Introduction to Sumarah History

'Sumarah' is a Javanese word referring to the condition of total surrender. Thus the name Paguyuban Sumarah, the Indonesian spiritual association our practices have grown from, is itself nearly an adequate description of both the aim and nature of our practice. The aim of meditation, most often called ‘sujud’ within the Indonesian group, is to surrender every aspect of personal being so the self functions as a vehicle for God's will.
Keynotes of practice
          Sumarah is practice andhas no canon of official teachings or sacred texts. Meditation sessions do not involve special rituals or mantras. There are no ‘guru’; in principal every person is meant to focus only on learning through what registers in their own interior experience. While there is understanding that levels of consciousness differ, that some members are ‘elder’ in the practice, there is no validation for focusing on personalities. The direction of attention is firmly ‘inward’ and the authority meditators are meant to attend to is that of the ‘true teacher’ (guru sejati or hakiki being terms for this) inside. No one is supposed to rely on the authority another claims.
The keynotes of practice are simple: First centering, through attuning intuitively to the whole body, in all its dimensions and parts. Secondly surrendering, opening totally and relaxing to allow the release of all tensions, resistance or blockages. Within Sumarah it is understood that this happens naturally in the sense that even the process of opening and realization is guided by God or Nature and does not require concentration, pressure or stress.
Guidance (Tuntunan) within group sessions is a critical vehicle for practice--through it each individual increases awareness of both their own process and of the ways our inner worlds are linked. Guides, called pamong, speak spontaneously on the basis of their attunement to those participating and to the Tuntunan. If their words have value to others it is understood to be because they articulate experience which is collectively witnessed.
Alternatively meditation may take place in silence, or with only a few pertinent comments. In any case even conversation within the meditation context is meant to catalyze movement on a path each participant is understood as treading individually. There is no fixed form of teaching, not even of technique; as each practitioner or guide finds their own way or style.
Variation is validated by the theory implicit within Sumarah. Where there is uniformity in experience or style that often implies mechanical reproduction or imitation rather than allowing the free flowering of life energies. This understanding is even linked to acknowledgment that in every country or local cultural context the textures and styles of interaction and imagination will be different. Thus leaders within the Indonesian organization have often stressed that it only facilitates networking of practices within the country. Meanwhile internationally followers who have come to know it there must discover through the way guidance is received in their own contexts how collective practice is experienced in their homes.
          Nevertheless, those who enter the practice have often begun with the Sesanggeman, a term which literally means "vows". In English it may be closer to the intent of the term to stress that these points highlight the convictions and objectives which underlie practice. In summary the Sesanggeman clarify that:
Sumarah is a brotherhood dedicated to total meditative surrender. It is grounded in certainty that one Truth underlies all religions. It works toward spiritual and material harmony; toward health of body and peace of heart. It works to strengthen the brotherhood of man through compassionate acceptance of daily responsibilities, response to social needs, and harmony with life as it is. It needs no force, haste, pretension or egoism; but respects others and endeavors to raise consciousness of our common goal. It is not fanatical, but grows from and relies on the Truth which benefits all.
          Sumarah emphasizes the autonomous revelatory origins of its practice and the movement has always stressed that it is not a ‘religion’ and has no connection with a particular religion. Nevertheless some keynotes of common practice resonate clearly with Sufism. This is natural, as most members within Indonesia are Muslim so Sufi vocabularies are the natural vehicle for their ideas. Certainly as practice is geared toward conscious realization of and surrender to God it can be seen as focussed on what orthodox Islam terms "the greater jihad", the path of inner and self critical purification.
Meditation sessions take place on a weekly basis in ordinary homes, most often of advanced members who may function as guides. Most members attend a group session each week while continuing individual practice at home. The core of dedicated mediators and active pamong often spend every night of the week with the Sumarah groups. But no matter how much time is spent in meditation or in sessions with other members, all Sumarah members continue to lead normal existences of working for a livelihood and participating in family life. The aim of practice is not isolation from society, but a balance of outer (lahir) and inner (batin) being. According to Sumarah it is only when we manifest compassion for all beings through service within society that we are really showing we are in tune with God's will, harmonized with all being. Synoptic history
          Currently Sumarah is an association of about six thousand. The seat of the organization, the Dewan Pimpinan Pusat (DPP) is in Jakarta. Other major regional centers include Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Semarang, Magelang, Madiun, Ponogoro, Kediri, Malang and Surabaya. In Jakarta and Bandung membership is small and confined largely to ethnic Javanese civil servants and professionals who were members before moving there. In the heartland of Central and East Java membership is more heterogeneous and in a few regions, notably Madiun, a large number of villagers joined.
          The origins of Sumarah lie in the experiences of Sukinohartono during the 1930s. By then Pak Kino, as he was usually called, had been an active spiritual seeker for several decades. He was born at the turn of the century in a village in Wonosari, not far from the court city of Yogyakarta. He began as a teacher, then worked as a minor court official and bank clerk until his death in 1970. After his revelatory experiences of 1935, a small circle of friends began to share his practice and by 1940 the seeds of an organization had been sown through most of the major towns Central and East Java. Those seeds began to germinate during the Second World War, under Japanese occupation. During the revolutionary struggle of the late 1940s an influx of many new and younger members gave rise to the need for a formal organization.
          Thus just as Indonesia gained acceptance in the world of nations, the association crystallized into what is now ‘Paguyuban Sumarah’, usually referred to as just "Sumarah". From 1950 until 1966 the formal organization was led by Dr Surono and still centered in Yogyakarta. From 1966 until his death in 1997 the key leader was Arymurthy in Jakarta. Since 1997 first Sumarsono and then Sukosudarso have been organizational leaders. Throughout the period since independence Sumarah has been one of the several dozen most prominent national movements within the sphere of aliran kebatinan. (mystical groups). Although not one of the largest movements it has been especially important, because its leaders have simultaneously been active within the umbrella organizations which represent kebatinan on the national scene.
          In Sumarah the revolution brought together two contrary vectors of change. Socially there has been institutionalization; spiritually a democratization, a spreading of charisma. From a social perspective the key turning points for the movement came in 1950 and 1966. From a spiritual perspective different ‘phases’ have been identified with shifting focus in meditation practice. Phase I began in 1935, phase II in 1950, phase III in 1957. Phase IV was recognized in late 1974 and several others followed in rapid succession. From this spiritual vantage point the core process has been a diffusion of hakiki from the center down to the roots.
          Hakiki, the defining characteristic of Sumarah as a spiritual association, is the source of spiritual authority and authenticity, the channel through which spiritual guidance comes directly from God or Nature to the individual. Between 1935 and 1950 it was felt that hakiki was concentrated within a small circle of half a dozen founding members. From 1950 to 1957 it became accessible to leaders throughout the organization and since 1957 it has reached a far larger circle of advanced members. The spreading of hakiki has not been a matter of leaders ‘revealing secrets' to initiates. By definition hakiki cannot be controlled by individuals - the process has been based on the gradual maturation of practice and fuller consciousness on the part of practitioners. While there have been associated changes in meditation technique and guidance, from an internal perspective the central process has been a spreading of hakiki and increasing surrender to God's will that receiving it implies.
International developments
          Sumarah has no formal international organization. Paguyuban Sumarah in Indonesia has consistently held that its function was only to facilitate connections for practice within Indonesia and so only Indonesians are 'members' of the organization. Nevertheless an informal network of international 'followers of the practice' (anggota berjemaah as they are called in Indonesia) began to become active in 1971, after Paul Stange connected with it and, then together with Suyono Hamongdarsono, began to interpret to facilitate foreign participation.
          Most international followers have known the organization through its Solo (Surakarta) branch, especially through the guidance of pamong as Pak Sri Sempoerno, Pak Wondo, Pak Darno Ong, Pak Reso and Pak Arymurthy. Friends from Europe, North America and Australia have remained in contact with each other, only as an informal network, mainly through repeatedly revisiting Indonesia and meeting there.
          During these three decades there have been several dozen western followers who have spent periods of years joining in Sumarah practice in Indonesia and taking it with them as an active part of their lives at home. Several hundred have joined for periods of months. Perhaps a dozen international Sumarah friends have at times been able to function as guides (pamong; there is no 'official' measure of such status) in their home contexts.
          In North America, where friends have been scattered, it became clear in the 1970s that most continued connecting to Sumarah 'internally' while 'externally', in formal activities, connecting with other related spiritual practices--a pattern very consistent with Sumarah principles. In Australia concentrations of friends started meeting together informally in Perth, Canberra and Melbourne in the late 1970s and in several places have continued to the present. Since the l990s there have also been meetings in Greece, Germany, France and Italy.
          Informal meetings which include guided meditation continue in all of these places without being actively linked to each other; in each place developments take a different pattern (also consistent with Sumarah principles). During the past several years networking, leading toward the creation of this web site, has been stimulated through the pattern of 'workshopping' Sumarah practice which has been developed by Laura Romano at first through the invitation in 1994 by Andrea Bocconi an Italian therapist from the Psycosynthesis school (Assagioli) and then in 1995 by Christina Stelzer a former student of Suprapto (Prapto) Suryodarmo, a Solo based teacher of healing movement who in the past had also practiced Sumarah meditation. Prapto's network began to develop in the early 1980s through collaboration with German movement and therapy teachers and many of them have also practiced Sumarah meditation during their periods in Java.
          These days the Sumarah international network continues to grow steadily.