Bapak would like to explain the spiritual path, the worship of the One God. All of you ladies and gentlemen who haven't been doing the training ( latihan ) for a very long time yet, need to some extent to listen to the explanations Bapak will be presenting, so that you may obtain some degree of understanding of these matters.

The spiritual training ( latihan kejiwaan ) of Subud is actually worship of God on the part of humankind. This is so, despite the fact that it isn't yet a way or a form of worship that people -such as all of you, ladies and gentlemen - are accustomed to seeing. It doesn't resemble the ways in which people ordinarily show respect and submission to God or to their superiors. Yet in reality it is still the true way of worship. The reason for this is that, although in the training there are as yet no signs of order, nevertheless the reason that you are able, ladies and gentlemen, to move and to be moved from within is that you have moments, or periods, when your hearts, minds and desires ( nafsu ), ladies and gentlemen, are opened, or have stopped working.

It's clear that the movements you've already experienced at such moments, already received, are movements that arise for reasons beyond anticipation, beyond the thoughts of the mind, and beyond the human desires as well. In fact, these movements - or what all of you ladies and gentlemen have received - are nothing new. In ancient times, or since those days, this experience, or something very much like it, has been received by human beings.

And why should it have come about that finally - and especially at the present time - such movements of life, such gifts from God, which were formerly received by human beings - and by large numbers of them, too - are it seems, no longer felt by human beings? It's because, up to the present time, as one age has succeeded the previous one, the human race has grown more and more susceptible to the influence of the world. As a result, the mind, and even the heart, have inevitably adapted to the progress of the age. And, as a result of this historical progress, as a result of the progress of the mind, ultimately the brains and hearts of mankind have come to play an important role in human activity - an even more important role in human activity than the awakening of the inner feeling, which should also be fulfilling its function.

And, because of the idleness of the inner feeling ( rasa diri ) and because, with the passage of time, the human brain and heart have come to work increasingly harder, the result is that human beings focus the thoughts of the mind more on externals, paying more attention to worldly things, more attention to the state of the world than to the inner feeling, than to their own lives. And because of this, many human beings have a greater belief in what happens outside of themselves - a greater belief in what exists outside the human self- than in their own selves. Ultimately, then, many members of the human race are no longer aware of the nature of what is there inside their personalities, or their inner feeling.

And so it has come about that many people feel unfamiliar with, feel that they no longer have any understanding of, the question of whether there really are life forces that initiate all human actions before they're carried out, for example, before a person begins to do work and such things. For example, Bapak would like to explain that before human beings receive that they should take the first step in, say, walking, tasting, seeing, listening, smelling, talking, experiencing, and also willing something, as well as thinking about something, in actual fact they have been preceded by life forces within them, or those forces have contributed their strength to the action.

This being the situation, it's clearer then that human life was preceded, was begun, by the power of God. And this is true not only of the human beings themselves, but also of their being born and the fact that they can work, or have abilities and power.

And therefore it is commanded or taught in the various religions that humankind must remember God, believe in God, with a feeling of love, surrender, trust and sincerity, so that, in this way, people can easily find a contact with the life that is always present within the human self.

As for the reason why as yet nothing like this is encountered much in religion, for instance - or the reason that it's not yet possible to find a contact with what is present within the self- it is not the fault of the teachings within religion. It's caused by the progress of the age. It's caused, as Bapak has said, by the heights reached by the human mind. The result of these things is that, without even realizing that they have forgotten their humanity, people, like it or not, have been borne along the stream of worldly knowledge rather than knowledge of the soul ( jiwa ).

And so, because humankind is constantly facing conditions of that kind on this earth, God has never ceased giving the human race, among so many, a way eventually to change ( inaudible ); for the other creatures, for example human beings, to experience it over and over and to become aware that within the individual self, or within the self, there is actually a vibration of life or a contact with the greatness of God, which is always there, or always present, in the inner feeling.

So in fact it's not that God doesn't always give to humankind. The problem is with humankind. The greed of the human desires ( nafsu ), added to - and this is how it is here on this earth - the force of the worldly conditions that continually influence the human heart have finally made humankind forget that guidance is always present within the self- guidance that can be followed in order to enable life in this world to be lived out in happiness. And the same is true for the life after death.

As was said or recited by the Prophet Jesus - and it's told in the Gospel, 'Know, humankind, that God is constantly observing you, both inwardly and outwardly. So you must really and truly remain conscious of your state, you must believe in God and worship God sincerely, so that you may obtain guidance and receive who it is that is constantly overseeing, constantly present in, the inner feeling.'

But as it turns out, these words, so good and so beneficial, have been taken by many - especially those already accustomed to using their minds and hearts - to mean that God and His power can be thought about in the mind and comprehended both by the thoughts of the mind and by the desires of the passions ( nafsu ).

So, with their minds, with the desires of their hearts, many of them have been searching, and what they've been searching for is a way to find the power of God, or the true way of life. But, ultimately, all that they've been able to find is not what they had been thinking about, but mental disarray and confused desires instead. This is because they've forgotten that God is the Creator. It's God who is the creator of human beings - of the human heart, the human mind and the human soul.

Certainly humankind is not going to be able to find out with the mind where God is and what His power is like, not unless humankind gives priority to worship. Worship means serving God, being God's servant, and surrendering everything within the human self to God's glory. With man's surrender, with man's complete trust in God - meaning that people no longer have the power to do anything at all - the outcome will be the ability to feel, to receive, a contact with the life that precedes all human actions, or precedes everything within the human self.

So it's clear that only after the power of the desires ( nafsu ) of the human mind have been immobilized can human beings receive and feel this contact with the life that originates in the power of God. The real meaning of this is that, as far as the One God is concerned, human beings are simply ordinary tools at such times.

That is really the true nature of human beings in relation to the One God. Of course, human beings are not mere material objects. Human beings aren't tables or chairs. So, although it was just said that human beings are tools, or Bapak used the word 'tool' to describe human beings, the meaning was a tool of God; and these tools are human beings, and therefore have feelings and good character. In deepest truth, although they are tools, Bapak doesn't say that they are tools like, for example, tables and chairs, implements used by people. No. It's rather that human beings are God's tools, having the nature of tools.

Human beings will automatically become able to feel and to receive how God works on them. They'll eventually become able to receive this in the feelings. They'll become able to receive this in their understanding too. They'll also become able to receive this as their knowledge. Therefore, although it's still in the beginning stages - and at the present time doesn't yet show any signs of the order that it's supposed to have - the training ( latihan ) that all of you have received will finally reach the stage where all of you will be able, ladies and gentlemen, with the awareness of your soul really to feel the power of God, really to understand it, really to know it, and also to follow in the footsteps of God's power. And then humankind will be able, with the consciousness of the soul, to know things that are beyond the scope of human knowledge.

Such are the benefits of following God and worshipping God. They start with the human being's physical body. With this worship, it will of itself be rescued from danger. An example of the dangers to the physical body would be the diseases that constantly attack the human self and influence it.

It's clear that if human worship of God has originated from God's power, or God's greatness, it will have the nature of a contact with the life, with the vibration of life, within the individual self. And the movements of the life within human beings, which penetrate the walls of our physical bodies, will by themselves go on doing their work until they have cleansed the feelings of the heart, or the egocentric aspect of humankind. Where there were formerly wrong feelings - for example wrong desires, before the human soul, or the contact with that life, had commenced its work inside - there will be feelings that are no longer wrong. And the right way, the way that leads to well-being in life, will be found.

Although evil hearts and wrong understanding are not considered illnesses from the standpoint of day-to-day experience, evil hearts and wrong understanding are in fact even more dangerous than diseases within the flesh and blood of the human self.

This is the reason why in religion there is so much advice to the human race counseling people to fear doing wrong, to fear performing actions that are aroused, brought into being, by hearts that are not good. This is because the human heart that is not good, and human understanding that is also not right, can be set right only by worshipping God, or by a fear of God that will make a person avoid wrong actions.

( The recording ends abruptly )

Translated by Muhammad Mansur Medeiros