Coombe Springs, England - June 14, 1957
Code Number : 57 CSP 1
Nowadays human beings are truly oppressed by the conditions of rapid progress that are taking place, and are unwilling, or find it hard to resist all the pressures that are continuously acting upon them. For human beings nowadays are no longer like those in earlier times who only experienced quietness and tranquility; today human beings are confronted by conditions that are full of things that can harm and diminish their human status.
This is perhaps why it is God's will that we should be able to practice our worship without neglecting or putting aside or withdrawing from the state of the world we face at this time. It is clear that, whatever it was that you received in your training latihan, you remained fully conscious. The purpose or significance of this is that God indeed intends human beings to worship Him without withdrawing from or putting aside their normal needs in this world. So, in order to worship God you do not need to isolate yourself, avoid society or your worldly needs. You should be able to worship God while living a normal life, enjoying the companionship of your wife, children and friends.
Indeed, this state or experience you have received is unexpected and also beyond the realm of the human intellect. It is also beyond human expectation that a teaching or practice or training that leads to the worship of God looks so simple and can be practiced while living the complete life of a normal human being. That is why there are very many people who consider - and say - that what we obtain in the training latihan cannot be true because we only practice it for such a very short time. In general, as Bapak himself found out, many of those who practice what Bapak called the worship of God or apply themselves to mystical ways, spend considerable amounts of time at it.
Coombe Springs, England - December 14, 1957
Code Number : 57 CSP 14
Anything at all that human beings have made can automatically, as a result of human forgetfulness, as a result of human weakness, become an object of veneration, can become the ruler of the inner feeling. This is why it's clear that material objects - though they don't move, though they don't breathe as animals do, as human beings do - are nevertheless encompassed by a life force that can attract the attention of human beings, making them, whether they want to or not, give thought to the possible utility of various kinds of objects.
So, my children, if you wish to know and to be really conscious of what the material force is like, it's first necessary to immobilize the mind, to do away with it, or to return to your state of tranquility before your minds began to develop.
Above the animal force or spirit is the human force and spirit which is called jasmaniah. And this is obtained in the union between a man and his wife. This union is necessary to human beings, because it's the way that enables them to understand how the human spirit and force within each of them is connected to the other's. Because the way to strengthen the relationship between the two is by the union of one person with another. Of course it's not done by people eating each other. Instead it's done by means of sexual union. This can be encountered, can be known, by human beings if in the sexual congress of the man and his wife it is possible to reach deep within or, in other words, to reach the state of immobilizing and doing away with personal quietness. If Bapak speaks of immobilizing quietness - in spite of the fact that quietness is the one and only weapon mankind has for being able to be conscious whether 'I'm alive' or 'I'm dead' -it's because human beings will be able to receive gifts from God only after everything inside the human self has been completely forgotten, completely emptied out.
So it's we human beings who are eaten, or encompassed, by the force that is higher than ours, the rohani force. Therefore, if this person we've been discussing rises to the next level and, having had a change of form, becomes a perfect human being, that person will have become something that cannot be described in terms of shape and kind.
And above this level there's nothing more that can be said about what efforts, and things like that, have to be made to reach this, and it isn't necessary for Bapak to explain these spirits, because, as Bapak was just saying, he can't describe them. The reason is that there are no forms that match the content of the spirits above the rohani spirit. This is because for the roh rohani to be known or reached by a person, it's necessary to leave behind all personal tranquility - meaning that there is no more consciousness. This 'loss of consciousness' doesn't mean that the peace of the soul no longer has any meaning; it's rather that there's a greater tranquility, a greater consciousness, than the consciousness of mankind. In other words, if you finally reach this place, my children, later, when the consciousness stops working, everything you think about, everything you feel and everything you desire will stop working too, while every picture you made in your mind will have vanished completely. But something else will rise up in their place: a great tranquility, a tranquillity from the rohani level, and no longer from the jasmani, or ordinary human, level.
Coombe Springs, England - March 9, 1958
Code Number : 58 CSP 2
As you go on in the training ( latihan ) you sometimes receive unintentionally and unexpectedly; without your wanting to do the training, it arises by itself, in a state where you are conscious, but not expecting anything. This is a sign that God always looks after man, God always guides man, even when he does not want it.
That is how realities are received in the spiritual life, or in man's worship of God. God gives to man when he is in a state of consciousness and when he is not. God can give to man whether he is awake or asleep. God can give to man with this ( body ) and God can give to him without this ( body ). So we humans will be able to have an awareness, even in the night time when we are in a state of forgetting and powerlessness.
Someone who has died, or who is about to die, is not able to think or remember, and is unable to feel. All his powers as a human being are exhausted. If we are already able to receive a content, an awareness that can penetrate us within the shock, then we will have no anxiety whatever. God is All-powerful and is able to make human beings aware, even when they are in a state of complete oblivion. But if, when we are near to death, we still want to understand and try to boost our thinking, things have already begun to fade, and we don't remember any more. Your child comes and says, 'Father, do you know who I am?' but you don't know him. So it is already useless. What we need is to have awareness when we arrive at the moment when we have no power any more. And that is something only God is able to teach. So do not try to learn it. Just surrender to God and work for your life as human beings, in the ordinary way. There is nothing wrong with making a living. Earn a lot of money, if you can. But do not forget to surrender to God, and to worship God.
New York, NY U.S.A. - May 3, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 1
Why is it then that so many people, even though they have surrendered themselves, even though they have believed in God as sincerely as it's possible to believe, still .have not found a way to contact the life within them? It's because it was not yet God's will, the time had not yet come. But now the time has come. What you have received, brothers and sisters, and what Bapak has received, has been willed by God. It has now become God's will that, with this latihan, you should all be able to find your right way of life - that is, a structure of life that God has created within the breast of all human beings.
For God didn't create this human race just like that, with no structure within their inner self. It is there. And, provided human beings can become conscious of its existence and can find it, they will come to know the most correct path for them in life. So ultimately there will be no such thing in this world as a useless person.
You will also become conscious of the use and purpose of human beings and of their true nature, and why people marry and have children. Children are willed by God so that people may become aware of how, repeatedly, human beings bring other humans into their being. You will all understand better and be aware that having children is a reminder from God of how it is for your own being, from before you were brought into being on this earth through to when you finally die and then live again. Not like people in general, who don't yet know and haven't yet received guidance from God, with the result that their marrying and getting a child from their union is simply motivated by the desires and the heart. So it is like when you buy a table: you know how to buy it but you don't know where it came from or how it was made.
New York, NY U.S.A. - May 6, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 2
Such forces and such vibrations - the satanic ones - are not received by a person as a result of their being conscious, in a state of consciousness; in a clean state. On the contrary they induce a feeling of powerlessness and loss of consciousness. In Dutch this is called in trance, meaning a state similar to that or a person having an epileptic fit. And it does not give rise to a cool or cold feeling but to one that is hot or warm. That is how the movements or vibrations that originate from the lower forces operate. They are felt in the human body as something similar to when you feel very angry or fly into a rage - then too everything is trembling, everything is moving. That's how it is.
It is true that your state, when you do the latihan in the way you have received it, appears very similar to other practices or ways of receiving. Indeed it is hard to appreciate the real difference if you have not yet received a lot in your latihan. Such practices are common; for example, in the Islamic world people tap on a tambourine ( Bapak raps on tile table ), or a drum. ( Laughter ) Or they play a flute. ( Laughter ) The participants are told to listen. But after a while it's as if they fall asleep. Once they're asleep they start to move - yes, just the way you move.
So they experience those vibrations, and those forces enter into them while they are unconscious, and they remember nothing. They are completely overwhelmed by the lower forces, which influence them when they are in that state. It may look like what all of you have been practicing and receiving - in other words, it may look like Subud - but in reality it's radically different. Because when you receive movements in Subud - both those of you who have just started and those who can already receive a lot - you are always present, complete, whole and conscious. This is because at that moment you are being influenced, not by lower forces -subhuman forces - but by life forces that are higher than human beings, so you are able to understand with your own understanding. Whereas, under the influence of lower forces - material, vegetable and animal - human beings understand on a level lower than their own understanding. In other words, they gain understanding in oblivion, in unconsciousness.
These two kinds of understanding have different names in Islam. The first is called iman ( faith ), and the other is called ingat ( remembrance ). Iman means consciousness in the human understanding, but ingat is human understanding alone. For this reason, it's said that human beings can have true faith in God only if God brings their faith to life, whereas human beings can remember God - whether they do it seriously or not, whether their remembering reaches Him or not - using no more than the belief and understanding of their hearts and brains, or thinking minds. This is why it happens that although many people believe in God, are conscientious about worshipping God in accordance with the advice they've been given and follow the teachings of their religions, many among them have also not yet received the true contact that originates from a Spirit that is higher than human.
New York, NY U.S.A. - June 10, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 8
About the soul: Bapak will also explain about that. The soul is the life that is the content of this visible form. ( All ) visible forms created by God - and that includes human beings - are enveloped and occupied by life forces that have been arranged by God's will: starting from the material life force, all the way up to the rabbani life force - the All High.
Bapak will illustrate this - but don't take it literally. It's like people in a country. In a country, there are levels or classes of people, from the lowest - that is to say, people with a low position like servants, peddlers, water sellers, and so on - going up all the way to the ministers, the prime minister, and the king. In such a kingdom, people who are not conscious of their life will reach a level no higher than that of a clerk. However, if a person makes intelligent and serious efforts to improve their life, that person may one day reach a high level in the country and become, say, a minister.
It is also like that in the spiritual life; there are levels or grades. Someone who cannot achieve the grades required for happiness in life has no choice but to sit in a low class, the material class, for example; whereas someone who can reach a high level will receive a high grade. This is why, in the stories of the prophets, there is a difference in level between the prophets and those who are not prophets.
The difference is that in the world, or in a country, people work with their brains, hearts and desires. In the spiritual life, however, it is the opposite: people have to be cleansed of their desires, hearts and minds.
Los Angeles, CA U.S.A. - July 15, 1959
Code Number : 59 LAX 1
So all of you - not that you must, but this is the way it's supposed to happen - will pass through three phases. First is the phase of breaking down worldly influences until the world of babyhood is reached. Then a second phase is begun, the preparatory phase, which means that once one has reached the level of babyhood a connection is made with the soul. The third is the phase of knowledge, understanding and awareness of your life, which comes as a result of having made contact with God.
It is clear that the theories already present in the thinking, already present in the heart and ill the feelings, cannot possibly be brought into play; for to return to the state just described requires neither theories nor the intellectual knowledge that has developed in this world. Instead, what is needed is for the mind to be made clean, so that once again you can receive the pure, immaculate feeling you had in early childhood when you were still without sin.
Certainly our brains, hearts and feelings are things we need to employ, things we need to bring to life, because these three are the tools we need to use in our lives; they enable us to take care of all our needs in this world. But they are not to be used for becoming conscious of the soul, for becoming conscious of the life after death or the life before life - for indeed these are different spheres. So, it's not that we have to separate ourselves from them, but rather we have to be aware that in our lives there is a difference between the work of a human being using a brain, heart and feelings, and the working of God on our soul, free from the heart, the brain and the feelings.
Los Angeles, CA U.S.A. - July 18, 1959
Code Number : 59 LAX 3
Of course you would all like to be sure that your feelings, your understanding and your awareness remain conscious as you face death. That is in fact the will of God: that human beings should not be blind, or in darkness as they face death, and as they pass through death. For this reason it's necessary that before human beings die, their entire inner feeling should be restored to life, as it was before they were influenced by this world. And this pure inner feeling, which has been brought back to life, will be able to carry everything that is within them - their understanding, their awareness, their feeling - and take it to the perfect human world. Bapak would describe that world as more glorious, more excellent and greater than the world they were living in - the world where you are living now.
Olso, Norway - August 7, 1959
Code Number : 59 OSL 3
In order to be able to feel how this mighty power is working within our being, it is advisable that we should not think about anything, but we must remain conscious; we must not allow ourselves to fall into unawareness, but remain aware, and we must make no use of the thinking mind or the emotions.
In this way you can constantly feel and be aware how the transmutation of your soul, from a lower to a higher level, is taking place within you. And in the end you will become able to distinguish the various states of feeling and consciousness according to whether they happen to be under the influence and domination of material, vegetable, or animal forces; you will be able to observe them when they are under the influence of ordinary human forces, and you will notice when your feelings and consciousness will have come under the influence of forces higher than human ones, so that you will no longer be used by the lower forces, but that you will use them.
You are of course not aware that when you have a problem which you yourself cannot understand, clarify, and solve yourself, and you ask Bapak about it, you sometimes ask him from, our thinking mind. Since for you it has become a habit to think about everything, it makes no difference to you, but to Bapak, who receives it, it feels like small pebbles thrown at his head before the question is uttered. So when asking questions you are actually throwing small stones at him beforehand, but although Bapak feels this he does not hold it against you for he is well aware that you do it unconsciously and are not yet aware of it.
But although it is like that - and Bapak does not dislike or fear it - it does not really matter, because Bapak is able to take it without any harm to his own condition, meaning that it does not cause him any suffering. But this circumstance tells him immediately that the question comes ninety percent or more from the thinking mind and not yet from the truly purified inner consciousness.
This was meant as an example, so as to show that eventually you will have experiences similar to this of Bapak's.
London, England - August 11, 1959
Code Number : 59 LON 1
It was made easier for Muhammad to worship God, because the union of Muhammad and his wife became in truth an act of worship towards God; the union of man and woman was ordained by God to be a true act of worship. This is shown in the marriage ceremony performed in the mosque according to the religion of Islam, in which the man and the woman, in order to proclaim and confirm that they will become truly husband and wife, must recite the declaration of faith: 'There is no other god but God and Muhammad is His messenger.' By this act the couple acknowledge that they owe their existence to God, and that they are God's witnesses. This is how it was put into practice; and many among his followers, as well as many other human beings, made the union of husband and wife pure and an act of worship. So they were able to worship God in truth.
But, Bapak says it again, human beings remain human beings. In spite of so wonderful and blissful an act of worship, they once again forgot that in their enjoyment and pleasure they would always remain subject to the influence and pressure of the environment of this world, and to the infiltration of the low forces, whose natural tendency is to prevent human beings from attaining their pure aims. So, for most people, the union of man and woman became once again only a gratification of their passions rather than an act of worship. Though in reality, the true nature of the act of union is that of recapitulation, so that through it human beings should be able to be aware of and know their own condition, both before and after they entered into existence.
You too must be aware in this way, otherwise you are like a road along which a car has passed, but you have no idea where it came from or where it went. That is really disappointing and truly saddens Almighty God. Why is it that human beings aren't able to grasp this? So, ladies and gentlemen, you do not know where your child came from or what will happen to it, even though it passed through your being. So where did it come from and where will it go? But when you do become conscious of this, it will mean that you are also conscious of how was I before I existed?' and 'how will I be when later I depart?'
Munich, Germany - December 13, 1959
Code Number : 59 MUC 2
It sometimes happens that some of you – not all of you, but some – scratch with your feet [in the latihan] or bark, ‘aung-aung-aung’ or go, ‘meow-meow’. Then it becomes clear: ‘Oh, there is a cat in me.’ Or sometimes, ‘auk-auk-auk’: ‘Oh, this is like a little dog.’ Sometimes it is like that. You will verify all this; truly, you will experience such things.
Of course, you would prefer to receive something like this: ‘Oh, this is a king from so-and-so.’ Naturally, what you would like is that your soul is a manifestation of a human king, not a king of the jungle – you would like a human king. But do not wish for such things, because you cannot be sure [what you will get].
You will experience all this; you will witness God’s grace and how each one of you is improved. It is indeed God’s will that human beings should be able to witness the working of God. This is important, so that they can have proof of and bear witness to God’s greatness, and know the difference between God and their own self as a human being. And the improvement of your being that is brought about by God’s power is not limited only to this. God knows everything; and if it is given to you by God, you will be guided to the realm or existence that is beyond our environment, so that you can become conscious of the feeling of life beyond this world.
Vienna, Austria - December 18, 1959
Code Number : 59 VIE 3
Perhaps you wonder why it should be necessary to worship God with this kind of movements, why it is possible to worship God in a quiet, easy way, sitting down, without shouting or moving about, just as other people worship God. But truly, and Bapak wants you to know this, the movements which you have received and performed do not simply go on like that. These movements serve to free the inner self of its defects, of the dirt which has been brought in through the desires, thoughts, and emotions.
Clearly then, these movements are caused by the process of purification of the inner self from dirt, and the inner self as well as the outer body will thus resume their original condition. And the longer you exercise, the more will this action deepen and broaden, until you will become able to receive in your understanding and finally even in your consciousness.
Adelaide, Australia - March 5, 1963
Code Number : 63 ADL 2
To be able to receive in your whole being; meaning, not only in your seeing but also in your feeling, your hearing, your smelling and in your understanding about the atmosphere of life and death, God guides you in your inner feeling. As the power of God guides your inner feeling, first it will of course clean out all the obstructions that are in the way. So do not be in a hurry, wanting to know and to understand, because you do not yet know where that wish comes from. God knows your state better. Therefore you need simply to surrender to the greatness of God, because God is All-knowing and Most Wise; then God’s guidance and education, which are at work in your inner feeling, can proceed slowly but in an orderly way, and you can receive consciously. It is also essential for you to have a feeling of patience, entrusting yourselves to God and letting go of everything, and also really to have faith in the greatness of God the All-knowing. God is truly the only one who can repair whatever is wrong and put right what is not right.
Christchurch, New Zealand - March 23, 1963
Code Number : 63 CHC 2
If what happens in the latihan is considered from an ordinary, outer point of view, it does indeed seem to resemble exercises that many people practise in Indonesia and in the rest of Asia. All of these are set in motion by the power of the heart and mind. Truly, the power of the heart and the thinking mind can move someone’s body if that person is weak; and an expert in these things can really see what it is he puts into the person’s body. Bapak will just say that it is like a beam of light, and if it enters the body of someone who is not strong that person begins to move. But the movements that are caused by spiritists are stiff and coarse, and the person who moves is not conscious of them and does not feel them.
Brothers and sisters, the latihan is not like the practices called spiritism, magnetism or hypnotism, but is truly a process of purification, through which all the dirt and faults that are in your inner feeling are cleaned because it is the guidance of God. And once you are cleaned, you will discover things that you need for your life both in this world and after death. As Bapak described just now when he spoke about having a child and the unity of husband and wife, the couple will be able to know and feel together about their everyday life and fate.
You will feel that the power of God is truly close to you, and this will make your heart and thinking peaceful and conscious. For whenever you are in trouble or have some difficulty, that is when advice and guidance will come that is truly right for you to follow: the guidance and advice which come from God’s power, which can only come from your own self and not through the intermediation of anyone else.
This shows that Subud is not a kind of esoteric knowledge, nor a teaching, nor a religion, but is a reality that exists in every human being and that has existed since humanity was created on this earth.
New York, NY USA - July 4, 1963
Code Number : 63 NYC 5
Because the latihan exists through the guidance and education from God’s power, it follows that its aim and foundation are the will of God and that it will lead towards God’s greatness. Therefore you do not need to hesitate or feel worried that you will be led in some other direction. You will be directed towards the greatness of God, because from beginning to end you are always guided and protected by God.
Bapak can tell you that this is true because it can be verified that the latihan we receive is beyond our thinking and our heart. You yourselves have experienced that, whenever you receive the latihan, your heart is like a spectator; meaning that it is able to see and experience what you receive but has no power to change it. So in doing the latihan you are not oblivious or unaware of what you are receiving; you are truly conscious and aware of what is around you and also of what you are receiving. However, you are unable to understand the meaning of your latihan, because your purification has not yet reached the required level.
New York, NY USA - July 8, 1963
Code Number : 63 BCL 1
This is how it is. So, when we have experienced the latihan we know, we understand, we are conscious that through our surrender we will feel the vibration of life within us. Clearly, human beings can receive guidance and direction from God, and can know and understand the working of God’s power, but only when God wills it and when it is given by God. And we have received this gift because God wills it. Perhaps it is time for humanity to be given this, so that they do not go on too long living in dreams and in constant inner suffering.
Indeed, brothers and sisters, patience, acceptance and a willingness to let go are absolute conditions for you. Because you may believe in God or not; you may insult and disparage God, or not. If you think badly of God, you are free to do so; God will not retaliate. No. God will not retaliate and slander you. If you have no faith in God, God will not be angry with you. In short, whether you have faith in God or not, insult God or not, exalt God or not, is up to human beings. God wishes nothing from human beings; in fact, God gives to them.
But the feeling you have when you insult God, the feeling you have when you do not believe in God’s existence, sullies your self and darkens your inner feeling. So the fact is that whether you are good or not, wonderful or not, perfect or not, all depends on you yourself. That is why it is essential for all of you to have a feeling of patience, acceptance and willingness to let go, which means submitting all things only to God, because a human being is no more than an instrument.
When you have reached this state, your soul will receive the ability to grow and your inner feeling to progress and develop. Then you will spontaneously be conscious of and know the love of God towards human beings. This is because, truly, God’s love for human beings has already been created as part of their nature – meaning, their nature as a living being. You will know how it is when God is in your understanding; you will know how God’s power is within your seeing. In this way your whole nature will be like an instrument, permeated with nothing but the will and the power of God.
It is very necessary that you should possess patience, which Bapak has called the absolute condition and fertilizer for your inner feeling. For if you have patience you will not easily be influenced by your desires, which are used as tools by the low forces and which have their home in your hearts and minds. This is especially so for all of you who are here as delegates to this congress and who will be deliberating tomorrow and on the following days. For if your desires no longer manifest within you and no longer influence you, you will be able to discuss your business effortlessly and easily. As a result, this congress, which has been planned to last eight days, could well be concluded in five. There will be little fuss and bother, for the source of such disturbances are the heart and mind. The more you use your thinking and your heart – which never want to give way, which always feel that you are superior, that you are right, that you are more capable than others – the more difficult it will be for you to reach decisions about the things that you need to discuss.
Malang, Indonesia - May 22, 1964
Code Number : 64 MLG 1
The content of the draft preamble that Bapak will give you is in line with the realm of the soul, as well as with the working of the organisation, whereas in the existing preamble it appears as if the organisation is independent, like a body that has its own authority.
How did that come about? Bapak left the writing of the existing preamble, which is the product of the First National Congress in Yogyakarta, to the members in Yogyakarta at that time. Indeed he was intentionally testing them, because they had the feeling they could do it by themselves.
Our worship in Subud is because of God. It is not because of our own will but because we have been given God’s grace. What does that mean? Does it mean that human beings make no effort whatsoever in worshipping God? That is in fact very much in line with what exists in the various religions. For example, in Islam they say, ‘Bismi’llahi ’r-Ra.hmani ’r-Ra.him’, which means that everything is from God: it is thanks to God that I can speak, that I am alive, and so on. It is also in line with another saying in Islam, ‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji‘un’, which means, ‘coming from God and returning to God again’; in other words, in whatever we do, we are in no way separated from God, we are not far from God.
With the preamble that Bapak is about to give you, besides you yourselves being able to become aware of the real nature of our Subud spiritual association, you can also use it as a guide in answering questions that may be put to you by people outside our own group; for instance, by the government, or others.
The draft preamble is as follows:We acknowledge that the latihan, the spiritual training that we receive and practise, in reality comes only because we surrender and submit to the greatness of Almighty God.
To make it clearer, once we have inwardly surrendered with full submission to the greatness of Almighty God, our heart and mind, which are usually imagining and thinking about all sorts of things, are suddenly and spontaneously stilled; at the same time a vibration arises throughout our feeling. This vibration of the feeling will then manifest as movements, which we call the latihan.
When we are in this state, even though we experience a suspension of our imagination and our thinking, our feeling remains calm and conscious, so that we can always follow the movements, which guide and lead us towards the worship of the greatness of Almighty God.
As a result of these experiences in the latihan we are convinced that we are worshipping only the One Almighty God; that it is only God who can lead, guide and turn us towards God; and that only God can repair and ennoble our feeling and our soul, in accordance with His will.
This is the nature of the latihan, which we have received and practise. Therefore the principle of the latihan, or the reality of our receiving of the latihan, is that it is our worship of the One Almighty God, and that through God’s guidance we are led towards an improved character and a noble soul, according to God’s will.
There was a bishop who asked Bapak the following question: ‘Bapak says that he receives the Subud latihan whenever he surrenders. I too always surrender to God when I am worshipping God in the church. Why am I not able to receive in the way Bapak receives?’
Brothers and sisters, compared to the people who regularly go to the mosque or to church it may be that, because of the many needs of his household he has to think about, Bapak surrenders much less than they do. But what do they get out of it? Well, only what they do: they just say their prayers, and that is all. Whereas with us, when we surrender ourselves fully to the greatness and majesty of God, our feeling immediately vibrates, and this vibration eventually manifests in various kinds of movement that we call the latihan.
Can this latihan be experienced by people in general [who have not been opened]? The fact is that it cannot. And the reason why we are able to receive it is that [through being opened] we have been blessed by God and have received God’s revelation. Once God has blessed a person with such a gift, they will be able to continue to experience the awakening of their feeling – the latihan just described – even when, for instance, they are watching some form of entertainment or performance. It is very important to possess this, so that later, in facing the moment of our death, we will be inspired and accompanied by the power of God, and the journey that follows will no longer be difficult for us.
We receive this experience not through the will of any human being but because it is God’s will. Even though the movements we receive do not arise from our own will, our feeling is calm and conscious, and we are able to follow the power that is moving us, which is in fact a guidance that will take us towards God.
Based on such experiences we become confident that it is only God we need to worship and that only God can guide us. It is only God who can raise us up in accordance with His will. So we have been made to vibrate and made to move by God from the first moment we surrendered to Him. So if someone asks about the aim of Subud, the answer must be that it leads us towards the One who moves us; that is, towards God.
Such is the latihan, which we receive and practise. Therefore, the foundation of receiving the latihan is that we are worshipping God, so that we are led and guided thereby towards nobility of character. That is why we are confident that the latihan we receive is from God, and that the Subud association is an association of humanity as a whole.
Here is the continuation of the draft preamble:
Since the latihan we have received is from, or because of, the grace of the One Almighty God who is worshipped by all His creatures, we will leave to God’s will its spread throughout the world to people of various nations and religions.
However, since we are human beings living in this world, who need food and clothing and who need to look after ourselves so that we are at peace and secure in society, as well as worshipping God we need to create an organisation, so that we can organise ourselves in the way people normally do in this world.
Of course the way we organise ourselves needs to be adjusted to the conditions of our local society, and also to the laws and regulations of the country we are in. Therefore we need to formulate statutes that do not go against the laws and regulations of our country, nor the principles and aims of Subud.
We are very fortunate that something so excellent was received – perhaps by God’s will – by Bapak, one of your own kind.
Cilandak, Indonesia - May 1, 1965
Code Number : 65 TJK 4
As you know, the name Subud is an abbreviation of the words Susila Budhi Dharma, which means that it stands as a symbol of your nature, as a condition of life which, having been blessed by Almighty God, is able to receive a contact with His power, so that thereafter you obtain consciousness and peace in your inner feeling and possess an inner nature in accordance with the qualities of Susila.
Cilandak, Indonesia - October 23, 1966
Talk At the End of Ramadan
Code Number : 66 TJK 4
We accustom ourselves to this restraint for twenty days. After we have restrained ourselves for twenty days – if we have done it properly – we come to the twenty-first night; in Javanese it is called malem selikuran. What is the twenty-first night? It is the night in which we can receive the Lailatu ’l-Qadr [Arab.: night of revelation]. Lailatu ’l-Qadr is the grace of God that is given to human beings after they have fasted for twenty days. In fact, it can also be given on the twenty-third, twenty-fifth – it seems they are all odd numbers – twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth nights. Do not sleep on these nights; if you can, stay awake to receive the Lailatu ’l-Qadr. Why stay awake? In order that what you receive once you have connected the inner and the outer should not be wasted. You need to be truly conscious, calm and quiet. That is personified by one who does not sleep – for a person who is asleep is not conscious. Do not receive the Lailatu ’l-Qadr in your sleep: you need to be awake.
Colombo, Sri Lanka - February 23, 1967
Code Number : 67 CMB 1
Now, as Bapak explained earlier, God is All-loving and All-merciful towards humankind; God is All-wise and All-giving to humankind. Why is God said to be like that? It is because God created all the levels, from the first to the seventh, and everything in them. And, in addition to all that, in the being of every human, in the being of every creature, God placed God’s will. If a human being can truly quieten their emotions, truly be conscious of what they feel, and let go and have a feeling of acceptance towards God, they will sense within them this life from God that is like a light. This light is the path – the path from God to humankind and from humankind to God.
London, England - March 31, 1967
Code Number : 67 LON 5
It was said by people who received God’s grace in the past that human beings who have been blessed by God and brought close to God are those who have been brought back to life from a state of death. This means that they were no longer able to think about or pay attention to anything, as happens when a person is facing death. It was at this point that God’s will manifested within them and, from a state of unconsciousness – meaning that they were no longer using their heart and thinking mind – they became conscious and aware and they understood.
That is the meaning of ‘faith’, or of a person who has received faith from God. Faith does not mean being conscious; faith actually means being made conscious in a state of unconsciousness. So it is being unconscious but conscious. It is not the consciousness of the heart and mind, but consciousness that comes from the will of God.
London, England - April 6, 1967
Code Number : 67 LON 9
Testing : The human beings who lived two hundred thousand years ago, were they able to finish ten plates of potatoes?
It would not be enough.
That was just a taste of how one tests. But I hope that you will not be in a hurry to test like this, because you need to realise that this time Bapak is here. You are not yet familiar with the field of testing in the realm of the soul. If you do it incorrectly you might become submerged in the ocean of the soul and become unbalanced. That is why you should test only things that are really necessary. Do not test whether to go to the cinema, whether to go to the market, whether to buy a t-shirt or a dress. Don’t do that. Testing that you could call ‘spot on’ will be received only by people whose latihan is peaceful, who are conscious and can distinguish and separate the influences that come from their heart and thinking from those that do not. You may test, and Bapak will not stop you, but only about things that are necessary. Do not test what is unnecessary and play around with testing while you neglect your latihan. What is really important is the latihan; testing is for when there is something very important that you need to know.
If you test a lot – and about things that do not require testing – you might also get into the habit of testing about other people, which can become a hobby. It is all right if what you receive is good, but if not it will offend the person you are testing about. Therefore you should not make testing into something you do frivolously; do it when it is important and very necessary. So Bapak advises you not to make it into a habit, but to use it for things that are important to you, besides doing your latihan diligently and acting towards each other in harmony, with mutual attention and empathy, so that the Subud Association in Britain will do well and become an example to others.
Manchester, England - April 10, 1967
Code Number : 67 MAN 3
Now Bapak will tell you, as perhaps you need to know how it came about, how the Subud latihan began. It was 1932, nearly 1933, and Bapak was also thirty-two, when he received the latihan totally spontaneously. In fact Bapak was working; the only thing on his mind was his work, and on top of that he was studying for his job. Because it happened in that fashion it was probably God’s will that Bapak had to receive what he calls the latihan. That is why Bapak received it completely unexpectedly.
. . . Then Bapak got up, or rather was made to get up, and walked. He went to another room, which was uncluttered, where there was not much furniture. There Bapak took a prayer mat; he took it spontaneously. When Bapak took the mat and laid it out, and when he prayed, his movements were controlled by God. After Bapak finished praying, without any intention on his part he was made to return to his room. However, he was completely conscious and remembered everything that had happened to him. Then he was made to rest – to get back into bed and sleep.
Read the complete talk
Manchester, England - April 13, 1967
Code Number : 67 MAN 4
Of course you know how to walk: you use your legs. However, before [doing latihan] you were not aware, you were not yet able to feel the presence of God’s will in your legs. God’s will manifests in your legs via the inner feeling of your legs, but under normal circumstances that inner feeling is controlled by low forces, by your desires, by the wants of your heart and mind. As such you are motivated to walk because you want something; you are not conscious of who makes you walk, who makes you go where they want you to go. The same applies to the other parts of your body.
New York, NY U.S.A. - May 13, 1967
Code Number : 67 NYC 1
It is evident, brothers and sisters, that the latihan brings every part of you to life. It brings every part of you to life so that every part of you can work and know what to do and become conscious. Bapak will test with you about this later on, so that you are able to understand and witness for yourself that every organ is equipped with its function and use in life. When you understand that, you will realise that God wants human beings to work. Even God works. If God were to stop working, neither you nor this world would exist. Therefore, because God works, God’s creatures, God’s creations, have to work too. Everything works.
Singapore - August 3, 1967
Code Number : 67 SIN 1
Those of you who are Muslims probably know what is meant in the Yasin verses [of the Quran]: that when you die and get to the hereafter your heart will be locked, your mind will be locked, and in God’s presence you will be asked, ‘Human being, what did you do when you were in the world?’ Because your heart and mind are locked, all the different parts of your body answer God in turn. Because the part of you that acts as your defence lawyer is not there, whatever you did in the world will be stated clearly.
First to be asked: ‘Eyes, what were you used for in the world?’
‘Watching movies, God; watching games of dominoes, watching gambling, watching people fight.’
‘Ears, what were you used for in the world?’
‘Listening to television, listening to the radio.’
‘Did you ever listen to good advice about the right way for you to worship God?’
‘No.’
It is like that because your defence lawyer has been locked up. Your heart and mind, which defend you in the world, are locked up. That’s it. Why do you not understand? You are going to experience that later.
This is why the Subud latihan brings every part of you to life. Your heart is locked: when you do latihan your heart cannot do anything; you just follow whatever parts of you move. Why do they move? Well, at this point it is not clear, at this point you do not understand the meaning of your movements. But as time goes by, as you become cleaner and cleaner and cleaner, your latihan will reach the place where it is needed in order that not only will you understand but you will experience it and be conscious of it.
Cilandak, Indonesia - August 22, 1967
Code Number : 67 TJK 7
There are some brothers who, jokingly, say how good and excellent it would be if the delegates from the various countries who meet in the United Nations to discuss the problems of their various countries were filled with a spirit of mutual understanding, and were aware and conscious of a harmonious way of living one with another, according to the Will of Almighty God that has been implanted within man's self.
Yes, indeed, it would be good if it were possible, for usually people only think of their own interests and the interests of their own group and their own nation. This is the reason why Bapak says: "If it were possible", for guidance and advice has already been given to man by the Messengers of Almighty God, in order that he may have such an inner self; and it was indeed the Will of God to send Prophets and Messengers to give advice to mankind, so that man's life in society would become harmonious and justly ordered. But what has been experienced and what has been done by men from ancient times until the present is just the contrary: they each go on pursuing their own interests and victory for their own groups. Therefore, with the birth of this latihan kedjiwaan of Subud it is hoped that men will remember again all the excellent advice given by the Messengers of Almighty God, so that justice can prevail in man's life in society.
Cilandak, Indonesia - May 11, 1969
Code Number : 69 TJK 1
Bapak will now continue the story of what he received when, without his own intention, he was exercised in various forms of energy and movement as he has said.
During the time that Bapak was receiving and following this spontaneous latihan, his heart and mind, as well as his imagination and thinking, were quiet, but at the same time he always had a feeling of awareness and the repetition of "Allah, Allah, Allah". Bapak then realized that the presence of this latihan obliterated the influence of the nafsu, heart and mind, that fills the imagination and thoughts. Because of this, as long as Bapak was receiving and following the latihan, he was conscious and aware that his heart and mind were like spectators at a play, which one can watch and feel, but has no power to control or change. This you have now experienced for yourselves in doing the latihan: your heart and mind can do nothing whatever except look on. If you force yourself to think, then at that very moment your latihan comes to a stop. It is thus clear and certain that the understanding of the heart and mind cannot possibly grasp what happens in the latihan. Because of this, the latihan is difficult for the heart and mind to comprehend, except for someone who has already received and experienced its process in himself.
. . . If we call it the latihan kejiwaan, and if only God can train the jiwa, then obviously this latihan comes from God. This is why you suddenly feel that the influence of the nafsu, which has had complete control throughout your whole being, is brought to a standstill, and your heart and mind, imagination and thoughts, feel quiet, as if you were dead, yet you remain conscious.
Jakarta, Indonesia - August 16, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 13
So please be really faithful in doing the latihan kejiwaan, and also begin to do what men customarily do in the world - work. But don't forget that you have to heed the inner in anything you do, so that your worldly life will be safeguarded.
Through the will that really comes from the inner, through the Power of God, what you do will certainly not diverge from His Will. In fact, God wills that all of you should be able to ensure happiness and security for yourselves. When it is said that you are able to provide for your own happiness and well being, it also means you have of course to put right what is not in order and has become an obstacle in you. That is to say, you have to become conscious of that obstacle.
To become conscious of it, you simply pray to God and behave properly. By doing what is right and good you will be able to realize what that obstacle in you is, so that you automatically become aware of it.
These are some of the matters in the kejiwaan, brothers and sisters, that you need to be aware of.
Through the latihan kejiwaan you will automatically become conscious of how to be united in feeling with one another. God has ordained this unity by creating woman. The man becomes one with her and she with him.
So if a man indeed seeks such wisdom, he can already find it in his feelings at home with his wife, and she with her husband, by being aware of the whole self, feeling and observing one's own actions and behavior.
Supposing, for example, there has been discord between a man and his wife throughout their married life, and then the man or wife wishes for a change of marriage partner in order to achieve unity: if there has been no unity with the first partner, there will be none with another.
It is a man's duty to understand his wife's feelings so that he can reach a higher state. When he is able to feel how she feels, then he can certainly be aware of and feel other people's feelings.
This is like a stepping stone. But you are still incapable of being in unison with your own wives and sharing their feelings as also are wives with their husbands, and still less with other people.
Here is proof for you, because, from the aspect of the kejiwaan, you are certainly guided and led in such situations, so that you can remain married until the end.
Jakarta, Indonesia - August 23, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 15
So when Bapak receives many letters asking advice on whether a man should divorce his wife, or a wife her husband, they are very much out of place. For God's Will is not that a marriage relationship should end in divorce. No, it ends only on death, which is a different matter. You have to be mindful of that from first to last, from beginning to end, and never reach the point of disharmony.
For example, before marrying B, you say, 'Oh, darling, I am yours until death, my heart's in yours'. And if asked to take an oath whether the marriage is for ever or for only a few days, you swear 'Oh, for ever, until death'. 'Really?' 'Yes, truly', and you sign your name. Afterwards, five or ten years later, the heart says 'Oh, it's best to divorce'. Why? 'Ever since I married my wife there's always been a turmoil.' The wife says 'All the time I've had a husband my life has been nothing but trouble'.
People of the Islamic faith therefore speak the words of the shahadat when they marry - Ash-hadu an ldildha ilalloh, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar Rasalulloh ( There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger ). For when man is conscious of God he will know everything, he will understand the mysteries of life.
This is the point, brothers and sisters. Before marriage you are ready and willing, your whole self is centered in your wife's heart; and the same is true of your wife, her whole being enters her husband's heart. So both have to answer for whatever occurs later on. If trouble befalls them, it is the fault of both, and both are responsible. It cannot be otherwise. So they themselves must seek the truth. Clearly not just one is wrong. No, both are at fault and both are accountable.
Cilandak, Indonesia - November 9, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 20
The human beings are the highest creations of Almighty God. Beyond this world there is another Kingdom of God. Many planets He has created as a whole. With inhabitants. Not human beings but beings. You should not ask if they are higher. You should only feel and check what your duty is this world, your attitude and behavior. Because we will never know how big God’s creations actually are. His Power is all around you. If you feel His closeness, you will also feel what’s the meaning of life. Life here and beyond this world. If God wills this, it is possible for you. With your physical instruments you only have a limited power, and their understanding will not go beyond this world.
You shou1d feel to which extend the Power of Almighty God works within you. God might give you this understanding. God’s Power is unlimited. God might guide you to an understanding beyond this world. Check what are the results of you latihan. About the changes within you, check in your daily life, how far you are guided.
Puasa not only for the sake of the Puasa ( Prihatin ). It is a way to get certain results. You should benefit from it, as it is with the results of the latihan. Be conscious of the Power of Almighty God and the closeness of His Power.
Our actions will show the results of the fasting. They are the test of how far we are able to act and behave in accordance with God’s will. It is our actions that will proof that. Bapak has encouraged every member to take part in enterprise. This is then to experience and to put into practice. Certainly, some people will fail. What we do in the outer life is not always successful. Those failures we should regard as a test, as an experience. We find then the truth and know how to be successful in the future We might fall twice. Do not fail then to do something else, start again. Finally we fully succeed. It is certain that we will eventually succeed, because we have learned before. If a person marries somebody and this marriage is unsuccessful, it is not right to divorce. If the first marriage doesn’t work out, the second will not work out either. The failure might be the truth for that person. We should be attentive to what we’ve done wrong and start again.
Melbourne, Australia - April 2, 1972
Code Number : 72 MEB 1
Bapak will tell you something, that, it happens often to Bapak, that Bapak, for a whole night, does not breathe at all, and in spite of that, Bapak is still conscious. And Bapak, maybe, will sit and he will feel, where is my breathing. Bapak’s breathing has completely stopped, but at that time Bapak is not only conscious but he is able to think about things which are completely outside this world. Bapak is able to see and think about things which belong to another world. And, in fact, this is the situation of someone who has received spiritual understanding. The way of spiritual understanding is not something easy, it’s not something pleasant. Maybe if you experienced what Bapak is describing, you would already be in a state and maybe you would call the doctor immediately to see what was wrong with you. Supposing you did not sleep for a whole month, you would already be, or not only for one month but if you don’t sleep for one night you are already very worried. But Bapak actually experienced that for a thousand nights Bapak did not sleep at all, but in spite of that, Bapak was still able to eat and liked to eat and was quite healthy. But maybe if this happened to one of us we would already, even for one month, we would call all the doctors in Melbourne to come and see what was going on.
So, actually, brothers and sisters, the way of spiritual understanding, is something unpleasant, but viewed from the other point of view, for us, if we do not have spiritual understanding, we are like someone who is blind, who is not able to see. So that when we die, after we die, in the next world, we cannot know anything about what happens to us, about that world. What happens to us at the end of our life, we cannot be aware of. In fact, for Bapak, it is like this, that what the life after death, the world of the life after death, Bapak can see it very, very clearly, and actually, if you have spiritual understanding, it is just the opposite from people ordinarily, it is this world which is dark, which is incomprehensible. So therefore, Bapak feels blind in this world, not in the next. Whereas those people without spiritual understanding, they can see in this world but they are blind in the next. So that, for Bapak, actually, in this world, Bapak has no understanding whatsoever but Bapak understands about the next world.
And, this is actually, what was also received by the prophets that they were able to receive the guidance of Almighty God, they were able to receive this spiritual understanding. But it is for this reason that when you do the latihan, we should not try to think about what we receive, we should only just receive it, just feel it, because our mind is still unable to grasp what it is like, what the next world is like. This is something that the mind cannot think about, and, in fact, therefore, that is why Bapak says that when we receive the latihan, we should simply receive it, we should just feel what is happening and not try to think about it. Because, in our case, our latihan is still at the level of the feeling only, that we can feel, but it is not yet the time to understand. So that is why men of old used to give advice to people. It is enough just to act rightly, to have a good behavior and a good character in this world. Don’t think, don’t look for, don’t search for, this way or that way, to Almighty God because this is very dangerous. And, in fact, this is also correct because the way of seeking for spiritual understanding that Bapak has described, is actually a way that is full of danger unless it comes from Almighty God, from the power and the will of Almighty God.
Sydney, Australia - April 4, 1972
Code Number : 72 SYD 1
As Bapak has just said, the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is guidance and direction from the One Almighty God, and it comes after the influence of the nafsu dwelling in the heart and mind have been set aside. Thus it is clear that only the One Almighty God can set these nafsu aside, for your life exists by reason of the nafsu. Without the nafsu you could not live. That is why only God can set aside the nafsu so long as you are still alive, still conscious and still in the form you were given by the One Almighty God.
. . . Thus the level of the human jiwa is four levels above the roh kebendaan. But until now man has been used as a tool by the material forces instead of man using the material forces as tools. It is a fact that people go mad if they lose their material possessions. They die because they lose their material possessions. On the contrary, if you have the jiwa of a perfect human being, this jiwa is able to use the material forces as instruments and not be used by them. Thus even if the whole world was to disappear, you would still be alive and conscious. This is what God wills for human beings. And the holy books often refer to how Christ and Muhammad said that the state of paradise is the most noble and blessed of states, and happier than any happiness in this world.
Washington, DC, U.S.A. - May 5, 1972
Code Number : 72 WAS 1
You are already able to know and understand that death is a certainty, something inevitable. You are all sure to die, sure to leave this world. Thus we have no need to fear the subject of death, to which we are actually drawing closer all through our lives. Your life and your death are thus near neighbors. If you can really be aware of this and accept it, then there is no death. What dies is your nafsu. Your jiwa remains alive; alive for ever. Such is the Will of the One Almighty God.
New York, NY, U.S.A. - May 9, 1972
Code Number : 72 NYC 1
You know, of course, that Christ did not die. Christ lives, as do the other messengers also. They live because the feeling and knowing which are the consciousness of the jiwa, the consciousness of the inner self, were already present in the jiwa. It is because of this that you therefore need the latihan kejiwaan. It trains you so that you too can know with your jiwa, so that you too can be conscious with your jiwa, so that you too remember wife and children with your jiwa. This is what is needed.
Thus later on when you die, then even though you cannot see it because it is buried, the content of your legs, the content of your hands, the content of your inner self, the content of all the various things in your self, remains alive. This is what Bapak always is testing with you; how will it be when you die? Then you may actually sing. This is the grace of God which He has bestowed upon mankind at this time. Obviously people could not do this unless God helped them. It is therefore a spiritual matter and not a matter for human beings. What is spiritual is a matter for God. It is God Who gives to man.
What belongs to us and what we have to deal with are material affairs. That is why it is from the spiritual to the material, from God to man, from God to matter, from God to the world. The world owes its existence to God. Once we have come into the world, once we have come, into existence, we do not forget that we exist because God created us. Let us therefore not waste it; it is God who has created us. We must repay our debt by worshipping Him. Thus God loves us and we must return His love. We must love God. If you love God you must worship God, which means being sincere in all things and surrendering everything with a sincere submission.
Whereas what we need to do in order to fulfill our requirements in life in this world is to exert our hearts and minds. It is because spiritual affairs are in the hands of God. In this world we have two duties. The first is the duty to worship God; God guides us in this and you have only to follow. The second is the duty to provide for our lives in this world and make them prosperous and happy.
Edinburgh, Scotland - May 27, 1972
Code Number : 72 EDI 2
So there are some among you who are already to some extent able to receive. Thus it is clear that the enterprises which Bapak proposes for all the members are very necessary for all of you.
And Bapak hopes that you will carry these out seriously, because by running enterprises you will be able to feel the result of the latihan kejiwaan which you have done, and which you have been doing for quite a long time; for ten years already, for instance, or for eleven years, twelve years, thirteen years.
How much more will this be in the years to come, when you will have had many years experience of the latihan kejiwaan. So it is very important and necessary for you to be able to get some results from the efforts you have made. You must not let the time you have spent in the latihan be spent in vain, brothers and sisters. Thus it is an obligation for us to worship God. God wills that human beings should really be able to calculate, calculate the way to live, calculate and feel the progress of their lives. In this way you are accountable for your lives, you experience your lives, you are really conscious of the environment of your lives, as is the case with God. God created this world; He created the universe with all that it contains, and all this was calculated. If it were not all calculated, of course this world on which we live would have collisions and would run into the other worlds which human beings call Jupiter, Saturn and the rest of them.
Cilandak, Indonesia - November 4, 1972
Code Number : 72 TJK 9
Brothers and sisters, with regard to the enterprises that Bapak suggests you should all undertake, it really is a fact for us Subud members that our condition and our fate in life become good ones, both in this world and in the world to come. So we very much need to carry on enterprises, as well as worshipping God Almighty. Or the other way round: we worship God Almighty, according to His guidance and direction, side by side with carrying on enterprises.
To act in this way, brothers and sisters, is as if to give proof that you are all truly obedient to God's commands, and also that you really do understand what God's commands to you are. For God's commands to you all are not only to enable you to understand and be conscious of your life after death - you also need to understand and be conscious of your life while you are living in this world.
These things have already been made clear in the latihan kejiwaan that we have received, as well as in the fast we have done in the month of Ramadhan. For this reason, brothers and sisters, Bapak suggests that all of you really do this fast in the month of Ramadhan, as well as doing the latihan kejiwaan, in order that you may soon be able to be conscious of your self and of what is the right path for you to follow while living in this world.
This is the way it is, brothers and sisters, so don't leave it too late, and don't feel that you can still wait a bit first, can wait and see. No, do it! For your life requires that you should soon know and be able to provide what you need for living. It is not enough to keep on grumbling. Complaints are useless if you do not do anything, if you are not active.
Cilandak, Indonesia - September 29, 1975
Code Number : 75 CDK 6
It is this fast, brothers and sisters which Bapak described earlier as a training. With this fast, whose nature is the restraint of the pressure of the nafsu, you are able to feel the difference between 'I walk' and 'I am made to walk', 'I eat' and 'I am made to eat', 'I do my prayers, my solat' and 'I am made to do solat', 'I see' and 'I am made to see', until eventually even 'I think' and 'I am made to think'. Later, deeper still, 'I am conscious' and 'I am made conscious', and then deeper yet, 'I forget' and 'I am reminded.' It is this which is called 'iman' or faith.
Cilandak, Indonesia - March 28, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 5
Because God is not of the same kind as the creatures He has made, or God is not of the same kind as mankind. Since God is not of the same kind as mankind, human beings with everything associated with them, all their abilities, all they possess, cannot possibly use them to be able to know what God and His power are like. How much the less can human beings know God when you yourselves do not understand your true identity.
So you will not be able to know, to perceive, what the power of God is like when you are not yet conscious of your own identity. Your own identity, brothers and sisters, covers not only your body but your jiwa. These are accompanied by your mind, your understanding, your imagination. But all these are means to enable you to understand things, and are only adjuncts for taking care of yourselves, for assuring your lives, as long as you live on earth. So they are not for knowing God, where God is and what His power is like.
Melbourne, Australia - April 15, 1976
Code Number : 76 MEB 3
When we receive this latihan, this latihan which comes by the grace of God, in other words, this power which comes within our quietness, within our quietness which we can then feel, then our religion is no longer belief. It is consciousness. Because we are then conscious of a reality. So it is this consciousness which is usually called faith. So what is normally meant by faith, people think faith is a kind of remembering. But in fact faith is consciousness. Faith is consciousness of God's power which exists within us. At this moment Bapak knows that many men are looking for a field of study, and a new field of study or a new scientific discipline, through which men can automatically be brought back to their true humane nature, to their right understanding of human life and, let's say, true humanity. But the more they look, the more they try to study this and that, or to do this and that, the more they look for it, the more they can't find something that will accomplish this.
And yet that field of study already exists; that field of study is the latihan kejiwaan. This latihan kejiwaan which we do is in fact something that exists within us, which comes within us not from our own effort but from God's power. So that when men try to understand what is the latihan kejiwaan, many men try to understand, who have not joined Subud, try to find out what is really the latihan kejiwaan, but they cannot understand. They cannot grasp what it is because they think, is it a religion? No it is not a religion. It is the people who do the latihan who have a religion. What kind of study is it? How do you learn the latihan? But you cannot learn the latihan, because the latihan comes from within, comes from our own quietness, from our consciousness at the moment when we are quiet. So, they cannot understand what this latihan of Subud is.
Tokyo, Japan - April 20, 1976
Code Number : 76 TYO 2
It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan is a training carried out by God at a time when you are not aware or conscious of it, and do not understand. But later on, it will reach to the understanding, for, as Bapak has just said, in your seeing there is something within the seeing, and it is the same with the hearing, until it reaches to what is in the feeling, in the heart, what is in the head, which means in the brain. When what is in the brain is the power of God, you will be able to understand what is the will of God. But you must truly surrender, brothers and sisters, you must really have faith and believe in the power of God, for it is He alone Who can guide the kejiwaan.
Such is the power of God. That is why God has decreed that human life shall be of a dual nature. The one nature must surrender to God; that is how human beings must worship God. The other nature means that human beings must work and stand on their feet to provide for their lives while they are living in this world, making use of the minds and hearts that God has given to them. So it is clear that you should use your hearts and minds for the things that are important and necessary in this world. Do not use them for life in the hereafter.
San Francisco, California - April 24, 1976
Code Number : 76 SFO 2
It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that you are only conscious and aware that it is you who are performing some action, yet at the same time there are many other things which accompany you in what you do. That is why it happens that many people do things which they ought not to do. This is because of the influence of the lower forces which have come to inhabit the self in the course of its life.
Toronto, Canada - May 12, 1976
Code Number : 7 76 YYZ 1
And there are other sorts of experiences too. For example, once Bapak heard of a case somewhere of a member who died, who was very sick with some illness or other and finally died. And he really looked dead to all those around him, to the doctor and the people who were looking after him, and he was taken to the hospital and placed in the morgue. Well through all this time, when he was to all intents and purposes dead, he himself, while he had been taken to the hospital, was aware of being taken to the hospital and placed within this place where they as usual covered him up with a sheet and turned off the light, because that was the normal thing to do. And at the time, because he was conscious of what was going on, he wanted to say to the fellow who was the orderly or whoever it was who was taking him there and laid him out on the slab, "Look, I am still alive". But he couldn't speak, he couldn't make any sound, so he just had to go along with it. So O.K., they left him there, they went away. And then in the darkness he could see a figure coming towards him dressed like a priest but all in white, and this priest addressed him, and when he addressed him, it looked like Jesus Christ, the face of the person who was talking.
And when he addressed him, he said, "Look, you are actually dead, but in fact you are still alive, and I can cure you, I can cure your illness so that you will be healthy again and you can be alive again. So when you come around you can simply tell the doctor that, 'I'm not dead, I'm alive again and please let me out of the hospital'. Understood?"
"Yes." So this figure who looked like Jesus Christ went away and our patient, well whatever he was, our dead man, waited for someone to turn up. So in the morning, of course, the doctor came around and the fellow said to him when he came close, "I'm not dead, I'm alive again and please let me out of the hospital," word perfect of what he had been told to say.
Of course, the doctor ran and he looked for someone else and said, "Come along, there is something peculiar in the morgue." Then they went back together and sure enough the man was alive. So they said, "Are you really alive?"
"Yes, I'm alive."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure."
So then, true enough he was alive, he recovered gradually and they sent him home. This was a Subud member.
Cilandak, Indonesia - July 25, 1976
Code Number: 76 CDK 6
Human beings wouldn't recognize food, nor would they be able to nourish their flesh and blood and the rest of their physical bodies, if they were not assisted by the low forces of vegetation, called roh nabadi. Human beings would have no zest, no courage, no will to make progress, for example, unless they were helped by the animal forces. And people wouldn't realize what it is to be kind, to be honorable, to have a wide ranging mind, unless helped by the ordinary human forces, the jasmaniah forces.
And where do people get these jasmaniah forces whereby they help one another? From marriage. For that reason it's very necessary and important for people to marry. Yes, Bapak isn't hinting at his grand-daughters who also are not yet married, but they are mindful of that. They mustn't feel that the comfortable thing is to stay with their grandfather. That they mustn't do.
Yes, of course, it's hard for a woman who has a husband. That's why every time Bapak gives advice to newly married couples he always says marriage is a difficult test. Marriage is indeed a trial, a test, for human beings, to enable them to begin to be conscious of the life of someone other than themselves. Before they marry, people have only to think of themselves, haven't they? If they feel like going to the cinema, they go there. If they feel like eating sate ( small pieces of meat roasted on skewers ), they eat it. But once they have a wife it's different.
The wife wants to eat lempeng ( a kind of cake ), the husband sate. Now they share, half sate, half lempeng. Then they have a child, so now there are three of them, and their shares have to be still further divided.
Brothers and sisters, you are certainly able to feel this. When you go into a shop where there are a lot of toys, won't you have to buy one of the things hanging there? Oh yes, you'll buy that. Why buy it, what's the reason, what's the need? 'It's for my child.' That's how it is. Well, if you're single it's different: your interest is in women
.Oslo, Norway - July 20, 1977
Code Number : 77 OSL 1
That, brothers and sisters, is why the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud is really something strange. It is strange because it is something that you can only now receive and feel. But, in fact, brothers and sisters, it is not something new. In reality, these movements are movements which are accompanied by the power of God, so that it is able to balance and also to put a brake on you and cause you to be conscious and aware that not all your actions are true. Not all your actions are really true, not all are right. This is in order that these movements within yourselves, outside and beyond your hearts and minds, can constitute and can become guidance and direction which will lead you gradually to be able to know and to feel, and also to know and to control your actions, and to know which are wrong and which are right.
Oslo, Norway - July 24, 1977
Code Number : 77 OSL 4
This is the reason then why Bapak also advises us to do enterprises, so that all our bodily functions - that is, our thinking, our seeing, our hearing, our feeling, our touching, our movements - all gradually become encompassed by our human jiwa, so that eventually it will be like what has been told about Jesus Christ. We are told that when God raised Jesus Christ up to heaven, He was fully conscious. In other words, he took with him his consciousness of his jiwa. Similarly, it is said that when Prophet Muhammad was raised up by God on his Ascension, and was taken by God to the seventh heaven and beyond, Prophet Muhammad was completely conscious and' could remember not only himself, but his children, his family, his nation, where he came from. He was completely aware, fully aware as a human being. But not in his form like this, but in his jiwa, because we know very well that man with this form cannot go through space to a place that is so very, very far beyond this Universe, to the seventh heaven and beyond. We know very well that to leave this earth with this body we need all sorts of equipment which will protect our body from the atmosphere that is outside this world, and retain the atmosphere we need from this world. We know very well that people who go to the moon have to wear a special protective suit because that is not a place for human beings. There is no air in that place that we can breathe or that we can exist in. So it is clear that it is not with this body that we can later leave this world, but with our jiwa.
This is something that Bapak has himself experienced, as Bapak told you a little bit about yesterday. Bapak also knows that when he was there in that place where God had taken him, Bapak was completely aware. Bapak could remember everything of himself and also, when Bapak reached that place where God is, Bapak could see everything in this world. Bapak could see his children and his home, in this world. So Bapak knows very well that God can see everything that is in this world, not with the eyes like we have, but in a different way. God can see everything that we do, and that is why Bapak is very afraid to do something wrong, or to tell something that is not true, because Bapak knows that everything that Bapak does God sees and will call to account. This is why it is necessary for us in the Latihan Kejiwaan to receive according to what we are given. That is why Bapak also encourages us to do enterprises, so that bit by bit there is formed in our jiwa a consciousness - a consciousness that will eventually be able to go with us into the next world. It is this consciousness that will teach us the difference between life and death, between life in this world and life in the next.
Caracas, Venezuela - October 12, 1977
Code Number : 77 CCS 3
To prove to you that the mind of man is limited to the material sphere or the material world, you can consider the experience of man. Man is able to fly to the moon, but in order to survive on the moon and to be able to be conscious and to think on the moon he bas to take the material world with him from this earth. In other words, he has to take with him all the atmosphere that exists in this world so as to be conscious and to continue to think on the moon. Because of his dependence on these material things, if he were to take off his suit he would die immediately, and his consciousness would vanish. This indicates that the mind is limited to this earth and to this world.
Buenos Aires, Argentina - October 20, 1977
Code Number : 77 BUE 1
Bapak often says that you must not think about the latihan kejiwaan, but simply follow it and receive whatever you receive. Even though you do not think about the nature of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, brothers and sisters, yet you have in fact felt it. Its fruits are in the feeling that you have each time you do the latihan kejiwaan; you just feel conscious, quiet and happy.
Just to take an example, there may be something very important that you need, but at the moment when you are receiving the latihan kejiwaan everything is swept clean out of your inner feeling, and your inner feeling is only quiet and happy and surrendered to the One Almighty God. This quietness and awareness of your inner feeling, brothers and sisters, is what in Dutch is called vollo bewustsijn or full consciousness; that is, it is a full consciousness or awareness which human beings are very seldom able to receive. There are people who are expert in matters of health, there are doctors who say that if people could quieten themselves for only one quarter of an hour out of the twenty four hours, that would be a fine thing for them. It would cause them to become healthy in themselves. And it is this quietness and happiness, it is this feeling of surrender to God, which you receive for at least half an hour twice a week.
Bogata, Columbia - November 14, 1977
Code Number : 77 BOG 1
it is necessary for man to receive God's guidance and God's gift of faith in order that man can always remember the power of God. This faith is given to man in the form of a life that is within his life. But man cannot become aware of this, man cannot be conscious of the existence within him of this faith unless he moves - because it is only through movement that man can become aware that within him there is something like a vibration or a movement that is deeper than his life. This is the life or the movement that is given by Almighty God which is called in Islam the hadir ilham, which means the vibration that comes from God Almighty. This is what we experience in the latihan, as Bapak has explained earlier, in all the repetition that we do of all the movements that we have already experienced before. It is this you will experience if you do your latihan diligently and refrain from quarrelling with your brothers and sisters, and can truly follow what exists in the latihan. This is something that exists within you and you can receive it in this way, like in the Latihan Kejiwaan, because this is something that is given to you by the power of God Almighty, in the form of this faith that Bapak has told you about. This is something that you can receive completely differently from when you receive something for the nafsu or the heart and mind, because anything that you want to do for the nafsu or the heart and mind is something that you have to receive and work at through studying, whereas this is something that you can receive from yourself.
Brothers and Sisters, this feeling of happiness, of peace and of consciousness which we experience in the Latihan Kejiwaan is indeed that which all mankind is 'looking for; because indeed this feeling - this feeling of bliss or peace, and of inner consciousness - is the way or the ,bridge through Which man can return to his original world. This is what Bapak described earlier and which Bapak tested with you: for example, in Call, when Bapak tested with you - 'What is the meaning, or what is the feeling, of the word "heaven"?'
At that moment you were as if moved from within - you could just feel that you were completely surrendered to God Almighty. But, Brothers and Sisters, there is, nevertheless, a danger - that once you have experienced this 'feeling of quietness, happiness and consciousness in the latihan, you feel as though that is enough; that you have, as it were, 'had enough, that you have achieved what you wanted, and that's it. Whereas, in fact, this feeling in the latihan is simply an open door through Which you must go. Also, there is a feeling that when you already have this satisfaction, that you do not need to work any more - you feel as though all your needs have been satisfied with this feeling. Actually, that is not so - because that feeling that you receive in the latihan only relates to something in the kejiwaan, it is not the satisfaction of your needs in this world. While we live in this world we also still need to use our nafsu, because the nafsu is the condition, or the requirement, that our heart and mind will work. And the heart and mind have to work in this world in order to find the needs of our life here. For example, if you already have a family, if you have a wife and Children, it is your duty not only to find the needs of your own life in this world, but also for your wife and children. So that for your wife and children you have even to make sure not that they live in great luxury but, at least that for their life in this world, they will be happy and secure.
This is why, Brothers and Sisters, Bapak always advises you that in addition to doing your Latihan Kejiwaan with a feeling of satisfaction, of peace, of consciousness, Chat you must also do enterprises. You mustn’t misunderstand - you mustn’t think that by doing enterprises Bapak is trying to encourage you to become businessmen who only hunger after profit and great wealth and making more and more money. What Bapak means ,by doing enterprises is to get yourself used to working in this world in the way that man normally has to work in this world - but at the same time not forgetting this guidance and closeness ,of the power of God in your everyday life. Although we are using our '.heart and mind and all the lower forces and the nafsu in our work in our everyday life, yet all the time we remember that the power of God is there, following, overshadowing and guiding our life: so that in our everyday life, in our everyday work, it will be like when we are doing the latihan. Besides receiving our latihan, it is necessary for us to arrange our life in this world, to arrange human life in this world. This is in accordance with what is taught in religion - that man ,has in this world to worship God Almighty, but also man must work in order to achieve a society that is just and peaceful. We must work in this world in order always to try to go towards what is right and what will cause society peace and security, and away from things that take us into danger and trouble.
Santa Monica, CA USA - November 29, 1977
Code Number : 77 LAX 3
It is very often said by people who are religious: 'Oh, if you worship God you no longer need money'. But that is just talk. People who say that - it's just an idea. You say: 'O.K., I don't need money, but if I don't have money I can't eat, and if I don't eat I'm going to die'. And they say: 'Oh yes, that's right, death is what is meant by the worship of God. The worship of God means death.' Brothers and Sisters, that's just words. The fact is that if we die through some insufficiency, if we die because of starvation, of not having enough of something, if we die because of illness or because of some shortcoming in our lives, then that death is not a conscious death, it is an unconscious death. And if we die unconsciously, we don't know where we go. We don't know whether we go down or up, whether we go into the material world or whether we become a goat or a rabbit - we don't know, because we are unconscious.
So if in enterprises, we get used to experiencing always the closeness between ourselves and the power of God, we will gradually learn to be conscious - but conscious throughout, conscious of everything around us, so that we will no longer be in the position of people who are inferior to the animals. This instinct, actually, is something that is still possessed by a new-born baby. When a baby is first born he is still aware, he still has this consciousness which we call instinct. For example, if a baby who cannot sense yet - his senses are still completely shut off, he is not yet aware of this world - if he is picked up by a person who has a lot of things on his mind, the baby will start crying. Even more, if he is picked up by someone who feels sad or depressed, the baby will immediately react and start screaming. On the other hand, if the baby is picked up by someone who is happy inside himself, the baby will look happy and will laugh. This is what is meant by the human instinct. But if Bapak can be completely frank about it, this instinct that that baby has is already very much reduced from what it should be. It is only maybe five per cent of what the human instinct ought to be. Why? Because of all the things which have come down from generation to generation to that baby, all these things which have closed off that human instinct more and more.
Honolulu, Hawaii - December 24, 1977
Code Number : 77 HNL 2
Some people ask: 'Is it true that this that we have received in the latihan is really the worship of God Almighty? Is this really the contact with the power of God? Is it really the same as what was received by the messengers of God in the olden days?' Well, this actually is something that Bapak doesn't really need to answer because you should be able to feel it for yourself.
When you were first opened you became aware in the latihan of a life within you; a vibration or a movement of life which you had not been aware of before you were opened. And you became aware that whenever you receive the latihan you receive it with a feeling of peace, a feeling of satisfaction, of happiness, as if all the burdens of your life in this world are lifted off. You suddenly don't remember any more the fact that you are short of money or that you have this or that problem. It is as though you receive completely conscious, peaceful and happy.
Now, even this much is something that people all over the world are looking for. This is the reason why people in the world will try anything in order to get - just to get - this much. Why is it, for example, that the daughter of Onassis, who has inherited the fortune of her father, has said apparently that she never feels at peace, never feels happy or satisfied? Indeed she has :said that she hopes she will soon follow her father and her brother, who have already died. Yet this woman is surrounded right and left, behind and in front of her, by thousands of millions of dollars.
So it is clear, Brothers and Sisters, that if a rich person - if she, this lady - could receive what you have all received in the latihan, this feeling of peace, of happiness, of consciousness, how grateful she would be. And the same goes for all the people in this world who have a lot of money, who have a lot of power and a lot of problems on their mind. This is what rich people are always looking for. That is, the possibility to receive peace of mind. If wealthy persons with a lot of money could receive this peace of mind, how happy and how grateful they would be within their heart that they had been able to receive such a thing.
Christchurch, New Zealand - January 13, 1978
Code Number : 78 CHC 1
Brothers and Sisters, now for your latihan that you have done until now. In fact, you still need to go on. You will need very much to continue and to surrender to God Almighty - a lot - so that you experience your latihan and you truly receive the Latihan Kejiwaan. Why? It's not enough for you in your life just to be able to walk, to wave your arms, to shout and laugh and smile and so on - what you have experienced so far in your latihan. All that is just the very beginning: you are still at the very beginning of the Latihan Kejiwaan.
What else do you need? You need to understand. You need to be conscious. That is what you have to achieve. It's not enough if the latihan is still only walking, or moving around, or making noises and so on. It has to reach to your understanding, to your consciousness, so that you have a true awareness and an understanding of life.
If you ask Bapak: 'Bapak, can I achieve this soon?' then Bapak can only say to you: 'Continue with your latihan.' Why? If you certainly feel you haven't lately committed any mistakes or any errors, then if asked: 'Have you ever committed any sins?' you probably say to yourself - 'No, never. I am a very good man'. For example, you think back: 'Have I ever hit anybody.' And you say: 'No I have never hit anybody. So you say: 'No, I have no sins at all, I have never hit anybody in my life.'
Cilandak, Indonesia - August 24, 1978
Code Number : 78 CDK 15
Brothers and Sisters, the fast is part of the ibadat ( the religious duty ) that the people of Islam have towards the One Almighty God. But in fact, brothers and sisters, it is really very important and necessary for all human beings to do this fast. Why is that? It is because the fast is like a latihan, like a training - it is a spiritual training, a latihan kerohanian. It is a training for those who do the fast, in order for them to make themselves accustomed to being able to feel how the influence of the nafsu affects the inner-feeling. For without the heaviness of the influence of the nafsu upon one's feelings, or upon your feelings, then your inner-feeling will become calm, and you will become conscious of the power of God and you will always be mindful of it.
Cilandak, Indonesia - August 28, 1978
Code Number : 78 CDK 17
At present your latihan is not yet going smoothly, nor has it yet reached the stage of what is called, consciousness, because your hearts are always pushing themselves forward, always as if they still wish to dominate over your selves. This is because your ability to know this and that, through your minds, has already gone too far.
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, when Bapak fasts he feels light. I ask those of you who are nearest; would you say that your fast was light? Is that true, brothers and sisters? Well, is it true or not? Bapak praises God: Alhamdulillah. Of course, the fast feels pleasant, and you do not feel at all disturbed, not like what is shown on television about people quarrelling and making a lot of fuss about nothing during the fast. In that case it would be better not to fast than to fast. If one really fasts properly one is calm and conscious, and one does not feel hungry; no, nor thirsty either. Sometimes when the time comes to break the fast one feels just as usual. There is no hurry about it. Bapak has seen people fasting who are just waiting for the clock to strike six, and when it strikes they fall upon the food; they pounce on it.
Christ said about how beyond this earth there is another, a glorious, world ruled by God. Christ himself said: 'That is why I prefer to become one of God's creatures who exist beyond this earth.' This was also witnessed by the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace. It is said that the prophet Muhammad in his ascension did not really leave this earth with his physical body, but with his jiwa, in full consciousness and awareness. If and when the time comes that the One Almighty God grants you His grace to do so, you will also be able to witness this.
London, England - August 27, 1979
Code Number : 79 LON 2
Thus this is clear, brothers and sisters, and to put it shortly, Bapak says that this is a receiving and a reminder for human beings who have now gone too far astray. Having gone too far astray means that it can now be said that many people have no feeling for others. There are many people without any feelings of brotherhood or any feeling that all mankind is one under the commandments of the One Almighty God. Let alone their relationship with people of other races and other religions, even blood brothers can nowadays find it in their hearts to injure one another for the sake of material things. This is what Bapak calls going too far. This is why the advent of this latihan kejiwaan of Subud is a boundless source of help, and that is why Bapak has come here with a real feeling of love for all of you, although the doctors said that Bapak's physical condition was not yet sound. But Bapak has a heavy responsibility to fulfil. It has been God's will to give Bapak the responsibility during his life in this world to bring explanations and the clarification of human understanding, so that people will remember that this world is a gift from the One Almighty God and that it is given to them in order that they should organize it to the best of their ability and make it into a place for the worship of God. And God expects it of them to live in harmony with one another, and He also expects each race to live in harmony with the others.
Cilandak, Indonesia - June 21, 1980
Code Number : 80 CDK 3
In Islam we do not say that we interpret the Koran but that we 'tajsir' the Holy Scriptures, and the meaning of tafsir is to read what is contained therein in such a way that each time that we read it we wait consciously to understand its contents. If Bapak 'tarsirs' the prayer contained in the Al Fatihah, Bapak says that it means, 'Follow your path in life happily, but if you go wrong, acknowledge your fault.' You have to be capable of feeling all this in order to understand the straight way to go. And then you will be blessed with an honorable and noble nature, and then you must share with other people the blessings of your receiving. But, on the contrary, you always try to avoid acknowledging your faults and try to prove yourself right. But still you will have to die. And now this is your pure worship.
Sri Lanka - March 20, 1981
Code Number : 81 CMB 4
Bapak hopes very much that you will be willing to work hard, that you will not be afraid or hold back from using your faculties to the maximum of your ability and at the same time, receiving the latihan kejiwaan. When you receive something, or when you achieve something, do not be too quickly happy. Do not be too proud or pleased with yourself, because it is this feeling of cockiness, or feeling, 'Now, I've achieved something,' that is what knocks you down. That is what holds you back.
What we have to remember is that next to whatever we receive that is nice or pleasant or good, is hell. After every feeling of heaven, next to it there is hell, so we have to always remain cautious and careful, because everything is accompanied by its opposite.
There is no pleasure without pain. There is no heaven without hell. There is no progress without regression. So no matter how wonderful what we have received is, we have to be aware that its opposite is right there next to it. We have to always remain conscious and attentive to what we have received from Almighty God.
This is the secret of receiving the latihan kejiwaan.
Throughout receiving the latihan, we have to be attentive; we have to be aware that the process of the latihan, and the process of human life, is no different from the process of life of a tree or flower. The vessel looks and is different, but the process is the same. As the tree grows from a little plant and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, it gets ~ore and more dry until it dies. We have to realize that the process is a double process of building up and breaking down. That is the nature of human life.
The important thing for us is to always be attentive and aware of the reality of our life, both outwardly, in our everyday life, and inwardly in the latihan kejiwaan. This is why when you feel yourself to be very clever and very perspicacious, and you think you have found something very high or very fantastic, don't get the feeling that this something God has created is very permanent: because there is nothing permanent except the Power of Almighty God.
If you are able to remember this, then you will be able to achieve a way of life that is willed by Almighty God which is normal, where you are like an ordinary person· You have an ordinary life, but you are conscious of everything that is going on.
London, England - April 10, 1981
Code Number : 81 LON 9
Brothers and sisters, you are aware yourselves from your own experience that whenever we do the latihan, the movements we make in the latihan have the nature that they feel very light. When we do the latihan, it is accompanied generally by a feeling of lightness, a delicious feeling, a feeling of delight or satisfaction. This is completely different from what we feel or what people feel who experience movements arising from the practice of occultism or various kinds of practices which outwardly appear to result in movements similar to the movements observed in Subud.
There are many things like this. Bapak, of course, is particularly aware of the practices which exist on Bali. People there, through meditation and concentration, come to a state in which they experience involuntary movements. If you observe it from the outside you might say, "Oh yes, that is like what is experienced in the latihan of Subud." Bapak knows it isn't only in Bali, but everywhere there are people who practice this sort of thing.
It is also done very often through the use of mantras. Mantras are expressions used to bring on a state of trance. These mantras usually are directed either toward a deity - a dewa or something - or to some person who is considered highly spiritual or something like that. These mantras produce in people a kind of trance. In Bali, these mantras cause people to move in a way that is involuntary; they in fact at that time are in a trance. They are not conscious of themselves in the normal way. They are not aware of what they are doing.
The point Bapak is trying to make is that observed externally, these movements look no different from what people receive in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, but they are in fact totally different to the person who is receiving them. Therefore, it is very important for you to understand that you have to be able to distinguish between different kinds of movements. It is not enough just to go by the appearance of the movements and say, "Oh yes, if it is tike that, it must be the same thing." What you have to be aware of is the content of that movement. In order to be aware of it, you have to first of all be very much aware of what the latihan kejiwaan feels like. That is why, when you do your latihan kejiwaan, Bapak is always emphasizing to you that you have to be attentive to what you are receiving.
It is not enough to move for the sake of moving. It is very essential that you always be attentive to what is moving you and what the movement feels like, so that eventually, little by little, through this experience, you learn to distinguish between the movement which arises in the latihan and the other types of movement which you also experience in your life. This is something that Bapak is going to practice with you tonight. This is so that we don't just talk all the time, because we also must do something practical. It is important for us, especially nowadays, to learn not to trust talk, not to be too quickly taken in by what people say, but to learn to test everything by our own experience.
Wolfsburg, Germany - April 23, 1981
Code Number : 81 WOB 1
Of course you will not forget, brothers and sisters, that in following the latihan kejiwaan of Subud you are being trained in how to walk and in how to move your hands and use your fingers. You do not need to shut your ears in the latihan kejiwaan, but they can go on hearing and listening to the sounds to the right and the left as well as above and below you. Your eyes tool they can also see, and your nose can breathe and smell odors, and also your mouth can utter various words. There are some people who call upon God and some who say nothing, and sometimes people weep and laugh. All that shows, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan is the latihan of life; the life of your inner-feeling and of all your five senses. If one thinks about it, that is far different from the methods of other groups, who need to meditate, to contemplate, to concentrate their thoughts. At first sight these methods do not appear dangerous, but if you go on doing them for a long time, or if the people in these groups go on meditating for a long time, it means that they kill their five senses and their natural energies, so that gradually they become like stone. To be like stone means that these groups kill their inner feelings. That is why in religion people are not allowed to worship stones or trees or wooden objects, brothers and sisters. The reason for that is because the inner-feeling should not be fossilized and become like stone.
To return to what Bapak said just now about the latihan kejiwaan of Subud being a latihan of life, it brings the whole of you to life. Still, why does it recapitulate all these things that you can already do and that you are already used to doing? This is necessary, brothers and sisters, in order that you can feel the difference between "I walk from my will" and "I am made to walk by the power of God." "I touch something because I intend to touch it" is not the same as "I touch something by the will of the One Almighty God." That is something beyond the will, like when you are doing the latihan kejiwaan; “I speak, I shout" - you are already used to shouting and speaking and talking, but you do these things so that you can feel the difference between shouting and being made to shout and between talking and being made to talk.
When this goes deeper and spreads wider, so that it reaches your thinking and your consciousness of life, you are able to think not because you intentionally think about something - that is, not because of your brain and your mind – but because of the power of God. That is what is called iman. Iman means consciousness, awareness; not because you are made aware by your nafsu, not because you are made aware by your heart and mind, but a conscious awareness which is free from the mind and the nafsu, so that it happens to not a few Subud members that when they are about to die and come to the threshold of death at which as a rule not only speech but also memory disappears, they are still saying "Allah, Allah, Allah." Until the last moment they can still speak to those they love; they can still say, "I am dying; you must have faith and truly believe in God and His greatness; you must believe that your life after death will be more conscious, more clear to you. This is what is called heaven." Many people have experienced this.
Thus it is clear that through the existence of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud we, or you, are guided and directed by the power of God in order for you to know the power of God which is present in your inner-selves, and besides that to know your own selves well. This is why Bapak is always urging you to do enterprises as well as the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, in which it is God, not any human being, who guides your spiritual life. The meaning of "enterprise" is a human effort made for the purposes of this world. Thus you work, in an office or on your own, but because the enterprise you are doing is not cutoff from the guidance and direction of God, you will not be closed in all the time by the nafsu. Thus you remain human beings, but you are in fact more conscious, more perfect, more normal than normal people. You are allowed to wear a tie, you are allowed to wear expensive clothes, you are allowed to wear good and expensive shoes, and the women are allowed to wear diamonds of great value, but all that does not hinder your worship of the One Almighty God. At all times you remember God and at all times God is close to you.
Wendhausen, Germany - April 25, 1981
Code Number : 81 WEN 2
Bapak sees that your latihan has made a lot of progress, sisters, and that it really is the latihan kejiwaan of Subud which Bapak calls the latihan of life. And these are not just random movements, but they are the movements of daily life, so that all your actions and all the movements of your bodies, sisters, are the ordinary ones, such as walking, for instance, or running, writing, touching things, moving your hands about, seeing, hearing, smelling, speaking, shouting, laughing and crying. All that is the latihan kejiwaan.
If you are really able to receive the grace of God, sisters, it will reach the point at which the whole of your selves are truly alive. In this way, sisters, your lives in this world are inwardly touched by the power of God which is present both inside and outside the selves of all of you.
This is the reason why Bapak always urges you all to do enterprises. "Enterprise" means work, effort; the way people live, the way you live. Even though you may have a husband, there is nothing wrong with being able to understand and be aware of the uses of your inner-selves. When you make up, do your hair, put on your clothes, if your can receive when you do the latihan you are also guided by the power of God in doing all that. You are guided in doing your hair and making yourselves look beautiful, so that, because you are women, you are also guided in all this by the power of God, so that in all things and at all times you are always close to the power of God.
In this way, sisters, you will never feel confused and worried; you will only be calm and conscious in your inner-selves. You do not need to practice meditation. As a rule, of course, people who worship God feel the need to practice meditation and contemplation, but this is really out of place, as if you thought God was somewhere else, somewhere out there. No, God is everywhere.
Jakarta, Indonesia - December 15, 1982
Code Number : 82 JKT 5
Before you do anything, say 'Bismillah irrohman irrohim ', in other words 'Because of God I do this.., this.., this...' Because of God I can drink, because of God I can speak, because of God I can do this and that. Everything is preceded by God: when you see it is preceded by God for He is in your seeing before you see. When you hear, before you hear God is within you. 'Because I am within you, you can hear'. That's it, brothers and sisters, it all fits, we have already received the reality of this.
As for the fact that it is not yet accepted by those who follow the Islamic religion - that is something Bapak simply surrenders, for, no matter what, Bapak is also a human being. Even though the four previous solutions to the problem have been ignored - will the fifth be ignored too? Whatever God wills.
Nevertheless, do not therefore be apathetic or have an attitude of not caring - let us not be indifferent.
Nor may we look for God, as I explained to that lady. We do not look for Him, because man cannot look for God. If man had the power to find God, this world would become even more ruined. Even without that, man has already damaged the world - how much more so if he had that power. For God can annihilate whatever He pleases, instantly.
Therefore, ceaselessly we must worship and look after our life.
Bapak has read in the magazines, that nowadays the Santris here as well as in Bandung and in other places, have started getting together after their prayers and doing their own sort of latihan by doing zikr - zikr – zike over and over until they become unconscious: but they are still doing the zikr. They consider that that is from God.
God is the One who knows, but in what we have received we do not become unconscious - we become more conscious. So when we want to do latihan and then start like this, we become progressively more and more and more conscious.
So it is clear, brothers and sisters, that spiritual understanding or consciousness of the jiwa that is from God, and not from the nafsu, will cause you to become progressively more intelligent. Truly, I have experienced it. Bapak has never learned about banks, but Bapak knows the origin of banking. Bapak has never studied to be an agricultural engineer or an engineer who builds houses, but Bapak understands about these things. It doesn't mean you can ask Bapak to make bricks or cement, but that relates to the details, to the technique.
Here is a parallel. Today man has begun to be able to calculate so that he can know what will happen before it does, using computers, using powerful and concise mathematical and algebraic techniques. Bapak can do the same thing. Before something happens Bapak already knows: this will happen like this. And it does. Bapak isn't being arrogant, this is something from God. So if someone is, not even close to, but just acquainted with the Power of God, he has no worries. Bapak isn't being presumptuous in saying this, it is simply that before the thing happens God has given Bapak the understanding.
Of course, people are not all the same. At present you can only feel the life in your legs, free from the influence of the nafsu. You have been able to know, to feel, the life of your hands, but with time it will expand and become deeper, to the consciousness of the jiwa, to the understanding. Even the thinking, which was previously guided by a professor - who is a man - will later be guided by the Power of God Himself, so that it can be said that when you plant a tamarind seed you will already know the height of the tree, when you plant an apple seed you will already know the taste of the resulting apples. Such is the Power of God, for God precedes all beginnings.
This is what Bapak described at the beginning as the 'something different' Bapak is going to tell you. Isn't this a bank meeting? Why do I have to go on to these things? Bapak cannot leave them out because everything belongs to God, everything is in front of God. In the end you also will laugh to yourselves:
'Why does man make all his problems for himself?.' Indeed man invents his own problems. But once you can admit that you make your own problems for yourself, then you can also correct them for yourself - why couldn't you?
Now mankind is in turmoil and here is the reason. These days, those who are intelligent are confused by their own intelligence, while those who are rich are perplexed by their own wealth. Truly. Nowadays it is not that those who are strong help those who are weak. No, the strong oppress the weak, while those who are clever today lead others astray. Truly. And yet in religion it is already made clear - that's why we have zakat and fitroh.
Why are there still poor people? Because the rich have become 'dumb' - dumb, meaning they are like stone.
London, England - July 31, 1983
Code Number : 83 LON 1
The knowledge, the understanding, arises spontaneously within your own being, within your own understanding, and you don't know where it has come from. All you are aware of is that you suddenly understand something which you did not understand before. To explain this in terms that you can more or less understand, consider the kind of discoveries mankind has made of late, such as for instance substances which explode. If you look into it you will always find that the discovery came not by conscious effort, but at a moment when that person was surrendering - at a moment when that person was quiet in his feeling and his mind, had given up whatever he was trying to do, whatever he was looking for - then suddenly the understanding came. In other words, it came from beyond his own ability to construe or to think or to cogitate. And such is the nature of God's Gift to man that the understanding that God wants to give to man arises spontaneously within his understanding to the extent that you think to yourself, "Who has given me this understanding?"
This is the miracle, the secret of life, brothers and sisters, whereby man can know things before they happen, things that cannot normally be known by man's mind. And this can be experienced by ourselves in a way that is extraordinarily simple. What Bapak means by extraordinarily simple is that once you have received the latihan kejiwaan you can experience it anywhere and everywhere. Supposing you have just had your meal at home and you sit quietly after your meal, you will feel it. Or maybe you have just gone to the cinema and finished watching a film, and you get home and you go to your room and you sit quietly and you will feel the latihan, and wherever you are and whatever you have been doing or whether you go to the place that has been set by the group to do latihan twice a week, or whether you are home, or wherever you are, all you have to do is to be quiet and you will receive the latihan kejiwaan.
Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo