( First part of recording missing ) ... If, in the latihan you still use your mind, heart and desires, it is impossible to receive anything from God). Why is that? The reason is that the One God, who created human beings and the whole universe, including this earth, is Almighty. Human beings cannot think about God, nor can they know God with these organs of their physical being that are so easily damaged.
As you are all aware, in every religion people are advised to worship God with complete love and surrender. For that is the only way for people to become calm and clean in their inner feeling, so that they may receive the words of God and His gift, as Jesus Christ did in his life. There is no other way than to surrender to God and to love God.
There are people, usually referred to as Brahmins, who put aside everything their hearts desire, go off on their own and isolate themselves from society. They try in this way to avoid the influence of the world and the pressure of desire, which always envelop the human heart, brain and thinking mind. Therefore it is truly fortunate and a great blessing for us - for all of you - that we can receive this ( latihan ) easily, while we still continue with all our energy to deal with everything that we face, using our thinking and our hearts. It is in fact really difficult for you - and human beings in general in this present age - to calm your thoughts and feelings. For, whether we are at home or away, we are constantly under pressure, disturbed by ( our environment ), which has become busy and overwhelming. ( But ) through God's will, we are able to receive this ( latihan ) easily, as long as we can put aside our constantly active brain and heart for a while.
The ease with which we can receive this shows that God truly loves us, and really knows our difficulties at this time. However, let us beware of accepting it and regarding it as something that is very easy and easy to find, which we can receive without any effort at all. On the contrary, you should have the highest respect for the greatness of God. Thank God that He has given you a very easy way while you are still totally free to do anything you have to do for your worldly life.
Certainly it is God's will that people should use the instruments or accessories that are part of their being to deal with, and provide for, their worldly needs. While as far as the soul and the spiritual life are concerned, it is God who does the work within the human self.
In the spiritual life the soul is the content that is within us. When this content filled the place that would eventually become us, it was not yet accompanied by anything. It had no organs, for example, and no body yet. So, if you want to know the soul and you look for it with your thinking mind, you will not be able to find it, since the soul came before all the ( physical ) parts of us existed. The soul cannot be known by its vessel; and you will not know your soul until you have died. But once you die, you stay dead. You cannot die, then live again, live, then die, be dead, then live, live and then die.
In reality, death and dying apply only to the passions and the thinking. What we call death is the death of the thinking and the passions. However, if your soul is not yet alive, has not yet been awakened by the greatness of God, the power of God, then, when finally your passions and your thinking stop and you die, everything has gone and you can no longer get to know your soul.
However, thanks to God's power - through your soul that has been awakened by God's power - you will experience death, but not total death; only the death, the cessation, of the passions and thinking. This will open the way for your soul to develop and grow. Therefore what relates to the soul - improving the soul, enlarging the soul, raising the level of the soul - is not the work of human beings. It is not the work of the human heart and thinking, but the work of God, based on His power that truly envelops everything, both that which is visible and that which is invisible.
As many of you have children, a new-born baby can provide some evidence of this, if you are interested. A new-born baby cannot yet speak, cannot see the shapes in this world and cannot hear or smell anything in this world. Yet expressions of happiness, sadness, joy and suffering constantly show on its face. In reality, this characteristic of the small child is not just a habit. The child really is ( happy or ) suffering in its feeling, and can see and perceive all kinds of things. However, what it experiences and sees is not something in this world, but in its soul.
As the days and weeks go by, the small child begins to see the shapes of things in the world, and all its five senses begin to connect with conditions in this world. From that point on the contact between its inner feeling and its soul gradually begins to close. Eventually, once the child has grown up, finished school and grown old, only worldly influences and nothing else fill his or her self, seeing, hearing, brain and heart. The contact with the soul is completely dark and closed.
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... ( There are many ) people on this earth who do not trust their heart or have confidence in themselves, but place their trust more in other people or in something outside themselves. It can be said of such people that they are not established in their own house, they are not at home, but are always off somewhere else. This is not in line with what Jesus said to people: 'If you are troubled and suffering, turn to God. Seek protection from God, because only God can protect you and lighten your darkness, and God is always in you and with you.'
With this spiritual training you begin to return, to become aware that within you there is a power, and this seems really foreign to you. But in reality, it is not something foreign; it is something you used to have before, but it closed up because of your thinking and your heart.
Of course everything - whether it is a course of study or ( learning ) a skill - always needs time, always takes its own time. So it is necessary for you to be patient, with a feeling of love for God, and to surrender. For if you are in that state it will facilitate within each of you the work of the soul, which the power of God has awakened.
The development of the soul and its work within you begins with the first wall, that is, this coarse ( physical ) wall. Only when this is complete, does it go higher and deeper to the wall of the feelings. When the mistakes and dirt in the feelings have been removed, only then does the process go higher and deeper to the wall of the understanding. After that is complete, only then does it proceed to the wall of awareness and the inner self.
If you want to know why that is - ( it is because, ) even though we are good at thinking about whatever is in our minds and can even think about strange and modern things, our brain is unable to think of anything beyond our thoughts, which are still completely filled with worldly matters. So, when we wonder what paradise is like, we imagine it to be something like Monte Carlo. If we try to imagine God, perhaps we picture Him as a human being, handsome, clean, radiant, seated on a throne inlaid with all kinds of diamonds. So, human thought cannot go beyond what is already in the thinking.
This is the reason why it is better for you not to think about God until your ( brain ) has been cleaned by God's power and by the awakening of your soul. Otherwise ( what you think ) will be wrong. Your thinking will only be right if this ( brain ) has already been cleaned, so that you can think about this world and also about life after death.
Thinking about the world, even a little, feels irksome. At the very least, it feels like work. But once God's power has awakened you, and this ( brain ) can think about life after death, it is no longer this ( brain ) that is working; it is being made to work by God's power. Even if ( what you are thinking about ) is difficult and deep, it will not feel hard. On the contrary, you will feel peace, joy, which Muslims call ni'mat ( Arab.: bliss ).
It is not God's will that human beings should think about God, or life after death. God created human beings complete with all the instruments they need to work in this world and able to use all these instruments in accordance with conditions in the world, not in some other way. God knows that human beings with their instruments, with everything that is in their being, cannot possibly know conditions beyond their brain, heart and feelings. This is the same as saying that you will not be able to think about life after death. In other words, God's will is, 'Don't do that! Use your thinking mind, your heart and your desires for the world, so that you do not neglect your worldly life. Fulfil your duty to live in the world. As for the soul and life after death, surrender it to God, entrust it to God. With regard to that, God will give you guidance within your self.'
You will not feel a heavy burden, because God has really set you free. God really loves you, so that you do not need to use all that is in this self of yours for something that our ordinary parts cannot possibly achieve. Eventually, when you are able to fulfil the conditions Bapak has been talking about, you will get to know your soul and your true self. You will know, 'This is how I am and this is how I have to work for my well-being, both in this world and later, in the life after death.'
This also applies to the purification ( taking place ) within you. As a result of the mistakes we have made through only following our thinking and heart, we feel full of sickness - all sorts of sickness, this and that kind of sickness. Even if you do not feel ill, you may feel a pain in your heart. That is normally how people are. The growth or development of our soul will bring with it the health of this physical body of ours. Also, it will change and improve the parts of our nature that are not good so that they become good, as God wills for human beings.
Brothers and sisters, Bapak will now end this explanation about the spiritual way you have received and are practicing. Bapak will continue on Wednesday night, when he will only give a talk. He will then explain the structure of the spiritual world as a whole.
Before we go, Bapak would like to do some testing, so that those of you who can already receive are able to witness, know and feel the extent of your experience in this spiritual training.
( Testing )