Ladies and gentlemen, tonight Bapak is going to continue his explanations concerning the spiritual way you have received and practice.

It may be that there are many among you, both men and women, who have not yet been able to perceive that, within the self, within the inner feeling, there are a variety of life forces. These can be referred to as spiritual entities, which form the content of the human self, the human body. It was God's will that these various forces make up the content of the human self, so that with them, human beings should be able to act as messengers of God, willed by God to be capable of living in prosperity and happiness on this earth and also of living happily in the hereafter.

These life forces, which form a hierarchy and exist within the human self and throughout all of life, stretch from the lowest to the highest. They are seven in number and form the great structure of life. The bottom three are the life forces below the human life force. They are within the sphere and magnificence of the human heart and mind. The three at the top are the life forces that have power over humankind, and which are beyond the abilities of human beings - beyond their hearts and minds.

The three below the human life force are the material life force, the vegetable life force and the animal life force. The three above the human level are the rohani, rahmani and rabani life forces, meaning the life forces that are higher and more powerful than humankind. The sixth and seventh, especially, are so much more powerful than human beings, and have so much power over them, that human beings clearly cannot possibly reach them with their thinking mind. So only when they are able to leave behind their desires, hearts and thinking minds, and stop their activity, can human beings receive the three life forces higher than the human level, and receive how they manifest within their being.

However, the state in which a human being stops the activity of their heart, thinking mind and desires, is a state of death. For this reason it was often said, by the people who received long, long ago, that human beings could only become aware of the true way, the true way of life that they need to know, if they could die before they died, meaning, if they go through the process of death but before they actually die. This is symbolized in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After he died he rose up again, returning to life from death.

That's the difficulty. How, using only the will and the thinking mind, can human beings perform this task? Which is to say: how can human beings die before dying? ( The interpreter whispers to Bapak that he doesn't quite understand. ) Bapak will repeat it. That's the difficulty for human beings. How can human beings do it - die before they actually die? It is for this purpose that many people abstain from this and that, cut down on eating and drinking. They become ascetics. However, since these practices are not willed by God, and since the human heart and mind are in no way capable of going through this ( process of death ), those who make these efforts, instead of finding the right way, discover ways that are completely different from all the prophets experienced long ago.

So it's clear that whatever is beyond the ability of human beings can only be achieved by the power of God, not by their own power. This is why, when God wills a human being to rise from the dead, that person's desires, heart and thinking mind will have been put aside and emptied from their inner feeling. And if people's efforts in that direction still make use of their hearts and thinking, they will not find the right way whereby they can receive a contact with the great life forces that are above the human, but on the contrary, they will receive and come under the influence of forces lower than their own human level.

To enable human beings to work with this physical body and to adjust to life on this earth, God provided them not only with the five senses, but also with the primary and most important components of the human self.' the heart and the brain - the human heart and thinking mind. This being the case, it's clear that the heart and brain, which are the leaders or the main players within the human self, can only work for as long as a person remains alive on this earth; and their powers, the life within them, can only connect with forces lower than themselves.

This is the structure God created within the whole of life. But, besides that God knew that unless God also created life forces more powerful than these, which could penetrate all those life forces, human beings would not receive what is right for the needs of their inner self. The life force God created as a link with all the other life forces mentioned earlier is called the ilofi ( Arab.: 'ilofi ) life force, in English, the Holy Spirit. And besides this God added a counterpart to be the assistant of the ilofi life force. This is the life force called rah al-qudus ( Arab. ).

So all seven of these life forces - the three below, the three above, and the one in the middle, which is the human force called jasmani - are encircled and penetrated by this more powerful life force, the ilofi life force, which acts as a link between them all. This life force provides leadership, counsel and guidance for human beings and the human soul, enabling it to know the position it was meant to occupy. This is because the ilofi and rah al-qudus life forces make up a law - a living order and a discipline - willed by God to operate within all these life forces. It is indeed the roh ilofi life force which can bring about an atmosphere of true peace in which the human inner feeling can be open to receive the contact with God's greatness. This is in truth what you have received, what makes your inner feeling move so that you feel a vibration within you, so that you feel movements within you. But you are not yet able to know where these movements and this vibration come from.

In reality, vibrations of this sort fall into two categories. One kind is the vibration that comes into being because the desires, heart and thinking have stopped working, enabling one to receive · in a truly quiet, truly empty state - a state of peace. This is the vibration that in Islam is called khatir ilham ( Arab. ), meaning a vibration originating in the power of God. The other kind are the vibrations from the satanic world. They are vibrations from the lower forces, which have gained influence over the human self as a result of the human will with its very strong desires. These are the wrong kind of vibrations, because they - and the movements they give rise to - arise from the forces below the level of the human self.

Such forces and such vibrations - the satanic ones - are not received by a person as a result of their being conscious, in a state of consciousness; in a clean state. On the contrary they induce a feeling of powerlessness and loss of consciousness. In Dutch this is called in trance, meaning a state similar to that or a person having an epileptic fit. And it does not give rise to a cool or cold feeling but to one that is hot or warm. That is how the movements or vibrations that originate from the lower forces operate. They are felt in the human body as something similar to when you feel very angry or fly into a rage - then too everything is trembling, everything is moving. That's how it is.

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is how you can tell the difference. You can see it with your own eyes, your ordinary eyes. You can, in your everyday state, observe people who receive; observe the way they receive and what they receive. You can distinguish between that which is right and that which is wrong.

It is true that your state, when you do the latihan in the way you have received it, appears very similar to other practices or ways of receiving. Indeed it is hard to appreciate the real difference if you have not yet received a lot in your latihan. Such practices are common; for example, in the Islamic world people tap on a tambourine ( Bapak raps on tile table ), or a drum. ( Laughter ) Or they play a flute. ( Laughter ) The participants are told to listen. But after a while it's as if they fall asleep. Once they're asleep they start to move - yes, just the way you move.

So they experience those vibrations, and those forces enter into them while they are unconscious, and they remember nothing. They are completely overwhelmed by the lower forces, which influence them when they are in that state. It may look like what all of you have been practicing and receiving - in other words, it may look like Subud - but in reality it's radically different. Because when you receive movements in Subud - both those of you who have just started and those who can already receive a lot - you are always present, complete, whole and conscious. This is because at that moment you are being influenced, not by lower forces -subhuman forces - but by life forces that are higher than human beings, so you are able to understand with your own understanding. Whereas, under the influence of lower forces - material, vegetable and animal - human beings understand on a level lower than their own understanding. In other words, they gain understanding in oblivion, in unconsciousness.

These two kinds of understanding have different names in Islam. The first is called iman ( faith ), and the other is called ingat ( remembrance ). Iman means consciousness in the human understanding, but ingat is human understanding alone. For this reason, it's said that human beings can have true faith in God only if God brings their faith to life, whereas human beings can remember God - whether they do it seriously or not, whether their remembering reaches Him or not - using no more than the belief and understanding of their hearts and brains, or thinking minds. This is why it happens that although many people believe in God, are conscientious about worshipping God in accordance with the advice they've been given and follow the teachings of their religions, many among them have also not yet received the true contact that originates from a Spirit that is higher than human.

So what really happens in our latihan, and especially at the time of the opening, is that you are asked to surrender and have faith in the greatness of God. But these words are only a symbol or a sign. In truth what opened you and enabled you to receive the contact was simply the fact that you were standing close to those who had received the contact with the greatness of God before you. So all of you who have received this contact have already become channels. You have become one with the life force that has authority, which flows to awaken human beings who are still asleep and powerless.

There have been many happenings that show the reality of this. Bapak will tell you about one. In the Netherlands there was someone who'd been opened and had been doing the latihan, but not for very long. When he got home after latihan some of his friends asked him to explain about Subud. There were four of them. He had no choice but to give them some explanations. Before explaining he said, 'Please listen and try to feel what I am going to say. Please try to be in a quiet state, not thinking about anything.' After listening to his explanation they stood up and started dancing. This perplexed the one who had been doing the latihan. 'What am I to do? I wasn't intending to open them, I just wanted to tell them about it. Why is it that my friends were moved as if they were doing latihan?' Since he was uncertain what to do, as he had not done an opening and yet this had happened, he sent Bapak a cable. Bapak cannot remember where he was at the time. And Bapak replied to the cable, 'Open those four people at once, so that they are looked after.'

This is an example of how all of you who have received this ( have become channels for this powerful, high force that has come into your being. And for this reason Bapak advises you that, if you talk about these matters with friends who have not yet been opened, ) you should not do it lightly. Because your words, if you speak in a state of quietness, will really bring the contact to the friends who have been listening to your stories. That's all right if, after listening to your stories, your friends are willing and wish to do the latihan - to be opened. But if they are not, they will always remain in a state of confusion.

These are the life forces Bapak refers to as higher than human, which work in the way you receive whenever you do the latihan. The vibrations of the life force that has awakened your entire self, will later penetrate all the parts of your selfhood that do not yet move and have not yet come to life. Bapak says they are not yet alive because, although you can walk, wave your hands and move your body; speak, see and the like; all these actions are moved by the desires, by the thinking mind and by the human heart, and not yet by the life force that is the master within the self of a human being whose soul has been brought to life. Eventually, all of you will be able to know and be aware of how it is when 'I pick up something, moved by my desires', and how it is when 'I pick up something, moved by my true I'.

This, or something similar to it, has already been practiced extensively by some people, but still by using the will, even if it is a will that is of a fine nature. Bapak will describe an example of this. Before taking hold of something, these people must try to feel what it is that they are going to take hold of. ( That is their way of becoming aware of and experiencing ) the first vibration that prompted their wish ( to act ). But actually that is still wrong, because it is still of the same nature as the heart, unlike this latihan you have received.

And as long as such people are still alive, as long as they still have their desires and their hearts, as long as they still have their thinking, they will continue to be able to do this. But when they die their desires die, their hearts die, their brains die. This ( gesture ) no longer works and they are powerless, because the life force, which is in all this ( gesture ), and outside all this, is not there yet. It has not been put there, it has not yet manifested within their being.

( Of course, others find such people ) amazing, because their brains and their hearts are very acute. The reason for this is that they're always using their hearts, brains and thinking minds, while their other parts remain in darkness, because they are still dead, or asleep. So, just as an example, if such a person were to enter heaven, what would get into heaven would be only their thinking and heart, not their individuality. It's the same as if you wanted to be rich but did not accumulate any wealth - so you wouldn't really be rich. Or if you wanted to be a doctor but never studied or practiced medicine.

This is quite different from the latihan that you've received. You are being educated and brought to life by the power of God. Your entire self is being brought to life again - awakened from its sleep - so that when you die your selfhood will live without limitations. You will be able to feel, see and listen more clearly, with greater reality and greater certainty, than you can when you are using your physical body.

This is also symbolized by Jesus Christ rising again at the time of his death and returning to the world of heaven without any change in his individuality. To understand this you need to look at Jesus' state when he was still alive. He walked, not moved by his desires, but because he was made to walk by the power of God. He talked and gave advice, not from his heart and his thinking, but because of the will and power of God that encompassed his whole self. So one can say that his entire being was one, inwardly and outwardly united and all as one in his holiness.

That's why it is said that the human soul is not going to be healthy if the body is unhealthy. Likewise, the human body is not going to be healthy unless the soul is healthy too. So all of you are being guided and educated in your latihan in order to enable your being, inwardly and outwardly, to return to a state of cleanliness, purity and health, the way God wishes you to be.

This reality can be compared with the outward situation of a person who is seeking a good reputation. If they become well known and their name is respected in the community, this good reputation is an asset, a kind of inexhaustible capital. It's no different for all of you. Once you've been cleaned, once you've been made pure, once you've been restored in accordance with God's guidelines for humanity, you will become human beings possessing true worth, true value in society. ( Bapak repeats for the interpreter: ) This is what happens to you when you do the latihan. You're guided and trained in this latihan to make you clean, to make you pure, to make you really and truly become human beings who are of value to the community. This can be compared to an ordinary person who is trying to get a good name. Why do people try to get a good name? Because if they succeed in acquiring a good reputation in society, that good reputation constitutes a kind of capital infinitely more valuable than money.

Why is it so? Bapak will tell you. With the purification of your being, the cleansing of your being, with the coming to life of all your parts, you will become able to fit in wherever you may find yourselves, so people around you will see you, not as strangers but as their very selves. It's said that all the prophets were like that. Why were the prophets always regarded with affection, always loved by all creatures? It's because the nature of the prophets had been purified by the One God; cleaned, guided and restored by the One God, so that their nature was truly able to adjust to all kinds of people around them. So then whatever a prophet suffered was also felt by others.

And it is the same with all of you. Once you've been purified, once your entire being has been brought back to life by the power of God, you will become people who are truly cherished and loved by whoever sees you, hears you and spends time with you; they will feel close to you in their heart. In particular we should not and must not forget about husbands and wives. The wife will look at her husband and think that there's probably no other man in the whole world as handsome, as manly and as gentlemanly as her own husband. And the husband likewise: 'Probably in this whole world there's no woman so lovely, so fine and so attractive as my own wife.' That's how God guides human beings in order to create harmony in the family.

Such is the reality experienced by all of you who have received this latihan. It is truly amazing how the power of God works on the inner feeling of human beings. Bad things are set aside; good ones are brought in. Whatever isn't right yet is fixed and so on, with the result that before you know it a person has become good; before you know it a person has become fine; before you know it a person has found the perfect way of life, both in this world and the next.

Now Bapak will do some testing - but not too much - to enable you all to feel, little by little, how the human soul works inside the self of human beings and what fruits you have obtained from always doing your latihan.

( Testing )