Publishers of Inspirational Books

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT, CRAFTS & PRACTICAL GUIDES

List of Contents

INTRODUCTION

1: Zen and the Green Man

Ancient Instinct and the World's Needs

A Personal Search for Susila Budhi Dharma

Instinctive Solutions not Readily Accepted

Natural Instincts of the Non-human World

Mankind Influenced by the Life Forces of Nature

The Soul has a Choice of Directions

The Real Meaning of "Soul"

Religious Attitudes towards Soul and Spirit

Varying Spiritual "Levels" of Religions

The Influence of Plants on People

Spiritual Nature of Plants

Personal "Shadow" and the True Path

Religious Convention and the Spiritual Search

The Influence of Plant Life on Religious Feeling

Conservation is for "Haves", not for "Have-nots"

"Plant Religion" in Pre-Industrial Times

Religious Development seen as Spiritual Decay

Symbolism of the Green Man

Experiencing Spiritual Levels

Spiritual Characteristics of Animals

Ancient Guidance for Buddhist Monks

Ancient Guidance for Christian Disciples

Seeking Spiritual Guidance for Today

Ancient Legends Offering Clues

The Great Divide : Conflicting Attitudes

Direct Action, or Humble Submission?

Four Ways, and a Fifth Way?

A Finer than Human Agency

Ancient Hindu Advice on Seeking a True Teacher

The Path of Susila Budhi Dharma

Possibilities of Zen as a "Plant Religion"

Direct Action Without "Will"

Chasing Symbols

Introduction

This account is about the rediscovery of the human soul
– of my soul. My search began by way of an interest in
ecology and the fate of the earth, but it does not include any
recipes for industry nor agriculture or forestry, because such
things are really matters for science, and they are already
known or readily knowable. I have concluded that in order
to gain an understanding of the earth’s real needs it is
necessary to gain an equal and parallel understanding of
one’s own true self. Greening of the soul, on a worldwide
scale, would equate to greening of the world.

1 : ZEN AND THE GREEN MAN

Ancient Instinct and the World's Needs

Amidst those dreary miles of thorny thickets
jacketing parched plains and searing river valleys
of Capricorn in Africa,
sequestered haunts of antelope and leopard
where paths are few and people seldom venture,
a welcoming sight among repelling thorns:
the mupangara bush with tassels pink and yellow
to decorate the hats of chiefs.

As a young forester new to the African bush poetic sentiments
sometimes vied to override more practical needs. Landmarks, even
distinctive trees and bushes such as the pretty mupangara
(Dichrostachys glomerata) were few, and this could be a problem.
I soon discovered that the best way not to become lost or start
walking in circles, was to adopt an attitude of patient confidence –
a kind of submission to an unseen guiding hand. This attitude, I
found, would always steer me where I wanted to go, without
having constantly to be thinking about direction. Later on, I found
that it worked equally well in dense rainforest; and later on still,
that it worked in urban surroundings too, even in strange cities.
That I had "discovered" some sort of instinct, I had no doubt.
But was it a truly human instinct, or an animal instinct, or
even a plant instinct? I had no doubt too that this guidance – so
faint and rusty with disuse – was the same guidance that allowed
man at the dawn of time – or even hunter-gatherers of the present
day – to roam the earth in search of food, and then to find the way
back home. Only very slowly did it dawn on me that this gentle
nudging could possibly be a stirring of the soul, for so long
suppressed. And if this soul could really come to awareness, and
if the soul knew what needed to be known, then not only personal
problems but the major problems facing the world - problems of
natural resources, of good stewardship, of good relations could soon
belong to the past.

5: The World Unified

The Nature of Subud

The Need for Patience, Sincerity, and Submission

Receiving the Latihan Kejiwaan

Acceptance of One's Own Contents

The Nature of “Passions”

Spiritual Vibrations and Inner Movement

Penetration of the Inner Feelings

Holding Imagination at Bay

Inner Smells: Incense and Burning Rubbish

The Way of Death

The Occult must be Left Behind

Spiritual Greenness

The Necessity for Conscious Awareness

Through Dreams and Mythological Images

Accumulated Faults and the Laws of Karma

The Process of Purification

The Spiritual Necessity of Purification

Spiritual Education

Repentance and Atonement

Experiencing the Practical Workings of Purgatory

Climbing Back Through Nature

Spiritual Crisis

Rungs in the Ladder

The Uphill Path

Successive Layers of Soul

Stressful Experiences

Material Passions Lending Strength

The Unencumbered Soul

Gaining and Losing Wisdom

Slow Passage Through the Plant Kingdom

The Green Man as Gatekeeper

Loss of Material Security

The Dawning of Understanding

A Time to Perceive Unity

Allowing Nature to Fall into Place

All Things Work Together For Good

The Last Chance?

 ...To take Subud as a religious movement or a philosophical system,
 is to reduce the reality of Susila Budhi Dharma to its mere concept
 – the ritual without the content, the sharia without the hakekah, the
 form without the Spirit. It is also to court disappointment. Subud
 cannot be merely an organisation apart from the people who have
 been opened and who take part in it. Subud is people, and the
 desire to be Subud must be submissive and come from within.

Let me relate a personal experience which may illustrate what Subud
 is all about: When Pak Subuh visited London in the early spring of
 1967 I went to one of the Subud gatherings which was held in a
 large meeting hall. Characteristic of those comparatively early Subud
 gatherings, several hundred Subud members were present, not just
 from Britain but from all over the world. I arrived rather late, just
 before the latihan was about to commence. I had been opened in
 Subud only since the previous year, and I still felt somewhat
 awkward and unworthy, very conscious of all my faults and
 weaknesses – very much the odd one out. Bapak glanced at me as I
 came in, and I remember thinking: “What am I doing in this sort of
 company? I'm not wanted here. Well, if you don't want me, Bapak,
 I'll be off!” The latihan commenced, and all those hundreds of people
 began their whirling and wailing, singing, crying, laughing, running and
 dancing. I still stood near the door. Bapak was somewhere on the
 other side of that huge room, and in between us that swirling mass of
 bodies. Suddenly, a broad, clear corridor of empty space opened
 between us as the crowd of people parted, as if swept to either side,
 each individual immersed in his own latihan and, of course, quite
 oblivious to my own little drama. As we stood, Bapak and I, looking
 at each other from either end of this broad strip of empty carpet, I
 felt the most indescribable wave of pure love flowing from him into
 me. Irresistibly, my arms were lifted high above my head in worship,
 and my doubts fled. I knew then what Isaac Watts meant by
   : Love so amazing, so Divine,
     Demands my soul, my life, my all.

GLOSSARY

About Words

As the Hindu Teaching has it:

Our minds are in confusion over matters of the soul because of theendless
contradictions of our teachers – because of the imperfection of words.

Sometimes an unfamilar word or phrase can make more sense than
a familiar one, simply because we are trying to describe some new
or unfamiliar concept. If we use a familiar description, the implication
 is that we already understand whatever is being described.
In Greening of the Soul I have borrowed words from various
sources because English words cannot adequately describe the
issues raised. Probably, neither can words borrowed from the
Sanskrit, from Sufi tradition, from Javan mythology, from Arabic,
from Moslem or Hindu or Buddhist or Christian tradition, or any
other source, do any better. Religious emotion can serve no
purpose; passions and desires will prove counter-productive.
Modern psychological terms too are out of place: spiritual
experience is not be arrived at through exploring the layers of
mind. The point is, spiritual matters have no solid, material basis
which can be analysed or made logical, and the path of Susila
Budhi Dharma is indeed a spiritual one, though it applies to us here
and now, living in our own real, solidly material bodies.It may well
be that my choice of descriptive words in this book will seem offensive
or aggravating to some readers, for various reasons. My own
experience in Subud has shown me that this is likely. Intellectual
people in particular do tend to suppose that because a word has a
certain origin, it can have no meaning beyond its own cultural
ambience, its own world view, its own religious or philosophical
background. The solution is simple: If a word offends you, pluck it out,
or, at least, change it for one that you prefer. Words are just words.

Dreamstairway, Unit C18, Maws Craft Centre, Jackfield, Telford, TF8 7LS. England

Contact : Raymond Foster at : raymond@dreamstairway.co.uk Tel : 01746 861330