Ladies and gentlemen, tonight Bapak would like to give you :some explanations about the spiritual training ( latihan ) of Subud that you have received.
The spiritual training of Subud is actually man's worship of Almighty God. Although it does not seem like people worshipping in the usual way, it is in fact worship that is willed by God. When you first received it, you experienced a contact from the power and greatness of God. Actually, this contact between human beings and the power of God is not new. It existed before, when human beings were still inwardly united with God's power.
Why, then, are you only now receiving the contact from the power of God? It's because for a very long time, for generations, your ancestors have experienced the pressures of this world that constantly oppress the inner feeling, and these worldly pressures and influences have obstructed and tightly blocked the contact between God's power inside you and God's power outside. Whereas the life within a human being - which is impossible to show in the ordinary way - is not only connected with the power of God outside, it is actually one with it.
It is only now, ladies and gentlemen - and perhaps it is God's will, now that Bapak is here - that whatever has closed up your inner feeling, which formerly could effect a unity between inner and outer, has begun to be opened and cleared. After the opening of this cover, or obstruction, which has influenced your inner feeling for so long, your physical members will gradually be brought to life and put in order, and the fine and the coarse will return to their original good condition.
It is God's will for human beings that they should be able to make themselves happy and secure, not only in this world, but also later on, in the world of the life after death. In fact, you may be able to test and be aware of this yourselves one day, but for now, Bapak needs to give an explanation.
It is not God's will that human beings should be created ( to live ) in this world just for a time, and then just to die, and that's all. Human beings have been created in this world so that they can experience life, or conditions of life, from the lowest to the highest. Those who received a revelation or gift from God before Bapak ( received this ) said that man's life in this world is an opportunity to do good works. The meaning of doing good works is that human beings in this world should be able to receive God's will, which is written and stored away deep within their hearts. And with God's instructions and promises written within their breasts, they should be able to carry them out, and have good characters and behave and live like civilized human beings.
It is God's will that human beings should create something really useful in this world, which can really make their lives secure, and make them happy and safe, in this world and in their lives after death. It is like when you give something to your children. You don't give it to them to break or neglect. You give it to them to take good care of, so that it can give them pleasure, nobility, welfare or happiness.
But, because human beings are covered up, as their physical instruments have had to adjust to the conditions of this world, through their negligence they have become influenced by, and finally bow down to, the material things that they themselves have made. Human beings, in their hearts and inner feelings, have been overcome by the things in this world, until these material things are their life and soul. For example, if a very rich man suddenly loses his wealth, he may fall sick or even die.
Such is the influence of this world that has penetrated man's inner feeling and settled in man's heart, that human beings, without wanting to, have forgotten that Almighty God is more worthy and more noble than material things. As a result of the material force that has influenced their hearts, people are sometimes not against killing their friends or even their own brothers, just for material things.
However, it is not God's will for human beings to distance themselves from material objects. Human beings are required to provide for their life, to make this world beautiful, to make this world a place that can really benefit mankind, where people can live harmoniously one with another. In such a place, in a world they have arranged so neatly, human beings will not depart from their worship of the One God. They will not forget their worship of the One God, so they will become aware that their lives in this world are willed by God only for doing good works and to experience ( life ), and also that God wills that human beings should be able to return to the perfect human world, which is nobler than this one.
The prophets in former times, among them Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, said that the real glory is in God's kingdom, not in this world. Why is it God's will for human beings to return to the perfect human world, which is nobler than this one? The reason is that God created human beings to be higher than material things, plants and animals. So if human beings live in this world just like animals, if they just look for food, get married, compete and fight with one another, and then die, there is no point in God creating man as an excellent creature, higher in his true state than the animals. Clearly, human beings are created by God so that they can return to occupy their original noble place, which is higher and better than this world.
Therefore, it is God's will for human beings that, while they are working to provide for the needs of their lives in the world and for their happiness, they should not forget that one day they will certainly die. When a person dies, at that very moment, whatever he has acquired in this world, whether it be material things or some special ability or knowledge, will disappear. But if a human being really keeps the promise that is written and stamped and exists within him or her - the so-called de ethieke element, which is deep inside his inner heart - his consciousness will be opened, so that he can be aware that what is really required of him in life is to worship Almighty God.
In Islam - the explanation Bapak is going to give may be strange to you - it is said that in the kalbu of man - kalbu means what is deep within the inner heart of man - God has written is mark. In the same way, when a man makes a car, the parts of the car are stamped with the man's name. Now, when a human being can become aware of this, his inner feeling will open, and he will know from these signs the right way for his life. In Islam this is called an aspect of zat Allah, which means a state, a sign of God's power. Bapak says 'sign' not in the sense of a man-made sign or stamp. The sign within means life, and as Bapak said earlier, you have now received that life. Perhaps this still feels strange to you, because it cannot be thought about, and you cannot understand what it means.
When you were opened, and when you received the latihan, you all felt a kind of thrill deep within you. That is the sign of life Bapak is talking about. And by itself, this life you have felt within you will get stronger and stronger - not stronger in the sense of strength, but it will pervade and permeate until it envelops your whole being, the coarse, the fine and the very fine. So far, you are all still at the beginning, at the first level. If Bapak may illustrate this, you are still like small children in kindergarten. So you have not yet begun to learn your ABC. You have only been learning, for instance, how to carry books, how to write, how to go to school, how to get up early in the morning and prepare for school. When Bapak compares you to small children, Bapak does not wish to belittle those of you who are already old, and who have a great deal of knowledge. But this is the spiritual reality.
It is not your soul ( jiwa ) that is old and has a lot of knowledge, but your desires and your thinking mind. So, even if you are old and mature, your soul has only just been born, it has only just received the contact. So naturally you will experience a kind of sequential progression, like small children do when they begin to learn at school.
Later, you will receive and experience how the soul ( jiwa ) works, and the nature of God's gift that you have received in your human soul, so eventually, ladies and gentlemen, you will be able to reach the level required for your well-being and happiness, both in this world and in the life after death.
As Bapak said earlier, the part of us that has to be cleaned and brought back to life first is our coarse physical body. Why does it start with the coarse members of our physical body, the lowest and outermost parts of us? Well, it was our coarse physical body that was first affected by conditions in this world. And our experiences in this world, as we got to know it and became affected by it, brought about a change in the soft, fine nerves and vessels. Bapak means that, as a result of our experiences in this world, the fine nerves and vessels in our coarse physical body can change so that they no longer follow God's will contained deep in our inner hearts.
Clearly, it is the thinking mind, the imagination and the desires that cause sickness to come to the coarse human physical body, and bring wrong into the inner feeling. The experts state that the real cause is man's brain - de juiste oorzaak. Now through the latihan you have received, this will change by itself. It will be changed. You will be moved, so that these faults can be cleaned, and your organs will be able to return to their original state, as willed by God and written within your being, as Bapak said just now.
However, this latihan of Subud is not just for curing illness. It is not a latihan to treat us when we are sick. The most important thing is our worship of Almighty God, and this brings with it good health and the improvement of our inner feeling, which has become wrong and impaired. In the latihan, what is trained in us is not only our physical body, but also our heart, our thinking and our brain. Who can train us, except God Himself? We are trained in the latihan so that our body becomes healthy again, our heart becomes healthy again and our brain becomes healthy again. So, clearly, if human beings really worship God properly, if that worship is really in accordance with God's will, they will not only be saved later on after death, but also in their lives in this world, they will become real human beings, called in Islam believers, or human beings who are really pure in heart and in spirit, as exemplified by the life of Jesus Christ.
When Bapak says it is not only our visible, coarse physical body that is trained in the latihan but also our heart and brain, Bapak says 'trained', but of course we cannot possibly use our own will. We cannot possibly use our brain and thinking mind. Because if we still work with our desires and our brains, how can God train something that won't keep still? Suppose, ladies and gentlemen, you make a table, or repair a broken table, how would you be able to do it if the table is always moving around? So, for God to be able really to work on you, it is necessary for you to stop, quieten yourselves and be calm.
Do not think about it, or try to understand what you have received, because by strengthening and using your thinking mind, which wants to understand, by strengthening your wish to be aware, you will stop the way of working of your soul (jiwa), which has just begun. One day, the time will come when you will understand and become aware, because your heart and brain, your desires and thinking will have been cleaned and corrected by God, so that you will easily understand about your life. Bapak's hope for you is that you will follow Bapak's advice to be patient and to strengthen your faith in God.
You all know, even if you have only read it in books, you all believe that Almighty God envelops everything, both what can be seen as well as what cannot be seen, and both within us and outside us. Of course, it is not easy for the thinking mind, or for people who are thinkers to believe in God, because they cannot believe in something for which there is no proof, which cannot be seen or heard or thought about. This is because there is nothing really to convince them. But if they had clear proof, like what you have all received, they would surely say, 'I confess that within me there really is a vibration of life, so that it is not I who wants to walk, not I who wants to do this and that.' So, spontaneously, they would become aware of clear proofs that the real life exists within our being.
For Bapak - and perhaps you also feel this - it is a real blessing, an inestimable gift, that in this century, in which human beings have such quick thinking and have forgotten their belief in God, there is proof that God's power really exists.
Bapak always says this training ( latihan ) is not from Bapak. Bapak is just an example. Bapak does not put himself forward. Bapak is an ordinary human being. If he doesn't eat, he gets hungry. If he doesn't sleep, he feels sleepy. Since Bapak is perhaps required by God as an introduction, as the first one to receive what God has given to mankind, Bapak has in reality an obligation to give this to anyone who wants it, without distinction. What Bapak has received is not for a nation, nor for any special group, but for mankind, so that human beings should not always forget God or forget themselves, until they finally have very little inner strength left. So do not think or feel that what Bapak has passed on to you and what you now receive may not stay with you after Bapak goes. Bapak received this for mankind, not just for Bapak.
Even when Bapak leaves you, and maybe even if Bapak dies, it will still be, and will always be, there, within you all.
Clearly, this is not some esoteric knowledge, or a teaching, or something that can be taught by one person to another, and stamped with that person's name, for example, 'Pak Subuh's teaching.' It is from Almighty God. Bapak only opens the curtain, opens the stopper that has suppressed the life within man's self from the time of the first human beings until now.
As an illustration, it is as if Bapak sows an apple seed within you. The apple will grow by itself until it eventually bears fruit. Bapak doesn't tell the apple, 'Right, tomorrow morning grow this branch and this leaf.' It happens by itself. So the apple grows branches, then leaves, then its branches grow this way and that way, and then the apples appear, but not because it has been taught. As soon as Bapak has planted it, it begins to grow, by itself.
This is not a teaching but a receiving that human beings receive from Almighty God so that their soul ( jiwa ) may grow and develop. The way of developing will be in accordance with what is within you. Bapak hopes you will not be in a hurry. It is not necessary to wish to receive quickly. But do not, on the other hand, become bored with receiving the latihan. We have to surrender with patience, trust and sincere submission, and have faith in Almighty God. Then, one day you will all bear fruit, like the apple. 'Oh, here are some flowers. Ah, here's some fruit.' And it will happen by itself.
Bapak hopes you will not worry or feel any anxiety. Have faith that if we worship God without using the desires or the thinking mind, we will surely receive something that is not from the desires or the thinking mind. If we do not use our thinking mind or our desires, we will certainly not be influenced by the devils, because devils operate through the desires, through our thinking. Eventually, you will receive proof and evidence of the reality, like the brothers and sisters in London who, to some extent, have been able to witness the growth of the soul. And this will happen by itself, as in Bapak s illustration about the growth of the apple tree.
This is all for now, ladies and gentlemen. Bapak will end this explanation to you because the time is finished. Also, the tape is nearly finished. But do not be disappointed, because as long as Bapak is here, Bapak will continue to give you clarifications.
Bapak would like to ask your forgiveness if Bapak has said anything that is out of place.
That is all. Thank you very much.