First of all, Bapak will ask Mr. Bennett to read the names of those of you, ladies and gentlemen, whom Bapak has appointed to serve on the committee - that is, to be active in putting things in order and organizing whatever is required in the society here.

( Names are read out )

These are the names of those of you, ladies and gentlemen, who Bapak has appointed to arrange and put everything in order for the Subud spiritual brotherhood of worship here, so that your situation can be arranged as well as possible, in line with the customs and law that apply in this country.

Now Bapak will give some more explanations about this spiritual way of worship of Subud that you have received.

Bapak gives thanks to God that you are able to receive with a feeling of complete faith and surrender to the One Almighty God, even though your receiving is not yet very clear. Indeed, this way - that is, man's worship of God, is not a way or a matter that is easy to attain, nor can it be achieved quickly. It requires you to have patience, to surrender your inner feeling, and to be strong and obedient to the greatness of the One Almighty God, who created you and, in short, created human beings and the whole universe.

What you have received, or what Bapak has given to you, ladies and gentlemen, is a way that is really and truly willed by God, because when you receive the training ( latihan ), you are in a state that is free from thinking, desires, will, wants and so on. It is very difficult indeed to find the right way to God, especially for people who still use their thinking mind, their desires and will to search for it, because God cannot possibly be looked for. But God is always ready to look for and give to human beings, because they were created by Him.

The power of the One Almighty God is constant, and always envelops the self of human beings, both inside and outside. And God's power has prepared and provided for all the needs of His creatures whom He created, in order that they, with everything prepared and made ready in front of them, to their right and to their left, above them and beneath them, can proceed to find the right way for their life, and eventually return to their God who created them. Bapak could compare God's power, which envelops and is there ready outside and inside man's self, to the light in the daytime, or the darkness at night. Humans do not have to look for the light in the daytime nor the darkness in the night. They only have to stay where they are, and feel, and see and pay attention within their own selves, and not go out looking everywhere.

Why is it that many human beings, who have searched for so long for the right way that can lead to the perfect human life and to God, are always in a state of agitation and confusion, and are unable to find the right way? The reason is that, although they appear to stay quiet and sit quietly, in reality their thoughts are still working, their feelings are still active, and their desires are still engaged in all kinds of nonsense. Therefore it cannot be said that they are really still and fully prepared, or that they are there inside themselves.

Clearly it is not God's fault. God cannot be blamed for not giving man what he asks for. It is man's own fault; he doesn't have to ask God, because everything he needs for his life, both in this world and later after death, is provided and has been there ever since he was born on this earth. Why, then, are human beings unable to receive and understand, or experience, what is already prepared and there, within their being and outside them? The reason is that they always use their thinking mind to look for God, whereas God cannot be sought out just by looking. But it is God's will to give to human beings and provide for them, and they should receive it.

So for human beings to be able to receive and experience what is always there within them, and also what is always there outside them, they need to stay where they are, as they say in Dutch, 'Op de plaars rusten.' It is not always true of everyone all of the time, but in general it is true to say that people are never at home, they are never within themselves. They are always wandering about away from home, even when they are sitting down or eating. Even while a person is eating he or she will often be talking about something, so it is not he himself who is doing the eating, but his story or topic of conversation.

This is why, in religion - in Christianity, in Islam and other religions - people are urged to worship before eating, before sleeping, before bathing, and also before going out. The true significance of this is that in whatever human beings do they should not depart from their own selves, but should always worship God. In everything they do, whether eating, sleeping, bathing or going out, they will always be protected and guided by the One Almighty God, so that whether they are away on a journey or at home, their lives will always be safe and happy.

Clearly, if human beings depart from their worship, in everything they do, in all their actions, they will be influenced by their desires and thinking mind, so that whatever enters them will be impure. For example, the food they eat will not be filled with pure forces or good forces that can improve our condition. It will be filled with forces that always bring disturbance and obstruct man's life. It is the same with everything that comes into contact with man's self, whether it be the food he eats, or the water he uses for bathing, or the bed he sleeps on. It is man's own fault if he eats food because of his desires, and the food does not contain those clean essences and forces that in reality could indicate to him whether or not it is good for him to eat it, and what effects the food will have on him if he eats it.

This is why religion requires people to worship God before everything they have to do. There is certainly a very good reason for this. There is certainly a purpose behind it that is of benefit for man: by worshipping God in a state of real awareness, human beings will always be in contact with what is within them, and there will always be a mutual understanding between them.

Bapak will again illustrate this by taking the example of food. Of course, food cannot talk like we do, but if a human being can really be aware of his worship of God, he will be given awareness of the soul ( jiwa ) so that he will be able to receive what the food wants. In this way, the food will give indications to the human being as to whether it would be good or not for him to eat it, and how it would be if it were sold and given to someone else to eat.

If human beings are aware in this way, they will not meet obstacles on the path to awareness of their true nature and their true life, both in this world and in the hereafter.

Also, when human beings are aware in this way, it is not necessary for them to give up things, to abstain from food, or give up wearing clothes, or go away from society. Nor is it necessary for them to leave their family and go off to some isolated place to fast and meditate and be alone, in order to find what they want and what their heart and inner feeling are aiming for. The food man eats will not be an obstacle for him if he is aware in this way. For the human soul, which is able to receive from God, will work by itself, not in the way this coarse physical body works. And in the self of the human being, the outer and the inner, this coarse physical body and the fine body will be separate and independent in their way of working and eating, and so on.

( Two and a half minutes of unintelligible tape )

Of course, it is dirty and filled with all kinds of things that should not be there. Sometimes chickens get in and sleep on the bed, or goats get in and sleep on the bed. And the dressing room, for example, which should be for the human being to get dressed and make himself or herself look nice, is no longer clean; a horse has got in, a goat has got in and a dog, not to get dressed, but to do what goats and dogs usually do in the person's house. So the dwelling is only a house in form, but inside no one would recognize it as the house of a human being. It is no longer the dwelling of a human being because you have abandoned it for so long, ladies and gentlemen.

As a result of this situation, through man's own fault, harmful effects arise, such as various kinds of illnesses. Not only the types of illness that are visible and can be diagnosed by a doctor - these are very easy to deal with. The difficult kinds of illness are the illnesses of the soul that lives inside the dwelling. For how can you get rid of the dogs that have been in your rooms for years and years, and how can you get rid of the goats, the water buffalo and all the other kinds of animals that have been there for years and years? If you kick them out or tell them to get out, they come back again. In such a situation the person who does not know his own inner self suffers from all kinds of illnesses.

What is the reason why man's condition has become like that? It cannot be blamed on God. It is not that God doesn't like to give to us or that God is unjust. God is the most just of all, because God created human beings completely and perfectly equipped with everything they need. It is therefore God's will that human beings, with everything they have been provided with, should be able to return to their God, to their perfect world, which is happier and more glorious than this world, and where conditions cannot be compared to conditions in this world.

You have now begun to go back to your home, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, you have been away from home for a very long time, for years and years. Those of you who are fifty have been away for fifty years; if you are sixty, you have been away for sixty years. If you are only twenty, you have been away for twenty years. So naturally, when you come back home, you do not recognize it as your home. You say, 'This can't be my house. From the outside it looks like my home, or someone's home, but after looking inside, on the inside it is clearly not mine.' Why is this? Inside it there are dogs, there is a water buffalo, there are goats, there is a horse, and all kinds of other animals.

It is your own fault, because you have been away for so long, and now other creatures are living there. Now you are being introduced to it again, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, it is your original abode, but because you have been away from it for so long, since you were a baby until now, it appears and feels like something new, something strange and unfamiliar to you.

As there is still some time left, Bapak will give you some further explanations. Bapak will give you an example, ladies and gentlemen.

Although you are already grown up, and you look older, you all experienced once how it was to be a baby and a little child. When you were still a baby, you were not yet able to see the forms and shapes of this world, nor were you able to hear the various sounds in this world. You could not yet see the variety of colors that adorn the world. Nor were you able to smell or taste the various kinds of foods that are available on this earth.

But the expressions on your face sometimes appeared distressed, sometimes happy, sometimes sour, sometimes peaceful. Why was this? Certainly there was a reason. It was because the newborn baby was still close to all the knowledge, all the hearing, all the various experiences that were in its own inner self. So when the expression on its face appeared uncomfortable, this showed that it was seeing, smelling or hearing something unpleasant from within itself.

But human beings who are already grown up or older will not understand this because they use their thinking minds, and are closer to this world than to their own inner nature.

After the baby has begun to be able to see the various colors and shapes and forms that exist in this world, and is able to hear sounds and voices and smell smells and taste what is sweet and not sweet, the connection or contact between the baby's feeling and the feeling in its soul begins to become remote and to be cut off. As the baby grows, the gap increases, until the child is only able to see the outer shapes and forms of this world and hear the sounds and voices that are in this world. But it has already forgotten and has become closed to the shapes and sounds that originate from its soul and inner self.

So Bapak does not reproach human beings when they try to guess what God is like. Some people think that God is like a man with a beard, wearing a crown and a long robe like this and looking awesome. There are others who think that God is very beautiful, and that He sits on a throne made of gold inlaid with diamonds, and so on. The brain of human beings imagines such things because it is already filled with the kinds of knowledge that are always circulating in this world. The way of seeing, independently of the forms of this world, is forgotten.

Now, with the latihan, ladies and gentlemen, you are beginning to retrace your steps, so that you can feel, see and hear as you did when you were still a baby.

With this training ( latihan ), ladies and gentlemen, you are beginning to clean away the rubbish and remains of things that have closed you up from the time when you were a baby until now you are older - as in the example Bapak gave of the house that you have left for so long. Now you are only just beginning, you only began ten days ago or seven days ago - some came late - so you have cleaned out a little bit from the house but the dog comes in again and brings dirt back in. You clean it out again, the dog comes in again. It is like that!

However, because of God's help, because of God's greatness and power which has awakened your soul ( jiwa ), through your soul's awakening it can be said that you can work exceptionally. By exceptionally Bapak means not just with the inner feeling but also with the strength that God has prepared for man within man's self.

Now in order that the working of the soul within you through God's power is not disturbed and can go on working - not all at once, but reasonably quickly and unencumbered - Bapak hopes you will please not use your thinking mind, your will and your desires to meddle in the latihan. For it is your thinking mind, your will and your desires that have caused the dirt within you, and if you go on using them in this way you are bringing the dirt back into your selves.

These are Bapak's explanations for tonight about the spiritual way. As they are not yet complete, Bapak hopes you will be able to read for yourselves the complete explanation given in Bapak's book ( Susila Budhi Dharma ), which is now ready for publication. It will be published in October or November this year.

Bapak hopes that this short explanation can be something of a reminder for you, so that you can do the training ( latihan ) as well as possible - in other words, leaving aside the thinking mind, the will and the heart. This does not mean getting rid of them, but putting them to one side so that they are not mixed into our latihan of worship, so that in the latihan each of you will soon be able to receive something you need for your lives.

Bapak would also like to take this opportunity to say good-bye, because Bapak will be leaving Australia tomorrow at five or six. And Bapak hopes and prays that after Bapak has gone from here you will all be happy and safe, and that you will always be able to receive God's preparations and God's gift, which exist within you. And Bapak does not forget to thank you for your sincerity of feeling to receive and worship.

That is all. Amen.

Translated by Sofyan Brugger