s rental revenue will improve along with the recovery of the local area from the fire.

In the meantime, a message about this was sent out by Robert Mertens to the Chairs of the other Subud CA Centers, to alert them to the situation as raised by Farah Hess, Chair of the Property Management Committee. In response, a number of other centers have generously sent checks to help sustain the Sebastopol through this difficult time.

More than $3,000 has been donated to Subud CA and then forwarded on to the Sebastopol Center.  It is a wonderful example of Centers helping other Centers!

The Venezuelan Food  Connection

The Walnut Creek Subud Center has sent a third food shipment to Caracas, to arrive in time for Christmas. This shipment was funded primarily by a  generous contribution from Subud Vancouver.  For a history of this project, see this earlier article.

The hunger crisis in Venezuela needs ongoing support, so it is exciting to announce that the Venezuela Food Connection will become a Susila Dharma project in 2018.

Donations to support future shipments welcomed. Checks should be made out to Subud Walnut Creek and sent to Rahima Warren, 3270 Theresa Lane Lafayette, CA 94549.  Please earmark for the Venezuela Food Project.

History: In October of 2014, California Regional made us a loan of $45,000 to help Sonoma Subud to salvage its mold-ridden, decrepit building: the carpets were stained and moldy, with asbestos and rotten particleboard beneath them; the windows were broken, the offices full of old storage. We had not paid our mortgage or our Regional pledges for over a year. The building was to be sold, and we would have no home.

We proposed a renovation plan that would turn our building into a successful enterprise, renting out both the back studio and our offices. We found a tenant, and put together a renovation budget. With a lot of help, the renovation was completed by Jan 1, 2015, and we have been renting the hall, the offices, and plowing the earnings back into equipment and into building improvements. But the investment and our progress are threatened by the prospect of a return of a severe mold infestation, due to both surface and underground water finding its way into the building’s crawlspace.

The Specter of Mold: Our Subud house lies on an underground river that turns our crawlspace to mud in the winter. Without the French drain, we will again be faced with an infestation of mold beneath our building, releasing toxic spores into our air. Surface water must be diverted by a trench drain.

The Project Budget: $25,000
Phase 1: Divert surface water coming from the parking lot with a trench drain: $ 6,300
Phase 2: Install a deep French drain to divert the underground flow to the back: $13, 800
Phase 3: Build wheelchair ramp and walkway for exiting the hall: $4,900

Grants: Applied for Eco Grant from the Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) (to be reviewed in mid-September). Maximum grant: $5,000. Will apply for Biannual Grant (due 11/30/15). Maximum grant: not determined

MSF bases its grants not only upon need, but upon the success of other efforts by the local chapter to raise money for the project!

Donations Needed: Our website has a donations button which allows contributions by credit card and via PayPal: www.sonoma.subudcalifornia.org. You can also visit our rental website at: www.sebastopolhall.com Thank you for taking time to consider helping us!

After latihan on June 30, 2015, several Sonoma Subud members gathered outside the Subud house to bid farewell to Henry Morgan,  on the eve of his return to Arkansas.

Abraham Spivak, Ruth Morgan, Henry Morgan, Muchtar Salzman, Margarite Charney (L-R)

by Rick Russell, Chair, Subud Sonoma Center

After being inspired by a daylong Visioning Workshop led by Leo Horthy (Subud, Badger, CA) in July, Sonoma Subud is moving forward with an ambitious and exciting plan to rejuvenate both our building and our financial situation. To address needed repairs, we had renovation work bids from numerous contractors and developed a budget. The work includes mold and asbestos remediation, duct repair, carpet and damaged subfloor removal, new windows, vinyl flooring in the back room, and new carpeting elsewhere.

The Subud California Regional council approved our request for a $45,000 loan on November 1, 2014, based on our identification of a major new tenant which will enable us to support loan repayment immediately. We are in the process of signing a 3-year lease, to start 1/1/15, with Ms.Terri Anne Gutierrez, who has taught multiple forms of dance in Sonoma County for many years.  We also hope to rent out 3 offices to other new tenants, so the Center will soon be clean, beautiful, financially sound and lively again!

The old carpet and damaged particleboard have all been removed, and Lucas Hess, our contractor from Subud Sacramento, has almost completed the installation of the new plywood sub-flooring. Lucia Cargill, our new regional helper, found a mold remediation product, MDF 500, which will safely and completely eliminate any remaining mold spores in the building, and can be applied with a fogger. The building has now been fogged and new vinyl flooring for the back room is scheduled for installation in early December. with carpet to follow in the rest of the building soon after.

Submitted by Michael Myers, Subud Sonoma Treasurer

Latihan Days and Times: Mondays, Thursdays, 7:30 pm; Saturdays 10:00 am

ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP (2x month attendance at latihan)
•    Total = 21 members:  Men – 11,  Women- 10,  Inactive Members – 17
•    Members Needing special attention – one female member age 90.
•    Inquirers to Subud and the latihan/dates of Opening – 6 men opened in the past year.
•    Children of Active Members in Center/Group – none
•    Life transitions (marriages, births, deaths) 2 recent deaths (July & August, 2014)

Women Center Helpers: 3 active, 1 inactive, 2 honorary helpers. Men Center Helpers: 2 active, 1 inactive. Helper/Committee Latihan Day/Time: 3rd Saturday of the month @ 11:30 am.

Committee Names:   Chairperson: Rick Russell,  Treasurer: Michael Myers

Helpers report: 

Six male members were opened this past year and attend latihan on a regular basis. One female helper moved to the area from S. Oregon and is active as a helper. One male helper moved to the area from Sacramento, CA and is active as a helper. One longtime female member relocated to Portland, Oregon. Helpers meet on a regular basis on the first Monday of the month @ 6 pm for latihan. Helpers meet again following the helper/committee meeting held on the 3rd Saturday of the month for a helper meeting. Helpers have agreed to hold a retreat Kejiwaan event every 3 months for testing with members. A social and Kejiwaan event is scheduled monthly.

A Visioning event led by Leo Horthy was held and was well attended by members. Two female members attended the event who live in the area and have not come to latihan in several years. Helpers are addressing the issues as to what led the members to stop attending group latihan.  The goal of helper meetings is to form a dewan of helpers and increase the stability and activities of the group.  Helpers are supportive of committee work and sit in on committee meetings when possible.  Subud Sacramento is showing their support and two members attended the Visioning event recently held.  The Portland, Oregon Subud group has offered to be a sister group to support Subud Sonoma.  A longtime Subud Sonoma member recently relocated to Portland, OR.  California Regional helpers were invited to the Visioning event and none were able to attend.

Chair report:
We lacked a Committee Chairperson in 2013, though Liza Ramey was standing in as Active Chairperson. In Jan. 2014, Rick Russell became Committee Chairperson.

Our building has been in need of repair, and we had fallen behind on our loan payments to Regional; we have not had a steady lessee to share the building costs with.  This year we have been making steady monthly payments, but have not yet caught up on our back payments owing.  We successfully hired a leasing agent, Jeff Barone, at the end of April, to help us with finding a lessee.  We have had a mold report made on the building, and are in the process of pricing the required repairs: treatment of the crawlspaces, replacement of the particle board underlayment (most of which has asbestos-bearing glue on it), removal of a small amount of moldy drywall, and replacement of all of the existing worn out carpet with a good grade of commercial carpet. Michael Myers  reported on these costs at the Regional meeting (8/29/14).

Starting in 2014, we have been issuing a periodic Email Newsletter to all of our members, both active and inactive.  We have begun celebrating Subud Birthdays (opening days) on a quarterly basis, sharing our stories of what Subud has meant to us, and the Helpers are sharing Bapak talks on video and organizing a monthly Kedjiwaan day. We held a daylong Visioning workshop with professional visioning facilitator and Subud member Leo Horthy on 7/26/14 about what to do with about the building situation. We had an attendance of 18 people, and it was quite inspiring. We committed to being in a home with a wonderful co-tenant, in a place that physically supports and welcomes us all, with a robust Subud group coming together frequently for latihan, by July 26 2015.

Since then we have both been looking at the possibility of purchasing a new property in addition to assembling the costs of repairing and refurbishing our current building. Last week, one of our members, Jim Corbett, proposed that his non-profit, the Mr. Music Foundation, would like to lease the building for a music school and performance space, sharing it with our Subud group for latihans on our current schedule.  We are in the process of working out the details of this possible lease, including the usage agreements, shared costs, and refurbishing requirements.  We are hopeful that we can work this out, borrow the necessary funds for repairs from regional, and lease the building by November 1, 2014.  We shall see!

In general, I believe our group is growing more robust both in participation and financially.  If we are able to successfully lease our building to a co-tenant, we will be on a sound financial basis again.

Welcome to Rick Russell, who became Chair of Sonoma Subud  in January 2014.  Read Rick’s update on Sonoma. 

My story overlaps Jerry’s completely, I was involved in the same Gurdjieff group, first as a student while Anne was teaching formal classes, and then as a loyal devotee when she stopped teaching classes and built the intentional community Jerry refers to. I stayed very close to her; my family and I lived with her a couple times, including right at the end, before she kicked me out of her house.  The entire association, which was basically a student-teacher relationship, even after the classes stopped, spanned 30 plus years.  I had no impression of what Subud was other than what Anne said regarding Bennett’s interest in it and her being what she referred to as a “doorway”, I believe, in Bennett’s group.

Last year Jerry and Ed said that they had joined Subud and that it was a hoot.  I, knowing only that and that it was experiential, a personal experience rather than a set of beliefs or group enterprise, phoned Muchtar and I read three books on Subud, Bennett’s, Bright-Paul’s, and a third one called, I believe, The History of Subud, Volume 1. The thread that ran through the books, to me, was the description of being physically, literally, moved about a room by a force outside of one’s self, or something in the highest part of one’s self, that is, one’s “real self”, which is sort of outside of one, in that it is not the usual active force or “self” or whatever – the term “whatever” indicating that although I’m interested in the structure of the universe and the person and the soul and all, I saw Subud as a welcome relief from all that, with the thread being a force that entered and moved, literally physically moved, hundreds and hundreds of people all over the world, regardless of what they were thinking or hoping for or believing about the shape of the universe. It wasn’t them “doing” something, there were no tasks to complete. A person was opened and God the Creator then had room to enter – the “had room to enter” implies, of course, that I do see a structure of the person, with “room” or “lack of room” for God. I evidently can’t escape myself.

I finished the books and I started meeting with Muchtar.  I found him to be as kind and humane and sincere as anyone I’ve ever met. He was very game in my catechism classes, carrying on heroically in the face of a student who had no questions, who merely smiled and said, “Sounds great.”  Despite my fairly passive performance at catechism, Muchtar, who was probably worn down by the effort, set the date and I was opened.  At the opening I stood still, waiting, which was the verb used in at least a couple of the books as the only “action” during Latihan. I stood and waited. Toward the end of the Latihan my lower legs began to feel warm, as if the blood were sinking down into them.  I’m 65.  I wasn’t sure that I was being moved but I sank to my knees and then sank to the prayer position of Islam and stayed there until the end of the Latihan.  I wasn’t sure if I had received but I was thrilled that something had happened. Ah, the need for accomplishment.  And I was glad that what had happened was visible.  Ah, vanity.

In subsequent Latihans I have had some of the same feelings in my lower legs if I remain standing still but not if I move about, and I do move about, thinking that if God can find me when I stand still I’m sure that he can find me if I move around and it might loosen me up a little. You know, to “make room”. Sometimes I just want to help the process.  Alas, God evidently feels fine about me both standing still and moving around and has not moved me in the way he moved so many in the books.  I’m okay with that, I’m not here to criticize God, or my Higher Self. Or anyone else.  Even without being so moved, I go to Latihan eagerly and leave glad that I went, other than the gnawing sense that I’m not really getting what I’m going there to get.

The genesis for my involvement in Subud is directly the fault of one Mr. Sanderson. In the 1970’s he and I and about a hundred other people were engaged in a work group centered on the teachings of Gurdjieff. The leader of this group had been a young student of John Godolfin Bennett in England in the late 50’s early 60’s. She purported to have been a Subud helper although she only opened a handful of people who were instructed not to share this information with anyone else. The latihan was not practiced but at least one person, Rick Russell, was advised to explore Subud. This Gurdjieff group operated for approximately thirty years and in many ways was an intentional community similar to Skymont. It shared a similar fate although many of the details were substantially different. I left after fifteen years in crisis and explored other teachings and practices. In 2011(?), after about thirty years of separation, Sanderson and I met at the wedding of a mutual friend. I queried him about his experience in Subud. He was open and thorough in his responses. He encouraged me to read some of the literature. As a student of Gurdjieff, I was particularly interested in Bennett’s accounts in Concerning Subud and Towards the True Self. Ed Ristad read these books at the same time. Both Ed and I were motivated to be opened and to practice the latihan. Sanderson gave us Muchtar Salesman’s contact information and we met with him for a probationary period. Muchtar was skillful in introducing us to Subud and demonstrated by his demeanor a quality of being I found attractive.

What I appreciate about Subud is its emphasis on the individual’s connection to “Almighty God” although I prefer to characterize this connection as conscience. When I was opened, I did not experience anything detectable but I enjoyed the practice. I found it light-hearted and fun. I found myself looking forward to each latihan. For about six months I was unable to detect anything definitive during latihan. Then I began to have regular, extended experiences of grace during latihan and throughout my day. Although I am not a member of any religious organization, I found myself experiencing the reality of the 23^rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer during the events of my ordinary daily life. This experience faded after about three months, but its imprint has been lasting and informs my current latihan practice. I am most grateful to Sanderson, Muchtar, Bapak and the thousands of people who have made it possible for me to be opened and to participate in a form of worship that I can intellectually accept. I hope to practice the latihan for the rest of my life.

I’m Rick Russell, a new Subud member (since June) and have been asked to be the new chairperson for Subud Sonoma. It is a real honor to be able to serve in this capacity, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you. A bit about me: I’m 68, married with 4 grown daughters and 4 grandchildren, and have lived and worked in Sonoma County since 1971, as a carpenter and contractor, then architect and school construction inspector. As board president at the Lomi Psychiatric Clinic in Santa Rosa, I gained some familiarity with how non-profits work. I was in a Gurdjieff group for some 22 years, but was feeling unable to progress further with my inner life. Subud has changed this, and I am very grateful. One of the big things I have received in latihan is a sense of the lightness and good humor that it is possible to have in one’s life, and it is this that I wish to guide me as chairperson. If I start getting heavy, I’ll know I’m on the wrong track.

We had a general meeting at the Subud hall on Saturday Jan. 25, at which I was selected as chair.  Tutut Sass, also new, has volunteered for Communications. Michael Myers will continue as Treasurer. Members were asked what they most wanted to see happen in the near future, and these were the requests: 1) overwhelmingly, a new carpet! 2) more social gatherings; 3) a charitable outlet for our members, both to help Subud members who need it, and also to help the community at large. And of course, 4) shorter meetings!

We committee members met on Feb. 1, and approved a real estate agent to help us with obtaining a permanent lessee for the hall when we are not using it. We are also brainstorming fundraising possibilities to help us achieve our goals in the coming year, possibly including a Bingo night or an online auction. If you have any suggestions, please contact me or another committee member by mail or email.

One of our most important sources of income is donations from our members. This is your organization, and exists to make the latihan available to you, and to help others. We have grown a lot recently (6 new men, 2 women!), and are hopeful that we can serve everyone’s needs more fully. I’m enclosing a pledge form, and hope you will consider making a commitment to a monthly donation. We really could use a new carpet! If you set up an automatic bill pay, that would help us even more by providing a more reliable budget. Please let us know your priorities, and feel free to call me if you have any questions.

Yours in appreciation,

Rick Russell, Chairperson (rick-russell [at] sbcglobal.net) Ph. 707- 529-5513