Brothers and sisters, to put it shortly, Bapak very much agrees with what has been proposed. This is indeed what Bapak had in mind, so that you would all be really Subud. Subud is not just an association, but the inner nature of human beings, including all of you. Bapak says that, because for people to have a human inner-self, a Subud inner-self, within them means that God protects them; it means that the protection of God is present in all of you. Bapak has already said that the life and death of Subud are there in all human beings. What is called Subud is not an association, but it is you yourselves. And, in fact, you cannot leave Subud, for Subud is the latihan of the life within your lives; it is the latihan of the life within every being. But in its official aspect it is all of you, all the members. That is why you must remember, brothers and sisters, that the strength of Subud lies in your own selves. It is like it is for Bapak; Bapak lives and dies in Subud, and Subud is also in Bapak. If you are really like that in the reality and sincerity of your worship of the One Almighty God, then God will always be close to you, both outwardly and inwardly, in your inner-selves. You will be kept safe from all temptations and dangers. That, in short, is how it is, brothers and sisters. It is not necessary for Bapak to explain, for there is still a lot more that Bapak needs to hear and to decide. In short, Bapak very much agrees with your proposals, so that Bapak definitely gives his approval to these aims and ideas.

Brothers and sisters, Bapak has heard and understood what Simon Guerrand has said. Brothers and sisters, we must observe from our experiences, which we have all had, that the helpers who are appointed in the place where I.S.C. is located should not be a group or a body under the control of I.S.C. No. This is the reason why helpers appointed by Bapak to I.S.C. cannot function or act in the right way. It is as if they were controlled by the Chairman of I.S.C. Why does this happen? This is what Bapak needs to explain.

The duties and the work of the helpers is only to make the members more aware and stronger in their inner-selves. The work of I.S.C. is not like that; I.S.C. organizes, keeps records, watches over and takes care of the work and activities of the members. Thus the organization, or I.S.C., is concerned with the outer life, and the helpers or the kejiwaan are concerned with the content. This is what is important. If a member is really filled with Subud - that is, if a member has an inner core of Susila Budhi Dharma - then the Subud organization will automatically run well, for every member will be aware and will be what in English is called 'Subud-minded'. But in the past, brothers and sisters, the Subud members have only been following; without any reason, irrationally. If they are told this, they do this; if they are told that, they do that. They do not yet understand; they do not yet possess any firm opinion of their own. We believe in God, as Bapak has always said. There is none other to be worshipped save Allah, save the One Almighty God. There are also the prophets, who were the messengers of God, and who form parts or divisions of the body of belief. That means that they cannot be the same. That is why it is not possible for the religions to be united, except when people receive guidance from one power only; that is, from the power of the One Almighty God. This is what has happened in the latihan kejiwaan.

This is why Bapak once again repeats that from now on there must not - there must not - be any suggestion that there are any helpers in I.S.C. That must not be said. There are helpers in the place where I.S.C. is located, but they are not under the control of I.S.C. The helpers in that place where I.S.C. is located can set up their own office, which is called the helpers' office. Why is that? It is because the functions of the helpers are different from the functions of the organization. The helpers do not handle finance or things like that; the helpers do not handle enterprises and so on. Handling enterprises, organizing contributions and doing all the other things necessary to pay for the needs of our Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud are all the responsibility of I.S.C. Thus the spiritual side should have its own field of operations, and wherever I.S.C. is located there should be a group of helpers there to receive reports from the spiritual side of the various centers. These reports should be sent directly to the spiritual side in that place where I.S.C. is located, but not to I.S.C. itself. In this way their work is kept separate, but they work together.

In the past it has not been like this. The work of the organization has sometimes got mixed up with the spiritual side, and the work of the helpers has sometimes got mixed up with that of the organization. This means that the way the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud is run has not been organized rightly. That is why it is better if we begin from now on, brothers and sisters, to keep the two sides separate, but they can be together. Being together means that they are equally Subud and they equally worship God, but the one deals with external matters and the other deals with internal or spiritual matters. In this way both the outer and the inner work both for ourselves and for the One Almighty God.

To continue on the subject of the helpers' work, this work is only concerned with the members, so that the members will really understand the meaning of Subud and what the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is, so that in this way their own principles will be strengthened. It is possible, brothers and sisters, that when Subud members who are really aware of their Subudness, and who are what is called Subud-minded, have some money - say a million dollars, for instance - they will put at least ten per cent of it into Subud; at least that much, and sometimes it could even be fifty per cent. For the strength of Subud is in ourselves, and we ourselves are in the strength of Subud. Thus Subud is ourselves, and we are Subud. It is the work of the helpers to make the members feel like that. This is how it is. If this can be done, brothers and sisters, then the wheels of our Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud will run smoothly and well.

For the present, then, these divisions which have just been proposed can be organized according to whatever may be suitable. All that will have to be paid for, so that it needs to be organized so that it will not be too heavy a burden, but the burden can be heavier later on, when this has produced results. The money to pay for the journeys of the helpers who have been designated to act as coordinators or messengers on the spiritual side must be arranged by the organization, by I.S.C. It is I.S.C. who have that responsibility, for it is their duty to organize worldly matters; that is, through people who are capable, who are able, who have the skill to run enterprises. For if it is only from contributions, only because of donations from the members - Bapak is not belittling you, but as a rule there are only one or two, ten or twenty, who are well-to-do, but generally speaking there are no rich people in Subud. That is why, in order to be really well-off, we very much need what we have received in this latihan. God has already given us guidance, so that we should become harmonious among ourselves. That means harmonious not just in the kejiwaan only, but also outwardly. We very much need to be harmonious among ourselves both inwardly and outwardly.

There is an example of this in what Bapak is doing in Indonesia. P.T.S.Widjojo is not, in fact, really an enterprise; it is Bapak's own will. But because Bapak is Subud and Subud is Bapak, this belongs to Subud, not to Bapak. Bapak is not seeking to make profits; Bapak is not hoping to become rich. No. Bapak was born naked and he will return naked to whence he came. Thus the people who need this are those whom Bapak will leave behind him. Those whom he will leave behind are all of you. Therefore what will later on happen in P.T.S.Widjojo is to serve the needs of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, so that you should not do enterprises one by one, two by two, on your own, or eventually they will fall down. Do not do that. You have all been trained by the One Almighty God to be together in harmony and help one another, love one another, have compassion for one another. This is the will of the One Almighty God, which He has declared to all His messengers; to Muhammad, to Christ, to Moses, to Abraham and all the rest. It is that harmony that makes us become peaceful; it is that harmony that makes us become strong. One cent here, one cent there; thus a thousand people mean a thousand cents. That is a significant amount, brothers and sisters, and Bapak therefore hopes that you will quickly collect together all the people who are experts; experts, for instance, in architecture, in trade, in teaching, in medicine, in all sorts of things. If the doctors in Subud are in harmony, they can create something useful for the community. As for the rest of us, we shall be able to work in undertakings of our own. That is what is called being able to stand on one's own feet. We must not always be dependent upon other people or upon other people's opinions.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so Bapak agrees to the proposals that have just been made. Only there is this one thing that is important and of which it is necessary to be aware.

You must not talk about helpers being appointed to I.S.C. Helpers are appointed in that place where I.S.C. is located, so that everything can be channeled to the one place. But the spiritual side must not meddle with the organization, and the organization must not meddle with the spiritual side. But it must understand its needs, for the helpers cannot travel to various places if there is no money. It is the organization that produces this money. Thus we have to work both outwardly and inwardly.

When choosing who is to be selected is concerned, you must not depend upon Bapak. Bapak is already old. At this time Bapak is already eighty years old. Thus he is already an old man. Fortunately God has granted him strength; fortunately God bas bestowed His blessing upon Bapak, so that Bapak is still strong at an age of over eighty. But, in fact, Bapak really very much wishes that you would decide things for yourselves. This is what I pray to God: 'Please God, do not bestow Thy grace and mercy only upon me, but upon all mankind.' But at this present time it is all of you, all the Subud members, who are close to Bapak. Thus Bapak prays that it will not just be Bapak who goes to heaven, but all of you. That is Bapak's prayer to the One Almighty God.

That is why it is, in fact, useless and unnecessary for you to quarrel among yourselves, the organization, the members or the helpers, either helpers with committee members or the committee or the helpers among themselves. What need is there for that? All of us worship God and all of us aim towards the One Almighty God. It is God's will for us to be harmonious. Harmony is actually the most essential condition for us, for all of you, so as to be able to pierce through the barriers obstructing your lives.

This is an addition, brothers and sisters, in order that you can understand it better. Where making these selections is concerned, you should do it for yourselves. Provided that you truly surrender everything to the One Almighty God, you will then get a picture for yourselves of who among you is capable of doing this work, just as in the example which Bapak showed you yesterday. It is very easy to do, so that it will become apparent to you who can do this work or that work. You do not need to try to keep any secrets hidden from other people. In fact, the kejiwaan is not like that. All of you who have been able to break through into the kejiwaan can know the secrets of other people. That is why those who share the same guru are said ( in Javanese ) to be sinoroh wedi. Sinoroh wedi means brothers whose lives can never be separated either in this world or the next. They can be given knowledge of the secrets of people's lives, but these will not leak out, because they are afraid of wounding a brother who shares the same guru. To injure a brother who shares your guru is the same as injuring your own self.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so Bapak reminds you and advises you that we must not do anything to injure our own brothers and sisters. On the contrary, we must guide them and love them. We must show them the way to rise from a lowly position to a higher one, and give them a good place rather than a bad, muddy place. This is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so Bapak gives his approval to what you have proposed. Only where these selections are concerned, you can make these yourselves. Bapak frankly agrees that you do not need to turn to Bapak for this. But if you still have doubts, and still do not have enough faith in yourselves, Bapak is prepared to choose who should be selected from among those who have been proposed. But you yourselves can make all that official and finalize if for yourselves. Bapak leaves that to you. You must have faith in the greatness of the One Almighty God, and believe that Subud will keep going and that what exists by the will of the One Almighty God will continue to go forward.

If you now ask how a Subud doctor should set about curing sick people, Bapak always explains like this. You all possess the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, and if a doctor has really been able to feel the presence of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud in his work, then his actions and whatever he does as a doctor will be guided; it is beyond his mind, yet he is guided. Thus it is clear that if a Subud doctor truly surrenders to the One Almighty God in his practice of medicine, he will be guided and directed by the power of God which is present within him. Thus supposing that he needs to touch something in the course of his practice, he will do so, but if not, not. Thus it will not be a question of some kind of therapy or massage or magic; nothing at all like that. On the contrary, you have to put all these methods away from you. You must not try to cure people by using hypnotism, spiritualism and so on. You should not do that, because if you do, you are deviating from what God decrees. Thus you should just do things in the normal way, so that no-one can see if a Subud doctor is doing something rather out of the ordinary.

It is like it was in the case that Bapak has already spoken about. When the doctor at the St. Carolus hospital wanted to start working on Bapak, at that moment the machine stopped. As a rule it had to be checked before being used, but it so happened that on this occasion it was not, so that the doctor's assistants looked as if they were being very stupid and inefficient, as if they understood nothing at all. Even the doctor himself was dumbfounded. But at that moment Bapak heard something peculiar. It was a strange sound, as the instrument which they were using, and which had previously not been working, now began to work. In the end this made it easier for the doctor to work on Bapak, for the doctor himself said to Bapak that it was thanks to Bapak, and to Bapak's blessing, that he was able to carry out this work on Bapak so successfully. And this, too, I also believe to have been done with the help of the One Almighty God, which we cannot understand. So Bapak's pulse-rate which had been a hundred-and-sixty beats a minute, came back down to seventy-two. The doctor was pleased and satisfied at this, and he gave praise and thanks to the One Almighty God that God had allowed his work to be successfully accomplished. Then, because he was astonished at the way this could be achieved, he eventually asked who Bapak actually was. Then I was obliged to explain that Bapak is the head of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud throughout the whole world, and that Bapak does this work through the grace and mercy of the One Almighty God. Then the doctor said:

'Oh, so that is it. If that is how it is, I accept that. Now I understand.'

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that this is an example for the Subud members who are doctors and who are treating sick people. You Should not refer to it or wonder if it is this or that or think about it. Just act in the ordinary way and then you will automatically see what to do. That is the grace and mercy of God, which is usually called a miracle.

There have been other examples; many others. There was a Subud member who was pregnant, and who, after two days and two nights in labor, had not been able to give birth to her baby. Of course, she was already quite ill after these two days and nights. Then she remembered Bapak and told Bapak. Bapak answered:

'That is all over now. If you go back to the hospital, the baby will be born.'

She went back, and the baby was able to be born at once, safe and sound. Then she again told Bapak:

'Bapak, I have to tell you that the baby has been safely born, but it cannot make any sound, it cannot scream or cry. And its ears are very close to its eyes. How has that happened?'

'Why are you afraid? Just surrender to God, and then it will all come right again.'

Then she went back to the hospital, and the baby could cry and everything was in the right place. This is just an example. That is why a Subud doctor, or a doctor who becomes a Subud member, 'whatever may happen, should never say 'That is my doing.' No, but say 'This is God, the All-Powerful, Who makes it easy for me to do this work.'