How to Develop Peace in the World
Simon Monbaron
Booksurge (2004)
ISBN 0967275326
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (5/06)

Before we can have world peace we must first find peace within ourselves. Monbaron believes that we can achieve this through the practice of Subud. He has had over forty years experience with Subud. He believes that it is for everyone because it teaches you how to enhance your own personal relationship with God. It involves completely surrendering to the Almighty God. Subud is “To live in accordance with God’s will for human beings.” Subud comes from an acronym created by three words: Susila (good character of humans in accordance with God); Budhi (Force of the inner self); and Dharma (surrender, trust, and sincerity toward God).

Latihan is the spiritual exercise of Subud. This exercise should be done twice a week along with the practice of your own religion. It involves us sitting quietly with our eyes closed and emptying our mind of all distracting thoughts. These distracting thoughts are called “nafsus” which are the lower forces of life, like the seven deadly sins. The human mind tends to operate mostly at this level. The problems of the world are created because of the nafsus. Through spiritual growth we can work together to overcome the nafsus that keep us operating on the lower level. The nafsus are located in our mind. The power of the Almighty God which we receive through this exercise, is located in our chest.

To surrender means that in the latihan we empty ourselves of everything except God’s power. Our mind will try to block our surrendering. However, by learning to surrender, we allow the power of God to purify, cleanse and repair our inner feelings. It is these inner feelings that bridge our material side to our spiritual side. With Subud training you are able to develop an inner state of love and total compassion towards other human beings. This state is known as “being in heaven.”

Pak Muhammad Subuh the founder of Subud is also called Bapak, an Indonesian word for “little father.” He wanted us to practice Subud so that we could develop an inner state of bliss which would enable us to find heaven on earth within ourselves now, waiting until we die.

I highly recommend this book to people who are either involved with Subud or would like to learn more about it. Monbaron provides us with a very comprehensive work on this subject. While he gives us a great deal of depth, he makes information readily available and easy to understand. I have read this book and am fascinated by what it would be like to experience training in Subud. He says that it is a growth process that will take a lot of time and perseverance, but it really sounds like it is the only way you would want to live.