Ladies and gentlemen, before Bapak talks about the way of this spiritual training ( latihan kejiwaan ) of Subud, Bapak first wishes to explain to you the nature or attributes of the One God, so that you can have some understanding, and your desires and hearts may consider for themselves how is the way to worship God. The attributes of God can be described as follows: God exists, which means He exists Without being brought into existence, but He exists because of Himself. God has power but is not subject to power. He does not perish or change. He was before anything else came into existence and He will be after everything else has passed away. He is subtler than the finest, and coarser than the coarsest. He gives, but to Him nothing can be given; He wills but cannot be willed. He is formless and not bound by location, which means that He dwells in no particular place, because His power envelops everything that He has created. God has no race or language.
The attributes of God are thus different from any other ( nature ), and cannot possibly be grasped, thought about or felt. So His nature is utterly different from the nature of the creatures created by Him. He sees, understands, hears, smells, speaks and feels without any instrument or accessory. He knows what has not yet happened, just as He knows all that has happened. Consider, on the other hand, the natures of the creatures God has created - mankind, for example. Man can think by means of his brain, can wish with his heart, can feel with the organs of his body; he can see with his eyes and hear with his ears. In short, man functions by means of his accessories and assistants. His activities are in fact limited by the organs he possesses, which are visible in his body.
Such is the difference between creatures, which have been created, and the Maker. It is impossible for human beings to think about and understand God, His condition and His power, because clearly there is such a difference in nature between the two. This is why man can only receive God's will or God's gift, if man is able to bring everything within himself to a standstill. That is why before God, the true position of man can only be that of a recipient. And in receiving from God, man will be free from all kinds of pressures and obstacles, which constantly block his inner feeling.
That is why Bapak tells you all that in receiving this worship of the latihan kejiwaan it is not necessary to meditate or concentrate your thoughts, which means that it is not necessary to think as seriously and deeply as possible about the power of God in order to receive it. All that is needed is surrender, trust, love, patience and giving oneself ( tawakal ) to the One God.
As you may have read in the history of the life of Jesus in times long ago, Jesus was able to receive and become a man upon whom revelations were bestowed, that is to say, he was able to receive God's commandments not through study, meditation or concentration, but because it was so willed by God. Because the nature of the Prophet Jesus was that of a man who was truly surrendered to God, pure and clean. And so it was too with the other prophets.
So, clearly, a revelation or gift from God can only be received by a human being who is clean, who surrenders himself to the One God with patience, love and trust. Because God knows beforehand what man desires, God best understands about man's destiny, God is most aware of what will become of man; God goes before the desires and thoughts of human beings. So to think about God, to feel about God, to meditate upon God, all these lead people further away from the One who is within their self, who is behind them.
So it is clear that the more one looks for God, the greater the distance one puts between oneself and God. The more deeply man searches for God, the greater the distance between God and man. Hence the best way is simply that man, together with everything within him, should be still, silent, conscious and at peace. Then, in that state, man will be able to feel the contact with Life, the contact with the life force that envelops all worlds and all of man's being.
But although Bapak may tell you all of this, and although this has already been set down as a precondition by all the prophets sent to mankind, it is extremely difficult for man - since he possesses all these organs such as the brain, the heart and the emotions, which never cease working - to stop the movement of his thinking, and to stop his desires and feelings, which are endlessly preoccupied with imaginary things.
That is how difficult it is for man to worship God properly, to truly stop everything going on within him. Hence many people, thinking it necessary to achieve such a state, force themselves to leave society and the pleasures of this world, to abandon their occupations, and sometimes even their wives and children. They go to secluded, isolated places, far from the crowds and all worldly activities. And there they quieten their inner feeling, they still their emotions, cease all thinking, in the hope that in this way they may be able to receive a contact with the greatness of God, receive the touch of Life, which forever envelops man inwardly and outwardly. And they lead this life of austerity not for a day or two, a month or two or a year or two, but for years and years, until they finally find this life contact within themselves.
Such is the condition of human beings who feel the need to obtain a contact with God, so that they are forced to lead a life of isolation, giving up all the usual pleasures of man. And if they obtain this, if they make contact with the life force that is within themselves - that is, the vibration of life that finally gives birth to voices, visions, smells, expressions, feelings, which grow and issue from man's inner being, and which is usually referred to as the 'voice from the world after death' - this itself only comes about because of the grace of God, the help of God.
Perhaps because God knows the situation of contemporary man, He has given something to lighten his burdens, to ease the way for people to receive the contact with the life force that always envelops him. Among those who have received this is Bapak - Bapak does not say Bapak alone, maybe there are others besides Bapak, thus Bapak says that he among others has been given this, and has brought it here to pass on to all of you the power of God, which has touched the self of man.
It is indeed the will of God that what Bapak has received is not only for Bapak himself, but for all of mankind, regardless of race or language, color or nation. Because as Bapak said earlier, a revelation is from God, and since God has no race or language, this revelation must be for all of mankind, not for one race, for this group or that group, but for mankind.
And what Bapak has passed on to all of you will work by itself, will never stop working, will always be present within you. Therefore do not fear that once Bapak goes away it will cease to be there. Once it is present it is always present, it is always there within the self of man or, to be more precise, within the self of each of you. This will enable you to worship God in your accustomed way, as a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and so on, to worship in a true manner supported with evidence that can be received and felt. So through this way of evidence, man will become able to worship God in any situation, both in his work as well as while attending a church service, while sowing or cultivating crops, or while travelling on business - in all these man will be able to worship God, because God always surrounds, guides and serves man in all his activities. It was said by Jesus and recorded in the Gospels - you may have read it yourselves -that you should believe that God is always with you.
To state it quite clearly: what you have been receiving in your latihan - that is to say, for those who have already started to receive - is the same fruit or result as that obtained by those people who left behind worldly pleasures, worldly interests, and who practiced asceticism in isolated places for years and years, as Bapak mentioned just now.
No doubt you are asking yourselves whether it is really possible for you to receive in the way Bapak has described. Bapak's answer is not maybe it is possible, but certainly it is possible, for there is already the evidence of people in England, Germany, Switzerland and other countries. At first they started out exactly as you here now, but little by little and after not even a very long time, they have become able to receive properly, such that they are able to bear witness to the reality and truth of what Bapak has been saying. Of course, the way or process of receiving is a gradual one, starting at the bottom as with a child that goes to school. He naturally does not, on his first day, enter straightaway the seventh class or the middle school, but he begins with the Frobel training ( kindergarten ), where he learns first of all how to hold a book, how to hold a pencil, how to enter school, and to obey the teacher. Only when he has learned these things does he enter the first year of elementary school.
As far as the process is concerned, Bapak may say that you are all still at the beginning, at the stage when you have just been awakened and begin to grow. It is just the thinking in mankind that is already advanced. For the knowledge of man in this present age is not knowledge for God, but knowledge for man. This kind of knowledge is quite unsuitable, quite useless for finding the way to God. In order to receive God's gift in accordance with God's own will, nothing works except to surrender, bring to a standstill, and quieten all of these activities.
And why is it that the knowledge of the mind, the knowledge of the brain, cannot be used for finding the way to God? The reason, as Bapak has said earlier, is that the nature of God is utterly different from that of man. Hence nothing within man can be applied to the nature of God, which is entirely different from the nature of man. You can consider the reality yourselves. Man's knowledge and understanding are confined within his brain, his wishes and imaginings within his heart. But when man dies, his brain and heart will be shattered and destroyed, and everything within them will collapse and vanish as well.
Now this training ( latihan ), this worship of God, is a way given to man so that he may find something that can be understood, felt and accepted without the instruments man commonly requires. So it is clear that God will bestow something on man if he is powerless, if he has lost all memory. This means that when we die and everything in us has vanished, we will receive - God will give us an awareness, a knowledge, and an understanding beyond those we had in this world. Therefore when you receive the exercise ( latihan ), you do not need to think all kinds of things, but merely accept what you receive in your inner feeling, free from all thought, desire and passion. In this way you will eventually receive from beyond your expectations, from beyond your thoughts or desires.
In reality, therefore, the spiritual training of Subud is not a teaching, such as can be transmitted from one person to another, but is an awakening of the soul ( jiwa ), which has been brought to life by the power of God. And it continues to awaken, to grow by itself. This awakening of the human soul will by itself bring out the goodness, integrity and health within the being of man. The awakening of the soul will bring the body of man to health, the heart to goodness and honesty, and the brain and thinking to faith and reality, as was willed by God for the salvation of man's life both in this world and in the hereafter. For the human soul desires that man's nature be brought into line with the human soul, such that there is both inner and outer purity, so that the external nature no longer represents an obstacle to the growth of the soul.
So from this first time, or from the outset, Bapak hopes that all of you will do the latihan with patience and with the faith that God will give you what you need, provided you keep man's promise to God, to be a mere instrument before God, which only receives God's will for him.
This is the end of Bapak's explanation this evening about the way of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Bapak will continue these explanations during the days that follow. Bapak hopes that his short explanation has given you some satisfaction, and Bapak thanks you all very much.
Translated by Sjafrudin