The Silent Pilgrimage: Then, Now and From Here to Where? Prospects and Opportunities for the Maiyah in A Globalised World
Kuliah Ijazah Maiyah, Monday 14 November 2011
To All my fellow travelers in the Maiyah and on the Silent Pilgrimage…
WHEN CAK NUN first asked me to contribute a paper to this Ijazah Maiyah event, he suggested that I review the Prospects and Opportunities for the Maiyah in A Globalised World, where we examine the potential for the work to either embrace or reject the Maiyah initiative. I plan to do this through the motif of The Silent Pilgrimage, which I believe has great currency internationally, because it provides us an international context for Cak Nun’s and Kiai Kanjeng’s travels abroad to communities overseas. Aside from reviewing our own, the Maiyah’s activities in an international context, I will also examine what the response has been to the Maiyah from overseas through the work of some selected individuals. Finally, I will review where we, the Maiyah, might connect better and farther in the world, and what our prospects and opportunities might be. As English is the international language, and in order to ensure as much accuracy as possible, I am following Cak Nun’s suggestion to use English.
The Maiyah has international context in that its core values and interests are represented overseas by the travels of Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng. My first involvement with these activities was as little more than an active spectator during Kiai Kanjeng’s first UK tour seven years ago in November 2004. In The Silent Pilgrimage I termed it “Crossing The Borders”. There were great demands on the group during a cold winter in the UK.
Promotional materials for the tour included Cak Nun’s The Nation of the Laughing People which was written in both English and bahasa and from which Cak Nun would draw thematically on the tour. Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng performed at a number of UK venues during the following week, after which Cak Nun and Ibu Novia continued on to Europe for a lecture tour taking in Bern, Zurich and Geneva and other European cities. On the first tour Kiai Kanjeng performed in four UK cities, namely London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Accounts of the performances can be found in many sources, including The Silent Pilgrimage, but the main purpose of this discussion is to identify lessons learnt and what might be done in future.
In The Silent Pilgrimage we write that the tour demonstrated very well the universal appeal of Kiai Kanjeng’s music and the contribution it makes to harmonious understanding among peoples. This is our key advantage. While preparing for the tour, Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng put together a package of publicity materials. A pamphlet was included with texts based on comments made by observers and audiences at previous international performances. One major difference between 2004 and now is the new wealth of opportunities offered by social networking and the internet. In planning future international activities, we should assess what advantage we can take from podcasts, Youtube and other channels. Similarly, once relationships have been established with institutions like the BBC, who among us maintains them and works to achieve the best advantage from them? We should consider the assignment of a specialized team to work with me on such matters. Kiai Kanjeng recorded two sets, each consisting of ten songs. The first consisted of original songs by Kiai Kanjeng, offering the gamelan a global music perspective in which contemporary motifs were combined with ethnic nuances. The second consisted of newer arrangements of popular songs that had been given the gamelan ‘treatment’, such as songs by the Beatles, Rod Stewart and Cat Stevens.
Key relationships with academics at institutions like SOAS have been maintained quite well. The academic links that Kiai Kanjeng and the Maiyah enjoy around the world in Europe, the US and Australia are among the most resilient and valuable. Kiai Kanjeng’s performance on Thursday November 25th when Kiai Kanjeng performed at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London, when Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng first met Cat Stevens; Yusuf Islam. Then in March and April 2005 Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng toured the UK again on a tour that in The Silent Pilgrimage was described as Cultural Diplomacy, a term that Cak Nun liked to use. This was on the invitation of The Muslim News, where Kiai Kanjeng would lend a unique cultural performance to the presentation of awards to Muslim achievers of excellence in various fields that included medical science, sports, the sciences, economics and the arts in Europe.
THE MUSLIM News Awards for Excellence 2005 were held before an audience of about 600 special invitees at the Ball Room of the Inter-continental Hotel London. In attendance were three leaders of Muslims of Europe, three British cabinet ministers, a number of ambassadors, the award winners themselves and the-Chancellor Gordon Brown. Kiai Kanjeng’s Nia and Yuli recited passages from the Holy Koran before Kiai Kanjeng started their performance. Again this event demonstrated the closeness that Kiai Kanjeng can achieve to international influencers and decision-makers.
Kiai Kanjeng’s performances can be considered pioneering not only in their global explorations, arrangements and innovation, but in breaking ground among Muslims. We in the Maiyah need to build on these achievements incrementally and ensure that we advance our values and interests as conveyed by performances and encounters with communities in the UK, Europe, Egypt, Malaysia and Australia. Gordon Brown’s presence at the awards led him to quote three sayings of the Prophet Muhammad on social cohesion and the importance of tolerance. He said that the musical expression of Kiai Kanjeng was an example of the “cohesion of a social power” referred to in the saying of the Prophet Muhammad “Almuslimu lilmuslimi kalbunyan yasyuddu ba’dhuhum ba’dla”, a Muslim and another, a man and his fellow man, one and the other are mutually strengthening factors. This is the work and strength of the Maiyah’s international context.
Brown said that the diversity of nuances and the cohesion of global pluralism reflected by the pattern of arrangements and the sound of the music of Kiai Kanjeng aptly picture the ideals we are fighting for and which we should achieve in the world of today and of tomorrow. “Islam,” said Brown, “contains principles of teaching and knowledge that inspire the development of humanity on the earth for the future.” In addition to shows in Aberdeen, Kiai Kanjeng would also visit Berlin, Rome, Naples and Teramo with the theme: “Music is the way – smiles without pretence for warmth and friendship that never ends”
The Italian leg of the tour gave Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng a chance to reflect on the last days of Pope John Paul II. Cak Nun later wrote that in his opinion, the show at the Conservatorio Di Musica San Pietro A Majella, Naples, could be called the climax of all performances given by Kiai Kanjeng in this second tour of Europe. He said that in London Kiai Kanjeng had worked hard to ‘tame’ their creativity in order to properly address the international air of Islamophobia that they perceived to be a dominant cultural force. At the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, they devoted their talents to building the human and cultural relationship between the Indonesian and the Scottish peoples. This performance, at Strathcona Hall, was an example of Cultural Diplomacy in Action.
In Germany Kiai Kanjeng adapted their music to afford a sense of political and cultural diplomacy. In Rome they offered their creativity to the beauty of religious tolerance, particularly to the solemn atmosphere following the death of Pope John Paul II.
Cak Nun concluded this report by writing that there were “many lessons to learn” from the European tour, of the various ‘mysteries and unusual events’ experienced during the tour; the temperatures, the weather, and the necessity of transporting the large volumes of equipment required by Kiai Kanjeng; of the performance at the Conservatory, the Mecca of classical music, of Naples and the situation following the death of Pope John Paul II.
WE IN the Maiyah have a treasure of materials to draw from in promoting Kiai Kanjeng abroad. In 2005 their arrival in Aberdeen, Scotland, Europe’s oil capital, was not just a major arts event but a cultural and humanist event, and essentially a political event too in that it had substance, both implicit and explicit. Kiai Kanjeng’s presence allowed the Scots who attended to immerse themselves in the enjoyment of inter-cultural exchange and humanity, where political sentiments about ‘Indonesia’ and the psychological issue of “Islamophobia” appeared trivial and unimportant. The atmosphere in the forum demonstrated the ‘global intimacy’ that could be achieved among people without the barriers of nationality, politics, religion or anything else for that matter. This is the work that the Maiyah needs to build on its international context.
Cak Nun said that “World politics is breaking up the global community. Economic capitalism reduces people to fundamental ideologies and a range of mainstream values that drive divisions between them, estranging them behind artificial barriers. But in our music this evening we will discover the enjoyment of being together”.
Cak Nun described how during the European and other tours, Kiai Kanjeng had faced questions and even resistance with regard to their identity as Muslims. At times they felt challenged by what they described as two overriding “obstructions to communication,” namely the image of Indonesia as a “country in disorder” and the problem of “Islamophobia”, particularly as Kiai Kanjeng were very closely identified with Islam. There had ven been requests that the performance and music should not contain ‘Islamic elements’. Even when Kiai Kanjeng gave the assurance that not a single element would “indicate Islam”, audience everywhere, from Scotland to Australia have most been impacted deepest by the Islamic elements, which are present in even the simplest of musical motifs, with Shalawat bringing the deepest responses.
Kiai Kanjeng’s tours abroad have intended to demonstrate that human and cultural openness can do away with political blocks between people. Any Islamophobia among an audience (the “do we look like terrorists? question) quickly becomes unimportant when the music starts.
2006 saw a number of international events for Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng; a year that was punctuated by a number of disasters in Indonesia. These included the May 27th earthquake in Yogyakarta, a further earthquake on Java’s southern coast and the Lapindo mud disaster in Sidoarjo. On Wednesday August 30th Cak Nun and I departed for the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and five days of forums and literary events. We attended a literary dinner the first night and later the same night spent a couple of hours conducting radio interviews with an old friend of Cak Nun, Sri Dean. The festival was held at Melbourne’s Malthouse. Our first engagement was on the theme of “Neighbours”. There was also an opportunity for Cak Nun to speak at several interfaith dialogs.
Rosemary Cameron, the Festival Director for The Age, had noted in her invitation that supporters of Cak Nun’s work had brought his work to her attention and that the festival would like to invite him as one of its principal guests. Over 200 writers were expected to attend, and attendance in 2005 reached almost 40,000 over the ten-day event. Ms. Cameron wrote that the Melbourne audience would be very interested to engage with Cak Nun’s work and that Cak Nun himself would find an appreciative audience, keen to hear his thoughts and ideas. It is clear that in several decades of international literature festivals and writing programs in Holland, Australia and the USA, Cak Nun has attracted a small army of devoted fans. Those who can read bahasa Indonesia devour his work voraciously wherever they can, while those who cannot are forced to rely on opportunities such as these, where they can engage with him in a meet-the-author style dialogue.
Though well known in Indonesia, Cak Nun has gone largely unrecognized for his contribution to literature and Islamic thought. However, he often finds appreciative audiences abroad, where his poetry and prose find avid readers. This is ironic because for thousands upon thousands of Indonesians Cak Nun is considered a spiritual giant, a devotional guru, to some: a saint or a modern Wali of Islam. Here too is an open opportunity for the Maiyah and its international context. We should be serving that overseas community and filling its demands better. For our first festival session, this was the description:
“All the shades of Islam, from fundamentalist to secularist, appear in the culture of Indonesia. John Martinkus, Emha Ainun Nadjib and Ian L. Betts discuss the internal struggle for the soul of the archipelago and the political implications for the nation and Australia.”
CAK NUN DESCRIBED the diverse range of Islamic cultures and attitudes in Indonesia, working to emphasise the nature of the threat posed by fundamentalists, which he characterised as one essentially driven by a very tiny minority. We also held an exposition of Cak Nun’s life and work through the showing of short extracts from films, a screened presentation and discussion on the book, The Silent Pilgrimage, and a dialogue with Cak Nun himself. As a result, a small but dedicated audience enjoyed an hour of music and discourse. More importantly, afterwards as we mingled outside we made many new contacts with new readers and interested participants. One was Dewi Anggraeni, a journalist, who we would meet again that evening, and who wrote about Cak Nun’s appearance at the festival. Again, the Maiyah need not wait for Australian academics and festival organizers to invite Cak Nun; we should maintain our international perspective, watch for opportunities to engage and actively make materials available.
In October 2005 we began preparations for Kiai Kanjeng’s first trip to Finland. We had been contacted by Seppo Koistinen, who was the Director for the Union for Christian Culture in Helsinki, Finland. Of all the events where they would appear, Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng reported particular success with the workshops for children. Kiai Kanjeng had an opening day performance at The International Cultural Centre in Caisa. Then they had a performance at the Islamic Society, largely to be attended by children. There were two other concerts for schoolchildren at The International Cultural Centre, as well as a performance at the Mungkiniemi Church and a concert during the multicultural evening at The WeeGee House, Espoo. Cak Nun wrote a special text for the tour on Maiyah – Humanism And Togetherness. In it, he talked about Maiyah and constructing traditions for improved local popular thought; about providing a clear form of informal political training and capacity-building and awareness of rights and obligations as people and citizens. He talked about allowing for, at each event, people to be present of all groups and backgrounds, adherents of various religions, ethnic groups and representatives of political parties. Maiyah served to discuss local problems, and national ones, as well as the background to global-internasionalism, and initiating dialogue on possible solutions.
Up to that point, i.e., from June 1998 until October 2006, Maiyah gatherings had been held in more than 21 provinces, 376 regencies, 930 sub-districts and 1,300 villages throughout Indonesia. Kiai Kanjeng had also been invited to perform in many countries including a 6-city tour of Egypt, 4 cities in Malaysia, 4 cities in Australia, 4 cities in England, 1 city in Germany, 1 in Scotland and 3 in Italy. These activities are not restricted to certain political lines of thought, a particular religion, tribe, ethnic or social grouping. People often require that Kiai Kanjeng and Cak Nun provide a form of informal education and leadership training in a variety of contexts which have to do with social problem solving:
Cak Nun wrote that his vision of the Maiyah is that Kiai Kanjeng should appear for the people, and always help to unite them: people with people, people with nature, people with God; to appreciate the differences between people, to strive to penetrate to the hearts of people, appealing to their hearts and minds for compromise together in happiness and beauty. That is what is know as Maiyah: where people are encouraged to respect each other, to avoid what divides them, to persist in advocating and healing with love, warning against every symptom of injustice, discrimination and marginalisation of every kind among people, and also to help to guard against instances where people raise above themselves things that are rightly the place of God.
Kiai Kanjeng again made good connections with organizers, church and mosque leaders and academics. Upon returning to Indonesia there was some media interest in the tour, largely as a result of an article written by Anu Lounela, PhD Candidate, Social Studies and Anthropology, University of Helsinki, Finland, who spent a lot of time with Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng during the tour. This again stresses the importance of links with academics.
Cak Nun was due to make a closing address in English at the Cultural Forum, the event which was at the heart of the Finnish tour. Amien Rais was also present. For some time before the event Cak Nun wrestled with the contents of what he was going to say, the context of his comments, the manner in which they would be received and related issues. Eventually he settled on a series of nine points which comprised the essence of what he wished to convey. Those points stressed division, enmity and separation, and the potential to bring us all closer together in real unity, for peace and fellowship among people and peoples. He wrote about authoritarianism, the abuse of power and injustice, arguing that humanity was at the apex of its civilization and perhaps its very existence. We had, he said, quite literally, reached the ‘end of the road’. That social ideology we call ‘democracy’ could take us not one step further, he said. The Maiyah, however, can realize the possibility of human warmth and fellowship among people and peoples and with nature. His final point stressed the striving for knowledge, arguing that the politics and statehood, technology and human advancement had contributed to disorder in world, leading to divisiveness and estrangement among us, costing at times the lives of millions and the destruction of the environment, the natural as well as the built. To respond to this is the opportunity and the duty of the Maiyah.
2006 HAD NOT gotten off to an auspicious start for relations between Islamic cultures and others. A controversy had erupted over cartoons published in the Danish daily Jyllands Post which offend Muslims for their depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in various guises and situations. Around the world Danish goods were boycotted and Danish diplomats hounded, often by angry mobs, including in Indonesia, where there was an attempt to storm the embassy by extreme groups. Cak Nun’s response was as usual, unlike many others. He penned an article for ‘GATRA’ entitled ‘Caricatures of Love’, in which he challenged all sides in the dispute to refrain from violence and step back from the brink of conflict. The article first appeared in the Indonesian language as a column in Gatra Magazine, Indonesia, Number 15 Monday February 20th, 2006.
Cak Nun wrote of the great tolerance practiced and encouraged by the Prophet Muhammad, who was persecuted and abused for many of the early years of his mission. Cak Nun noted that Denmark, as a part of Scandinavia, sets great store by the maturity of the democracy that it has achieved. One of the ‘sacred verses’ of democracy is freedom of expression. The freedom of the press is held in particularly high regard. Cak Nun wrote that a number of his companions had asked him whether he was not upset or angry at the caricatures. He replied that:
“With all insults and abuses I love the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad. He was the man most beloved of Allah. How could there be one molecule of my living being that is not filled with love for him? … All insults, irritations, abuses and faults, as brutal as they can possibly be, could not decrease the extent of my capacity for love. Love for the Prophet fills my soul and my life, and my love for family, friends, country and nation, for the entire community: becomes more beautiful, more filled with brightness and filled with peace, in the womb of my love for him. Whatever the potency of any insult, it cannot compare to the absolute certainty of death, while my love for him rises above life and death. And if the prophet was never angry, if he was kind and always forgave those who insulted him: how could a person who loves the Prophet of Allah dare to offer anything but kindness and forgiveness?”
Insults, he wrote, serve to raise Muhammad higher in his heaven. He wrote of the great insight, clarity of thought, strength and calm which he had gained from the example of the Prophet’s life – none of which could be reduced by any insult. He concluded by asking whether those angered by the caricatures had studied the history of the Danes; their ways of thought and experiences, and if so, were they still shocked by their modes of expression? Based on what expression of ‘Danish-ness’ and with what perspective on reality would you expect anything but caricatures like those?
In 2008 a similar issue led to a seven-city tour of the Netherlands for Kiai Kanjeng during which Cak Nun referred to The Clash of Ignorance that Geert Wilders had speaheaded there with his controversial film “Fitna”. Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng had an active program of concerts and seminars. The tour was entitled Voices & Visions: An Indonesian Muslim Poet Sings a Multifaceted Society and described in promotional materials as an intercultural and inter-religious project, fostered by the Protestant Church in The Netherlands and executed by the Centre for Reflection of the Protestant Church and its Hendrik Kraemer Institute, in close cooperation with Java Enterprises (Indonesia in Events, Music, Food, Dance & Culture).
In March the Jakarta Post wrote that the invitation was intended to help deal with possible negative impacts resulting from the screening of the controversial film on Islam by Geert Wilders, “Fitna”, which was due for screening nationwide in the Netherlands on 24 March. Cak Nun said at the time that the group were invited to “bridge the parties that may be dragged into conflicts due to the screening of the film.” He said it would not be the first time he and his group had been invited to calm tensions between conflicting communities through music and cultural performances.
It was perhaps no surprise that Kiai Kenjeng were selected to make the trip. Academics and community leaders in the Netherlands have long been aware of Cak Nun’s work in the field of interfaith relations. Behind the initiative were Prof. Nelly Van Doren of the Valparaiso University, Indiana, Aart Verbug of the Centre for Reflection of the Protestant Church and the Hendrik Kraemer Institute.
DURING THEIR first concerts in the Netherlands they played in churches to large audiences composed of a multitude of people from a wide variety national groupings resident in the Netherlands, from Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco, Iraq and Iran, and of course from the Netherlands. Their repertoire included songs in Dutch, Arabic and English, from both Christian and Muslim cultures. They included versions of universal western classics such as Imagine, Stand By Me, Everything I do and Love Story; all given the KiaiKanjeng gamelan treatment. A highpoint of each concert was a climactic rendition of “Kalimah”, a song with lyrics by the Lebanese singer, Majdah Rumi, adapted by Kiai Kanjeng and delivered in Arabic and English by Ibu Novia.
In late 2005 and early 2006 Cak Nun had already commented on the growing controversy surrounding the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. It is perhaps no surprise therefore that based on this background of inter-faith and intercultural comment and engagement, the Centre for Reflection of the Protestant Church and its Hendrik Kraemer Institute made their invitation to Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng.
On Thursday 9 October, with a number of successful concerts behind him, Cak Nun and Iby Novia were invited to meet with Mr. Edwin Keijzer, Advisor for Relations with the Islamic World, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting was held at the Indonesian embassy and hosted there by Mr. Siswo Pramono, Minister Counselor for Political Affairs. A number of key issues emerged during the meeting, which demonstrate the power that the Maiyah can command if it wishes, through Cak Nun’s advocacy.
One of the people who is most well-qualified to discuss Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng from an international perspective is Professor Anne K. Rasmussen, Associate Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology at The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, U.S.A. Ibu Anne has made an extensive study of their work and often discusses it in academic forums in the UK, the USA and other venues. Not only is she an expert in the theory of Kiai Kanjeng’s music, she plays it too, often performing with Kiai Kanjeng during her visits to Indonesia when she joins the group on stage, playing on traditional instruments, describing their history and use in bahasa Indonesia to amazed audiences. In 2005 Anne wrote an article entitled “Gamelan Dakwah: The Arab Musical Aesthetic in Indonesian Islam”, originally published in World of Music, but later included in her own book. She talks of the nine Wali Songo and refers to a possible 10th, Cak Nun himself.
Ibu Anne writes that Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng showcase the reality of Indonesian social and political culture – poverty, corruption, hard work and daily life in urban and rural settings. One important source is the VCD “Berhijrah dari Kegelapan“, “Flight from Darkness”, in which Cak Nun speaks to the crisis of faith among the Indonesian people. She refers to Ilir-Ilir as an archetypal example of the work of Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng.
Ibu Anne emphasizes the significance of Cak Nun‘s work, the performance art, hundreds of pages of his prose and poetry and his humanitarian work, referring to him as “perhaps the 10th Wali”. Ibu Anne has done more for the international context of the Maiyah than perhaps anyone. Most centrally, she relates that Berhijrah dari Kegelapan locates Islam and its power to unite a community locally, in Jakarta and in Java…and perhaps anywhere…both theatrically and musically.
My last reference is to Timothy Daniels, associate professor at Hofstra University in the USA who in 2009 had published his book “Islamic Spectrum in Java”. In it he examines Locating “Islam” Between Thin Veneer and Normative Piety, Dukun, Kyai and Ustadz: Healing along the Spectrum, Social Drama, Dangdut and Popular Culture, Muslim Puritans, Cultural Dakwah and Reformation, Student Theatre, Social Critique and Equalization and lately a full chapter on Maiyah, Communitas and Common People. Timothy has made a detailed study of the Maiyah, noting that concept Maiyah evokes a powerful sense of communion and togetherness. Maiyah or Maiyahan, derived from Ma’iyah and Ma’a in Arabic, means to be with you, connected, and along with you. In a pamphlet from 2002 entitled Salam Maiyah, he refers to the movement’s principles and poetry and prose, explaining the meaning of Maiyah. It also stated that this term is based in the sayings of Prophet Musa (Moses) and Prophet Muhammad as they shored up the faith of their respective followers telling them that Allah is with them. In poetic passages this pamphlet describes Maiyah as “being together with Allah and the Messenger of Allah” and struggling, patiently and with “mature knowledge,” to bring the world in harmony with this sense of togetherness.
Timothy refers to the principles of Maiyah, including discussing the importance of the triangle of Love (Allah-Muhammad-Humanity), Truth-Goodness-Beauty and the Vertical and Horizontal axis of Heaven and Earth. In his conclusion he writes of the sources of ecstasy produced through Maiyah selawat and zikr in pursuit of syafaat Rasul and kodrat Allah and their significance for participants and for the processes of equalization. A growing number of Indonesians are attracted to this movement, he writes, not just because of its critical analysis of social problems, but because of the powerful feelings of peace and psychological catharsis they experience singing thanks and praises to Allah and His Messenger.
IN ESSENCE, he concludes, many Indonesians that have grown weary of all the political posturing and rhetoric during the Reformation Era find a welcome reprieve from it in the Maiyah. It seems that the Maiyah movement has already created a microcosmic space, where Communitas has resisted routinization, not becoming part of the social structure like many other movements that have emerged or developed during this Reformation Era. While many spontaneous forms of protest that emerged in this period may be on the decline as organizations splinter into smaller routinized groups performing regular public demonstrations and other activities or develop into political parties or NGOs, the Maiyah may very well keep the fires of equalization burning most brightly outside of the hierarchical structures of bureaucratic institutions.
Timothy Daniels has done us all a great service by identifying the key terms, impacts and importance of the concept of equalization for the Maiyah.
In this paper I have aimed to demonstrate both the international context of Maiyah already achieved through the work of Cak Nun and Kiai Kanjeng and also some points for thought and action pertaining to the current situation and prospects for the future. In essence I would say that there are tremendous opportunities for us to do more in the international context in this global age of social networking media and technology. I seek ideas and on how that might be done. Cak Nun referred to the extent to which the Maiyah could be either embraced or rejected by this globalised world but reading the above I am encouraged by the prospects for the Maiyah to be embraced. Let us continue to connect with other around the world; to bring the message and values of the Maiyah to receptive communities around the world in both established and new ways.
I would like to close by thanking all those who have helped me in my work to bring the Maiyah to an international context and act as a channel for it. I would also like to apologize to the many individuals who have played a role in this work but who are not mentioned here.