Ladies, today Bapak would like to explain some things in connection with the spiritual training ( latihan ) you all receive and follow. As Bapak has explained, the spiritual training you receive and follow is in reality the worship of God. The meaning of worship is that a person surrenders all that is in him, everything in his life, both in this world and in the hereafter, that is, the life after death.
Indeed, it is an obligation and very necessary for a person, who was created by God, to worship God, so that he can be aware of the true way of serving Him. Know, children, that the One God created us human beings and everything we see, the earth and all that is in the heavens. The presence of the One God is greater than us, and not only that: God's presence is something we cannot possibly surpass or know, unless it is through the will and power of the One God Himself. So, there is no way that we can worship the One God by using our mind, our understanding or our cleverness. The cleverness and excess of understanding we have is like a tiny, powerless speck compared to the power of God Who created us.
Consequently, for us human beings to be able to serve and worship God in the way God wills, we just surrender, with patience, trust and sincere submission to the greatness of the One God. In this situation, all that we humans can do is to receive whatever is God's gift to us. The kind of gift Bapak refers to in the self of man is the purification of all the various blemishes, mistakes and sins we have experienced throughout our life in this world - and perhaps also those experienced in the lives of our ancestors, from whom we are descended - so that, after we have been cleaned of all the blemishes and mistakes in our inner feeling, we will be able to follow God's will and whatever God wills for our well-being and happiness.
In reality, what all of you receive in the training ( latihan ), children, is none other than God's work. God's power works within us without our help. Our thinking mind is not required to help speed up what is being done within us. God's power, which has been given to us, works in us by itself according to the measure, strength and capacity of our being. Truly, in this matter, God is All-knowing. God sees. God is Wise. God always sees and knows the measure and state of us human beings. There is no need for you to speed up your receiving in the latihan. Just receive, and leave it to God and His wisdom. For God is All-knowing. God knows and understands your capacity as human beings for receiving something from the One God. This should be clear, then, children: what you receive is God's work entirely. It is not man's work, but it is God's decree and God's will for human beings that they should use their mind, will and passion, all their desire and ability to fulfill the needs of their life in this world.
Thus, in the life of creatures on this earth, and especially in the life of man, Bapak could say there are really two ways. The first is the way God works for the self and nature of the creatures He has created, especially human beings. The second is the way man works and safeguards his life in this world by using his thinking mind, will and passions and all the desire that is in him.
Therefore, the nature of work and action in life is really twofold. The one kind of work cannot possibly be done by man. It can only be done by God himself. Man only follows and receives. The second is work that can be done by man, that is, work in this world. In this way, our burdens - your burdens, children - will not feel heavy, because we do something that is in line with our thinking, in line with our will and desires. It is not God's will, if you wish to know God or want to know about and understand God's state, unless the time comes when God wills that you be given something, and guided and taken wherever is necessary, and shown what you need to know.
Besides receiving God's gift, it is necessary for you as human beings to do what you have to do for your worldly life as well as you can, in a situation which is as neatly arranged as possible. With the arrangement or situation Bapak is talking about, you, human beings, can use your thinking mind and your will directly for worldly matters. God Himself will take responsibility for saving human beings and giving them the way to perfection. Even though you cannot fathom, children - indeed you do not understand - how God does His work, the truth is that God and His power are at work, and give indications that are received, or are there within the self of human beings. You do not need to feel anxious or worry that God and His power may not work if you do not wish to do the training ( latihan ), or to go fast in your training. God and His power will work, and that work will always go on, and even though you do not know it, you receive it in your inner feeling.
God is working all the time, guiding everything He has created in the right direction, even when you are asleep, for example, when you are in a state of forgetting. Even when one is in a state of unconsciousness, God always guides and does His work, and the training ( latihan ) is received within the self of man. Clearly, God will always guide human beings, when they are aware of it as well as when they are not. You do not know this, children, but God knows more. You can be awakened and reminded of the One God when you are in a state of complete oblivion.
Therefore, in your worship of God, children, you live in a state of forgetting, and you also live in a state of not forgetting. Bapak will give an example to illustrate. When, finally, you approach the hour of your death, you will completely forget all that is in your mind and all the various kinds of things that are in your heart and understanding. Even so, you can be guided, you can be reminded and you can receive. In that state, you can remember. You will be made to remember and filled by God with remembering, so that you have faith in the way that leads to God as He wills.
You have to some extent experienced and received the reality of this in the training ( latihan ). When you receive the training, your receiving really looks like ordinary life. But in that ( receiving ) state, you do not use your mind or your will at all. God's work on man's self penetrates his understanding, and penetrates everything that is within him, so you feel and receive that something is happening beyond the fathoming and guesswork of your heart and mind. This gives you a clear picture of how God will instruct you later on, and how God will guide you to the path that He wills.
Before you received this spiritual training ( latihan ), it certainly did not occur to you that when we walk, God's will is hidden and stored away within our walking. Why did you not know it? Because God's power and God's strength, which is stored away inside everything that is in us, was still closed up by the passions, by the will, and by the thinking. Consequently, you did not guess that the power of God was stored within your ordinary movements, and within your speaking, seeing and hearing. This shows the reality of what was told by those who received long ago. They said that man's words to God cannot possibly reach their destination, that is, God, because man is closed up, prevented and blocked by his own speech. Man's God-directed thought, desire and love do not reach God, because man is closed up, disturbed and covered by his own thinking.
This is why, through this training ( latihan ), the disturbances coming from the thinking mind, will and passions are broken down and opened up. As a result, human beings can worship God directly, both with their physical energy and with their heart, mind and inner feeling. And their worship will reach God, for their soul ( jiwa ) has been awakened by God and cleared of the disturbances that always obstruct it.
This is how God guides human beings so that, in all their actions and behavior - in their walking, in their physical energy, and also when they feel, think or understand something - they are guided, given to know and shown the right direction for their salvation and the avoidance of all danger and calamity. Eventually, children, you will be able to work well, in accordance with your inner feeling and soul. For you will always be followed, protected and watched by the power stored inside everything that is in us.
Of course, you really long for such a situation. You wonder when you will be able to reach a level as good as that, and how you can come to it as quickly as possible. But as Bapak said before, the progress of the soul and the purification of the inner feeling do not go quickly just because they are wanted, desired, asked for and hoped for. Quickness comes only through a feeling of patience, surrender and faith in God's greatness. Only God can arrange these things. You do not know, children, the measure of your self and your capacity for receiving God's gift. God knows why it still requires time for you to reach that level. It is because you do not yet have the capacity within you. You are not yet strong. It was for this reason that those who received long ago often said: God will reveal something to man if he really surrenders to God, and really has patience, trust and sincerity in his submission to God's greatness. The true meaning of patience, surrender, trust and sincere submission is that man paralyses his human wisdom, but magnifies and extols the wisdom of God. Then it will be easy for God to give to man, and for man to receive the gift God gives to him. Such is God's work for human beings, and the nature of the training ( latihan ) all of you receive. Besides that, as Bapak said before, use your thinking mind, use your will, use all the desires you have in you to fulfil the needs of your life in this world -for example, to seek a livelihood, to look for food and clothes and whatever you need. For worldly matters use your mind, your will and the resources of energy that you have in you. But to receive the gift from God, surrender everything to God. For that is God's work, not man's work.
If you do this, children, you will be really free and light in your life in this world. You will not bring all kinds of things into your self, and you will not bring anything into your mind. There will be no block or hindrance for the development, progress and growth of your soul as it develops, grows and expands. As we fulfil the needs of our life, we will not be all mixed up. Things will go side by side, parallel. Below, man's work goes on for worldly matters, while above, God's work always goes on, always protects and always gives indications about how human beings should be. Bapak may say that the one is godsdienst ( service for God ), and the other is dienst ( service ) for man. In our life there are two requirements: one, service for God, and the other, service for man. In all your actions and behavior, you are always under the direction and supervision of the One who is the Almighty, that is, God who created us to live in this world. It is also necessary here for Bapak to clear up any misunderstanding there may be about Subud and the training ( latihan ) you receive. Do not let this Subud be misconstrued and thought or felt to be a new religion. Truly it isn't. In reality, its nature is to repeat the gift of God received by man.
Why does God's gift to man need to be repeated? At the time when man received it, man was still steadfast and still close to it, and could still receive God's guidance. However, as a result of the conditions man has had to face constantly over the generations, culminating in this present age, the receiving that was received long ago has been closed off and blocked. The human being, through no negligence of his own, has been closed up. It does not occur to him that previously there was something that happened within his being. He does not feel it any more.
Why is it that man's receiving long ago, which was like this receiving now, was forgotten over the generations? Well, surely you can guess. It is from the progress of the world, from the progress of the times, which are always changing, changing, changing, always more, more, more, increasing, increasing... and the progress of man's thinking, which is used and accepted in this world. Man is blocked as a result of the quick development of the thinking mind, whether he wants it or not. He has completely forgotten that there is something within his inner feeling that really can give indications and guidance to a human being.
Now this has come: the gift of God to man, which you have received in this spiritual latihan... Perhaps God wills that, through this, man can remember again that there is something God-given within his inner feeling, within what Islam calls the kalbu ( innermost heart ) of man. It is something ineffable. It is something that will work by itself within man's being, free from his thinking, will and desires. In Islam, it is called the sifat zat of God. Sifat means existence. Zat means power. God's power, which is stored within the self of man, now exists within all of you, children, and awakens something unexpected, that you cannot fathom.
As Bapak said before, this Subud is not a new religion, but a repeat. It repeats so that man should not go too far, and completely forget the greatness of God. Certainly, the forgetting would be a tremendous disaster for man himself. For if human beings did not believe in God, of course they would not believe each other. They would consider each other as animals, and there would be no feeling of affection or love for one another. They would live like animals: whoever wins, wins. If they win, they just want to go on winning and beating their prey. If a person were defeated, he would just be beaten relentlessly, over and over again, because there would no longer be any feeling of pity in the inner feeling.
Bapak has received, and you also have received, children, a gift, a real blessing given to man by God. For the coming of this spiritual latihan is truly free and beyond the thinking mind, desires and will. Let us not neglect it again. Let us not waste it again. Let us not put it aside again. For if this did not exist, man would live in a state of confusion. Indeed, it is not easy. God cannot be sought. It is not easy for man to know God.
If Bapak gives an example of God's power: God's greatness, or God in the reality of His nature, envelops the whole world, the whole universe, and all the clouds that we see by day and by night. How can we see the greatness and farness of the firmament? We cannot possibly know it. Whereas God envelops it, and beyond. It is impossible for man to know God, unless God Himself wills that man be guided and brought by Him to God Himself.
For now this is Bapak's explanation concerning the Subud spiritual training ( latihan ) all of you receive. As a follow-up, it will be good if Bapak adds some testing, children, so that you can receive and practice little by little, what you have received in the latihan.
Translated by Sofyan Brugger