Ladies and gentlemen, tonight Bapak would like to explain your '.situation and what is necessary for you in receiving this training ( latihan ). Although Bapak gave some of these explanations last time, Bapak sees among you some newcomers, and it is very necessary for them to have these explanations about the spiritual training you have all received.

As Bapak has explained, it is not necessary to ask for explanations and clarifications about the meaning of what you receive and do in the training. Indeed, this is not a teaching that human beings can know and think about with their ordinary thinking mind, unless they have been cleaned by God's power, which is within the human self and which you have received. What you have received is the growth and awakening of your human soul ( jiwa ). Your soul is only just waking and only just beginning to develop, because it has long been closed up and obstructed by the desires, thinking mind and will.

So clearly you are now just embarking upon the period of growth and development of your human soul, and this does not require support and encouragement from the thinking mind and desires. On the contrary, the thinking mind and desires need to stop to allow the development of your human soul to go smoothly and well. You need to know that the development of the human soul is work that is carried out by God's power. The awakening occurs because of God's power, when the desires, the thinking mind and the will have stopped.

Even though you have only received a little, ladies and gentlemen, and have made only a few movements, you have yourselves experienced that if, during the latihan, you think about something, the latihan stops automatically. Clearly, your receiving of the awakening and development of the soul does not require the participation of the thinking mind, desires and will.

Such is God's work within the being of all his creatures, especially within the human self. God is the Great Creator of everything He has created, including mankind; so everything about God is very different from our human state as His creatures. It is therefore important to know and be aware that in doing this latihan it is necessary for you to surrender completely, to be very patient, and have complete trust, conviction and faith that God will protect you, God will envelop you, God will give you indications, both outside and within, both when you are in a state of awareness and when you are forgetful.

Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who are longing to ask questions and who want to understand the meaning of what you have received will later be able to understand and receive for yourselves when the time comes, when you have reached a certain level. The development and awakening of the soul does not only result in these movements that you have been receiving. With time it will get deeper and deeper, and wider and wider, until the whole human body, including the blood, the heart, the brain and the mind, is trained and worked on by God's power, so that the whole human body will become one that is really receptive to God's command and God's will.

The human heart and mind cannot understand or be aware of the difficulties within man's inner nature, and within man's will or desires. The human brain and heart are wrong, so their thinking or wishing will certainly be wrong too. The nature of the instruments used for thinking, for wishing, for desiring is still wrong. Bapak will give an example. Take, for instance, a thief. Of course, people who are not thieves say that stealing is wrong and bad, because it threatens the security of others. But the thief himself, because it is his job, feels as you do when you work in the office, or work buying and selling things, or do whatever is the good work that you do. Obviously, a person will not admit he is wrong, even if his mistake is as high as a mountain. But if someone else makes a small mistake, it is easily found out and talked about.

So the human thinking and desires will not admit or even know their own mistakes. Human beings therefore need the help of God's power, which can awaken their soul ( jiwa ), so that whether they want it or not, they are cleaned, and have to admit their mistakes. It is said in the Bible and other holy books that when a human being has died, his or her heart and brain are locked, whereas the inner feeling comes to life. Then, in that state, he is asked by God what his experiences were during his life in the world. He is forced to admit the reality; he is forced to admit the truth, because his heart is no longer his advocate, and cannot lie any more.

This process has now begun in the training ( latihan ) that you all receive. It begins with an awakening beyond your desires and your mind and, eventually, truths come out that the heart and mind have only to follow. In this way, the whole human body becomes clean and good, and can be said to be really obedient to God's commands. The awakening of the human soul, or God's gift to mankind, which you are receiving, is not necessary just to guide man for his safety and happiness in this world. Even when a man dies, or is already dead, the human soul and the human being will always be guided and will always be given indications by God to behave rightly and proceed along the true path of God.

The working of the human soul within the human self does not require support from the thinking mind, because the soul's work envelops the human mind and will, and is in reality beyond their knowledge.

Of course, ladies and gentlemen, you find this very strange, because for any teaching in the usual sense you have to know and understand its aim and goal. Of course, in the case of a teaching, you need very much to know and understand what its aim and purpose is. But this ( latihan ), as Bapak has often explained, is not a teaching but a receiving. We receive it from God's power; it is not a teaching, but it is God Himself who will give to us.

Our brain, our heart and our inner feeling contain everything we need. We can understand and become aware spontaneously, because of God, without using our minds in the way something is usually learned. Something that we can study, something we can understand, is a teaching carried out or performed by another human being. Whereas this is God's work; and the nature of Almighty God, who created us, is neither the same nor comparable to our low estate. Obviously, we will not be able to understand God's work. God created man, but man does not understand how human beings could be created. This is the difference between the Creator and mankind, between the Creator and one of the natures He created. So we need to realize and know that God's work within our human self does not require any participation from our thinking and desires.

In religion, to this day, people are asked only to worship with a pure and sincere heart, and to believe that God exists. Why is this? It is because, indeed, matters concerning God and God's work cannot possibly be known and understood by His creatures, human beings who were created by Him. That is why in religion it is advised that man should worship with a pure, clean heart. But the actual results cannot be shown; therefore many educated people tend to stay away, because they need proof and real evidence of what there actually is in that worship. Many human beings do not believe that God exists, because there is no evidence to prove it to them.

In fact there is evidence, and mankind received it long ago -for example, the Prophet Jesus whom you all know about. It is told in the Bible that the Prophet Jesus was able to heal a sick person just like that, and could help those who needed help just like that. So Jesus’ work in those times long ago is evidence that God's power always envelops those human beings who are really obedient, clean, honest and submissive to God, like the Prophet Jesus. So the power of God can be received and experienced by a human being, if that human being is really able to receive it through the purity of his heart and mind.

What was experienced by the Prophet Jesus to some extent exists now; you have each received it in your latihan. Of course, you will not be the same as the Prophet Jesus, because Jesus was different from all of you, ladies and gentlemen. Besides, the Prophet Jesus was a human being who was really clean and pure, but you are not yet like that. But because it is God's will that there are human beings who can receive in this way, of course you also can receive, ladies and gentlemen, although not like the Prophet Jesus.

You will be able to prove and verify this later, when you reach the level required for your human soul. But, of course, Bapak cannot give you any idea of how long, how many months and years it will take to reach that level, because it all depends on each one of you. Like an object that is covered with dirt, it depends on how much dirt and how heavy the dirt is that covers the object. So for those of you whose sins are not so many, of course it will be easy, while for those of you whose sins and mistakes are many, it will take rather a long time, because first you have to be cleaned of all the mistakes that are within your being. In this latihan -that is, the awakening of the soul - you need first to go through a kind of preparation, a cleansing within your self. Eventually, it will manifest by itself, it will happen by itself, when your purification is complete and your preparation is over.

Suppose, for example, you wish to be able to receive a revelation from God now, ladies and gentlemen. The desire is there, the thought is there that wants the revelation, but how will you receive it, how will you keep it, how will you use the revelation God gives you if you are not yet prepared for it? You may wish to be given a car by God, for example, if you have the money for buying the fuel, you have a garage and someone to drive the car. But you don't have them yet. You don't have any money, you don't have a garage, and you don't yet have anyone to drive the car. So if the car comes it will not help to fulfill your needs, ladies and gentlemen. It will even be an obstacle to you, because you have no garage to put it in, and if you put it outside there is no driveway, and there's no one to drive it, so it only blocks the road. This is just an example. The car is only an illustration.

So now, with this training ( latihan ), all your needs have to be taken care of. You start to make a house, for example, to make space, you already have the money to buy fuel, and you learn to drive or look for a driver. When everything is ready, God is All-knowing, God is All-understanding, so God will give to human beings what is really useful for them. God will not give us something we cannot use.

This is what is required in the spiritual training which you receive, ladies and gentlemen. Do not let the mind and desires interfere, lest the purification and preparation within your being should be hampered. It is necessary to surrender, to be patient and submissive and to have faith in the greatness of Almighty God in doing this latihan.

This is the end of Bapak's explanations for now about this spiritual latihan, because Bapak feels very sorry for Ikhsan. It is indeed very difficult to translate into English. Bapak asks for your forgiveness. And now Bapak would like to give you some testing so that you can experience and receive some proof, ladies and gentlemen. Through this testing, little by little, you can become aware of the use of the latihan you have been receiving.

Translated by Sofyan Brugger