Ladies and gentlemen, tonight Bapak would like to explain a little about the meaning of the Subud spiritual training. Also, Bapak would like to use this occasion as an evening of farewell, because Bapak will be leaving Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) tomorrow. Bapak hopes that after he has left Ceylon, you will all continue to do the latihan and worship Almighty God diligently, because, by doing the latihan and worshipping diligently, each of you will obtain benefit for yourself. Also you will be able to correct yourselves and behave well.
This is Bapak's hope for you after he leaves Ceylon. And now Bapak will begin to give you some clarifications concerning the latihan that you have received.
As you have received and as you are aware, this spiritual training of Subud is not something new, nor is it a new religion. It is, one could say, one kind of endeavor to obtain the reality, or the content of human worship.
However, this Subud is not an endeavor made by human beings. It is the grace of the One Almighty God - the grace of Allah - that has been given to us, who have received it in an age that is full of all kinds of thinking and involvement from people's heart and mind.
So this latihan you receive is not a physical training or awakening that has been aroused by your will, or by your desires, working with the thinking mind. It happens, it comes and arises truly because of God's grace, when we are able to still our desires, thinking mind and heart.
Indeed, what happens in Subud is something that is really beyond the ability of human beings to understand. The way people usually worship is because they want to. They strengthen their will so that they can truly worship God. But in Subud it is the opposite. We do not strengthen our hearts and will in worshipping God, to get something that is beyond our imagination, rather, through the grace of the One God, we receive very easily the life force that envelops human beings inwardly and outwardly.
But, because it is easy, other people who have not yet received it and do not understand or know the truth of Subud, think that what we are doing is wrong. They think it is something that is going the wrong way and does not lead to God. We shouldn't blame them for having this opinion. Indeed, it is not easy for people to understand Subud with the thinking mind, unless they have been given, or received, the grace from God to be able to know something beyond the reach of the thinking mind.
Whereas you, brothers and sisters, are able to weigh up and understand, that what we receive in this latihan of ours comes when we have no desires or thoughts and when we are not feeling anything, but only receiving whatever happens within our being.
Such is the difficulty other people have in accepting a knowledge and understanding of the true content of Subud. But for you it will no longer seem strange that what happens in the latihan is not because of our desires and thinking; so the fruits you will receive, and the results you will achieve, will be the fruits and results of something beyond the desires and thinking, straight from a clean, pure source.
If you want to know, the results many people achieve by making efforts to cut down on food and drink and sleep, and by isolating themselves from society, are no different from what you have obtained in a very short time. Does this mean that God is discriminating between people, or choosing some people ( and not others )? No. God is Almighty. God wills something for the needs of humans. It is God's will and God knows who is able to receive it.
Bapak has no wish to claim that he is the same as the prophets or the messengers of God. Bapak admits quite openly that he is a human being who is now no different from you, brothers and sisters. Bapak gets thirsty if he doesn't drink and hungry if he doesn't eat; he has all kinds of needs, the same as all of you. And he is also subject to illness and death. Bapak received this, and was able to receive it, not because he wanted it or asked for it. No. But this is what Bapak received, and he was able to pass on what he had received to all of you, brothers and sisters.
As for whether or not someone knows about God and His power, and as for whether God acknowledges someone - such as Bapak - these are matters exclusively between the person and God - between Pak Subuh and God - not between one person and another. This is why Bapak never says that he is close to God, or is loved by God, or is singled out in some way. I am just like this, ordinary, like all of you.
Later, you yourselves will be able to know the truth of it all, of what Bapak has received, and of everything to do with these spiritual matters, when you reach the level or stage necessary for the perfection of the soul. Obviously, no one can know and understand the abilities of someone else if he himself has not yet experienced what that person has received -just as a person cannot know the intricacies of legal matters if he himself has not yet had experience in and studied law.
It is said that the one who can unite with a teacher is a teacher, the one who can unite with an angel is an angel and the one who can unite with a prophet is a prophet. It should be clear then, that a person will not be able to reach a given level if that person is not yet able to be united with it.
It is therefore very necessary for human life that human beings should be able to find harmony - one heart, one feeling, one humanity, one God. For all the people on this earth came from one, and that one was created by the One. So we are returning to the One, to unity.
That is how good, how civilized, how excellent is that which is practiced, or which ought to exist in the various religions. For in the religions people are required to be harmonious, to be united. Through such unity in their society, human beings will become secure and prosperous.
We have been receiving all this little by little. We are being trained by the power of God to become human beings who are one in feeling with others, so that we will not always encounter obstacles that hinder our continued worship of the One God.
Bapak is always saying that Subud is not something new, nor is it a new religion. We have received this so that we can become aware of the content of all human efforts to receive and carry out God's true commands for human beings.
A person who has really gone deeply into his or her religion will know what is actually required in that religion, which is that human beings should be able to worship God as sincerely and devotedly as possible, with complete trust and submission to the One Almighty God.
Thus you will be able to verify and witness the reality of the stories told in books about the lives of the prophets in times long ago. No longer will you be people who only follow the crowd, who only imitate others and who only model yourselves on other people. For you will know and be aware of your own nature, and of God's will that is written within the chest of each one of you.
God did not create human beings just like that, for no purpose. It was not intended that human beings should live for a while on this earth, only to die and then be buried in the earth or burned. There is a meaning in ( life ) that is really sublime and really good for human beings. If God had intended or created human beings only to die, there would be no use in there being so many of them, and in having this earth for human beings to live on.
Clearly, there is a high purpose in God's creating human beings on this earth. It is that human beings, in their everyday life until they die, should be able to feel, reflect upon and learn through their spiritual experience, and become aware of and understand the continuation of their life after their death in this world.
So in reality, death does not constitute a danger for human beings. It is true that, seen from the ordinary point of view, death is the ultimate danger, because people cannot live any more once they are dead. But in reality, death is a way for the human soul to rise upwards.
That is why, in all the holy books - in the Quran, in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, in the Torah - it is said that death is a continuation of human life. This explanation has as its intention that human beings, in their life before they die, should be careful and behave as well as possible, and worship God as sincerely as possible.
The evidence of the advice and explanation that Bapak has just told you is there in our latihan, even though we are still on a low level and have not yet developed very far. As Bapak said just now, this Subud latihan of ours is a training that is awakened, not by our desires, but by the grace of God who awakens our inner feeling, our feeling of life, which envelops us within our being. This is why we cannot involve our heart and mind in our latihan. If we do, we will have difficulties in our latihan, because if we still use our thinking and our heart, what is willed from within will not happen and will not grow. So it is necessary for us all to be really patient, to accept and to surrender, with trust and willingness to let go, to the greatness of God.
Such a standpoint may be questioned by scholars and by people who have worked with their brains to a very advanced level. They may say, 'How can this be? Are we not being like a material thing if we allow ourselves to be carried hither and thither? Human beings possess a heart and a brain, which are able to think about everything. What is the use of human beings having a brain and a heart, if they do not use them?'
In their view, our attitude is really passive. But they forget the reality, that human beings' worship of God is between human beings and God, not between humans and humans. ( They forget ) that God is Almighty, and God created us. If God had not created us, we would not exist. It should be clear then, that we human beings are in a similar relationship to God as material objects are to human beings. It is therefore necessary for us to surrender, like an object, before God, because we humans are like an object, something very weak. And we would not be as we are if God had not willed us to be that way.
We can use our instruments, the parts of our physical body, as much as possible, to the utmost; but we must not use them towards God, or for knowing God. We should use them for the needs and requirements of human life on this earth.
The main reason why people are unable to find something that is right for their lives, or something that is real for their lives -something that would enable them to know the real life that exists within their being - is that their thinking mind and heart always want to surpass and do better than the One who created them. They do not know, they do not understand that the prophets - like Jesus in the Christian world - were able to receive something beyond human fathoming, and were able to give advice to human beings, only because of their surrender, only because of their sincere faith, only because of their acceptance and submission to the One God. To this day they are believed by millions of people on this earth. This is true of all the prophets, like Muhammad, Abraham and Moses. The prophets were... ( section missing ) ...in their being, which was written in their chest.
It was not that they were clever. No. They were clean and pure, and so they were able to receive what was within their being. Bapak compares their purity to a vessel or object that is very clean. If an object is very clean, whatever falls on it, even the slightest speck, will be seen and felt. It is God's will that we should be able to become like that, like those holy men.
That is why in this Subud latihan of ours, even though you have only just begun, you do not use your heart, desires and thinking mind any more. This is so that, with the clean state of your being, of your whole inner feeling, you are able to know and to feel what is within your self, no matter how small it is, or how fine.
You do not yet know what dirt there is in you and what it is like, how big and how strong it is. Through the latihan, you will eventually come to an awareness and understanding that will enable you to experience how big and how strong the mistakes are that you have made in your lives since you were small. Moreover, you will be able to experience the mistakes that have affected your self and your soul as a result of your heredity.
It is very hard, because the truth is that in the latihan you are really having to clear out everything that has flowed down to each one of you from long ago, from whichever branch or generation of your ancestors it was. But if you can succeed in clearing out all of it, it will be the end of the road for those mistakes, which have always cascaded from one human self ( to another ). Then we can experience, as they say, a new life, new in all respects, because we really will be new, as we were in the beginning.
Bapak therefore hopes that your hearts and your feelings will be patient and surrendered to God, in order to make easier and quicker the inner working that you are able to receive, so everything that is necessary for you can become a reality.
Do not forget that cleanness of the inner feeling brings with it health within our being. Clearly, a clean soul requires a clean inner feeling. And a clean inner feeling will in turn ( enable ) a clean soul to manifest ( within you ).
Such will be the results and fruits of this Subud latihan of ours, which is not strange to you all. May your wish and hope to become clean and to understand your true life be easily achieved and blessed by God. Bapak hopes and prays to God that what you all hope for may come to pass.
And now Bapak will take this opportunity to say farewell, because tomorrow at one o'clock he will leave Ceylon and continue his trip to Singapore. But, although Bapak as a person is leaving Ceylon - and seen with the ordinary eyes he really is leaving Ceylon - God is Almighty, God is Most Generous, God is Most Wise, so that spiritually - for the soul - there is no distance between Singapore and here, or Indonesia and here. Also, even if you are not close to Bapak, you are able to worship God direct, because God is closer to you than Bapak is.
This is all Bapak has to say tonight, but he does not forget to ask you all to forgive him if he has said anything out of place, and which may have hurt your feelings. And Bapak thanks you very much for your hospitality, brothers and sisters, and for the attention you have given to Bapak and his party while he has been in Ceylon.
May what you all have given, and your great care and hospitality, be rewarded plentifully by the One Almighty God, so that your life may be happy, that you may experience harmony in your marriage, that you can work well in your office, and also that those of you who do business will make a good profit. For those of you who are still young and not yet married, may God bless you, so that you may soon meet your true life-partner, soon get married and live harmoniously until your old age.
That is all.