Ladies and gentlemen, although Bapak gave you all some explanations last time, it is good if Bapak now gives you some more explanations, so that you become more aware of the aim and purpose of this spiritual training ( latihan ) of Subud.

The spiritual training that you receive and practice, ladies and gentlemen, is actually man's worship of Almighty God. So in fact this training should not really be called latihan or training, but our worship of Almighty God. For we have received this not because the human heart and mind have wanted it, but because it is the will of Almighty God, and we just receive it. And the way for us to receive it is that we have to stop our thinking, will and desires.

Therefore, what we have received is not because of our desires and our will, but only from the greatness and power of God, which is finally awakening the human soul ( jiwa ), our soul, from its former state where it was closed up and obstructed by low forces as a result of our mistakes.

With the appearance of Subud or, if Bapak may say, with what Bapak has brought here to open the human soul ( jiwa ), what was just described as belonging to man is opened and begins to work; and this you have experienced within yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. Bapak therefore hopes that you will not feel anxious or worried or annoyed, but rather that you will surrender your inner feeling and heart to God, so that the human soul, which has awakened because of God's power, may work smoothly and well and can eventually become a guide for your life. This is the way of working of the human soul, which has awakened within the human self, and actually it does not require encouragement or help from the thinking mind, the desires or the will.

In the history of life - you will eventually be able to receive and understand this yourselves, but for now Bapak needs to clarify this - that is, in the history of the life of one nature, God created the human nature as two component parts. One of these parts is also an instrument for man, but it works and can be used only for man's life after death, which means it works in a way that is not accompanied by the thinking mind and the desires. This is the human identity that has no organs or body, unlike this coarse physical body. The second part consists of the coarse visible instruments, which in the human nature or self go to make up our whole body, from the human brain to the heart, sex and other organs. This second part is necessary for man to look after or provide for his life as long as he is in this world. Clearly, then, the human nature is made up of a soul and a coarse physical body.

The coarse physical part of man's nature, the body - that is, the brain, heart and other organs - cannot participate in the work of the soul, because it is really not its place to do so. So if, ladies and gentlemen, in receiving this latihan you really let go - Bapak means: you don't think, you don't use your will, you don't want this or that - and only surrender to God, this facilitates the way the human soul works within you. Also the human brain and heart will be more free, so that in receiving what is being done by the soul we can receive with awareness, in a calm and peaceful state. Therefore Bapak hopes you will not interfere in the working of the soul with your thinking and will.

You may have heard and perhaps you also understand how other groups and communities try to find the contact with the Great Life - for example, the Brahmans and ascetics or Maharishis in India and other places, including Indonesia. In order to meet with the life contact within their inner self, they isolate themselves from society, and keep away from worldly desires.

Many of them consider this is the only way to enable them to find the life contact that envelops their self, inside and outside. When they have been able to quieten their inner feeling, get rid of their passions and desires, and quieten their thinking mind, ( they are as if ) dead like this. And then, after not just one or two days, but after a very long time, they are able to receive a force that comes from within their self. Only then, when they are in that state, do they feel that they have found what they have been searching for, namely, what is usually called the voice from within, or the voice in a state of death.

Such a state is achieved by these people with great difficulty. But now we can receive it very easily, as you have received it, ladies and gentlemen. The fruit you have received in this training is no different from the fruit obtained by the Brahmans who strive and meditate for years to get it. This is the real situation concerning what you have received, ladies and gentlemen.

You have begun to do the latihan and to worship God with an instrument that is real, an instrument that is eternal and unchanging, which does not break, which is constant and unlimited - or with an instrument that has no organs, as Bapak said just now, namely, the perfect human soul, which is in fact the guide for your life. Eventually you will be able to verify this for yourselves, when you have already received quite a lot. And if one day you happen to meet a Maharishi or ascetic or Brahman who has been making efforts for years in these things, he will be amazed.

So what we have received, what God has given to us all, is clearly the content or filler of everything within us. By filler, Bapak means the inner content or the inside of everything that there is within us. For example, when we speak, within our speaking there is a content, and that content, within people's speaking, is the human soul. And within our seeing, when we see, there is also a content. What is within it is the perfect human soul, the instrument that Bapak said just now is the filler, and which has no organs like the physical body.

Actually, it is this that is sought by the ulama ( Muslim religious scholars ) and by people who sincerely worship God, in the mosque, for example, or in church. They want to discover how and from where I can praise ( God ), and how and from where I can see, smell, listen, feel.

Why is it that people who worship God for years, who have surrendered to God for years, who have believed in the existence of God for years, are not yet able to find the contact within themselves? It is because everything in their speech, in their heart, in their brain and thinking mind is still from their desires, not from a content like the one you receive, ladies and gentlemen. Moreover, in reality, when people worship God with their hearts, without a content like the one you have received, it closes up the awakening of the human soul, which wants to awaken. In your case, ladies and gentlemen, you are all now able to receive to some extent.

Some of you still receive in movements, others are already able to cry and shout, like Mr. (...); he feels like crying, and sometimes does cry, but it's very strange, he doesn't want to cry. So why does he cry? The crying comes from his human soul. It feels very strange to him, because when he cries, sometimes his heart laughs at the same time. Why am I crying? And for someone who is laughing it also feels very strange. Why am I laughing, I don't see anything, I'm not touching anything, so why am I laughing?

A person who makes movements, like this, or this, and so on, sometimes also feels, Why is my hand going like this, what is it moving for? Because he doesn't understand the purpose within that ( movement ). In fact, it is the awakening of his human soul, which is coming to life and which wants to envelop the whole human being so that he can recognize his soul with his eyes -that is, with his sight, with his smelling, with his speech, with his hands and feet, also with his heart, as well as with his brain and thinking.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, you are all now beginning to be introduced to your real selves. Before this, although you all professed to know life, in fact you only knew the life of the desires, the will and the thinking. You did not yet know your inner self, that is, the one that lives on later, after death. So you are all now in the second phase, between knowing the one that can die and the one that cannot die. Finally, when you die, it will be as if you are retiring from work; you are replaced by someone and you have to hand the work over. It is done in a harmonious and regular way; there is a handing over. But for a person who doesn't yet know this, death is like quitting his job; he just leaves without caring who will replace him - meaning, without handing over to his real I. We know life with the desires in this world, and we know life without desires in the state after death or beyond this world. As the Prophet Jesus said, 'After this cross, I shall return to my real land, that is, the land of God, which is without end, is everlasting, and has no limits.'

Clearly, this latihan is not just any latihan or exercise, it is a latihan that human beings really need to have, because they need very much to return to their true origins, as the Prophet Jesus said, 'Return to the real land of your Father.'

By 'Father', he meant the One who creates, who brings into being. To take an example, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a child, the child would not exist if you did not exist. It is the same situation with God's bringing human beings into existence. Certainly human beings must return to God.

This is the aim and purpose of this spiritual latihan. It is not only for curing and making our body healthy. The most important thing is that we should be able to worship Almighty God, so that we can return to our true world, that world which is eternal, everlasting and unlimited. You may ask, ladies and gentlemen, 'Can the life in the human soul, which has no organs, experience this or that like we do when we are in this world?' Not like in this world, no, but more real than in this world. Because, with these human instruments of ours, the greatness and power of life that exists within the human self is limited. So without them it would be much wider.

It is usual for human beings to believe they can see because of their eyes, they can touch because of their hands, and they can think because of their brains. Yet, if one already has the real instrument, one can think without the brain, touch without the hands, see without the eyes. Later on you will become gradually more able to verify this; during the latihan, like this, the eyes, while closed, will later begin to 'open', and be able to see situations no less beautiful than those seen by the human vision in this world.

You will be able to receive this one day, but do not be in a hurry. Be patient, and later the time will come when you will get there by yourself. It will be much more interesting and satisfying there. Now you are just beginning. If we compare it to someone making a house, you have just bought the tools, ladies and gentlemen, but you have not yet begun to lay the foundation.

This is the end of Bapak's explanation about spiritual matters for the time being, ( and Bapak hopes ) that you are more or less able to understand and feel it. Now Bapak will follow up by doing some testing, so that you can receive a little of the reality of what Bapak has been saying.

Translated by Sofyan Brugger