Ladies and gentlemen, before Bapak explains a little about the spiritual way you have been practicing, it would be good if he also explains how to form a committee here, and also how the helpers and the committee ought to function in this spiritual way of Subud.

For the next three months the committee will be temporarily made up of members of the group, who will then automatically become helpers. So those of you who are appointed to this committee will not continue serving on it, but will become helpers. Once this has happened it will be necessary to hold a general meeting to elect a committee - the real committee - which can then work for one or two years. And this election will not take any account of a member's receiving or progress in the latihan; what is important is to choose people who work well and would like to work on the Subud committee.

The job of the committee will be to manage the finances within this Subud group. It will also be to find a place for the latihan. Whether to rent or to build for yourselves is up to those who serve on the committee, depending on their judgement and feeling about how Subud should be set up here. In short then, the work of the committee will be to administer the affairs of this Subud group of ours, and to make the maximum effort to set up a body that will produce an income to fulfil and provide for all the needs of our group. In this way the contributions our members have to pay will not feel too much of a burden.

As Bapak told the members in Mexico and other places, the committee should raise the capital needed to set up this body or enterprise collectively, co-operatively from all the members. And while money you make from this enterprise - the profit - will of course go to those members, a portion should be given to our organization so that the finances of our association will be solid and cover our various expenses.

This is actually also to train us, so we can practice how to live in this world without giving up the things of this world, but at the same time not let our worship of God be disturbed ( by them ). We are always saying we can worship God while still living full lives in this world. Let's not allow these words to remain just words; we must and we need to put them into practice until we can really work this way.

This is the description of the committee that Bapak puts forward to you. Maybe if all of you here can really work hard and make a lot of money... This is not being greedy; it doesn't mean that we are only interested in making money. No! We're making money - and we need money - as a means, as a tool, for worshipping God. So, as Bapak was saying, if all of you here can really work hard and make lots of money, Subud here in New York will be able, might be able, to build a school; to found a school where the teachers are taken from among our members. This means they will be able to look at the children and evaluate their talents and the direction each of them could take in their studies.

Also, if you wish, you could build housing for people - whether or not they are in Subud - who are down and out, who are poor and who are old. And these places could be staffed by our members, who could educate these people and give them advice, so they can truly become aware of the purpose of life in this world as well as the life to come, after death.

If Subud grew strong enough here, you could also found a hospital, where the doctors, besides having diplomas and licenses to practice medicine, would also have done latihan in Subud. They could then work in a way that is beneficial for the health of the patients, as they are already doing in England. Thus Subud would really show to the community and to the public, that we live fully in this world. We do not neglect our duties in life, but neither do we neglect worshipping God in a way that is real, in a way that is true.

As for those who will be resigning from their positions on the committee and will then become helpers in the latihan straight away: they form a group or a team that will advise the committee, accompany the latihan of the members, and open new members - people who wish to follow the spiritual training in Subud.

As helpers and openers you will be responsible for accepting new members and for testing whether those who wish to join in the latihan can be opened or not. Although it has been decided that anyone who wants to join Subud has to go through a three month waiting period as a candidate, you may adjust this in accordance with the situation here. If you are sure, and can test the sincerity of the new members, those who are accepted do not need to wait the whole three months. They can be opened after half that time or after one month.

In a helpers' group there's no chairperson, there's no deputy chairperson, there's no secretary or anything else like that. You all have exactly the same status. So don't misunderstand, and have one person saying, 'I'm senior to you,' while others are making the same claim, so that there is conflict within the group. That's why you mustn't have a chairperson and a vice chairperson - you are all equal.

And when you test together you need to let the majority decide. For example, if there are twenty helpers and eighteen say it would be good for A to become a member but two say no, well, those two helpers have to give in, since their conclusion is less convincing than that of the eighteen.

And what do the helpers need to do when they accompany the members in their latihan? When you do latihan with the members you should not direct your heart and feelings towards the members but towards God, just as you would if you were doing the latihan alone. This is because, if a helper doing latihan with somebody directs their feelings towards that person rather than doing their own latihan before the One Almighty God, it will not only be the helper who will lose - because they will receive nothing - but in truth the other person will also be blocked. They will receive not from a higher source but from the helper accompanying them.

This is why many people who do the latihan feel uncomfortable when they have a helper in front of them. They feel uncomfortable, they feel bothered and they feel blocked. The reason for this is that the helper is directing his or her feelings and thoughts at that person, as opposed to their worshipping God together.

As for the make-up of the committee, of course it doesn't require a lot of people: just a chairperson, a deputy chairperson, a secretary, a deputy secretary, a treasurer and a deputy treasurer, as well as four or five assistants. The number of people here is far too large for the committee - for this temporary committee. So just choose people from among those present to fill the committee positions. The rest of you will become candidate helpers - you will still become helpers.

That was what Bapak needed to explain about the committee and the helpers. And now Bapak will explain something of the spiritual way you have been doing and practicing.

Brothers and sisters, we normally refer to our worship of God as 'the latihan'. But the 'latihan of Subud' is actually only a name. The truth is that this training of the soul we call latihan is the worship of human beings towards God. Bapak says this because nothing of what has come about in Subud has happened because we visualized it or learned it. On the contrary, we need to empty ourselves of whatever is within us - our hearts, our desires and our thinking. Then, as a result of that state, our inner feeling will become calm and clean, and able to receive whatever God wills for us.

So what happens is that we receive and experience. Your development can be compared to that of a plant. The seed is planted, then it grows; little by little a shoot begins to show. As more and more time goes by it grows bigger and bigger; leaves appear, then branches and flowers. Only then does it bear fruit. That's how it is with all of you - you will grow spontaneously, by yourselves, not by studying how to grow.

As you have heard, there are many life-forces in the structure of life. This was received by human beings long ago, by the prophets in the really distant past. Indeed it is so. There is a similarity because this is not something new. It is something that came about when human beings were first created on this earth.

And why is it that something, which is not new, which has been in existence since there have been human beings, is still unknown to people today? It is because from generation to generation human beings have had to deal with environmental and epochal changes that have grown more and more intense with the passing of time. The outcome of this is that human beings have become more accustomed to using their thinking and their hearts, and dealing with this world than to feeling how it is when their inner feeling is brought to life by the human soul.

Now, in this present century, it has reached the point where not only the brains and thinking minds of human beings, but also their hearts and their entire inner feeling are completely filled with problems and experiences of this world instead of experiences and matters of the soul.

In this way, with the passage of time, people have come to give more and more importance to the objects they think about, but they forget who has given them the power to think ! That is why so many people are unwilling to acknowledge the existence of God and of God's power. Indeed that is the state of humanity up to now - they have moved very far away from their God. And, as a result it can be said that they've lost their bearings, they've lost their waymarks and signposts.

Because of this there are a lot of brilliant people who are tricked by their own intelligence. As a result of their intelligence they become confused by their own brains. It is like when a person creates something incredible. After it has been made and is ready the person gets frightened of their own creation. Yes, that's the way people are. In the end people are hurt by their own cleverness. It's because of this that human beings have been unable to obtain guidance, or have not received the true laws of God that are in force and at work within them.

If they do receive this and obtain guidance, then they will return to a state of awareness. Besides doing what a person has to do while living in this world, they will also be able to receive how wide the scope of the soul is. Then they will be able to understand the movements of all living things that grow on this earth: which ones need to be guided, which ones need to be nurtured, and which ones need to be put right.

Sometimes the feeling of animals, who are lower than human beings, is sharper than that of humans. Before an event takes place animals sense that it is going to occur. It is often the case that birds living on a volcano know that it is about to erupt, and fly away before it happens. Human beings don't understand. They just watch. 'Why are those birds flying away? Maybe something is going to happen'. Only then do the people follow. Therefore it would be better if people had a sharper feeling, as sharp as animals, for human beings have a higher intelligence and ability to think than animals do.

That's it. That is why you are being cleansed in the latihan. Your human feeling, which has for a long time been covered by the influence of your thinking and heart - which are entirely filled up with worldly matters - is being brought back to life.

Because there was not very much time, Bapak's talk this evening has been brief. He will continue with his talks later on, over the days to come when there will be more time. Now, to make real what Bapak has been saying, it would be as well to do some testing to enable all of you to feel and to receive it.

( Testing )