Ladies and gentlemen, this evening the time has arrived for Bapak to take his leave of all of you whose latihan he has accompanied for the last few days. As he will be continuing his journey to Peru he is, as he just said, obliged to take his leave.
Bapak hopes you will not feel disappointed; let us rather pray together to the greatness of the One Almighty God that on their journey Bapak and his party will not lack for anything and may always be protected by God’s power. Also, may God grant all of you the grace to be able to continue your latihan and receive easily; and may God bless you so that in your everyday life you may meet with the best of circumstances.
Bapak would also like to say thank you very much to all of you, especially to the committee and helpers, who made the preparations for his coming here. He simply prays that God may repay your services in equal measure.
After saying all that, Bapak considers it necessary to give some advice to all of you: both the committee and helpers, and the ordinary members.
If you remember the basis and aim of this Subud latihan – that it comes from the power of God uninfluenced by your desires and thinking – then in everything you do, as well as among yourselves, you should act and behave in a way that is worthy of the content of the Subud latihan. Although you cannot receive it yet, the content of the latihan is that you are educated and guided by God’s power to have a kind heart and a good character, so that you can become an example for others in doing God’s will.
God’s will for human beings, especially for you who have received God’s guidance and education, is that you should be harmonious towards others, especially your own brothers and sisters – meaning, your brothers and sisters in Subud. For indeed, only if there is harmony among you will it be easy for you to achieve everything you hope for, such as well-being and happiness in your life while you are on this earth.
So it is very necessary for you to be patient in everything you do, because a feeling of patience is the absolute condition that makes it possible for you to obtain God’s grace, which can become a guide for your life. And patience is like a thick and solid wall, which is not easily penetrated by the desires that always tempt your heart and thinking mind.
As you know, the desires that always tempt your heart and mind are ruthlessness, greed and wanting. These influence your heart and mind so that you want to be the cleverest, the best, the most respected and the most praised; and conversely you do not want others to be as good as you, or you want them to fall or become low. You never feel love towards others and continually discriminate between people, especially between yourself and others, to make sure that they are not as high as you; and you pursue only your own ends. Such is the influence of ruthlessness and greed, which are like a disease in the hearts and minds of human beings, so that in our communities there is never any calm, peace or harmony.
That is the influence of the desires that manifest in the heart and mind of human beings. For that reason, brothers and sisters, whenever you are about to do the latihan, and also during the latihan, do not continue to use your heart and mind, because if you do, it makes it easy for these desires to enter.
That is why, in the past, Jesus advised people that they should have a character and feelings that were loving towards their fellow beings, and that they should never be swayed and influenced by the desires of ruthlessness and greed. For these desires will not provide a way for human beings to make good progress towards the greatness of God, nor will they make their lives in this world happy.
Feelings like those that Jesus advised are necessary and very useful for human beings, and especially so for all of you, so that your latihan may proceed along an easy path, a path that is wide and straight; then nothing can ruin or harm the action of your worship of God. You will obtain all of this in the latihan when you reach the level you need.
That is why Bapak hopes all of you – especially members of the committee and the helpers, but also all the members – will behave harmoniously, respect one another, love one another, and be willing to give in to others. This is necessary, so that you can find the wide, excellent path that can change all your difficulties.
The benefit, when you feel love towards one another – especially towards your Subud brothers and sisters – is that even if you do not know, God knows how people’s behaviour is; and God in His justice will give to someone who is of excellent character. Also, it is beneficial for you when these desires that can occupy your heart and mind lessen and fade, because you will be able to clean your inner feeling so that you are not easily affected by the sicknesses that are usually suffered by the human heart. In fact, an inner feeling and a heart that are peaceful and undisturbed by the desires are a very effective medicine for your physical health. For these reasons Bapak hopes you will avoid these desires, and will strengthen your patience and steadfastness in worshipping God, so that all your wishes can be fulfilled.
Bapak hopes especially that the helpers and the committee members can work together and cooperate. And as for those of you who are not on the committee nor helpers, Bapak hopes you will want to support the committee members and the helpers. Because even when the helpers help, and the committee members do what needs to be done, if you do not have a feeling of love for them and support and assist them in their work, certainly the spiritual association of Subud will not go well. For even if the helpers and committee do their work and organise things, if you don’t want to be organised, certainly things will not go as well as they should.
This is Bapak’s talk and the advice that he wanted to give you tonight, which is the last night he will be accompanying your latihan here.
Bapak hopes you will forgive him if you consider that this advice and talk are not long enough and do not fulfil your wishes. Once more, Bapak hopes simply that when he has left Cali you will really be able to do what he has just said, so that the spiritual association of Subud in Cali can run as harmoniously as possible between the helpers and committee and all of you.
That is all Bapak has to say. Thank you.