Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon Bapak will continue to give explanations about the spiritual way or latihan that you have received and are doing.

Because it is evident that this Subud latihan is a training that is moved by God’s power within each of us … [Bapak whispers something inaudible to the interpreter, then starts again.] It is evident that this Subud latihan is a training that arises because of God’s power within our self. Therefore, when you are receiving the latihan, it is not necessary to use your mind, heart or desires; for example, in a rush to understand the meaning of your receiving. You should empty yourself of all that; that is to say, you should empty yourself of your heart’s wish to know, and surrender everything to the greatness of God, so that God can guide you in that direction.

We are aware that our mind, heart and desires, besides being merely instruments of our inner feeling, are instruments that can be entered and used by the low forces within us, without our being conscious of it. This being the situation, it is not that we should not trust our own mind, heart and desires, but we need to be – that is to say, our inner feeling needs to be – beyond their influence. Then we can feel, know and understand the way they influence our inner feeling, and the way the low forces use them.

How can we be beyond the influence of our mind, heart and desires? Only with the help of God, at the times when we are doing latihan. Our mind, heart and desires are stopped and put aside. We could not possibly put our mind, heart and desires aside using our own heart and mind, and without the help of God. To be clear: with God’s help we are placed beyond the influence of our mind, heart and desires, so that we can then know how they work.

That is why, in Subud, there is nothing we can do to speed up or facilitate our receiving, or to speed up our understanding and awareness. All of that is in God’s hands, and it is God who will guide us. We have only to surrender everything that is in us to God, as people do in a place of worship; for instance, in church, in a mosque and so on. There, one is required only to surrender to God, to pray to God, and nothing else. If people try to do more than that – for example, if they think about what God is like and how God will give something to them – it will not be possible for them to understand what God wills for them.

God is not only Almighty but also has created us. God knows us better than we know God. God can feel a created being; but a created being cannot possibly feel the One who created it. So, the only way you can receive well while you are doing the latihan is to surrender to God’s greatness, with submission, trust, patience and love for God.

If Bapak were to describe the faults within us, actually that would be an explanation you could not understand. But still, it would be good if he were to say a little about it.

Brothers and sisters, you need to be aware that the soul is the main factor, or you could say, the content of our being. After the soul is there within us – for our self is like a vessel to receive it – it begins to work. Our tools, or our self, which are like the wrapping of the soul, then work according to whatever is within us; each of our parts and our mind, heart and desires, all work. Naturally this wrapping – including our inner feeling – will, as the wrapping of our soul, behave and work according to its content. So, clearly, if the content of our self is wrong we will be unable to know what is wrong with it, because even though it is wrong, it is us.

It is not that we have to, but we will always say good things about ourselves. Where is the person who will admit his or her own faults? Where is the person who likes to give in to others? Where is the person who likes to criticise himself or herself instead of other people? Rather, when they can, people conceal their bad points and only mention their good ones. They may even slander a good person to cover up their own faults.

Clearly, if our soul is not good we will never be good. Even if we claim to ourselves that we are good, we still are not good. That is why improving our soul is not something that is easy. It is not something we can make an effort and work at doing, as one makes an aeroplane, builds a train or makes an atomic [device], for example. These things are easier to do, because we can use our intelligence to create them. But how can I know my own self? There is no way. There is no one who can make a human being. Not so far. Yes, other than by having a child, which is not the same as making it, because it does not happen intentionally – it is just due to being in love. So it does not happen because you want it, as when you make something; it just happens. That’s the logic of it.

How is it that a human being, as an excellent creation of God, can contain a non-human soul? An animal soul, for example. It is because it is not God who creates human beings these days. The human being was created by God’s own hands in the beginning, when human beings first came into existence. That is why, in the stories of the prophets, it is said that a human being was created by God through God’s power; with God’s own hands, as it were. This was the first human being, called Adam.

Indeed Adam – the self of Adam – was still whole and complete, because God’s hands had indeed created him. All the instructions were there within him, complete and in good order. And eventually, when Adam could have children, all his children were described as prophets of good character. But then God gave human beings their own will, which meant that God guided them so that they, as God’s representatives, from then on would create new human beings themselves through union between man and woman.

So in the beginning, when humanity first came into existence, it was God who created human beings. But then it was left to human beings themselves. Well, once the authority to make new human beings was delegated to human beings themselves, they began to behave in a way that was not according to God’s will. The way men had intercourse with their wives was only through desire; and the imprint of their bad character was passed on from within their inner feeling.

Consequently, in men’s union with their wives there was created a place, like a lens, which could allow only a low soul to come in, instead of a high one. This is why the children of those people were human in form but did not have human souls. They had been wrongly made through the wrong behaviour of their parents. The fault was not only – take Bapak for example – from Bapak’s father. No. It was already there from the grandfather of Bapak’s father. So, the fault began from there and continued until it came down to us – to you yourselves. The fault already within the human self, within your self, has been perpetuated and so is very difficult to repair; firstly because it is big, tremendous, and impossible for us to put right; and secondly, because it has gone on and on being wrong until it has become irreparable. So we have become something that is intrinsically wrong.

How can we put this right? We can only surrender to the greatness of God. It is only God who gives us His grace. Only God the All-powerful can do something that humans cannot possibly do.

That is why religions advise their followers to behave in a way that is really humane. This means knowing what it is to love one’s fellow beings, and knowing how life is for people who are suffering – how life is for people who don’t have enough. By knowing and by being able to experience this, people who live in luxury and have everything will then be willing to give to those who lack everything.

Also in religions, for example in Islam, there is the practice of fasting. Fasting is a training for human beings. Regardless of whether they have an important position or not, whether they are rich or not, everyone is required to fast, so that they can feel how life is for people who lack everything, how life is for a person who does not eat for a day because he or she has no money. In this way a feeling of love and compassion will arise towards those who are in need.

So, in fasting, people practise how to experience the feelings of others who do not have enough of anything. In this way they will be guided, from within, always to feel and be aware that it is good, very good, if those who have plenty help those who have nothing. Also, once they are in such a state, if they have a child at least that child may have a good character. Although this is not certain, because the person concerned may already have a body whose content is not good.

However, rather than being bad and continuing to behave badly, it is better to have a bad content but to start behaving well. As human beings, we do not know and we cannot change ourselves without God’s help. Therefore, who knows, it is clearly possible that God may bestow grace on a person, and that person will spontaneously and unexpectedly receive guidance from God, changing all the faults inherited from their ancestors.

Again with regard to fasting, in both Islam and Christianity: it not only gives understanding to those who do it, it also cleans their being. The proof of it is like this. What were your habits before you did the fast? What did you drink, for example? Wine? When you do the fast, you are not able to drink it. It is clear from this that the influence of wine on your being is very potent. Or if you smoked opium – as many used to do in China – you become aware that if you take opium you cannot possibly do the fast, because while you are fasting your body will feel as though it is burning. This shows that the influence of opium on the human body is very damaging. From such experiences we come to understand, ‘Oh, in that case we need to be careful in choosing what we get used to eating. We should eat what is really good for us. We should not just eat for the sake of eating, because that could damage us.’ Fasting is also a means of improving our blood and our inner feeling.

Also, during the fast, the desires, the mind and heart do not work as they did before the fast. We become weak. Our desire for intercourse with our spouse is very weak. The meaning of fasting in religion, therefore, is really to train people to clean their being. Because of that cleaning, the mind, heart and desires will work less strongly, and a person’s surrender, trust and love towards God will spontaneously become greater.

After the fast, whether Muslim or Christian, comes the time of enlightenment; that is, light. Enlightenment comes in abundance; that is to say, God begins to give light. God gives enlightenment, real evidence and guidance to people who obey God’s greatness. Through doing the fast they have been able to improve their inner feeling, and stop or reduce what they consume.

This is [also] what we are putting into practice in Subud. So do not be surprised if, later, you spontaneously no longer like to eat this food or that food, which you used to eat before. It is in fact God’s will, cleaning out from your being the influences that made you want to eat those things.

From this you can see that what is laid down in religion is not wrong; in fact those things are right. However, perhaps for some reason some people are unable to carry out what is advised in religion – maybe that’s it. But Bapak is not saying it is impossible; maybe there are quite a few people who are able to follow it, for everything is in God’s hands and God’s power.

So in Subud there is nothing that goes against the religions. Nothing at all. Because in Subud we are being trained according to God’s will, so that we can practise and receive evidence of what is contained in the religions; that is, the advice given by those who received before us.

In truth, God always shows the way and gives guidance to human beings. Always. All the time. There is not an empty moment, from the time when human beings first existed until now, and until the end of time. God never stops giving proofs and giving understanding to people. But people make it difficult for themselves with their own mind, heart and desires. Clearly, brothers and sisters, it is you who make things wrong or difficult for yourselves.

So, do not blame God: ‘Why is God unjust? I have been at it for so long and still I can’t receive!’ It is not God’s fault. It is your own fault, because you do it wrongly; that is, you always use your heart, mind and desires. Entrust it to God; then God can guide you. As Bapak said just now, we cannot possibly correct our faults ourselves, because even though we are wrong, we are each still ‘I’. What are we to do? The faults that go to make up our ‘I’ are the content of our self.

For this reason, without God’s help and without God’s power, which we have now received through God’s grace, there would be no help for us. We would go on and on experiencing faults, endlessly.

Now, instead of our mind, heart and desires wanting always to find a way to receive more quickly and to analyse how God’s power works within us, it is better to use our mind, heart and desires, little by little, not to study but to accustom ourselves to living rightly. Not only will this make God’s work easier, but it will naturally speed up our receiving. This means starting with good behaviour. We need to do this, to improve ourselves with our own efforts, while we wait for what God will give us.

So, do not just expect and wait for God to make us better. For if God makes us better but we then continually repeat our mistakes, it is like … well, we are given something and improved like this, and then we go wrong, like that. The next day we are put right again, and we go wrong again. It goes on and on, repeatedly. There is no end to it.

When we are put right like that, we should stay that way. We should even contribute our own effort. So while God is shepherding us we should not constantly run off here and there. The shepherding can then be more efficient and more precise.

Eventually, little by little, you will be able to understand and be aware of what is meant and what is required in the various religions: in Islam, Christianity and the others. This will strengthen and make your worship of God more real as you practise your religion.

For Subud is not a religion. It is not receiving a new way of worshipping God. No. Also, Subud is not a teaching. It is God’s will that Subud should enable us to put into practice and receive the reality of what is given in our religion. In no way do we go against what is already there in our religion. You might say that God makes it deeper, so we really understand the true meaning of our religion.

You may be wondering how you can know when your soul is being repaired. You will be able to feel it because God’s power, which is working within you, is like a third person. The first is the working of the mind, heart and desires. The second is your faulty soul. The third is the Great life force that guides you within your self.

So, within you there are these three. This is just a description – so don’t try to count them: one, two and three; you cannot count them. Bapak is simply giving you the picture, that there are three conditions. One is the influence of the desires, mind and heart; one is the wrong soul; one is the power of God or the life force that guides you. There we are. And the three become one. That is why they call it: ‘three in one’. So, this one is in the centre and envelops all of them [gesture]. It is in the centre, where my state is, where my badness is, where my goodness is. So this one discriminates. In this way you will always be able to receive.

Well now, is it really like that? Bapak has been through it, has experienced it. He is telling you this because he has tasted the sweetness of this sugar. Bapak is not telling you about the sweetness of a sugar that he has never tasted. No. Bapak has tasted it, and can therefore tell you how sweet it is.

Clearly, then, as you go on doing the latihan you will be able to understand the changes you experience within you. There are already examples, brothers and sisters. Although you have not been doing it for very long, maybe some of you can already receive it and can feel, ‘Oh, there’s a change; now there’s another change. It keeps changing.’ That’s how it is. It is continually like that.

But do not forget that we must begin to behave – Bapak won’t say very well, but as well as we can – and improve our wrong behaviour. We must begin to contribute towards our own state, so that we are not careless before God; we are not people who take God’s greatness lightly, but are always obedient, outwardly and inwardly.

That is the end of Bapak’s talk this evening. He very much hopes you will forgive him if any of his words have not pleased you or were out of place.

In closing, Bapak will say goodbye, because at some time tomorrow he will continue his journey to Greece. Bapak simply prays that when he has gone from here God will protect you, so that you can worship God as well as possible and do not experience too many disturbances. Also, Bapak thanks you very much for your hospitality while he and his family have been with all of you. Again, Bapak says thank you very much. Thank you.