Ladies and gentlemen, first of all Bapak says welcome to those who are attending this meeting to listen to the continuation of Bapak's previous talk. As Bapak was saying to you, the spiritual training of Subud is really your worship of the One Almighty God, so you don't need to make use of the thinking, the heart and the desires, but simply surrender to the greatness of God, with a feeling of love, willingness to let go, acceptance and patience.

And why is that? It's because all we have experienced - that which has become the content of our individuality, of our brain, our heart, our feelings, all of that - is experience of ( this ) world, which we have encountered from the time we were small until we became grown-ups. You cannot possibly bring all the experience that makes up human knowledge, the knowledge and understanding of all of you, to the world of life after death. This is because in one's cognition and understanding in the world of life after death there is nothing that corresponds to or is compatible with the cognition and understanding of the brain, heart and feelings that a human being obtains on this earth or in this world. ( But ) by God's guidance, by God's gift and by God's power, we can be trained so that all that is within us, the brain, the heart and the feelings, will little by little come to know and become acquainted with the ambiance of life after death.

That is why in our latihan, it is willed from within that our bodies should move. The movements you have all received are different for each of you. Those differences show that each human being, each person, is different in their state and being, in their strength and in whatever is present within them. The movements you receive and follow become deeper as time goes on - not necessarily stronger, because as Bapak has already said, the strength of the movements depends on what exists within the being of each person - and, as those movements deepen, they go through walls, such as the wall of the feelings, the wall of the understanding, and the wall of individual consciousness or awareness of the soul.

What we need to understand and be aware of is not our life or our soul, but our own state. For example, our everyday knowledge and understanding can be brought inside, so that with our brain, our heart and our feelings we can know, understand and be aware of how our life was before we had this coarse body, before we knew this world; and also how our life will be after we are dead, having left the world we now constantly see and hear. There is truly no point in training ourselves, or allowing ourselves and our feelings to be trained in a certain discipline such as in the spiritual realm, if our understanding and awareness cannot take it in.

But don't get the wrong idea or misunderstand and imagine that what is meant by our understanding entering the gate of the spiritual realm is our brain, which is filled with experience of this world. No. Though, in general, people would like to understand the spiritual world in terms of experience they have had or acquired in this world.

Bapak describes it this way: take the human brain - the working of the brain is called thinking; the working of the human heart is called contemplating, picturing and imagining; and the work of the human feeling enables a person to feel what it is they need. The same goes for the arms and the legs - the working of the legs is called walking; the working of the arms is called waving. All of this, the working of each of these, is filled with the influence of the world, which has acted on you from the time you were a small child, while you were growing up, and when you became an adult. But what we need - what you all need, in order to know about your life before you were born into this world and about life after death - is for our brain, our heart, our feeling, our seeing, our hearing and the rest, to be filled with the ambiance of the universe; that is, a state of life that is beyond this world.

That is the reason why Bapak always says not to use the thinking and the heart ( in the latihan ). Because the brain, the heart, the feelings and all that exists within your self, all of that, is still one hundred percent filled with the influence of ( this ) world. Through not thinking, not using the intellect, the heart or the feelings -which carry traces of this world - the pressure of the world will, little by little, be reduced. And, more and more as time goes on, they will gradually be filled with the influence of life after death -of heelal ( Du.: the universe ), a place that is higher - until there is a balance. ( Then you can ) experience the condition of the brain, the heart and the feelings being one hundred percent full of this world, and ( also ) one hundred percent full of the ambiance of life after death. Only when that happens can you use your brain to think about and to really understand life after death, or life before coming into this world. Then you can be aware of it in the same way as when you are aware of, or think about, ordinary worldly matters.

This is symbolized in the life of the prophets; for instance, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and the others. Jesus himself said that outside of this world is the realm of God - truly nobler, truly higher and happier than this world. Why did Jesus say that? Because Jesus with his brain could already think about life after death. And why was that? Because his brain, heart and feeling had been cleaned and separated from the influence of the world.

In the course of his life, Jesus sometimes said, 'O friends, do you know and do you hear? I hear clearly what God is saying to me.' How could he hear like that? Because the ears of Jesus had been purified of the influence of the world, which had been acting on him from the time he was small, while he was growing up and when he became an adult. He also said, 'If I feel something to be wrong, ( it means ) God does, because my heart and my feeling have been filled with the will of God, not with the world.'

That is why, in your latihan, although you are already good at walking... Of course you can walk, since you are adults and even a small child is able to walk; so why does the latihan start with some walking around? It's because up till now your walk was not willed from within, not willed by the power of God, but due to the will of the heart, attracted by the influence of the world that is always acting on it.

This is not something you can study, because walking while being moved from within is completely different from walking with the passions. Bapak can describe it like this: if Bapak walks with his passions, he has a wish to go over there; but there is also walking that is free of that. So, little by little, you are introduced to the difference between movements from the desire, the heart and the thinking, and movements filled with the ambiance of life after death.

First the legs move, then the hands. Then from the hands to the voice - a voice that comes spontaneously. You can feel it for yourselves: 'How is it that I can make this sound without my willing it?' So in using your voice, it is clear that there is a voice that comes from the soul, from within, and there are voices that come from the passions, moved by our experiences in this world. Sometimes you say something that you don't understand at all, but it certainly has a meaning and a purpose. This ( latihan ) state will get deeper as time goes by. As time goes by, it will get progressively deeper and broader until finally it will reach to a depth that is actually beyond this world. When Bapak says it goes deeper, he means that it progressively penetrates the wall of the feelings, the wall of the understanding and the wall of the awareness.

Of course, the journey to that point or to reach that state is not a question of time - but there is a certain time for it. So Bapak cannot determine or tell each of you how long, or how many years it will take you to reach that state. For each of you that depends on your own self. So there are those who after five years are already doing well and can really feel it, while there are those who take twenty years to get there. There are those who will be quicker than that, and there are those who will take longer.

That is why Bapak always hopes that each of you will have a feeling that is truly patient. The prophets have also said that patience is a weapon with which human beings can correct the mistakes they have received, that they possess, that they have within them; and by which they can also come closer to the correct path to follow.

In reality, when you die it's not like a bird flying away from its cage. No. If you have reached what you need for your individuality, what you need for your human soul, then it is like night following day, like day following night.

The question is: what happens after you die? Bapak describes it like this. This is your life now - then after you are dead it goes on but it's different. Before, it was like this, then all at once you die -you're dead - then you're like this again but not the same. ( Bapak demonstrates, opening and closing his eyes. Laughter. ) The way you open your eyes will not be like this, it will be with your seeing.

That is why Bapak always says to just continue the latihan, because in the latihan little by little all the windows are opened. What windows is Bapak talking about? The window of the eyes is opened, the window of the ears is opened, the window of the nose is opened, the window of the mouth is opened, the window of the heart is opened, the window of the brain is opened - all the windows are opened. They begin to be opened.., opened... opened.., and then you realize: 'Oh, so this is life after death, the true life.'

If you are already able to receive it, then Bapak will be able to prove it to you shortly - he will test it with all of you. But it appears that you cannot yet receive it, so... yes... I don't know... later, after this talk, Bapak will do a little testing with you, but... Bapak isn't sure yet.

As for the low forces: the material force, the vegetable force, the animal force and the force of human beings in this world, you don't need to worry, or be afraid that later on these forces will continually influence your souls. These low forces are not your enemies; in reality they are servants for you, for humankind. Without them human beings cannot really live or lead a happy life.

You are certainly aware that you cannot plant for yourself, cook for yourself, make your own clothing, sell it to yourself and then eat the food yourself. You cannot. Those of you who go to the office and then just write all day, get a salary. Then when you want to eat, you can buy something in the store, where there are things prepared in tins. So all these things have become our companions; they are all part of the structure of our life and we cannot be separated from them.

The problem now is that you have to be able to manage them. If, just in order to eat, you need to plant your own food, to hoe it or plough it yourself, then you wouldn't have time to make your clothes, you wouldn't even have time to cook; you wouldn't have time to go anywhere in your car. After plowing just one furrow you would immediately have to start making a screw for your car and other things as well. So it's impossible for you, on your own, to equip yourself with all you need for your household. But you can fulfil those needs through everyone working together. In your life, that is how it is between you and the low life forces.

But, through the mistakes of human beings themselves, through your own mistakes, you bring the low forces, which should sit in a low place, inside yourselves. For instance, take clothing. You wear clothing simply to cover your skin. The purpose of the clothing is to protect this ( body ) from the wind, the heat of the sun, and the cold of the ice in winter; but through our mistakes they enter our heart. It's as if our heart is wearing the clothing and not our body.

Here's the proof. For example, before you owned these earrings with the big diamonds, you were like this. Before you had them, you walked like this, just normally. ( Bapak demonstrates ) But after you started wearing these expensive earrings that cost about, say, five thousand dollars, you start walking like this. ( Bapak demonstrates ) Your walk has changed. So just this has already influenced your heart. Before, you walked like this; after wearing this thing costing ten thousand dollars, you move like this. ( Laughter ) It's different. That is their influence, the influence of material things.

Such is the influence of matter. In fact you have experienced it yourself. In times of war, everything disappears. The fields and grain stores, the rice, the wheat, were all lost due to the great war. What did you need ( then, ) in order to live? Simply food. A diamond as big as this had no value when there was no food. So it's clear that material things can only touch the outside of your skin - they cannot enter your being.

So, it's clear that once you are able to organize the material forces they will not reach into your heart or your thinking. And images of the beauty of the material things you have seen will not keep appearing here, in your heart and in your brain.

There are some people who still believe that if you are very rich in this world you will be equally rich in the hereafter, for they say they can take their material wealth, their material things, with them, albeit in a finer form. In fact this is not so. It's not possible, because in the realm beyond this world everything is different. Even if there were money over there, for example, it would have to be different. The money over there, if it existed, would be one million times bigger than the money here.

Never mind the world beyond this world, just Indonesia and America are already very different. Bapak really tried to force himself to eat bread every day, but he couldn't do it. So he eats bread, yes, but once every two days he must eat rice. So, even between Indonesia and here, and between here and Europe, the customs are different. How much more then is it true of the world beyond this world, where everything is different from this world? How can we take anything from here to there?

That is how it is with the forces that Bapak spoke of. The material force is a companion for human beings, which means that we don't need to get rid of it, we don't need to destroy it. Because for human beings to achieve their nobility they need to use the forces under them. You can compare it with a person working in an office. The office manager does not get promoted unless his subordinates are also promoted at the same time.

That is in fact how it works. Human beings need to be able to put the things below them in order, so that the path they take towards the nobility of their life will not encounter any obstacle. That's it. And the way you can put them in order, and become the organizer within your being, is simply by putting aside the normal working of the brain, heart, feelings and the other things that are always within your self. Thus, through not working on worldly things, the brain is filled with the influence of the ambiance of life beyond this world.

Such a state is indeed difficult to attain. It cannot be accomplished by the human heart, brain or thinking, without help from the One Almighty God, who has given His blessing, grace, generosity and love to humankind. And that - the generosity of God - is what Bapak has received in Subud; what all of you have received in Subud, in this spiritual latihan of Subud that in reality is our worship of God. Therefore, this latihan we have received and practice is a training - supremely easy for human beings - for the purpose of obtaining the needs of their life both in this world and in their life after death.

As for the low forces that you think might influence you, they will spontaneously be put in order through this spiritual training, for they all fear God's power ( inaudible )... so if we can allow the working of our thinking, heart and feelings ( to cease ) in the latihan, it has the effect of blocking and not allowing the influence of the low forces to enter into our feelings.

So, what is most important for all of you is nothing other than that you should be truly patient, with acceptance and a willingness to let go, and be full of love for the greatness of God and God's compassion for you all. Then the windows of your being can all be opened, so that you don't always feel stifled and shut in your life, but able to see the ambiance beyond the thinking, the feeling and so on.

This is Bapak's explanation tonight about the spiritual realm. Before Bapak finishes and goes home, he will do some testing so you can feel for yourself. However, don't think deeply about the explanations that Bapak has just given and the testing he's going to do, because, as Bapak just said, your thinking is still enveloped by the ambiance that is current in this world.

( Testing )