Ladies and gentlemen, having welcomed you all to this meeting this afternoon, Bapak will explain about the latihan you have received and practise.

As you have received and experienced, the Subud latihan is a training that comes, not from the will of the heart, desires and mind, but from the will of God. It is given to you when the influence of your mind, heart and desires has stopped. So it follows that the mind, heart and desires are not required to work while you are receiving the latihan – receiving God’s gift – which is felt as a vibration within your being.

That is how easy it is to receive the vibration in our self; the vibration of our original inner feeling as it touches and is touched by the power of God that envelops our self, both outside and inside. However, even though it is so easy, for those of you who still use your mind, heart and desires – that is, your mind, heart and desires are still always working – it appears to be something that is difficult to do.

In reality, for many of you the wish to use your heart is still very strong; you force yourself to strengthen your latihan so that you can receive what God gives you as quickly as possible. In other words, you still strengthen your will in order to know and receive more in the latihan. But strengthening your heart and will does not increase your receiving of the latihan; on the contrary, it blocks the development of your soul. Assuredly, the growth of the soul, the development of the soul, does not require the participation of the mind, heart and desires. It is when they are empty that the development of the soul can proceed best.

This is where you need to be able to separate the two kinds of work: that is, God’s work on your self, and the work of the mind, heart and desires for your self. First comes God’s work. We humans cannot compete in this; we cannot be in a hurry – [someone] with a stronger will having a better chance of getting there first – no. Someone who is really pure, who is really clean in his or her inner feeling and heart, who really surrenders to the greatness of God, will go faster than someone who wants to get there with a strong will. It is the second kind of work – the work of our brain, heart and desires – that we can accelerate, because that is indeed our work: to understand and provide for our life while we are on this earth.

This is what you need to be aware of, because your determination and your strong will, with which you would like to receive quickly, will in fact hold you back. It is as though we are chasing after something we cannot catch, cannot even keep up with, but on the way we start to quarrel about it; it is like fighting over a bone with no marrow.

That is why Bapak hopes that when you do the latihan you never use your desire, never use your passion. Because the desires, heart and mind are not like a bridge, or a vehicle that can speed up your journey towards the greatness of God; on the contrary, they will slow you down and will bring about endless temptations.

These are the reasons why, in Subud, we have two sections. One is the spiritual part, which serves you only in doing the latihan. And in that there is no chairman, no secretary and no treasurer. Everyone is the same, because the one in charge in the latihan is not a human being but the power of God. So, everything hoped for by you will be decided by God’s power, which you can receive in a way you are accustomed to.

So the rightness or not of anything to do with receiving the latihan is not based on the intelligence of the mind and heart, but on indications and reality that are received. In this way, all of you will be able to experience a common receiving. Like Bapak himself, for example; he would not be able to decide anything if it came just from his thinking. But he always stops the influence of his mind and desires so that he can receive. And that decides what the answer is to whatever Bapak has in mind.

In this way the group responsible for the spiritual side will operate as they would most prefer – meaning there will be no disagreements among them. It will not be based on who is older or younger, or on who is stupid or clever; in the latihan, clever and stupid, old and young, are all the same, because it is God who decides everything for a human being.

The fact is that when a person faces death, whether they are highly educated or stupid, old or young, all they can do is face death. So, when an educated person is going to die, he doesn’t twirl his moustache or act in a haughty way. Everyone is the same. When it comes to facing death human beings are all equally powerless, because they are facing the power of God. And no human being can possibly overcome the power of God.

It is clear that humans can feel strong, or claim to be invulnerable and confident in facing anything, as long as their mind, heart and desires are still there. But when these have been stopped by God, a human being – and his or her inner feeling – is like a piece of cotton wool on the middle of a table, wafted to and fro, completely powerless. It is precisely that state we are now being trained for in the latihan, so that at that moment there will arise in us a strength beyond our imagining, the strength that comes from God who knows the life after death.

Clearly, we can only know and be aware of the atmosphere of life after death when our mind, heart and desires are not influencing our inner feeling. Many people therefore make an effort to achieve this. In India, for example, many people put aside everything they enjoy, leave all pleasures behind, and isolate themselves from society; they stay and make their homes in quiet places, far from the masses. This is because it is only by means of that quietness that they will be able to obtain something that comes from stillness; in other words, the voice that comes from death.

That is how hard it is for these people to try to attain peace within themselves, in order to experience the atmosphere of life after death. It would be impossible for any of you to follow that path, because you are accustomed to living in the city, in this present age that is full of change, full of this and that. So it is impossible for you to do what the Brahmans do. However, it could be said that the result [of their efforts] is no different from what all of you have obtained and receive in a very easy way.

So in fact it is a grace and an infinite good fortune that God has blessed us human beings in this present age, enabling us to receive what we need for our life in a way that does not conflict with our normal, present-day lifestyle. Perhaps God knows the difficulties and obstacles in human life in this present age. God has blessed us in our situation, where it is very difficult to be free of disturbance from our own heart and desires, and has given us guidance we can receive within us, so that we can become aware of the path of our life, both in this world and, later, after death.

So the most important thing for you now is not to regard this as something trivial. You have to be careful, so that you can really make use of this excellent opportunity and become aware of its tremendous usefulness for you. That is why we need to work with one another, to get to know one another, respect one another and feel for and understand one another; so there is not continual dissension among us, and so that in your group you can really achieve what you are trying to do. Then you will not just quarrel and fight over a bone with nothing on it.

When we are always at peace and always experience a feeling of family with the whole of humanity, we will receive more quickly; then we will know our way in life, forwards, backwards, to left and right. And eventually we will know how in fact human beings were created on this earth, and how they must turn to God and worship God. This is because we will receive instruction, not from human beings but from God’s power, which flows into our being, which enters into our whole body, our brain, our heart, and every part of it, so that eventually our self is truly an instrument of God’s power.

The way God teaches someone is not in the way one person teaches another. [For example,] if a person is told to turn a steering wheel, they listen, and only then do they touch the wheel. With God it is different. If God were to teach a person to drive their car, the lesson would be in the person’s own hands. So it is clear that the teaching human beings receive from God manifests within their brain. How we die and how we live after death will be there in front of our eyes, ears, nose and mouth, and there in front of our inner feeling.

What this means is that the law of God becomes alive. Instead of following religious teachings and prohibitions out of fear, people will simply be unable to do anything wrong, because God’s law will manifest within them. In this way you really will become God’s workers, because the directives for working and for arranging your life according to God’s will are already there within your breast. That is what is usually referred to as serving God – being a servant of God. However, do not forget, ladies and gentlemen, that God’s workers are not paid in money but with knowledge beyond the mind, because God does not print money as people do, with a watermark. Even supposing it existed, God’s currency would have no value in this world, because it would be different from the money in circulation. But we can receive a knowledge that can penetrate all the knowledge that humans possess.

That is why, besides the spiritual side, Bapak always proposes that you create a committee; that is, a group of people who work and serve your needs, using their mind, heart and desires for the interests of your life in this world. And, because this committee works for worldly needs, it has to function according to rules that already exist in human society in this world. So there is a chairman, a vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer, in order that the various tasks do not get mixed up. If they get mixed up, it will certainly give rise to disagreements and differences of opinion among you. Therefore, this person is responsible for this, that one is responsible for that; and the responsibilities of each one can be carried out really well because each person is responsible for what they have committed to do.

Furthermore, Bapak suggests and hopes that through buying or renting a building, the committee will start a business enterprise, the profits of which will lighten the burden of all the members who come to latihan. Then they will not just expect contributions from the members, enabling those of you who cannot always afford to give money still to come to the latihan.

And the enterprise we set up, besides making some profit to help our Subud funds, can also provide work for those of our members who do not have a job. Then Subud will truly be a help inwardly and outwardly; that is to say, it can help the soul and it can help the coarse, physical body.

You do not need to worry, and think that as we progress in this world we will forget our receiving from God. No. Because we are Subud. Before we do this, we already have Subud within us; that is to say, we have accustomed ourselves to receiving from God. So when we work at something, even though it is in the ordinary way, we are always accompanied by guidance and indications from within. This means that we will not separate the power of God from our work that is directed towards the world.

Bapak will give some examples. Suppose you are a salesman or a businessman: the power of God within you will inform you where your goods will sell. If you are a doctor, and you are going to operate, or give something to a patient, you will certainly get an indication from within as to how you should do it and the way you should work to cure your patient. It is the same if you are making something: the power of God will inform you and guide you within your self as to whether people will like what you are making, or not. This is the way God gives money to human beings. God does not give money to people as one person gives to another, but through the actions of the person concerned. God shows you where you can make a profit. So the profit comes to you from a person, not from God, because God does not possess money like the money here.

In this way, Subud makes a space for human beings and really benefits their lives, both in this world and in the hereafter, as is said in Islam. So all of you will become human beings who truly have a significance in this world.

This is what Bapak has to say to you this evening, brothers and sisters. Please forgive him if you feel this explanation is not enough, or has not been very much. And Bapak also hopes you will forgive him if any of his words are out of place. Thank you.