Brothers and sisters, and all my children, before Bapak cuts the rumpang ( rice mountain ) and the cake, Bapak will say something about his birthday today. This is the twenty-second of June, the date of Bapak' s birth and also, as it happens, the anniversary of the founding of the city of Jakarta. So now, as of this moment, Bapak is eighty-one according to the Christian calendar and eighty-four - or eighty-three and a half - according to Muslim and Javanese reckoning. So it is clear, brothers and sisters, that God has granted His grace to Bapak so that he has been able to look after his children and grandchildren for all this time, and let us pray that the One Almighty God will grant that Bapak may be able to continue to look after and guide all his children and grandchildren for a long time yet. That is all that Bapak has to say about his birthday; may all that we wish for come to pass.

Brothers and sisters Bapak would like you to sit quietly and listen to what Bapak is going to say. First of all, Bapak bids you welcome and wishes you good evening, and he welcomes all of you who have come here to hear what Bapak is going to say.

Today, brothers and sisters, happens also to be the first day of the fast, while it is also the day, the twenty-second of June, on which Bapak was born in 1901. In that year, that date fell in the month of Maulud ( in the Islamic calendar ) in the year Dal ( in the cycle of sixty years), so that it was the same as the date on which the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, was born. It is also the date of the birth of the city of Jakarta, which is being celebrated today. So Bapak is at the same time making use of this evening in the traditional manner as an occasion for his children and grandchildren to pay homage to their father and grandfather, doing sungkem in the way that is traditional for us Indonesians.

Because it is Bapak who has to play the host this evening, brothers and sisters, and because Bapak is, as it were, the father or the founder of the association of Susila Budhi Dharma, which is abbreviated to Subud, he will of course be speaking to you about spiritual matters and what concerns them. So it is right and proper for all of you to listen to what Bapak has said and is going to say, while for those who are not Subud members, they may listen too, and Bapak invites them to do so, but if they feel that there is no point in it for them, no-one will mind if they leave the room.

Brothers and sisters, if we approach it from the Subud angle, from our latihan kejiwaan, the latihan kejiwaan of Susila Budhi Dharma, it is left to the host who spread it to those who listen, as to whether or not we make this kind of occasion into a custom. But in reality, brothers and sisters, it is, broadly speaking, a method of bringing people closer to one another, your hearts and feelings close to those of other people, so that you are really close, as in our experience in the latihan kejiwaan. In the latihan kejiwaan, brothers and sisters, you do not feel strange with one another in meetings where all of you are doing the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. In this way you feel the link between the feelings, the inner-feelings of all of you, to be as if you were in the midst of your own family - meaning your own personal family. In the latihan kejiwaan there can be unity not only between the feelings of individuals, but between the feelings of different races and religions, such as Catholics, Protestants and Muslims. And in Islam too there are various sects, such as the Muhammadiyah and the other sects whose names appear in the news from various places. Within the association of Subud all these are as one and all share one and the same way of worshipping the One Almighty God. That is why you never feel strange or foreign in the latihan kejiwaan, or as if you were in an unfamiliar setting. That is the situation we have in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, so that it really demonstrates that the One Almighty God is what in Islam is called Allah Subhanah wa ta'ala ( God the All-powerful and All-High ), so that in His presence all mankind can live in harmony together. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that, as Bapak always says, if we look at it from the point of view of the latihan kejiwaan this is guidance and direction from the One Almighty God.

Is it true, brothers and sisters, that it is the One Almighty God Who guides the latihan kejiwaan of Subud? This is a truth which you cannot verify unless you have already experienced it for yourselves, as did the guide of those of us who are Muslims, the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace. He experienced it in his mi'raj, his ascension, when the prophet Muhammad was summoned by the One Almighty God to the presence of the power of God.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, so if people say that they have followed in the footsteps of the prophet, well, yes . . .Of course you must not be half-hearted about it, brothers and sisters; we must not just accept the stories we are told, but we must verify and consider what the journey of the prophet was like. We must follow it from the beginning to the end of the journey, all the way to its destination and then back again to its starting point. In this way it was all quite clear for Muhammad, on whom be peace, and he really did experience the closeness to him of God and his closeness to the One Almighty God. That is what is taught in the religion of Islam which he founded, and we are also told that we should understand about this journey of the prophet.

It is the same thing with the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters. When we begin we need to clarify for ourselves whether there really is a life there within our selves. Is this really a life that is other than our ordinary life in this world, which can be said to be lived through the nafsu ( the will and the desires ) and can we really have something that is free from the nafsu and which can be called the hakekat, the true reality of our worship of the One Almighty God?

Brothers and sisters, if you ask why Bapak chooses to take his example from Islam and from the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, broadly speaking there has been no other prophet who experienced a mi'raj like that of the prophet Muhammad, and this coincides with what happens in the framework of life which has been created by the One Almighty God, by Allah Subhana wa ta'ala. In the framework of life, brothers and sisters, there are seven levels, to which are added two more rohs or life forces which act as connections between them all. These rohs start with the roh raewani, the material life force, and then come the roh nabadi, or vegetable life force, the roh khewani or animal life-force, the roh jasmani or ordinary human life-force, which is the fourth level, and the roh rohani, the perfect human life-force, which is the fifth level. Then come the roh rahmani and the seventh and highest level, the roh rabbani.

Although this framework is already good, and indeed it is not only good but perfect, yet it still lacks something to make the wheels of life go round successfully. It is therefore further accompanied by another life-force which connects and rules over all the others, and this life-force is called the roh Ilofi. Even that is still not enough, and so it is accompanied by yet another roh which is called the roh Kudus, the roh of the angels, to complete the structure and make it perfect, or the roh Ilofi provides the way, opens the way for all the rohs to know the One Almighty God, but it is absorbed into them, into the inside, so the structure is not yet perfect if there is no outward knowledge of it, no outer connections, and so the One Almighty God has also created the ?oh Kudus. Between these two ( the roh Ilofi and the roh Kudus ), all the others are firmly held in place; the roh raewani or material life-force, the roh nabadi or vegetable life-force, the roh khewani or animal life-force, the roh jasmani or ordinary human life-force, the roh rohani or perfect human life-force, the roh rahmani and the roh rabbani.

That is why the setans are not the enemies of God. If they were, it would mean that God lacked power over them. God has power, brothers and sisters; He is not just Ail but All-powerful. He existed before anything came into existence and will continue to exist after everything ceases to exist. That is why in Islam He is said to be huwal awal, huwal akbar, which means that God precedes and follows after all things. Thus if God did not exist, nothing at all would exist, and if everything exists because of God, God has no enemies. Where enmity lies is between the different levels of Roh. That is why, in order not to be hindered in their worship by the devil, people say, before they pray "auzubillahi minas sjaitonir rojim", which means "God protect me from the devil so that I can worship the One Almighty God perfectly. It is human beings who have enemies, not God."

In the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, we are guided, educated and led in such a way that we know things and know about things which otherwise we should never know. This is because there is no guide other than the One Almighty God who can lead us where we wish to go. This is why we have to make no declaration in our latihan kejiwaan of Subud except to declare our faith, both inwardly and outwardly, in the glory and majesty of the One Almighty God, our belief that there is nothing which can surpass the One Almighty God, but that, on the contrary, God rules over everything needed by human life and every other form of life.

This is what we have to feel, brothers and sisters. Thus through the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, we are able to receive without any planning, not because of the nafsu, not because of anything we do, not because we make up any theories about it, but we just suddenly are able to receive. This is a symbol of the reality of what was experienced by the prophet Muhammad himself; that human beings cannot come to God unless God so wills. This is why we have the story of what is called the mi'raj or ascension of the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace. This is something different from the ways followed by the many other people who hope to come to God by using this or that method. Yes, maybe they can or maybe they cannot produce an example but there already is one; that is, the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace.

From the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, we can conclude that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is not something which can be called a religion; No, it is a gift of love from the One Almighty God which He has bestowed upon mankind, Bapak himself does not know why it was given in such a way that ordinary people can do it and can receive in a way similar to the way in which the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, received. That is why one or two people who really know the nature of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud have said that this is the latihan of the prophets. That is what they say; I myself do not know. If it is the latihan of the prophets and people ask why ordinary human beings receive it, that must be left to God because everything willed by God comes to pass and cannot be prevented from happening. For God rules over all things, let alone over human beings. If it were the will of God that the smallest insect should be given wahyu, revelation from God, that insect would be greater than all the rest of His creatures.

This is how it is, brothers and sisters, so you must strengthen the words Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. It really is like that, Allah Subhanaha wa ta'ala surpasses all that He has created. This is the invincible weapon, but words do not become sacred just by themselves; they become sacred when human beings sincerely worship the One Almighty God and value Him more than their own selves.

Yes, as the prophet Muhammad himself said, God loves mankind. The prophet Muhammad also said that he loved God more than his own life and soul. This is what we receive from the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, which God has given to ordinary people who are still thinking about this and about that, and who still require the necessities of life in this world. Indeed, brothers and sisters, God wills human brings to be able to worship God in the ordinary course of their lives while they are living in this world provided that their actions are good.

Of course there is no end to it if one discusses what are called theological matters. It is like what the Dutch call locht kasteen bouwen; building castles in the air. But how, then, are we to think and feel about these matters pertaining to God, brothers and sisters? Bapak will explain a little more in detail about this, brothers and sisters, so that you can keep your thoughts and feelings about this within bounds and not let them wander too far off course, with the result that you will not find anything but it will be like what in Javanese is called kinjang tanpa soca; a dragonfly which has no eyes, or having eyes which have been blinded, so that its sight is blurred and unfocused. Bapak will explain so that you can more or less get it straight in your inner feelings.

The lowest of the rohs, the life-forces, is said to have the nature of temptation, preventing human beings from worshipping God because they are always too much influenced by the material forces; the roh kebendaan or roh syaitoniah. But is God not Omniscient, brothers and sisters? Does He not know all this? Does He not know that human beings are surrounded on all sides - on their right hand and their left, above and below - by a roh whose nature it is to hinder them in their worship of the One Almighty God? Because the nature of God is thus All-knowing is it just left to human beings?

No, brothers and sisters. The nature of God is rahman and rahim, merciful and compassionate, and He is All-compassionate and All-loving towards everything that He has created. So it is not God's fault but that of human beings themselves. But one cannot blame human material beings, because they need this force. If there were no roh raewani, no material force, human beings would not be able to construct buildings such as this. They would not be able to make clothes. They would not be able to set up a monetary system. They would not be able to travel about as they do, when there are now present here members who have come from England, America and other places. And by what means have they got here? By means of things which human beings have created with their minds; that is, by means of material things. If there were no planes, no flying machines, it would not be possible for people to do this. They could not travel about so rapidly. That is the material force, brothers and sisters. So if you do not want the setans near you, you will be hard up for money, brothers and sisters. People who hate the setans do not have any money. And if people have no money, they cannot do anything. Just think about that.

The material force, the roh raewani, is the lowest of the rohs. It can be likened to the floor of a house. If a house has no floor, how can anyone live in it? Thus although the roh raewani is a hindrance to human beings in their worship of God, it is nevertheless the material force which fulfils the requirements of human beings.

That is why for those of us who have the experience of finding gold in the jungle, brothers and sisters, we may have been able to find the gold and carry it off with us, but what we are carrying is those who say that the gold belongs to them, and it is the setans, the devils, who say that. Indeed it really is the setans who own that gold, brothers and sisters, but the reason human beings like to use it and wear it is because it has become necessary to them. Human beings cannot manufacture any means to protect themselves from danger unless they have the material from which to make them. A tiger or a cat can protect itself with its claws and its teeth, but if human beings had nothing but their teeth for protection, even a rat on a mouse could defeat them. But God has decreed, brothers and sisters, that human beings should possess minds and intelligence, so that where a tiger can only kill at most one or two enemies, a human being is enabled by using his mind to create the means to kill a million people a day, as is proved by atom bombs and nuclear weapons. If human beings can produce rifles and sten guns, this is because of their minds, which enable them to make all sorts of things, so they can even fly to the moon. So how is it that human beings are made able to do all this? Through God's love for mankind Such is the love of God for His creatures in human form that anything they can think of they can achieve if they really know what they are doing.

In what way, brothers and sisters, are you different from the astronauts, or from the people who build aircraft? There is no difference; you are the same as they. But you are unable to make use of what God has decreed for you. This is your own fault. Do not say that this is unfair. You must not say that it is unfair; who makes it the way it is? Why is it that even now, in the atomic age, there are still people living in the jungle, without any clothes, ignorant of good food and not understanding how to take care of themselves? Is that God's fault? No; it is the fault of these people themselves, for why are they so lazy and so timid?

It is written in the books, brothers and sisters, that jer basuki mowo beo; there is no happiness which is not preceded by some bitter experience, some grief or suffering, some hard and difficult path. This is something we need to get hold of; we need to understand it and to feel it.

Thus you must not be afraid of difficulties and hardship, for it is through these that the path of happiness passes. No one suddenly and immediately becomes an adult. No; everyone starts as a baby, unable to do anything, and without guidance and care that baby would die. It still has no active mind, it cannot feel about things or use its intelligence. It already possesses all these, but they are still in limbo.

We must not be afraid of the setans, the devils, but they ought to be afraid of us, for we are fourth in the hierarchy of the rohs, the life-forces. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, we need the material life-force, and so long as we can make the right use of it, it should not frighten us. Even though a rifle or a pistol may be lying on the table it is of no significance unless some human being picks it up. What is dangerous is not the pistol but the person who holds it. This is what we need to understand and to feel, brothers and sisters. Thus we can feel how it would be if at least one quarter or one third of the people in the world had the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Then nothing would occur in this world which would make people tremble with fear as they do at present. For then no human hand would do anything wrong, because the hand itself would fear the One Almighty God, for then the One Almighty God alone would have power over its life.

Why is it that people do not believe? Why have they no faith in God? It is because they are taught by their minds according to the dictates of their nafsu which are present in the heart and the mind. It is all right to wear clothes worth thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars. It is God' s will for human beings to live and to live well, to live in peace, comfort and happiness, beginning in this world and continuing in the hereafter. Why is that? It is because God is present in this world as well as in the next. Do not imagine that God is not present in this world.

This is the way it is, brothers and sisters. From the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, little by little - and it may not be just little by little but quite quickly - we become able to get rid of our credulity, our Mugon tuhon. Gugon tuhon means believing in things which we have not yet experienced for ourselves.

It is clear that if the material life-force is said to be a hindrance, that is the fault of human beings themselves. There is at present a clear example of this to be seen. In the days before the Arab countries had discovered their new resource – that is, oil - they were poor countries, as we know from their history. In fact, brothers and sisters, these poor people had a very strong desire not to be poor, and at that time they were very obedient to God. "It is God Who can give one happiness in life" they said. But God is All-just, brothers and sisters, and God created human beings together with everything that could serve to make their lives complete. It is only human beings who worry about whether the world will become over-populated. That is why people are discouraged from having more than two or three children.

Yes, it is indeed true that we need to examine everything carefully and look into it. In this country, in the Majopahit era, there were still fewer than twenty million inhabitants in Java, and in the whole of Indonesia perhaps not more than thirty million. About a thousand years have passed since the days of Brawljaja - yes, at most a thousand and now the population of Indonesia has increased to a hundred and fifty million, which is a staggering thought. What will happen if the population reaches a thousand million? Will there be only some who can eat while the rest cannot? No, brothers and sisters; God is All-powerful. What the old people say is true when, if their grandchildren have a lot of children, they tell them that where there is a child there is the means to provide for it. Well, because people talk like that, we compete in having children, and if someone has twelve children he wants to have thirteen, and someone who already has thirteen wants to have fourteen. Bapak himself, when he was in Semarang, knew of an architect called Atmodirono who had twenty-three children. Twenty-three, brothers and sisters! He had only one wife. But the twenty-third child caused her death, for she was weakened by too much child-bearing. Not all the twenty-three children of this one mother lived, but maybe only about sixteen or seventeen of them.

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that God has created everything complete and perfect, so it is as though if you have a goat pen, you have a goat and if you have a bird you have a cage to keep it in and if you have a cage you have a bird to put in it. Of course, if you have a bird-cage you have a place for the bird's food. So if you have a bird-cage but cannot afford to buy the bird's food, you must not have a bird.

So you must at least consider the way of the Almighty. Everything that the Almighty creates has its uses. There is nothing created which is not useful. Thus you can already feel for yourselves, "God has decreed that I should possess all the various parts of my being. I can see, which means I can see what is good and what is bad; I can hear what is good and what is bad; I can smell what is good and what is bad, what is useful and what is not; I can taste which food is good and which is not, which will kill and which will support life. I can also think out what is right and what is wrong."

That is why you are trained in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Even though we can already walk, yet in the latihan we are made to walk, so that we know and understand the difference between "I walk with my nafsu" and "I walk with my jiwa". This is an awareness which you lost long ago. The loss begins in the womb and goes on throughout childhood into adult life and old age.

Thus when you were still babies, brothers and sisters, you still knew and recognized your jiwa. That is why a baby sometimes laughs, sometimes cries, even though there seems to be no reason for it.

It sometimes cries without reason and sometimes laughs without reason. That is because the baby still partakes of the nature of its jiwa or embodies its jiwa, and that is why it is said in religion that God loves children. One should never do anything to harm a child or a baby, to kill a baby is to kill an innocent human being who still embodies its jiwa. That is a condition you lost long ago, and when you were opened you felt it strange that there was something alive there inside your life.

Well, this is just what was experienced by our prophet – the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace - when he was praying one day. That is what happened to him, and that is also what you experienced in the latihan kejiwaan of Susila Budhi Dharma which you are following. As to its fruits, as to what you obtain from this latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, why is it that some of you are unable to receive quickly, and why are you not quickly able to know and to do what has to be done? Of course, because you have received the latihan kejiwaan, you are able to feel that what goes on in you has been produced by external or physical causes, by what has come down to you from your fathers’ fathers, from your grandfathers' grandfathers. So what you are up against in your selves are the faults which result from the actions of your ancestors, and these are not easy for you to purify, not easy to clean away without help of the love of the One Almighty God, because these faults can only be purified if and when your nafsu can be held in check. Whereas your nafsu are always tempting you, and it can be said that for every fault which is purified, the nafsu bring in two more faults, and for every two faults purified, the nafsu bring in four more. It is like the multiplication table; one becomes two, two become four, four become eight, eight become sixteen and so on. The faults are not reduced but multiplied.

This is the situation in which Jesus said that one should run to God. Except the One Almighty God, nothing and no-one can check or reduce all these faults in what you do. That is why our worship of the One Almighty God will never harm us, but, on the contrary, it will always be good for us.

Well, brothers and sisters, to return to the story Bapak began just now about the material forces, we cannot avoid material forces and objects, but we can act in such a way that the material things we make are only those which are in accordance with our needs in life in this world, so that we shall not end up by being overpowered by the things we have made, but, on the contrary, we shall always remain able to control them. The prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, could not have been called a rich man. Nor did he indulge in luxury, but no-one was as rich as the prophet Muhammad, for he was what is ndilaalah ngandel kersaning Allah ( trusting in the the Will of Allah ). If, for instance, he wanted a dish of sambal qorenq, that sambal qorenq came to him of its own accord, or rather it was not that the sambal goreng itself came, but some person would come and bring it to him.

Bapak has sometimes given you an example of how it is when Bapak loses something; he does not try to stop it going or to retrieve it, but if he loses one thousand, ten thousand come back to him, and if he loses ten thousand, a hundred thousand come back. That is why Bapak makes no fuss about it if he loses something. He just keeps quiet; this thing has only changed its place, found a new home, so he just lets it go and then something else will come to replace it, It is really true that this is what happens, but you must not go and try to copy Bapak before you are really able to know what you are doing. If you do, you will find yourself being sucked down into the mud.

Well, this is, in reality and attribute of people who are really sincere in their submission to God. If you are really sincere you will see where your way in life lies. God will enable you to know things that are not known. God will give you knowledge. This is one of the benefits of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. But up to now, brothers and sisters, Bapak is still left wondering why is that? You say it is difficult for you. Well what if it is? Some things are difficult, some are easy. Why do you look for difficulties? “It is not that we are looking for them" you say, “but they just come by themselves". People do not look for difficulties, they look for what is pleasant and easy, but what comes is actually the other way round; what comes is difficulty. So you must not hope just for what is pleasant, but you must accept both, the unpleasant and the pleasant.

Now, what is the way to do this? We need to have a firm faith in the One Almighty God. But is it just a matter of faith? No. It is a matter of faith together with putting into action everything that is in you. Then other people will believe in you, because what you say is mostly right and is worth following. So what then should you learn to do? You should learn how to be people who do not enjoy deceit and lies. You should learn to be honest men and women. You should learn to be people who really love their fellow creatures. You wish other people to love you, but if you hate them, how can they love you? Well, you do not have to look far for an example; Bapak takes himself as an example.

Bapak recently traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and then back home. The attitude towards Bapak of the people in Australia, for instance, is no different from the attitude of his own people here in Java. When I leave them, the people there cry, brothers and sisters, so close to Bapak do they feel and so much do they love Bapak. How can Bapak fail to reciprocate their feeling? He does reciprocate it, brothers and sisters, and that is why, even though Bapak is already so old, he is still willing to go to Australia. Yes, it is a very long way to go, and it was very cold in all the places Bapak visited, so that he got ill because of the cold. At that time it was very cold in Australia and New Zealand. That is how Bapak feels, but how can he do otherwise when he is carrying out the decree of God? If you want other people to love you, you have to carry out the decree of God to love your fellow men. This is how it is.

To continue, brothers and sisters; I will now continue so that you can really feel more clearly that your life is higher than that of the material life-force and the vegetable life-force; that is, the life of the plants we use as food. You are able to live in this world because of the plants. You eat rice and bread and all that, and you could not manage without them. Your flesh and blood would fail, and you would fade away into ghosts or setans. Now in doing this, brothers and sisters, are you not imposing your will upon the plants? You chop up the vegetables to make lodeh ( vegetable soup made with coconut milk ) and make lots of nice santan ( coconut milk ) and say "Alhamdulillah" But the plants you are eating say: "It is all very well for you human beings; you eat me. But later on, when you arrive over there in the next world, I shall report to God how carelessly you ate me".

Human beings do not understand, brothers and sisters. Bapak has on many occasions tested with you whether you are sitting on the chair or the chair is sitting on you. But in this case it will not be Bapak who is testing you, but the angels. Well, when the angels test you, that is irrevocable, whereas when Bapak tests you, things can still change, and you can be more careful in future. You can be patient and say "Bismillahir rahmanir rahim" before you eat - "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate." Thus when the kupat subsequently makes its report on you, it will bear witness that you said Bismillahir rahmanir rahim". “I eat you in the name of God". Then it has all been surrendered to God. It is like this for every religion, especially in the Christian religion, where people quieten themselves and say grace before they eat. This is done in order not to be affected by sin, which no longer is present when one has surrendered it.

You say “Bismillahir rahmanir rahim", but you do not understand. Yes, brothers and sisters, God envelops the whole universe, and God can warn you, speak to you, but you cannot warn God. God touches you in the latihan. You have already been touched by the power of God in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, but you are not aware that you have been touched by the Lord God. Because of that, you are not touched and are not aware of it. This is wrong. This is what has been done for so many years by religious people who carry a rosary and keep on telling their beads as they repeat Allahu Akbar ( God is great ) or Astagh firullah ( God forgive me ) all the time, so as always to be close to God. But if they repeat Allahu Akbar, while they are watching a dance, it will be a hindrance. It is different for you who have been trained in the latihan. Your zikir is embodied in every part of you. It is in your seeing, so it is as if you repeat Allah, Allah, Allah as you look at anything. It is in your ears, so that you repeat Allah, Allah, Allah as you listen. It is in your breathing, in your smelling and tasting, in your feeling and eventually in your thinking. When it reaches your thinking you receive teaching from the latihan kejiwaan of Subud.

Yes, of course the latihan starts from the lowest level, brothers and sisters, and works upwards, from feet and hands, from flesh and skin, until it eventually it reaches your inner parts. Yes, in reality that is what you should wish for, but no; what almost all of you wish for is to have it all at once and be rich. But how does someone set about getting rich? He starts in a small way and little by little he gets richer, until eventually he becomes a rich man. It is just like that.

Well, now Bapak will go on with what he was saying just now. You have borrowed strength from the vegetable life-force and the material life-force, and now you borrow from the animal life-force. If you do not eat sate ( kebabs ) every day, you get upset about it. If the sate. is made from beef, you want it to be the very best steak. Having eaten this and that, you add still more nice things, all of which you have borrowed from the animal life-force. That is the reason why, when he kills an animal, the priest at the mosque says a prayer; prayer whose content means: "I take it upon myself to get you into heaven. You need not be distressed, for I have reported to God that you will go with me to heaven." That is what he says, promising to take the goat to heaven even though he is not yet sure of getting there himself.

Yes, human beings have a lot of brains. Yes, and that is why if you still use your minds you will not dare to take responsibility. If you get what you deserve you will not dare to take responsibility, for human intelligence is of many kinds. Thus you should not lower yourselves or put yourselves in an inferior position to the animals and borrow from the animals. It is said in the surah that when you get to the other side, and before you have covered one hundredth part of your way to heaven, you will be met by the goat. "0h, is this heaven?" “Not one hundredth part of heaven”. “I have come to ask you to repay me all of me that you have eaten". "What do you mean?" “Well .you ate my flesh every day. You did have the meat of many fat goats to eat and you were angry." "How many goats?" "If you weigh it all up, it may be about a million kilograms." "How can I give that back to you?" "Well, as a human being you are higher than I am, so you ought to be able to." You cannot borrow any more, brothers and sisters. You cannot run around looking for an equivalent in goat's meat to borrow from the animal force.

Now I will go on to the human force, the jasmaniah. You borrow many things from your fellow men. If you get work as a clerk, for instance, because someone has helped you to do this, you have borrowed something from him. If you have money, it is because someone has financed you. It is difficult in relationships between human beings; people do not eat people. But in marriage it is as if they do. If you are a man, and if you are clean, pure, and then you marry a woman who is not pure, then a part of her impurity will fall upon you, while part remains with the woman herself. That is how it is if it is the woman who is impure, but mostly it is the man who is the impure partner. He goes out on the town, then comes home to his wife, and this is very hard on her. That is why men are forbidden to wander from home, whereas it is in their nature to enjoy wanderings.

What is required of people when they marry is that they should be like Wisnu and Sri. Wisnu and Sri were just two people, brothers and sisters, and in all the world there was only one Sri. When women try to imitate her, they cannot do it, but, on the contrary, there are many who are like Rahwana Raja.

Thus marriage is also something one needs to examine closely, and that is why in the old days the elders always used to calculate whether there was any obstacle to a marriage, so that a marriage between these two people would run into no difficulties. Nowadays people talk about their stars, their signs of the zodiac.

Well, brothers and sisters, the nafsu stop at the jasmani level. You cannot hope to take them on to the rohani level, for human beings who attain to the rohani have already been able to leave the nafsu behind. Thus so long as you live you cannot hope to attain to the rohani level unless you have been able to leave the nafsu behind you. In this, brothers and sisters, we have been able to receive help from God through the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, in the course of which we are separated from the nafsu. For this we we are only required to surrender ourselves to the One Almighty God with trust and sincerity and you have been fully equipped to do that. You have been given the equipment with which to think, you have your minds with which to consider whether things are right or wrong, you have feelings to pick out what you wish, you have hands and so on to use. Through acting honestly, without a lot of lies and deceit, you will be able to receive guidance.

You do not have to look far for an example, for Bapak is an example. Yes, as a rule when people are wanting to borrow money, they beg for it: "Please, sir be kind to me and give me your help. Please sir be kind to me”. As a rule it is like that, but not for Bapak. On the contrary, people who have money available for lending come looking for Bapak. That is an example, brothers and sisters. Bapak used not to be at all rich; Bapak really possessed nothing, brothers and sisters. Bapak tells you that quite frankly. Now one can say that Bapak possesses all sorts of things, but in fact he actually owns very little of it, for it all belongs to Subud. Yes; but without Bapak, Subud would not exist. Subud is just a name; it is really Bapak. Thus if I wanted to mortgage all this, I could do so, for it is I who own it. But if I mortgaged it, then where would you do latihan? It would be difficult for you.

Well, Bapak is an example to show you that you can and should have these things, but can you do it? Why not? The Lord God is One God for all, and He does not pick and choose, but we are all equal before Him. It is up to us human beings. That is why in the Koran it is said that God will not change anyone’s fate unless that person himself wishes to change it. Thus you must not just blame the Lord God if you are stupid and ignorant. Yes, this is how it is, brothers and sisters. According to the proofs in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, it is a source of everything needed in human life. Your movements when you follow the latihan demonstrate that these are of many kinds, showing that both the customs and behavior of all mankind can be known through the guidance and direction present in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Take for instance, yoga training; is there no yoga to be found in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud? Yes, there is. Pencak silat training, all kinds of pencak silat ( Indonesian art of self-defense ), or nowadays there is judo - are these not to be found in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud? They are! And more besides - music and dancing; there are Javanese dances such as the bedoyo and srimpi. Arab dances, like the Egyptian belly-dance - are these to be found in Subud? Yes, they are! Are there dances like those of France, of Austria and of all the other countries? Yes, there are! In short, everything is to be found in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. It is clear that it contains all human culture and civilization, and Bapak has experienced more or less all of it, brothers and sisters.

At that time Bapak was doing latihan alone, for there was as yet nothing called Subud, and it was still just called the latihan kejiwaan. Bapak experienced at least a thousand nights of latihan, which changed all the time. Why was it so different from what all of you do and receive? Because Bapak confronted the latihan kejiwaan of Subud as being what the prophet Muhammad himself, on whom be peace, had experienced before he received the experience in which the whole of his being was cleansed and purified, when there was an occasion upon which the prophet Muhammad received wahyu ( grace ) in the form of an operation in which he was purified.

The holy books tell how on this occasion, when the prophet was being cleansed of everything, it was an angel who performed the operation, and the water with which he washed away all the prophet Muhammad's faults from his inner-self was what is called the air zam-zam ( the holy water from the sacred well at Mecca ).

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that before he received wahyu, the prophet Muhammad, was first purified. This event has, of course, become an example set before us, brothers and sisters; an example for the people of Islam and for the whole human race, so that it is clear that before one can receive wahyu it is necessary first to be purified. That is why people will not be able to receive anything new for their being unless their old faults have first been eliminated and got rid of. And this cannot be achieved except through the power of the One Almighty God. Thus the angel who purified the prophet Muhammad did so by the command of the One Almighty God. So it is clear that for the people of Islam they not only should but must consider what was experienced by the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace.

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that what we have in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is really that, for the first time, we are being cleansed and purified. That is the reason why people sometimes feel ill after doing latihan. This feeling does not mean that we really are ill, but it is due to the purification process. The word purification of course means the purification of whatever is wrong, If there is something wrong in the inner feeling, then those bad feelings will be cleaned out of it. You cannot do anything about spiritual welfare by means of any theory, not by getting this or that or by employing this or that method, or then you will lose your way, and if you are not lucky you will find yourself straying along the road that leads to the satanic world, the world of deception.

People have had this experience, brothers and sisters. Bapak himself also has among his ancestors some who were said to possess supernatural powers, but they had obtained these powers by means of their own actions. This was like what was done by the dewas, because what the dewas did was done by the means usually employed by human beings; that is, by practicing asceticism and cutting down food and sleep and all sorts of things, so that their aims deviated from what was right.

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan which you follow is a latihan of life - for life and not for death - so that all our being comes to life. If the whole of our selves, our being, becomes alive, things which are dead can have no effect upon us, which means that they cannot enter or have any power over us or, to put it in physical terms, they cannot overcome us. Bapak has many times had the experience of seeing people who possess susuk ( golden charms or amulets inserted under the skin ) come into Subud - charms to make them handsome or beautiful, to make them invulnerable - or sometimes people have their hands full of bullets or shot pellets as big as that to make them strong, so that if they hit someone they can deal a heavy blow.

When such people come into Subud all these things fall out. So when Bapak opens them all these golden charms to make them beautiful fall out.

So it is clear, brothers and sisters, the in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud we shall, God willing, receive His blessing and become people who are really alive, really clean, so that our jiwas become pure. When the jiwa becomes pure it will follow of itself that the way to go forward, the way to develop, will not only be quick but will follow the best possible path, a path which you can really understand.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and because the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is free from nafsu, what you receive is like a toeval ( chance occurrence ). This is also what has happened to all the inventors and people who have made discoveries, as when Edison discovered how to use electricity. It was not because of what he had studied but it was a toeval. So when someone makes a discovery, it bursts upon them like an explosion. Something like that happened to Einstein when he discovered the possibility of atomic bombs. He had of course studied physics, but that was not the reason - it was a toeval; a toeval which was eventually followed up. Things like this often happen in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, in which you too sometimes receive a toeval, but you are too timid to follow it up, so that it is as if your latihan is of no benefit to you. This is why people, including yourselves, become bored if they go on too long without any results. Thus in order to guard against that, and in order not to become bored, it is necessary for you to examine yourselves and not to waste what you have experienced. You may have been in Subud for many years - maybe fifteen or twenty years or more - but what have you got to show for it? The only result is that every Sunday and every Thursday evening you come to the latihan hall, where you laugh and shout and so on, and after that you go home. If that is all you obtain in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, you feel that it is not much use, and it is indeed boring.

So, beginning from today, brothers and sisters, I hope that you will examine yourselves, to see whether you, as human beings who really receive the love of God, are really able to make a right use of your lives. Of course you will be able to if you persevere with your latihan, and there are already signs of it. Bapak himself is an example, so you do not have far to look.

Of course you know, especially those of you who were with Bapak in the past, that formerly Bapak had nothing at all. Let alone having no money - he was quite empty-handed - he had no learning. He had never had any sort of higher education or been to a university; no, brothers and sisters, nothing like that. But now Bapak knows how to set about establishing a bank and how it should be run. Bapak understands about building; about architecture and the techniques of architecture. Bapak never went to any technical school, but Bapak knows these things, and his knowledge is not because of his mind, but because it is given to him by the power of God which is expressed in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Thus it is as if Bapak possesses knowledge which does not depend upon his mind. "Well", you may say, "that is how it is for Bapak, but how am I to do things like that?" Well, why not? Even if not on so large a scale as Bapak, you are still perfectly competent, because human beings are not different in their minds and intelligence or in their jiwa, brothers and sisters, and you must not underrate yourselves, or then you just give up. You will just think that it is your fate always to be poor and helpless and that you can never be otherwise. It is your fate and that is the end of it. No, you must not be apathetic, brothers and sisters: that is to debase the gift of God, and means that you are ungrateful to God. You should exalt and honor the One Almighty God Who loves you. This is how it is.

The reason why Bapak always urges you to do enterprises, is in order to accustom yourselves always to keep in step with the will and the power of the One Almighty God as you do your daily work. That is why it is that although you are already able to walk and to move your hands, to laugh and to shout, you are still made to do these things over and over again in the latihan. You are made to walk, for instance, so that you can feel the difference between walking with the nafsu and walking with the jiwa, or to laugh so that you can understand the difference between laughing with the nafsu and laughing with the jiwa. Thus in fact in receiving the latihan kejiwaan you are taken back again so that you can see how it was when you were a small child, a baby. You may seem to be laughing for no reason, but of course there is a reason. Nothing happens without cause, and of course there is one. Now you are being taken back to re-experience your former state of life, so that you can know and understand before you see with your eyes and know and understand before you hear with your ears.

Bapak has experienced this, brothers and sisters, as in the case of Kalimantan. Bapak knew in advance where this and that were to be found. Bapak knew, but why is it only now that Bapak does anything about it? Of course it is because this is now the moment for it. Thus although Bapak already knew about it, he could do nothing about it until it was the right time. Well, now is the time. This is how it is for Bapak, and although I am not blaming you, I am asking you - why is it that you, who have been for fifteen or twenty years in Subud, are still so ineffectual?

Yes, you can work, but only in the ordinary way. There is nothing of what in English is called a miracle about it. In Javanese the word is goib. In Islam it is said that we should believe in miracles, in the goib which is beyond the mind – that is what in Dutch is called toevallighen ( unexpected ) Thus everything which is monco ( original ) is discovered through a toeval ( chance or coincidence ) not through learning. Only after that can it be studied. That is why for us and for our children at school, we should not think only about what is already written in books, but we must always work, so that from time to time we shall be able to receive these toevals.

This is very important. The reason why progress is so slow for us, and for our children, is because we do not try hard enough to learn and do not persevere enough in what we do. Unless we persevere with things, they will yield no fruit, and we shall never possess any fruits.

That is why Bapak urges you to do enterprises, brothers and sisters, so as to guard against getting bored. These enterprises are to accustom us to work in the normal way, but always in parallel with our jiwa. That is what people usually call tut wuri handayani ( to be pushed forward and supported from behind ). It really is that brothers and sisters; we must not take it to be something for which there is no evidence, even though it is said to be miraculous. Although it is said that such things are not for human beings, yet we shall be able to receive them, and many things have happened to many people in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud which can be called toevallighden ( fortuitous ).

Tonight, brothers and sisters, is the night before we start on the fast, and so Bapak hopes that you will be in no hurry to get to bed, or to eat or sleep, but you should make this the moment at which you start to exercise patience, so that you can find something which is out of the ordinary. Bapak will tell you a bit about when he was in Japan, brothers and sisters. Bapak feels that the Japanese as a whole like to work, and to work hard, and they also like to persevere with what they want to do, but why is it, brothers and sisters, that the Japanese Subud members who are doing the latihan kejiwaan have not actually made much progress? So Bapak asked the Japanese members, "why it is that the Japanese people who do not have the latihan kejiwaan of Subud are able to establish all sorts of enterprises and quickly build up big businesses, whereas you yourselves actually fall behind? Do you know the reason? Please try to tell me why. When the Japanese members said that this was happening because the Japanese who entered Subud had become lazy about working, and thought that if they had the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, then they would automatically receive a livelihood from God, and so they would still be able to eat without the need to work very hard. That was what they had thought, but Bapak told them "You must not think like that. You are human beings, and human beings have to live in this world in such a way that they can provide for themselves. You must not live in this world just thinking about your life after death. The life after death is one thing, and life in this world is another.

In fact, brothers and sisters, Subud members have been able to receive what will be necessary for you later on, after you leave this world; that is, the latihan kejiwaan. Thus so long as you are still living here in this world as human beings you must work as human beings, and make use of your minds and your intelligence. You must not let go of these, not let them stop, not cut them off from you. No, for God created human beings with minds and intelligence, and it is His will that they should be able to take care of themselves during their lives in this world, not just to die. Minds and intelligence are not intended for use in death, brothers and sisters; no, they are for use in this world. You must not picture the hereafter as being like this world; a place where you eat a good meal and then beat a drum, or if you are a Christian, strum a harp, and then have beautiful maidens to entertain you. No, brothers and sisters; all that is just imagination. Over there is different from here, and here is different from over there. Over there is what is called death and here is what is called life. Thus you have to work, and really put your mind and intelligence to work. You know the saying cancut tali wondo ( equivalent to roll up your sleeves ); that means getting ready to work.

"Well, Bapak", said the Japanese, "now we understand; we really have to work seriously, and now we have found the way. Some of the Subud members were going to approach the richest man in Japan, a man with a real social conscience. He is very rich indeed but he does a great deal of work in the social field, so if he was invited to have a talk with the members he might be persuaded to do something to give them a chance to finance an enterprise of the kind Bapak talks about.

This is what happened in Japan, so now they are beginning to be ready to work in Japan. Of course when the Japanese are ready and willing to work they can outdo everyone else. You can see this for yourselves, brothers and sisters. The latihan kejiwaan of Subud is full of things which people cannot usually achieve, but we are able to achieve them. Now I would like you to watch one of the members from overseas, L.K.

( Testing )

This is evidence that L.K. can be said to receive so much that his teacher feels that he, the teacher, is becoming the pupil ( in architecture ). And why is this? It is because of the latihan kejiwaan. This is just one of the many thousands of helpers, one of the thousands of Subud members.

So there are also some members who work. Yes, there are some who fall behind, but there are also some whose work flourishes and develops, so that they find the right way to work; people like L.V.H., like R. and others, only they do not feel it happening. Test now whether L.V.H receives development from his jiwa, so that he can know things which are not usually knowable

( Testing )

Yes.

Brothers and sisters, this is proof. Because of such things you are fortunate to have the latihan . That is the reason why people who have received like that and have become like that do not become slack about the latihan or feel bored with the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. If all the Subud members felt like that, the membership would increase, not decrease; and it would automatically happen that Subud here in Jakarta, for instance, would have not just ten thousand but five hundred thousand - just here in Jakarta. That is how it is, brothers and sisters, so it is very important to do enterprises. Doing enterprises means that you know the results produced in your own selves after having done the latihan kejiwaan of Subud.

Bapak takes the women members as an instance. If you are really doing it as an enterprise, which means that in nothing that you do are you separated from your aim towards the One Almighty God, then - to take cooking as an instance - you will never forget to say Allahu Akbar while you cook. You will not lose touch with that while you are cooking. In this way whatever you cook will taste better than what people cook in the usual way. So too with anything that you make or do. If you make something for sale or for whatever purpose, you will feel what you are doing, because your inner-feeling will already be close to the power of God, so that your jiwa is truly alive. It is thus clear that you can pluck the fruits of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud - that is, the skills of your inner-self from your jiwa, and these fruits are your gifts and talents.

And now let S. try. Please come and stand here, facing that way.

( Testing )

It is said, brothers and sisters, that it takes an angel to know an angel, it takes a doctor to know a doctor, it takes a secretary to know a secretary. Thus the latihan kejiwaan of Subud has begun to make you able to unite yourselves with anyone you wish to. This extends to the point where God Himself has granted some human beings the grace to be close to God, so that they are called the messengers of God. That is why the prophet Muhammad is called the messenger of God, which means someone who was really close to and united with the power of God. Such is the grace and mercy of God. And this is now beginning to happen for us; at first in a small way, beginning from the bottom. You cannot yet unite yourselves with those of other human races, yet you want to unite your selves with angels and archangels. How can you hope to do that?

Because it takes a doctor to know a doctor, or a rich man to know a rich man, you must not try to get close to a rich man unless you yourself are rich, or he will think you a thief or a beggar. But when one rich man approaches another, there is no problem. He knows that even if he leaves all his money lying about it will not disappear and he will not feel suspicious of someone who is as rich as he is. That is in keeping; that is like birds of a feather flocking together. These are the fruits of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud if you really persevere with it.

We can use the kejiwaan of Subud to measure our own will for ourselves. Whether we can or cannot measure our own selves, we should not ask other people for answers. That is what in England is called being "a self-made man". This is why Bapak hopes you will really persevere with the latihan kejiwaan of Subud and besides doing that he hopes that you will do enterprises, so that in doing them you are closely accompanied by an expert guide. But you must not follow that guide and then not work, No, you must work.

It is already late, brothers and sisters, and so Bapak will end this meeting for tonight. Bapak prays that you will really persevere with what you receive and do it sincerely. If you are a Muslim, you continue to worship in the Islamic way, according to the sareat, and besides that you do the latihan kejiwaan, so that you know on the one hand what are the sareat and the tarekat, and on the other what are the hakekat and the ma'rifat, for these four divisions are very important. As a guide, you have the four divisions of zat ( power ), sifat ( nature ), asma ( work ) and af'al result. From the af'al you will be able to know your own inner nature, your character, and you will be able to see the evidence. You will not need to claim that you can do this or that, but the evidence will enable you to understand your life clearly because the content of your selves will be that of the perfect human being who can know his own nature.

Now Bapak prays that you will be able to fast for the full thirty days, brothers and sisters, and to receive the blessing of the One Almighty God so as to be able to achieve what you pray for. That is all; enjoy your saur and have a good rest. Thank you.