Brothers and sisters, Bapak gives thanks to the One Almighty God that he has at last been able to arrive here in New York and meet with all of you, who have shown yourselves truly sympathetic to our Subud spiritual training - that is, to Susila Budhi Dharma.

This ( spiritual training ) is a sign or a symbol that, at the present time, God wills that you should not constantly and irretrievably neglect and disregard your worship of the One who created you. It is part of the history of the world and of the human race that at times when human beings constantly experience difficulty in worshipping God - because they are disturbed by the conditions of the age, which inevitably unsettle their hearts and minds - help comes from God. ( Today ) this has taken the form of the spiritual way Bapak has received and you have also received. It is a gift for us human beings whereby, in spite of our situation, we have an opportunity and are able to really worship God while still fully engaged in this world.

Bapak did not receive this by following a teacher nor from any other person. He was really willed by God to receive it while he was still fully engaged - still working and not yet concerning himself with this spiritual way. But all this was God's will, and so, without actually realizing it and without being able to refuse it, Bapak was given this and was able to receive it easily and in a state of peace and happiness. Such is God's power and God's grace that what He gives to human beings cannot be refused. And maybe, in the same way, it was God's will that Bapak would later spread what he had received by passing it on to all of humankind, so that each human being might find the right way for their own individual self and thus come to know how to live their lives as they should.

Bapak received this, as he just said, while still fully engaged, which means that he was still using his mind and heart. In reality this means that it is God's will that human beings should be able to find the true way that leads to God without having to abandon their normal life in this world.

So, for you who have received the latihan, it is not necessary to withdraw from society or abandon your normal way of life. You must go on working and using your mind, and continue earning your living. But within your being, whatever else is going on, God always protects you; God always looks after you and is there, within you, to guide you through your life. You should on no account ever worry or have doubt within your inner self that the growth of your soul will become a barrier to living a normal human life in this world.

Let's say you're a painter. When you have difficulties with your painting you'll always receive guidance from within. You'll receive indications from inside that will enable you to correct and change any mistakes you might make. Likewise for doctors; they will get guidance and indications when encountering difficulties that can always occur in the course of their practice. This will help them avoid mishaps or doing things that might cause harm in the world.

The same will be true for others; for instance, business people or those in other kinds of work, other fields of expertise. They also will always receive indications as to how to do their work in a way that will lead them to happiness and well-being in their life without forsaking their worship of the One God.

This is very much in agreement with what the prophets said. For example, the advice given by Jesus Christ to his followers: 'God is always present in your self. God will always guide you and provide for your needs as long as you can truly worship God and surrender everything to God's greatness and power? Thus, as has been said, it's really true that God can overcome anything. So what the prophets have said is true: human beings will be able to find happiness in life once they have found the right way that leads to God and which also comes from God.

Why is it then that so many people, even though they have surrendered themselves, even though they have believed in God as sincerely as it's possible to believe, still .have not found a way to contact ( the life ) within them? It's because it was not yet God's will, the time had not yet come. But now the time has come. What you have received, brothers and sisters, and what Bapak has received, has been willed by God. It has now become God's will that, with this ( latihan ), you should all be able to find your right way of life - that is, a structure of life that God has created within the breast of all human beings.

For God didn't create this human race just like that, with no structure within their inner self. It is there. And, provided human beings can become conscious of its existence and can find it, they will come to know the most correct path for them in life. So ultimately there will be no such thing in this world as a useless person.

In addition to this, God repeatedly sends or delegates a human being - one of your own kind - who has been willed and given by God to guide you; to be a guide to this structure of life, so you are able to find it and follow it as your way of life. Even human beings who make something like a machine always enclose a technical drawing with it, showing how it works. And, if necessary, an expert or a technician is sent to guide the users and explain how to use and operate the machine that has been delivered to them.

( However, ) many human beings go wrong in their life and end up in a state of neglect, unable to find a way of life that will bring them happiness. This is because they're still blind, still blocked, and don't realize that God has provided or equipped them with a structure of life that is so clear. Because of the inattention and indifference of their hearts, and through not having received any direction, they do not realize that within them there is true and clear guidance for their being.

But now you are starting to be shown and the future development of your soul is starting to be opened. Certainly everything takes time. Certainly you'll need patience in your hearts; you'll need calm in your inner feeling. You'll need the greatest possible faith in God that the time will come; that - although it's not here yet, although it's still rather far off- the time will certainly come. It is surely there, and you will all surely experience the things Bapak has just told you about.

It has to be that way to ensure that the working of the soul in the human self will not cause damage to the person concerned. It's like the growth ( of a plant ). You start by planting a seed. Eventually the stalk will appear, then the branches, then the leaves, then finally the flowers and the fruit.

Of course those of you who are already grown up and experienced in using your minds and hearts would like the development of your soul to proceed rapidly, the way your mind would like it to. But don't forget that the growth of your soul only began one day, one week, one month, two months, or just a year ago; while the development of your desires and your minds began when you were small, and continued through adolescence until finally you became adults. So, in reality, the growth of your soul is far, far behind that of your intelligence and your heart.

Bapak will illustrate. All of you began as small children, as babies. A baby, a tiny newborn child, although they can't yet see the shapes of the world, although they can't yet hear the sounds of this world or perceive anything else that is in this world, can already, small as they are, receive something that comes, not from outside but from within - from their soul. And so from time to time this tiny infant will look happy. Sometimes they will look troubled, as if they're suffering. Certainly this shows that they are receiving and experiencing something. For you, this behavior of such a small child is just normal. But in fact, at those moments, this tiny child is still closely connected with its soul while still distant from the influences of the world.

For this reason such a small child is still said to be... ( interruption in recording ) ...and is also still God's beloved. But eventually this small child becomes able to see the shapes of this world, able to hear this and that sound, and to distinguish salty, bitter and other flavors. And, bit by bit, the connection with its soul begins to be closed off.

And the process continues from there. Finally ( the child ) grows up and becomes an adult, and everything within his or her being -all that concerns the brain, the heart and all the senses - will have become more at home with worldly matters than with spiritual ones.

So the way such a person thinks about and visualizes heaven and God will not go beyond the images already residing in his or her brain and heart. They will imagine heaven as a kind of place they consider good and beautiful, and God as a person, only more beautiful. But God is the creator of the entire universe, including humanity and the rest. God preceded the first things and will outlast the last ones. God is within the deepest things and outside the most outward ones. Therefore, God can't be imagined by the human mind, can't be pictured by the human desires, emotions or heart, for God is ahead ( of us ) and knows more than we know of Him.

Truly, there is no event without something that conies before it - that is, a cause. In the same way it is certain that there is one who created this world with its people, with its stars and heavenly bodies. It must be so. For nothing conies into being without someone to make it. Human beings themselves can confirm this. This table could not have come into being if there had not been someone to make it. The same is true of the existence of human beings, the existence of this continent, and the existence of the stars and other heavenly bodies - of the sun and so on. Certainly they have a Creator.

So it is clear that God exists, only He cannot be known to our ordinary eyes because He is Almighty. If God could be seen with ordinary human eyes, then this whole world and all the people in it would disappear, because all of this is contained within the Self of the One God.

And so, brothers and sisters, what is required of you in this spiritual training is only to receive, free of your thinking and your heart. In this way all of you should be able to feel how the power of God works within you. ( This working ) will eventually become more perfect and you will become more aware of it, with the result that you will really come to know the kind of life God has willed for human beings in this world.

Eventually you will become aware how one uses one's legs for walking. Although the legs already walk - certainly legs are for walking - inside and beside your walking there will be something within that makes you walk. It's no different with seeing. When you look at something, beside and within your seeing there will be something which causes you to look. It's the same with your brain and your heart'. When you think about something there will be something inside and outside of that, causing you to think. So you will be able to sense, become aware and understand how God is working on your being. You will be able to use your being in accordance with certain guidelines, so you will not waste time on work that is of no use. In this way you will avoid damaging any part of your whole being.

Such is the will of God for human beings: that they should ( be protected and maintained in the happiness of their lives. The reason so many members of the human race fall ill or have other bad experiences is that they have such strong desires in their hearts ) and work their brains so hard that they ignore the other parts of their self that should be working too, thereby in reality damaging parts of their own self.

This is what is intended in religion, and is the reason why religion is called God's work. It means that God does the work and human beings follow the work that God does, which means that they have to follow in God's footsteps in the right way. The way to follow in God's footsteps, as Bapak just said, is through each of you becoming aware of how I walk, how 'I' see, I hear, 'I' taste, I smell various smells and how I think and imagine the things pictured by the mind.

This is why in your latihan you are required to start with movement, to start with walking. It doesn't look quite perfect yet but it's begun. The power of God has begun to work within your being, and all you need to do is to follow what is working and how the power of God is working within you - that which you feel within your being.

( And these movements, begun in this way, which all of you have experienced, brothers and sisters, will go deeper and deeper with time, will go deeper and deeper as time goes by, until they penetrate into the first of the layers, the wall of the feelings - all the things felt in the inner-feeling. )

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( And once that's been completed, although it also takes time, as Bapak just said, these movements will for the first time penetrate into the third layer, the wall of the understanding. And eventually it will penetrate into the final layer, the wall of intuitive awareness. )

Intuitive awareness doesn't mean understanding - it means the ability to know how an object will develop, right to the end. For example, you will be able to know iron - not just recognize iron from its appearance, but to know where it came from and what it will eventually become.

You will also become conscious of the use and purpose of human beings and of their true nature, and why people marry and have children. Children are willed by God so that people may become aware of how, repeatedly, human beings bring other humans into their being. You will all understand better and be aware that having children is a reminder from God of how it is for your own being, from before you were brought into being on this earth through to when you finally die and then live again. Not like people in general, who don't yet know and haven't yet received guidance from God, with the result that their marrying and getting a child from their union is simply motivated by the desires and the heart. So it is like when you buy a table: you know how to buy it but you don't know where it came from or how it was made.

Therefore, when men and women marry from the heart and the desires it cannot be eternal, meaning it will not last long. It will doubtless break down along the way. It's not that Bapak says it is certain, but most do. The real reason is that the marriage of the man and the woman is not from their souls.

The truth is that God wills that human beings, men and women, should marry from the soul not from their desires. Human beings have already expressed this in a symbol they apply to themselves. For example, Mr. Bennett: Mr. Bennett's wife - whether her name is this or that, A or B - is nevertheless referred to as Mrs. Bennett. This means that after marriage a woman who becomes a man's wife is united with him. United means having one soul, being one in the feelings and having one aim in life, both in this world and the hereafter.

This is a symbol from the spiritual realm, and so in Subud you are educated and guided by the power of God to be truly united in your family life. Don't let it happen that one starts going this way and the other in a different direction. Stay like this. Be one. For a couple in their oneness become a ( good ) path for the descent or coming of a human seed. So the child that is born is really a child or a couple who have become one, not of people who are at odds with one another.

There's no shortage of married people with children who are completely different from the parents. This is not the fault of the child but of the parents. In ( the man's ) union with the woman, with his wife, they are not yet able to become one - they are still at odds. Because in the true union of man and woman, the two are no longer a man and a woman but something different, and yet they are also man and woman.

This fits with the history of the prophets, where it is told that the first human being in this world was Adam. The meaning of the name Adam is 'beginning' or 'the very first of the first'. At that time, before Adam had been sent down to earth, God made this promise to him: 'Don't be afraid. Don't be sad because you are separated from Me. I will work within you, so that later, when you are in the world, you will receive something that will bring your heart delight and peace. But later, when you unite with this creature who will be created after you, don't forget your worship of God. Don't forget it as you're doing this and that, as you're doing anything at all; for by not neglecting your worship of God, you will become aware of the benefit to you of having a wife. And God will create a human being of the same kind as yourself but different from you - a woman - who will come out of your own individuality. Thus, you are the symbol of the place where the seed descends, or exists, and the woman the place where the seed grows.'

Before Adam's creation in this world he was very sad about being separated from his God. But later, after he arrived in this world, he really received someone who became the delight of his life, namely Eve. Prior to that he had not yet been given someone who would arouse his desire, which is symbolized by a snake. That's why it is customary to say that when a young girl dreams of being chased or bitten by a snake it means she'll soon meet the man who is her mate. So it's clear that the snake is a symbol whose reality is the secret of a man.

So once he had that, Adam was shown that he should eat the single fruit growing on that tree. As soon as he'd eaten it Adam became aware for the first time that he and his one life companion were not the same. From then on, Adam and Eve became conscious of the benefit of men and women marrying and they eventually had children. But Adam didn't forget his worship of the One God during the union between man and woman.

Because at that time they were still close and there were not many human beings yet on this earth, Adam's children were vessels or bodies filled with noble and high human souls. As a result, his descendants, known as the prophets, were still able to worship God truly and to know the true way to live on this earth.

But eventually, as generation followed generation up to the present day, and as a result of the changes occurring from one age or era to another, human beings grew tired and strayed from the true worship of God, and grew closer and closer to the influence of the world, which is always at work on the self. Human beings drifted further and further from their souls and from their worship of God, until today it can be said that in general the inner feeling or inner self of human beings has grown blind to the spiritual reality that makes it possible to truly worship God.

So now this ( latihan ) has been willed by God because He knows what difficulties human beings are facing. As time goes by it gets more difficult. As time goes by we get further away. The result is the growth in this world, of not just one thing but of a general friction in daily life, which affects family life as well as life outside the family. Because of this there are a lot of married couples today who will get like this ( gesture ) over something quite trivial.

Therefore, to prevent such things happening, God is now giving human beings something that will enable them to return to the way of life at the time of Prophet Adam - whom Bapak just told you about - enabling them to become one in the marriage of man and woman, woman and man, creating a true living union that can become a way for them to worship God who created them.

So, truly, you will not feel disappointed with one another. What the man feels, the woman will feel; and what the woman feels, the man will feel as well. So you will correct each other and know each other. And finally both of you will act and walk ( through life ) in the best possible way, because you know each step you have to take. As a result, your union and your marriage will not merely satisfy your desires and your heart, but will truly create a way leading to the truth.

These are the outlines of the spiritual path that Bapak ( wanted to ) explain to all of you this afternoon. In the coming days he will continue by talking about the working of the life forces below the human life force, which are a constant obstacle to the progress of your worship. And Bapak sincerely asks you all to forgive any of his words that were out of place.

Bapak says thank you very much.