First of all, Bapak gives thanks to the One God that Bapak has arrived safely and soundly in your country and in your city. Bapak would also like to thank you all very much for your welcome and for coming to meet Bapak on his arrival with hearts full of love and sincerity. May your hearts which have shown this be blessed by the One God so that you can all find the right way to God that you aim for.

As you all know and have read, in the Al-Qur'an for those of you who are Muslims, in the New Testament for those of you who are Christians, and also in the sayings of the priests and scholars in Buddhism, sincerity and purity of heart are like a sign, a fertilizer, and also a preparation for finding a clean path; the right path which later can be followed to God, to one's final destination. It's like that in Subud. In the Subud latihan, you are being trained to have a pure heart and a pure inner feeling, so the purity of all that is in you can create the right way for your well-being in life, both in this world and in the hereafter.

Actually, what is received and the training obtained in this Subud latihan, is not something new; nor is it a new religion. It is a principle, a basis of life. It was there before mankind existed, before everything was created. So this Subud is not something new; it came before everything that was before, and is actually the essence and content of all man's efforts to find the way to God. For the One God came before everything that was before, and comes after everything that is after; is outside everything that is outside, and is also inside everything that is inside.

So God's power cannot possibly be surpassed by human beings; it cannot possibly be reached by the thinking mind, nor by the desires of human beings who wish to look for God. If human beings could look for God and know God with their thinking mind and desires, and all their faculties, it would mean that God is the same as human beings, and not the Almighty. Accordingly, in Islam and Christianity, as well as in Buddhism and other religions, the only way man can obtain the contact from God's power that is within his being, is: to be able to surrender himself; to be able to have patience, trust and sincerity and surrender completely to the power of God.

Quite a few human beings isolate themselves on mountains, in forests, on river banks and on the sea shore, so they can have a patient heart, and put away the pressure of desire that always tempts them in their inner feeling. They go off alone far from the crowd, so they may lessen or rather vanquish their passions of greed and anger; so their heart may become patient and clean and they may receive the contact from the One God.

For you all, ladies and gentlemen, it is a gift from God, a very great blessing that in an age like this when man has no choice but to work with his thinking mind ( because to this day he has been lured and influenced by the world ) you can receive this easily, in completely normal conditions while still working and using your thinking mind.

This accords also with what is mentioned in Islam and Christianity; namely, that the gift from the One God or the way to the One God can actually be attained by human beings without leaving the responsibilities of their lives in this world. In other words, while they are still married and close to their children and friends, they can al ready begin to receive God's gift which is there within their being. Similarly, in Buddhism also it is said that within the "I", within you, ladies and gentlemen, there is the real "I", the real you, that is, the inner self. In Javanese also perhaps there is a connection here, because the Kawi-Javanese phrase nyeski sariro tunggal is very similar. It means to see the “I” of the inner self; not the ordinary “I” of the desires.

So it's clear: what you have received, ladies and gentlemen, is not something new which comes from somewhere; but comes from your own inner self which is joined to you and one with you from the time you were born until the day you die. However, what is the point of your being one with it, ladies and gentlemen, if you do not understand, if you do not feel, if you cannot receive? For this reason, ladies and gentlemen, from the very outset in Subud, you each began to be introduced to who is within your self. Naturally, at that moment, your heart felt something new, something strange; because this was the first time your heart and desires could be bowed down or could bow down before the power of God.

Having been introduced to your inner self in this way, ladies and gentlemen, you will gradually be able to receive and understand how is your right way in life that you need to act on and carry out, and does no harm to your worship of the One God.

And you will be able to receive, little by little, the true culture, the true teaching, the true guidance of God that does not breach your own capacity. So you will always be guided; you will always be able to receive within the measure of your strength, in a way which will not harm your nature, either inwardly or outwardly. Of course, you cannot receive what you need right away, all at once, because you do not yet understand and you cannot understand more than God. And God knows your strength for receiving the gift of God.

For, by always receiving what God gives you, that is, what you are given in the latihan, not only your heart, but your soul also will be cleaned. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, everything within your being that is not right or is still wrong, has to be put right and straightened out, so that you will be in a good state to be able to receive what you need for your life.

Naturally, ladies and gentlemen, you want very much to be able to receive quickly, understand quickly, become clever quickly. Why is this? The reason is that your ideas, thinking mind and desires are more advanced and older that your soul, which has only just been born. Bapak will give an illustration of this; perhaps you yourselves can feel and consider it, ladies and gentlemen.

When you had just been born on this earth, when you were still in a state of infancy, you were still able to see things human beings generally cannot see. And at that time you could hear things which older, grown up people generally cannot hear. You were also able to feel things people generally cannot feel and know. So, the baby, or you ladies and gentlemen when you were still a baby were still able to connect with states which grown human beings cannot know; you were able to connect with states Bapak calls states of the human soul or the soul which always guides human beings _ or states such as you all have received, children and ladies and gentlemen, in the latihan. Then, as days, weeks, months, and years went by, you became more and more acquainted with the forms and sounds of this world. You began to see more and more the shapes of things, and feel the feel of things that are in this world. And what you saw before, what you felt be fore, and what you heard before gradually thinned out. Until when the baby had grown bigger, it knew the desires and passions at large and rampant in the world more than it knew its soul.

Finally, in its way of thinking, and in its way of doing everything, it became impossible for the child to get away from all it had experienced during its life in this world. So that God, the One God, came to be pictured after its experiences in the world, viz.: the One God was pictured as a very wealthy, beautiful human being who owned a building or a house made of gold or diamonds, and so on. Similarly, heaven was imagined or pictured as a very beautiful place, which would be pleasing in every way. All of this is only a creation of the fantasies in the thinking mind and imagination. Whereas, it is said that the One God is not like us. The One God has no nationality, no country, and no language. The One God is neither male nor female; was not begotten and had no son; but exists through His own power.

In reality, the One Almighty God is the Creator of the whole universe and everything it contains, including human beings and animals.

All that Bapak has been saying here is in line with your experience in the latihan. If, in the latihan, you think about something, your latihan stops. But if you surrender with patience and submission to the One God, and you do not have any wish whatsoever save to surrender to the One God, God will give you something you need. From this it is clear: the way to God, or to be able to receive God's gift, does not require support or participation from man's thinking mind and desires; but only surrender to the greatness of God.

Perhaps people who are thinkers, especially those who are highly educated, and who have a title, for example, professors and so on, would say that such a position is passive; passive in the sense of not having any point of view, but just following here, there and yon. What is the use, they may say, of human beings having a thinking mind, a heart, and intelligence, if they cannot and may not think about anything and everything they have to face? True, but do not forget that in this case we are facing God. We are not facing human beings.

When human beings are facing human beings, it is indeed necessary for them to use their thinking minds. Man is man, not God. However capable he may be, however fine a heart he may be said to have, a human being is still a human being. Today he is like this, tomorrow he has changed, and the next day he has changed again. Take Bapak, for example. Don't say that Bapak is a good person. Bapak is not good; there is only one who is good, and that is God. The fact is, I keep trying to keep my hair from going white, but it goes white by itself. I keep trying to make my teeth last, but the older I get the more I lose. I keep trying to maintain my strength so that I will be as strong as I was before, but it gradually gets less and less. Indeed, this ( body ) is subject to decay, and easily apt to change. So, if this ( body ) is followed, it's wrong.

Therefore, do not follow anyone save the One God. And there is no other way for human beings to follow the One God except through their own selves. So do not take people's word for anything. When someone says, "I know that's white," it's he who knows it's white. Perhaps I know it's not white, but red. Ah, so it is clear that the one you should believe is your own self, and none other.

For God gives to human beings in their own inner self, nowhere else. God will reveal to human beings wondrous, unknown things within their own seeing. God will guide human beings so that they can hear a voice which really is within their own ear and voice. It is different with human beings: when they indicate something to one another, one ex presses it aloud, and the other listens with his ears. To impart understanding to another, one writes and the other thinks it out. God is not like that. God gives understanding to human beings not by writing. The human brain is cleaned and activated by the power of God so that of its own accord: I understand what God wills.

In reality, it all begins with the low and the coarse. Bapak will take walking, for example, as an illustration. People are usually good at walking. Everyone knows how to walk; once you've begun to walk, you walk by yourself, and that's it. But people forget: within I walk there is a walking not willed by the desires. God gives guidance to human beings from the time they are babies until they have grown up and become old. From the coarse to the fine, from walking to becoming clever. But human beings are unable to take a right step because they are closed up by their desires and thinking mind: the mind thinks, I want to go there.

You are all being trained, ladies and gentlemen, from the low upwards, from the coarse to the fine, so that you can carry out every action that exists within your being. And for sure, because it all comes from within, from before this ( body ) existed [....], it will certainly penetrate everything that is not right. If you have an illness, for example, the illness will surely be penetrated, so it is cured, and you get better. So, when religion is said to be safe, pure and willed by God, it means that religion is a bridge for human beings, to cover them and give them health, both physical and spiritual. Later on, you will be able to experience all this yourselves in the latihan.

Actually, tonight, as well as giving these explanations, Bapak would like to do some testing with you, ladies and gentlemen, to test how far you have gone in the latihan, so you can know whether what you have been doing and receiving is right or not. But first Bapak needs to repeat: do not misunderstand, because perhaps there are people_ well, not among you_ but perhaps sometimes you hear of people asking if Subud is some kind of magic such as is used and practiced by people who study spiritual things, for example. And why isn't it; and why is it different?

Bapak has explained that when you first receive this Subud latihan, you need to cast off your desires and passions[....] So in what we do in this latihan, we will not forget the greatness and power of God; we will forget the pressures of our desires and thinking mind. But magic exists or occurs because of the strength of the desires and thinking mind. So it's not right. And if we do not use our thinking mind and desires, we will not be able to obtain it. We will only receive God's power, which is necessary for our lives in this world and in the hereafter. So there's no need to doubt, ladies and gentle men, or worry yourselves as to whether this Subud may lead to magic, or is some form of magic.

These explanations of Bapak may serve to make you more sincere in your worship of God and to lessen your anxiety lest we may later take a wrong path which is not willed by the One God. And now Bapak will begin little by little; hopefully you can receive what Bapak asks, ladies and gentlemen, so that you can all have real evidence.