Brothers and sisters,

Bapak greets you: Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatulldhi wa bara-katuh. Tonight is the twenty-fifth night, so we have been observing the ibadat ( religious obligation ) of the fast for twenty-four days. To a greater or lesser extent there must be some result from this - unless one has been cheating. Well, be that as it may; because it is so hot, it may be that some people have cheated a little.

Now it is the turn of the men who have been doing and receiving the latihan for five years and upward. But not the helpers.; this is, for the members of five or more years' standing, and for the committee. Bapak would like them to come forward, please.

( Testing )

Stand up again. Bapak would like you to stand quietly. Bapak is asking you a question and he would like your answer. Whoever has received this, say yes; for those who have not received it does not matter. Do your inner-feelings, your feelings, now feel calm, light, satisfied and at peace? Yes or no? Or not yet? That is a sign that the latihan or training of the fast which you have been doing has really borne fruit and has been of benefit for you. Then there is also the inner content, and that content, which will guide you, will develop of its own accord or volition. If you can feel that, please answer in your actions.

( Testing )

Now it is the turn of the women helpers. You can arrange yourselves; because you are helpers, you can arrange yourselves wherever there are still empty places.

The fast has been going on for twenty-four days, so it is already more than twenty days. If you can really be said to have fasted sincerely, then having fasted for twenty days is sure to have borne fruit, and there is sure to be some result from it, and even more so if you have fasted for twenty-four days. That means an additional four days added to the twenty. Of course, if your inner-feelings are light, satisfied and calm, so will be the whole of your selves. Your five senses will be like open doors.

Now follow. Do not feel shy; do not feel that the people who see you will look down on you, for instance. You must not feel like that. Be free, be really free, for indeed you need to be alive. Then it will be clear that you are able to receive, and that within your life there is the life that is called ilham ( divine inspiration ), and you will really be able to feel the difference between the feeling of the human jiwa and that of the jiwa of the nafsu; that is, the feeling aroused by the nafsu in your wills, your minds, your hearts.

( Testing, in which Bapak joins, chanting words which sound like reading the Koran in Arabic )

Stand back in your places again. Bapak asks you how you feel? Do you feel at ease, refreshed, conscious and quiet in yourselves? Yes. That is how it is when your inner-feelings are shielded from the nafsu. This is proved by the heaviness you feel when you break the fast. So it is really the nafsu that make you heavy. All the more so when you are flying up to heaven. That is why it is very necessary to be purified. If you are purified you are automatically light, and the jiwa will work of its own accord.

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that you have two obligations. One is the obligation to worship God alone, and to surrender only to Him. Because of that, in the matter of God, in the first basic principle of Pancasila, which is belief in God ( Pancasila - the five basic principles of the Indonesian state ), it is only God Who can put right things that are wrong, and can make human beings into whatever God wills. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that, for you, your first duty is to worship God, so that when eventually you die and leave this world, what is left behind will be the nafsu, and what lives on will be your jiwa.

The second obligation is to make use of the nafsu and make them work. Indeed. these nafsu are tools for human beings with which to do everything they need to do for their life in this world. That is why it is that to neglect them means that human beings are rejecting God's love for mankind. Human beings in this world, need, these hopes in order to experience what exists in this world so that they can feel the difference between the low and the high, the good and the bad, the evil.

That is how it is, and you need not worry, sisters. Your latihan is already good. Just go on surrendering to the One Almighty God, and this will go on by itself, without your forcing it. That is all; please go back to your original seats.

Now Bapak would like the men helpers to come forward,. Ready? Begin, please. Allahu Akbar.

( Testing )

Stand up; those who are on the floor stand up again. Your latihan can be said to have made a lot of progress already. Thus it is clear that the latihan is the awakening of the jiwa. Before you received the latihan, you thought, you imagined things, and you felt in the way your own thoughts and nafsu were going. After receiving the latihan, things are now, not the reverse, but changed by your hearts allowing themselves to be awakened by your jiwas.

In fact, the jiwa is actually stronger than the heart. That is why the heart and mind are symbolized as servants, but the jiwa is their master, their boss. This boss or master can then convey understanding and knowledge to the mind. But someone who has not yet arrived at that point - or those of you who have not yet got there - will not believe that the jiwa can sharpen the mind and teach it intelligence, but will, on the contrary, think that it is the jiwa which can be developed and can learn from the heart and mind. An example of this is to be seen in Christ and in Muhammad - where did they acquire their intelligence? They did not study. They were what is called illiterate, ignorant, but they were intelligent. That is what is called wisdom.

Thus it is clear, brothers and sisters, that when you receive the latihan what is being trained by the One Almighty God is the jiwa, so that your jiwa becomes the master of your self. For it is the jiwa that will live on after you have left this world, when your mind has become impotent and your nafsu can no longer work. Thus it is the jiwa which can be said to exist before you come into existence and to continue to exist after you no longer exist. That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so you need not worry your hearts about it, and your minds will follow it.

At present your latihan is not yet going smoothly, nor has it yet reached the stage of what is called, consciousness, because your hearts are always pushing themselves forward, always as if they still wish to dominate over your selves. This is because your ability to know this and that, through your minds, has already gone too far.

In reality it is not like that. Your mind is clever because it learns. But not the jiwa; the jiwa is clever because of experience. Thus it is clear, brothers and sisters, that what you are doing at this moment begins from a spiritual experience, from what is called the latihan kejiwaan. Thus the latihan kejiwaan is like the main stem. That is why this latihan kejiwaan is therefore very important and necessary for all of you. And with the awakening of your jiwa, the whole of your inner-feeling is purified and becomes clean, because it comes to life. So sometimes you feel strange. For instance, sometimes your breathing is shallow, sometimes it is deep. Bapak himself has experienced all this. It is said to be dangerous for people if the heart jerks and flutters, or if it stops, for instance. That is also the heart being exercised by the latihan. Thus Bapak's heart sometimes stops, sometimes it beats fast, sometimes slow. That is latihan. It is also like that for the lungs.

Well, brothers and sisters, there is actually still plenty of time. Please relax and be quiet.

What is important, brothers and sisters, is trust and sincere submission. We are always facing death, but if we are always in the presence of death, we actually do not die. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan means that those who receive and practice it do not fear death, because death already exists. For that can be said to be a certainty.

Bapak would like the women, and especially the helpers, also to be ready to receive and to be aware of themselves, although they remain seated. Please leave your hearts and minds aside; do not use them, do not let them work in this, but leave them aside and just receive what happens to your selves.

( Testing )

That is how it is, brothers and sisters. That is long enough time. Then on the twenty-seventh night, Bapak will give a special talk and perhaps do a little testing. That is all; thank you.

Brothers and sisters, Bapak will not put the end off any longer. It is already late, and, so Bapak ends the meeting for tonight, and Bapak only prays that you will always receive protection from God, and always be in a state of well-being and happiness, and when you go home from here, may you sleep well until saur at three o'clock. Sleep well, and having slept, get up and have saur and then fast again. May all of you be able to fast for the full month.

Sometimes, brothers and sisters, when Bapak fasts he feels light. I ask those of you who are nearest; would you say that your fast was light? Is that true, brothers and sisters? Well, is it true or not? Bapak praises God: Alhamdulillah. Of course, the fast feels pleasant, and you do not feel at all disturbed, not like what is shown on television about people quarrelling and making a lot of fuss about nothing during the fast. In that case it would be better not to fast than to fast. If one really fasts properly one is calm and conscious, and one does not feel hungry; no, nor thirsty either. Sometimes when the time comes to break the fast one feels just as usual. There is no hurry about it. Bapak has seen people fasting who are just waiting for the clock to strike six, and when it strikes they fall upon the food; they pounce on it.

Thank you, Good night.