Sydney, Australia - May 9, 1982
Code Number : 82 SYD 1
It is always said that if you want to meet an angel you have to be an angel. Just like if you want to know a doctor, to know what a doctor is, then you have to first be a doctor yourself. If you want to know what an angel is you have to first be an angel yourself.
- - - read the complete talk - 82 SYD 1

Woodstock, VT USA - September 12, 1977
Code Number : 77 WOS 1
You are, of course, not all that familiar with the story of Muhammad, but Bapak will tell you about the prophet Muhammad. The story of the Miraj ( ascension ) of the prophet Muhammad tells how on one occasion the prophet Muhammad was awakened by someone. He was surprised, and wondered who it was. He asked: 'Who are you who have awakened me?'

'Oh, of course you do not know who I am, or that I am an angel. I am a messenger of the One Almighty God and I have come because it was necessary to find you and purify you.'

'Oh, if that is so, and if you are really an angel sent by God to purify me, please do it. I am ready.'

'Good, are you really sincere in this? Do you really believe in the existence of the One Almighty God and are you not worried in case you should die?'

'Oh no; the matter of life and death is in the hands of God.'

Then the angel told him to lie down and sleep. This angel was called the Angel Gabriel, to give him his English name. Then the angel opened Muhammad's chest, and having done so, he took out everything inside it. It was like having an operation. Thus before anyone had ever had an operation carried out by doctors, the prophet Muhammad has been operated on by the angel. He was opened up and purified. He was purified with the water that is called the air zam-zam, the water of the feelings; that is, the feeling of life. He was purified. After he had been purified, everything was put back again, and his chest was closed. Because this was done by the angel, and because it was the prophet Muhammad to whom he did it, and because it was the will of God, he remained alive even though he was cut open and purified. But the prophet Muhammad himself felt that someone really had opened his chest. Then, when it was all over, the angel said: 'Now you are clean. Your self, your being, is now filled with the kalimat syahadat, the declaration of faith; that is, Idshadu anla ilaha ilallah wa ashadu anna Muhammadar rasulullah ' That is what the story relates.

The Angel Gabriel left him, and later on he came back again. 'Well, prophet Muhammad, I am now sent as a messenger by God, because now that you are clean and pure, I have brought you a steed, a kind of animal called a buraq.'

This buraq was an animal, but because Muhammad was purified he was able to take this animal with him to the world of purity. So the buraq was brought by the angel to Muhammad to be his steed.

'Why am I told to mount this buraq, oh angel?'

'It is so that you can see a long way; so that you can see the whole extent of this world.'

Then Muhammad mounted the buraq. How did the buraq travel? A buraq's nature is like a horse, but a strange horse, with the head of a woman. It wore ear-tings. It was just like a horse, but a horse that could fly. One stride took it as far as one could see. If you looked at something very distant, some distant mountain, for instance, the buraq could cover all the distance you could see in one stride. So obviously the buraq was faster than the Concorde, for instance. After the prophet Muhammad had gone right round the world, he asked questions about everything, for the angel had always been with him. Muhammad rode the buraq and the angel did not ride anything, because - being an angel - he could travel on his own. One cannot compare his body to anyone or anything, but it could travel by itself, and the angel could, not fly, but he could go anywhere he wished in the twinkling of an eye.

Then the prophet Muhammad came back again. Now - after he had made the round journey and knew where all the prophets had lived and also where they had worked and prayed - now the prophet Muhammad was required to worship God. And how did he worship God? Worship meant that now the prophet Muhammad was required to ascend to heaven. But the angel said: 'Wait a minute, there will be an invitation.' As soon as the angel said that, there instantly came down from heaven a shaft of light, coming down from above. But in the story it is called a ladder; a golden ladder. It was a ladder, but it was as if made of light. Then the Angel Gabriel said: 'Now you must climb this ladder, Muhammad.'

'How about you? Can you come with me?'

'No; this is for you. For me it is not like that. I have another route. So you must go right away.'

As soon as he set foot on the ladder, it immediately ascended, all at once; yes, it went up like a lift. It seems that God has made the people of this world follow on afterwards and copy what happened in those days to people who had received wahyu ( revelation ), so that now human beings are inventing these things. But what they do now is of a physical nature; what was done then was half physical and half non-physical.

If one says non-physical, like a dream, it was not like that. It was indeed true, it was indeed real. Bapak has also experienced this. So then Muhammad went up, and when he got there he met the prophets who had already died and left this world. So the prophets who had died were still complete and whole. The first one he met was the prophet Abraham. When the prophet Abraham saw the prophet Muhammad appear before him, he said: 'Eh, if I am not mistaken, you are the prophet Muhammad?'

'Yes, I am.'

'Well, you are indeed truly blessed. I salute your happiness.'

Then the prophet Abraham wept for joy, because he had a successor to whom God had granted grace, so that he could be raised up to the seventh heaven. So the prophet Abraham saluted him. 'Yes, welcome. I pray that God Will receive you into His presence, into His bosom, and that He will command you to bring light to human beings who up to now have been committing sin. Alhamdulillah. Go on, go on, go on.'

No-one at this present time has experienced what was experienced by the prophet Muhammad, or not yet. But nowadays people experience things differently. That is why Bapak thinks and feels that it is as if the people who say they are Islam are not yet like the prophet Muhammad. They say that they are Islam, but they still do the kind of things that are usually done by Buddhists. ( Note: This refers to what happens in Indonesia. )
- - - read the complete talk - 77 WOS 1

Brisbane, Australia - January 24, 1978
Code Number : 78 BNE 3
Bapak has even received a letter once from somewhere that there was a national helper, who was stating and maintaining that national helpers by virtue of their eminence or their spiritual attainment were always accompanied everywhere they went and in everything they did by four angels; and that regional helpers were accompanied by two angels; whereas local helpers didn't have any angels at all. And it wasn't only one person who said this - it was believed apparently by quite a number of people at that time.

Brothers and Sisters, this is something that is very weird and very strange; because the fact is that an angel is not what you think it is. An angel is actually the messenger of God, Who is outside of everything - which doesn't mean outside of yourself, but outside of everything that is outside - and also inside of everything that is inside. It is said that angels have a body composed of light. Now, the only way a man or a human being can know the face or the nature of an angel is if God gives him the grace, as it were. Because you have been chosen by God to be His messenger, or something like that. If someone is chosen to be God's messenger and God gives him His revelation - it is only those people who, by the grace of God, can know what is meant by the nature of an angel. The fact is, if you saw an angel it would not give you courage; on the contrary, you would become very very frightened. It is described in Moslem literature that the angel . . . ( Sharif says an angel with a certain name which he can't pronounce ) was described as having wings that were two kilometers across, or something like that.

This already shows that the person who wrote this description had a very funny idea of what angels are because, probably by association, he thought if angels can fly they must have wings like this - a bird flies with wings - and of course they must be very big. Of course, angels do not move using wings. angels can travel in a twinkling of an eye - that is, they travel with the speed of light. So angels do not have wings. If they had wings two kilometers across, or one-and-a-half kilometers across or something, it would be very awkward. If you came near to an angel you would be terrified if you saw a being like that. To put it in a nutshell, Brothers and Sisters, don't talk about things which are fantastic and which you don't actually understand anything about. It is much better when you talk to say things that are just ordinary, to talk about normal things which you understand, which people ordinarily talk about and ordinarily listen to. Do not say things which are fantastic or strange or anything like that.

This is the nature of man's heart, and this is the nature of man's life in the world normally. It is further illustrated by a story that when a man dies he is cross-questioned by the angels as to what he used to do in this world. And it is told in this case that there was a woman who in her life in the world was a dancer and was very very beautiful. Now you can put two and two together - if a woman is very very beautiful and she is a dancer, she will be approached by many men. So it was in her case. Actually, she was approached by many many men in her life. And when it came to the point when she died and was facing the interrogating angel, she was in a pickle because she thought to herself: 'Well, it's true that during my life I have been approached by many many men - not just two or three or four, but maybe dozens - but if I tell this angel the truth, then I am sure he will hit me, so I had better keep this to myself.' So this woman answered: 'Well, when I was on earth I was a dancer and I was very beautiful.' The angel said: 'If you were a dancer and were very beautiful, did you have a lot of affairs with a lot of men?' The woman replied: 'No'. So the angel said: 'Ah, that's what you think, I can hear you talking to yourself, that you are going to keep something from me. But the fact is that you cannot keep anything from me because . . .'

Then the angel went to the woman and locked her heart and mind, which the angel has authority to do. At that moment the heart and mind were done, they couldn't answer. They couldn't speak any more, they were bereft of speech. And then the angel started cross-questioning each part of the woman's body. He started with the cheeks: 'Cheeks, what were you used for when you were living on the earth?' The cheek answered: 'Well, I was kissed by many many men.' Then the angel said: 'Ah ha, you see.' ( laughter )

And that was only the cheeks. The angel hadn't started asking all the other parts! ( laughter )
- - - read the complete talk - 78 BNE 3

Cilandak, Indonesia - November 24, 1973
Code Number : 73 CDK 15
Then Bapak opened the book. On the first page was a picture, a picture of an Arab, though only half-length, not full-length. Bapak looked at the picture, then saw there was some writing underneath it, Arabic writing. Then Bapak read it. But maybe his angel was impatient because Bapak was rather a long time spelling it out, for then it changed into Roman letters. Bapak could read the Roman script: Nabi Muhammad Rasalullah, the Prophet Muhammad, Messenger of God. Having read Nabi Muhammad Rasalullah, Bapak looked at the picture and, lo and behold, the picture nodded, like that. Well! This was a picture that could nod!

Bapak gets many letters, well, not a great number, but Bapak does get letters saying that Subud members also who have received the Latihan have received mysterious things that could be called very strange. Just the other day, Bapak had a letter from Nak Prio, the Nak Prio who is present here, telling how someone in the general Latihan was immediately startled by the arrival of Ibu in a golden carriage.

Maybe Prio could tell this even more clearly, for it was sent in a letter from Prio. Ibu came down from above in a golden carriage. After it had alighted, the door was opened and a big man came down the step first. This big man with a beard and moustache, a very tall man, led the way. Immediately after him came another man, strong and smart. Then Ibu got out.

As soon as Ibu had got out, the member who saw this asked: 'Ibu, who was that who came out first?' 'That was the angel Gabriel, the angel Gabriel because Bapak deputed him to escort me to meet you all. So do the Latihan in earnest, don't play at it, for this Latihan Kejiwaan is a training from God, coming from God and indeed willed by God, so that mankind shall not endlessly go astray, so that mankind shall find the right path.'

The member heard that, then asked, 'Now who was that just in front of Ibu?' 'That was David, the prophet David.' Then Ibu said, 'Look, I can't talk to you for long. I've given you my message, what I've just told you. That's done. May your Latihan go well.' She went back into the golden carriage, which then flew upwards again. That was an American member of Subud, wasn't it? Well, that was the letter Bapak had from America.

Brothers and sisters, many things show it is true, as Bapak says, that the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud is the technique of the religions.

There was another really astonishing piece of news, about a member who was ill and finally he died, and his death was confirmed by a doctor. The man was indeed genuinely dead. This was in Spain, if Bapak is not mistaken. And after he had been taken to the mortuary he came back to life. As he told the story, he did not know or feel that he had died, he felt alive. Then Christ came to him, then came another, accompanying Christ, an angel perhaps. Then the angel assumed the form of a doctor, an angel doctor. So there was an angel who became a doctor. There are angel doctors. Then this angel cut open the man's chest, perhaps because he had a heart disease. So it may be said that he had had a heart attack from which he eventually died, and was then taken to the mortuary.

His body was about to be washed, but then he was visited by Christ and the angel doctor. After he had been cut open, the contents of his stomach or his chest were taken out and cleaned, with replacements being provided for some of the parts, after which they were put back. The man was then told, 'Don't be afraid and don't worry. You're definitely still alive. God has forgiven you and God is helping you.' That said, Jesus, followed by the angel doctor, then left.

The man did not immediately realize that he had been taken to the mortuary. Then suddenly he got up, saw the attendant, and called to him. On being called by a 'corpse', the attendant, instead of coming, ran away. He ran, well it was night-time!

Just suppose Nak Darto had been the attendant, what then Darto? The attendant took one look and on being called he ran off rather than go near. After the attendant had run off, the man had to ask himself, 'Well I never! He's called and he runs away, why's that?'

The man did not feel he had died. Then he was getting down or going to get down from the slab prepared for the dead, but felt 'How can I get down when I'm naked! People will laugh at me.' That would not do, so he lay down again, but, being naked, he thought 'Oh dear, if I'm like this very long I'll catch cold. It's a very funny thing. I'm already cured of the real disease, then I catch cold!'

But the man who had run away had run to look for a doctor. As soon as he found one, he blurted out to him, 'Sir, there's a dead man who's come back to life again.' 'Oh, nonsense! Look, what's this nonsense about?' 'Well, why call it nonsense, since I've come running here about it!'

Then he went back with the doctor, and on arriving the doctor asked, 'Where is he?' 'Over there.' They went up to him and uncovered him, wow! The doctor also ran off. It was comical.

But in the end he was taken out of the mortuary and was then asked how was he able to come back to life. He told them all about it. 'Very strange.' 'Well, maybe! wasn't dead, doctor?' 'Oh, you were dead, you'd been dead for some hours. How could a doctor not know if someone is dead?' 'Well, why am I still alive?' 'That I don't know.' Then he was told to dress, and was taken back home.

Bapak used to sleep on the floor, without even a mat for the night. Yes, parents were always like that: 'Don't you children get used to comfort, or your lives won't be happy later on when you're grown up. Better not to be like that, better to be as it's common to be.'

On this occasion Bapak was asleep on the floor. Then he felt the touch of somebody's foot. Bapak at once looked up. The one who had touched him was a man, an old man. He wore black and carried a staff. Later on, after Bapak received that book, he asked who it was who had told him things on that earlier occasion. An angel, it was said.
- - - read the complete talk - 73 CDK 15

Johannesburg, South Africa - March 14, 1967
Code Number : 67 JNB 1
There was a story told by someone who received the grace of God, who was blessed by God, that before anything existed – before the world existed, before you existed – there was only the power of God. Then, or so it was told by the person who spoke of this, God willed and created something to test God’s intelligence, glory and power. There came into existence seven spheres – what the Dutch call the heavens – seven of them. God created seven heavens in seven days.

Eventually people would come to understand, and say that the formation of those heavens began on a Saturday. That is why people who lived in Greece in ancient times declared that Saturday was a special day, a day that was holier than the other days.

The story Bapak just told you has a correlation with how the latihan arrived.

After God created the seven heavens … do not misunderstand the term ‘heavens’, they are not planets. No. A heaven is not a planet, a planet is a world like the world we live on. After God had created the seven heavens, God doubted Himself. God needed a witness. For that reason, God created something that could be sent out, something that was called an angel.

God created as many angels as would be needed for everything else that God was going to create. And the angels were made out of light. Light in this sense is not light from a lamp, but light meaning the power or the intelligence, or the ability or the nobility, of Almighty God. So, God made the angels out of light. And when God had created them He said, ‘angels, go and see the heavens that I have made.’ After getting their orders from God, the angels went and visited all the heavens that God had created. And the journey took fifty years [each way]; there and back took one hundred years.

When God heard from the angels that the trip from God to visit all the heavens took fifty years, or one hundred years there and back, God immediately felt – or so the story goes – ‘If that is the case, then none of the things that I am going to create, and that will inhabit each of the heavens, will ever know me; they will never understand me and my power.’

Given that, God created once more: He created God’s will. The will of God, in certain terminology, in Islam, is called the essence of God, or dhat Allah. It was created and sent to everything that God had created and that inhabits the environments in each of those heavens.

Included among God’s creations, which Bapak just said inhabit each of the heavens, is humankind. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we can conclude that the power of Almighty God, God who is All-powerful, is present in all of you. Its purpose is to enable humankind – all of you – to know and understand God and God’s power faster than an angel can.

But why are you unable to do that? The reason is that you give more importance to your own ability, your own intelligence and your own cleverness. Some of you may even think that God can be seen, that God can be heard, that God can be portrayed like other things human beings can see.

That is why it is also said that Almighty God has no form. God has no shape, God is beyond time, God has no colour, God has no nation, God has no race and God speaks no language. However, God can put Himself on a level with anything that God has created; for instance, with matter, plants, animals, human beings and other creatures that cannot be seen.

Naturally, you think that cows, goats and lizards are unaware of God. However, maybe they are aware of God but you do not know it, you cannot understand that yet. How can they know God? Lizards, cows, goats and other animals are no different from you; they were created by Almighty God too.

You yourself will have experienced that if you make something you are certain to have a bond with it in your heart. Suppose you make something that is criticised by other people, you will certainly feel it in your heart. This shows that there is always a connection between the one who makes something and the object that is made. There is also a connection between God and whatever God creates, be it an animal, a plant or an object. Because Almighty God created it, God remains connected to it.

Bapak wants to talk some more about the creation of the angels of light, to help you understand the extent of God’s care and God’s love for everything that God has created – for all of you.

The angels were made from light, and the light that turned into angels is a kind of light that travels a thousand times faster than the sunlight that illuminates the earth. Now, a ray of sunlight – you may be more knowledgeable about this than Bapak – takes just fifteen seconds to reach Earth. That is how fast a ray of sunlight travels to Earth. Fifteen seconds! But the speed of an angel is a thousand times faster than that. Therefore it does not even take one second for an angel to travel here from the sun. And yet it takes an angel fifty years to travel from the first heaven to the seventh heaven – one hundred years, there and back.

That is why God concluded or realised, ‘It is impossible for a human being to do that, so how can I give human beings a way to know that I am their God and to know my power?’ Hence God created God’s will within every creature He created.

In reality, was God’s will really implemented in that way? It is true, brothers and sisters. You will certainly remember – that is, those of you who are religious – how close Christ was to God. Like a son with his father, Christ had only to look up and he could see where God was. And those of you who are Muslims will know that Prophet Muhammad, the messenger of God, was summoned to God’s presence. He set out at 9.30 pm and returned home at 4.30 am. That is the reality. Human beings, even though they were created by God out of ordinary material and matter and are nothing like an angel, in their worship – when they worship God – they are permitted to reach God and God’s power faster than an angel can.

Now, it is also told in this story that one of the angels did not want to obey God’s orders in this regard, because that angel resented human beings – who were made from earth, water, wind, and heat or fire – being allowed to reach God faster than an angel could. Eventually, that angel swore to himself that he would tempt human beings, and any human he succeeded in tempting would not be able to travel to God faster than that angel.

That is the story Bapak wanted to tell you. It is just to help you understand the nature of this latihan that you receive in such a simple way. That is to say, you receive it in your everyday state and you do not have to behave in a certain way or act strangely, you do not have to rid yourself of all your desires, you do not have to do without all pleasures, you do not have to isolate yourself from society, you do not have to leave your family and hide away in a deep forest or by the ocean or in the mountains.

Indeed, brothers and sisters, God does not want it to be difficult for you, for human beings, to find God and God’s power. On the contrary, it is human beings that go wrong because they want to look for God. They look for God using their heart and mind. They look for God by doing this or that, all sorts of things, and probably they do not find God.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 JNB 1

Athens, Greece - January 15, 1960
Code Number : 60 ATH 2
Therefore it is not surprising that when people think about the nature of life after death – the hereafter – or think of heaven, they picture it in terms of what they have seen on earth. For example, they imagine God to be a handsome person, who sits on a fine throne in a spacious house, where everything is beautiful. Also, they imagine heaven to be a place of beautiful vistas. That is the way people think, and how they picture the hereafter, because they are unable to abandon the imprint of all they have experienced in their life on earth.

So, the imagination of the mind and heart cannot be free of what it is accustomed to. For example, it is very likely that a European will picture an angel as a European. An Arab may well picture an angel as an Arab; likewise, an Indonesian might picture an angel as an Indonesian. And an African might picture an angel as an African. That is how people picture something that originates from their thinking mind, their heart and their desires, which always carry the traces of worldly experience.

That is why we do not need to bring our thinking, heart and desires into the latihan. In the latihan, our inner feeling needs to be clean, uncontaminated and uninfluenced by the thinking, heart and desires, and to go back to how it was originally. Our inner feeling needs to be clean so that we can see and hear the spiritual world, free from the influence of traces of what we continually experience in our life on earth.
- - - read the complete talk - 60 ATH 2

Cilandak, Indonesia - May 14, 1977
Code Number : 77 CDK 6
So obviously the Way to God, or to an understanding of God, which until up to now people are seeking, they have been seeking through esoterism; through this or that esoteric teaching and through a variety of practices. There is something to be gained through these, in the sense that they bring results that more or less make happy the people who practice them, but they are not the real thing. It is not possible for human beings to be able to find the real thing. It is not possible. For it is said in the teachings that only an angel can know an angel. Thus the one who can understand an angel is an angel. It is the same if we bring it down to a lower level, and it is only an architect, for instance, who can understand the skill of an architect, It is also like that if it is raised to a higher level; the one who knows God is God. The one who understands God is God. Thus if any human being existed who knew God, it would mean that there were two Gods, or several Gods.

That is why in religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, or in the earlier religions, many people said that there were many gods; the dewas, who were called gods. That was, of course, because the human heart has a habit of setting itself up as the power possessor, the one who understands. Whereas this is not possible. For if God existed in this world, of course this world would not exist, for the world exists within God, within the power of God.
- - - read the complete talk - 77 CDK 6

Wolfsburg, Germany - July 27, 1977
Code Number : 77 WOB 1
But first Bapak wants to tell you the story of the ascension of the prophet Muhammad. Now certainly when experts of the intellect read the story of prophet Muhammad's experience, then certainly they say, 'Well, this is impossible,' because, of course, the thinking can only understand something of this world, whereas prophet Muhammad's experience had its origin in a world that is beyond this world.

One night prophet Muhammad was asleep. He was woken up by the angel Gabriel, and got up immediately, and asked the angel Gabriel, 'What is the purpose of your waking me?' The angel Gabriel said, 'It is because tonight you are called by God Almighty, but first you have to go on a journey, and to visit the mosques which, in the past, were used in their worship by the Messengers of God. And for this you have to ride on this animal that I have brought you.' And he showed Muhammad an animal that he had brought along called the burok. This animal was shaped like a horse, but strangely enough it had a human head, and even more strange, this head was the head of a woman.

When prophet Muhammad tried to mount the burok, the animal tried to run away and also started shaking as though it was very very sick. Prophet Muhammad asked the ArchAngel Gabriel, 'What's wrong with it? Why can't I get on it?' and Angel Gabriel explained to prophet Muhammad that although prophet Muhammad was a prophet, although he was someone loved by God Almighty, still his faith in God was actually not strong enough yet, there was still something wrong within him. So prophet Muhammad said then, 'Please remove from me this what is wrong and throw it as far away from me as you can.' And after Angel Gabriel had done this prophet Muhammad was able to get on the burok.

This animal had the remarkable quality that it was able to travel with the speed of light, for whenever he saw a place where he wanted to go, he was immediately there, at the moment when he saw it. So it was certainly still superior to the Concorde because Concorde has to make a lot of noise first and then begin to move and speed up. But with the burok, the moment it saw where it wanted to go it was already there.

When prophet Muhammad had been to the mosque and had returned again, then the Angel Gabriel said to him, 'Now my duty is done and from now on you must go alone to where God will take you. And actually I am a being who has far greater authority than man; if you saw me in my real nature, I am greater than this world on which you live; so if I came with my own nature I would not be able to come down into this world as I am now. But because God has ordered me to come and get you, so I have been given the form of a man so that I should be able to come face to face with you.' The prophet Muhammad asked, 'But how will I go from here to where God will call me?' And Angel Gabriel answered, 'You only have to say, Allahu akbar' ( God is most great ). At that moment angel Gabriel disappeared.

Prophet Muhammad said 'Allahu akbar', and instantly as shaft of light came from above, from a place that is incredibly far away; it came down right to where the prophet was. This has been called a golden staircase because when its bottom reached the prophet it was able to speak to him, and it said, 'It is through me that you can rise up to where God is.' Prophet Muhammad then got onto this beam of radiance, and was able to travel on it through all the worlds to where God wanted to take him.
- - - read the complete talk - 77 WOB 1

Tokyo, Japan - October 22, 1963
Code Number : 63 TYO 2
It was said by people who lived long ago that the one who knows an angel is an angel, and that the one who knows a prophet or a messenger of God is a prophet or a messenger. In the same way, one who understands a nation is someone of that nation. That is the reason why you need unity: once you have been able to unite everyone within your feeling, making one human soul, you will be able to connect with absolutely anyone. And you will be able to serve absolutely anyone. So you will find an unlimited space for yourself, because no matter where you are, you will meet with people who are closer to you than those of your own blood.

So, in the latihan God truly educates us and truly guides us, level by level. We are educated to be able to unite with everything that is on our way towards God. For instance, we human beings are educated and guided to be able, within our individuality, to unite with supernatural beings, and so become supernatural beings ourselves. And then we are educated and led within our individuality to be able to become one with the messengers and the prophets, so that we truly become messengers and prophets ourselves. And so on, until we become one with God.

But do not be in a hurry to become like a supernatural being. You won’t feel like working, you won’t wear any clothes and you will just sit still. Do not be in a hurry to become an angel either. You are not even able to unite with other human beings; you are still far away from that. You are not yet able to unite with your own family. Furthermore, you are not even able to unite with your own husband or your own wife; yet you are thinking about and hoping to unite with angels, supernatural beings and so on.

Therefore let us now start from the bottom level first, from lower down: how can we receive from God the ability to unite with our husband or wife, our children and our nation? From there we can progress to the whole human race; and eventually we can go on up, to what is wider.

Truly, the latihan is full of secrets of life that you have not yet become aware of or received. That is why you very much need to do the latihan diligently and, besides that, to have a feeling of real patience towards God, a conviction that the power of God can overcome everything and that everything is decided by God. In that way you will no longer be doubtful or hesitant in receiving the latihan.
- - - read the complete talk - 63 TYO 2

London, England - March 29, 1967
Code Number : 67 LON 4
So it is clear, as Bapak said in the first talk he gave you, that God placed God’s will into every creature He created, in order that human beings should be able to know God from close at hand – closer than you can see with your eyes, closer than when you think about something. That is how close God is to human beings, so that by God’s will human beings might know God better than the angels know God.

Brothers and sisters, it is said of those human beings who were given God’s blessing and God’s revelation, that while they were on their journey in this world the angels were still able to accompany them and show them the right way to follow in order to come before Almighty God. But once they came to the limit of the first heaven, what did the angels say? ‘Sir, human being, I cannot go on with you into the presence of God.’

‘Why is that, angel? You are more powerful than me, a human being who is weak, who is affected by illness and death.’

‘True, but in this instance I cannot go with you, because you are faster than me.’

Those were Gabriel’s words to the person; so the human being then stepped alone on the golden staircase God had provided for him to come before God. The angel had to be left behind as he could not follow. By this means the person could go and appear before God – reach God’s throne – in seven hours, whereas it takes angels a hundred years. That was why the angel was not able to accompany him. Such is God’s love for human beings, and the facility God has given them, making it possible for them to come into God’s presence easily and quickly.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 LON 4

New York, U.S.A. - May 13, 1967
Code Number : 67 NYC 1
From Bapak’s experiences since receiving what God has given to him, it is evident that you do not need to have any lessons to do the spiritual training of Susila Budhi Dharma that you receive and practise now; you need only to surrender to Almighty God. It is true; simply by surrendering to Almighty God with an attitude of patience, acceptance and willingness to let go – simply that – each of you will receive everything you need for your life, in keeping with your abilities, your situation and your inherited traits. It is clear that you can obtain the true knowledge of how a human being can return to Almighty God only if you have complete obedience to, complete faith in, and complete surrender to Almighty God.

This is precisely what people living long ago spoke about – those people who brought us the religions that we follow and practise to this day. In the holy books that were written or recited by people in ancient times – by the prophets Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muhammad and others – it is told that before anything existed, when even the time was nameless, there was emptiness; there was nothing, not even light. In short, there was nothing moving, neither fine nor coarse. Islam – the Islamic faith – describes this state as dh at az-zaman. Dhat az-zaman means a time that is void, empty – completely empty. At that time there was only God and God’s power. And God did not occupy a particular place, God encompassed everything. Then God, with God’s power, created angels made of light. God created angels before creating anything else.

After God made the angels – thousands, perhaps millions of them – God then created a heavenly realm, the glory of the universe. God made it with seven levels, seven heavens, in seven days; starting, according to the holy books, on Saturday. That was why Saturday used to be considered a holy day, because it was the beginning of the existence of the earth and the seven heavens – God’s creation that would be occupied by the creatures God wanted to inhabit those realms or heavens.

But before creating humankind and other life forms to inhabit the seven heavens, God wanted to know what the heavens were like and how far away they were, because God wanted to make sure that the human beings God was about to create would be able to return to Him. So God ordered the angels to inspect the seven heavens God had created. The angels set off right away to inspect them; it took them fifty years to travel from the first to the seventh heaven. Thus to go from God to all seven heavens and back to God again took the angels one hundred years.

Now, because angels are made of light, the speed they travel at is a thousand times faster than it takes sunlight to travel to earth. It takes sunlight only seven minutes to reach earth, so you can figure out that if a creature or entity that could travel as fast as sunlight does to earth – in seven minutes – had to travel from the first heaven to the seventh heaven and back again, it would take a hundred thousand years. Therefore it would prove impossible for human beings ever to get back to God and face God and God’s power. So God told the angels, God said … [Bapak stops to complain about the seating arrangements in the room, as he has to keep looking to his left and to the right. Bapak demonstrates, causing the audience to laugh].

God said to the angels, ‘angels, I want to create human beings and other creatures. But it took you a hundred years to inspect the seven heavens and get back here, so it will be impossible for human beings to make the journey as fast as you can. So My wish cannot be realised; they can never meet Me and know My greatness and My power.’ But God still went ahead and made humankind. And that made an angel react: ‘God, how can You have that wish? You want human beings to be able to get back and meet You, to come before God; and yet You made them out of earth, water, air and fire, whereas You made me from light. How can that be?’

Then God said to the angel, ‘I am in charge. You cannot obstruct or overturn My plan. Even though I have made humankind out of earth, water, air and fire, I am going to place My power in each one of them. And with that, any human who believes in Me, who surrenders to Me with patience, acceptance, complete sincerity and honesty, will be able to return to Me, to My throne, to My greatness, faster than you can.’

On hearing God speak those words, the angels were dismayed. The angels were made of light, whereas human beings were made only of earth – earth, water, air and fire. Why should humankind be allowed, why should they get to reach God faster than the angels could? So an angel spoke up, ‘God, where is Your justice in this? You made human beings out of earth, water, air and fire, why will You let them reach God faster than we can?’

Then God replied to the angels, ‘You cannot prevent Me. I will do My Will.’

Then the angel answered back, ‘Well, my Lord. I will obey You. You created me, so I have no choice but to obey. But I beg Almighty God, let me tempt humankind, so that only a few of them ever get to heaven and reach the seventh realm that fast. Let me tempt them by entering their hearts and their minds.’ God consented. After that, the angels were divided. Half of them became angels that guide human beings via the Holy Spirit, while the other half became humankind’s tempters, who rule Hell.

Indeed, what God had told the angels would happen came true. The angels found out it was true – you have read or heard about this – at the time of Christ. After Christ died, it took him three days to travel to God and return to earth. Just three days! When Christ got back he met his disciples and proved to them that he had gone to heaven and come back by showing them the nail wounds in his hands. After Christ, it happened again with Muhammad. God wanted Muhammad to come to see Him. Muhammad set off at half past seven at night and returned at half past four in the morning. He took only nine or ten hours. So it is true, brothers and sisters, human beings can travel faster than the angels. But not just anyone can do that; only someone who has complete trust in the power of God, someone who can receive God’s gift, someone who inwardly and outwardly has complete faith in Almighty God, who has more faith in God than in themselves – someone like Abraham, Moses, Christ or Muhammad.

Bapak told you this story to give you food for thought – a point of view. Why don’t you need lessons to do the latihan? Why don’t you have to look for God? It is because it is impossible to find God. It is impossible to look for God. God is too far away. You can never reach God by applying your mind and worldly abilities. A human being can reach God only if it is God’s will, if that person completely submits to God. So, clearly there are no lessons, there are no rules and there are no prohibitions in the spiritual training of Subud. Even without any of those you can receive the latihan, because it is God’s will.

Brothers and sisters, God knows that human beings have made great progress using their minds and have created things that have come to haunt humankind. People are so anxious they cannot sleep. They are afraid of what they have created – the atom bomb, nuclear weapons. Human beings fear nuclear weapons, but they made those weapons. Why should human beings be terrified of their own creation? Therein lies the problem. But God knows that in humankind’s present state, resulting from their extensive intellectual development, people today find it impossible to believe in anything unless they get proof. However, with the arrival of the latihan, even though the proof is received inwardly or spiritually, it is a real experience. In consequence people will begin to believe that the will of God really does manifest within them.

As the saying goes, ‘God is with me.’

‘Where is God with me? Behind me? On the right? On the left? In front?’

Wrong!

‘Above me?’

Wrong! God is not a plane. God is not an aircraft.

‘Below me?’

Still wrong!

God encompasses you inwardly and outwardly. It is a real experience, which you feel whenever you are about to do latihan and during your latihan. You feel a vibration inside, a movement of life that causes you to move like this or like that [gestures]. In time, as the days turn to months and the months to years, it will get stronger and clearer, and you will receive more and more in your latihan.

In reality, God has made it simple, God has made it easy; God has given you a way that is easy to follow and easy to do. Without enduring hardship, without suffering, without being isolated from society, without giving up all the pleasures people have in life, we – all of you – can receive the contact from the power of God. In fact, it is so easy to do that some of you go to the opera and afterwards you go straight to the latihan hall and do latihan – you can receive it. After a concert you go straight to the latihan hall and do latihan – you can receive it. Some people come to the latihan hall and do the latihan having just had an argument with their wife, or the wife with their husband – they can still receive it. That is how easy and simple it is.

And because God has made it easy for you to receive the contact with God’s power, which guides you in a way you can follow, not only will you make quick progress, but you will progress in the way that God wants you to, in the way that is right for you. So do not waste God’s grace, God’s clemency, God’s blessing that you now receive. Do not think you need only to do the latihan from time to time. Do it regularly, take it seriously. God knows your weaknesses and failings. Even so, if you sincerely follow what God has commanded, you will be able to receive.

If you do not take the latihan seriously, it shows that you are not grateful to Almighty God; and as you might guess, you sin against your own soul. The fact is that you cannot escape death. It would be a different matter if you did not have to die, but death is certain. What you experience in your latihan shows you what it will be like for you and your soul after death. Bapak will test about this with you on another night, so that you are able to witness that what he is telling you is true.

Bapak will give another example to make you feel more confident, to prove to you that the latihan is not new. The Subud latihan is not a new phenomenon, nor, as some claim, is it a new religion. No. Subud has existed since humankind existed. If it were the case that humankind had just been created today, Subud would have just been created too. If humankind had been created one hundred thousand years ago, Subud would have been created one hundred thousand years ago. If there are people, there is the latihan. As for ‘Subud’, we gave it that name: Susila Budhi Dharma.

Bapak will point out something else to you to convince you that Subud is not new. Just after you were born – since the time you were in the womb, through birth, to when you were a baby – just after you were born, one could see from your face that there were times when you suffered, then you were happy, then content; at times you laughed and then you cried. Parents will tell you that is just what babies do. Babies cry, they laugh, they suffer, they are happy; that is all there is to it. However, nothing happens without a cause, nothing happens without a reason. There is a reason. It is clear that babies have a close connection to their souls, but do not have a way to connect to this world yet. However, as the days and weeks and months go by, babies open their eyes and they see the shapes of this world; their hearing, sense of smell and sense of touch start to be distinct. In consequence, a baby moves further and further away from his or her soul.

That process continues when you start to study and you learn to do this and that. You end up paying more attention to the material than to the spiritual. As a result, everything that you experienced as a baby – when you were still in the womb and could clearly feel your soul – gets forgotten; you have no memory of it.

So it is not surprising that people imagine angels to look like people – people of different races. For instance, people like Bapak, Indonesians, imagine that an angel wears a sarong, a head cloth and carries a dagger. Whereas you imagine that an angel wears a tie, a hat, shoes and a suit. Arabs imagine that an angel wears a robe, and so on. People do the same thing when they think about God. If it was like that, there would be a God who wears a hat; a God who wears a head cloth; a God who wears a turban; a God who was bald; and a God who, in line with the current fashion of youth, never cuts His hair.

Why do we do imagine such things? The reason is that in our mind’s eye we cannot picture, our minds cannot grasp, our brains cannot conceive of something, unless we have seen it in this world. We can rediscover [the reality] only by becoming a baby again – which is what happens in the Subud latihan.

That is why in your training, when you do latihan, you act like a baby. You talk nonsense, ‘Ouwwa owblabla ouwa ouwablabla’. What does that mean? It’s baby talk. Some times you move like this [Bapak demonstrates; laughter]. What does that mean? You are supposed to walk like this. But you don’t, instead you walk like this [Bapak demonstrates]. Why do you do that? You are made to go back to the state you were in when you were a baby so that you feel the touch of your soul again, just as you could when you were a baby. Thus it could be said that when you follow the latihan you are not the child of a human being any more – you are a child of God. What you got from other people has been removed from you, because what you need comes from God, from your soul.

It is certain, brothers and sisters, that the ease with which you receive, how your soul develops, will vary from person to person. Furthermore, you cannot complete this process in a short time. You know how hard it is to fix something that is wrong; you know how difficult it is to restore something that is damaged. And in truth you are damaged, you are wrong. The damage was caused by your heart and mind, by your desires,5 and by temptations from those angels who do not want you to reach God quickly. Therefore do not rely on the power of desire, or on will power. Do not say that things must be a certain way, or that what you want must be right; that is not the way. You need to use your heart and mind, your heart and your brain, to meet your needs in the world; to make a living for your family, so that you are able to enjoy a good and stable life and be secure and happy. But do not use them to look for a way to reach God, or to look for the power of God within you – that is God’s work. That is why [the Dutch] call it godsdienst.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 NYC 1

Sri Lanka - March 13, 1981
Code Number: 81sri-lanka-1
When people talk, as many people do, and they say, "Oh, I have met God," actually they are not telling the truth. What they have met is only the shadow of God. It is still only in their imagination that they have met God.

Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. The meaning of the "Son of God" is that the connection between Jesus Christ and God is like that between a father and son. Jesus can communicate with God, like a son speaks with his father.

But for us, on the human level, on the jasmani level, our father is still our physical father. So, when we want to communicate with our father, it is just our physical father. He has descended from his father and his father's father and so on, and finally it comes back to God. But there are so many layers! So many layers that we have to go through to get to God. This is not like Jesus Christ. It is true that there are Messengers of God who have met God: but they have had to travel a very long way to get to the point at which they could meet Almighty God.

For most people, this is still just a possibility. Bapak doesn't say it is impossible. Indeed, Bapak hopes that we will reach that point one day. But Bapak cannot tell if it will happen or not. Bapak only prays that there may be some among us who might some day reach that. It is indeed a long way for you to go from where you are now, through the rohani, the rahmani, the rahbani and then to the final level, the place where you can meet Almighty God. Bapak doesn't know if you can reach there.

The Messengers of God are not higher or lower, in a straight line, but are like the circles of the Subud emblem.

Each world is a circle of its own, and you have to go through that world to get through to another one.

Whether it is possible for you or not depends on God Almighty and it also depends on your own nature: what you are made of, what you are.

Supposing you are a human being who tries to bring harmony to your surroundings, that is with your friends, your brothers and sisters. If you are not yet able to do it, that means that you cannot grasp the human level.

And then to get to the next level, for example, it is enough to say that the only one who knows an angel is an angel himself. To know an angel you have to be an angel.

Then, up again, to know a Messenger of God, you have to be a Messenger of God.

This is logical, if you think about it. The only one who can test whether a person is a doctor or not, is a doctor. The only one who can test whether someone is a lawyer or not is another lawyer. Only a lawyer knows a lawyer or a doctor knows a doctor. Similarly, it is only an angel who knows an angel, or a Messenger of God who knows a Messenger of God.

Talking about spiritual development, the latihan is given to us as a bridge. The latihan kejiwaan is a bridge by which our jiwa can develop. This is the way whereby you can make progress. If you pray to the angels to help you to make progress, they will not help you. How could they? Everybody is praying. Everybody wants to make progress. Everybody wants to get to a high level, so much so that the angels cannot do any thing. It is too much for them.

The way you can make progress is through your inner being, through the bridge that Almighty God has given you: the latihan kejiwaan.

The latihan kejiwaan is the movement of life in your inner self which is not from your own will, not from your own nafsu, your own desire or decision. It comes unexpectedly, like this inner life Bapak has described to you. This is why Bapak always tests with you, "Walk with your will. Walk with your nafsu." Then you walk. Then Bapak says, "Walk without your will". Then you are made to walk by the Power of God.
- - - read the complete talk - 81sri-lanka-1

Paris, France - April 20, 1967
Code Number : 67 PAR 3
So, Bapak cannot blame you if you want a long life and you are in no hurry to die. Especially if you live here; because when you die you will have to leave this beautiful city of Paris [Bapak laughs], where you can always amuse your heart when you feel sad. Of course you will be sorry to give up this life when God wants you to die. Why will you feel like that? It is because you do not know, you have not felt nor experienced the wonder, the nobility and bliss of heaven. Heaven is nothing like this world. Paris does not have one millionth of the beauty and splendor of paradise. But do not believe that until you find out and experience it yourself.

However, they also say … this is another story, one that again was told by people who received God’s revelation, who received God’s gift. On the edge of heaven – not actually in heaven, just on the edge – a human soul enjoys a better life than in this world. When that soul wants something, it does not have to look for it like you have to here; for example, when that soul wants to eat, it does not have to look for food like you do here. It is completely different. Here you have to get food with your hands, eat food with your mouth, and find it with your eyes – your physical eyes. It is not like that there. What you use to find food there is your wish; you use your intention, the desire for food. Or so they say. If you feel like eating butter, the butter is there. If you want to eat bread, the bread is there. That happens because your wish, your intention, does the work. Consider this: you can wish yourself to go to the moon. You cannot do that physically, it is impossible for your physical body to go to the moon. If you wish to be at the North Pole or the South Pole, you are there in an instant. But this [Bapak indicates his body] cannot go to those places unless you take a fast vehicle to get you there. That is just for comparison.

Well, here is another story … you can believe it or not; the best thing is to experience and try it and find out for yourself. What is amazing is that, suppose you die in old age, you would think that your soul would be old too. And if God blesses you and you get to the edge of heaven, you will think, ‘What am I supposed to do here, I’m old. I died when I was ninety. I’m too old now. It’s all for nothing.’ But when you get there you will find you have some power, and the moment you wish to be young again, you are. You decide what age – you can be twenty-four, you can be eighteen or you can be thirty-two. Such is God’s gift and God’s grace, that God has willed that human beings can surpass the angels. It sounds like a fairytale. But if you believe it, let Bapak tell you that he has had that experience. Bapak will test with you so that you can receive it for yourself.

It is also said that angels can change their shape and nature to be whatever they want to be. They can change into any nature, any creature, millions of times. It is told – this is recorded in the Bible and the Quran – that there was once a town where men liked men, they did not like women. God wanted the angels to learn the truth, so God sent an angel to witness and get proof of what was going on in that community. So an angel went there. The angel wanted to know what was really going on and what the people in that community were doing, so the angel transformed into a handsome, well-built and attractive man. It was true. On arriving at the place where that community lived, because the men liked men, as soon as they saw that handsome, well-built man their hearts longed to be with and seduce him. And because that man was an angel, the angel said, ‘Ah, now I know for sure; you do not behave as God wills, you have violated your own nature, so you will go to hell, not to heaven.’

That story was just to give you a comparison: if angels can change their colour and shape to take on any form, human beings can do much more. God made human beings, even though they are just made of earth, water, air and fire, to be higher and to have more power than angels, and certainly [higher than] satanic beings.

Satanic beings are not supposed to perceive human beings; it is human beings who should perceive satanic beings. A satanic being can only perceive or tempt a human being when that person’s heart worries about the satanic. That is why Bapak tells you never to have doubts, never worry that you are being controlled by satanic forces in the latihan, or that the latihan comes from the satanic realm. If your heart worries about it you will be influenced by the satanic. Your own heart will be the pathway for satanic beings to get inside you.

Bapak will stop talking now and test with you, so that you can experience or receive this to some extent. Even though not everyone will, Bapak hopes that there will be one or two, three or four, or ten or twenty people who will be able to receive the truth of the stories Bapak has told you, which sound like tales from A Thousand and One Nights.

The Psalms, the Torah, the Bible and the Quran all contain advice or instructions from God, which the messengers of God received, about what happens when you die. When the time comes for the angels appointed by God to question you, your heart and mind – which during your life can remember this and that, can turn things around, can say wrong is right and say crooked is straight – your heart and mind that, as Bapak just described, twist everything around, will be locked. To be locked means that your heart and mind cannot function: they are impotent. Then, one by one, each part of your body will be questioned: ‘What did you do in the world?’ And because the parts of your body will not be ruled by your heart and mind any more, they will have no option but to tell the truth, to recount what they did during your life. They will report everything they went through, everything they did, and nothing will be distorted.

So, you are fortunate that before you leave this world, before you die, every part of your body will have been awakened and brought to life and will function and perform according to God’s instructions that are kept in your individuality. And because of that, it could be said that when you die the angels will already know that every part of your body is exempt from the questions they should ask you.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 PAR 3

Madras, India - March 4, 1967
Code Number : 67 MAA 1
There is a story. This story is mentioned and recorded in various histories: the history of Muslims, the history of Christians, as well as of Buddhists, Hindus and others. Even scientists acknowledge this story, even though it is hypothetical and they cannot prove its veracity.

It is told – of course you can find this out yourself, but Bapak still wants to tell you – that before anything existed there was a state … well, it cannot be described as empty, but neither was there anything there. So before anything existed, there was only God. In Islam, God is called Allah. Allah means the All-encompassing. There is no specific name for God, just That Which Encompasses Everything.

Then God wanted to create an environment called the first heaven. God created the first heaven in one day. God created seven heavens in total. So, over a period of seven days God created the first heaven, the second heaven, the third heaven, up to and including the seventh heaven. That was what God created. So God created seven atmospheres or seven heavens in seven days, starting on the day people would later call Saturday. That is why learned people in the past – the people who inhabited islands in what is now the Mediterranean – believed that Saturday was the day when time began, when life and all creatures came to be.

So, God had created seven heavens, and after God had created the seven heavens, God wanted to know and to witness: ‘Does what I have created really exist?’ Therefore God created something else to witness God’s will or God’s creation; namely, angels. angels are made from light – meaning from the light of God’s will – so angels came to be and were created by God.

After angels existed, God ordered them, ‘angels, go and see all the heavens from the first until the seventh. Do they exist or not?’ The angels left. They saw the seven heavens that God had created. The journey from the first heaven to the seventh heaven took the angels fifty thousand years. To go and come back took them a hundred – a hundred thousand years. And when they returned they told God, ‘It’s true!’

Even though the angels that God had created were witnesses, God still wanted to know. ‘Well, I do not believe it yet. Even though I created you and you can be trusted, I need to check again.’ So God created once more; God created God’s will. God created God’s will so that it would manifest in every entity, in every being that God had created – among them, human beings. That is how God’s will manifested in human beings. It is clear then that God’s will is in everyone, and it resides in their individuality.

Why are people unaware that the power of God is inside them? It is because they are constantly oppressed, they are always enveloped by, their desires. These desires reside in the heart and mind. So what causes people to be covered up, to the point that they cannot know and cannot sense the power of God inside them, is their heart and mind, is their desires, which constantly oppress them.

Turning now to all of you who have received this contact: you are blessed, you have received something that is priceless – if it could be valued, its value would be very high – because you can feel that God’s will is there inside you. That is the vibration of life you receive when you are free of the influence of your heart and mind, when you are free of all thought. In Islam this vibration of life is known as khatir ilham [Arab.]; it is mentioned in many Quranic verses as the vibration of the miraculous voice.

It is said that the speed an angel travels is a thousand times faster than the speed of light. So, the speed of light times a thousand is the speed of angels, the speed angels travel. Now light, or a ray travelling from the sun to the earth – a distance that a human being travelling in an express train at 100 kilometres an hour would take a hundred and forty-four years to cover – takes only fifteen seconds.

But the speed of an angel is a thousand times faster than that. If you try to think about, or feel about the distance from this planet to God, to the throne of God, which existed before the seven heavens were created – you cannot. No one can traverse such a distance. Even an angel, who travels a thousand times faster than the fifteen seconds it takes the sun’s rays to reach earth, needs fifty years to make that journey. How much longer will it take a human being?

So, it is clear that a human being will never find God unless God wants to find that person. How can God find someone? As Bapak told you, after God had created the seven heavens and the angels, God felt, ‘What about all the creatures I have created? It is impossible for them to meet Me.’ And that is when God created God’s will and placed it within every creature God created. Among them, God’s will was created and placed in human beings, and with that a human being can travel faster than an angel, because God’s will is inside them.

Is it true? Where is the proof? Perhaps you have heard about Prophet Muhammad’s ascension, when he was called by God to face God and then come back again. He left at 9.30 pm and he came back at 4.30 am. How many hours was that? How could Prophet Muhammad travel so fast? That is faster than an angel. But an angel travels faster than light travels from the sun to the earth. How could that be? Because it was God’s will.

That is what happened. This is just something for you to consider, and it is why Bapak keeps telling you not to think in the latihan. Do not have a desire to know God. Do not hope that you will meet God in the same way I can meet you. Do not do that. If God wants to meet you, you will not have to look for God.

That is why, if you reflect on it, this latihan is a gift from Almighty God to each of you that has no comparison in terms of its greatness, its nobility, its stature. It cannot be valued, because nothing you have can buy this experience; for in the latihan you will feel that God comes close to you. So, it is clear that you cannot approach God, but God can approach you. That is what you need to understand.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 MAA 1

Bandung, Indonesia - May 22, 1965
Code Number : 65 BDO 1
A story told in the record of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed ( Hadis ). During the Prophet's ascent to heaven he came to a place where he saw someone, or rather the soul of someone, behaving very strangely. He was beating his head until it broke, and screaming with pain. Not long after that, his head was made whole again. Then he beat it again until it was broken. Then it was made whole again. Again he beat it and so it went on. There is also the picture of a woman ( or rather of her soul ) who was cutting her own lips and tongue. She screamed with pain and asked for forgiveness. After that, her lips and her tongue were restored again. Then she cut them again and this went on continually until the Prophet asked the Angel: "Please, Angel, what is the matter with these fellow creatures? They have asked for forgiveness and yet they carry on and on like this." The Angel replied: "if the Prophet wishes to know, it is the person's own wrong doing. Everything a person does will affect him or her later when he dies." God does not punish man as man punishes man. No. If God were to do the beating, it would no longer be God. God punishes man by way of letting man do it himself. This shows that God is Almighty.

There is a story told in the Hadis about how a person who formerly only liked eating will in the hereafter only eat, and because he likes eating will eat anything, until he even eats stones.

Bapak once attended to a brother who did the latihan till he got into a crisis. Before entering Subud he was a contractor. When he was in a crisis he ate stones, gravel and sand. He sucked stones while walking in the high street. His brother said to Bapak: "Please, Bapak, bring this to an end. Help him from this, Bapak. How can Subud let a man become like this?" So I was blamed, because he said that Subud made him like that. No, brothers, not Subud, but he himself. Bapak has already said that what is called Subud is you yourselves. Subud is not something you hang round your neck, not at all. Do not blame Subud. But it seems this brother thought that Subud is Bapak, and he blamed Bapak, Bapak Subud.

In the end, when he had surrendered and asked for forgiveness, God willing, after a three months crisis, he came to his senses and had had enough. He no longer wanted to be a contractor. Well, that was wrong. He could have become a contractor but he should not eat and corrupt the stone and cement.
- - - read the complete talk - 65 BDO 1

Malang, Indonesia - October 25, 1966
Code Number : 66 MLG-1
So, what is important for all of you now is not to go on introducing rubbish from outside into yourself. You are cleansed by God, but you continue to bring things in. You are cleaned in the afternoon, you bring it in again the next morning; you are cleaned in the morning, and you bring it all in again in the afternoon. In fact what you bring in is more than came out – how is that? A kilo is removed and you bring in about sixty-two kilos. Is that true? Brothers and sisters, once you are able to receive it, you will become aware and understand all this.

Sometimes when you do latihan you think to yourself, ‘This is a clean place, why is there a smell of goat droppings? Where is it? Who has brought in goat droppings and left them here?’ But in fact the place is clean. Yet there is a smell of goat droppings. When did somebody bring a goat in here? In reality it is all still clean; the goat droppings are inside you. It is already a good thing if you can smell that. So there you are. Other people who have not received the latihan cannot smell that. So if that has been mixed with their food, they would not know.

Sometimes you are doing latihan and suddenly … ‘What is this smell? It’s like urine.’ Perhaps there are already some of you who are able to receive that. ‘Is that the smell of a gendruwo?’ Do you know gendruwo or gandarwa? And wéwé? They are all names of malevolent spirits [in Javanese].

It can also happen that you are doing latihan and there is a beautiful fragrance in the room, even though you have not put on any perfume. There is an explanation for that. For a woman, the origin of such a scent is from an angel. What that means is that either the person doing latihan, or a woman doing latihan near her, is being visited by an angel on account of her inner purity. But what you are smelling is only the angel’s smell. Do not feel satisfied just because you have smelt the smell. That’s not enough. Do not be too confident until it has become one with you. Becoming one with it means that your soul has been changed.

So if you smell the stink of a gendruwo, it means that is what your soul corresponds to. If you can smell the fragrance of an angel, that is because your soul is getting close to the soul of an angel, or what we call ruhani [Arab.]. It is the perfect human soul, which [in Javanese] we call wanodya for a woman and satriya for a man.

What is the goal or purpose of spirits lower than the human level, when they disturb a human being? What are they after? Why do they want to harm a human being – what is the point? Because even if a devil replaces a human being, and the human being falls, he is still a devil. It is not certain that somebody who acquires wealth is really rich. It is not sure. Suppose that you are an engineer and another person who is not an engineer impersonates you, and asks that you give up being an engineer – that cannot work. So what is the point?

Those spirits below the human level disturb and influence human beings because they would like to experience the glory, they would like to share the happiness and feel the bliss of a human being living in this world. Of course this is because the level of a human being is high, and in every way exceeds that of a devil. So they hitch a ride: ‘Excuse me, please share with me ...’

In fact, they don’t say ‘excuse me, please share’; you have left the door open and they just come in.

So a person who always acts wrongly – in other words, a person who never remembers God is full of hitchhikers within their being. Do you know what I mean by hitchhikers? They are people who thumb a lift; they ride in a car without paying. Any car that passes, they go like this [gesture]. It is more and more common these days. It used to be just lorries, later it was Jeeps, then Land Rovers, and now they even flag sedans. Yes.
- - - read the complete talk - 66 MLG-1

Buenos Aires, Argentina - May 21, 1963
Code Number : 63 BUE 2
So, do not feel that Bapak is forcing you, and say, ‘I don’t even have enough to buy food and clothes, how can I give to the committee?’ The fact is that you give to the committee for your own needs. You should not feel that way about it; be sincere and detached, and then you may get it back, quite unexpectedly. Why? Because the aim of it all is your worship of God. It is for God’s work; meaning, it is philanthropic. So God will know: ‘Hey, this woman A has a very good heart; she is very sincere. Yes, she is supporting a place for the worship of God.’

‘Hey!’ God calls the angel, the angel who provides money: ‘Angel who provides money, give some to her. Give her more … more!’ [Bapak laughs, and everyone laughs.]

Brothers and sisters, if you take these words of Bapak just at face value it seems like a joke, as if we’re joking. But actually, it really is true. If you give with sincerity and non-attachment you will be able to receive something you never expected. And it really happens.
- - - read the complete talk - 63 BUE 2

Cilandak, Indonesia - February 20, 1972
Code Number : 72 TJK 3
The inner and the outer are different. You could not be well fed, you could not feel satisfied if you do not have your fill of rice that is grown in the padi fields. You could not. So long as you live you will never be able to find spiritual rice. It does not exist, there is no spiritual rice.

This is a disease with us. Don't come to that. And supposing you do find something from God, from up there, it is not possible to bring it here; it is impossible, impossible. You have heard what the Prophet Jesus said upon the cross. The Prophet Jesus said, 'If God permitted it, I would renounce my destined end on this cross, and destroy the men who slander me. I could have the help of a million angels, and the angels would destroy them all.' But that did not happen.

Why did Jesus say this? Because the angels do not belong to the human race. So if they strike people, it is not with a knife, not with a parang ( short sword ), not with a hammer not with their hands - like that.

The way an angel strikes a man is not the way one man strikes another, but in due course is indicated through a man's own faults. Just as an example, he may suddenly fall sick or unexpectedly someone may injure him by what they say - something like that. That is the way it happens. So it is not the angels themselves who carry it out. For the angels do not belong to the human race.

So it may be concluded that what was available to Christ in heaven could not possibly be brought into this world. No; this world is this world. If what one has later in heaven could be brought into this world, then it would be very nice. Yes; then Bapak himself would be rich, because he would be powerful. It cannot be like that. For then there would be two Gods, the God of this world and the God of the world to come.

So all the things that have been demonstrated in this world by the people who received revelations from God are to provide examples, provide symbols for you all.

But don't take all that literally. It is like the case of Djoko Tarub. When he went hunting in the jungle with his blow pipe he met an angel. Many people here still feel like that. Many of the young ones do it as prihatin. They seclude themselves to become ascetics, so as to be able to meet an angel, they say. But it is not an angel they get, but a kuntilanak ( spirit of woman who died in childbirth ).
- - - read the complete talk - 72 TJK 3

Manchester, England - April 7, 1967
Code Number : 67 MAN 1
After God had created seven heavens, seven skies – not this kind of sky [gesture] – God wanted to measure the extent and scope of God’s creation. To do that, God created beings that could be given the task of finding out, of checking, of going to see the breadth and scope of the seven heavens God had created. These beings God created are what human beings call angels.

After creating the angels, God ordered them to go and learn about the heavens God had created. After the angels received God’s command they left to discover the breadth and extent of the seven heavens. It took the angels fifty years to make that journey; so, to go and come back took them one hundred years.

As soon as God heard that it took the angels so long to visit the seven heavens God had created, that it took them one hundred years, God felt, ‘If that is the case, it will never be possible for My creatures, for human beings, who I want to be able to meet Me and be close to Me, to see and know My power and return to their place of origin.’ This was because even an angel, who travels fast, faster than sunlight travels to earth – it is said angels travel a thousand times faster than sunlight travels to reach earth – still took a hundred years to travel there and back. How much longer would it take a human being? You can figure out for yourself that it is impossible for a human being ever to reach God.

In stories the place of God, the state of God, is called the throne of God. The throne of God is a place that is noble, that has no rival. It is immense and encompasses everything.

Then God told the angels, ‘Angels, because it is impossible for human beings ever to know Me, and it is impossible for them to feel My closeness to them, I am going to equip all creatures with My will, including human beings. Thereby, any human being – that is, anyone who remembers God and acts in accordance with the will of God – can rapidly contact God and God’s power.’

When the angels heard God say this, they reacted: ‘How can this be, God? God made humankind from earth, from matter, from water, air and fire, yet God will let them travel faster and be more fortunate than we, the angels, whom God made from light?’

‘Well, it is not for you to question or oppose Me, I am Almighty.’

One of the angels could not accept this and was not satisfied: ‘I, your servant, submit only to God’s command, I submit only to God’s Will. However, as I am decreed to be higher because I am made of something finer and nobler than humankind, I will tempt humankind.’ The name of this angel was Ijajil, the devil, the king of devils. ‘I will tempt humankind. Anyone who tries to worship God and who seeks a way to God, I will tempt them to make sure they do not succeed.’

That is the history we have been told by the prophets, by human beings who received God’s grace. Then the angels saw Jesus Christ – who is said to have been resurrected – travel the distance from this world to the presence of God in a very short time. It is also told in the hadith of Prophet Muhammad’s ascension that Prophet Muhammad set out on the journey from here to the throne of God, to God and God’s power, after the evening prayer, or as he said, after the night prayer, which is between 7.30 and 8.00 pm, and returned home at 4.30 am. Once the angels understood and realised that it was true, that God had blessed human beings with the ability to travel faster than an angel, the angels knew they could neither oppose nor challenge God, because God is Almighty.

This is true, brothers and sisters. As for proof, even though it is based on history, even though the proof is based on stories, the people who told those stories did not lie; they were honest, people we should believe, people we should respect, so we should accept that this really happened.

Why does the activity of our hearts and minds have to cease before we can find the way or the path to God? The reason is that our hearts and minds, our emotions, our brains, are full of things from this world. That process started from the time we were small until we became adults, with the result that we are totally covered by them. That is why, when people think or wonder what God is like, they think God looks like a man – with a beard or moustache, a big moustache like this [gesture]. They think that God wears a crown and sits on a magnificent throne; all kinds of images.

And that is not the end of it, brothers and sisters. As you are white, and not brown-skinned like Bapak, you probably think that God has white skin too. Well, Bapak thought that way; Bapak thought that God had brown skin like Bapak. If that were true, there would be a God with brown skin, a God with black skin, a God with yellow skin, a God with white skin and one with red skin. People think the same way about angels. Bapak once went to the cinema. I forget where. Everyone in the movie was black; even the angels had black skin; in fact, all the actors in that film were black. So, when the mind tries to understand or portray what God looks like, it uses what it has experienced in this world. Those images need to be cleaned out; that is why the activity of our hearts and minds has to stop.

Once you are clean you will be able to see what goes on in the spiritual realm. You could do that when you were a baby. When you were newly born, just after being born, you could not see the forms of this world. If you were to give a new-born baby one pound sterling, ‘Look, here’s a pound, it’s money,’ a baby just does this [Bapak demonstrates; laughter]. When they grow up, they understand, ‘Oh!’ [Bapak demonstrates taking the money.] Like this. Before you knew about money, when you were still a baby, you were close to the realm of the soul, you knew about the spiritual. As you grew and grew and grew, your connection with your soul became more and more distant, whereas your relationship to this world grew closer and closer and closer.

That is why you do not believe in something if you cannot prove it exists, if you cannot see it in the same way as you can see this wall. How strange! You want to see God in the same way as you can see a wall. If you could see God, it would not be God that you were looking at. That’s it. The [latihan] is the path or way by which you can get to know the nature of God and God’s power. And that is why, when you do the latihan, the activity of your heart and mind stops automatically. That is how it is. Therefore this is a form of help which is beyond compare, which is beyond price. It cannot be bought with money or material wealth.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 MAN 1

Brisbane, Australia - March 12, 1963
Code Number : 63 BNE 1
Therefore it is not surprising that people imagine the world of life after death – meaning heaven – as a beautiful place that can be heard, known and seen. In the same way, when they think about an angel it will not be far from what they usually think about. They will certainly depict an angel like a human being. However, because it is an angel and angels are not the same as human beings, they will depict it like a human being but better looking. Such illustrations simply show that human thought is incapable of going any further than this in understanding life after death.

Because human beings have gone so far in forgetting the connection with their soul, without help from God they could not possibly find it again. Therefore, if you were to put a value on this latihan you have received, it is something that is beyond compare. That is why Bapak hopes that having been given this gift from God, which is so easy and which you can receive just like that, that you will do it, work with it and receive it seriously, feeling blessed and full of faith towards the power of Almighty God.
- - - read the complete talk - 63 BNE 1

Toronto, Canada - May 12, 1976
Code Number : 76 YYZ 2
There are still yet other cases; a letter I have not even answered yet about something that happened in Cepu, in Java, and one from America itself. A letter came from America which said: "On one occasion while I was doing latihan, there was bright ray of light in the latihan hall; a very brilliant light shone in the latihan hall, so that I was obliged to open my eyes, and I saw Ibu coming down from above in a golden chariot. The chariot came down and Ibu got out. First a man got out, before Ibu; a big strong man with a beard, and looking like someone from ancient times. Then I asked Ibu, “Who is that, Ibu?” “Oh, that is the Angel Gabriel.” “Why has the Angel Gabriel come with Ibu?” “He has come because Bapak asked him to bring me here to see you doing latihan. For you must do your latihan sincerely, not casually. If your latihan is really sincere, then when you die you will return to heaven.” Having said this, she then told me, “That is all. Now I am going back up again, for I only have a moment in which to see you.” Then Ibu got back into the golden chariot, and the angel got in too, and it immediately rose up again. Then the room became dark once more. That was the letter sent to Bapak.

Such things show, brothers and sisters, that the progress people make in the latihan has no set limits, and no-one can measure whether the helpers are higher or the members are higher, or whether one helper is higher than another or anything like that. So what Bapak is now emphasizing is that you should all feel yourselves equal; the helpers should in fact feel themselves equal. For if you have a feeling of being equal with other people, this means that you really are in a state of co-operation and harmony. This is what Bapak needs, so that Subud, both here and outside America, will become stronger and more harmonious instead of being more confused or even contentious, so that many of you quarrel with one another.
- - - read the complete talk - 76 YYZ 2

New York, NY U.S.A. - May 7, 1976
Code Number : 76 NYC 2
( Testing )

Compared with a human being, an angel is taller than the Himalayas. That is just one angel, but I have heard stories about how the national helpers each have four angels in attendance, while the regional helpers have two and the group helpers hardly have any angels at all, or perhaps just the shadow of an angel ( laughter ).

In Subud everything has to be proved by evidence, brothers and sisters. Yes, spiritual matters require spiritual proofs, not scientific proof. No. It would appear, brothers and sisters, that the spiritual teachings have never produced any examples as of what Bapak is talking about, because it frightens them. And why are they frightened? Because they have never really witnessed anything definite.

Thus it is clear, brothers and sisters, that there are many people who have not yet been able to obtain any real evidence of this and have no right to talk about it, so that what they say confuses the people who listen to them. This is why Bapak advises all of you not to be too easily influenced by anything for which there is no sure confirmation. In the latihan kedjiwaan you will be taught by your own inner self and also, of course, by the One Almighty God. In this way you will not go astray but will arrive at the place that is right for you.

Of course, brothers and sisters, you will verify for yourselves what Bapak is saying here. You will trust in your own seeing, your own hearing, your own smelling: you will also trust in what you yourself say and feel and think. That is why you must surrender all these to the One Almighty God, so that He will purify them; so that He will purify all your five senses. God will purify your seeing, God will purify your hearing, God will purify your smelling, and God will also purify your feeling and your thinking. You will be able to receive and feel this later on, when, through your perseverance and sincerity in worshipping the One Almighty God, you are able to obtain His blessing.
- - - read the complete talk - 76 NYC 2

Tokyo, Japan - July 26, 1967
Code Number : 67 TYO 7
So in the beginning, before there was anything, and everything was still empty, a vibration was felt, which in the Arabic language of Islam is known as khatir. Khatir means something like a tremor, a movement of life. So it is clear that life is movement, and the latihan seeks or follows the movement of life, it does not follow something that is dead. God’s will for human beings is precisely that they should seek, not for the path of death but rather, they need to and must find the path of life, so that their life will not be limited by their own desires.

It is told that once this tremor or light of life existed, out of it came the angels. For this reason angels are everywhere. Even though you cannot see the angels who are around here, they are present. Later on you will be able to know this. Once the whole of your body has come to life and become very sensitive, you will be able to perceive it.

What was the purpose for which God created the angels? In the story it is told that God wanted to test His own skill, power and excellence. In the same way as if you go to school: once you have graduated you want to put into practice what you have learned, so that it is not just an empty image that has no reality. That is why Bapak advises you that you should carry out and use whatever you have understood. That means you are alive. The fact is that life is work; life is movement. This reality is symbolised by God acting out His Individuality.

After God created the angels God created the heavens. God started creating them on Saturday, and for that reason Saturday was a special or holy day for human beings who lived a long time ago.

Then God wanted the angels to survey and make sure that the heavens created by God had really come into being. When the angels received God’s command they inspected the heavens. To go to inspect the seven heavens took them fifty years, so the whole journey was one hundred earth years. According to the story, the speed at which the angels travel is a thousand times the speed of the sun’s light as it travels to the earth. You can work it out for yourself how it would be for a human being who wished to go to God, when even for the angels, who travel so fast, the journey there and back takes a hundred years. If something travelled at the same speed as the light of the sun, which takes seven minutes to reach the earth, it would take a hundred thousand years from God’s throne to this world and back.

But God said that He would go on to create human beings, and the angels asked God, ‘How can God create human beings and expect them to return to God, when even for us who are made of light it takes one hundred years to make the whole journey? For human beings, whom God will make out of earth, water, air and fire, it will be impossible to reach God, quite impossible. They will probably expire halfway; they cannot possibly reach God.’

‘Well, I am All-powerful. Do not try to restrain Me, and do not belittle Me. I am All-powerful and I shall create human beings from earth, water, air and fire. Although they will not be as strong as you angels because they are made of earth, water, air and fire, I shall embody My will within their being, so that human beings who truly fulfil their promise and are truly obedient to Me, to Almighty God, will have the possibility of being faster than you.’

And this became a reality when God had created human beings. The prophets, the messengers of God, were able to traverse such a huge distance in less than a week. It is told that Jesus Christ made the journey there and back in three days. Prophet Muhammad left after the night prayer at half past seven and returned at dawn. That is about ten hours. He was able to do that because, on account of his obedience, God fulfilled the promise God had made to him.

The angels were affected by this. Even though they were angels, they felt envious. The result is that there are two groups among the angels. There are those angels who love human beings and show them the right way, whereas the others do not like it if human beings come to God, so these angels tempt them. The tempting angels asked God, ‘God, give us permission to tempt human beings so that they will not be able to return to God safely.’

God answered, ‘All right, the human beings you can tempt are those who always pursue their desires and their greed. You may tempt human beings, but only in their heart3 and thinking. Outside of that you cannot, for what is beyond the human heart and mind is under My power.’ That is what God said.

The reason why God gave such a great grace to humankind was because their life in this world is full of suffering. That means that they feel hot whenever they are in the sun’s light; they feel cold when they are in the cold air; they experience illness and death and they find their livelihood with difficulty. So God is really just towards human beings. The angels, on the other hand, do not experience illness as long as they live. It is easy for them to get what they need or to find their food, because they do not need bread like you; they are able to obtain everything just by wishing for it. Also, the angels are not affected by death. In this way God is just towards all creatures.

Nevertheless, half of all the angels will continue to tempt you. And the way they tempt human beings is within your individuality. When you are tempted only by a devil6, that is easy to deal with, but when the angels tempt you, you cannot avoid it. For it is said that even when a human being has reached the divine world – described as a world that is empty, where there is nothing – the angels can still chase after you. This is something you can always feel within yourself. Therefore do not be easily taken in if, in your quietness, you hear the words, ‘I am Almighty God’. Do not be taken in, for that is still in the realm of the desires, of the heart and thinking. You are still being affected by the angels who do not want you to reach God.

That is why it is said that the angels will not be able to tempt someone once that person has been able to put aside their individuality as a human being; in other words, their self-interest. Beyond that the angels are not able to tempt us. In the great world of life that envelops everything, there are three or four levels below the human, which are always filled with self-interest, and three or four above the human, which are free of individual self-interest – these can free us of the influence of the angels in our heart and thoughts.

Bapak has told you this story because it fits very closely with what happens in the latihan. That is why he always tells you not to continue to use your heart and thinking in the latihan, because the angels can still enter your heart and thinking. Even after your heart has been purified it still remains a heart. Only beyond that lies the sphere where God’s power makes it impossible for the angels to enter. If they enter there they disappear.

There you are. Bapak has told you this story because of its similarity to what exists with our latihan. So this corresponds with the stories of the prophets, the stories of those who received a long time ago, who were considered holy or exalted. It is clear that our latihan, which we receive and practise, is truly beyond our thinking mind, beyond our human ability. It is God’s ability that has been given to us human beings, as Bapak said earlier; God’s will manifesting in human life.

So it is clear, brothers and sisters, that there is no path of meditation, of samadhi, in Subud. In reality, if you use those paths the angels will continue to tempt you. Therefore do not think about anything, just surrender to God. Allow whatever God wills – whether you are moved this way, that way or another way – that is all up to God. Once your feelings are totally like that, the angels who do not want human beings to become glorified and perfected will no longer be able to tempt you. These are not empty words Bapak is telling you – he has experienced this himself.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 TYO 7

Sao Paulo, Brazil - May 30, 1981
81 SAO 4
For the important thing for us is simply, Is what we are doing right? What is right or wrong comes back to our own self. The rightness or wrongness of anything depends on our own self: because within our own self is the Power of Almighty God.

This is really how it is: right and wrong are within our own self because we have God's Power within that self. And because of the Power of God within us, we are able to worship God and do God's Will right in our ordinary everyday activity, like this. Some people have this idea that something that is "holy" is something outside of you. So, for instance, you go to what is called a "holy place". People are usually enthusiastic about going to places they consider holy, like churches or shrines or old tombs or things like that. And they say, "Oh, yes, there is an angel who lives there. Bapak tells you that this is completely wrong. On the contrary, it is those places where the devils are always sitting about. The Power of God - or, in other words, the angels - is something that is with us when we are working in our ordinary lives, wherever we happen to be - like here, now. This ( Bapak gestures ) is what is holy - not those places people imagine.

Now in fact, Bapak says, all this has already been written down in the sacred books of old. But this particular thing was never translated. For if this thing ( about what is holy being what we do everyday ), if this were to be translated, then where would the authority of the priests and ulammas be then? What these people say is, "If you want to ask God for forgiveness, come to me and I'll pass it on." But if people begin to understand that actually they are the ones directly in touch with the Power of God, then they no longer need the priests, ulammas and so on. That is why these things were indeed written down: but they were never made known to mankind in general.

The truth is as Bapak has described, and it always has been like that. People in the old days used to say, "If you want to be close to God, act rightly. Do something that is good and useful."

Being able to act rightly is the proof that you are close to God. Because even if you claim to be close to God but you act wrongly and do things which are bad, then that itself is the proof that you are not close to God: you are close to the devils. And that is all there is.

The key is what you do: how you behave, how you work, how you act.
- - - read the complete talk - 81 SAO 4

Wolfsburg, Germany - April 29, 1967
Code Number : 67 WOB 1
Bapak would like to tell you a story. It is a story that has existed for many years, in books containing stories told by those who received revelations from Almighty God. At the beginning of time – in fact time did not yet exist, meaning that it was in the beginning, when everything was empty and still and there was nothing – there appeared a light, which was God’s power. Then with His will, God created the heavens.

God created seven heavens. It may be that God created them because He wanted to measure or find out the extent of His power. God created the seven heavens in seven days. He started on Saturday, or so those people said who received through God’s grace.

After creating the seven heavens, what did God do next? Although He had created the seven heavens, God needed witnesses, so He created angels, who were made from the light of God. They were needed to witness God’s work or God’s creation; thus they were created – and there were a lot of them.

God said to the angels, ‘Angels, go and look at and learn about the heavens that I have created.’

The angels obeyed God’s order and undertook the journey to find out about the seven heavens created by God, and about their contents. They travelled from the first heaven to the seventh, from God or Allah’s throne – in other words from God’s place or God’s power – to the seventh heaven. The outward journey took fifty years, so it took the angels one hundred years to return.

Then an angel said to God, ‘God, I have carried out Your order. I have travelled throughout God’s creation. The return journey took me one hundred years.’

God asked the angels, ‘How can this be, angels? You angels move a thousand times faster than the light that travels from the sun to the earth, but the journey still took you a hundred years there and back?’

So, if the light of the sun were to travel from the first heaven to the seventh it would take a hundred thousand years, whereas to travel from the sun to the earth it takes only seven minutes, according to the scientists.

Therefore God reflected, ‘How will the human beings I am going to create be able to return to Me in a short time?’

So God said to the angels, ‘Angels, I want you to know that I am going to create human beings, and I shall create them out of earth, water, air and fire. But although they are made of materials that are lower than you, I shall place my will in their being so that they can come to Me quickly, provided that they truly surrender, are truly patient, accepting and willing to let go.’

The angels expressed their disappointment. ‘How can that be, Almighty God? You have made us angels out of light, yet You are expecting these human beings, which You will make out of such low materials, to come in front of God very quickly. If that is true, then God is not fair.’

God replied to the angels, ‘You cannot stop Me. I am in charge. All you need to do is obey my orders.’

Then an angel came back with another idea. ‘Very good, my God, I submit to your order. But I will tempt human beings so that they will not be able to carry out the work God wants them to do.’ Then the angels were divided: half of them will always tempt the heart and thinking of human beings, while the other half guide human beings and help them find their way. That is why they say in this story that half the angels take care of and organise hell, and the other half look after heaven and do their work there.

Such is the story told in the scriptures. There may be those among you who have read or heard of it in the holy books.

So God said, ‘Yes, I agree with what you are asking. But those human beings whose thinking you are unable to tempt will be able to come to me in a short time. Later on, you will be able to witness this.’

This is what actually happened with the journeys of Abraham, Moses, Christ and Muhammad. And the last of these, Muhammad, was able to complete the journey leaving at half past seven in the evening and returning to this world at half past four in the morning. So the angels realised the greatness and power of God, which cannot be equalled or compared to anything. In view of this, the angels obeyed whatever God ordered them to do. Nevertheless, some of the angels, who had spoken and expressed their intention to tempt human beings, continue to do so.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 WOB 1

Los Angeles, CA U.S.A. - July 25, 1981
Code Number : 81 LAX 3
A long time back Bapak received a letter from a member who had some illness. Bapak doesn't remember, maybe he had cancer or something. Anyway, he died and he was pronounced dead by the doctors and taken to the morgue. Perhaps there wasn't time that day to clean him up and do what doctors usually do to people who have died, because he was just left there on the slab.

Now during the night he came round and he realized that he was still alive. So, he called the morgue attendant who happened to be sitting outside. ( Let's say his name was Bill ). He said, "Bill, come here." Welt, this fellow was very surprised to hear someone calling him, so he went in. He saw that there was nobody there except all these dead people. And, as he was looking, suddenly one of the corpses called to him again. When this corpse said to him, "Hey, Bill, you had better get the doctor," Bill was really scared. Instead of going up to this body and finding out what was going on, he turned the other way and ran as fast as he could because naturally he was a little scared. But then when he got outside he thought to himself, "Well, actually if I don't fetch the doctor that's wrong." So he went and got the doctor and the doctor came and had a look and asked this man what he was doing there. The man said, "Well, I assume I died because I've been brought here. I was not aware of being brought here but I'm alive again so you had better get me my clothes and let me go home."

The doctor replied, "But how is this possible? I don't understand." So the man replied, "Look, I'm going to explain to you what happened. Actually, while I was gone ( dead ) I had an experience that I was treated by a doctor. This was not a doctor like you - but an angelic doctor. In other words, an angel came to me and said. "'You're not supposed to die because your illness is not fatal and I can cure your illness.' So, doctor, this angel actually cured me and healed me and brought me back to life. So that's why I'm here now."

Well, the doctor still looked puzzled, so the patient said, "Don't you believe me?" And the doctor said, "Well, I'm only a doctor, so I can't understand what you are telling me. But I'll have to assume it is true." This patient said, "Well, since I'm all right again, you had better get me my clothes and let me go home."

The doctor did indeed clean the patient up and got him his clothes and he was able to go home. This is an experience of a Subud member which, in fact, was put in the Pewarta some time back. You may have read it.
- - - read the complete talk - 81 LAX 3

Blonay, Switzerland - August 15, 1977
Code Number : 77 BLN 1
Brothers and Sisters, this latihan is something we have all experienced now - we all know what its nature is. And those of you who are older, who maybe have read a lot and lived a long time and have informed yourself about history and what happened in the old days, surely in all your reading and all your study you have never come across anything in man's spiritual life, or in man's efforts to worship God, that is like this Latihan Kejiwaan - because there has never been anything in the world up till now which could unite people of different nationalities and different religions, and make them united as one Brotherhood. This is something very clear, because people of different religions still cling to their own picture or their own interpretation of what is contained in their religion. For example, if you take Muslims, let alone Arabs, they certainly imagine that, say, an angel - the angel must look like that - it must be someone with a turban, and that special kind of suit that Arabs wear. And if they think that way about angels, then probably they think the same about God - that God belongs to that general set-up. It is the same with different religions.

So it means that man, no matter where he is or who he is, is still influenced and is still limited by his culture and by his experience and what he has experienced in his life. So as long as mankind is limited by that - by their culture and by their upbringing and by their society and so on - how can man ever be united? Not only people of different religions, but even people of the same religion. Take Catholics and Protestants. They can never be united, they can never agree about anything. Look at Ireland now - in Northern Ireland where Protestants and Catholics are fighting each other. They both believe in Jesus Christ, they are both Christians, but they fight. Same with Muslims - Egypt and Libya, for example. They both say they are Muslims but they fight each other. So it is clear that as long as man is left to himself, people are never able to agree about anything, to be united and to be as one.

That is why what is most important is that this latihan has now been received by mankind which can really bring together, make as one, people of different religions and different nationalities. This is what mankind is really looking for -this latihan that we have received, because this can really bring people together as one. And maybe - Bapak doesn't know - maybe man has received this latihan now because man has gone too far, has gone too fast with the advance of his mind and with his understanding. But he needs something now that can bring him back to a peaceful state, a peace of mind and a quiet inner feeling where he can really be aware of being one with his fellow human beings.
- - - read the complete talk - 77 BLN 1

Paris, France - August 22, 1977
Code Number : 77 PAR 3
Once in England there was a Pakistani who had studied Islam very, very deeply. Maybe - Bapak doesn't know - maybe he was a Said or something. Well, anyway, he studied very conscientiously the holy books of Islam, but only with his heart and mind, so everything that he studied simply went into his ordinary understanding. Well, then, after a time he was opened, and he did latihan for maybe a day, for a week, for a month, maybe for a year or two -maybe not as long as that, maybe for half a year or something like that. And then suddenly, in his latihan, when he was doing latihan at home, he came face to face with an angel who, he saw, corresponded with what he had understood or what he had read in the holy books previously. This angel didn't appear to him only once, but appeared to him all the time. Every night when he did latihan, he would be bothered by angels, maybe lots of angels, telling him all sorts of things, and bothering him. So he wrote a letter to Bapak in which he said: 'If this is the result of Subud, then Subud must be something satanic because now I am bothered by all these beings with whom I did not have any trouble before.' He went on: 'Please, if possible, take this away from me, take away from me this Latihan Kejiwaan.'

Bapak wrote back to him: 'When you were opened, were you opened by Bapak's orders, or was it your own wish to be opened? Secondly, when you were opened, did you ask to see Bapak first, or did you discuss it with Bapak first, or did you ask Bapak's advice first? It is clear that you were opened by your own will, and what we receive in the latihan is clearly the guidance, or is clearly derived from the power of God Almighty. So whatever you receive is really something that is needed for you.'

But he wrote again and complained again. He said: 'Bapak is playing games with me. Bapak knows very well that he can take the Latihan Kejiwaan away from me. He is just pretending that he is not able to do so, but Bapak is capable of helping me and releasing me from this burden - if only he chose to do so'.

Bapak wrote back to him: 'O.K., I can only give you a suggestion - don't do the latihan any more; and, if possible, go to the cinema every night, and eat as much as possible of anything you really like. Enjoy anything, all the pleasures that you can think of, and maybe you will then get back to normal. Don't think about anything to do with the spiritual, and maybe you will no longer be bothered by these experiences.'
- - - read the complete talk - 77 PAR 3

Cilandak, Indonesia - December 28, 1968
Code Number : 68 TJK 7
The Prophet Muhammad experienced what is mentioned above during his journey to Almighty God. For instance, the Prophet saw women lying down, stark naked, in a very dirty place. Then these women were chased by a terrifying animal. The Prophet questioned the Angel about this, and he explained that this happened because these women did not act decently towards themselves during their lives on earth, and that they suffered from a dangerous illness, as was shown by their constantly being chased by that terrifying animal. The Prophet also recognized others: for instance, he saw a man continuously beating his head and cutting his lips and tongue. The Angel explained that while that man lived on earth he always spoke maliciously about people, he used to eat food earned by bad deeds, and he was fond of talking about other people's faults and telling lies.

These experiences of the Prophet Muhammad are a sign that with his jiwa, and throughout the inner-feeling of his inner-self, he was really able to experience things that could not be experienced by the physical body. It was the same in the case of Christ, who showed his inner-self to his disciples when he returned from being with God in heaven, and showed that he truly lived a life without limitations, a life that was not like life on earth.
- - - read the complete talk - 68 TJK 7

Santiago De Chile - May 21, 1967
Code Number : 67 SCL 1
In history – the history of creation, the history of life – it is told that long ago, before anything existed, there was a time of emptiness, there was nothing but the power of God. Human beings could not prove the power of God existed, because human beings did not exist. But once humankind existed and people could receive, they said that after God had been alone with Himself – with His Being – God created something out of light. The light referred to was not like electric light. It was not like firelight. Light referred to a life force, a vibration. That vibration, even though its movement is invisible, even though its movement is inaudible, is the vibration of life. From it, God created. That is how the angels came to be, or so it is told.

After God had created the angels – a great many angels because their number had to be in line with the number of God’s other creatures – God created the heavens. God created seven heavens in seven days, or so the story goes. God started on a Saturday, which is why people long ago used to say Saturday was a sacred day. And after the seven heavens were made, God said to the angels , ‘Angels, I order you to inspect the heavens I have made. Do they exist and what are they like? Find out and report back to Me.’ That is what God said to the angels .

And the angels obeyed God’s command and did as they were told: they carried out an inspection of all seven heavens. It took them fifty years to go from the first to the seventh heaven. So it took them one hundred years to make the round trip; to go and return and report back to God. That meant that to cover the distance from the first heaven to the seventh heaven – which God had made in seven days – and return, took the angels one hundred years.

According to the holy books, angels travel a thousand times faster than light travels from the sun to the earth. Now, it takes light from the sun, which is so far away from us, just seven minutes to reach earth. Therefore, if one were to make a trip from the first heaven to the seventh heaven and back again at the same speed that sunlight travels to earth, the journey would take one hundred thousand years. Now, the sun and the earth are in the same universe – so it is not like going from the first heaven to the second heaven – they are in the same realm. That means the distance light has to travel from the sun to the earth is thousands of times less, it is a thousandth of a fraction of the distance between the first and second heaven, the second and the third, the third and the fourth. Clearly, when calculated in the normal way, it is impossible for humans to travel such distances.

Realising that, an angel said to God, ‘How can that be, God? God plans to make human beings, and yet I and the others who are made of light and travel millions of times faster than human beings ever will, can do the journey only in a hundred years. So how long will it take a human being, whom God will make out of earth, water, air and fire?’ Calculated in the normal way, using the mind, astronomers estimate that if a human being were to make the journey from the first heaven to the seventh heaven at the speed of a train, a car or a plane – assuming such a thing were possible – the journey would take seventy million years. If it were possible.

Hearing that, God told the angels , ‘Angels, you cannot know the extent of My power. You will never know what the power of God can do. So God will go ahead and make human beings, and even though they will be made out of earth, water, air and fire, I will put My will within each one. And with My will within them, any human being will be able to travel faster than you can, provided that they follow and obey My commands; provided that they put their complete faith in Me and have an attitude of patience, acceptance and surrender, and completely let go.’

Then the angels realised that ultimately God determines everything. However, even though they were angels , they were still disappointed by the difference in how God apportioned His glory and nobility to all the things He had created. So an angel said to God, ‘God, I will do what You say, especially with respect to human beings, whom God wants to be faster than me and the other angels . Even though God has made everything else subordinate to human beings, if that is what God wants, that will be done. I ask one thing though – please grant it. I want to tempt human beings to prevent this. Even though one might get through, I do not want lots of human beings to reach God faster than I and the others angels can.’

And that is why there are two groups of angels . One group leads, guides and shows human beings the way; the right way, the way that leads to God. The other group, the other half, tempts human beings to prevent them from ever returning to God or meeting God. Those angels work through a person’s heart and mind. Likewise, the angels who guide and show the right path, which leads to God, also work through the heart and mind. That is why in our heart and mind there is always good and evil. So it is no surprise to find in your feelings and thoughts, in your heart and mind, a constant dialogue going on: ‘… yes, no, yes, no; go on, don’t do it, go on, don’t do it; go to latihan, don’t go, go to latihan, don’t go …’

After all that had taken place, God went ahead and made human beings and stopped at that. Then Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Muhammad were born. With the birth of Christ, according to the story of Christ – which you probably know better than Bapak, because he is going by what is written in the Bible – it is told that Christ made the round trip through the seven realms, the seven heavens, in three days. When Christ returned to earth from his three day journey to see God, he met his disciples. His disciples did not believe that he was Christ, so he showed them his hands. His hands bore nail wounds from his crucifixion.

It was the same for Prophet Muhammad. In the story of Prophet Muhammad, when he went to see God and came back to earth, he set out at half past seven at night and returned at half past four in the morning. The journey took nine to ten hours. Then the angels realised that what God had said would happen, had happened. But still the disgruntled angels kept on tempting human beings.

That story goes on to explain why God had put human beings higher, had made human beings nobler than the angels , even though angels are made of light and human beings are made of dirt. Almighty God said, ‘The reason why Almighty God has granted nobility to human beings is because their lives are full of suffering. They get sick; they endure hardship; they face adversity. They are easily led astray by this or that. And they die. On the other hand, angels live unaffected by anything and they do not die. That is the difference.’ Hearing that, the angels who had obeyed God voiced their approval and felt satisfied, because there was a fair balance in the allocations that God had made.

That was why Christ said that death is not the end of life; it is not the final event in our life but, on the contrary, is the continuation of our life. And that is why people in the past said that God is always with us. All this is recounted in the holy books. And it was also recounted by those people long ago who had received a gift from God, who had received a revelation from God concerning the right way to live.

That is why you need only to believe in God and submit to God. Indeed, brothers and sisters, true submission means that you put God above your self; it means that you love God more than you love yourself, and that in consequence you accept whatever God wills for you. That is the prerequisite, the fundamental requirement, the prime condition. For the fact is that the people who received God’s grace and travelled such vast distances in such a short time, did so simply by surrendering to Almighty God.

The people who told this story said, ‘It is wrong to look for God; but it is also wrong if you do not look for God.’ So, what are you meant to do? Furthermore, they added, ‘Do not look for God. All you have to do in life is treat other people in the best possible way, and quieten your heart and surrender to Almighty God with an attitude of patience and acceptance.’

[Section missing] … from this world to God cannot be contemplated. It is not only a question of the distance, but also of the layer after layer of different realms and the infinite variety of life forms that occupy them. It is impossible for a human being to enter those realms or mix with those creatures, because the human physique is not suited to the places that person would have to journey to. And on top of all that, there is that group of angels who tempt the heart and mind of human beings.

So it is fortunate for all of you, for those people who have been blessed by God, that you have received this contact from the power of God, which is described as a vibration of life and is received in a miraculous state – a state you cannot think about, which in Islam is called khatir ilham – the vibration of life that you feel when you receive and do latihan.

This vibration of life you have received – which has manifested in what we call the Subud latihan – is a movement that does not originate in your heart and mind. Earlier, Bapak explained that the angels tempt you via your heart and mind. So if you can receive something without using your heart and mind you bypass the temptations of those angels . That is why Bapak says you are so fortunate to have now felt God’s will that was placed inside you. So, do not try to use or approach this with your will and thinking, which is always anxious. For you cannot think about this vibration, you cannot make it happen with your mind, you can receive it only when you completely let go. At that moment something arises and moves that is not from your heart and mind.

Consider the case of someone who works by using their heart and mind trying to discover something. Before making that discovery they say, ‘If I discover what I am looking for, once I find it, it will benefit the world, it will bring about peace. The world will be a better place, there will be no more discrimination between one race and another, and there will be no more division between one nation and another, there will just be one humankind and one God.’ But after they make their discovery it comes back to haunt them. That is what happens when we achieve something using our hearts and minds, which are enveloped and tempted by angels who try to prevent human beings from ever reaching God, from becoming complete human beings and returning to their true home.

Take a discovery which you all know about – atomic or nuclear weapons. People live in fear of them. Humans beings made them and now they fear them. That is the point. But in truth, even though such weapons are a threat to human life – they could annihilate a great many people – unless someone uses them they cannot work. That is the nature of material things. Although those weapons can be used to kill people, unless someone uses them they are harmless.

That is it; it is people who are at fault, not the things they use. Why does it happen? It happens because a person’s heart gets taken in by their tempter. And that is why people who received God’s revelation said, ‘Human beings, never forget, never overlook, that the One who rules all creation – in this world and the next – is Almighty God.’ We exist because of God. Nothing can exist without being created, without there being a Creator. It is certain that if there is a cause, there is an effect. If there is an effect, there has to be a cause. Everything has a cause.

So, you could say that anything human beings make or discover by using the will and thinking mind, by using the heart and intellect, can become a danger to human life. That is because tempters – the angels who tempt us – are present in our hearts and minds. So to all of you who receive the latihan, if you do latihan hoping to get something – in other words, if you do it wishing for something – you will not receive from God the proper training that will guide you.

That is why people who received God’s grace in the past said, ‘If you want to feel close to God during your life you must make your heart quiet; and you must clean out all the faults in your inner feeling. Only then will you feel God’s closeness to you.’ But, brothers and sisters, as long as people are people they cannot avoid the temptations of the tempter that inhabits their heart and thinking mind. That is why by God’s grace – because God is All-knowing and knows that people these days will not believe anything without proof – you get proof, even though that proof is not ordinary, even though it is received spiritually.
- - - read the complete talk - 67 SCL 1

London, England - September 2, 1979
Code Number : 79 LON 6
Bapak asks what are the characteristics of, for instance, the Germans. He asks that, for instance, and at once you receive. What, in general, are the characteristics of the English? What, in general, are the characteristics of the Javanese? What, in general, are the characteristics of the Chinese? Bapak has always tested these things with you, and indeed it seems to be like an intermezzo, a little entertainment for you. But, in fact, this is the hakekat, the true reality of spiritual life. This is the content of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, so that you can know the nature of other people. You go up and up and up until you reach what is called the angelic level, when you will be able to know and to feel what the nature of the angels is really like.

It is said to be the angels who punish sinners. How are the angels towards you, for instance? H'm...!

How are the angels towards Bapak Muhammad-Subuh? ... What is the reason for that? God has granted the grace to Bapak Muhammad-Subuh to be able to plumb the depths of angelic life.

Now again, brothers and sisters, how is it among those who can plumb these depths? ... So instead of beating you, the angels actually greet you and welcome you. 'How are things going in the world?' they ask.

If you are English, and they ask what other news is there from the world, you can tell them how busy and crowded it is in London, but that in the middle of all that you always persevere in your worship of God. 'Very good', says the angel, 'that is where your place is, there in what is called heaven.'

It is different for the people who will be punished. When they are questioned about their experience in this world, and if it is an English person, for instance, the answer may be: 'Oh yes, I play a lot of music, beautiful music, and there are various kinds of entertainments. Yes, there is ballet and there are beauty shows.' The angel hits him. 'Your place is over there, in hell.'

Bapak has already done some testing with you. So Bapak uncovers the secrets of life. Why does Bapak do this? It is not because Bapak himself dares to do it, but because God authorizes Bapak to dare, so that the secrets of life shall not be hidden. People are afraid of God; but it is not necessary to be afraid of God. What is necessary is to do the best you possibly can. You must not be afraid of God, but of your own wrong actions. That is the test you must pass in order to become first-class human beings, perfect human beings who are recognized by the angels .

Assalamu alaikum' they will say, 'and what is the news from London?'

'The news is good. I do latihan every week at each of the appointed times.'

'Ah, that is good. That is your place, there in heaven.'
- - - read the complete talk - 79 LON 6

Cilandak, Indonesia - December 3, 1978
Code Number : 78 CDK 27
( Testing )

Thus you are alone when you are by yourself. Through the jiwa, you can be connected with anything and everything. Let alone with the living , you can be connected with those who are long dead. Although Mary the mother of Jesus has long been dead, Maryam could receive about her. So it is clear that the one who can know an angel is another angel. Maryam could not know Mary; she could not do that except through the jiwa. Thus Maryam’s jiwa could meet with Mary. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is so wide that it can examine everything, all the things that are not easy for the mind to know. So if there are still people who cannot yet Understand and know what there is in this latihan kejiwaan of Subud, it is because their latihan is still falling short of what it should be, or perhaps their capacity is falling short.
- - - read the complete talk - 78 CDK 27

Wisma Subud, Cilandak, Indonesia - July 6, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 11
No doubt there are many questions you would like to ask. Maybe you would like to ask Bapak, "What is an Angel?" Later you will know. If you go on with the latihan you will find out. For the moment you have to take Bapak's word that every word that Bapak has told you today has been witnessed by the angels, because they are always here, they are always present when Bapak talks. And not only the angels, but their chief, the Archangel Gabriel. That is why Bapak would never dare to tell a lie, because there are witnesses all around him whenever he speaks.

It is the angels who are the organizers of everything that God has created. And little by little you will learn to see them. Maybe you have the experience sometimes of seeing a flash of light from the corner of your eye: that is the movement of an angel. It is like a small lightning flash. Of course, the devils can also do that, but the color is different: the devils have a reddish color when they move.

These are all things you can prove to yourself as it were. But you cannot actually test it; you have to receive the proof. Once you receive the proof it is real for you.
- - - read the complete talk - 84 CDK 11

Olso, Norway - August 7, 1959
Code Number : 59 OSL 3
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.

Therefore you ought not to worry if, later on, you may find yourselves at times sad and depressed when confronted with a person and for no better reason than that this person is depressed. Or, at another time your heart may be filled with happiness when near a person because that person is very happy, perhaps because he has received something. Please remember that Bapak hopes that you will not be worried or frightened when faced with such an experience.

Eventually a time may come - Bapak hopes it will when your inner feelings will be very calm, widening, and happy. When this happens a question is bound to arise within you: "What is this that is happening to me?" At the same time you will receive an indication that it is the will of God that you should experience a condition or state from beyond this world, such as heaven, for instance; and this should make it clear to you that you cannot enter heaven unless you have experienced it beforehand, that you cannot reach the world of bliss if you have not found it while in this world, and that you will not succeed in seeing and meeting an angel, unless you have really come face to face with an angel in this life. Once you have had all these experiences you will, says Bapak, know a hundred percent without doubt whom you will meet and in which direction and where you will go.

As most of you here are Christians, you will later on come truly face to face with Jesus and you will also be able to feel what feelings he will be experiencing at that time, whether he is happy or not - these feelings will perceptibly be manifest in you. You will than be able to see for yourselves what a difference there is between Jesus and - say - a Mr. X. who may be a well-known speaker on spiritual matters. Thus you will no longer feel doubt or anxiety, for you will already have received within you a basic understanding of a precise and constant nature, from the One Almighty God.

And since all of you - it can be said - have just received the gift from God in the latihan, Bapak hopes that you will discard your previous thoughts and become convinced that God in his Omnipotence and Omniscience will put right all ills and faults within you, so that you will become holy and clean and be pardoned by God.
- - - read the complete talk - 59 OSL 3

Colombo, Sri Lanka - February 26, 1967
Code Number : 67 CMB 3
Of course you are not yet able to perceive, you cannot see that, even now, not only does God know that you are here, but there are thousands and thousands of angels among you witnessing this [talk]. You cannot see them. Why not? Because … [inaudible] your vision, your hearing, your sense of smell, your feelings and your thinking are still thickly covered by your desires – the desires of this world that are manipulated and controlled by low forces that are ever present on your left, on your right, behind and in front of you.

What Bapak just said is in keeping with what he told you the other day: that an angel can travel to the earth faster than light from the sun. If a train travelling at a hundred kilometres an hour traversed the distance sunlight has to travel, it would take that train a hundred and forty-four years. But an angel can travel here from the sun in fifteen seconds. Who is to say that angels are not here? [Bapak laughs.] They move faster than sunlight!
- - - read the complete talk - 67 CMB 3

Cilandak, Indonesia - August 15, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 7
We are told, brothers and sisters, that people will in actual fact be questioned by an angel. 'Well, how is it with you, man? You have now died, and are about to enter the world where you live after leaving the earth, the world of life after death. And do you know your sins and what is bad in your nature?' 'I don't understand', he says. 'If you don't understand, I'll tell you. God will not judge you or condemn you, but you yourself will pass sentence on yourself. And what is your true condition?'

( Testing )

So you need not keep hunting around for a dukun ( kind of witch-doctor ), hunting for someone who can foretell the future. It is not necessary. It is enough for you to worship God, because God is the source of all knowledge whatsoever. So, the angel will question the man. Then what will the man say in reply? 'Well! my neck feels very swollen.' So your neck will burst, because you were a glutton.
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Planegg, Germany - April 26, 1967
Code Number : 67 PLG 1
( Testing )

This is in line with what has been said in books that were written and disseminated by people who lived a long time ago. It is told in those books that at the beginning of time, before there was anything – which can be understood to mean a state of stillness, emptiness and silence, where there was no light, where nothing could be seen or heard and the world had not yet been filled – the will of God, it is said, created the heavens. God created seven heavens. The reason why God needed to create them was because God wanted to test the extent of His power, glory, majesty and greatness. So God created these heavens in a period of seven days, one day for each heaven. He started on Saturday, and this is why Saturday was sacred for human beings who lived a long time ago.

Then God wanted to form or create something that could witness what God’s creation was like. That is why God created angels, which were made out of light. The light that was fashioned into millions of angel is called ruh al-qudus in Islam. Once the angel existed, they were ordered by God to witness and inspect the heavens God had created. The angel did as God had ordered them and carried out their inspection, travelling through all the seven heavens. The outward journey took them fifty years, so the round trip lasted a hundred years. Hence God understood that the journey from the first heaven to the seventh and back to the first, where God dwells or exists, took the angel a hundred years, even though the speed at which the angel could cover a given distance was a thousand times the speed of the light of the sun that illuminates the earth. Scientists have calculated that this light reaches the earth in about seven minutes. So it is clear that the journey from God through the seven heavens, which took the angel a hundred years, would take the light of the sun a hundred times a thousand years, or a hundred thousand years.

Besides creating the heavens and the angels, God wished to create the contents of these heavens, including human beings. So God spoke to the angels. ‘How will it be for human beings? How will it be possible for them to come in front of Me, to come to Me, if it takes you angels, who are so fast, a hundred years to get here?’ For this reason, after God had created human beings out of earth, water, air and fire, God decreed that His will would be embodied in all creatures, including humans.

Then the angel said to God, ‘God, what sort of decree is this? God has created human beings out of earth, water, air and fire, and now He is making them superior to all of us angel who are made of light.’

It seems that the angel did not really believe God: that human beings could be faster than they were. So God said to them, ‘See what will happen later; you will witness the speed of human beings who have received my grace.’

It happened in actuality later on, with the resurrection of Christ, which took only three days. That was followed by the ascension of Muhammad. Muhammad was able to make the journey to God, leaving after the evening prayer at about half past seven and returning at half past four in the morning. Thus the angel realised that human beings, made as they are of earth, water, air and fire, could return to God faster than they – thanks to God’s gift and God’s grace.

So an angel, spurred on by jealousy, worked on this and said to Almighty God, ‘O God! I believe. I am not going to criticise You, nor prevent whatever is Your will. But I will always tempt human beings. When I tempt them it will not be possible for them to come to You in a short time.’ That is why only human beings who are patient, who really obey God, who are truly accepting and willing to let go, can travel faster than the angels. Human beings who are not like that in their reality and in their inner feeling are certain to be obstructed by the angel and cannot possibly succeed in coming to God in a short time.

Nevertheless, thanks to God’s justice – for God is All-just – God said, ‘All right, you may tempt human beings, but you cannot possibly succeed in tempting those who really trust and obey me. Therefore I will divide you angel into two groups: one group will tempt while the other facilitates. One group will be called members of heaven and the other, members of hell.’ That is what was said in this story.
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Colombo, Sri Lanka - Frebruary 23, 1967
Code Number : 67 CMB 1
Then, having made the seven heavens, God wanted to know, just as you would if you had made something: ‘Did I achieve what I set out to do?’ So, to witness God’s creation, to witness the reality of what God had created, God made from His will beings of light – the angels.

After God made the angels – or so it was told by those who could speak of such things, people who had received God’s grace – once God created the angels, God said to them, ‘Angels, go and witness, go and see what I have done. Start on the first, then go to the second, the third, until you reach the seventh level.’

In time, the angels obeyed and did what God had told them to do, and it took the angels fifty years to travel from the first level to the seventh level. It took the angels fifty years to visit all the levels, from the first to the seventh, and another fifty years to return. So, it took them a hundred years to complete their task.

And, just as the existence of the seven heavens that God created gave rise to human beings naming the seven days, when God simultaneously created and filled each heaven with natures having distinct forms – matter, plants, animals, human beings and the content of human beings, the soul – that make up a five-tiered structure, human beings came to name … well, Bapak doesn’t know if you do the same here, but in Java we have five market days: Wagé, Kliwon, Lêgi, Pahing, Pon.25 Now, if we add five to seven we get twelve. Then if we add one to twelve we get a total that is a holy number, a sacred number.

This is a story, and if you are a scientist and you can calculate the movement of the sun and the planets and the speed of light, you may be able to corroborate the story Bapak has just told you.

Now, to talk about light. angels are made of light; and those of you who have studied the planets and know how to calculate the power of the sun and the movement of the planets, say that light from the sun – like the light from which angels are made – travels from the sun to the earth in just fifteen seconds. That’s the time light takes to travel from the sun to the earth, or from the earth to the sun. If you were to make that same journey in a car travelling at a hundred kilometres per hour, or sixty miles per hour, it would take you one hundred and forty-four years to reach the sun.

If you compare the years, or the days or hours an angel takes to travel from the first heaven to the seventh heaven, with the time a human being would take to make the same journey, it is clear that it is impossible for a human being to travel from this planet to God’s presence, to the place where God is, to the throne of God. It is impossible for a human being to get there. This shows that the distance from human beings to God cannot be measured by calculations using the mind, or even by using the feelings.

This is why, for someone who does not believe in God, who does not believe in the power of God, ‘God’ is a meaningless term. Why is that? It is because of this problem; because it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend the distance from God to humankind, from humankind to God.

But from God’s point of view, God knows how difficult it is for a human being to approach God and that, according to the working of the human mind, it is impossible for a human being to do so, to travel such a distance to reach God. So, because of this problem, God asserted His power again and, using that power, God willed and God created yet another form of light. But this light is a light within light, an inner light that is called Nur al-Ghaib [Arab.].

This light – the light of life – is the sign of life. It is the sign that something is alive, because this light cannot be controlled by the desires,5 it cannot be controlled by the heart or mind, and it is given the term ruh ilahi [Arab.].

Of course, you want to know, ‘What is this light?’ I will tell you what it is. When you start your latihan, after you stand up, you feel a vibration of life. Islam terms this qadr ilham, the movement of life. At that moment you feel, ‘Oh, there is something inside me!’

That’s it! Each of you has received a grace from God; you have been touched by, and equipped with, an unlimited power. Bapak wants to add here, brothers and sisters, that you must be aware of what this is, and should receive it with a feeling of calmness, patience, acceptance and honesty. It is there because God willed it to be there, and that means it is that movement that is God’s will. In the latihan you receive a vibration, then you move without any intention, you move free of any wish or desire, you move without any forethought – that is God’s will manifesting inside you.

So great is God’s compassion for human beings, such is God’s love for human beings that, even though the distance is so great, human beings can still draw close to God … [inaudible].

After God had created the angels to monitor God’s creatures, so that the angels could check on you and record everything you do in this world, God’s will was placed inside you. This is why it is impossible for you to lie to God. This is why in the holy books – in the Veda and the Mahabharata, in the Bible and the Quran, in the Psalms and the Torah – it is said that even before a human being can ask God about their fate, God has already replied.

Why don’t people realise this? The reason is that when a human being prays to God, when someone asks God for help, it is only the mouth that asks, it is only words. It is just a wish from the heart. It is not from the soul, it does not come from the life that is the foundation of the person asking.

Now, the reason why Bapak began by illustrating the distance from the first heaven to the seventh heaven is to help you consider and give your mind some understanding of the distance between humankind and God, of the distance from this earth to the place where God is. And, so that you will realise it is impossible for you to go there with the physical body, it is only possible with this [gesture].

Brothers and sisters, you have heard how people are using rockets to go into orbit. They say they will go to the moon, although they haven’t got there yet. But if we compare the distance from here to the moon with, for instance, the distance between the first heaven and the seventh heaven – if we say that distance is equivalent to the distance from Jakarta to Ceylon [Sri Lanka] or from Ceylon to Jakarta – then to go from the earth to the moon is like going from here to the street.

Just to travel that short distance is extremely difficult for humans. They have to use this and that; the costs run into thousands, into millions. They may even die trying to get there – I just heard that three astronauts have died. Well, that is just to get to the moon; that’s not yet the sun, let alone the heavens, or even the first heaven. To get to the first heaven you first have to get past the Milky Way, and that is not even halfway.

Yet people are still so quick to say there is no God, that there is no power of God; they say that they don’t believe in God. It’s true, if we discuss God, that it is impossible to reach a conclusion, to gain any understanding. There can be no result, there can be no conclusion, and you cannot receive this unless it is with God’s help; unless it is by God’s will; unless it is from the power of God.

Meanwhile the requirement, the precondition for you to feel and receive this power within you, that the will of God is there inside you, is only that you have patience, acceptance and are willing to let go. The harder you try to study how to do this, the greater your desire to know, the more you will go backwards, the harder it will be for you to receive. But, if you don’t look for it, if you just have a feeling of patience, acceptance and willingness to let go, and you follow what you receive, it may prove easier for you to receive than to figure out how to make a table or a chair, and such like.

This is why Bapak keeps telling you, ‘Don’t try to use your mind, don’t try to think about this, don’t use your desires or will. And, what’s more, don’t quarrel with each other.’

I have heard that in many Subud groups the members quarrel with each other, and that they cannot get along with one another. Whereas in fact, with what you have received in Subud, with what you have received in the latihan, all you have to do is to have patience, acceptance and surrender, and to get along with one another.

The only way a person can reach God, the only way a person can receive God’s guidance, the only way someone can receive something that will bring them close to God, is by having patience, by having a clean feeling and by getting along with others. If you quarrel, if you cannot get along with other people, what’s the point? That kind of behaviour is obviously far from what God wants, and in the end the only thing you will receive is conflict and strife. Bapak has heard this is a problem everywhere.

So, even though God created the seven heavens and everything in them, and God created the angels to witness God’s work, to witness what God had done, God still monitors whatever God wills, whatever God decrees or orders to be done. So, God not only tests God’s own self, God also tests God’s creatures. ‘Did the angels really visit this world?’ ‘Did angels really visit all the heavens from the first to the seventh?’ ‘Are the reports angels make about humans true?’ God knows all this!

It is said that the age of the earth and the age of the heavens that God created, is seven million years. What’s more, according to God’s instruction or decree to human beings, this planet and the seven heavens will last for seventy million years. Well, this is based on the human Arialcale; it is based on the calculations of the human mind. But for God, it is not like that. For God, it has not been seven million years; it has been but seven days.

It is also said that, from the time God created the seven heavens until the time they end, God will always envelop the heavens He created. God will always rule them with His will, with the light of life, this light within light. So, if someone truly receives and follows God’s footsteps, if they follow God’s will and draw close to God, we can say that such a person will become eternal. Eternal means that they will not change until the end of time. This is what God wills for human beings; this is God’s will for all God’s creatures.
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Wolfsburg, Germany - June 17, 1975
Code Number : 75 WOB 9
It is said that the Latihan, or the Latihan Kejiwaan, means putting into practice the right way of living. The evidence that we have obtained in the Latihan Kejiwaan shows that we are really trained by a life force whose origins we do not even understand at first. This life force which touches the whole of your selves is the great life force which envelops you both inwardly and outwardly, and this great life force truly originates from the power of God. As for the life, which animates all beings and all creatures made by Him, Who is the One Almighty God, this is brought about by the life force or roh which Bapak described the day before yesterday, the roh ilofi, which is accompanied by the roh kudus.

In the history of religion, this is said to be like a ray of light, a flash of lightning. In the time of Moses it was a flash which struck the mountain, a kind of lightning. That is why the messengers of God have said that the light or flash of lightning was not a lightning flash of a thunderstorm. No, it was a lightning flash from an angel. So when it becomes visible to the physical eyes, the eyes in the head, the nature of the angels is like light, a kind of radiance. But if you are already able to see with your jiwa, it is not light but a reality. And this was the reality received and experienced by the messengers of God, including the prophet Muhammad, s.a.w. It is, without exaggeration, an enormously great being, one that is really frightening.
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This testing is also so as to bring you satisfaction, so that members who have been doing the latihan kedjiwaan for ten, eleven, twelve or thirteen years can feel the benefits of the latihan kedjiwaan of Subud.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. - May 5, 1972
Code Number : 72 WAS 1
Up to now Bapak feels and sees that you have not yet been able to feel that. What you feel may even be something rather strange, such as that you are spiritually superior, so that you are near to the angels; near to the angels or near to God, so that you are near to heaven or possess heaven. There are even some people who say "I am on a higher level than A or R. All that is really only fantasy. It is not like that, brother and sisters. How high and how far you may be in the latihan kedjiwaan is in the hands of the One Almighty God. You cannot make use of that for your requirements in life in this world. You are not going to get a spiritual diploma and then be able to work as the head of a department, for instance. No; nor is a spiritual diploma like a diploma in outer life.

It is clear that your kedjiwaan is not yet properly developed. If it were properly developed, the reverse would certainly be happening. Anyone who saw you would feel affection for you. Anyone who came near you would feel happy. It would be like listening to a very sweet song very inward. Or like being near to something that shone brightly, for instance. But at present it is actually not like that; it is even the opposite. It is as if when you try to approach someone that person even goes away. What is the reason ? After all, you are reasonably well dressed. Why, when you approach someone, does that person turn away ? They feel bored, as it were; not alarmed, but they feel touchy, ill at ease.

Thus everything is already clear to your own selves. Someone may, for instance, claim "I am really already almost like the angels. When I eat, I eat with the angels. Why do my friends and acquaintances nevertheless dislike me now, more and more as time goes on?" Obviously what he says about being almost like an angel is not true. He is not close to the angels; he is close to the devils. That is why his friends and other people do not like him.
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Tunbridge Wells, England - September 16, 1979
Code Number : 79 TBW 1
It is said that at the time of the ascension of the prophet Muhammad he heard a voice. The voice that was heard by the prophet Muhammad was a thousand or a million times as loud as the sound of thunder, so it was about a thousand times louder than an atom bomb. He asked the angel Gabriel: 'What is that shattering sound?'

'If you wish to know, oh prophet, that is the voice of the earth, where the prophet Muhammad has always lived.'

Oh yes, brothers and sisters, that is true. Even the sound of the Concorde breaks one's ears and much more so the sound of the earth. But why is it that you do not hear the sound of the earth? It is because you are inside it. Thus if you are inside the center of a wheel which is turning very fast, you do not feel it turning, but it is as if you were still. Well, that is how it is. Thus human beings cannot hear the sound of the earth's movement because they are inside it.

So obviously, brothers and sisters, human beings cannot even hear the voice of the earth, let alone the voice of God, Who created this earth. That is something which can be considered as an ilmiah, a scientific fact comparable to the facts of your own science. That is why the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is like something ordinary and normal. Then people ask, 'Is this Subud an inner latihan?' - 'No.' - 'Is it an outer latihan?' - 'No.' But it is both, outer and inner, inner and outer. Thus what you receive in the latihan is a training for life. It is not a training for death. No, it is a training for life, so that you will live both in this world and after you have left this world. Only the life of this body will of course disappear, brothers and sisters, because it is full of the things of this world. But what is it that will live on? It is your jiwa.

Thus Bapak says that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is as if willed by God, so that your jiwas, your souls, will live. Will the life of your soul be the same as your life in this body? No. It will be what you have more or less experienced in the latihan kejiwaan, where you experience its mystery. You really feel that this is how you feel in the jiwa also. Indeed. This is what the prophet Muhammad experienced in his mi'raj, his ascension. The mi'raj meant that God willed that he should ascend to heaven, up to the seventh and the ninth heavens. The Arabs say that he made this ascension in his body. No, it was not in his body. His body was asleep at that time. Those sleeping beside him could feel that this body that he left behind him was still warm. Thus when the prophet Muhammad was summoned by God, it was not his body but his jiwa that was called. Why was the prophet Muhammad able to understand with his jiwa? It was because his jiwa was already purified, so that the jiwa of the prophet Muhammad really retained his ability to feel. That is what Bapak just now called karso, roso and kuasa. The kuasa or power is from God; karso is that which comes from God and exists within the self; and roso is the feeling of what God has created. Thus, when you die, brothers and sisters, that will not be the end of you. No; after the latihan you are alive.

Further, there are illustrations of this. Skilled mediums, experts in spiritualism, sometimes get in touch with people who committed suicide or who were executed by hanging. They find that these people who were hanged or who killed themselves are still alive. They groaned and cried out with pain when they were hanged or killed themselves, and they are still like that, groaning and crying out with pain, even though people say that once one is dead that is the end of one. That is what they say, but in fact the dead still feel, and so it is that feeling that suffers. That is why the prophet Muhammad himself said that hell exists and heaven exists. And Christ himself also said that hell exists and heaven exists. Thus someone who behaves badly and who takes the wrong path - a sinner - will find a place in hell, which is a place of torment; that is, he will be tormented by his own nafsu. You cannot say that when someone kills himself that is the end of the matter. For instance, someone finds life too hard, too difficult, and he is always in trouble, so he kills himself. With what can he kill himself?. By what means can he destroy his life? No; on the contrary, that is to begin a continual suffering which will last until eventually this earth is destroyed, and no-one can say how many thousands and millions of years more that will be.
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Wisma Subud, Jakarta - March 18, 1979
Code Number : 79 CDK 8
Now, looking at our brothers and sisters here in Java, one of their qualities or propensities is to be too easily influenced by stories or fairy-tales. For instance, there is a story in Java that the temple of Borobodur was built by a holy man in a very short time. Another story tells that the temple of Rorajungang was built in only one night by a holy man. These of course are symbols because such things can not really happen. If it were possible for someone to build a temple like that in one night, then there would still be people in the world who could do it; but it is obvious that there are not. So it is clear that these are only symbols.

Similarly there is a story of Jokatingur who, it is said, came down the river to Damak riding on a bamboo boat. On the way he was held up by some crocodiles, but because he was able to overcome the crocodiles, they helped him by pushing his boat to Damak. In another story Jokaturu managed to find himself a wife who was an angel from heaven. So it is clear that all these stories actually have a meaning that you can only find through the kejiwaan.

Now Bapak wants to test you on such matters. Bapak calls especially S, B. and the other members of the Secretariat to see whether you are yet capable of finding out the secret meaning in things where the meaning is not clear. (Testing.)

The real meaning of Bandbondwasa is that Bandung is "much" bondo is "strength" and wasa is "authority". So the meaning of this name is that this temple was built with extraordinary, giant strength. It was not built by one man, but by thousands, because it is patently impossible for one man to build such a temple. And this is therefore the sign that all these stories are only symbols. Our brothers and sisters in Java are too easily influenced by these symbols, or by a belief in the unseen or the occult. What we are taught in the latihan is to live in a normal way, to live as normal human beings.

For example, if someone, a has magic amulets - which are very common in Java - or some magic secret for making them look beautiful, to give them strength or invincibility, or make them bullet-proof or something like that - when they are opened in the latihan they lose all these things; these things no longer have any power. This shows that the latihan kejiwaan is truly proof against magic and the influence of the occult world, let us say. We are taught in the latihan to be normal, to use our normal faculties as human beings. Having explained this, Bapak would like to test again.

( Testing )

How can God understand that you are worshipping Him if you yourself do not understand the content of your worship? God will never give man understanding that he is not capable of receiving. ( Bapak sings )

This is also why when people read holy books they are not allowed to do it silently, but are asked to do it out loud. ( Bapak continues to sing )

It is a pity that Bapak is old, so his instrument for receiving this is cracked. But you are still young, so Bapak wants to hear you. Follow what Bapak is singing, don't just listen. That will get rid of your fanaticism. It's not only man who worships God but every creature that God has created. The crowing of a cock is its worship of God, if man could only understand it. The meowing of a cat is its worship of God if man could only understand it. ( Bapak continues to sing )

Nothing can make known the secrets of life other than God Almighty. Therefore, have confidence and faith in yourself and in Almighty God so that you may be shown things that you do not know.

Jokotarup means "bridegroom"; that's the meaning of his name. And he also symbolizes a man who likes to use a blow-pipe. ( Testing ) It seems that B's blow-pipe is a bit scary. (Laughter.) Then he enters the jungle, in the story, and there he finds a lot of angels bathing. Angels symbolize women. It seems that there is not enough water in heaven; it's not only here in Jakarta that we are short of water but up there in heaven too. ( Laughter ) So, because the water supply in heaven wasn't adequate, the angels came down to earth to bathe here. ( Testing )

There is a saying here that when a woman has a daughter, and then a son and then a daughter again, this is a fountain between two lakes. When she has a son and then a daughter and then a son, then it is said there is a lake between two fountains. So what does the lake mean? ( Testing )

It's obvious what the lake symbolizes. From this Bapak says that obviously all these stories are entirely symbolic. It should be possible for us through the latihan kejiwaan to reach an understanding of all these symbols so that we don't become people who just believe anything they hear, people who have faith in whatever people tell them.
- - - read the complete talk - 79 CDK 8

San Francisco, CA U.S.A. - December 6, 1977
Code Number : 77 SFO 4
That is the reason why in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud you are all really stripped bare. Then there will be moments when you are able to receive instruction and guidance from your own self. There will be moments when your own self will reprove you. This is how it is. This is what is called the judgment of Allah, of God. Thus, over there, after you have left this world, it is your own self that will punish you for the things that you yourself have done. That is why movement in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is spontaneous, in order for you to be able to correct your own self. Yes, someone may say, 'God forgive me for my sins'; he may say that, but in fact he is deceiving himself. He says this quite sincerely, and outwardly he is worshipping, but inwardly he is abusing the One Almighty God. God knows this. Who is there who is willing and able to criticize his own self and to justify others? There is no-one, except when the power of God has been manifested in the self of that person, so that the manifestation of God in his self will rebuke that person for his own wrong-doing. This is how it is.

That is why Bapak always tells you to be careful, brothers and sisters, because you must not look upon everything in which there are spontaneous movements as being like Subud. This can happen, and there are other people who move without their own intention, as happens in Subud, but what is moving them? They cannot yet know. Well, this is how it is, brothers and sisters, and this is why Bapak always advises you to do your latihan kejiwaan sincerely, so that you will reach its possible limits and so that you will know who and what is moving you in this latihan kejiwaan of Subud. You will also know which movements are not like those in Subud, and which movements are false.

Bapak recently illustrated this. In Iran, in the Arab world itself, there are what are called the Sufis, who also move like this. When they have finished reading or reciting from the holy books, they beat on tambourines and chant 'La ilaha ilallah, la ilaha ilallah, la ilaha ilallah. ' This is in Arabia itself. Then they stand up and they feel that their movements come from the power of God, but they are from the impact of what they have been reading. Of what books is that the content? They are various books, brothers and sisters, which tell about angels and all sorts of things. Bapak once received a letter from England, from a Subud member, but a Pakistani. He was a Muslim; he could even be called a fanatical Muslim. He knew the contents of all the holy books and the Koran. But he was just reading, and he did not understand the content of what he read. Then he joined Subud and did latihan after latihan, so that what he had read was there in the latihan. Then he was pursued by the angels about whom he had been reading all the time. He seems to have been very frightened when they chased him, and he sent a letter to Bapak asking to stop being in Subud.

'Well, so you are asking to stop being in Subud? But when you came into Subud, was it Bapak who told you to be opened or who opened you?'

'No, it was someone else who opened me, but it was a Subud member. Please take Subud away from me, so that I shall not be frightened any more when these angels come after me.'

'Those are the angels about whom you were always reading.'

Well, brothers and sisters, of course you want to know what God is like, but if you really did know God you would be not just frightened but you would be dead. Yes, brothers and sisters. Just the sound of a cannon, the sound of an atom bomb, is unbearable to human beings. How much more unbearable is the sound of the earth moving, whereas the journey to God is more than the movement of the earth. Your ears could not bear to hear the sound of the earth moving. Yes, even the sound of the Concorde is no small thing, let alone the earth. This is how it is.

Well, this is how it is, brothers and sisters, so you should not want to see all sorts of things; want to see angels and so on. You must not do that. angels are not of the same kind as you. No, these are just stories that Bapak is telling you, nothing else; for you they are just stories, whereas Bapak knows them. The small angels -yes, one might call them small angels , child angels - if these small angels played ball, this earth would be like their ball. The earth would be like a ball for them if they played ball, and they would kick it about. For although the Himalayas are high, the angels are taller still. Yes, and they are not to be counted in single figures, but in millions, brothers and sisters. So if you are wanting to see angels , don't. If you knew an angel, you would die. Yes, this is how it is. So you have to be trained first. No guru, no leader, would dare to say: 'Try to join in the way the angels dance in heaven.' No-one would dare, brothers and sisters. Thus the latihan is really a latihan sukma, a spiritual training, a training of the content of the self. If he were untrained, the teacher would disappear if he saw that. Think how it was yesterday in the latihan, when there was someone who screamed and screamed, quite involuntarily; yes, without wanting to do it, but being obliged to. But people do not yet know what this is, because this is only just like that. They can be said to be moved, to be made to scream, but they do not know what that screaming is or what makes them scream. If they did know, they might not just scream, but they might even die. Then people might think that this latihan kejiwaan was a latihan of death. But it is not like that; on the contrary, Bapak says it is the opposite. It is the latihan of life, so that although it is not possible for living people to know this mystery, you can feel, while you are still alive, what is your state in death. In the latihan kejiwaan of Subud you will be able to feel this. If you can truly worship God, you will really be able to feel it, even in your ordinary life in this world.
- - - read the complete talk - 77 SFO 4

Bapak's last talk - 29th night of Ramadhan.
Wisma Subud, Jakarta - May 27, 1987
Code Number : 87 CDK 5
( Testing )

There are still a lot of you with whom it's not yet one hundred percent clear. But still, you are already able to receive something through your movements, at least.

Again. And don't think about this. Show where and what are the angels? Where are they and what are they? Where are they?

The angels of God join with and separate from God's creatures. So don't imagine that they do not know the state of each one of God's creatures, one by one, individually. For this reason, behave and act as well as you possibly can during your life in this world. How should you be toward the angels? If an angel sees you acting and behaving rightly as you should, how will you feel within yourself at that moment?

( Testing )

The latihan is actually full of every form of culture and knowledge. Through the latihan you will not only get to know your fellow human beings, and get to know angels, but even you will get to know Almighty God when the time finally comes for that. That is why people of old used to say not to feel sad if some sorrow or misfortune befalls you, nor to feel happy when you experience some good fortune. Let your own jiwa be your guide and give you the reality.

Don't let there be too many gaps between the times when you are praising Almighty God. ( Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. ) Because repeating the name of God within yourself will put aside, will chase away every kind of sadness and every kind of obstacle within your heart.
- - - read the complete talk - 87 CDK 5

Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo

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