Ladies ( and gentlemen ), tonight Bapak is going to explain the things that are essential for you in receiving the latihan you have been doing on the appointed evenings. In receiving this Subud spiritual training it is very necessary that you don't imagine anything in your hearts; also don't compare this latihan with anything else. And don't have any hopes of being able to receive quickly and so on, simply surrender to the greatness of God with a feeling of patience in your hearts and a willingness to let go.

Maybe you are aware of and have heard what the prophets taught, which is spoken of and read out in churches, the mosques, and many other places: that God is one; that God is neither male nor female; that God has authority; that God does not make use of instruments like ours; and that God is truly powerful and all-knowing. For these reasons, have faith that God will provide for you as long as you trust in God, and surrender to God's greatness and God's might.

Because God is like that, God can immerse Himself in everything He has created and unite His Selfhood with them. For example, God can unite His Selfhood with material objects, plants, animals, human beings, water, fire, and everything else. So it's not only human beings to whom God is close. God's power envelops not only human beings, but also material objects, plants and animals. Why then, if God's power encompasses the human self and other creatures, are human beings unable to be aware of it and to feel it? The causes of this distance between human beings and their God are their thinking, desires and heart. That's why, if you can truly suspend the working of your desires, the working of your thinking, and the fantasizing of your hearts, soon you will be able to sense the power of God enveloping your inner being; you will be able to grasp it - receive it and feel it.

To make this clear, it would be as well for Bapak to explain how it was at the beginning, before you came into being. Before this body was created, before this body came into being, you were still a spirit. In other words, you still had the nature of a living soul or life force. And this force did not have the qualities it has now; it had neither human, animal, nor any other kind of form. Its nature was still that of an essence, of a life-force. Then this life force entered into a new form, which can be described as water; that is, the water that arises through the union of man and woman. At the moment when this life force entered into the form that still resembled water, there was, as yet, no sign of where the head, torso, legs, heart and the other organs would be.

This makes it obvious that, at that moment in time, a human being is unable to use their thinking, heart and desires, since these features have not yet appeared. Eventually this watery liquid coalesces and takes shape and finally appears as a fetus within the mother's womb. Finally the moment comes when it is born on this earth as a little newborn child, a baby. Now the complete form is visible: the head, torso, legs and the rest.

At that moment, such a small child is still unable to see clearly, still unable to hear any sounds, and still unable to smell any odors. Nor can they taste what the flavor of sugar, or anything else is like. All they can do is accept whatever happens to them. Yet, although such a small child is unable to make out anything that is in this world, their faces often seem to show that they're feeling pleased about something. They show that they're feeling distressed about something, that something is making them suffer, or making them feel joyful. This is because, in reality, they are not incapable of feeling things that make them experience joy, sadness and suffering. They can really feel those things, all of which arise from their soul. This means that a small child can see, but not the sights of this world. What they can see is the world of the soul, the world they have left behind when entering into this new state of life. That's why such a small child is very, very sensitive.

Eventually, from day to day, week to week, and so on, a child begins to see, begins to be able to discern the forms of this world; they become able to discern sounds and the like, and begin to relinquish the connection with their soul. Furthermore, as with time the child grows, their brain works, their :heart works, all their feelings work, until finally they reach the point where the connection between their inner feeling and their true soul breaks off completely.

Thus it's not surprising that after the child has grown up and become an adult it is not easy for them to think about questions like: 'What is the soul like? What was I like before I came under the influence of the world?' Because the brain, heart and feelings are already filled with the concerns of this world, these faculties have no way of picturing anything true. On the contrary, what is firmly implanted in the mind, the heart and the feelings, are the images of this world, which is always in motion. The result of this is that when a person wonders what God is like, or what angels are like, or even what heaven is, then in all likelihood that person's way of picturing God will be to imagine Him as a man, sitting in a chair studded with diamonds. And perhaps heaven is pictured as a cool, fresh place, a splendid place, with flowing water and other things -none of these fantasies being much different from the images of what exists in this world.

That is why, in order to rediscover, while in this world, what it was like before you came under its influence, you need to be able to cleanse yourselves of everything: everything that has left traces on your minds, everything that has left traces on your hearts, and everything that has left traces on your feelings. Only when you have progressed or reached such a level, or such a place - in other words, when you've been able to experience what it was like when you were still a baby, before you came under the world's influence - only then will you begin to be connected to your soul, be in contact with it. And when you have obtained a contact with your soul, only then will you begin to have a contact with the greatness of God that encompasses all the life forces - the companions and the resources of creatures of this world as well as of elsewhere. God knows them all.

So all of you - not that you must, but this is the way it's supposed to happen - will pass through three phases. First is the phase of breaking down worldly influences until the world of babyhood is reached. Then a second phase is begun, the preparatory phase, which means that once one has reached the level of babyhood a connection is made with the soul. The third is the phase of knowledge, understanding and awareness of your life, which comes as a result of having made contact with God.

It is clear that the theories already present in the thinking, already present in the heart and ill the feelings, cannot possibly be brought into play; for to return to the state just described requires neither theories nor the intellectual knowledge that has developed in this world. Instead, what is needed is for the mind to be made clean, so that once again you can receive the pure, immaculate feeling you had in early childhood when you were still without sin.

Certainly our brains, hearts and feelings are things we need to employ, things we need to bring to life, because these three are the tools we need to use in our lives; they enable us to take care of all our needs in this world. But they are not to be used for becoming conscious of the soul, for becoming conscious of the life after death or the life before life - for indeed these are different spheres. So, it's not that we have to separate ourselves from them, but rather we have to be aware that in our lives there is a difference between the work oft as a human being using a brain, heart and feelings, and the working of God on our soul, free from the heart, the brain and the feelings.

So what Bapak calls this spiritual way - the spiritual way that you are already putting into practice and receiving - is really God's work. All you can do is receive and accept what God has worked within you. In the world, this is called 'God's work', or godsdienst ( Du: God's service, religion ). The symbol for carrying out that work is human beings worshipping God in a church or mosque. The church is a symbol of a house within our self. The mosque is a symbol of a house within our self. So it's clear that to arrive at a worship of God that will enable the soul to be worked upon by God, and changed into a perfect or a good soul, human beings need to worship, they need to worship in a church, in a mosque; that is to say they need true worship, each within his or her own self.

Therefore, what you all need to do in this Subud spiritual training of ours is to surrender. All you need to do is surrender your self to God as if you were in church, or as if you were in the mosque. When a person is in the mosque they are not required to search, looking for God; they merely need to surrender. In the mosque, when a person is performing the Islamic prayer, there is no need to hunt for God everywhere. No. There is nothing to do but surrender to God. This is because the worshipper considers that place - whether it is a mosque or a church - to be a place where they are encompassed by God's power.

This is why, in order to receive what you need for your life as quickly as possible, you should not always give prominence to your thinking, which looks for this or that. The thinking, heart, passions and feelings of a human being can reach only to the borderline where the first phase begins; they are even more useless for the second phase; and even more so for the third phase. It won't happen.

None of you should worry that if you don't use theories you won't reach your goal. Maybe you remember that Jesus received revelations from God. He was able to know things that were beyond the knowledge of the human mind, not by way of theorizing or because he'd studied, but because of his surrender, because of his purity. So the means for human beings to obtain revelations from God, to obtain things beyond the mind's capacity, is none other than to surrender with a pure and holy feeling in the heart. There is no other way. So, if you all really and truly love God, if you really and truly surrender, really and truly refrain from thinking about anything at all and just receive and accept, then God, beyond your expectations, beyond the scope of your minds, will give you everything you need.

To obtain purity of brain, heart, passions and feelings, many people have made an effort to give up everything - giving up all pleasures. Some have even abandoned their wives and children and gone to desolate places, in the jungle, the mountains or on the coast. These are ways human beings adopt in order to calm their hearts and minds, in order to cleanse away everything that has left a trace in their brains, hearts and thinking.

That's how hard it is to find purity of the inner feeling, to be able to cleanse one's whole being. In truth it is extraordinarily difficult for people to achieve this today, for their lives are filled to the brim with things that constantly put pressure on their hearts and minds. Things influence them to the point where they are forced willy-nilly to desire this, desire that; wish for this, wish for that; think about this matter or that. So how fortunate we are with the birth of Subud. In the midst of this frenetic society in which we live, in this world whose influences it is almost impossible to fend off, we have been able to receive something-that makes it easy for us to worship God truly. You only need to be patient, to surrender, to believe in and to love God more than you love and believe in worldly things.

What Bapak is saying here has been expressed by others as follows: 'If a person wishes to be loved by another, he or she must love that person too. If you want others to treat you compassionately, you must also treat them with compassion.' It's the same with you. You want God to love you - you must in turn love God. If you want God to show you compassion, then you must love the One God more than you love yourself. If you can do this God will know. God is All-wise and All-compassionate. You will be able to receive quickly what you need for yourself.

And what will God give you if you can do what has just been described? God will give you guidance throughout your whole being. For example, you'll be guided in walking, in the right way to walk. You'll be guided in how to wave, in how to use your hands, in how to move them. You'll be guided in how to think. You'll be guided in feeling about something and visualizing it. In other words you will discover guidance within yourselves, guidance you will never lose and that will never disappear.

Also, of course, the guidance needed to reach the necessary level will bring about the repair of whatever is wrong within your self. For example, illnesses and the like, which affect you, will be healed. So it is not only your soul but also your feelings that will live in a state that is healthy, excellent and good. But, in reality, Subud is not for people to come to for healing. No. People who think that are mistaken. Maybe it's because of ( Husein ) Rofe's book, which tells all kinds of stories, that many people imagine Subud to be a body that only engages in curing sick people. It's not. In reality the nature of Subud is worship of God, by God's will, so that when human beings can calm their hearts, desires and thinking, they can receive the power of God in accordance with their strength.

And once you have really become aware of the meaning of what Bapak has been saying, then you are really Subud, which means human beings who have the qualities of susila, budhi, and dharma. The meaning of these words is this: susila is a human being who by God's will is truly humane; budhi is the power that comes from the life force that encompasses a human being, which exists within them, and which they can recognize. The third, dharma, means being truly surrendered to the greatness of God - and then you will really become an instrument of God.

Therefore Subud is not a religion. The various religions have already given in full all the advice ( we need ). It is truly sufficient. All that's needed now is to live them, to put them into practice. So Subud simply puts into practice what the prophets advised, what the prophets received - the commands, the messages of the One God.

So Subud does not go against any of the religions. No. In fact, Christians will come to know what was really accomplished, by Jesus, by the Christ. Similarly Muslims will become deeply conscious of what Islam really is. This is because all the religions have only one aim, only one direction, and that is God. God is the One and the Almighty One for each and every creature He created.

This is the end of Bapak's words for this evening; he will end his talk here. It seems it's already quite late, and maybe you are tired. Bapak will continue on another evening, which will be announced. He hopes that these brief words were able to give you some satisfaction, and he says good night. Thank you very much.