Ladies and gentlemen, Bapak, Ibu and their party would like to thank you all, and especially the organisers of the congress, for preparing everything so well that Bapak has not been disappointed in any way. He simply gives thanks to Almighty God that Bapak, Ibu and their party are able to be present at this congress, and for this opportunity to give a short talk, to all of you attending the congress, about making decisions and changes that may be necessary for the whole membership.

Bapak also appreciates how well the congress committee has been able to carry out its work of preparation, which is quite a heavy task, so that delegates from Subud centres all over the world can be united in this congress. This shows that the bond between you is real. Hopefully the preparatory work done here will serve as an example to other members, so that all will go equally well next time, in whichever country our third congress is held.

Brothers and sisters, it is now time for Bapak to give you some explanations in order to help you do your work and change existing by-laws, if necessary, in the best possible way during the coming days. As both Bapak and you yourselves have experienced, a Subud congress is a congress of people who have received and done the latihan. This means that it is a congress of people who worship God. So it is also a gathering of human beings who are obedient to, have faith in, and surrender themselves completely to the greatness of Almighty God.

This applies also to those of you who work on the organisational side of Subud. In the Subud association, the ‘organisation’ is not the highest authority, having domination over the members; it is just an administration or secretariat for the association. That which comes before all else, and which is of the highest importance in our Subud association, is the latihan. Therefore, in discussing all the problems and decisions to be taken, stay close to the peace and calmness of your inner feeling, which in reality means accepting the decisions of the greatness of Almighty God, who educates us and guides us in the latihan.

In view of this, the heaviest burden, the responsibility for progress or for lack of it, for good or bad in Subud, rests upon the helpers. So actually the helpers have a heavy burden to bear, because they must answer to God for any lack of progress and for whatever is good or bad in our association of Susila Budhi Dharma or Subud.

As for those appointed to sit on a committee or to serve the organisation, they are responsible for the needs of the association. Of course, these needs require a maximum effort from the committee. For even if the helpers are active in furthering the development of our Subud association, if practical needs cannot be met, their efforts will not lead to success. It is therefore very necessary that members of the committee or organisation should sincerely do everything in their power to enable the helpers to carry out the duties and responsibilities that Bapak has described. And so it is essential that helpers and committee members should work together closely and conscientiously, to the very best of their ability.

In Subud, the helpers are advisers, especially to the committee. It is for the helpers to give advice to the committee in taking decisions and when the committee wishes to make a change or a new by-law. Helpers are in fact Bapak’s helpers, so that in his absence they act as his representatives in their respective groups. This means that helpers really have a very heavy task; and Bapak hopes that they will be willing to work really hard in carrying out their duties as helpers so as to satisfy all the members and, when necessary, those who come to enquire and to ask questions about Subud.

So much for the duties and responsibilities of helpers and of those who serve in the organisation. Bapak will not say any more about this at the moment, because there may not be enough time.

Bapak will now go on to speak about the spiritual way – about the latihan you have received – because, for each one of you, this is the foundation of everything and is something you will continue to possess. It should also be the foundation of everything you need to decide and talk about in the congress, in order that your discussions have truly satisfactory results. They will not then contain the seeds of conflict, or the influence of the low forces, which could confuse and disturb the atmosphere of your meetings.

As you are all aware, the Subud latihan is a receiving, in which you are enabled to feel movements and vibrations. All this comes about through the power of God, who has bestowed His grace upon humankind, and in particular upon all of you, so that in your ordinary everyday life, while still working and thinking about your needs, you have been able to receive this contact with God’s greatness. This has given you proof that God helps you to avoid being continually forgetful and unmindful of the education and guidance of God’s power, which is truly present within each one of you.

This is not because you are able to quieten your thoughts and subdue your imagination, so that you are no longer continually thinking about this and that. Truly, without the help and the grace given to us by God, even if every single day we were to surrender ourselves and place our faith in God, and even if every day we quietened our minds and our feelings, there might still be many among us who would not be able to receive. So it is clear that the contact with the greatness of God that we have received does not depend on our ability to quieten our hearts, or on our faith in God, but on the grace of God given to human beings at this present time.

It has often been said, not only in modern times but also in times gone by, that it is wrong to seek God and also wrong if we do not seek God; that it is wrong to know God and wrong if we do not know God. It is very difficult to comprehend this saying, because we are wrong whether we seek or we don’t, wrong whether we know God or we don’t. What then should people do, in order to receive the gift of God that human beings have possessed since they first existed on this earth? Because of the difficulty people have had in grasping the meaning of these two sayings – which, although short, are hard to understand – many of them have felt compelled to resort to methods involving asceticism, meditation, and so on. They considered that these methods avoided both of these precepts; they thought that this was the right solution.

For you, it is indeed wrong to think about it; you cannot think about something like that. Because to understand is wrong, and not to understand is also wrong; to seek is wrong and not to seek is wrong; to know is wrong, and not to know is wrong. So what can you do? Brothers and sisters, we who have experienced the Subud latihan are aware that it is not necessary to search for God or to know God. What is important for us is to surrender to God. As for the nature of God, we leave that to God, because God is All-knowing and All-wise. If we truly surrender to God, then, because God is All-knowing, we shall feel that which has been prepared within us.

This is how it is. So, when we have experienced the latihan we know, we understand, we are conscious that through our surrender we will feel the vibration of life within us. Clearly, human beings can receive guidance and direction from God, and can know and understand the working of God’s power, but only when God wills it and when it is given by God. And we have received this gift because God wills it. Perhaps it is time for humanity to be given this, so that they do not go on too long living in dreams and in constant inner suffering.

So it is clear that it is not just a matter of emptying oneself; for Bapak has heard many people say, ‘I have made myself empty, I have faith in God, I worship God, not only three or four times, but constantly; when I wake I remember God, when I wish to sleep I remember God. Why then do I not receive? Why am I not able to receive that which is called the contact with the greatness of God?’

To make it clearer: a person can receive the contact with God’s greatness only if he or she has been given God’s grace. If God has not yet given someone this grace, then no matter if they worship God a thousand times in every hour, they will not be able to receive. For God knows when this emptying and submission of the heart is no more than a tool; in other words, when a person’s heart and mind are trying to make use of God and God’s power within human beings. That is why those who have been able to receive God’s power, and to whom the secrets of life have been revealed – such as the prophets and Jesus – have been those who were truly clean and who would not make use of God’s power in this world in order to influence others, nor to prevail on people to have faith in them.

In the same way, it is necessary for you to remain free of the influence of the heart and mind, which makes you want to be respected by others and to be regarded as a good person who is always right and wise. For such wishes are nothing but the influence of low forces, present in your hearts and minds, which will cause your downfall in your service of God.

This is why Bapak says that it is indeed fortunate for us that God has given us the possibility to receive the contact with God’s greatness. What you are able to receive now was formerly possible only after years of effort. Yet many of you – not you here, but some Subud members – imagine that the contact they have received will not really give them satisfaction, and that it cannot really perfect their body and soul. They prefer to continue studying something with their minds.

Brothers and sisters, the way to God is in truth very easy; but because people are very much under the influence of their hearts and minds they have no choice but to continue thinking, searching, imagining and speculating. So they prefer something on which they can use their minds and imagination, in which they can become absorbed, to something that cannot be thought about or imagined. But that which can be thought about and taken into one’s attention is knowledge from the heart and mind – meaning, human knowledge. It is not God’s knowledge. We cannot think about God’s knowledge, for it is beyond thought.

It is certainly necessary for us to make use of our minds and hearts as long as we live in this world, because our minds, our hearts and our five senses were indeed given to us by God to serve our life as long as we live here. But all these things are concerned only with our needs and requirements in doing things in this world, whereas we need happiness not only for our life on earth but also if possible in our life after death. As has been said by the prophets and by Jesus himself, death is the continuation of life and not the end. Everything does not end when we die. No. It is true that at death everything comes to an end for our hearts and minds, but our inner feeling lives on. If our inner feeling is not yet clean, not yet good, not yet corrected, not yet educated, not yet come to happiness through the power of God, then the disappearance of the mind and heart as we pass over the line from life into death will leave the inner feeling rigid and lifeless. It is the same with our souls; and in such a condition we are in darkness.

There is a tale concerning a man who returned from death to life. This is told as a true story, yet the truth of it cannot be understood by the mind, but must be seen from the spiritual point of view. This story tells of a man who died, but whose death was certainly willed by God in order that human beings might come to know how their life should be. After death, this man was eventually restored to life by God, who then asked him, ‘How do you feel? You were dead and now you have risen from the dead.’

The man answered, ‘Eh, I don’t feel as if I have been dead, but as if I have been asleep. I slept soundly and very well.’

He was then told, ‘Do you realise that you have been dead for three hundred years? You have now been awakened once more to life.’ So, this man had returned to life after three hundred years of death.

‘Is this true, God?’

‘Yes, you can see for yourself. Near to this spot where you lay dead stands a city, which was the village where once you were born. You may now return to it.’

The man rose to his feet and went into the city. Everything he saw there appeared very strange to him, for he could not see his child, he could not see his wife, his grandchild, or his friends; nor could he see the buildings that formerly stood there, but only new buildings and new people. The only thing he could recognise was the river running through the city.

‘Ah,’ he said, ‘This is the same river that was here during my lifetime. But how is it that everything else has changed?’

Then he realised that what God had told him was really true, that he had indeed been dead for three hundred years. Everything he saw now was different; for three hundred years is a long time, during which much of what people had made had disintegrated. The people too were different.

The man returned again to the cave in which he had been awakened.

‘How did you find it?’ he was asked.

‘It is all true, God; true that I have been dead for three hundred years, as I was told. How was it that I experienced nothing in death? I felt like a stone, quite unaware of anything.’

‘Yes. That was because your mind was no longer present in you, and at the same time your inner feeling was dead. So now arise. Arise and worship God.’ Then he arose and his soul was awakened, and was able gradually to feel true life in death.

This story illustrates the realities of the life of the soul. And although it appears no more than fantasy, if regarded by the mind and heart, yet to us who see it from the spiritual point of view, it is true.

Brothers and sisters, in days gone by there were many people who were really honest when they described and related things that happened. It is truly very different with people today. The influence of the world is constantly growing, and makes us tell lies whether we like it or not; we are no longer honest about ourselves.

For example, one of you possesses, let us say, a hundred dollars. When someone, who desperately needs it, asks, ‘Have you any money you could lend me, because I don’t have any?’ you feel obliged to say, ‘Yes, but not very much.’ Sometimes you may even say, ‘No, I don’t have any.’

This is the way, whether you want it or not, in which you are so swayed by the power of this world that you say something that is not true. It was very different in the lives of people in former times. In those days there were also people who told lies, but not more than ten in a hundred; whereas nowadays, among a hundred people, for every ten who are honest there will be ninety who lie.

For us such stories have a real significance, because they accord with the sayings of the prophets and also of Jesus Christ. Bapak remarks yet again how extremely fortunate we are that, living in an age beset with influences that cause us to forget ourselves, we can yet receive something that in no way differs from the receiving of those who lived long ago.

Although what has been given to us by God does not differ from that which was received by those who lived in bygone days, you yourselves can surely sense that your own nature, as human beings living in this present time, is very different from theirs, and therefore that the development of what God has given to us will be different too.

Bapak can illustrate this by comparing the gift of God to a seed put into the earth. The soil in the past – in other words the nature of people who lived in the olden days – was fertile. It contained the essences that allowed the seed sown in it to germinate easily, and to grow into a strong and flourishing plant. But the soil of the present time, which Bapak compares to your nature today, is like stony ground, dry and hard. What is put into the ground is the same, but its growth is different, because conditions have changed so much. The soil was formerly fertile, but now it is stony and hard, even hot. Therefore, although the seed is sown, the plant will not grow. What is more, oil appears, or gasoline. And so there even emerges a substance that can catch fire and make other things hot. That is how it is; you can feel and observe this for yourselves.

Therefore if we, today, resemble soil that is stony, hard and hot, we must make sure that our soil gets the best possible fertiliser, so that it will cease to be hard, hot and barren. This is necessary so that the seed that has been planted in us, in this soil, can grow soundly and healthily, as it used to do in former times.

As for the kind of nurturing you need for yourselves, living as you do in this age – in other words, the fertilizer that is needed for the dry, hard, hot earth of today – it is simply a feeling of patience. Patience is the fertiliser you need.

Indeed, brothers and sisters, patience, acceptance and a willingness to let go are absolute conditions for you. Because you may believe in God or not; you may insult and disparage God, or not. If you think badly of God, you are free to do so; God will not retaliate. No. God will not retaliate and slander you. If you have no faith in God, God will not be angry with you. In short, whether you have faith in God or not, insult God or not, exalt God or not, is up to human beings. God wishes nothing from human beings; in fact, God gives to them.

But the feeling you have when you insult God, the feeling you have when you do not believe in God’s existence, sullies your self and darkens your inner feeling. So the fact is that whether you are good or not, wonderful or not, perfect or not, all depends on you yourself. That is why it is essential for all of you to have a feeling of patience, acceptance and willingness to let go, which means submitting all things only to God, because a human being is no more than an instrument.

When you have reached this state, your soul will receive the ability to grow and your inner feeling to progress and develop. Then you will spontaneously be conscious of and know the love of God towards human beings. This is because, truly, God’s love for human beings has already been created as part of their nature – meaning, their nature as a living being. You will know how it is when God is in your understanding; you will know how God’s power is within your seeing. In this way your whole nature will be like an instrument, permeated with nothing but the will and the power of God.

It is very necessary that you should possess patience, which Bapak has called the absolute condition and fertilizer for your inner feeling. For if you have patience you will not easily be influenced by your desires, which are used as tools by the low forces and which have their home in your hearts and minds. This is especially so for all of you who are here as delegates to this congress and who will be deliberating tomorrow and on the following days. For if your desires no longer manifest within you and no longer influence you, you will be able to discuss your business effortlessly and easily. As a result, this congress, which has been planned to last eight days, could well be concluded in five. There will be little fuss and bother, for the source of such disturbances are the heart and mind. The more you use your thinking and your heart – which never want to give way, which always feel that you are superior, that you are right, that you are more capable than others – the more difficult it will be for you to reach decisions about the things that you need to discuss.

This then is the difference between other congresses and a congress of the Subud association. This is why Bapak said earlier that, although we simply call it a congress, in reality our gathering here is a congress of a family who worship God; a congress where everything will be determined by the power of God we are able to receive in the quiet and stillness of our inner feeling.

It is time to finish, and this is the end of Bapak’s talk and explanations to you. He hopes that you may understand and feel what he has been saying, so enabling your feeling to become calm and peaceful as you discuss things in the congress that takes place tomorrow and on the following days.

Now Bapak closes this meeting with thanks to you all for your attention, and with a prayer that God will bless this congress so that all may go well with it. May it also bear fruit to benefit our lives and for our harmony in Susila Budhi Dharma. He hopes too that this congress will serve as an example to others who, in the future, hold congresses in their own countries.