( Ladies and gentlemen before Bapak gives an explanation about the exercise, he wants to first give an explanation about the meaning of Subud... inaudible )

( Subud ) is an abbreviation of the words Susila Budhi Dharma. Susila means a nature that is humane; Budhi means the power that comes from God for human beings; and Dharma means the surrender of human beings to the One God. Therefore Susila Budhi Dharma and Subud are symbols for the human self that is able to receive a gift from God, the contact with the greatness of God.

Subud is neither a religion nor a teaching. In reality it is a representation for the human self of how it can truly receive whatever it needs for its life, so it may worship the One God. So Subud is not a method or a system for worshipping God, we receive it in a state of emptiness and submission to God's greatness, witnessed by those who have been doing the latihan for longer and who have been chosen by Bapak himself. Therefore, in truth, what we receive and practice is really the will of God for us, so that we may be able to worship Him.

Starting with Abraham, and then Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and the other prophets, much advice has been given to humankind to enable them to worship God. ( But ) today we are living in a time when, unless you're given proof of the reality ( in your worship ), maybe you are not going to find something true and convincing for yourself. This is because, these days, we have come more under the influence of the state of the world, the force of which is constantly increasing and putting more and more pressure on us.

It is not that the prophets of ancient times did not receive the reality from God to pass on to humankind, but what happened then was in accordance with God's will for that time... ( inaudible ), and at that time, long ago, this was not yet God's Will. In ancient .times there were still many people who could easily quieten their hearts and thinking, for indeed, at that time there were not so many things influencing their hearts and minds. So there were still many people who, by advice alone, could live rightly.

But nowadays, during this last century, people's hearts and thinking have become greatly influenced by things that very easily affect their being, so it is very difficult for them to put into practice and follow the advice given by the prophets. Therefore, it is God's Will that at this time there should be a way that can compete with, balance and overtake the development of the thinking and the heart of human beings, which have been swept along by the progress of the time in which they are living.

By the will of God, which you have received, you can be in contact with God's greatness easily, while still fully engaged in life; for instance, still thinking about your household, about your work - thinking like ordinary people living on this earth. So what we obtain in the latihan and what happens in Subud not only resembles, but actually is the same as that received by the prophets long ago, which you have heard and read about. So it is really very fortunate for our inner feeling that we have been able to come to this in such an easy way. Truly it is by God's will - so that people should not stray too far, following wrong ways that do not lead to Him.

It is as it should be, that in the latihan we do not receive all at once what we think we need, because God knows that a person can only receive what they need for their life according to the strength within them. It's certain that you have thought like this. The fact is, that your thinking and your heart have roamed so far, and exerted themselves so much, that they would like to receive what they need for their life right away and as quickly as possible. But, ladies and gentlemen, do not forget that your soul - your human soul - has only just been born, has only just awakened; only recently has the influence of your desire and thinking been overcome and put aside. Whereas you have been teaching and training your heart and thinking from the time you were small until you grew up and became adult.

You have all seen for yourselves the condition of a little child who has just been born. Newborn babies - although they cannot yet see the shape of things in this world; cannot yet hear, smell or feel things the way people feel in this world - have moments when their faces look joyful, while at other times they look sad, then happy again and so on. It is certain that this is an expression of what they are feeling, what they are seeing and what they are receiving. But it is impossible for adults, who have been under the influence of the world for a long time, to know what is really happening in the inner feeling of a little child.

So it is clear that a small child, who knows nothing of the world, is still so closely connected with their soul that they can know all sorts of things that adults cannot know. So generally, it's said that such a child is free of sin, still beloved by God, and not yet affected by the influence of this world.

As the days, weeks and months go by, and a baby begins to see the shapes of this world, to hear the sounds around it, to smell smells and to feel what people feel in this world, they begin, little by little, to lose touch with their human soul, with which previously they were so closely connected. And so it continues: as the child grows up and becomes an adult every part of their being is filled with the influence of the world. There is no longer any influence from their soul, as it has become covered up by the world. So the way the child thinks, feels, hears and sees inevitably becomes adjusted to all they have experienced in the world.

Therefore, it is not surprising that there are many people who imagine and picture God as a handsome man wearing beautiful garments, sitting on a throne of gold that is decorated with diamonds and jewels. Others envisage heaven as a really lovely, beautiful place in attractive surroundings. That is how the human heart and mind work when they are influenced by the forces of this world. That is how they think about God and heaven. Whereas the truth is that, if God is Almighty and greater than His creation, then God is certainly very different from the way people imagine. So is heaven. If heaven is beyond this world and different in nature, then it is certainly dissimilar. It cannot be pictured in terms of what exists in this world. It is truly very different.

It was said by the prophets that the true nature of God is such that God precedes everything that comes first and comes after everything that is last. So, when this Earth has disappeared - and long after it has disappeared - God will exist. Before there was the Earth, God existed. God is also said to be within everything that is within, and outside everything that is outside. That is why it is said that God is within the human self. This is true. Indeed God - God's power - is within the human self but deeper than its deepest part.

On the other hand, it is not easy for people to feel what is within them. People cannot understand their thinking with their own thinking, nor can the human heart know its own true condition. For as long as human beings still rely on their hearts and minds to learn what is within them ( they will not succeed ). It is only possible with God's help, in a state in which their mind is truly quiet and free from its many thoughts - that is, the same condition we were in as babies, as Bapak just described.

Therefore, the latihan you have received is not something new. It is not a teaching, not a system or a method, it is none other than what was already within you. It is only because you have just recently been opened, you have just recently received ( experience of ) it, that what you had already obtained long ago when you came into this world seems to your heart and mind like some new birth or new experience.

So your behavior in the latihan does not differ much from that of a new-born child or one starting to grow. You can understand this to mean that you are starting to repeat your life in this world, but ( this time ) in the right way. You have already lived for many years, but that is the age of your heart, your thinking and your desires, not yet of your soul. For, as Bapak just said, your soul has only just been born, so it is only two or three months old, or two or three weeks, or maybe just two or three days. Your many experiences and the age you have reached did not involve your human soul but the lower forces, which came first in influencing your inner feeling.

Clearly, in the reality of the way you lead your lives, many of you are still obstructed and disturbed by things that frustrate your destiny, so your life is not in accordance with what should grow from your own individuality. A small weak caterpillar can live happily, because God created it to live among leaves where it can eat whatever it needs and be happy. Similarly, God has created human beings, equipped them and given them a place where they can be happy. But human beings are on a higher level than animals. They have been given a thinking mind, a heart and the budhi, of which Bapak spoke earlier. So of course they should be more able than animals to find happiness for themselves.

In the latihan, you will be educated and guided by the power of God within you, with regard to your health as well as your skills. So with God's guidance within you, you will become healthy and acquire a personal talent, and you will know the way to... ( inaudible ) know what is necessary for your 'I', and how to make your life happy in this world as well as in life after death.

Of course, you cannot be sure when you will achieve this. Whether you progress or not, and the slowness of it, is not because God does not give or does not wish to give. It is not that God loves this person and not another. It is due to your own selves that some of you receive more easily and others more slowly. The reason for this lies in the mistakes within you, which you have made during your life.

For progress in what you receive or will receive to go smoothly, you first need to be cleaned, which means all that is wrong in your self- that is to say, the mistakes brought into your inner self by your thinking and your heart - have to be corrected. All this needs to be purified, needs to be repaired, so you can return to the way you were when you were born.

You will experience and receive all this when the right time comes - you have to experience it since it is indeed the Will of God. It is not a state that is... ( inaudible ), but you really will experience it, even if it is not certain whether it will take one or two months, one or two years, or ten years. You will definitely experience it and... ( inaudible ) verify what Bapak has told you.

However, the way in which you receive it will always differ and must differ from one person to another. For, although you are all human beings, you have been created by God to be beings of great worth, more noble than other creatures; so the secrets of the differences in your inner content cannot be known easily, as is the case with animals. With animals we can easily know their differences, their names, their nature and... ( inaudible ).

So, the fact is that we cannot make a system or a set of rules for our Subud latihan that fits everybody. For truly there will always be , differences between each of you in what you receive; in what you are given by God for your being and for the growth of your soul. It will be in accordance with what is within each one of you. Bapak does not wish - and furthermore it is not desirable - that you should be like Bapak. No! Because Bapak's state is different from yours. So Subud is not a form of knowledge given by one person to another; it is a gift from God to human beings, so each of them can grow spontaneously in accordance with the guidelines within their own being and without harming themselves.

Thus Subud is not Bapak's knowledge or Subuh's knowledge. No, it is human knowledge. Subud represents a human being, the being of a person who is able to receive God's gift in the right way. Bapak's role in this is only to make clear to you the experiences that are received in the latihan, not to give you a teaching you have to follow. Therefore Bapak hopes you will not think or ponder deeply about his explanations with your mind, but just listen, so that later you can recognize it when you experience it yourselves.

Do not worry or be anxious about what you receive in the latihan, because all of it is there within yourselves. It is not something new, not something different - it really belongs to you. If you are afraid, or if you worry about what has been born within you, it means you are afraid of your own inner self, you are afraid of the reality within you. While the truth is that, whether you are asleep or awake, whether you are travelling or wherever you are, your inner self is always there within you. Therefore, you need not be afraid, for this that you carry with you, you can also take with you into life after death.

So don't be afraid. ( In the latihan ) you hear someone going, 'quack, quack, quack,' and you are afraid - don't be. You hear someone else going, 'owk, owk, owk', and you are afraid - don't be. There is no need to be afraid if others are acting like that, because you have your own ( latihan ). It can happen, but not everyone's is like that. In London and some other places there are people who are very noisy, and there are others who are quiet, but they also receive. There are some who jump about and some who bang about, and some people just sing, but they all receive. So you cannot decide to jump about. Don't do that - you will have your own latihan. If your latihan is like that how can you stop it? That is your inner self.

This is what happens in the latihan. Therefore you don't need to feel anxious, but plant the worship of God firmly in your inner feeling, because God knows your condition better than you and God knows your capacity for receiving God's gift.

As for why it is that a person is noisy or not noisy, Bapak can illustrate it like this. When you were small, you probably flew kites. If you wound the string like this, then when you pulled it in it would go like this ( gestures ), but if you started by first winding it that way round, when you pulled it in it would go like that. ( Gestures. Laughter ) So perhaps, when you were wound up, some of you were wound up this way and some that way, so that when God's power pulls the string some of you move this way and some that way. So how you move is not God's fault, no! That is the way you are, each of you. Some of you, when you are pulled, move this way, others move like that, while still others go like this and like that. ( Gestures. Laughter )

This is Bapak's explanation for tonight, giving you an outline of the spiritual way. He will continue again on Monday evening with explanations you need to hear. Nothing further remains for Bapak but to express thanks to God who has given the way and given the time for him to be able to meet with you all. Also Bapak asks your forgiveness if he has said anything that is out of place. That is all. Bapak says thank you very much.