Ladies and gentlemen, Bapak gives thanks to the One God that Bapak is able to come and be with you, brothers and sisters of Subud, in this city. It is not only you who feel grateful to God because you are able to meet Bapak. Bapak himself also feels grateful to God that Bapak still has the opportunity to come here and meet all of you. Although the time is short, and Bapak can only stay two nights, it is a blessing for all of us that Bapak can meet you and be with you, ladies and gentlemen.
As usual, Bapak will give some clarifications about what you have been receiving and doing in the spiritual training ( latihan ) of Subud, which you are all following. Indeed, seen with ordinary eyes, at first glance, this Subud training looks like an ordinary exercise. But, in reality, this Subud training is man's worship of the One God. Why is this? Perhaps one day, ladies and gentlemen, you will be able to know and understand for yourselves what Bapak just said here. But, in the meantime, Bapak needs to explain why Bapak said that this training is man's worship of God. It is because the movements you receive come when you are in a clean state and your desires and thinking are quiet. The movements come and happen when all the thinking, desires and self-will of a human being have stopped.
So, in truth, this is a force that can penetrate all the temptations that exist in man's heart and thinking mind. And then it can awaken the inner feeling, which has long been oppressed, buried and disturbed by the constant pressure of worldly desires.
In fact, this is not new. It is not something man has obtained in this century. It is not what people usually call a new religion. It is none of these things. In reality, this has existed since man has existed on this earth. Therefore, the real nature of what is in Subud is like a reawakening or a repeat of what human beings received long ago. But the receiving was eventually closed up by the progress of the world, and by man's progress. For as time went on, man sought to extend more and more the height and breadth of his thinking mind, so the life of man's real nature that is within his inner being closed up by itself.
So this Subud, this training ( latihan ) you receive, is a reminder - of times long ago - that man should remember God again and sincerely believe in God again, so that man should not go too far and neglect Him, and feel as though God did not exist, and that man can live by himself. This is the essence of this spiritual training of Subud. Bapak needs to explain it here, so that you can understand it and accept it. What you have received is a very great blessing. It is a reminder from the Almighty to human beings that they should remember God again. It is also a reminder that there is something for them to hold onto in life, a guidance that is not easily affected and influenced by the condition of the world, and which can dispel the constant feeling of anxiety in their hearts.
This latihan does not require you - and it is not God's will for you, ladies and gentlemen - to neglect or give up or avoid the usual responsibilities of human life in this world. You will be able to perform your worldly tasks in an orderly way, and at the same time you will always have receivings that will serve as signposts for your life on this earth.
This Subud training ( latihan ) begins at the coarsest level with this coarse physical body, so it resembles people doing sport. But, in reality, these movements are awakened from within. So our flesh and blood, and everything that is not right or not good in our coarse physical body, is stimulated and restored, not forced, to a good condition by the force from within. However, this does not mean that Subud is a way for healing people, or for curing the sick. In reality, Subud is a way for human beings to worship God. Through our worship of God, our coarse physical body can be restored to health. And this happens by itself, because it is from God's will, which exists within the self of man and stimulates our coarse physical condition. This is not ( an external ) healing, but arises because of our worship of God. It is God's will for us that we should be able to reach happiness in our life in this world.
Moreover, it does not stop with our flesh and blood and our nerves. It penetrates even to the heart and the brain of man. Through God's wisdom, through God's power and through God's grace, which we have received, we can be cleaned of all the mistakes that come from our heart or will, our passions or sex, and our brain or thinking. The kinds of illness that are in the blood, flesh and nerves of our body are not so difficult to cure or improve. But the kinds of illness that are in man's heart or in man's brain or thinking mind are really very difficult to improve. Even with the best advice, man cannot possibly change them. Only the One God, only God the Most Wise, who created us to live on this earth, can change them.
Therefore, not only do we need to follow this training ( latihan ) for a long time, but there is no limit to how long we should experience and receive this Subud training. It all depends on our own condition. It depends on our individual capacity for receiving the purification from God's power within us, so that, through God's greatness, through God's grace, all that is not good within our being can be purified.
So, with a feeling of love for all of you, children, Bapak hopes you will all follow and receive this training with complete patience, with a full feeling of love for God, and with full surrender. For this is the only way by which you can achieve what God wills for each of you. And it is only in this way that you can fulfil the wish within your heart to reach a blessed and happy life, both in this world and in the hereafter, in the life after death.
You do not need to worry, children, that receiving and following this Subud training ( latihan ) will change the beliefs you have experienced for so many years, or which you have possessed for generations - for example, Christianity. It is still necessary for you to keep up your religion. But, as you have all received in this Subud training ( latihan ), it is like a strength and firm basis within you for real faith in God, so that you will not be confused in your faith.
As Bapak said earlier, the birth of this spiritual training with the name Subud is like a repetition ( of what people received long ago ), to warn human beings to remember the One God. So this Subud is not a religion. It is a power made available to man in this present age, so that man can again receive the life force that has been closed up so long that man has now almost lost possession of it. But, long ago, something like this really was received by the prophets. For example, Jesus Christ received this. That is why Jesus Christ was able to awaken people's souls, whoever he touched, whoever he wished. But after Nabi Isa, Jesus Christ, had departed, this receiving gradually closed up, because of the progress of man's thinking mind, which always hunts and chases after greatness and heights of knowledge.
So, man forgot that which was within his being, not through neglect, but unintentionally. And this is really the essence or the true meaning of this spiritual training of Subud. So Bapak hopes, ladies and gentlemen, that you will do this training and receive it patiently. And Bapak also hopes that you will not use your thinking mind in the latihan. Do not think of anything, and do not have any wish in your heart to understand the meaning of this latihan. The latihan will arise and work by itself, because it is not man's work at all, but God's work on the self of man.
If, in this Subud spiritual training ( latihan ) of ours, we can understand with our thinking mind and our heart how God works within our being, and we try to find its purpose, it means that God and His power are no different from man. Yet you have all often read in the Bible and in the other holy books that we cannot possibly match or compare ourselves with God. For God is the One who created us, so God's greatness, God's wisdom and God's cleverness envelop and far exceed the cleverness of us humans. Bapak gives an example: man's cleverness is like a grain of wheat or a grain of rice. God's cleverness is, for example, this earth. Or our cleverness is, for example, a drop of water; God's cleverness is as large as the ocean. It is not possible for us to compare our cleverness with God's, because God is Most High, incomparably higher than we are. It is He who created us to live on this earth until our death.
For this reason, Bapak explains that we cannot mix God's work on man's self with our thinking mind, our will or our heart. It is only necessary for us to receive what God gives to us.( Recording ends abruptly )
Translated by Sofyan Brugger