Ladies and gentlemen, tonight Bapak would like to give you an explanation about the training ( latihan ), in continuation of the last talk. Bapak has felt and seen your latihan, and you have made quite a bit of progress. Even though you may feel you haven't received much, you are on the way, and your training ( latihan ) is going very quickly compared with the exercises other people and other groups have been doing for years.

When you first receive the training ( latihan ), you probably make movements, and these movements quickly envelop you. The first result of the movements is that they bring about the health of your inner feeling or self, which has suffered very much. Of course, health that comes to you is very necessary. But the health received in the training is not limited to the health of the physical body; the training will also bring health in the feelings, in the heart, in the thinking and imagination.

The latihan you do is truly a way that is awakened because of God's greatness and power, which brings the body and soul ( jiwa ) of human beings to a world of happiness. The movements Bapak has been talking about will not always be visible and show your disturbance or sincerity; they will gradually become calmer and calmer. However, when the members of your body are calm, they will have become very real, so it will be easy for you to come into contact with whatever you wish. Bapak will give you evidence of this later, after this talk, so that you all can witness to some extent the working of this training ( latihan ) of ours.

Do not worry, children, that you may not continue to receive the movements or the latihan when Bapak has left here. It is certain that the latihan has come to life in all of you and exists within you. So what you have received will always grow by itself. It will increase and become clearer day by day. And eventually you will not only receive one kind of movement; you will probably receive movements of many different kinds. For the human self is really like a vast place, and is the nest of all the subhuman forces, and the forces that are above and higher than human beings. So eventually, when you have reached the stage of perfection of all your members, as Bapak mentioned just now, you will be able to receive whatever you feel is necessary, and you will be able to receive a picture within you of whatever situation you wish to know about.

Such is the scope and importance of the spiritual training you receive. It will be as if you have a teacher within your own self. Bapak, with this explanation of his, adjusts to what you have been receiving lately. In the meantime, don't imagine what will happen to you along the lines of what Bapak has been saying. Bapak only needs to explain here because it is necessary to give you all some awareness, so you don't feel confused and hesitant about doing this latihan. For, without this explanation, you all - or one of you - may be groping in your heart and comparing this training ( latihan ) with other ways you consider not right, and you may draw wrong conclusions. Indeed, it is very easy for someone who has experienced no satisfaction in the spiritual life to compare this with other ways. For the exercises of many other ways appear to be like ours.

For example, there are the exercises done in other countries, such as those of the dervishes, or those of the dancers of Bali, or perhaps you are familiar here with what is called magic. You could feel some similarity between these exercises and ours, because your experience in spiritual matters is not yet very deep or wide. But once you have a lot of experience in the training ( latihan ) and you have, let's say, just to illustrate, reached a rather deep level, you will be able to deduce that the training ( latihan ) you receive is really different from other exercises. For, what happens in the training you receive, in reality - not 'only', but 'in reality' - arises because of the power of God's greatness, which comes or is created within all of you when you are free of your wanting, your desires and thinking.

So clearly, the movement that arises in this training originates from something beyond the state of human beings. This is the way the prophets received revelations in times long ago. In a state of peacefulness, quietness and awareness, free from desire, thought and imagination, a human being will feel the vibration of life, which envelops him both outside and inside. People call it the khatir ilham ( divine inspiration ), meaning the movement of life that comes from God's grace. It is not in the breast, or in the brain, or the stomach or any of the human organs. Yet, it is there also, because of your awareness of God as a result of the peacefulness, quietness and awareness of your inner feeling, which truly repents and believes in God and entrusts itself to God with sincere submission.

It is really very difficult to describe where and what it is, because it is the presence of God's power. In Islam, it is called sifat zatullah, that is, the presence of God's power which envelops outside and inside. That is why we should never claim that it is within 'me.' And that's why it is very difficult for someone who is looking for it. People force themselves to go away from society, and away from their wives and children, and many give up the pleasures they have enjoyed for so long. Clearly, the presence of God's power that Bapak just referred to is not easily possessed or received when a human being cannot yet quieten his desire, calm his inner feeling, and paralyze his imagination and thoughts.

So, as Bapak has also said, it is an immeasurable blessing that we are able to receive this gift from the One God in a situation where we are still close to our wives and children and still do our daily work and live as people usually do. In these circumstances, it is not surprising if other groups or people think it impossible for us to receive a gift from God in a situation that is still unimpaired and in good shape, like ordinary people. You should let such talk and guess-work go in one ear and out the other, because you have to remember that God is Almighty, God is All-knowing, God is Most Wise. You can also remember what happened and how was the situation of the messengers of God, the prophets in times long ago, for example the Prophet Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. Where did the Prophet Jesus receive it from? And how was the Prophet Jesus’ life when he received it? You yourselves have heard the stories, and how at the time Jesus never meditated, never cut down on food or sleep and did not isolate himself from the crowd.

It was the same with the Prophet Muhammad. From the time he was small until his maturity, he did not force himself to go off from the crowd and isolate himself in places far away from society. Yet both of them were able to receive the words of God or a gift from God, and we can follow their advice to this day.

Such is the greatness, wisdom and omniscience of God, that human beings in fact cannot place any limits on God's will. For God in His wisdom is greater than anyone and can determine His own will. So all of you feel that in all probability this situation of ours is also from God. Why do we settle for that? Because first of all we have the examples and stories of the messengers of God long ago, and second, we have the evidence and reality that we receive whenever we do the training ( latihan ).

That's why Bapak advises you not to compare this with other exercises ( inaudible ), for it will give rise to a feeling of worry and anxiety, will impede and darken you in your receiving of the training ( latihan ). In fact, it shows that your belief, your obedience and your sincere submission to God are not yet real. For, even supposing a given teaching were not right and not real, you would eventually be able to receive the true reality through your belief, through your obedience, through your trusting that only God can give the right way for human beings to go towards God.

Clearly, truth and reality lie primarily in patience, faith, submitting sincerely, surrendering and entrusting yourselves to the One God. And the reality you have received can strengthen and confirm your belief, your trust, your surrender and patience towards the One God.

There are many stories - perhaps you have heard them here too - which have been told and passed on from mouth to mouth in India and in Indonesia. There was once a pupil who was very sincere in his obedience to God and also in following what his guru told him. However, the guru felt that if the pupil was shown the right way, he would become more clever than he was. So the guru gave his pupil guidance that would harm him and bring him low. But because in his heart the pupil, as Bapak said just now, really served what the guru told him and also believed in the greatness of the One God, Who alone could give him the way, he was able to receive in the end. Where he was supposed to receive wrongly, or fall in a hole, because of God's grace he was able to receive the right way for his life.

This is only an example to show that if you really believe in God and that only God can give you the way, even if there were something wrong in this guidance Bapak gives you, you would be diverted by God's power to the right way that you need for your life in this world and in the next.

Bapak just told you one of the stories as an example. Moreover, you really have the reality and evidence within your inner feeling from what you have received. With the evidence and reality you have received, you will yourselves be able to weigh up the goodness and rightness of what you receive. The proofs and evidence you obtain in the latihan will gradually become clearer and more real, and even without your wanting it, the real truth will arise and grow by itself. For, through God's greatness, and through God's gift, which you will receive, all your members will change and become pure, fresh and clean. So you will reach the levels Bapak has mentioned, that is, the levels of purification, and the level of awareness of your real human self.

At present, as Bapak has explained, it is not yet time for you to want to understand, interpret and know really what you have received and the reality in the broad outline, or the results of the training ( latihan ), because you have not yet reached that level. Why does Bapak say this? After all, you are not material things, or plants or animals, and you are not people who have had no education, so you can consider and feel the results if you are allowed to think or feel extensively and be aware of everything. Certainly, for ordinary learning, and for ordinary people, it should be like that. It is indeed God's will that in everything you do, and any action you want to take, you should first think, understand and be aware of what the results will be. Also, it is in the nature of human beings to have a mind and intelligence, so they have to use them.

However, don't forget that in the training ( latihan ) we receive we do not face people, as we do in the world; we face the power of God the Almighty. And God the Almighty cannot be preceded, exceeded or surpassed by the mind and intelligence of human beings. Why is this? Because God is the One who created us humans. If God created us, we humans were created by God. But if we humans were the same as God, it would not be possible for God to create us. Clearly, before God we are like material objects are to humans. How are objects to humans? They only surrender their state: they are made like this and like that, they are shaped and given corners and fashioned into plates, and created and destroyed, all by the will of humans. This is analogous to how humans are towards God. God can create us humans and today we exist, tomorrow we don't, tomorrow we exist, the day after we don't. And the earth is like this, but another time it is changed again. God is Almighty. So, in view of the difference that is so inconceivably and inestimably vast, we should be something that is powerless before the One God.

So it's how it should be if we face God's power as when we are in the training ( latihan ): we surrender. We have to surrender ourselves, body and soul, we have to surrender everything to God and believe, submit sincerely and entrust ourselves to God. And, because the One God created us, we are created by God not for a useless existence but for one that is certainly very useful for life in all its greatness.

God did not create us humans to be useless, that is to say, only to die and be buried in the ground. If you were to make something, would you, after making it, just throw it away? When you make it and fashion it, you certainly want other people to like it, to possess it, to enjoy it and approve of it. Clearly, God created human beings not just to die on this earth, but to experience something, so that they can return to the perfect world, the human world, which is greater, more prosperous and more beautiful than this earth.

Thus God created us humans. And that's why human beings are accompanied by something that is not easy to perceive, but which certainly belongs to them, and that is the real path to God, which arises and exists because of a human being's peacefulness, patience, surrender, sincere submission and trusting himself to God. And this will exist within all of our physical members, once we have reached that stage. For example, it will exist within our body, our brain and our feelings.

As Bapak has said, the power of God, which envelops the forms of life both inside and outside, exists and is unchanging. That's why Bapak explains that the power of God ( inaudible ) by God, so you will be able to receive and feel the state of a world which is truly more real than this world. Thus, you receive this training ( latihan ) as ordinary people, without depriving yourself of anything, so to the left and right people may say, 'What sort of exercise is that? An exercise of laughing, singing, sometimes crying, and sometimes all kinds of voices?' Well, yes, they don't know, because they are used to people practicing spiritual knowledge, the so-called occult knowledge where you have to be quiet and still.

That is clearly, Bapak says, out of keeping with the reality, because we direct ourselves to God, we face God. As far as we are able, we follow God's footsteps, and God, who is said to be Almighty, is not still, and is not idle, but works incessantly, more than we do. So, because God is constantly working, and never stops even for one second, it is said that the one who really lives is God. If God were to stop working, perhaps this earth would disappear, because there would be no one to steer it, and the objects created on this earth would go out of control and fall in all directions and crash into one another. Obviously, there would be chaos.

If we humans - and we humans are only God's creations -make something, we measure it, we look at it, and we arrange it so that it will have no defect and will go well; and what we have created will run smoothly. For example, if it is a car, we make sure the wheels turn smoothly and do not affect the steering. Everything is arranged in an orderly way. The more so with God the Almighty, the Most High, the Most Wise; God is more organized and neater than humans are in their work.

Clearly, if we worship God and face God, we become people who really work according to our respective lines of work. Some do this, some do that; one may be a comedian and become a millionaire; another may be a boxer and become a millionaire; another may be a conjurer and become a millionaire; another may be a writer and become a millionaire. Clearly, there is not only one way to happiness; it doesn't depend only on the cleverness of the brain. The skill of the real self will arise. Where does it arise from? God will awaken it and give it to a person if he or she is sincere and truly obedient and submissive to God.

So, the significance of the training ( latihan ) and its outcome -as Bapak said just now and as Bapak has said in previous talks -is that through the latihan you will obtain a natural skill that will arise by itself. Suppose that skill is as a comedian, for example-only Bapak is not saying you should become a comedian - your movements as a comedian will really bring happiness, not only because you like to laugh, but because people's hearts are opened by your clowning. If a person is sick in his feelings, he gets well because of your clowning in front of him. Similarly, if you have the skill of a musician, suppose a violinist arises within your real self, for example, and you work at the violin; your playing will not only bring peace and joy to the heart of whoever is listening, but may well cure a sick person as he or she hears you draw the bow across the strings.

This is really astonishing. For it is God who gives, and God's gift to human beings is beyond human fathoming and beyond all human notion. Likewise, if you study medicine and it arises from your real self and you really are a doctor in your soul ( jiwa ), it will be even more effective and one might say it will be easy for you to cure sick people. Only, a person who has such a gift from God is no longer like other people who study in the ordinary way, and his special skill will not be sold for a high price, but if necessary will be out of the good of his heart. However, if you visit people who are wealthy, don't let them not pay. They have to pay because the payment is not for yourself; you should accept it and give it to some needy person who doesn't have anything.

This is the way to arrange things, to be able to give guidance and direction to those who are hungry and in need, and take from those who really have too much. People should have the same and there should be welfare in the life of human society. This is symbolized in the story told in Christian circles, and Bapak has also seen it in a film. When the Prophet Jesus was on a hilltop, among those who were following him on the hillside were many people who were suffering, and many who were hungry. For it was a time and a society where people did not have full stomachs and many suffered from hunger. By God's grace, at the request of the Prophet Jesus - indeed, the Prophet Jesus’ request was not from his own wanting, but he was willed by God to beseech God's greatness that was within him - an immeasurable quantity of bread was created there, and it came without a cause.

This is a symbol that human beings should live on this earth in harmony and give to whoever really is in need, not to fulfill their desires, but really to help people who very much need help in their lives. The nature of what is given, in the case of wealthy people, is money or the possessions they have too much of. But in the case of a clever person, it is his cleverness that is given to anyone who needs it, to anyone who is still stupid, so they can learn how to lead their life in a good way and attain happiness in life.

So much for the symbols and their real significance, and the reality of God's gift. Bapak now returns to the training ( latihan ) we receive. The training you receive is received in a peaceful, surrendered state, where you do not want anything at all. This means it is really from the One God, who you worship in your heart, feelings, thoughts and awareness. So, if you receive something in the training, it is certainly useful, not only for yourself, but for the lives of other people who need it. This is the outcome of what we receive and do in the training; in reality, it is not for our own benefit but for the benefit of mankind in general.

This is Bapak's explanation about the significance and results of the training ( latihan ) you all receive. Bapak feels that Bapak has given you many explanations about the spiritual way we are practicing and receiving in this latihan, and many explanations also about what you will go through later on, and Bapak has given you a picture of what Bapak himself has experienced in the past. Of course, your receiving and experience will not be of the same kind as Bapak's, but along the same general lines. For example the creation and growth of your real skill comes from the self of each one of you, as Bapak described.

In addition, concerning what you all have received in your latihan, to those of you who can receive and have shown some progress, as well as those who have not yet, Bapak recommends and advises you not to give up and feel as if there's no hope. In Bapak's experience, sometimes there are people who only begin to move and awaken after three or four months or more, just when they are beginning to feel that it might still take a long time. But it is sure to grow, it is sure to awaken by itself, because Bapak can say that the seed has dropped and is sown, and will grow by itself.

This is the end of Bapak's explanation tonight concerning spiritual matters. Tomorrow, Bapak will be leaving the Netherlands, so Bapak would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye. Bapak, Ibu and the whole party take leave of you all, and Bapak prays that after Bapak has left, you will always be in God's protection, in safety and happiness. Bapak and his party thank all of you very much for your attention and for your sincerity in doing the training ( latihan ) that Bapak opened for you and gave to you.

Bapak and his party would like especially to thank the family of Mr. Tjalsma very much for always giving really pleasing and cheerful service, with nothing lacking. Bapak's prayer is simply that after Bapak leaves here, this house will be good and clean, a place where a lot of good luck comes, and where nothing is lacking.

This is all Bapak has to say to all of you who have come here and to those who are not here.

Translated by Sofyan Brugger