Brothers and sisters, Bapak opened the Zone One Conference so it behooves him to close it as well. In doing so, Bapak first of all wants to thank all of you for the hard work you have done and your efforts of the last few days to arrive at a new understanding, a new formulation of our needs. Although obviously what you have achieved in this time is not yet perfect and doesn't yet correspond 100 per cent to what we need, it is a step forward. It is considerably closer to the real needs that we have in this zone, compared to what we have had before. That is progress and Bapak thanks you for the efforts you have put in to achieve it.
Before Bapak closes the congress, there are other things that Bapak would like to say.
Brothers and sisters, it is indeed difficult to speak about the latihan because the latihan is something that does not follow our wish or our desires. It is something that only arises spontaneously in a way that does not at all follow nor is it caused by any particular effort wish that we have. It is an awakening of something within ourselves that comes from beyond our own ability, beyond our own capacity, beyond our own planning or desire. It is an awakening that in short we cannot look for, we cannot specify, we cannot hope for. We can only surrender and receive it. That is what is called the grace of Almighty God, or wahyu or revelation. This has been written about w no matter which holy book you look in, it is there. The coming of the hakekat is something that is beyond the competence of man. It doesn't come under the competence of the relationship between man and man. It comes under the competence of the relationship of God to man. Therefore it is only received by someone who has an excellent character and someone who truly is devoted in his worship of Almighty God. In the olden days this was exemplified by the prophets whom we all know about.
Take now the example of prophet Abraham. As you know, prophet Abraham was not someone who had studied any particular skill. In fact he lived in a time and in a place on a part of the earth which was very sparsely populated. There was no really great civilization or anything flourishing there. In his life, in his journeys and in what he did, he only based himself on surrender to the power of God with patience, acceptance and submission. Whatever he received was not based on something that he had obtained with his heart and mind, but purely based on his total obedience and acceptance and submission to God's power. In that way, he received the actions which he carried out. He received everything that he needed in what was ordained to be his life and his responsibility on earth. What he received was not at all based on his skill, or his ability, or the cleverness of his heart and mind.
The same process was experienced by the prophet Moses, by Jesus Christ and by the prophet Muhammad. In each case, what was basic in their character was total devotion to the power of Almighty God, total trust in God's power and total patience, acceptance and submission in facing God's power. In each case, they were able to receive something from beyond themselves, something that was of great significance to those around them. It is known particularly about prophet Muhammad that he could not read nor write. In each case, their education, their background was very, very simple. But in Muhammad's case, he ended up being able to read and write because he was made to be able. This is the meaning of God's grace. This is the meaning of the gift of Almighty God.
Brothers and sisters, in the days when all the prophets lived that Bapak talked about, including prophet Muhammad, the conditions were such that there were very few people. They lived in sparsely populated areas. Therefore, it was possible for those around prophet Muhammad to accept and to follow what he brought into the world, what he had received. It was sufficient for them simply to follow what he laid down, to obey him and accept what he said.
But in our case, what Bapak can tell you about the latihan kejiwaan is more useful for you and is actually dearer than the process that took place in the olden days. What is clear is that the latihan kejiwaan is. It is something real which you can experience. You can experience that the reality is not dependent on your heart and mind. It is very different from someone who has imagined something and then convinces himself that it is true. In the case of the latihan kejiwaan, the reality of it actually is only felt when you stop imagining about it, when your thinking is put aside.
Brothers and sisters, this is something that was probably clearest to you when you were opened; when, for the first time, you felt a movement, a vibration or an action within your being that did not originate from your heart and mind, an action which originated from your own being, from your own nature, in contrast to a movement that comes from the heart and mind. It is this action, this reality which you experienced which then subsequently grew and developed in the way you have experienced.
The difference between the two comes at the boundary in your being or in the form of man, which is said to be at the limit of the four frameworks or the four life forces ( the material, the vegetable, the animal and the human ). It is those four life forces, or frameworks, which result in our being as it is. These four form the realm of the heart and mind. That is, the realm of the nafsu. After the four, at the point where they stop, there is the dividing line between them and that which is beyond. And Bapak doesn't need to talk about that realm because it is one over which we have no authority. That is the realm of what are called the rohani, rahmani and the rabani.
Brothers and sisters, what is clear in Subud is that you may not look for the content or the meaning of what you receive because what you receive is not intentional, it is spontaneous. It is something that develops by itself. It is alive. For example, suppose you are a mathematician. The way the latihan works is that, as you pursue and study your mathematics, the secrets of what you are studying open up spontaneously. Such is the working of the latihan kejiwaan. It is not your effort in looking for the content of the kejiwaan but the spontaneous working of the kejiwaan, that opens up doors for you in what you are trying to do.
This is not limited to mathematics. If God's grace opens up your voice, everyone will be astonished with the beauty with which you can sing. If it manifests through the skill of painting, your skill as a painter will truly astonish everyone. An example of this is Rembrandt. Rembrandt's skill was not something that originated from this study, the working of his heart and mind. Something else was added to it. The working of God's grace, like what you have received in the latihan, is always characterized by the fact that it cannot be imitated. It is impossible for someone to imitate Rembrandt and paint like him. It is something special. The only thing people can do is point to him and say, "That is a man who has really received a special skill, or grace, in painting." But you can't do anything more than that. You can just say, "There he is. He has received it." But there is no way of saying, "This is how you do it. This is the secret."
Another example of that was Raden Saleh in Indonesia who was also a great painter. His paintings astonished people. His ability to see the way a person moved, the way a person looked to right or left, the way he walked: all that was accurately reflected in his paintings, but people couldn't understand how it was done. Yet he was not someone who studied very long or who went to some famous art school. Not at all. It was a special gift. This is also like the fruit of the latihan kejiwaan.
Brothers and sisters, yet another example is Charlie Chaplin. Again, everybody wants to watch Charlie Chaplin even though his performances were given in the era of silent movies. You can't even hear him, and yet the moment he starts moving, he is funny. Again that is something that you cannot imitate. It is a gift. Such is supposed to be the result of the latihan kejiwaan.
Brothers and sisters, that is why Bapak is a little bit disappointed because he waits for you to receive this kind of thing. But so far it is not so many people, not so many Subud members yet who show an evidence of this.
If you want more evidence, another example, it is something that is reflected in Bapak's own life, in Bapak's own development. When Bapak was very young it was prophesied or said by older people close to Bapak who has the skill of divining a person's nature, that Bapak would one day be a great man. Bapak's grandmother, who heard this prophecy or this perception, was very surprised because, for her, to become a great man in those days in Java meant that he would one day become bupati or a regional administrator or something.
Bapak's early development didn't at all reflect such a perception. For example, Bapak wasn't able to have a good education. In Semarang at that time there was only one good school and many, many people wanted to enter it so it was extremely difficult to get in. So Bapak didn't even experience what we call today a lower high school. Bapak never got that far. So one would say that Bapak's chances of becoming a great man were very limited.
But this is the whole point. That is not God's way. God made his own decision. God had his own plan for Bapak. Bapak was actually able to learn and study, not through going to high school and university, but through a great desire to learn. Bapak had an extraordinary desire to learn and to study. So he studied by himself and learned as he went along. Thereby, through his own efforts he came to be in what was known in those days as the "middle class". He was able to earn a good living, he was able to get a job in the government and so on. But once again, this was not the final result that God intended for Bapak. Again, everything that happened was beyond Bapak's own plan or intention.
So, brothers and sisters, it did occur to Bapak at that point, when he was earning money and had a job, "How come somebody once said that I would be a great man and I have ended up like this? What is going to happen next?"
What happened next, of course, was a whole series of events which you already know, and which had the following conclusion: One day a man called Husein Rofe came to Jogjakarta, where Bapak was living, and started asking around, looking for a person who could help him find the truth in the religion of Islam. Although he was a Muslim, he was not satisfied with his understanding of the real content of Islam.
It so happened that one of Rofe’s language pupils, whom he talked to about this, took him to Bapak. Bapak opened him and he did the latihan and received just the way all of you have done. Finally, Bapak made him a helper; he went to Hong Kong and stayed there. At the same time Bapak received a letter from somebody named Meredith Start in Cyprus who had read Rofe's articles and wanted to know more about Subud. Because at that time Bapak couldn't leave Indonesia, he sent the correspondence along to Rofe, who went to Cyprus. Meredith Starr and his friends then decided to invite Bapak. However, at the same time a revolution broke out in Cyprus and Rofe had to leave quickly and go to London. Finally, Bapak was invited to come to London.
Bapak came to London and, as Bapak told you the other day, there was a Gurdjieff seminar going on and one of the people whom he opened, John Bennett, was one of the leaders of the Gurdjieff movement. John Bennett was very perspicacious regarding spiritual realities and soon decided that this Subud, this latihan that he had received, was the content of what Gurdjieff had taught. This is what they had been looking for, the content of what they had received from Gurdjieff. So instantly all the Gurdjieff disciples in London wanted to be opened, and as Bapak told you, they had come from all over the world. So very quickly, Subud spread all over the world.
That whole chain of events, none of which were planned or thought out by Bapak, were spontaneous, in line with the nature of God's grace.
Brothers and sisters, of course the people who received the latihan at that time were Europeans, and Europeans generally look with their minds for the reasons for whatever they see or experience. But the nature of Subud is such that you cannot. You cannot analyze Subud with the mind. You cannot analyze what you receive with the mind. This Bapak compares with the experience of the prophets. They receive a grace or a revelation that is not of their own choosing and not of their own devising. The only attitude one can have and the only way one can assist this receiving is through an attitude of total surrender, of patience and acceptance.
In that situation it is only God who can correct mistakes. Each of the prophets went through a spiritual operation in which that which was unclean or wrong within them was removed and replaced with that which was clean and right. That is certainly a process which each of you will one day experience, not necessarily to the same extent or to the degree of the prophets, but within the limits of your own nature and your own possibilities.
What is special about the latihan kejiwaan is that it doesn't interfere with the use of our heart and mind. It is independent of the use of our heart and mind, so it is possible for us to receive it while we continue to work in this world in the normal way. The two do not interfere with each other. In fact, it is required that we continue to live as ordinary human beings.
It is clear that the difference between the two is that the one is dependent on our physical nature, on the heart and mind and on the four forces that Bapak talked about. The other is the realm of the jiwa. The first one is something that is bounded by death; it is limited to this world, while the jiwa is something that experiences a - change: it experiences the change-over from this life to the next. If you consider the meaning of death, you can compare it with our state in our sleep. Supposing a person has a very, very valuable diamond, which is so valuable that he doesn't want to lose it, so he sleeps with it. He takes it to bed with him and puts it under his pillow or holds it in his hand. Once he is asleep, it is possible for someone to take it away from him and he will not know. So, no matter how attached he was to that diamond when he was awake, the moment he is asleep, the attachment becomes zero.
More than that, a husband and wife who are just married, a bride and groom, normally have the practice of sleeping together. But the moment that they are asleep, their great love for each other has totally vanished. So if suddenly people come along and take the bride away, the groom will be completely oblivious. He won't even be aware of it. This gives you a taste of what is the relationship of the jiwa to the nafsu.
When we face death, the nafsu or the body, is already sick and because of that sickness, it can no longer remember anything. Little by little as you face death, everything that belongs to the heart and mind and the nafsu disappears. What remains at that moment is the jiwa. What does depend on your health or your sickness or your state of mind, is the jiwa. It is the jiwa which does not die but simply experiences a transition at that moment.
The question is now whether the jiwa will remember what you experienced in this life or not. This depends on whether your being or your nature is already complete or not. If your nature is complete in this life, you can take with you, through the transition of death, the consciousness of what you experienced here. That is the significance of what goes on in the latihan kejiwaan. That is the significance of this dividing line between, "I walk because I want to walk," and, "I walk because I am made to walk." That difference, which you are trained to perceive in the latihan, is the transferring of the experience of this life to the consciousness of the jiwa. So to the extent to which you are able to experience this life, in the manner of, "I am being made to walk; I am being made to think; I am being made to understand," m that consciousness will not be destroyed by death. It is not bounded by death because it belongs to the jiwa. It is not the property of the nafsu.
Brothers and sisters, our life in this world, our body or framework for our life in this world, is based on the material. The bit of us that is not the jiwa is actually built of the material. This is very clear: our houses, our tools, our equipment are material. Our clothes are material and finally our bodies are material. The proof of that is that when you die you end up with a skeleton and that skeleton is just a piece of matter just like everything else. What people who are interested in the kejiwaan are working towards is to be able to transfer their life to their jiwa after they die so that their jiwa will go on living. They are aware that what is needed is that their jiwa should be a human jiwa so that their jiwa will go to the human world and not to live as a skeleton. Most of us are aware of the fact that it is true that there are such things as spooks, ghosts ( meaning people who are alive, but alive as "skeletons" ).
This is the big question. How can you live after you have died, as a human jiwa in a world that is above the four levels ( meaning in the realm of the rohani, rahmani, rabani, as far as you are able to get ), and not in the world below that line, where you live as a ghost? People in the olden days who followed the kejiwaan were aware that their aim was to end up as a human jiwa, so they preferred to neglect or put aside intercourse with the material because that intercourse with the material was irrelevant to their aim of eternal life in the human world.
Brothers and sisters, when Bapak introduced the idea of enterprises in Subud, you have to understand that the purpose of these enterprises is the worldly side: to fulfil our needs in this world. It has nothing to do with our life in the next.
It was prophesied that Bapak would be a great man. The path that that prophecy took, or the process through which Bapak had to go to fulfill it, resulted in what we have now: all of you and all of the people throughout the world who have received the latihan kejiwaan. If you look at this result, it is something totally new. It is nothing that has every happened before because there has never before been anything like this Subud brotherhood in the history of the world.
Bapak has been telling you his own story or his own experience. In fact, Bapak was able to know and understand this process before it happened. For example, right at the beginning, before Bapak received this he was already given to know that his wife would not be able to follow him. And indeed it was true. Bapak's first wife died when Bapak was 36. Bapak married when he was 26 and his wife died when he was 36. The reason she died was because she couldn't follow. She couldn't accept what Bapak had received. It was not possible for her to accept the duty that Bapak had been given. What she wanted was that Bapak should go back and get a job again and become an ordinary person. Bapak explained to her that Bapak could not longer work in the way that ordinary people work; that he had been given a job to do which had to do with carrying out God's instructions; to pass on what Bapak had received; to travel around the world and to become a channel for God's grace to mankind. But she was not able to accept or follow that.
Brothers and sisters, this is Bapak's story but each of you will have your own story. Each of you will be able, providing that you are really diligent and faithful in following what you receive in the latihan kejiwaan, each of you will develop your own story, whatever it is, in line with your own capacity and ability. At the very least, you will experience what is called "life after death." At the very least the life of the jiwa that comes after you die will be a reality for you.
There are many experiences of this reality of the next world; many, many experiences. Bapak has many letters that he has received during the years from Subud members relating to life after death. Bapak doesn't know what happened to the letters. Usually when he wants to look for them, nobody remembers where they have been fried. Bapak knows that they are filed by the Secretariat and Bapak assumes that they know how they are filling them because these letters are actually very important.
For example, Bapak still remembers long, long ago, after Ibu died, receiving a letter from America from a group of ladies who did latihan together. This experience was not the experience of one of them - but a number of ladies doing latihan shared the same experience. In their latihan they saw the ceiling of the hall open and a golden chariot or carriage descend from above. Now Bapak doesn't know if it was real gold or not, but it looked like gold. When the carriage came down from the sky and landed in the latihan hall, there descended from it, first of all, a very handsome and impressive man with a moustache and a beard, followed by Ibu. Ibu was able to talk with the ladies present and converse with them. "I have been sent to visit you by Bapak who asked me to come and remind you to be faithful in your latihan." The lady who was writing the letter was able to ask, "Ibu, who is the man with you?" Ibu answered, "That is the archangel Gabriel, and he has been ordered by Bapak to accompany me." Then Ibu said, "That is all. I don't have a lot of time to spend with you because this place where you are is too hot for me now. I can't stay here too long. But the main thing is that you are really faithful to the latihan and never abandon it." Then she got back into her carriage and went away again.
Bapak knows that among you there are many who have had experiences one time or another which reflect a similar kind of reality, a similar kind of experience connected with a life that is beyond this life, a life after death. But most of you are shy or embarrassed to talk about it because these experiences cannot be verified by anyone else, They are only real for the person who experiences them. That of course is the nature of Subud.
The nature of Subud is analogous to something you dream. Supposing you say to someone in the morning, "Last night I had a dream. I was eaten by a tiger." Then the person says to you, "Why did you let that happen? Why didn't you run away? Why were you willing to be eaten by the tiger?" What can you answer? It is a dream; it happened to you. You didn't have any choice. That's what you experienced. The latihan is like that. You cannot prove it to anybody. You cannot go up to anybody and say, "Look, it is like this and like that and here is the proof." The only proof there is comes if that person is also opened and does the latihan and then he will have his own proof which will be different from your proof.
Brothers and sisters, this is the end of the Zone One Congress and once again Bapak gives thanks to Almighty God that it has been able to be completed well with a good result and Bapak thanks all of you for your efforts and for coming and for doing the work. Finally Bapak also thanks all of you for being willing to spend the time to come and listen to Bapak's talk which tonight was rather long. Bapak is aware that you are rather sleepy, but maybe it doesn't matter because, after all, it is the fasting month, and if you struggle with your sleepiness one evening, it is all to the good.