With time and practice consciousness gradually gets stabler and the general tone of being calms; however, states of awareness are not fixed: they are part of the process of receiving reality. Situations constantly arise that require new applications of the process of receiving and responding and this constant demand for expanding consciousness and self-criticism is compared to bathing: "So you bathe today. Does that mean that you won't need to bathe again tomorrow? It's a continual process. You keep getting dirty, so you keep needing baths. It's the same way with this." Flexibility is the key to facilitating this process and refers to sensitivity and selectivity's ability to cooperate and work together. Increasing consciousness is a process that cannot be circumvented or rushed, but it can be aided by familiarity, relaxation and acceptance.
    Two stategies are used to help in attuning and increasing flexibility. The first is "Studying being able to accept criticism from anyone and anything" (Ajar gelem deelingke sapa lan apa wae). This is initially a rather philosophical position used to maintain perspective, that becomes a habitual attitude over time. Understandings are limited by nature and are constantly in the process of being contradicted and revised by reality. The quickest way to update and improve them is to be open to the total source of criticism: existence itself.
    The family context is generally the richest source of criticism and instruction, but all other aspects of life are to be approached in the same way. Opinions are to be offered with an attitude of "Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but this is what comes to me." Criticism is received as something to be resolved by reality, not by argument. Anger experienced in response to criticism is confronted in the context of your own limitations: "Well, am I always right? Is he always wrong?"
    The strategy in flexibility is coordinating sensitivity and selectivity and relates to a continuum of "willingness" (gelem) and "unwillingness" (moh). Before beginning this process, the character is made up of powerful, combative elements that compete in connection with any decision. The "should" and the "shouldn't" are both represented by batteries of emotion, argument and other tools of persuation. Each decision in life (but especially major ones) affects your total condition; your experience speaks for or against it from various perspectives. But the only reliable place to adjudge and respond to any situation is the present where the concern itself is -- not knocking about among contentious memories. The first step in relaxing and opening this process to greater sensitivity is, "Making the unwillingness willing" (Gelemke si moh). For example, you might force yourself to meditate and keep yourself relaxed whether you want to be at the moment or not. When this is done, a kind of ceasefire is imposed in the battle between the "should" and the "shouldn't" and the emotional charge attached to the decision-making process gradually diminishes.
    After your experience has settled down sufficiently, a second stage is entered, "Being willing to be unwilling" (Ngglemi si moh), which means respecting and "Being in the tools" (Manggon ana ing alate) connected with unwillingness. Any decision should be reached in the present; while the should/shouldn't argument is raging, it drowns out all but the least subtle aspects of your present situation. The first step suspends this argument and inceases sensitivity, and then the second places attention directly in the "tools", the actual responses to stimuli and fosters selectivity. Both "willingness" and "unwillingness" are founded in experience, and now attention is directed toward appreciating the rightful aspects of "unwillingness."
    The third stage is "Willingness along with unwillingness" (Moh wi gelem) and its aim is to bring balance to "willingness" and "unwillingness" in their real context. This stage is connected with "Separation from the tools" (Pisah karo alat) and involves a continual study of the actual informational content and import of your responses, which gradually can become more and more subtle and refined. The emphasis is both on receiving the responses accurately (sensitivity) and on discerning their significance (selectivity). The body is an enormous collection of informational responses. The first two stages provide the basic method for receiving and sorting out this material; now the method is applied to the great mass of undifferentiated information that makes us up and gradually subtler and subtler responses are separated out, received and understood. This is when sensitivity and selectivity learn to work together smoothly. Understanding becomes less emotionally entrenched in being right; as a result, when understanding is contradicted by experience, it can be registered and whatever adjustment may be needed can be made more quickly. Similarly, since selectivity is more responsive to contradictions arising in sensitivity, sensitivity is not forced to amplify and distort these contradictions as much in order to get them recognized. The process gets increasingly refined and operates more quickly as  selectivity learns to stay close to sensitivity and experience itself. These are the simple applied mechanics of the opening process.
    The fourth and final stage of this process is, "Can't be willing; can't be unwilling" (Moh ora isa, gelem ora isa) and is connected with "Uniting with the tools" (Manunggal karo alat). Sensitivity and selectivity become one, united in the real present (rasa murni); the ego ceases as a separated entity withdrawn from actual experience and surrender (sumarah) begins. The "can't be" wording refers to the lack of any separated will in surrender and unity of experience -- attention now goes into being here and responding as reality would have it. Responses are direct and spontaneous reactions to the situation and contain no personal input and hence no "willingness" or "unwillingness."
    The fourth stage is the basis of Sumarah's leadership practice. Leadership requires this openness to reality and the information that comes spontaneously out of it. A leader is not a person but a relationship with reality and Tuhan Yang Maha Esa.

Gelemke si moh.   Making the unwillingness willing.

Nggelemi si moh.   Being willing to be unwilling.

Moh wi gelem.   Willingness along with unwillingness.

Moh ora isa, gelem ora isa. Can't be willing; can't be   unwilling.
 

    This spontaneity sometimes results in responses and behavior that is clearly understood and sometimes brings out responses that are a surprise to all present (including the pamong). This reflects the nature of spontaneity together with the limitations of understanding. Sometimes such unanticipated reactions are later clarified and sometimes they are not. The following two incidents illustrate this.
    The first occurred before a meeting. The pamong was sitting with early arrivals, chatting and waiting for the rest to come. He saw a woman come in and suddenly felt he should take her and another woman aside. He did this without knowing why it felt proper; it turned out that the two women had had an argument the previous day that needed to be talked about. This was an instance when the reaction was clarified.
    In the second incident the pamong was going to an evening meeting with me on the back of his motorcycle. Suddenly he felt a "change" and did not know if it was proper for him to go to the meeting or if there was something else that he should do. He stopped at another leader's house and asked for an opinion. The two sat there, looking a little like hounds sniffing the rasa breeze and trying to figure out what this new scent was. The source of this one never came clear and the matter was dropped unresolved. They talked for awhile and we eventually went on to the meeting together.
    Spontaneity's importance in defining behavior is not restricted to leaders. As a person gains greater sensitivity, a simple ethic is presented, "When something inside you tells you not to do something, don't do it. When nothing inside you objects, then it's all right." For example, doing business and making a profit are all right up to a certain point. After that your feelings will tell you that you are taking advantage of your neighbors and should charge less.
    This principle applies to all behavior, not only to situations where there is a clear reason for the negative reaction. If you want to visit a friend and something tells you not to, you should not go. Here the negative feeling may mean any number of things, with one possibility simply being that the friend is not home. This is the way the information based on increased sensitivity to rasa and reality is brought into everyday life.
    The desire to do what is right is highlighted by a distinction between proper etiquette behavior (tata krama) and proper behavior (aturan). Etiquette observes the prescribed forms in this tradition rich culture; however, such socially correct behavior can be empty and inappropriate in a real sense. Proper behavior conforms to the demands of reality and is correct not in relation to some abstract schema or criterion but in relation to the real context.
    The conflict between the two codes is seen in the way leaders behave at meetings. Proper etiquette demands proper speech, observance of levels, of tone and vocabulary, but this propriety can interfere with communication -- a leader's role sometimes demands more flexibility and color. This is not to challenge etiquette's importance in some situations but to assert the importance of letting the situation define the behavior that is most appropriate. For example, Suwondo can be raucous or refined depending on whom he is talking to and the demands of communication. As we will see in one of the cases, proficiency in the art of communication is an art acquired through experience and practice -- trial and error.

    The terms and continua presented up to this point are quite specific and are used to describe a person's condition at a particular time. "Selectivity" is generally chosen to give an idea of how things are right now. Consciousness can go up and down. It might start the day calmly in ngrumangsani and then dip into ngerti and then in a moment of acceptance and contemplation, climb back up to ngakoni.
    Summarizing the material above, a person's consciousness at any given time reflects his/her relationship with that particular environment as well as whatever might be arising out of the understanding and sensitivity/selectivity process. In addition to changes that take place over time in a linear fashion from moment to moment and situation to situation, changes also come in association with a particular subject as consciousness progresses through the stages of ngerti, ngakoni, ngrumangsani and completes itself in nglengganani.

    However, there is also a broader continuum that depicts a person's general condition or level of attainment. During its history Sumarah has gone through various periods and emphases. Nowadays each leader is free to use whatever explanations and illustrations come to him, and there is a great deal of variation. The following discussion of ranks or levels of attainment is somewhat particular to Central Java and comes from one of our great masters, Suhardo, a founding member of Sumarah.
    On the path to total surrender, the first stage or rank (martabat) is "intention" (niyat), an understanding in thought (ngerti) when a person decides he wants to learn the practice and open to reality. This level is an intellectual commitment rather like deciding to attend school and get an education.
    With training and practice the intention becomes firmer and the experience allows understanding to expand and include the ego (ngakoni). The person's experience confirms his initial intention and the intention turns into "resolve" (tekad). Resolve is still an expression of the ego, though the ego is now more unified and confident about what it is doing.
    With continued practice, this resolve deepens, becoming more accepting, less founded on personal interest and more interested in giving back service for the boon received in the practice. This is where the walls of the ego come down and interaction with reality begins. It is here in "faith" or "conviction" (iman) as well that the true practice of Sumarah starts.
    Faith is sub-divided into three levels. The first is "young faith" (iman muda), when awareness settles into the heart area and is accompanied by a sensation of coolness or relief. The willingness to open to and accept reality is present but still held back by lack of practice.
    The next level is "mature faith" (iman dewasa), when consciousness of reality reaches a sense of a strong and comforting force or power; the first uncensored reception of reality and Tuhan Yang Maha Esa. This comes as a self-evident visual and physical glow of relaxed acceptance.
    Faith's third level is "true faith" (iman bulat), ego's final stage of participation before quieting in surrender. True faith is characterized by stability and calm acceptance, and is firmly established in "awareness of feeling." The stability allows the release of repressed experiential and sensory material formerly occluded by ego activity. An active ego takes the energy from these occluded senses and invests it in its own purposes. Stability and a quieting of ego processes gradually allow energy to return to these subtle sources of information and they open up again. This is where the "true teacher" (guru sejati) arises and it is at this point that the task of serving "natural law" (purba wasesa) begins in earnest as a moment-to-moment occupation. The reception of reality assumes an active rather than a passive aspect as you learn to receive the demands of reality cleanly and in the present. Gathering the consciousness necessary to enter into surrender takes time and this is what takes place during "true faith."
    After the levels of faith (iman), where ego processes are increasingly refined, stabilized and relaxed, come the levels of surrender (sumarah) where ego processes are transcended and direct congress with reality begins. The first level of surrender (sumarah 1) involves direct awareness of rasa murni as consciousness moves up to the border with Tuhan Yang Maha Esa; an expansive, engulfing experience accompanies this initial experience of the reality of being with God. In surrender the Will of Tuhan Yang Maha Esa is experienced and carried out directly. The "true teacher" is eventually transcended and comes within consciousness. In the higher levels of surrender, more and more direct contact with being and Tuhan Yang Maha Esa come and awareness goes on beyond "awareness of life" (eling ing jiwa) to a "true" or "pure awareness" (sejatining eling). We do not talk about these levels very much because effective description is impossible without experience. In fact, all of these mechanics of the opening process are essentially meaningless without their application. The levels of surrender stretch on upward as far as the service and consciousness of those who do the practice have reached in distinguishable and verifiable experience. For example, Suhardo's rank of surrender is "sumarah" followed by an enormous number.
    During Sumarah's early history, rank was observed quite formally and mature members met separately from new members. Nowadays all meetings except the leader training meeting are open; rank is quietly observed but is no longer emphasized.

  niyat      intention

  tekad      resolve (ego)

  iman muda     young faith

  iman dewasa     mature faith

  iman bulat     true faith

  sumarah     levels of surrender

    The levels of attainment are also related to "chakra." Three chakra are referred to in Sumarah; they are sometimes called by their Sufi (Arabic) names but more commonly by their Hindu-based Javanese names. The first is the lower chakra in the lower abdomen and genital region, which is bait al muqaddas in Arabic and janaloka in Javanese. This chakra is where the energy for "resolve" (tekad) comes from and is especially connected with "will" and "determination."
    The middle chakra in the heart area is called bait al muharam or hendraloka. This center is connected with rasa and the "faith" (iman) stage of development. The heart chakra is the gate to sensitivity and Sumarah is sometimes said to begin only when this chakra is entered.
    The upper chakra in the head is called bait al makmur or guruloka, and it the center where sensitivity and selectivity meet, eventually yielding the surrender stage of development.
    Development is progressive and cumulative, a process of cleansing or clearing the accumulated unreleased experiential material out of these energy channels and opening them up. After a chakra center is cleansed, the spirit and energy that were trapped in the confusion there can now move up into the next area needing attention -- the next center of confusion. Practitioners are advised to try to clear the lower center before moving up to the heart chakra. This can help to avoid a great deal of emotional turmoil. However, they are much more strongly counselled not to force the "surrender" stage of development. Pushing energy up into an uncleaned chakra is like shining a light through the dirt on a window, and in the head chakra this energy can spark disruptive reactions as the energy rocks the tenuous balance of thought and emotion before they have sorted themselves out.
 

  English               Javanese           Arabic                           Association

  lower chakra       janaloka            bait al muqaddas          resolve
    (genital)

  middle chakra    hendraloka        bait al muharam          faith
     (heart)

  upper chakra     guruloka            bait al makmur             surrender
     (head)

    Sumarah practice includes a number of consciousness-assisting or maintaining techniques. They are used to pull one out of distractions and disturbances to the daily meditation and to assist in attaining a more accepting and open reception of reality from moment to moment.
    The first is breathing, which can give you an excellent monitor on the your physical and spiritual state. Breathing provides you with an idea of what you are doing in much the same way that heart rate and blood pressure do and the Javanese tradition includes a kind of biofeedback orientation in connection with it.

The levels of breathing are napas, anapas, tan-napas and nupus. In napas the breathing is still coarse and unregulated. In anapas it is a bit more refined but actually still pretty coarse. When you get to tan-napas it starts getting refined, and then comes nupus. Napas, anapas, tan-napas and nupus are connected with the working of the heart and lungs. When breathing is coarse, the working of the lungs is unregulated, the heart beat too heavy and the circulation of the blood is too rapid and unregulated. Everything is working in excess. But if this can be relaxed, if the nerves can be relaxed, the heart isn't forced to work so hard and you actually have more endurance. But when the heart is forced to beat heavily, like when you get mad and your heart pounds, you'll get tired fast. This is usually not paid attention to. (Keratonan 4/10/80)

Sumarah counsels, but does not stress, continuous attention to refining your breathing. This tool is used primarily in identifying influences on your experience through the way your breathing varies from moment to moment. The practice also emphasizes using breathing to regulate and control sharp emotional responses.

Actually the sexual desire that comes out like that is basically just a desire, and all desires burn up energy. The amount of energy generated depends on oxygen. When oxygen use is moderate it's no problem. But when combustion gets excessive to supply the call for energy, that causes the heart to beat faster and influences body heat. At the same time it changes and strengthens the desire. Because of this, when you want to lessen a desire, exhale completely; do that in order to balance the energy and the desire so that it's not too strong. (Grogol 6/1/79)

A pamong will at times feign anger, taking a huge breath and holding it. Then he tries to maintain the angry stance while exhaling completely, demonstrating that anger is hard to keep up without a special supply of oxygen. If the anger reflects an ego perspective, it needs ego-produced energy to exist and will disappear when you relax.
    Another common technique is repeating the name of God, "Allah." Mantras as such are not used in Sumarah, but "Allah" is often called out during a meditation. The energy and associations of the word assist in the acceptance and reception of reality and help pull people out of their self-centered frames of reference. This device can also used when something disturbs your daily meditation; it can be said aloud or silently.
    Another tactic is stopping to check your disposition and looking to see where your actions and desires are coming from at that moment. This is especially advocated during conversations, and particularly for those who tend to get emotionally involved in what they are saying. The pause is used to note the emotion or influences and try to calm down.
    Still another technique is a prayer for guidance during difficult or indecisive moments. The prayer has a form like, "What would it be best for me to do?" (Kedahipun kula kados pundi?) or "What is Thy Will?" (Panjenengan kersa menopo?) This is a powerful tool for opening yourself to the situation, putting it into a proper perspective and receiving it as accurately as possible. This open sense then becomes the basis for seeking a solution eventually, putting the problem in as real a frame as possible.
    Another tactic is advocated when someone does something that seems silly or contemptible and involves a pause followed by focusing on the concept "respect" (kurmat or hormat). This concept has a number of different levels and aspects. The first and most pragmatic is that open reception demands it; letting things be as they are is a mechanical aspect of reception itself. For example, when you are listening to someone talk and find what they are saying foolish, the tendency is to pull back from the situation and either stop listening or prepare a rebuttal. In either case you are no longer here. Sumarah holds that being in the present takes precedence over such discomfort and being here requires the acceptance of all that are here with you. The scornful denial of anyone or anything's right to exist impoverishes your experience by blocking out that part of reality. This is also senseless, because whatever it is, it does in fact exist. This is sometimes hard, but a related point is that any program for coping with your situation can only be responsible if you are seeing it clearly, not denying parts of it.
    The concept of respect goes deeper to tepa slira. All human beings are fundamentally alike and we all start off as infants in the same wide-open condition of rasa murni. Life changes this initial state but a measure of commonalty is seen: that which affects A in a given way would probably have a similar affect on B. So while it may be difficult to respect a person at a given time in his life, it is impossible not to respect the rasa murni condition of the struggling infant that underlies him and is trying to return home to openness.
    At a still deeper level respect relates to the "true teacher," who is at the base of all our experience and the personal representation of reality and Tuhan Yang Maha Esa. Thus, at our essential level we are all part of the divine. In the story about Bima's search for the waters of eternal life in Chapter 6, when Bima meets Dewaruci (the true teacher) and discovers who he is, he speaks in high Javanese (krama inggil) with him; he the only character in the entire epic Bima grants such respect. Sumarah views this deep feeling of respect as being required for everyone's inner nature because, whether they are aware of it or not, everyone is a part of nature and the divine; full reception of them requires seeing this aspect of them as well. This humble respect applies to yourself as well: your inner being, your soul, exists beyond your ego just as anyone else's does, deriving your existence from the totality and managing the expression of the totality in you.