Brothers and sisters, Bapak gives praise and thanks to God that by the grace of the One Almighty God Bapak and his party are able to visit you here in Portugal and to take care of the needs of the members in carrying out their tasks and in following the way of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Furthermore, Bapak and his party thank you very much for the care the Portuguese members have taken of them, so that they lack for nothing. May your care for Bapak receive a reward many times over from the power of the One Almighty God, so that day by day, month by month and year by year the members will become ever happier, and may their progress in receiving and following the latihan kejiwaan of Subud ever increase.

Because today and tomorrow are the last days of Bapak's visit, Bapak will not forget to bid you farewell, while for your part you will of course wish Bapak well as he continues on his journey to other countries. So on his departure Bapak prays that you will always be under the protection of the One Almighty God, so that in all your actions and in everything you do, whether spiritually or externally, you will always receive protection, will always receive guidance and will always receive direction from the power of God which envelops you all both inwardly and outwardly.

As Bapak always says, brothers and sisters, the latihan kejiwaan of Susila Budhi Dharma - or Subud for short - is really a latihan directed both to your worship of God and to the needs of human beings in the world. Thus the latihan kejiwaan of Subud which you are following makes it clear that it is not only for your worship of the One Almighty God according to His guidance and direction, but it is also very necessary in order that you can provide for your lives in this world in such a way that it becomes a really holy place, a really fit shelter for the human race.

What Bapak has said, brothers and sisters, agrees with what is present in the latihan kejiwaan. As Bapak has said, human beings in this world are already accustomed to doing such things as walking, for instance, or moving their hands and touching things, using all their five senses, so why then are they required to repeat all these actions in the latihan? It is clear, brothers and sisters, that from such a latihan we can draw the conclusion that God's will for you is not only for you to worship God but also for you to devote yourself to your own life, the life of all mankind, so that human beings will, of their own accord, come to understand the life they are caused to live in this world. It is clear, brothers and sisters, that God makes human beings live in this world not just only to die, nor only to worship Him, but also to look after their lives in this world, so that when they die, when they return to the world of human beings, what they leave behind is left in really good shape for their descendants and those who come after them. That is the will of the One Almighty God. That, brothers and sisters, means that you should put into practice what you have received through the guidance and direction of the One Almighty God, which Bapak has received and transmitted to all of you. In this way, brothers and sisters, you can prove that God truly loves mankind. That God really loves mankind is proved in what you have done. You can prove its usefulness and benefits.

To worship and praise the One Almighty God does not mean doing it in the way you would honor or pay respect to a superior, but the real meaning of worshipping the One Almighty God is that you make use of everything that God has created in you; that is, you use the whole of your self, your being. You can really use that properly, according to the will of God, as if, when you are given some instrument such as a fountain pen or a ball point with which to write, you use this instrument for writing whatever you need or want to write. This way you are really making proper use of what God has given you. That is the same case as in your lives; you can use everything in you so that its eventual results will come out really well for the people of this world. That is what is meant by the worship of the One Almighty God. That, brothers and sisters, is why, in the wider sense of the word, the worship of God by human beings implies everything which really belongs to human nature. There is evidence of this in what we have experienced in doing the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Because that latihan comes from God, and by the grace of the One Almighty God, there is no feeling of being amongst strangers or foreigners when you are together in the latihan, but, even though you are of different races and religions, you feel as if you were in the midst of your own family, with your own people, your own race, your own friends. That shows that this is the will of God; for human beings to be harmonious and to be able to help one another, to think and feel for one another and also to guide one another. In this way, brothers and sisters, it will be like a wonderful golden bridge by which you can cross over into brighter fields for your lives.

Brothers and sisters, people usually say that the influence of the nafsu is an obstacle to human beings in their worship of the One Almighty God. Indeed, people talk a lot about the influence of the nafsu - the nafsu which Bapak calls the nafsu amarah, the nafsu aluamah, the nafsu sufiah, the nafsu mutmainah, the nafsu murka, ( the nafsu of greed, which desires always to be the best, to win ) the nafsu which desire wealth foremost in everything for oneself, power for oneself, the nafsu which mock and find fault with the actions and behavior of other people. In short, the nafsu really do have a great influence on human life, so that, whether they like it or not, people are forced and dragged down into the depths of misery, misfortune and degradation.

Nevertheless, brothers and sisters, the nafsu are very necessary for human life, very necessary for all of you. If you had no nafsu in the make-up of your being, you could not function as human beings or behave as human beings in this world. For the nafsu are the strength which arouses the material life force, and the material life force is associated with the human mind. Thus the human mind, together with the material life force, is stimulated by the nafsu, which is why the nafsu are like the instruments of the mind. If you had no nafsu in yourselves, you would completely lack any will to live or to do anything at all. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that although the nafsu are very dangerous to human beings, whether in worshipping God or in leading a peaceful life, they are also very useful.

What is it about the nafsu which renders them so necessary to human beings? God has given them to human beings, God has decreed that they should be present in the human self, because God knows, brothers and sisters, that without the nafsu you would be unable to function in this world. That is why it is very necessary for human beings not only to worship the One Almighty God but also to use the nafsu for the needs of their lives in this world. The important thing, brothers and sisters, is that you should be able to use and to employ the nafsu in the right places. If, for instance, you possess some weapon, some such thing as a sharp knife, of course you should use it for peeling things, for cutting or chopping things, for doing things which are useful and beneficial for your lives. Thus it is obviously a different matter if you use that knife to chop off someone's leg or to cut things up when that is not necessary for the purposes of your life, but will actually cause damage to your own self.

Thus what is most important is that you should be able to make proper use of such things. So too with the nafsu; they will be harmful to you if you cannot use them properly, but they will be beneficial to you if you can. If there were no nafsu, brothers and sisters, Bapak could not come here; without nafsu Bapak could not come and meet you as at present, because it requires many things about which it is necessary to think and it is necessary to have some sort of vehicle so as to get here quickly. That is the will of God. God gives you nafsu. God decrees nafsu for you, so that you can improve this world and fill it with all you need to meet your requirements; so that you can fulfill all the needs of human life in this world. Without nafsu, you would be unable to make vehicles in which to ride, vehicles to convey you to distant places. Nor, without nafsu, could you build buildings as strong and as good as this one. That is why people in this world need to occupy themselves with two important things, which means that they should be able to verify what is really necessary and important for the life of human beings in worshipping the One Almighty God. Yes, it is indeed true, brothers and sisters, that we human beings in this world live to worship God. We have been created by the One Almighty God, so that we human beings have to worship the One Almighty God. This is true, brothers and sisters; it is really one hundred per cent true, but if you look at it again, why should human beings be made to live in this world if only in order to worship God, when they could do that just as well where they were before being created to live in this world? Obviously, brothers and sisters, human beings were created in this world for their own needs, and to be able to know how to live according to the ways of this world.

Up to the present time, brothers and sisters, the question has been one of choosing between two things; between the worship of God on the one hand and the things of this world on the other, where only material things are needed. Yes, both are right, equally right, for if human beings paid no heed to the material things of this world, then the world would have no content and would not be such as it now is. Yes, of course, but we must remember that we already existed before we began living in this world. The story goes that we existed somewhere else before we came into this world and after we leave this world we shall also exist somewhere else. This is the key to human existence, so that human beings should seek to find that key. They should know about their existence before and after life in this world. This key you have received by the grace of the One Almighty God, brothers and sisters. You receive it at those moments when you are protected from the influence of the nafsu which dwell in your hearts and minds. This is done by your latihan, after which - according to the will of God - Bapak looks after your latihan, so as to enable you to feel what it is to walk and what it is to be made to walk, to touch and to be made to touch, to see and to be made to see, until eventually we understand but we are made to understand. This is how it is, brothers and sisters. Where, in fact, did the prophets go to any school to learn? Where did the prophets who are described in the history of the world, such as the prophet Abraham and the prophet Moses, go to school? Where did the prophet Jesus and the prophet Muhammad go to school?

Yet they understood all the things which people do not usually understand and they understood things which they themselves did not understand. This was the power of God working in them. This is the difference between human beings and God. Human beings understand with their minds and hearts because that is what God has decreed, but the understanding of the One Almighty God is beyond the understanding of human beings with their minds and hearts. This is the difference.

Although the difference between the power of God and human beings is so great, yet God is constant in His love for human beings, so that they can know and feel things which in the ordinary way they cannot possibly know or feel.

The history of religion shows that human beings have to believe in the miraculous, in things which are beyond the ordinary; that is, to believe in what are called miracles, strange things which are beyond our reach, and yet we can reach them if God so wills. Thus impossible things can happen, impossible things can be accomplished, and things which are so bad that they cannot possibly be put right can be put right by God.

This is why Bapak always advises you, brothers and sisters, that when you are in a state of doubt or confusion, when you are worried or feeling bad, you should surrender everything, whatever it is, to the power of God, as if you were about to do the latihan, or as when you were opened. At the time when you were opened you felt that there was a life within your self which was beyond your understanding. Yes, since you have received and practiced the latihan kejiwaan, and if you are really able and willing to feel it, then when you say "Allah, Allah, Allah," it is as if you do not know what causes you to utter this word. It is as if you are being made to do it. Yes, of course, brothers and sisters, you have in your hearts the wish to understand the meaning of these things. Ah yes, of course; you need to understand and you have to understand that in the spiritual field you are like newborn children. You are like babies, who say "ma, ma, ma", and the parents declare that this means "mummy". Some people also say that "ma, ma, ma" means "ma'em ( makem - food ).

Thus although you are now being trained in the field of the perfect life, you are still at the level which is, as Bapak just said, for children. Will it always be so? No, brothers and sisters, God knows how the latihan which you have received will continue from this point. You will be trained so that you go on from "ma, ma, ma" to "a, a, a” so that you understand that this is "ak-aaku" ( aku - I ). This is the development of culture and civilization. This is why experts in the spiritual life say that language was born out of gesture, out of actions. There are still people who use this kind of language, as in China and Japan. Chinese written characters illustrate their meaning, but Roman lettering does not. It has changed its nature, so that it now conveys the present mental ( rather than physical ) image.

The latihan kejiwaan of Subud seems quite ordinary, brothers and sisters; it looks like children at play, but out of it there will arise and develop the culture and civilization of human life. When Bapak first experienced the latihan, brothers and sisters, and before he had transmitted it to other people, he first did like this, praying in the manner of Islam. At that time Bapak understood what was the intention behind the way Muslims worship God. After doing that Bapak next did like this ...., he danced. In the kejiwaan the dividing line between passively crossed arms and active dance does not exist, although that distinction is made in the rules of religion. That is why religion forbids people to dance. Why is that? It is because dancing is for enjoyment, but if one does like this, it is for God. But if, through the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, one has grasped the lines on which this prohibition is laid down, then there is no dividing line between the two. Whether you are doing this ... or this ... there is no break in your worship of God; it does not stop. Well, this is already there to be seen in the latihan kejiwaan. You sing in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud; you keep on singing, and your singing is the worship of the One Almighty God, because it does not arise out of the mind and heart, and is not under the influence of the nafsu. Yes, at present it is without any shape or melody, but later on, as in the example of Bapak himself, when Bapak sings it certainly has a content. It has a content of teaching; of teaching which is good for human beings. Bapak is not selling his songs, but just suppose, for instance, that he sings like this:

If you wish to know

What I am saying

It is clearly from the power

From the power of God which is in my inner-self.

That has a meaning, but up to the present what you sing has no meaning. It is just for the sake of singing something, like the babble of a small child. A small child may sound as if it were singing, but there is no meaning in it, it is just "e-eye-eye". You are also like that, there is nothing in it yet. Thus you - though not all of you - on the scale of levels in the kejiwaan which leads to perfection, you can still be said to be on the level of children. But that is already quite satisfactory, for these are human children, not baby goats.

Brothers and sisters, Bapak will do a little testing, so that you can discover the truth of what Bapak says and can bear witness to its truth.

( Testing )

Yes, stop. When you can breathe with all your clothes like that, it is said that people who can do that can take all that they possess to heaven.

That is why, in the ascension of Christ, everything Christ wore went to heaven. Ordinary people, who have not yet received the latihan kejiwaan, or who have not yet been purified by God, where are their clothes, where are their bodies when they die? All empty. Follow now ... you who have done the latihan, who have been able to receive the life of the clothes you wear, when you are worshipping God, what is the state of your necktie? Can it move? ... Stop. That is why in the history of life it is said that everything that is touched by a human being is thereby brought to life; because of that human being. So their clothes should no longer form an obstacle for people who have been purified by God and who have already attained heaven. If such a person dies inside a house, what is the position of that person and what is the position of the house? The human being is outside the house which encloses him. On the other hand what is the state of a sinful person who dies inside a house; what is his position with regard to the house? Both the human being and the house return into the earth. You can see the evidence of all this in what happened when Christ was said to have been buried in the earth. Was he really buried? Is Christ in the earth? Where is he now? Nothing of him is buried in the earth. The Buddhist religion speaks of four levels in what can happen after death. One is when people are cremated, so that their bodies disappear and they can rise up into the heavens. The second is when the body is thrown into the sea, the water, where it sinks. The third way is to keep the body somewhere so that it will decay by itself. The fourth is to bury the body in the earth.

Again, brothers and sisters, some of you are like that and some are not; will you be able to feel which is which? Will you be able to know whether you are still influenced by material objects and forces or not? Will you be able to feel whether you are sitting on a chair or the chair is sitting on you?

You will be able to feel it for yourselves. Are you really sitting on the chair or is your chair on top of you? Again: you are standing on the earth, the ground. You are standing on the earth, which means that you are still influenced by material things, so now try to feel, try to receive what happens when the earth on which you are standing disappears. What will be your state? You are standing on the earth. Do you feel the earth turn over, so that it is above you? Now try to feel again. Christ also stood on the earth. The earth over Christ disappeared. Christ existed and the earth did not.

Brothers and sisters, we need to have examples to follow. If you are Christian, you will of course follow in the footsteps of Christ. Those of us who are Muslims will follow in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad. That is why the messengers of God, the prophets, provide us with a standard. We must not abandon that standard, so that some of us are drawn to such studies as spiritualism, hypnotism, magnetism and so on.

The latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, is like - yes, one may say that it is like the proof or the technique of what is taught in religion. That is why those of you who have a religion will be able to find proof in the latihan of what you have been taught in these religions. Whereas those things which Bapak just mentioned - hypnotism, magnetism, spiritualism - are all methods for increasing the strength of the nafsu and of the power of the mind, as in the case of the dewas. The life of the dewas is life in a world of shadows, not like the prophets, who live in the world of reality. The shadow world means the shadow cast by life of the mind, the shadows of the nafsu which are projected so that things really seem to happen and people really experience things, but they are not real, so that they are not free from the influences of this world, the world of mankind. You can do a little testing and receive it, so that you can to some extent feel what the influence of these "isms" is like.

Relax. How is the inner-feeling of someone who dies after having practiced magnetism or spiritualism during his lifetime? This is just a mere taste of what it is like, but this taste is proof that in fact the inner feeling of such a person becomes like a stone; motionless and lifeless. This is just by way of proof, brothers and sisters, so that you will not easily be influenced by such things. That, brothers and sisters, is why Bapak always explains that the latihan kejiwaan is a training for life, and not for death. No; it is a training for life, so that the dividing line between this world and the next, between your life in this world and your life after you leave this world, is as if it did not exist. It is, as it were, erased. That is why the training starts from below, meaning that it starts from the feeling, and then expands and goes deeper and deeper to reach the understanding, so that you will be able to feel an understanding which is beyond your usual understanding.

Again. How does your head feel when you are thinking a lot? You should think less, so that your head feels light and free. So by repeating the name of God - Allah - all that heaviness disappears. "Allah" .... all gone, all finished. Is it like that? Yes. How do you feel after this little bit of testing? Why is it like that? Because the word Allah is a holy word, a living word. Let one of the women helpers try - just one. Follow what Bapak is saying ... Allah, Allah ... follow your movements ( Bapak sings ).

That is the sacred nature of that word, which has been made holy by the power of God. This is how it is for Bapak, and Bapak hopes that it is also like that for you and that you possess this. You felt just now as if you were not here. Now let K. try. You must not just get stuck being a film-star and then going to Hollywood. Receive. ( Bapak sings ). How did you feel?

Brothers and sisters, there is really no end to it; one could go on and on and never stop. Of course you wish that Bapak were always here to guide you, but people in other places are also hoping Bapak will come to them, and that is why Bapak divides his time. Bapak feels that there has been a lot of progress in your latihan; all the more so since Bapak got here. May your latihan, which Bapak has witnessed, really receive a fresh impetus, so you will continue to do latihan with full surrender and submission to the One Almighty God, for this latihan kejiwaan of Subud will always follow you wherever you go and will overshadow all that you do for so long as you live in this world. Even though you may be doing what are usually called worldly things, God will always show you the benefits of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud and you will obtain these benefits in everything you do. If you are an architect, your work will demonstrate the greatness of God and the love of God for human beings, so that you will be able to grasp whatever is necessary. Even when you do not understand, even when you forget, you will be able to find it, so that you will be able to discover something that can be called miraculous.

That is all, brothers and sisters; that is the end of this meeting.

On Bapak's departure from here he prays that you will always remain under the protection of the One Almighty God, and that you will be able to fulfill all your hopes.

That is all. Thank you.