Santiago De Chile, Chile - April 15, 1959
Code Number : 59 SCL 3

Broadly speaking, the committee's work is to keep records, to know how many members there are and their circumstances, and to raise the money for renting a building to provide a space for doing the latihan. Eventually, you will also need to set up or create a business enterprise, a body for making money to pay for all the needs of our community here. This is so that you do not burden the members. There have been instances where members who have no money found it a real burden to pay a contribution whenever they came to latihan. The result was that they stopped coming to the latihan because they felt ashamed or disappointed that they could not fulfil their obligations.

You can collect the capital for setting up this enterprise from the whole membership. Then, later, you can distribute the profits of the enterprise to those who have contributed capital, and use the remainder for the needs of Subud - for renting premises and other needs. If the enterprise gets bigger and becomes really profitable, you will feel pleased because you will be able to build a building according to your own design and wishes. You can make the building so that it will accommodate a latihan place that will really be sufficient for your needs.

Also you, or we, will eventually be able to create schools and welfare institutions. Of course that will require a great deal of money, but we will be able to establish them, because we have put our effort into our enterprise in the way Bapak has described. So, Subud, this community of ours, will work and do good deeds for God. We will do good deeds for humanity and for God. We will be working in this world and in the life after death.

Worldly matters and money are generally considered to be unimportant in worshipping God. They are not considered to be a means that enables us to be firm and true in our worship. However, the evidence is that your worldly needs are a tremendous obstacle that stands your way, preventing you from worshipping God sincerely.

In truth, if you create an enterprise, and a welfare institution for the general public, you are helping your country. You are lightening the burdens of your country, and you are really serving society. Moreover, you are serving the greatness of God whom we always worship.
. . . read the complete Talk - 59 SCL 3

New York, NY U.S.A. - May 7, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 3

As Bapak told the members in Mexico and other places, the committee should raise the capital needed to set up this body or enterprise collectively, co-operatively from all the members. And while money you make from this enterprise - the profit - will of course go to those members, a portion should be given to our organization so that the finances of our association will be solid and cover our various expenses.

Chicago, Illinois U.S.A. - June 25, 1959
Code Number : 59 CHI 3

In fact, the committee ought to start something to support the stability and strength of your group here - meaning some kind of business or enterprise. This is not just to provide personal income ( to those who work in it ), but to lessen the ( financial ) burden on your group here. It also puts into practice the truth that while worshipping God we are able really to work and use our strength like normal human beings living in the world.

Denver, Colorado U.S.A. - June 30, 1959
Code Number : 59 DEN 1

In other places Bapak has suggested the committee should find the means to set up a commercial enterprise that can make a profit. This profit can be used for the needs of our Subud community, so we can own our own building for doing latihan here; we can also create a school staffed by Subud members, who will be able to know the right field of work for each child in the school and guide them towards it.

Coombe Springs, England - August 9, 1959
First Subud world congress
Code Number : 59 CSP 1

( Bapak ) Yes. Those ways can be considered in the various places -of course they are all different. But the ways to raise ( the money ) is something you can all discuss.

However, Bapak feels that rather than doing something like Leger des Heils ( Du. ) and such ( movements ) do, relying only on contributions - Bapak doesn't agree with that - it would be better to try and earn money in all these various places by setting up an enterprise. The capital for the enterprise can be obtained from all the members; not from outsiders but from our own members.

The committees should give the lead, so that the members can work, can do something that will bear fruit for their lives. Then each of them can become aware of how a person works. In that way we shall show that, besides working like other people, we in Subud do not neglect to worship God. So it can truly be said that Subud does not attach importance only to the life after death, but that we also consider our life in this world to be important.

Coombe Springs, England - August 14, 1959
Bapak's fifth talk at the first Subud international congress
Code Number : 59 CSP 6

When we engage in making money, we may look the same as others similarly engaged, but the reality is different. The others are in fact influenced and used by the money, whereas we are not. We deal with money but we are not used by it; it is we who are using the money.

In Indonesia Bapak has set up enterprises in various fields, such as banking and so on. These do not use the name of Subud, but each of them includes Dharma in its name. For instance, the Subud Bank is called Mestika Dharma, and the trading company Karya Dharma. So their names are different. It should be like that; Subud should not be involved in commerce. You can find names that are linked to Subud, but outwardly there is a separation. Bapak therefore agrees that a different name should be used so the enterprise doesn't involve the name of Subud - which in reality is the worship of God. But there should be a close link with Subud, and this can be written into the statutes and by-laws of the enterprise. For instance, there could be an article that says a certain percentage of the profit will go to the Subud organization. In this way the enterprise remains connected to Subud.

Garstang, England - September 20, 1959
Code Number : 59 GRS 1

As for the work the committee needs to do: as Bapak explained at Congress, apart from organising the local members the committee needs to prepare an enterprise that can make money to contribute to Subud funds. Then Subud can become financially strong and able to finance the future needs of the group; for instance, sending helpers to other places, building your own building, establishing schools, hospitals and so on. Of course, all these undertakings will require quite a lot of money. You will not be able to raise the money from contributions alone; you have to do it by means of an enterprise established by the committee. By establishing such enterprises you may be able to obtain more money or income to strengthen the Subud cash-flow in your various localities.

So Bapak’s suggestion to the committee, that they should prepare profitable enterprises, is not for pursuing profit or pursuing money. No. But it is to be able to accommodate our own members who are stranded and cannot find a job. Also, we can combine the skills of members so they can create an enterprise that will be really profitable for themselves and for Subud members in general. Like… [to interpreter] yes, just this much for now.

Capital will certainly also be a problem. We can obtain it, as Bapak has already talked about in the Congress: that is, Subud will prepare the capital needed for the organisation – for the enterprises of the committee – in the first instance by setting up an international Subud bank, whose headquarters will be in New York. This can be discussed later; you can deal with it later. It is the responsibility of the committee members, who need to think about it.

Birmingham, England - September 27, 1959
Code Number : 59 BHX 2

As for the work of the committee, perhaps some of you here may have heard Bapak’s explanations or answers at the recent Congress: namely, that the work of the committee is not only to maintain records concerning the situation of the members here, and not only to organise the bookkeeping for contributions or to make arrangements for renting a building or premises, for example. It’s not only that. If possible, the committee should set up a business enterprise that will produce income, and the income can contribute to the Subud funds, so that Subud finances become strong. In this way Subud can eventually build its own building here, and pay the costs of helpers who have to go out of town to open whoever needs to be opened. It can also set up a building to take care of those who are mentally ill, if they need to be opened, as well as other things in the field of social welfare; for instance, schools and so on.

And that body – the enterprise to be established – will also be able to employ members who do not have a job, so we can help our own members who are in need. So the purpose of establishing the enterprise is not only to create an income to make the finances of Subud sound, so that there is enough for all that is needed, but also to provide jobs for members who are out of work. It is also to get us used to being able to work as normal people without neglecting our worship of God, as Bapak explained to you last night. So, Subud – all of you – can be harmonious in your soul and harmonious outwardly; that is, in your feeling and your body. We can really become people who are in harmony with one another outwardly, as regards our coarse physical body, and also as regards our soul or our fine body.

Nice, France - December 30, 1959
Code Number : 59 NCE 1

Furthermore, Bapak suggests and hopes that through buying or renting a building, the committee will start a business enterprise, the profits of which will lighten the burden of all the members who come to latihan. Then they will not just expect contributions from the members, enabling those of you who cannot always afford to give money still to come to the latihan.

And the enterprise we set up, besides making some profit to help our Subud funds, can also provide work for those of our members who do not have a job. Then Subud will truly be a help inwardly and outwardly; that is to say, it can help the soul and it can help the coarse, physical body.

Baurú, Brazil - June 1, 1963
Code Number : 63 BAU 2

The committee also needs to make an effort to make a lot of money for the needs of the local community; if there is a real need to help provide housing for poor people, for example. This is the field of philanthropy, and Bapak has seen that you have already started with this. The committee needs to create an enterprise that can make a profit, which can be divided between fulfilling the needs of Subud – the Subud association – and providing philan-thropic help in the community.

So the committee has to take care of the needs of the group as well as, for example, creating schools and places of refuge for the community. This sort of action will show the reality of the principles and aims of Subud. In outline, the principles and aims of Subud are serving God and also serving the community, serving humanity. So it is appropriate if, besides worshipping God, Subud also practises philanthropy.

By setting up an enterprise that makes a profit, the committee can augment or make up any shortfall in the contributions of the members. Bapak heard of a place where Subud members were ashamed to come to latihan because they could not pay their contribution. Please pay attention to this, so that it doesn’t happen here that people do not come just because they cannot pay.

Rio De Janeiro - June 14, 1963
Code Number : 63 RIO 5

For Bapak has observed that many members do not come to latihan because they cannot pay their contribution, and so they feel embarrassed to come any more. As far as we can, we should make sure that this does not happen. In order to make it possible for those of limited means to come to latihan, the committee needs to set up an enterprise to provide an income to meet this kind of shortfall. Then our Subud community can develop well.

Bandung, Indonesia - October 31, 1966
Code Number : 66 BDO 1

This is what I am recommending to the committee: not to be slow and not to wait. Now is the time to begin to be enterprising. However, Bapak’s advice to you is that the business right now where there is no risk – where you will not lose even if you do not gain, at the very least you will break even – is in the field of agriculture, as Bapak has just described. In fact you are more likely to make a profit than not, because land will become more and more valuable with time. Houses and clothes, on the other hand, wear out with time.

If you say that you have nothing, then it is true, you have nothing. But if you start something, then you will certainly have something. You can do it. In other words, get used to working for yourself. Suppose you still have a job, this [enterprise] can be a sideline. Furthermore, besides providing funds for the group, your enterprise can also provide work for members who do not have a job.

Colombo, Sri Lanka - February 24, 1967
Code Number : 67 CMB 2

And Bapak also expects, because in the end everything comes down to our material needs or money … so Bapak recommends that the chair and the committee start a business or enterprise. This enterprise will earn money that will contribute to and strengthen the group finances, the money available to the committee. We will never have enough for our needs if we depend on donations and subscriptions. So, the committee needs to take the initiative to start a business to strengthen the financial position of the group and the Subud association here.

If you start an enterprise, if the committee members start a business, the money won’t just benefit Subud and strengthen the group finances. You can also to some extent help members who are unemployed, by giving them work. In doing this you will learn to work based on your own resources; you will learn to stand on your own feet.

What is more, you will learn how to work, not out of self-interest, but for the common good. As your enterprise grows, the bigger it gets, eventually you – or the national committee here in Ceylon – will be able to build schools to educate poor children, and a hospital for sick people. There the sick will be treated and cared for by Subud doctors. If they are treated by doctors who do the latihan, the sick will receive treatment based on two powers: the power of knowledge as taught in medical schools, and the power of Almighty God.

But you cannot do charitable work and build Subud houses if you depend on contributions, if you receive only monthly subscriptions from members. You will not be able to do any of this if you are not willing to work, if you do not start an enterprise to generate the money needed to build halls, and so on.

Bapak himself has started an enterprise, so that his enterprise can be an example for you, both in the spiritual sense and the material sense. In reality, Bapak is very busy, he has too much to do looking after the spiritual needs of the members, and yet God still requires him to deal with worldly matters. Well, Bapak has to follow and go along with what God instructed, so he bought some land – a farm enterprise – the total area being 975 hectares. [During Usman’s translation Bapak adds: ‘It may be bigger than Colombo!’]

Now, Bapak did not buy this to get rich, he doesn’t need more money. He is satisfied if he has enough to eat. Bapak has done this to be able to build Subud houses in places outside Jakarta. The members in Surabaya, Malang, Bandung, Cirebon, Solo, Jogjakarta, Makassar and Medan all need Subud houses. We have to think about how they can have a place for latihan. What is more, members in those places need to be shown how to set up their own enterprises too, to generate money. In this way Subud will grow large, it will grow strong.

Johannesburg, South Africa - March 19, 1967
Code Number : 67 JNB 4

Of course, if we are to devote energy to charitable work or social work we need money; we need all kinds of things that we cannot hope to cover from contributions. That is clear. Money from contributions will never be enough for us to set up or run charitable projects. For that reason, the committee or the organisation should set up a vehicle, which Bapak calls a Subud enterprise. Naturally those Subud members you appoint to run it should be good at that kind of thing; and the capital will be raised from the members, according to how much the experts think is needed to run the project.

This Subud enterprise will produce the funds needed to finance the association. And once the association is well financed, because of the growth of the enterprise the committee has established, funds can be used not only to buy or rent houses, halls, or places for latihan, but also to establish firstly, schools; secondly, hospitals; and thirdly, homes for the elderly. Even if those facilities already exist and are run by the government, it would still be a good thing for Subud to help out, contribute to and support the government’s programmes. For if we do that, Subud will be an organisation whose members worship God while not neglecting to care for other human beings in the process; in other words, we practise charity.

If we do that, the Subud association will be a charitable organisation. And as far as Bapak knows, charitable organisations can get preferential treatment from their governments, firstly on donations, and secondly by reducing, avoiding or eliminating import or excise duties that are levied on the members’ projects, on Subud enterprises. Then it is possible that the Subud association will grow and develop faster, and it will become a model for society at large.

To support this point: because Subud in Indonesia is recognised by the government as a social organisation, shipments sent from abroad to Subud, to Bapak, are exempt from the duties which would normally be levied.

Speaking further about how it will be if a Subud enterprise succeeds in establishing or building a school, a hospital, and so on, take the school: of course, it will need to employ teachers. And, as far as possible, the people who teach at the school should be doing the latihan. The teachers, who will have been opened and have enough experience, will be able to test and find out about each child’s nature. Then the children studying at the school can find their true direction, and they will not get lost in life or misdirected, or take a wrong turn.

London, England - April 2, 1967
Code Number : 67 LON 6

Christopher Gardiner: Bapak, the next question concerns enterprises. I have explained here, Usman, what the situation is: that under English law a charity such as Subud UK or the Trust cannot trade directly, because this is business and not charitable organisation. However, the Trust has powers to invest money in Subud enterprises, or any commercial enterprises. We have had in this country considerable difficulty in starting Subud enterprises to make money for the brotherhood, and we would be very grateful for the opportunity to have Bapak’s advice on how these enterprises should be initiated, and perhaps for some of us who have been concerned with enterprises to explain to Bapak what the difficulties have been in this country.

Bapak: It is the same in Indonesia. That is why enterprises need to be done by the members, not the organisation. Like in Indonesia: not Subud enterprises, but Subud members’ enterprises.

Because we are on a spiritual path, we know how to find work that will not cause all sorts of problems. If we are truly aware that we in Subud are one, we will not do anything that will make someone unhappy or harm others.

Of course, in the articles of any member’s enterprise there will be a clause that specifies that a certain percentage of the profit is to be a charitable donation to the organisation. And for a Subud member’s enterprise, their taxes will be reduced since they are making this charitable donation. So the enterprise is outside of the organisation, but the people in it are all [Subud] members. We have to be intelligent about it.

Tokyo, Japan - July 27, 1967
Code Number : 67 TYO 8

THE Congress decided to establish an organization to be known as Subud Technical Specialists. This was to be a pool of technical expertise among Subud members all over the world, who, if organized, could share their knowledge and skill with others, particularly in developing countries. Bapak explained that S.T.S. should be a service organization which would contribute something from the Subud Brotherhood to the betterment of conditions in the world.

Bapak said that enterprises undertaken by or between some of these specialists might be referred to as General Technical Services, a name which would not include the name of Subud. Any enterprise among Subud members was to be known in the future as "An enterprise of a Subud member" and not as "A Subud enterprise".

Ibrohim Clark was first Director Of S.T.S. until April 1968. Later the headquarters was moved to London and Wolfsburg. "General Technical Services" is the name of lbrohim's enterprise.

Cilandak, Indonesia - August 10, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 6

This is why Bapak suggested what has now been done: that our Brotherhood of Susila Budhi Dharma should set up a bank, a Subud World Bank for you all.

Apart from enabling you later on to give help to members everywhere who want to set up enterprises, this will also accustom you to doing your daily work ( which is not as a rule accompanied by the worship of God ) in such a way that God's Power is always with you, accompanying you.

So do not feel that setting up a Subud Bank will hinder your progress in worshipping the One God. In fact, this constitutes the real way for jiwa and body, inner and outer, to keep in balance.

By the grace and bounty of God, you will thus come to have firm faith in Him; whether fully engaged in doing your daily work or unoccupied, you will never be separated from your worship of Almighty God.

This is why God and His Power are said to be everywhere, filling and enveloping not only your own world but also the worlds of all those creatures of whom you do not yet know.

Bapak is explaining a little about this so that you may really be enthusiastic about setting up a bank, to provide the help we so much hope to be able to give to members who undertake enterprises, and to keep you from falling into a state of poverty and feebleness.

For their poor and feeble state is also why so many members of our Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud who have lost ground are not restored to a good condition. They lose ground not only because adequate explanations from the helpers are not forthcoming, but also because of economic problems in their daily lives.

This is something we have to overcome, so that it cannot happen. To do this is the way to be both inwardly and outwardly strong in standing before Almighty God Who has created us all.

Cilandak, Indonesia - November 9, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 20

Our actions will show the results of the fasting. They are the test of how far we are able to act and behave in accordance with God’s will. It is our actions that will proof that. Bapak has encouraged every member to take part in enterprise. This is then to experience and to put into practice. Certainly, some people will fail. What we do in the outer life is not always successful. Those failures we should regard as a test, as an experience. We find then the truth and know how to be successful in the future We might fall twice. Do not fail then to do something else, start again. Finally we fully succeed. It is certain that we will eventually succeed, because we have learned before. If a person marries somebody and this marriage is unsuccessful, it is not right to divorce. If the first marriage doesn’t work out, the second will not work out either. The failure might be the truth for that person. We should be attentive to what we’ve done wrong and start again.

We must show in the outer life what we have received. The spiritual side only leave to God. It is the work of Almighty God. Just do the latihan and receive. We must show that we are able to work in our outer life in accordance with God s guidance. For the ladies: they should try to do something to enable them to test how they can live. The ladies should get together. They might cook something. They might form a society to cook something. Open a restaurant to be shown the right way to work in accordance with God’s guidance with harmony between each other. How to be united in their feelings. The ladies should try something to give reality to what Bapak advises us. The Subud bank is a way to fulfill our outer life, to provide what is necessary. Pay attention to the bank and fully support it. Buy shares. Bapak has bought a big share to make the bank a power to provide funds for enterprises. When the bank is strong, there in no reason why the Subud bank should not be strong, and our enterprises are an example, then we might give charitable help. So we do not only fulfill our life here and the hereafter, but it will be generally known that Subud is a strong and helpful power. How much happier and complete can be the life of people accompanied by God, when there are already so many prosperous people outside of Subud.

Auckland, New Zeland - April 7, 1972
Code Number : 72 AKL 2

Because of that you, or we, are able to grasp what is the will of God, which is that we or you should be able to fulfill our life, as Bapak has just said; that is, to worship God with one’s jiwa and to serve one’s life in this world with heart and brain and thinking. And this second duty, to look after one’s life so long as one is living in this world, of course requires you to use your heart and your brain, your feeling and your thinking, so that feeling and thinking do not come to a standstill and harden like stone, unable to do anything or to work at all. It is for this reason, and so that your hearts and brains, your feeling and thinking, can receive what their job is and what task they should be doing, that Bapak proposes to all of you that you should undertake some effort, some enterprise. In order to carry out such an enterprise properly, of course you need capital. That is why we Subud members are establishing a bank which can be called a world bank, with the name of Sinar Kencana Mulia.

It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that we have now already advanced a step or two ahead of where we were before. Now, besides carrying out our worship of the One Almighty God for the sake of our jiwa, we are also taking steps to improve our outer life, so that our situation or your situation can be a happy one for both jiwa and body, both for your jiwa or the content of your life and for your mind, your nafsu and your feelings.

Bapak knows, brothers and sisters, that each country has its own regulations, and some of these regulations are strict and some are not so strict. But if you really become interested in this matter of the bank, and if you are interested in the advancement of our Subud brotherhood, you will also be truly convinced that it is the One Almighty God Who guides us, Who is able to open the way for it, so that now, brothers and sisters, it is easy to transfer money out of the various countries.

Vancouver, Canada - April 22, 1972
Code Number : 72 YVR 2

And fulfillment in worldly matters is to be able to satisfy your needs thoroughly while you live on earth, by making use of intelligence and thought.

This is how it is, brothers and sisters, so that Bapak feels it is indeed very important for you to be able to carry out these two obligations: the first, to worship; and the second, to fulfill the requirements of life in this world. What Bapak is putting before you all is for the fulfillment of the needs of earthly life, in order that you may quickly summon up a strong and earnest desire to establish enterprises. Some of you, of course, are already at work in a government job or in some business firm, but there are also still some members who are not working and who have not yet worked. It is very necessary that members who are not working should be stimulated to carry on enterprises.

From what Bapak has heard, first in Australia and then in America, you still seem to be acting independently of one another in carrying on enterprises. Although it can be done in that way, that is not what Bapak intends. The enterprises Bapak means are joint enterprises, undertaken jointly between you, not by just one or two people only but by a lot of people forming a company, an NV ( Naamlooze Venoots-chap ) or PT ( Perseroan Terbatas ), a Limited Company, which can really be seen to have adequate capital. That means establishing an enterprise with a lot of members working together, collecting a large amount of capital. In this way the enterprises you carry on will really be able to strengthen Subud. If you carry on an enterprise by yourself, according to your own wishes - selling something or other, for instance - then, although that too is a very good effort and could really be the start of a business that might also prove successful, you will not be bound by a regulation stating that so much per cent must be put into the funds of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud.

Nor could such a business be connected with the bank we are going to establish. The bank we shall establish will exist in order to provide capital for the enterprises you set up - enterprises in a big way, that is: a PT if it is in Indonesia, a maatschappy if it is here, or in English a limited liability company. So not enterprises on a small scale - not retailing. Yes, you may do that just for practice; but if you can, let it be something big.

Now Bapak will explain a little. It is more possible here than in Indonesia, and a large number of the members here have already had experience, even though they may still be employees, even though they may be working for the government or for some maatschappy or business undertaking. In Indonesia we set up a maatschappy, a PT; that is, a Perseroan Terbatas or Limited Company. A company of this sort has to have capital of course - perhaps at least ten or fifteen million dollars. That is no small sum. This is what Bapak intends, brothers and sisters. And enough capital for that can be obtained from the bank we are establishing; that is, the Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank. This will later be able to provide capital for your businesses and enterprises, which will really strengthen the position of Subud, the position of the Association of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Susila Budhi Dharma. It will be stated in the constitution of the company that so much per cent of the profits has to be given to the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud. The percentage given to the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud will be tax-free because Subud is an association with a charitable or social status.

And with enterprises being carried on by all the members, Subud finances will be strong, and the position of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud will be strong. And when the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud is strong, we shall be able to put our ideals and ideas into practice - that is, to build Subud houses for Subud members to worship God, and build guest houses for members who come visiting. We shall be able to set up hospitals where the doctors will be helpers in the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud itself; helpers, that is, who are qualified doctors. We shall be able to set up schools for backward children and young delinquents, and the teachers in them will also be helpers. We shall be able to set up homes for old people who can no longer work and who have no family. We can also set up homes for neglected or destitute children, and do other things of that kind.

And if, brothers and sisters, we can establish hospitals whose doctors and nurses consist of Subud helpers, and schools where the teachers are Subud helpers, these Subud helpers can use the kejiwaan to serve the community. For the teachers in those Subud schools will to some extent be able to test the condition of a child's jiwa, so that the children can be directed towards definite aims - aims that suit their talents. In this way no child will grow up useless to the community. That is how there will be very great benefits when we are really putting into practice what Bapak has proposed here.

In this way, with this sort of progress and development of Subud, the organizational or committee members will have their hands full. They will bear no small work-load, for the members needed to carry on the enterprises will be chosen and appointed by the committee. So for this the committee must really know and understand who has ability and who can work.

Besides this, therefore, Bapak is also setting up Subud Enterprise Services. Bapak is setting up this body so that members who possess some special skill - such as engineers, architects, and in short all the experts from the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud - can be listed and grouped together. In this way the members of Subud may be said to be good not only at worshipping Almighty God or good at doing the latihan kejiwaan every Monday and Thursday, but also good at working, good at setting an example to the general public of how people have to work according to their abilities.
... Read the complete Talk: 72 YVR 2

Mexico City, Mexico - April 26, 1972
Code Number : 72 MEX 1

Thus it is clear, brothers and sisters, that besides worshipping the One Almighty God according to His guidance and direction, it is God's will that you should work; work with your physical body, do ordinary work in which you can employ your hearts and minds. And in this way, you will in every action, or in other words, in doing whatever work it is that you do, you will always remain under the protection of the One Almighty God. The power of God will always be with you, so that it can be said that you will always have a teacher close at hand who always shows you the way, and what is right and what is bad and what you really can do.

That is why Bapak urges both the women and the men to work, and he hopes that they will carry on an enterprises; what in Subud terms Bapak calls "an enterprise of Subud members." Furthermore, brothers and sisters, he hopes they will be able to carry on the kind of enterprise that Bapak means, not individual ones. No; not so that A buys and sells tin cans like diclar or hawker, for instance, and then B also buys this and that and goes around, and they halve the profits. Bapak does not mean it to be like that.

The enterprises Bapak means are those in which people who are experts or who have some skill can teach those who have not, but who are willing to work, so that they can gather together the members into a group and run an enterprise that really is an enterprise - what is called a Limited Company. Of course, brothers and sisters, if you are setting up an enterprise of that kind you will naturally need not a little capital. You will need maybe up to ten million dollars capital or fifteen million or fifty million or maybe a hundred million dollars.

Because of this we, Bapak and all the Subud members, are establishing a bank along side all this and together with this; a bank which Bapak has named Sinar Kencana Mulia. Sinar means shining; radiating light all around. Kencana is gold, so that it shines like gold. Mulia indicates our aim that the Subud World Bank shall be a bank for non-members as well as members, so that this bank, this Subud world bank, can enable high and low alike equally to enjoy the fruits of this world and to taste the bitter and the sweet of human life in this world.

Bapak really does not intend these enterprises to be individual ones, in order that statutes or binding regulations can be drawn up for them in which it is clearly stated that so-and-so much percent of the profits they make are to be given to Subud as a social body or charity. If that can be done by a hundred enterprises, when a hundred bodies have been established all over the world, then the Subud funds will receive 20 % of the profits of each enterprise as a contribution; it will be multiplied a hundredfold. And it will happen automatically that Subud will be extraordinarily strong, so that whenever there is Subud and wherever there are Subud centers, you will be able to set up buildings for latihan premises. Not places like this, brothers and sisters, where space is so restricted that Bapak is prevented from giving you something necessary and important for you all. Thus if the space is wide the outlook is also wide. Thus every center will possess a building for the latihan; a latihan hall, a guest house to accommodate Bapak when he comes here, for instance.

Chicago, Ill U.S.A. - May 1, 1972
Enterprises and the World Bank
Code Number : 72 CHI 1

Thus it is clear brothers and sisters, that the guidance of God embodied in your latihan – in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud – makes it clear and requires of you that whenever you do any work, whenever you make any movement in your work or whatever you are doing, you should always be accompanied by the power of God, always be attended by the power of God, always be overshadowed by the power of God. This fits and conforms very closely with what has been declared by the prophets. It was what was said by Christ himself; that God is always close to man.

This is how it is brothers and sisters, so now you can really have proof of the words spoken by the prophets and the messengers of God; now you can really witness this. So the time has now come for you to really make use of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud so as to make your life happy, both your life in this world and also your life after death. And the way to use and to benefit from what has been willed by the One Almighty God and embodied in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is both for us to receive from within and also for us to act outwardly, and therefore it is very necessary for us to act together in cooperation.

That means combining together to help one another, joining together with other members, other partners.

Why is this, brothers and sisters? It is because the latihan kejiwaan trains us and guides us so as to be in harmony with one another. We are led towards unity. How much more so is this the case for people of the same nationality, the same American nationality. At the same time the races of America, of Africa, of Latin America, of South-East Asia, of Indonesia, have all been united in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. Thus if there are still people in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, or in Subud who do not like other people and who still feel separate from other people, it means they have not yet fulfilled the conditions willed by God. It has to be like this in Subud, because when people are in Subud they receive one and the same guidance and direction, so that they are truly united in fulfilling and completing everything that exists in the inner self of human beings. Thus besides being united in the spirit and in our jiwas, we must also be united in our physical, bodily life.

This is how it is brothers and sisters, and so in order to be united in our physical and bodily life we have to do something like what has just been said; that is, jointly to undertake something of a worldly nature. This is what Bapak has proposed to the members in other places, and here too Bapak also proposes it to you. What Bapak means is for us to work together in cooperation, to set up what are called enterprises. Not to work individually so that A works alone on his own enterprise and B works on his, and C works on his. Not like that. If you do it like that, you are starting off in the same as before you came into Subud, each pursuing his own profit, so that you end up doing the same thing in competition with one another.

It is different when we all work together in the same enterprise, so that there is no kind of pursuing profit for oneself alone, but it is for all of us together.

Bapak intends the aim of the enterprises to be that you should all work together at an enterprise. Of course, brothers and sisters, enterprises such as Bapak is describing are not on a small scale; they are enterprises that will need not a little capital. Perhaps they will need a million dollars, five million, possibly ten million or more.

Because we need to run enterprises and shall require this capital, we are together setting a body ourselves; a place from which we shall be able to provide the capital to finance the enterprises we establish. The body that we are going to set up is what is usually called a bank. Bapak has already put forward this proposal, and he has already described how a bank is to be established in Subud; a Subud world bank bearing the name Sinar Kencana Mulia. Sinar means radiance or light. Kencanaa means something that gleams and shines, gold that is. Mulia means it is something that can enable the lives of all the members. Because it is you, who worship the One Almighty God, who will establish it, this is a nobility that will allow you all to live nobly both in life in this world as well as in the life after death. By way of illustration - for even though you have the knowledge, and perhaps know more than Bapak does himself, there is no harm in Bapak giving you an illustration - just as an example, suppose you start a large farm or raise cattle. That means you buy cattle and start a dairy farming enterprise, a milk producing industry, a large one. That will mean keeping not less than one or two hundred head of cattle, it will also need no small area of land, a good many hectares or acres, for instance, it must also be legally established before witnesses or in the presence of a notary public. It should be established as a Perausahaan Terbatas, a limited company, to include a large number of members. Yes; for instance you can set it up in such a way that each member buys shares in the enterprise - ten or a hundred dollars worth, for instance. With a hundred members, that would come to one hundred times a hundred, so that would make ten thousand dollars. That makes into a P.T. or limited company with a capital, because a P.T. could operate if not less than 20% of the capital were paid up. Thus if you had ten thousand, it would thus have a capital of fifty thousand, but the fully paid up capital would be ten thousand dollars.

Of course you could not do it very quickly on only ten thousand dollars. How many cows could you get for that? What you hope to have is two thousand head, and how can you buy two thousand cows for only ten thousand dollars? You cannot do it.

Because of that, and because you do not have enough money, you will therefore need to get in touch with our bank, the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank. The Sinar Kencana Mulia bank will loan money to your P.T. which you are setting up upon the responsibility and under the supervision of the expert group which you yourselves have formed to support you in obtaining a loan from the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank. In this way you can set up the P.T. - because there is a body to finance it - our own bank that is.

Suppose brothers and sister, you ask whether our bank will be able to finance the enterprises established by Subud members when these Subud members are scattered over seventy-nine countries? And not less than fifty of these countries are capable of doing this? Can the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank cope with them? Bapak will also illustrate this point.

If the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank can really do well, so that this is apparent to all the world; if the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank can really work profitably and really bring in a good return, then people with money, to whom money is necessary because they have children and grandchildren and they want their money to grow and increase – then of course these people will invest their money in our bank, the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank.

In this way the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank, this Subud bank of ours, will have not only the money originating from the members who buy shares, but also the money of the rich people who put their money into the bank by way of credit investment. In this way our Sinar Kencana Mulia bank, our Subud bank will be able to provide a depository for millions of dollars; possibly for more the two, five or ten million dollars. In this way the Sinar Kencana Mulia bank will be able to finance the Subud members who have enterprises.

Well then, each of the enterprises of the Subud members who are spread over seventy-nine countries - or fifty whole countries that are already strong - each of these enterprises will contribute 25% of its profits to Subud, to the Subud funds. The Subud funds will receive 25% of the profits from each enterprise run by Subud members all over the world, so that the Subud funds will grow fat brothers and sisters. Subud will be able to set up latihan halls and premises in every Subud center. Chicago will have one, New York will also have one, Washington will have one, Detroit will have one. Then they will have them everywhere. Miami will have one. They will all have Subud latihan halls. And also every center will have a guest house, able to receive members from other countries or from other towns and cities. Or they can receive Bapak as well if Bapak should happen to come. Then another time Bapak will not have to stay in a hotel. No; he will stay in a Subud house organized by Subud itself. For as a rule, when he is at home, he has his own kind of lavatory, not the kind they have here. No. So if they have something like this, it will be a model of his own kind.

Besides setting up latihan premises and guest houses, we can also set up schools, hospital building, orphanages, homes for delinquent and neglected children, homes for old people who have no family. In this way Subud will not only be good at worshiping God but also good at fulfilling our obligations towards our fellow men. If we Subud people can act in this way brothers and sisters, the name of Subud will automatically be heard all over the world. “Who established that bank?” The answer is “Subud”. “Why a world bank?” “Because it was established by people of every race in the world”. “Why have these schools been established for this and that purpose?” “Where does this come from and from whom?” “This is Subud. This is because of the Subud enterprises.” And we shall automatically be of real assistance brothers and sisters, and we shall really a help to all our respective countries.

If we really do this, brothers and sisters, we shall open the way for ourselves to enter everywhere because Subud is an association of people who worship the One Almighty God and who do their best to help their fellow men, it will be like that, brothers and sisters.
. . . . read the complete talk 72 CHI 1

Rochester, NY U.S.A. - May 3, 1972
Code Number : 72 ROC 1

It is obvious, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, which can bring out everything you possess, is filled by the power of God and forms guidance for you so that you are not totally blind during your lives and after your lives are over you will not be left in the dark. But because from Adam onwards, and up to the present time, people have neglected what God has given them and have only followed the teachings of human beings, they do not understand that within them there is a book. There are complete instructions within them, as when ,just now Bapak illustrated, and you yourselves could witness, how your hands move. If you can really follow it in its purity, with patience and submission, you will know what is the use of each part of your body, and in due course it will reach as far as your hearts and your brains.

Bothers and sisters, Bapak feels it unnecessary to explain or to tell you very much about this. What is important for you at present, and what we need to make clear, what we need to give a form and what we really need to be able to do is to provide samples to show the general public what you are able to receive; that it is the will of God for mankind that people should worship Him in their lives so long as they live in this world. This is what Bapak illustrated and made clear to you just now in the testing.

Bapak is urging you to run enterprises in order that you can begin to put these things into practice, and so that you can feel that all your actions and activities are truly worship of the One Almighty God. What is meant by that is enterprises of Subud members, business run according to what Bapak has suggested. These are not meant to be the enterprises of individuals. No; you should run large enterprises in a big way, some kind of limited company or P.T. ( Perusahan Tabatas ). It should not be a case of one individual buying in one place and selling in another. For if you work as separate individuals, all doing separate enterprises, then what will happen is that you will fight about how and where, and it will automatically happen that each of you will be pursuing your own profit only. Doing it in that way will really not profit you or make your lives peaceful and harmonious.

This is why Bapak suggests that you should create and run an enterprise in which you all work together as a company, like an N.V., a kind of Perusahan or Limited Company. Thus it will not be just one person or two people only, but all the members. Perhaps twenty, thirty, forty, fifty people can carry on a large enterprise, whether in cattle farming, agriculture or industry. When you set up these enterprises you should as a matter of course draw up a binding agreement witnessed by a notary. It is necessary so that you should draw up articles laying down that much percent of the net profit is to be donated or contributed to our spiritual brotherhood of Subud. In this way our spiritual brotherhood of Subud will become strong and secure, and it will be able to carry out our ideas for setting up a latihan hall for the Subud members in each center and establishing a guest house for Subud members in each center.

Besides this, we shall really be able to open the eyes of the world to the fact that the spiritual association of Subud does not only worship the One Almighty God and is not only good at worshipping the One Almighty God, but it is also good at caring for and helping people as a whole, and can reduce the burden upon the various countries. If we are able to do that, brothers and sisters, then every country will be open to us; it will be open to the spiritual brotherhood of Subud to do the latihan in those countries, because they will know that besides worshipping God, Subud also aims at doing true social work. We hope that a lasting harmony will be created in the human community in this world, which will not differentiate between different races, and which will really be in accordance with what we have received in the latihan kejiwaan. Then, brothers and sisters, our harmony in this world, which will be in accordance with what we receive in the latihan kejiwaan, will be present not only in the field of spiritual matters, but our outer life will also be harmonious.

This is how it is, brothers and sisters, and therefore besides worshipping and practicing the latihan kejiwaan we also need to establish these enterprises. If we set up enterprises of the kind of which Bapak has spoken, then it follows automatically that we shall very much need capital. It is this capital that we are making an effort to raise. How are we to do this? In what way and from what body are we to obtain capital ? We shall need to set up this body ourselves; a body able to provide capital for the enterprises we shall be running. Well, it is this body that Bapak has already described and suggested; that a bank should be established within the spiritual brotherhood of Subud. It will be called the Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank, and will be established at Wolfsburg in Germany. This bank is very important, brothers and sisters, so that it can provide capital for all the enterprises we shall be running in our various countries.

Because the needs of these enterprises will be very many, then once our Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank is established those of us who work in it will try as hard as possible to present it to the eyes of the world and to show it to the general public, especially to that part of the public which has money, because the people who have money naturally want to add to their money, which may just be lying dormant. The Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank will be able to accept this money, and it will be like a receptacle for money coming from people who wish to increase their material wealth by putting it as credit investment into the Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank, our Subud bank. In this way, brothers and sisters, the Bank will then be able to provide capital or finance all or a large part of the enterprises Subud members will be running all over the world.

Brothers and sisters, are such things possible? Would people not say that these and are lofty and extensive and high sounding aspirations? Why should they not be possible ? Our Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank is being established by people from every race, from almost all the races of the whole world. And it will be established by Subud members spread over seventy-nine countries. If we remember that there is nothing impossible about our Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank becoming firmly and solidly and strongly established. May the One Almighty God grant that our ideals and aspirations for setting up enterprises, a bank, and everything needed by the Subud brotherhood throughout the world, will truly be fulfilled.
... read the complete talk 72 ROC 1

Washington DC U.S.A. - May 5, 1972
Code Number : 72 WAS 1

Bapak urgently suggests to you that you should always fulfill, put into practice and derive benefit from the latihan kejiwaan which you have received, by means of carrying on enterprises. An enterprise is an undertaking which you can carry on with the Jiwa, because an enterprise is work which you initiate and for which you make its way. And so the way this enterprise goes will of course not depart from the wishes of your jiwa. Thus you can practice the worship of the One Almighty God under ordinary conditions; under the conditions of your life in this world, in all you do.

In this way you will truly be able to benefit from the latihan kejiwaan. Do not let it happen as in the past; that you think that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is a way or a work to increase your income, to gain promotion, to increase profits if you are a trader or to cure you if you are sick.

. . .your worship of God is not just for every evening only. Every movement and action and all that you do needs to be filled by your worship of the One Almighty God. Because if they are not they will be filled by the satanic forces, filled by nafsu, so that your worship twice a week or every evening in the week can be said to have no meaning. It is defeated by the pressure of the nafsu that enter your inner feeling all the time.

By practicing worship at every moment in all the actions and activities connected with the enterprises you carry on, it can be said that God's nearness to man and your nearness to the Power of the One Almighty God never ceases, or that it remains unbroken, so that worldly conditions and the conditions of the hereafter can be realized as being connected.

And now, with the establishment of enterprises, we are beginning to establish proof. You will begin to understand how the separation and coming together of your nafsu and physical body and your jiwa take place in everything you do. Bapak will test with you tomorrow, so that you may see how you can act because of the nafsu and how you can act because of the jiwa.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and therefore if when you carry on enterprises you really do it with patience and always take care to receive guidance from God, so that what you do, is always overshadowed by the Power of God, then all the things that have been hidden from you will be revealed to you; you will know them all. That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so Bapak suggests that you should undertake; enterprises. This is necessary that you may be able to know the benefits of this latihan kejiwaan of Subud.

For a man, if he is really able to run an enterprise that does not separate him from his worship of God, he will know what his real talent is, so that what ever he works at and whatever he does, people will readily notice it, because it will attract the attention of anyone who sees it. It is the same for what is in your self. Suppose that you have been doing the latihan kejiwaan for eleven or twelve years. Earlier, before you started to do the latihan kejiwaan, people liked you and you had close friends, but after doing the latihan kejiwaan for twelve years you may have lost your friends and people may even dislike you. What is the reason for that ?

It is clear that your kejiwaan 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.

As to the enterprises that Bapak proposes, these are not enterprises to be run on your own, so that, for instance, A runs an enterprise on his own, B runs an enterprise on his own, C runs an enterprise on his own and so does D. You should not do it that way. You need to run enterprises jointly and to build up substantial concerns. That means enterprises that really are enterprises, like a P.T., a Perusahaan Terbatas ( Limited Company ). And to make it strong, such an enterprise should be constituted in the presence of a lawyer, so that it includes regulations to define all the responsibilities and requirements.

Amongst the regulations an article can be included laying down that so much per cent of the profits is to be contributed to the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud. Thus the way you run the enterprise is united into a really democratic activity; you work together and go through both the bitter and the happy experiences together. It is a different matter if each of you acts alone, so that you are competing for your own needs, regardless of what your friends need. Because of this, Bapak tells you to organize the enterprises you establish in the way Bapak has said.

Because the enterprises you set up will be big ones, they will, of course, need capital. You need to think about that capital. It is true that since we do not have enough money we shall certainly need to obtain it from some other person or body, for instance. But the way to do it is to create something of such a kind that it will not ask for capital but will attract it because of the way it works. The kind of body known as a bank does in fact work in that way. Thus before we run any enterprise; it is very necessary to establish such a body, which has the power to provide capital for them; that is, to establish a bank. And Bapak has named this bank Sinar Kencana Mulia. Sinar means a light that envelops its surroundings. Kencana means gold, or something that shines like gold. According to traditional terminology the shine of gold is a light, a work that possesses dignity. Therefore a shining light, a golden appearance, symbolizes royalty. It means to have dignity. Mulia means high and wide and very good. And because this bank is set up by people who worship God, by you, that is, then of course in this case mulia means that we really can use material possessions or worldly wealth for the worship of God. That is a noble aim.

That is how it is brothers and sisters, and so Bapak hopes that the bank we are going to set up will become a body able to provide capita1 for the enterprises of Subud members. Bapak therefore hopes that you will really take it to heart, so that our Sinar Kencanan Mulia Bank can really be established during this year.
...read the complete talk 72 WAS 1

Skymont, VA, U.S.A. - May 6, 1972
Code Number : 72 SKY 1

Bapak will outline a few points for you, just by way of illustration. Brothers and sisters, this is what Bapak has in mind. In Bapak's opinion it is very important that the progress of Subud, with its many members spread over almost the whole world - although in seventy-nine countries only - should not stop half-way, and we must make an effort and must take care that it does not stop. That is why we are trying to prevent the things needed to strengthen the position of the spiritual brotherhood of Subud from being stopped half-way along the road, and that is why Bapak is illustrating the need for Subud to establish a body which can give financial support and provide capital for all the enterprises being carried on - such enterprises, for instance, as you are doing here.

Acting upon letters from Prio ( Hartono ), Bapak has in fact made the suggestion that Skymont should become one of the places for members' enterprises. The kind of enterprises Bapak means are such as were outlined at the World Congress ( 1971 at Cilandak ); enterprises in every field, whether farming, industries, cultural or any other. But it was anticipated in the formulation that all these things should be done on a large scale, as here at Skymont, which Bapak really intends should be one of the enterprises you run. But obviously you are too closely involved in what you have experienced to be able to know or feel for yourselves what is wrong in what you are doing. The kejiwaan is getting mixed up with worldly matters, so that a lot of members have come flocking here with a spiritual aim in view, but up to now they have been confronted with this model and that model until the members here are in a state of confusion. What causes this? It is caused by a lack of clarity about the fact that the kejiwaan cannot be mixed up with plans or intentions concerned solely with the enterprises. Thus in many cases the aim of having an enterprise becomes entangled with the kejiwaan. Also you feel that you need to practice the latihan kejiwaan, but your hearts and minds will be developed in the direction of enterprises. This is something that it is very necessary for Bapak to explain to the members, so that you can make a distinction between enterprises and the kejiwaan and between ordinary physical life in this world and the kejiwaan.

This is why Bapak suggests that you should set up enterprises. The enterprises which Bapak proposes should not be located just anywhere, but you should choose a location appropriate to the enterprise concerned. To take this place, Skymont, as an example; you could run an enterprise here at Skymont. In Bapak's view that could only be a farming or stock-farming enterprise. You could open up the land here for farming, for agriculture, or you could open up the land for stock farming and raise sheep or cattle or something on a large scale. You should all work together at this, not just one or two people only. It would be best if the whole population of Skymont here were to form themselves into what in England is called a Limited Company or in Indonesia is called a Perusahaan Terbatas ( P.T. ). Thus you will be working, and together with that work you will be worshipping God. Why is that? It is because God has blessed you and has brought His power close to you in everything you do. Thus you no longer need to make special places or special times for the worship of God, so that you worship Him every night and so on. That is no use, and you should not do like that. You force yourselves too much, brothers and sisters, so that it is as if you forget about the needs of human beings in this world and forget that the world outside Skymont could provide unbounded happiness in life.

By running an enterprise that really is an enterprise you can really feel how the latihan kejiwaan of Subud can be received anywhere and everywhere, and you can do the latihan once or twice a week, which is enough. Only that is a latihan in the sense of training; it is by way of training. As for the proof, the practical proof, that is to be found in your daily work. It is like it is with Bapak. When Bapak is talking like this, it is latihan, like when you do latihan every evening. But because Bapak has been able to receive it, when Bapak is in latihan it does not show. Bapak hopes it will be like that for all of you. Thus inwardly you feel Allah, Allah, Allah. You kneel on the ground, and it is Allah, Allah, Allah. You work in an office, writing, and it is Allah, Allah, Allah. So your worship of God never ceases, This is what God hopes it will be like for human beings.

This is why Bapak is establishing enterprises, in order that you shall at all times be in the presence of God while you are doing your daily work. This is what Bapak intends with the enterprises. So Bapak hopes that Skymont will not be made into a place that is only for the worship of God. You should not do that; not when one Worships God wherever one may be, anywhere. You worship God in your sleep, you worship God as you play a musical instrument; you go "ting-tong" and you are worshipping God. While you go "ting-tong" you are worshipping God, and if you happen to be in New York you are worshipping God. So it no different whether you are in New York or in Skymont. It is all the same. You must not make something special out of some isolated spot; no, or you will be caught up by the inhabitants of lonely places, the setans or devils. The setans will draw you to lonely places. You cannot do that. We should be able to worship God in every place, whether it is full of people or empty, and also at every moment. When we are seriously ill and can no longer speak, the jiwa is alive and understands; the jiwa is sound and healthy, so that we can receive.
... read the complete talk 72 SKY 1

Washington DC U.S.A. - May 6, 1972
Code Number : 72 WAS 2

That is why Bapak urges all of you in Subud, between yourselves, to get these enterprises running soon. And the way to run enterprises is not for A, B, C, and D each to act on his or her own. Don't have individual enterprises. It is better to act collectively, in cooperation, because if each of you runs an enterprise on your own, you will then always be using the profits for your own purposes; you will each work for your own good, work for your own profit. Whereas if you act collectively, gotong-royong, as it is called in Indonesia, helping one another in a cooperative way, it will make you closer in brotherliness. For the progress of one is then the progress of all; together you go forward, together you lose ground, meaning that if there is a profit, it will benefit everyone.

And please don't carry on a halfway or middling sort of enterprise, for if it is a middling one, the running costs will be higher. But if it is large, although the running costs will be high, the profits will also be high, so that you will be able to provide the brotherhood with everything it needs. For instance, if you establish an enterprise witnessed by a notary and having a capital of so many thousand dollars, then you can include an article in its constitution stating that so much per cent of the net profits will be given to the Kejiwaan Brotherhood of Subud as a contribution or donation. Probably, if your contributions to the Kejiwaan Brotherhood of Subud are a gift, they will not be subject to tax, for the Kejiwaan Brotherhood of Subud is a body of a social or charitable nature, so is not liable to tax.

In order to set up enterprises, brothers and sisters, you will of course need capital. For the enterprises you set up will be large enterprises, like a PT ( Perseroan Terbatas ) or Limited Liability Company, for instance. So you will need capital. And to have this capital, we ourselves need to set up some body which will work to supply capital for the enterprises run by Subud members. Brothers and sisters, it is very necessary for us to establish this bank together. And to establish this bank we shall need an initial capital of somewhere between five and ten million Deutsche Mark - about two and a half million American dollars.

If you feel and think about it, you will wonder 'How are we to obtain a large enough capital sum from ourselves to be able to meet the needs of the enterprises of members all over the world, in seventy-nine countries?' You yourselves will certainly be able to know and understand this even better than Bapak does himself, because Bapak is not well versed in financial or banking affairs. You are probably more familiar with them. If Subud can do its work properly and provide capital for its enterprises, so that these enterprises are really successful, then the name of the Subud Bank will become known and trusted all over the world. And because this Subud Bank of ours will belong to the members of every nation - of every nation in the world, it can be said, spread over seventy-nine countries - then its name alone will impress the people when they hear it. In this way, people with millions of dollars, who want to make their money productive, will not be averse to putting it in our Subud Bank, in which case the Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank will become a depository for a great deal of money coming from these rich people. And this being so, it will really be able to provide capital for all the enterprises carried on by the Subud members of seventy-nine countries.

Also, with every enterprise we carry on, we can catch and direct the energies of our Subud members themselves into these enterprises, which means that we shall help to provide work for them. Everything, in short, will turn out well. And it will all have the nature of mutual aid, so that seldom or never will there be any member within the circle of the Kejiwaan Brotherhood of Subud complaining that he or she is out of work or has not got enough for the daily needs of his life.
... read the complete talk 72 WAS 2

New York, NY, U.S.A. - May 9, 1972
Code Number : 72 NYC 1

It is thus clear that this is the short way, for we already know, we already understand that God is teaching us and that it is God Who makes things work in us, which means that it is God Who is directing our worship of God; it is also God Who cleanses our selves; it is also God Who puts our jiwa into good order. We have received it. And we also understand that God intends us to use our hearts and minds. This we need to do here and now, at once. This is what Bapak means by enterprises. The enterprises we undertake are in accordance with the will of God. Therefore what we do, these enterprises, will always be under the shadow of the power of God, because there is a framework that consists of God, the human "I", and action. These are the three aspects that are usually called the Trinity in religious terminology; God - the inner "I" - action.

This makes it very fortunate for us, brothers and sisters, that we obtain guidance from the One Almighty God, so that we can feel what is right for our lives. So Bapak is encouraging you to undertake enterprises as well as doing the latihan with patience, trustful acceptance and sincere submission. You must work; those who are already working should go on; those who are not working should begin to work. We need to carry on enterprises. It is necessary for us to carry on these enterprises so that we can test our capacity and see what God's gift to us is, and so that we can really work for our living and look after our lives, making them happy and prosperous. In this way we grow accustomed to being able to stand on our own feet in life, both in this world and the next.

Brothers and sisters, many of the members say it is very difficult work to carry on an enterprise. They are not used to it, because it is not the ordinary kind of work. They are used to working in an office, they are used to working under instructions, they are used to working to a set program. Whereas in these enterprises you must be able to work on your own and stand on your own feet. And you must be able to plan your own program and decide for yourself how to work. Of course, brothers and sisters, there is nothing without its difficulties. It is even from these very difficulties that you learn. If you are afraid of difficulties you will be afraid to do anything, and you will not be able to learn how to be clever. You will be unable to do it.

Thus you have been put here to live in this world so that you can test yourselves and put the capacities of your self to work so as to see how far they extend. Bapak therefore urges upon you to undertake enterprises at once. You learn how to use heart and mind so that you can know their limitations. You have hitherto been used to working because you are told to work, which automatically renders you unable to know the limits of your inherent capacity.

Thus we need to cultivate the outward expression of our capacities before the world. The spiritual side we must surrender to God. For God can indeed deal with this, not changing it in a way that you feel, although in fact there is a change. Because the jiwa, the content of your self, that is, can be changed in a wrong way if you are not careful. The harm thus done will cause you to lose your inner self.

This is why we need to undertake enterprises, brothers and sisters, so that we accustom ourselves to stand on our own feet both inwardly and outwardly. We need to establish enterprises so that everything begins harmoniously; with mutual respect, with mutual consideration, with mutual help. We shall establish these enterprises by joint endeavor, which means you are doing it together. Do not let it happen that A sets up an enterprise, B sets up an enterprise, C sets up an enterprise and D sets up an enterprise, all of the same kind, so that it seems from the first as if all of them are competing and vying with one another for advancement and profit. That will eventually lead to conflict and will certainly not be harmonious.

In order for everything to begin harmoniously and with mutual assistance, let the future enterprises be established in the form of cooperatives. That means with many members all in them together. And because such future enterprises will be rather large, you will therefore need not a little capital.

If you set up a farming enterprise, raising cattle, let it be a big one. When you buy cows, buy not one or two, ten or twenty, but a thousand, two thousand, three thousand so that many members can work on the farm. So too in agriculture; you must also buy no small area of land. This also applies enterprises in other fields, depending upon your various skills, whether in farming, cattle breeding, industry or whatever it is. All these, of course, need capital, as Bapak has just said. Where is the capital to come from ? We must not ask other people for help. No; we must establish a bank, a Subud World Bank, so that we can help our own selves. Since this bank is to be a Subud bank, where will its money come from ? It will also come from us. Come then, and let us establish this bank together, so that it will provide for the enterprises which all the Subud members distributed over seventy-nine countries, are going to undertake.

To continue, brothers and sisters, how will a Subud bank with capital obtained from the members and amounting to at most two and a half million dollars, be able to provide for all the Subud members running enterprises, and who are scattered over these seventy-nine countries ? Of course it will not be able to do it. But this you will of course understand; understand it better than does Bapak himself.

Later on, when the Subud Bank we are going to establish has acquired a good name in the world outside Subud then because people with money need to keep it moving in order to obtain a profit, they will be looking for a trustworthy place to put it in. If this Subud world bank becomes a bank that people with money can trust, then it is not unlikely that these moneyed people will deposit their money in it. Thus it is not impossible that the resources of the Subud Bank will be reckoned not just at one, two or three million dollars, but in milliards of dollars. In this way it will be able to supply the capital for the enterprises the Subud members carry on. Of course that does not mean that so long as a Subud member has an enterprise he or she can then demand capital, just like that. Of course they can ask; but each center, each region, each country should collect together its experts, as was agreed at the Subud World Congress, to form the Subud Enterprise Services, or S.E.S.. We collect the experts together to investigate, to lead, to guide, to show the way to the Subud members, who are going to run enterprises, and to take responsibility.

Thus once these Subud enterprises are established and legally constituted, then they will be investigated and examined by the Subud experts to see whether it is possible to undertake them or not. And where an enterprise is to be started it is necessary to include a clause in its articles of association stating that so much per cent of the net profit is to be donated to the Association of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud. If these enterprises go well and if they always give their profits to the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud funds, then the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud funds will not always just be waiting for the members to send in contributions but there will already be a lot of money derived from the enterprises and from the bank itself. In this way the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud will really be able to put into practice what was formulated at the International World Congress, when it was stated that the association of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud is not only an association of people who worship God, but that it will be able to fulfill its obligations to the public, to the human race in this world; that is by setting up bodies to undertake social work such as establishing schools for delinquent children, handicapped children and backward children.
... read the complete talk 72 NYC 1

Capetown, South Africa - May 23, 1972
Code Number : 72 CPT 1

Brothers and sisters, Bapak hopes you will pay attention, and do not let it go in one ear and out at the other.

This being so, brothers and sisters, what then is the result of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud? This latihan kejiwaan is not for the purpose of being able to get a little higher salary, to get a bit of work or make a bit of profit; no, brothers and sisters, if possible, you have to attain to your full value as human beings; to be volledig gewaardeerd ( of full value ) as human beings, to use the Dutch expression, because I know Dutch better than English. That, brothers and sisters, is the benefit that comes from worshipping God. And in order to do something that will enable you to give more proof of your worship of God and to be more certain about your amal ( religious obligation ) towards God and your own life, Bapak is setting up an enterprise, as well as your usual receiving and practice of the latihan kedjiwaan. Bapak will explain at some length about this enterprise, but there is no time now, and so Bapak will go on tomorrow night.

Bapak now closes this meeting. You must not feel disappointed; tomorrow is also a day.

Edinburgh, Scotland - May 27, 1972
Code Number : 72 EDI 2

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen: Bapak will continue with his explanation concerning the latihan kejiwaan of Subud in connection with the enterprises and the bank, which should actually be a Subud world bank and to which Bapak has given the name "Sinar Kencana Mulia".

Brothers and sisters, the existence of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud combined with the future existence of enterprises and of the bank, can of course be said to be something new and strange. As a rule the people who plunge into the spiritual life no longer concern themselves with such worldly requirements as enterprises and banks, and so this is something alarming for the Subud members who cling to their old ways and act as people used to do in the old days, because of course that was the old way of doing things. These two are also kept separate in Indonesia itself. For instance, the younger people who have still to make their way in life in this world are restricted to a spiritual teaching designed for young people, the junior teaching, while the full teaching, the spiritual knowledge of the older people, which is directed towards self perfection for the life after death, is called the senior teaching, the teaching of the elders. This is only for older people of forty or fifty years old. This has indeed become traditional and customary so that the young receive young and the old receive old.

But Subud is not like that. Why is this? It is because Subud has come into the world and can actually be received by human beings - of whom Bapak was the first to receive it - in circumstances that are a hundred percent worldly. That is why the younger Subud members are in no way restricted, and there is nothing to prevent them from going on to University level in what they learn.

London, England - June 1, 1972
The Latihan, Enterprises And The Bank
Code Number : 72 LON 2

Brothers and sisters, although Bapak is giving you explanations he will not neglect to produce evidence for what he says. So it is more or less necessary for Bapak to do some testing with you, so that you will not just be listening to Bapak telling you a story but will be able to receive and to feel evidence in the kejiwaan, on a spiritual level.

( Testing )

That is why you cannot just bottle the brain in a jar. Doctors can do that, not Bapak. This was so that you could witness for yourselves, not just listen to Bapak's words.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and it is therefore very necessary for you to know how to benefit from God's help and guidance and from what He, through the grace of God, has given to you. And the way to benefit from what God has given to you is for us to accustom ourselves to live our lives so that we are not cut off from the power of God which manifests both inside and outside our selves. This is what we have been told, and God has made it practical for us in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. You can already walk; you can walk very well and you can even walk very grandly and impressively. ( Bapak demonstrates ) But nevertheless you are still being trained in walking in the latihan. This is necessary in order that you can feel and receive how it is to walk by your own will and how it is to walk when you are being made to walk by the will of the One Almighty God. In that way your own will coincides with the Will of God, so that one can say that so long as you live in this world you always have a teacher, an adviser, close beside you.

In order to be able to be always in that state, we need to run enterprises as well as receiving and following the way of the latihan kejiwaan. An enterprise is a business undertaking that matches our talents or gifts. Clearly, then, brothers and sisters, running an enterprise means that all our actions, all our activities, are in close touch with the power of God. In this way there is a balance between God and man, between human beings and God and His love. God loves human beings very much. But do you return God's love? On the contrary, if you have no money you even abuse God for it, but if you have money you just stay quiet.

Very seldom do I hear anyone who possesses money saying "God, God, God, oh God have mercy upon me". Very seldom. But if someone is ill or if someone falls sick, then how is it? “Oh God forgive me, God help me." Well, that is how it is. That is a habit of the human heart. If people are ill, if things are uncomfortable, they ask for help. But if they are not ill, if all is well and they have plenty of money, they say nothing. They even keep quiet when someone in need goes by. If they have good food they do nothing about it, even if there are hungry people right under their noses, they do not care about anyone else. Such is the human heart. That is why the human heart is locked up in heaven, and not allowed to take part in anything. For the human heart is a deceiver; it is expert in deception. People have money and deny that they have any. But if there is something they want; there are all sorts of things that they can do. That is how the heart is. And it is for that reason; brothers and sisters, that Bapak therefore urges all of you to start at once running enterprises, in order that you may become used at all times, at every moment, always to be close to the One Almighty God, That is how we respond to God. God loves man but human beings have an obligation to worship God, which means to honor the grace and mercy of God that He has bestowed upon us.

That Bapak just mentioned. And we establish these enterprises so as to begin taking a step towards other people, towards all of ourselves. So supposing we derive some benefit for ourselves, you must not feel that this is just for yourself alone. Feel that it is for sharing. If you are eating, for instance, give a little to other people. If to the right and to the left of you there are people who are hungry, you must not just do nothing about it. You must not be like that, eating when people on your right and on your left are hungry. Give them something; not everything, but a proportion of what you have. But do not forget that you yourself also have to eat. That is why it is necessary for people to help others, but not to forget one's own self. In that way everything is shared.

What Bapak wants is for you to run enterprises in cooperation with other people, not one by one as separate individuals. For running individual enterprises will result in disharmony amongst you, and will mean that you are each pursuing your own individual profit. This, brothers and sisters, is why it is therefore very necessary quickly to establish enterprises that we run for ourselves, so that what is gained from these enterprises, the profits from these enterprises, can be shared amongst us, amongst all of us. And you must also give something out of these profits to the Subud funds, so that the Subud funds become strong. If and when the Subud funds become strong, then our ideals can be actualized and by worshipping God we can also help our fellow men, and we shall really be able to create a field of social work, such as establishing schools for neglected and handicapped, children as well as for normal children. Also hospitals to care for the sick, as well as for our own members who are in crisis, and so on; things that are of the nature of social work.
...read the complete talk: 72 LON 2

Wolfsburg, Germany - June 17, 1972
Code Number : 72 WOB 2

Brother's and sisters, this evening Bapak is going to give you a talk about the latihan kejiwaan in connection with the future establishment of the Subud bank and of enterprises all over the word; the Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank, that is. Bapak needs to explain this to you because it is really rather strange for a spiritual association to be establishing enterprises and a bank. So far as you have heard, there is probably no spiritual association in existence that is still running enterprises, let alone a bank. Setting up enterprises and a bank makes it look as if the Subud point of view were closer to the affairs of this world than to the next. It also looks like this to many people in Indonesia itself. People say that Subud is closer to the affairs of this world than to those of the next. By the next world they mean the life after death. Of course, brothers and sisters, that is indeed the way people as a whole have thought up to now. Bapak also receives a great many letters asking why Subud is still running enterprises and setting up a bank when such activities are usually reserved for people who are only doing worldly work.

That is how it is brothers and sisters, so it is very necessary that besides worshiping the One Almighty God, we should carry on enterprises. And it will be best if we carry on these enterprises jointly with other members, so that they are run on cooperative lines. And the profits from the cooperatively run enterprises will be shared amongst us in a cooperative manner. In this way brotherhood and harmony will be maintained amongst us. But if we carry on enterprises on our own, so that for instance, A has an enterprise and B has an enterprise and C has a similar enterprise, then each of them will pursue his own advantage. In this way there will not be harmony within the circle of our Subud brotherhood. Thus, although the enterprise is of a worldly nature, we have to do something like what we have received in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud. God gives the latihan to all of us together, there is no difference. A, B and C are not different. There is no difference. All receiver from the One Almighty God so that we become harmonious. May God grant His blessings and His help so that our state is harmonious both in this world and in the next. May we become harmonious both in soul and in body.

That is what Bapak has just said about from spiritual to material and then from material to spiritual. This has been made clear in the latihan kejiwaan and in the testing. Because of this then, as well as worshipping God in accordance with His guidance and direction, we need to carry on enterprises; we need to set up some business corporation, all working together. And the profits from the business, the profits from the enterprises we carry on, are not just for increasing our own riches. It is permissible for us to become rich. This is not disapproved of. It is better to be rich than poor. But you must not let these riches close off your worship of God. Thus riches must not be an obstacle to prevent you coming near God.

This is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so we need to establish enterprises, because we are sure that our actions and activities are always under the shadow and the protection of the power of the One Almighty God.

And how are you going to be able to start running enterprises immediately? It is a fact that capital is needed to set up these enterprises. We hope to be able to run our enterprises on our own capital. We want to work on a foundation of our own strength. This is necessary so that we can train ourselves to be able to live by our own energies and our own strength.

Bapak therefore calls upon all the members to be quick about establishing the Subud world bank to which he has given the name Sinar Kencana Mulia. We shall establish our Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank by the method of issuing share for member to buy. In this way we shall be setting up this Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank of ours so as to help ourselves.

That is the essential point of this bank we are setting up. Bapak therefore says that this bank is different from any other. Other already existing banks, are those that are always needed for accumulating money, so that they are place for riches and material things pile up. But ours will not be like that. We shall be setting up Sinar Kencana Mulia Bank in order to help ourselves and to help the enterprises we shall be running. And we shall use the profits from those enterprises we run in order to strengthen our brotherhood of Susila Budhi Dharma which is spread all over the world.

Cilandak, Indonesia - April 12, 1974
Code Number : 74 CDK 5

In addition, it is the job of the Committee Councilor to know about and to foster the establishment of enterprises in his own country. Now, by enterprise Bapak means the setting-up of a cooperative venture, a venture of mutual help, or self help between Subud members whose field is chosen together by thoroughly investigating what is suitable to be carried out or worked on in that particular place. The important thing is that the enterprise must be successful, it must be something that goes; and generally, an enterprise that is not in accordance with the needs of a particular place will not go.

So the first thing is that the local people have to investigate and really be sure about what is the suitable thing to be done in that place. In this Bapak can take an example from Indonesia.

Now Bapak cannot know what is the corresponding need, and what is the corresponding suitable enterprise to set up in other countries in North America, South America and Europe. Bapak doesn't know but this is what has to be investigated, what is the right thing in the right place? Now, what is the benefit of these enterprises? Well, there are many, many benefits. In the first place, it means that Subud can provide work for those members who are not yet able to work. In other words, members who lack any skill or ability to work, or even those who do not like to work, that is, members who are lazy. Because through these enterprises, those who organize them, those who have expertise and knowledge in the field concerned can impart their knowledge and training to their fellow brothers in Subud who do not have any knowledge, who do not have any training, and even perhaps to those who are yet unable to work, so that the whole Brotherhood can benefit, not just those who happen to be clever or happen to be skilled. Further people without skills can be trained, their potential and value improved by giving them training, and by teaching them how to work in a way which they didn't know before. Naturally, these enterprises must produce a profit, and it is this profit which we can use to satisfy the needs of our Subud Brotherhood which has the aim of operating in a charitable or social context or field. In other words, to set up schools, hospitals, schools for retarded children, orphans, homes for orphans, and various other similar undertakings such as those, for example, that are organized by religious bodies in general.

Well, as for finding something that is locally suitable for the country in question, Bapak takes an example from Indonesia. At the present moment, what is needed in Indonesia is the development of primary industry: that is, factories and industries of various kinds. Now, in this connection Bapak can mention sugar and cement factories, and various types of factories using wood and raw materials, making plywood and so on. Bapak doesn't know all the different kinds of factories which you can have, but this is the situation of Indonesia.

It so happens that this is what is needed, and the government is always pressing and encouraging people to set up these kinds of enterprises. Certainly, if we also set up these enterprises we have the backing of the government, and it is in accordance with the local situation.

Now Bapak cannot know what is the corresponding need, and what is the corresponding suitable enterprise to set up in other countries in North America, South America and Europe. Bapak doesn't know but this is what has to be investigated, what is the right thing in the right place? Now, what is the benefit of these enterprises? Well, there are many, many benefits. In the first place, it means that Subud can provide work for those members who are not yet able to work. In other words, members who lack any skill or ability to work, or even those who do not like to work, that is, members who are lazy. Because through these enterprises, those who organize them, those who have expertise and knowledge in the field concerned can impart their knowledge and training to their fellow brothers in Subud who do not have any knowledge, who do not have any training, and even perhaps to those who are yet unable to work, so that the whole Brotherhood can benefit, not just those who happen to be clever or happen to be skilled. Further people without skills can be trained, their potential and value improved by giving them training, and by teaching them how to work in a way which they didn't know before. Naturally, these enterprises must produce a profit, and it is this profit which we can use to satisfy the needs of our Subud Brotherhood which has the aim of operating in a charitable or social context or field. In other words, to set up schools, hospitals, schools for retarded children, orphans, homes for orphans, and various other similar undertakings such as those, for example, that are organized by religious bodies in general.

For us, enterprises are a way of attracting people to Subud who normally do not care about the kejiwaan; it is through the existence of enterprises that we can get people interested in the latihan, who normally do not pay any attention to the kejiwaan. In fact not only things like war and international problems, but also other negative situations in the world today which tend to ruin the life of man and society, can be avoided if statesmen can be attracted into Subud.

People who normally do not pay any attention to spiritual matters can come to feel the power of Almighty God and the guidance of God. For example, Bapak means things like corruption. Corruption, it is said nowadays, is already a form of culture. Well, this is what people say, as a matter of fact it's not true because corruption is just something that ruins society and ruins people. If statesmen and people in high positions, important people, have within them the Power of God and the latihan kejiwaan, then it is really to be hoped that this corruption can be avoided, and that they can find a way to do away with it.

Brothers and Sisters, enterprises are something really necessary because, in the end, what we need to be able to do in this world is to use what we have been given by Almighty God. Almighty God has given mankind a heart and a mind, and without using these on a material level man cannot exist in this world. Man has to live on the material level; he needs to use the material, otherwise he is helpless in this world. Without the material man cannot make a house, cannot make clothes, he cannot contact other people without being active in the material. Truly, brothers and sisters, this is what God has given to man, this ability to deal with the material through his heart, his mind and his intelligence. This corresponds to the sharp teeth and claws of the tiger which God has given it to find its livelihood. If we do not use these instruments that God has given us, we cannot live, we cannot exist, in this world. So it's really necessary for us to work and produce our livelihood; that is, to make money. In the end, everything comes back to that, as far as our worldly life is concerned.

The danger of it is simply this: that if we become very familiar with this world, and very adept at using this world, at knowing how to deal with this world, and begin to experience the luxury or the profit of this world, it is possible for us to lose ourselves and to forget that life is not only this world. Life is not narrow, life is wide, wide, because beyond this world, there is another world; and our life, as God has created us, is not only not narrow, but it is so wide that it cannot be measured. It is said in the holy books that God said to man: 'You, mankind, it is my will that you should be able to return to me and to find a life which cannot be measured, which cannot be encompassed'. So man's life is actually beyond measurement, and it is God's will that men should live longer than any of the things we see around us. It is said that if we enter that world, the world that is beyond this one, and if we can live ( as it is said ) at the side of Almighty God, in the realm of Almighty God, then, they say, this is the way they talk about it, that one second in that world is longer than a thousand years in this world. How narrow is our life here. Maybe 70 years, maybe 100-200 years. It's not sure that we can survive for 200 years, how narrow that is compared to the life which is God's will that we should lead.

Bapak needs to say once again that we should not forget the danger- the danger that when we have carried out the enterprises, and the enterprises are going well and we're making lots of profit, lots of money, we then forget the worship of Almighty God: and we begin to quarrel and to have a lack of harmony because, indeed, that is the nature of the material influence. Because of money, because of wealth, people forget their friends and even their own family, their father, mother and brothers; they even forget themselves. Not even sometimes, but normally forget themselves, so that a person can commit suicide just because of material things. So it's important for this reason. Bapak always also puts the Committee Councilor beside the Councilor Kejiwaan.
... read the complete talk: 74 CDK 5

Cilandak, Indonesia - June 22, 1974
Code Number : 74 CDK 8

To enable you to do what is to be done, Bapak proposes that you should all become active, so that your desires, your nafsu, unwilling to desist, are given something to feed on, something to aim at. And what is the target for your nafsu and your mind? It is man's earthly work to enable him to meet his life's needs, that is, to work at a task or at something you can put to use, from which you can in due course get some return.

Now, in our case, to give our nafsu, the desires of our nafsu, an objective, we are setting up enterprises. So the use of enterprises is that they may become what our heart and mind feed on, what your nafsu feed on.

Why does Bapak say this? Because progress, perfection in the Kejiwaan does not come from the zeal or frequency with which you do the Latihan, no, only from surrender, only from patience.

Clearly, then, if you truly surrender to God with patience, trustful acceptance and sincere submission, your Jiwa will develop spontaneously. It is just the opposite if you use your will, you bar the way to spiritual development.

So you who still want to live on earth, who still want to be graced by God with a long life or a great age, must follow what has happened and been revealed by the power of God in the Latihan Kejiwaan, which you have all received and done.

Perhaps you ask what sort of enterprise or where and how should it be run. Maybe you have such queries, and Bapak explains that an enterprise is an effort, an effort of work. When Bapak says an effort of work, there are of course all sorts of work. The kinds of enterprises that are fitting and that you should and can carry on are countless.

By means of clothes, for instance. Someone demonstrates clothes so that people may learn to dress really well in clothes that are suitable for them to adopt. This serves to promote the clothes, and so she earns a lot of money. Those who do this are nowadays called models. Now they are appearing here, though in fact Europe has had them for quite a time. Although only that, it is nevertheless an enterprise, an art or an occupation that can make money and be valued by the public.

There are more enterprises, such as making clothes. Besides those who make clothes and those who display clothes, there are now those who enhance women's personal appearance. That too is a kind of enterprise, hairdressing and facial makeup.

All these are enterprises, but they are mostly carried out by the nafsu, so the work is done without that which governs the self taking part.

This you can feel. In the Latihan you are active in ways that are in fact habitual, but why do those things again? In the Latihan you can feel the difference: 'I can do that because I have learnt it with the nafsu and the mind, and this I am made to do without understanding the need for it.'

Clearly then, brothers and sisters, in sugar there is sweetness that is not made by man but is due to the action of God Almighty.

This Bapak puts before you so that you will understand enterprises, for you are already taught, already guided, already directed every time you receive and follow the Latihan Kejiwaan.

Enterprises are not only what we regard as work; even movement can be an enterprise. If you can teach somebody how to walk in a pleasing way, this is possible for you because you are receiving from the power of God, so that your movements are really noticed, liked and valued by people.

...At first sight this seems easy, yes indeed, but it is difficult to do, it is difficult work for the lazybones. But those who are not lazy can do it. Whatever can be seen or heard of can be done. For God does not set up schools, and never did. Heaven has no school for architects, none; heaven has no school for engineers, none; nor one for farmers, either, nor for teachers, nor for accountants. All these are on earth, owing their existence to man himself. Who establishes them? People who are not lazy, people willing to work.

Bapak is putting this to you, brothers and sisters, so that you should begin to stir. But in harmony. Bapak makes a requirement of harmony in order that co-operation may be created in these enterprises. Without harmony you cannot succeed.

Wolfsburg, Germany - June 19, 1975
Enterprises And Organization
Code Number : 75 WOB 10

These helpers also need their expenses, which are to be obtained out of the profits earned by enterprises such as P.T. S. Widjojo. But the 25 per cent of the net profit to be donated direct to I.S.C. is not to be calculated after taking off traveling expenses for the helpers, because whatever concerns the helpers, is the responsibility of I.S.C. itself; it is the responsibility of the executive section, not the direct responsibility of the enterprise.

Thus, for any enterprise, what is meant by 'net' is the clear profit, after subtracting whatever is needed for the business. For instance, after allocating money to depreciation, to the reserves and so on, according to the requirements of the business, so that what Bapak means is that out of that clear net profit 25 per cent is eventually given to I.S.C., and it will then be used for the needs of Subud. So a distinction must be made between the needs of Subud and the needs of the business. This has probably been discussed already and perhaps Wahono can explain.

Brothers and sisters, Bapak hopes that you will join in thinking about this, because this is a matter of thought, a matter of finance, so it should not really be put to Bapak. Brothers and sisters, as Bapak has just said, we establish enterprises both for the needs of our Subud Brotherhood and also for all the various needs of our lives. So we must not only give priority to the needs of Subud, but we must also consider the importance of our own interests, our personal interests. You should give both of these equal attention and an equal share, so that it is not more of one and less of the other. It is, therefore, best to divide the profits fairly. So if a business makes a profit of say 100,000 dollars, that profit has of course already been reduced by payments to the employees of salaries and so on, and also by what has been spent on the various needs of the business· After all this the final gross profit may be 100,000 dollars. 'Gross' means not yet reduced by the other essential payments which may leave a remaining clear net profit of 50,000 dollars. Bapak hopes that out of that, 25 per cent will be given to I.S.C., so that then I.S.C. can decide what I.S.C. needs. For instance, it may need to make contributions to a Subud group which is enthusiastic but is not yet strong financially, and to make a contribution to Subud in other countries where it is not yet strong enough to establish enterprises, so that I.S.C. needs to take care of it. Thus the 25 per cent is definitely given to I.S.C., and I.S.C. will then distribute it according to what appears to be necessary. This is Bapak's wish.

Wolfsburg, Germany - June 21, 1975
Code Number : 75 WOB 15

Cilandak, Indonesia - July 20, 1975
Of the World Congress
Code Number : 75 CDK 4

That is why human beings are the abode or home of a secret life. One may say that the ocean can be plumbed, its depth be measured. But that is not said of the human heart. Yes indeed, that is normally the case. But for you who have been trained in the kejiwaan it is nothing strange when you are similar in appearance. In fact, brothers and sisters, God has given mankind His grace to enable human beings to know the content, what is in the heart, of their fellows, of their fellow human beings, that is. His grace goes even further. Human beings will be able to know the hearts of angels, able to know the hearts of heavenly beings ( devas ), when they can truly surrender everything to God. Thus, through God, human beings will be able to know everything they need to know.

This is why the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud exists. So the main thing in the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud is the Latihan Kejiwaan. Why should enterprises be established in the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud if the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud is the principal thing, whereas enterprises can cause the Latihan Kejiwaan to decline?

Bapak proposes and Bapak arranges and Bapak urges that enterprises should be undertaken as well so that you can satisfy the requirements of your earthly life, can fulfill its conditions. For, whether you like it or not, you have to admit that without money you could not go about nor satisfy your needs. If you have no money you are like, say, a bird without wings, whereas you need food, you need clothing, you need the necessities of life in this world. With the kejiwaan you will not be able to meet those needs, for the kejiwaan is not of this world. But we are fortunate to be trained in receiving the Latihan Kejiwaan, because from the kejiwaan we obtain indications of what we ought to do, and where and how. You have to meet those needs, so Bapak urges you to create some enterprise, so that you can ensure your subsistence while living on earth. It is truly mistaken, it is really wrong if in the kejiwaan you consider only your jiwa and do not consider your earthly life.

...we should carry out Subud enterprises or Subud developments by ourselves, if we can. For it really would be better so. Don't let us help people through ourselves getting help from others. Don't do that. If we are capable, we can help people by our own efforts, in other words, by our own strength. Don't now let this Subud become a begging body, asking for donations, don't do that. On the contrary, if we can, let us become pioneers in how people can help others by their own strength.

Cilandak, Indonesia - October 31, 1975
Talk to directors and staff of I.D.C.
Code Number : 75 CDK 8

Brothers and sisters, as an elder and also as President of the Board of Trustees of the enterprise P.T. ( "Ltd." or "Inc." ) I.D.C., I have been asked to say a few words of advice or information and welcome to all of you; so I will do this, although it will not be long; if possible it will even be quite short.

Brothers and sisters, I hope and pray that your enthusiasm, your keenness to work in carrying out your tasks in P.T. I.D.C. will increase day by day, because P.T. I.D.C. is a company or enterprise which does not just seek to make profits, but it is a company which seeks to make a living so that it can be said to maintain the life of society.

Because of this, according to the way we calculate things in P.T. I.D.C., there is not such an obvious profit; it can be said that the total receipts and the total expenditure are the same, almost the same. Yes, that is true. So it is clear that I.D.C. is not an enterprise that seeks profits just for itself, or for its own group, but for the general good. Therefore it does not follow the way of capitalism.

In addition to that, brothers and sister, P.T. I.D.C. does business and concurrently teaches and trains you, the workers and staff, so that you can work properly, so that you can stand on your own feet. In so doing, this policy follows the will of Almighty God that people should divide the profits they obtain equally or fairly so that life on earth can be safe and happy.

Cilandak, Indonesia - February 13, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 1

Brothers and sisters, that is why Bapak always says and always advises you that spiritual matters should not be the subject of discussion, for spiritual matters are matters for God, matters for revelation from God. They are not matters for human beings, like those concerned with man's needs and worldly affairs. No. The more attention you give to spiritual matters, the more you think about them, the further away from them you are. Why is that? Because of your thoughts or, to be exact, Bapak should say your brains and your hearts, which are full of nafsu. How can the nafsu be used to seek God and His power? It is not possible, for they are only something added on to play a part in your lives.

So in other words, brothers and sisters, we just do the Latihan Kejiwaan, do what the jiwa decides, what we receive. In this way the nafsu do not fill our Latihan, the Latihan of you all; it really is filled by the power of God, which in truth purifies whatever in your mind is impeding you.

But don't be anxious or disappointed, brothers and sisters. You have a mind and heart not by your own will but by the will of God. Clearly then, it is very necessary for you to make use of them, but for the things really appropriate to the strength and capacity of the heart and mind. And that is why Bapak says and proposes and urges that you who are in Subud should carry on enterprises. An enterprise is a work effort of any kind. If you are working in an office, that too is an enterprise you have the ability for. Suppose you hang a caged bird outside your house, yes, that is an enterprise, if indeed you are capable of doing only that. If, for example, you now open some place where cars can be brought to, set up a sort of car park, yes that would be an enterprise. Say you become a comedian, that also is an enterprise.

Every effort, every human activity for ensuring a living is an enterprise, provided that everything you do aims at what is good, aims at what is worthy, aims at well being. Don't go and make a bridge, deliberately make a bridge, that will collapse while people are crossing it. That is an unworthy thing to do. You should make and do things really beneficial both to your own life and to society. That is what the mind and heart are for. That is why Bapak urges and advises you that as well as doing the Latihan Kejiwaan, the nature of which is only to follow what you receive, you should also establish an undertaking.

As Bapak said briefly yesterday, the American and European members, the Westerners, are widely known to be good at making money, and good at business, or good at exerting themselves. But why, once they are in Subud and after Bapak has urged them to carry on enterprises, can they not do so? Why can they not do what people not in Subud ordinarily do? It is not that they fail to understand. No. They think that through running enterprises their worship of God Almighty will lessen or decline, causing them to regress spiritually. That is what they say.

It is not so, it is just the opposite. If you are running an enterprise, everything you do will be a pointer, will form an indication. Since at times you will face difficulties, and since you are receiving from God, receiving guidance from God, then each time you meet a difficulty, that is the time to ask the giver of the guidance. Who is the giver? God Almighty.

Ask for guidance, but don't ask to test about other people. Don't do that. In that case you are misusing it. You who are getting on fairly well in the Kejiwaan like to test this and test that about others. Well, you are looking for trouble, instead of finding a way to enable you to provide for your lives.

Cilandak, Indonesia - February 15, 1976
Talk to zonal councilors
Code Number : 76 CDK 3

Cilandak, Indonesia - March 28, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 5

Brothers and sisters, Bapak will go on talking about enterprises. Actually the world already provides an example in the existence of something now highly developed: beauty salons. Now then, this is something the young members can do, can't they? How is it they are only capable of going to beauty salons, and do not set up their own! That's amiss, isn't it? So these members, you young ones, should be able to do this yourselves. At present, to replace your clothes you buy them. Well, why? Why not make them yourselves?

Try it, together with your friends, for on your own you are not strong enough. With your friends you can build something up. So the way to do it is collectively, the way to do it is by working together. Don't let it happen that, the longer we go on, the more we are pushed aside. Try to remember that. Bapak has had experience of it, for Bapak is already seventy-seven years old, Bapak was not born yesterday. As time went on we were increasingly pushed aside, pushed aside Bapak says, by a breed of people who had the ability to work. They pushed and pushed us away, and in time we fell into the river.

Yes, look! Formerly we were in the outskirts of the city there. We were pushed back by those who knew how to work -pushed back, pushed back. Bapak is not saying by the Chinese, no. We were pushed back by those who knew how to work. Gradually, as time went on we were pushed farther and farther out, right into the river. Well, that's where we are. Is that where we should be, submerged, or what? Surely not, eh? This State of Indonesia is your place. So be on your guard. Don't keep being pushed aside. But as well as not being pushed aside, we shouldn't push others aside. There's no need. This being our State, what need is there to push people aside? That would result in us going under soon afterwards.

Thus the world already offers examples. So it is said in the words of God that the roh kudus ( the holy spirit ) is the roh malaikat ( the spirit of the angels ). It exists within the human self, it exists also outside the human self, as guidance. So the angels give us human beings guidance, that which we can receive within the self being the more important, for it cannot be discovered either by other people or by ourselves.

But there are also outward indications. The outward ones are the cases where what happens is outside us. That is to say, at this time many people like to eat delicious food. Although just now all sorts of things are said to be dear, even so people like to eat delicious food. And there are also many people now requiring meals out. Well, do you at present like to buy food or do you like to provide it? So you should start now, you young ones, to train yourselves to be skilled at cooking food for the people who like to buy it.

Yes, in short, the world is full of examples. Don't belittle yourselves: 'Oh, it's just me, what can I do?' Well, don't be like that. One is a man. So if one is a man, can one be supposed not to be? No. So don't belittle yourselves. If you belittle yourselves, how much more will other people belittle you. That's how it is.

Why, it's like men with wives. The wives are schooled to respect them. Well now, if their own wives are not willing to respect them, how much less willing will the wives of other men be. They bid their wives respect them.

But a man who is respected by his wife must not get conceited: 'Aha, now my wife has come to respect me.' Not that. There must be an even balance. A man must pay attention to a woman's lot, too. He must know and understand her. One whose wife is used to eating butter, say, must not fob her off with soya sauce. Yes, let her be given butter. How can that be done? Well, why can't you get it, so that she has butter to eat? Then, if you have obtained it, so that she has it to eat, you have had to go in search of it to please her, and hence the wife respects her husband: 'My goodness, what a fine husband mine is, so manly, such a gentleman.' It's like that, isn't it?

In this world, then, it's very necessary to love one another, to respect one another. Not just other people. A husband and wife need to respect each other too.

If your husband gives way to you, don't bully him. Don't do that. So, too, the other way round: if your wife gives way to you, don't bully her. Thus you are equal; but if you are equal, don't be equally aggressive, be equally yielding. Being equal, then, means being equally yielding, not equally aggressive. Being equally aggressive will wreck your home. All the plates will go flying!

So, clearly, the lessons in religion and especially in what has been training us, Subud full of the understanding of life. Truly. Yes. If Bapak when still young had sung for money, well, he would have been rich. Truly. If Bapak had been paid for his voice, no-one could have competed with him. That was when Bapak was still young. In those days, when Bapak sang a pangkur, why, his voice was highly developed. Indeed it was. When women heard Bapak, heard Bapak's pangkur, they were enthralled. Well, now he is old, his voice is such as it is, and he couldn't sing a pangkur pleasingly if he wanted to. If he sang a pangkur a little too long he would be out of breath.

Plainly then, brothers and sisters, the Latihan is filled with understanding. So if you earnestly persevere with and have faith in what exists in your Latihan of Life, it will be impossible for you to keep on complaining. Impossible. Yes, but don't forget Bapak when everything is going well; when you meet Bapak, don't turn aside. Now don't do that.

Melbourne, Australia - April 12, 1976
Code Number : 76 MEB 1

Brothers and sisters, besides doing the latihan kejiwaan diligently and faithfully, Bapak also wants you to do enterprises, so that you will gradually be able to witness for yourselves the truth of what Bapak is saying. An enterprise is not anything foreign or unfamiliar to you. It might be foreign if you called it usaha ( Indonesian word for enterprise ). An enterprise is an usaha run by people for their lives so long as they live in this world. The nature of these enterprises has many varieties. They can be in accordance with what you know. Thus you can carry out enterprises in the field of farming or in the field of industry. You can, in short, carry out enterprises in all kinds of fields, in whatever field you may be expert and in whatever field you choose.

What is important, in doing all this, is that it really benefits yourselves. In that case, you will not be slowing down your progress in the worship of the One Almighty God, or making it more difficult. Not at all. For Bapak has just said that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is the grace of the One Almighty God. Human beings would not be able to do this latihan kejiwaan of Subud, which is so easy, had not God granted you His grace.

Clearly, this latihan kejiwaan of Subud is the work of God alone, which He does for you. So what then is your work, the work of your minds and your hearts? Of course these will work and should work, for this is what God has decreed for all of you. And it is necessary that you should carry out enterprises; in that way you will be able to stand on your own feet in life, united in the worship of the One Almighty God, whom you worship solely because you are guided and directed by God. I repeat, you will not be able to worship God really sincerely unless He bestows His blessing upon you. But you will be able to use your hearts and your minds to the extent of your capacity, so as to provide for your lives so long as you live in this world.

So it is clear, brothers and sisters, that so long as you live in this world you have two obligations or duties in life. One is to worship God by the will of God, which you respect and value, and one is to run enterprises or to work to provide for your lives so long as you are living in this world.

Melbourne, Australia - April 15, 1976
Code Number : 76 MEB 3

Brothers and sisters, before Bapak starts to talk about what he wants to talk about, Bapak wants to welcome you all and wish you a good morning. Brothers and sisters, Bapak has promised today to speak about enterprises. Now Bapak has actually since a very long time already advised Subud members to start enterprises, start enterprises in the field of agriculture, in the field of technology, in the field of building construction, or whatever it is you are able to do, you know how to do. But when you are about to start an enterprise, the way you wish to start an enterprise, it is necessary first of all to ask for the approval and the investigation of your idea, in order that later when you do the enterprise results should be satisfactory. And in this it is not necessary for you to go to the helpers, because the helpers are Subud members whose duty it is to deal with problems in the kejiwaan while enterprises relate to the field of every day work. And in this, therefore, what you need to get is not the approval, or the views of the helpers, but the approval and the study of those experts who make up what we call S.E.S.; in other words, those who really understand, have some expertise in the field that you are looking at so that then the results of the enterprise will really be satisfying and will come up to what you hoped for.

So if you observe this, then the helpers will not be overburdened. Because certainly if you always ask the helpers about these things, then it is clear that they will have to keep testing all the time. So what is necessary is that you should here in Australia as quickly as possible form a strong S.E.S. unit, just as it has been formed in many countries already, and this S.E.S. unit should have within it groups dealing with different disciplines. In other words, groups of experts of a certain kind who can then give advice to their brothers and sisters who are intending to or who are in fact already working in enterprises. Now, Bapak sees that there are many among you who are expert in one field or another. And this is something where you should already know more than Bapak, how to do it, because certainly you are already familiar with the world of business enterprise, because here in Australia business enterprise is much more advanced for example than in Indonesia. So it is something that you should be able to handle. And of course, enterprises need many other things apart from just advice, the need to find capital, and all these things are in the realm of S.E.S.. So therefore Bapak hopes that this can be quickly taken care of and that this S.E.S. can become something strong and active.

Now Bapak wants to remind you again, the purpose, what is the purpose of doing enterprises? Why should we do enterprises? Well, as Bapak has explained, the purpose of enterprises is that with the fertility of the enterprises which we start, we will then be able to give food, or give a field for Subud to grow. In other words, we will be able to make Subud fertile in the field that has been laid down in the past few international conferences. That is, that with the profits of enterprises Subud will begin to be in a position to enter the field of charitable, or social work. In other words to set up schools, to set up hospitals, set up schools for handicapped children, set up old people's homes, to set up hospitals, where if possible, the doctors can also be Subud members as well as being qualified doctors, so that they can treat the patient both inwardly and outwardly. Not forgetting our own needs, that is, for Subud houses for latihan halls, for guest houses for Subud members. In other words, through the results of enterprises we can begin to show the activity of Subud in a charitable field. In other words, people outside Subud will begin to see that Subud assists the country in which it exists, and thereby Subud itself will become well known and respected for its work assisting the government of whichever country it happens to be in. So Bapak just reminds you that it should be clear that the purpose of enterprises is not only for the benefit of those who run it. It is for their benefit, but also for the benefit of society in general.

Tokyo, Japan - April 21, 1976
Code Number : 76 TYO 4

Now Bapak would like to continue giving explanations about the latihan kejiwaan and its connection with enterprises. And Bapak wants to explain this to you more fully so that you should not misunderstand, because enterprises are indeed something ordinary, an ordinary kind of work or an ordinary kind of effort in the field of commercial activity, such as people normally undertake. And it is necessary therefore for Bapak to explain it and make sure that you don't misunderstand, and don't get the idea that by doing enterprises you will somehow be delaying, retarding or interfering with your worship towards Almighty God.

And now what shall we do with our heart and mind which, after a11, is also a gift of God Almighty? Well, it is clear, as Bapak said earlier, that in addition to doing the latihan, and following the latihan, and receiving the fruits of the latihan, we must also work with our hearts and minds. And the field of the heart and mind is enterprises. The field of enterprise is simply the field of work, the field of ordinary work as people normally do in this world. But it is an activity which tends towards the welfare of the one who does it. In other words, it is an activity which tends towards the taking care of the security and happiness of our life in this world. So enterprises can comprise any field that you like. Any one who works, it can be called an enterprise. For example you can have, a teacher who teaches is undertaking an enterprise in the field of education. A doctor like Dr. Rachman is also doing an enterprise in the field of health. In addition to that you can have an enterprise in the field of agriculture. Maybe it is done by an agricultural engineer, or you might not be an engineer but still work in the field of agriculture. Similarly you can have an enterprise in the field of business and for that you maybe have a qualification of doctor of economics or maybe you have nothing of the kind, but you can still work in the field of business. You can have an enterprise in the field of fisheries, or any other field that you can imagine. What about the ladies? They can work in the field of hotels for example, or in the field of cooking, or in the field of making clothes. Again there are many, many fields where women can work and can be successful. So all these activities are fields for enterprises, enterprises whose aim is to fulfill the needs of our life on this earth, to ensure our lives are happy and prosperous and provide for our families what we need.

Brothers and sisters, it is clear therefore, that you need not worry that if you do enterprises this will in some way obstruct, delay or disturb the progress of your latihan kejiwaan. Such an idea, such a feeling is completely wrong, that somehow through doing the enterprises, through using your heart and mind in this world, it will obstruct the progress of your latihan. This will not happen, because the power of God has already divided within you these two spheres. Far from it, instead of doing enterprises obstructing or disturbing your worship of God Almighty, on the contrary it will give you a satisfaction, the satisfaction of self sufficiency both in your outer life and in your inner life. And it is from this feeling of self sufficiency that we come to what is taught by both Subud and all religions, and that is the wish to do charitable things, the wish towards charity or helping other people. For indeed, this is the wish not only of Subud but of all religions who teach that men should help each other, that men should be willing to give to those who are weak, to help those who happen to be sick, and to assist those who need assistance. And this generally is connected in religion with the fasting, the month of fasting that is carried out. So this was the reason why at the International Congress, Bapak urged all Subud members to undertake enterprises as quickly as possible, that enterprises should be developed as quickly as possible so that we can soon put into practice our wish to start charitable undertakings; such as for example, schools, clinics, homes for old people who have no family to look after them, homes and schools for children who are perhaps handicapped in some way, hospitals, and all these other sorts of undertakings which can put into practice our ideal of serving our fellow men, of helping those who need help, and of giving charity where it is needed in this world. And of setting up special enterprises to help those of our own members who have not yet been able to find a field of work in their lives.

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

Enterprises are not restricted to business ventures or trade. No; an enterprise is an effort, and human effort takes many forms. Making films can be an enterprise, and you can make money that way if that really is your field. You can be a comedian, a clown, and if that really is your field you will be able to earn money in such a career. That is an enterprise. Or you can be a sculptor, carving statues, or an artist, and so on and so on. Or you can write stories. All these activities are enterprises. But if you do an enterprise, brothers and sisters, it is better not to do it alone, for you will not be able to live alone in this world. You need to live with other people. So if you can, you should get together with other people, so that you can organize yourselves harmoniously in working towards some end. This is what is done, brothers and sisters, by those who say that they wish to bring people into harmony. Thus you can form a group together with other people in some field in which you are expert. That is why each national committee or group should set up a group of experts. In New York, for instance, or in America, there are many people who are experts in many fields; in geology, in this, in that, in all kinds of fields. From these experts you can form a body which can give advice to anyone who is running an enterprise, so this person will be able to run it in the right way, and because they have the guidance of experts, people will not lose their way.

You must not leave things like this to God. You are making a mistake if you mix this kind of thing up with the spiritual life, so that even if it is just a matter of moving house people ask the helpers to test about which is the right house to move to. That is just one example of what not to do; there are many others.

People ask where is their right marriage partner to be found, and who is it? Is he or she to be rich or poor? Well, if the helpers could test things like that, they could find these things for themselves rather than test them for other people.

Through developing enterprises, and if the Subud members can run these enterprises properly, they will be able to provide adequate funds, so that eventually Subud will be able to establish schools, hospitals and clinics, homes for neglected children and delinquent children and homes for old people without families and so on.

In this way Subud will really be an association which can set an example to the community, showing that people can really practice the worship of the One Almighty God at the same time as they provide a good life both for themselves and for mankind in general. That is Bapak's hope, and Bapak has also received that this is the will of God for mankind. That is why Bapak hopes that you will really do enterprises, not waiting until later but starting now, so that you can get things organized quickly and not leave it too late. For leaving it too late will do us very great damage; it will damage all of you, so that you will feel very disappointed. There is a saying in Dutch, and perhaps there is also one in English, which expresses this, namely: berouw komt steeds terlaat ( repentance always comes too late ).

New York, NY U.S.A. - May 8, 1976
Code Number : 76 NYC 3

There is something else, brothers and sisters; when helpers are required by the group or by the brotherhood to work in enterprises or to serve on committees, they become inactive so long as they are engaged in this work. That means that so long as they are serving on a committee they are not allowed to take part in helpers' duties, or then the way they are working will become confused. They will mix it all up together, so that the worldly work is mixed up with the spiritual work. That is why the letter appointing a helper to serve on the organizational side states that he or she is inactive as a helper for the duration of their appointment, but will later on, after ceasing to act in an organizational capacity, return to being a helper. It is the same when helpers are appointed to active employment in an enterprise; they are also obliged to become inactive as helpers, for otherwise they will of course feel heavily burdened and confused in doing their work. That is why Bapak advises that in such cases helpers who are appointed to a committee should be non-active for so long as they are doing that work, and while they are working in some enterprise they should be non-active as helpers, but later on they automatically return to being helpers. This should be noted. Then they come back as active helpers, but the helpers still remain helpers all the time.

Toronto, Canada - May 14, 1976
Code Number : 76 YYZ 3

Enterprise is an English word, but the Indonesian word is "usaha' which means effort. Everything that is alive makes an effort, brothers and sisters. If you look at a worm, a worm goes down and it goes up and it goes to the right and to the left to try and find its way, the right way that it can find what it needs to live. Every form of life always makes an effort. So in the same way we also must use our heart and mind and our senses to the full extent of their capacity to find all that we need to live in this world. And if we can really do this, then it is really possible that through doing the latihan kejiwaan and doing enterprises that we can really fulfill our life in this world. And when Bapak talks to you about doing enterprises, Bapak does not mean that you have to form a company or that you have to build a factory or that you have to start some form of big business. Any form of work which is your true field of work, something which you can understand and can do well, can be an enterprise. It can be in the field of art, it can be in the field of acting. Any legitimate field of human activity can be considered an enterprise if you engage in it in the right way. So this is what we need to do; on the one hand to practice the latihan kejiwaan with a full feeling of surrender, and without any feeling of worry or restraint, but true surrender to God Almighty. And on the other hand, to use all our faculties that we’re been given, to pursue our needs in this world. So that if we really can do this, there is really a hope we can achieve a life of happiness and satisfaction and real security, for this is exactly what we have been advised to do by the saviors of mankind or the messengers of God who have given advice to man in the past; that man should achieve that which has always been the aspiration of man, that is, happiness and well-being and security in his life in this world.

Brothers and sisters, you might ask yourself, why does Bapak advise us to start enterprises when after all, these enterprises are something that mankind has engaged in from time immemorial. Well, that is true, but the difference is this: that now that you have received the latihan kejiwaan, when you work now in an enterprise, it is different from when before you received the latihan kejiwaan. Because now, when you work, and this is something you can feel for yourselves, you are all enveloped, both inwardly and outwardly, by the power and the greatness of God Almighty. And through this, having done the latihan, when you are about to work, you can sense and feel for yourself the difference between I work, and I am made to work, or I do business and I am made to do business, or I look for profit and I am made to look for profit.

In other words, when you undertake your work, with the power of God Almighty, you can sense the difference between when you do it yourself and when you are made to do it by the power of God Almighty, which is within you and about you. And once you are able to feel this, then the work that you do will be work that is allowed in the sense of religion, that is, it is something that is not forbidden. What this means is that the movement that you make or the work that you do is, as it were, authorized by God's power, because God permits you at that moment to do it or guides you to do it. The meaning of that is, that what you do or the action you take, is not filled with sin anymore, but is truly something that is free of anything wrong or any mistake. So that, it is clear, that work undertaken in this way is something that will lead to goodness and rightness or will not deviate from something that is right, and in this state, when you work in this way, your actions will never be something that will oppress others or cause suffering to others or get benefit at the expense of other people; but it will always be something mutual, with a mutuality about it, that it won't be just you that benefits, but others with whom you deal will also benefit, so that there will be a common benefit from the work that you do.

And this is the purpose of starting enterprises and this is why Bapak encourages you very much right away, or as far as you are able to now undertake and start to work in enterprises and start to set up enterprises. Bapak doesn't mind if you don't feel like doing it, that's up to you. Because really this is something that is for your own good, it is for your own life, it is for the welfare of your own life in this world and that of your family's.

Brothers and sisters, it is taught in religion, and of course in religion it relates to the founder or the one who holds the key to the religion, that is, in Christianity, of course, it's Jesus Christ himself, in Islam it is the Prophet Muhammad; it is taught in the religions that, let's say in the case of Jesus, that every movement and every action of Jesus did not come from himself as a man, but was guided by God Almighty. So that, every movement, every action that Jesus ever made was always guided and instructed by God Almighty. So that everything that Jesus did was always enveloped and the being of Jesus was always enveloped by God's power. This is the teaching of Christians about the person of Jesus. And similarly, is the teaching of Muslims about the Prophet Muhammad. So it is said that if somebody opposed Jesus, or went against or hated Jesus, then it was the same as opposing God or hating God. And because God is Almighty, this hatred or this opposition simply reflected to the being of the man himself. So that a person who hated Jesus or opposed Jesus was then tortured, his being was tortured by himself. In other words, his hatred or his opposition returned simply to his own being. And the same, exactly the same, is told about the Prophet Muhammad. So, it is clear, brothers and sisters, that someone who was in this position, someone who hates God, for God is Almighty, is in a state where he tortures himself. So, if you act in your enterprises, it may look as if you are working quite in an ordinary way. But your movements and your actions, at the time you are doing your enterprise, are constantly enveloped by the power of God and guided by the power of God and, as it were, surrounded by the unceasing prayer that goes on within you. So that everything you do will always be protected by God Almighty and it will guarantee to make your life satisfying and complete.

Kendfield, England - May 25, 1976
Code Number : 76 KFD 2

That is why all of you also need to be brave. If you are lacking in courage, then even if you do something, such as an enterprise, for instance, it will sometimes happen that when you start to carry out the enterprise you have already imagined its failure and envisaged its collapse. What you have envisaged is that it will collapse and fall into ruin. If the people who are going into a business imagine that they are going to be ruined, they will not go on with it and their business will not succeed. It is the same for people working in some job. People who work have two situations to imagine.

If things do not go well, there will be no use for them and they will be dismissed. Thus if someone imagines that he is going to be dismissed, he will not make any effort to search for work. He imagines that he has already been dismissed even before he has got the job. It is the same thing as doing enterprises in which, even before you start, you already feel that all is lost. This is not the courage which is the symbol of the prophet Abraham.

Kenfield, England - May 27, 1976
Code Number : 76 KFD 6

Are the people who work in what Bapak calls enterprises, working as lawyers, as legal experts, are they working independently, on their own and with their own strength? No. They are employees. Whose employees? They are the employees of the people who pay them to fight an action so that they will win. Thus because they are these people's employees, they do everything possible to enable people who are in the wrong to win their actions.

Well, that is not honest. That is a dishonest thing to do. Something like that is not the will of God. According to the will of God we have to act in an honest way, even though we may be lawyers. What is wrong still remains wrong; what is right still remains right. This means that we have to do enterprises sincerely, and we need to do them together.

Thus if several lawyers work together, this contributes to the strength of Subud and helps to build Subud up. Twenty five per cent of their profits are for Subud. The rest is for yourselves, it will not run into trouble or loss. That is also an enterprise.

Bapak will also add something more about enterprises, which it is very important to carry on, because the chief origin and cause of divisions and of a lack of enthusiasm for the latihan, and the main reason why people are not really united and harmonious, is nothing else than an insufficiency of money. That is why the number one condition for making the Subud members harmonious and persevering and resolute in doing the latihan is nothing other than our being really sincere about carrying on enterprises that can be successful and produce results.

And the way to do these enterprises, and this is more important still, is what Bapak urges upon you; to be in harmony. In doing these enterprises, the ones to look for as employees are our own members, which means they are, themselves in Subud. Yes, so long as you can fill the positions with Subud members who are experts. But if in setting up an enterprise those experts cannot be found amongst our own members, cannot be found amongst the Subud members themselves, then it is necessary to take other people, so that these other people can do the work that benefits Subud.

Singapore - June 29, 1976
Code Number : 76 SIN 2

This is why Bapak urges all of you to begin to keep and to carry out the commandment of God; that is, to organize your own selves properly so long as you live in this world. And to organize yourselves properly is to do as Bapak always says; that is, you need to carry out enterprises. You should do this in order to live standing on your own feet. So long as you live in this world you should, as far as possible, not depend upon other people or upon other situations. You must not try to live in this world like the kind of tree that lives by clinging to another tree; that is, a parasite. This is the will of the One Almighty God for the human beings whom he has created to be the first and the foremost of the creatures in this world.

Brothers and sisters, the sequel to the enterprises which Bapak proposes will be that, apart from strengthening the spiritual brotherhood of Subud, together we shall also be able to put into practice our ideas, our intentions and wishes, which were set out at the international congress ( at Wolfsburg ). That is, we shall be able to create, to establish in Subud, schools for neglected children and orphans, hospitals and clinics, homes for old people who have no family, and so on.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters, and so the sequel to the enterprises that Bapak is suggesting is not only that we in the spiritual brotherhood of Subud shall be able to create and establish our own houses, such as meeting houses for Subud and houses for latihan, but also houses for poor children and neglected children, and all the things that Bapak mentioned just now. And apart from that, brothers and sisters, we also very much need to guide and direct our own brothers, our Subud members, so that they will become good and skilled workers.

This is the reason why a large proportion of our Subud members, who live in the East and are not skilled workers, are living on the lowest levels in the world. This is for no other reason than that we are not yet skilled workers like our brothers in the West. And this, brothers and sisters, is why Bapak proposes that in Subud we should establish an international bank, and Bapak is now also starting an international enterprise. What Bapak hopes is that this international enterprise ( Sinar Enterprises International Ltd. ) will be able to accumulate and enlarge its capital so as to be able to provide capital to the Subud centers in the developing countries.

Cilandak, Indonesia - July 25, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 6

Similarly, if an enterprise you are running goes wrong, don't stop and change to another. Don't do that. If you stop and change to something else, that will go wrong too. Those mistakes become experience, those mistakes become lessons. That's how it is. So if you are running an enterprise which doesn't make a profit, keep on with it. Find the reason, find where the fault lies. If you can find the fault in your enterprise, you can then go ahead and work to put it right.

Things do go wrong, as in France. French members, their French enterprise, lost almost three million or something like that. Three million francs. They lost money, then got frightened and did nothing more. Don't be like that. Keep right on. Look for the causes. As soon as you begin to look, you will find out little by little what they are. They are faults in organizing.

Brothers and sisters, you may have questions to ask about the matter of enterprises. 'Enterprise' is an English word which, if translated into Indonesian, is usaha. An usaha or enterprise should accord with your talents. Bapak takes an example from the animal realm. What is the enterprise of a goat for it to attain security in its life and live happily, which means always being able to eat? A goat's enterprise, of course, is to go to a field that has plenty of grass or plenty of leaves for it to eat. The goat shouldn't go into a vast jungle, say, full of fierce animals. Doing that won't make its life secure.

Clearly, then, the enterprises should accord with your respective talents. What are your talents? Have you a talent for farming. If your talent is for cattle breeding, then your enterprise should be to do with cattle breeding. If your talent is for house building, say, then your enterprise should be to do with housing and construction. And so on, in that way.

The important thing to enable you to run enterprises properly is harmony. This harmony is very necessary for you, for with harmony among you the work can go well, and without harmony your work will surely experience discord, disruption and regress.

Are you capable of doing this? Why not? You are complete, complete with your five senses, complete with your instruments for living. You lack nothing in comparison with other races or other peoples. If other races can work on their own to develop themselves from being have-nots to being haves, why can't you? This is only because you haven't yet tackled the problem. Yes, because you lack the courage, because you are not used to doing it. Since you are not used to it, you have to get used to it. All the more so now that we are a free people, not colonized, not ruled by any other race, and thus can work freely. Don't let yourselves be limited by your own feelings and your own minds. Don't do that.

Cilandak, Indonesia - August 18, 1976
ode Number : 76 CDK 8

Malang, Indonesia - November 20, 1976
Code Number : 76 MLE 1

Cilandak, Indonesia - December 11, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 17

Cilandak, Indonesia - June 12, 1977
Code Number : 77 CDK 8

Brothers and sisters, Bapak has often said that without God's blessing, Bapak would not have been able to build this building ( latihan hall ) and to spread Subud all over the world. Amongst other things, we have also established the bank, which is at present still a national bank, and we have also established P.T.S. Widjojo. Thus although P.T.S. Widjojo has the ordinary nature of a human enterprise, yet if you really know about it, it is something out of the ordinary. Perhaps you know for your selves that unless it were blessed by God, it could not run, and none of this would be able to happen, neither Subud nor its P.T.S. Widjojo.

As you know, P.T.S. Widjojo is going to swallow or consume or require an expenditure of not less than five to six milliard rupiahs. Thus it is an expenditure that is out of place for someone like Bapak or yourselves; out of place to dream of building something so enormous. This is what the Dutch call lucht kasteelen bouwen ( building castles in the air ). Thus it looks as if Bapak is planning something that cannot possibly be achieved.

Bristol, England - June 29, 1977
Code Number : 77 BRS 4

So this teaching which exists in the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud is alive and spontaneous and brings with it a feeling of lightness and satisfaction and happiness.

This is the reason why, in order to train ourselves in this, we must practice what Bapak calls enterprises. The reason for doing enterprises is to give ourselves a feel for practicing and experiencing and training ourselves to be close to this guidance and this movement that we have received.

So it is clear that when we do an enterprise after we have received the Latihan Kejiwaan, it will be quite different from when we did an enterprise before we joined Subud. Before we joined Subud our efforts to do business and to earn a living were entirely moved by the nafsu; and the nafsu are very easily manipulated by the lower forces, which are the various powers that live within our being. But it is quite different now, because now if you do an enterprise you will be more or less aware of the guidance or the presence of the power of God Almighty, which will therefore automatically lead your actions in a direction that is correct and really excellent from the point of view of human morality.

Bapak doesn't say that it is inevitable or certain that you will experience what Bapak has said, because this depends very much on your own actions. It depends to what extent you pay attention to your own behavior and actions. Bapak will give an example.

If you happen to be a merchant and you are selling some things, if you act in a way that makes things difficult for the buyer - in other words if you act like a profiteer or someone who takes too much profit for himself - then that is not right. If you are able to know the right measure or attitude as a merchant, you will fix your profit at just the right level. It is true that as a merchant your aim is purely to make a profit; but if you have once received the guidance of God within you, you will be aware of the amount of profit you can allow yourself, so that not only you profit, but the one who buys from you also profits. And just as you feel happy in making your profit, the buyer will feel happy because he knows that he has got a bargain. This is actually very important because this is the effect of the guidance of God within us.

So this is why Bapak advises, encourages and requires us to do enterprises, because it is in doing these enterprises that we have a training ground where we can gradually learn to experience for ourselves the type of guidance that Bapak is talking about. And we can train ourselves more and more to be people who are guided by the power of God, to act in a way that is right. For example, going back to the merchant again; we won't do our business in a charitable way, but at very least, the way we do our work will bring us closer to the people around, with society around us and with the people we deal with. So, instead of being motivated by greed and nafsu we will be motivated by a feeling which makes our bonds with our fellow human beings closer and closer.

S

o it is clear then that when we do enterprises we are doing something that is an essential accompaniment to the Latihan Kejiwaan. In the Latihan Kejiwaan we simply surrender - there is nothing but surrender to God Almighty. But we cannot do our enterprises by surrendering, we have to use our nafsu, because in this world we cannot achieve anything, we cannot earn money, we cannot get on in this world without using our nafsu. But the way you use your nafsu now is completely different from the way you used your nafsu before you received the Latihan Kejiwaan. Whereas then you used your nafsu in a way where you were overpowered by the nafsu - now you will use your nafsu in a way that is permitted by the power of God. In other words, you will use your nafsu in the way that is permitted or approved of by the power of God. The result is that the nafsu will be your servant in looking for the livelihood or material gain that you need, instead of influencing your own being, your own jiwa. That means you will be able to do your business successfully but without, at the same time, being influenced and being diverted into a channel of greed and self seeking.

This then is the importance of enterprises; and in doing enterprises - since the purpose of enterprises is not only for material gain, but also to achieve harmony in society - one of the cardinal rules is that in the way we run our enterprises, we must always have harmony among ourselves. The reason why we need to have harmony among ourselves is because if something is to succeed it must be done in harmony. The moment we let disputes and disharmony and mutual distrust and differences of opinion creep in, we are heading for disaster. And this is very, very important because whenever Bapak hears about the decline of Subud somewhere, this decline or this breaking up is always the result of arguments or differences of opinion, of mutual dislike and so on. After all, brothers and sisters, what is it that we are looking for? What is it that we want out of Subud? What we are looking for in Subud is to be face to face with God, to be closer to God and to be happy in our closeness to God and to each other. So what benefit can you possibly get from disagreements, from enmities, from hatred, from mutual distrust, from one-upmanship? What can they possibly bring you?

All these things only have one effect - they kindle the fire of greed, of selfishness within you, which only slows your progress. So you have to keep this very far away from you. We must really train ourselves in our enterprises and in whatever we do to be close to each other, to give and take from each other, to help each other, and when we see someone else making a mistake we should not make that mistake into a big issue with which we then hit them over the head. On the contrary, we must run to correct the results of whatever mistakes have been made, just like when we see a house that has something wrong with it we quickly repair it. This is the only way we can act, because who is free from mistakes? Who is there who can say, 'I never make a mistake'? We all make mistakes, and it is for this reason that we must learn to forgive each other easily and quickly.

To make this more clear: in an enterprise the people who are at the top must look after and care about the ordinary workers at the bottom, so that the ordinary workers at the bottom do not feel, 'Oh what's the use of my working hard because in the end all the profit will go into the pockets of the people at the top.' They must be made to feel that the whole enterprise belongs to them also, so that they really feel at one with the needs of the enterprise. This is the meaning of harmony. But what usually happens is that the people who are at the top only reinforce and protect their position at the top, and the people down below always feel themselves as just useless people who are manipulated and taken advantage of, so that there will always arise a constant warfare whereby nothing can be achieved. What is really needed is a true feeling of harmony, a true oneness whereby the top and the bottom look after each other, and care for each other.

Rotterdam, Holland - July 15, 1977
Enterprises And The Kejiwaan
Code Number : 77 RTM 2

During Bapak's visit to Rotterdam 20 members connected with Subud Enterprises in Holland gathered in the Subud House and reported on the state of affairs and progress of the various enterprises, ending with a report by the National helpers on the helper’s work connected with the enterprises. Bapak commented in the following talk.

Bapak would now like to give a short explanation or opinion, about enterprises and their connection with the kejiwaan.

Brothers and sisters, our idea, our concept of enterprises in Subud is a step which is completely new for mankind, because in the past men who have embarked on enterprises have done so entirely moved and motivated by their will and intelligence and their expertise; so that up to now mankind has approached work and business entirely moved by their expertise and their shrewdness or their craftiness. This has led indeed, over a period of many years, to a great progress of the economy in many countries where this path has been followed: such as for example, Japan, the United States, and several other countries.

In our case, what we are doing is something that is completely new because we are just starting now - we are starting with a completely new way, as it were. That is, we are combining the spiritual life - that is the worship of God - with our enterprises or with our outer work. In other words, we are doing our enterprises as it were, moved by the spiritual – that is, with our inner guidance.

Now this is indeed something that is completely new because it is something that men have never done before and, viewed externally, it is clear that this is something very difficult, because it is as though we are spiritual people who have got into the wrong place. In other words, when we are trying to do enterprises it is as though we are misplaced, we are people who are interested in the spiritual and we have somehow ended up in a place that is not suitable for that. And as a result we have experienced what we have experienced up until now, which Bapak has seen all over the world - that it is as though Subud members starting enterprises, in general meet with bad luck, or they fail, and this is because they are trying to do something that is completely new. For this reason, because this is something completely new for mankind, it is necessary for us to approach it with a lot of patience and an attitude and firmness, because it is said - it has always been said - that a man is able to learn mainly from the results of his own actions. Therefore, if we experience bad luck or misfortunes, or failure, then that is actually for us a source or a fountain of learning, of understanding what our mistakes are; because we have received the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud, so it is easier for us to understand. In other words the fact that we are worshipping God and receiving the latihan makes it easier for us, or makes us better at, looking at our mistakes and learning from them, so that we are in the unusual position that we are able to change things. In other words, once we have made a mistake we are able to do it differently the next time.

Therefore. do not imagine that you will achieve something without going through bitterness. Indeed. as Bapak has told you, if you wish to succeed in what Bapak has advised you to do in these enterprises, which is what God has ordered us to do - which; as Bapak says is completely new for mankind – we cannot expect to achieve it without difficulties and bitterness and hardship, and even to the point where we will often feel like giving up hope, because within us we have something, we have guidance and power, which is the power of life which will always sustain us and show us the right way to follow, once we are able to follow it, and which in addition will teach us to do something with harmony. It is a power that we have within us, all of us, which enables us to get on with our fellow beings, to be friendly, to cooperate one with the other until we are able to work together as a really close team. Because if you really want know, man cannot achieve anything that is spectacular or significant without being in harmony, without working together with a number of people. Man cannot achieve anything alone. And this is something that we are able to do through the Latihan Kejiwaan.

If Bapak listens to your report earlier from the side of the helpers, that the helpers still test things that are needed by the enterprise - actually, Bapak feels about this - really, there is no need for the helpers to test, because each one who is doing an enterprise is already filled with the guidance and the power of God. So it is important that the helpers should never become a kind of priesthood, or that in enterprises the helpers represent a kind of priesthood, or an oracle, for those doing enterprises. Only if it is absolutely necessary and there is really an insoluble problem - then you may go to the helpers and ask for advice. But it's not necessary to test, because if you really look, the helpers themselves are not yet able to test successfully, or to know something that is really the right way, or to find a way that is really profitable, or something like that. So each one of us has within him this guidance that we need for our enterprise.

The side of the helpers is already very heavy. In fact, the work of the helpers is to guide and to look after the members in their progress in the kejiwaan. In other words, on the side of the kejiwaan. And if you really want to know which is the more difficult, or which is the heavier task, the enterprises or the helpers, then actually the helpers have the heavier task, because it is their job to try to influence the members, to guide them and to advise them so that they become people who are truly friendly and united in their feelings, because this is really the basis of everything we want to achieve. The helpers' job is to make the members into people who are loved by everybody. In other words, the helpers must show the way to the members, that each one will become someone who is not only useful to society, but a man who is automatically loved and respected by those around him.

Bapak will tell you a story because this is something that Bapak has experienced for himself. When Bapak was still young, Bapak noticed that there was a real difference between people. For example, Bapak knew a person who was very wealthy and had much more than he needed; and Bapak also knew someone who was very poor and lacked everything. And this very poor person went to the very rich person and said: 'Please, I need your help. I need this, this, this, this, this . . .' which presumably was money.

But the rich person, although he had much more than enough for what he needed, said to this person: 'No, I'm sorry, I can't help you.’ because at that moment he felt it a waste of time helping this character.

Yet when Bapak went to see the person, that rich person, with some need of his own - before Bapak said anything, he already said: 'Do you need this, or do you need that?'

Of course, Bapak said: 'Yes, it so happens that I have need of the following help...' So whereas in the one case this man was completely unwilling to help this person, yet in the other case he was the one who suggested it, even before Bapak had the opportunity to ask.

This is, as it were, an example, because each Subud member through his Latihan Kejiwaan should be able to become like that - and the way to that is to learn to be someone who is truly loving towards other people, who truly likes to help other people, and to be together with other people, and who likes to share and be open with everybody who needs his help. And then that nature will itself be a mirror and reflect, so that other people will have the same attitude to him.

Rotterdam, Holland - July 15, 1977
Code Number : 77 RTM 4

When we do enterprises as Bapak has described, we must remember that we will certainly have difficulties because the enterprise which Bapak advises us to do, or which exist in Subud, are something that is completely new for mankind in this world, because up till now all the enterprises that have been done by men are always moved by the will; that is, by the nafsu. So that once they progress and, let us say, they get very wealthy or very powerful or very successful - that wealth and that power and that success are all the fruit of man working under the influence of the material forces. The result of that wealth is that man is subdued by the material forces, so that man becomes their tool. In other words, instead of man worshipping Almighty God, man then worships the material.

The difference in our case is that when we do enterprises, and we are truly following the guidance of God Almighty as we have received in the Latihan Kejiwaan, then what we find is that when we are successful, or when we get wealth from that enterprise, that wealth is not the fruit of the material forces manipulating us, but, on the contrary, it is obtained by the service of the material forces so that they are truly initiated by and caused by the glory of man, rather than by the glory of material. Because in the past, and up till now throughout the world, men only do enterprises and business from the power of the nafsu and are therefore entirely manipulated and controlled by the material forces. It is as though the whole world is already controlled by the material forces.

Herk-de-Stad, Belgium - July 16, 1977
Code Number : 77 HDS 1

Bapak feels its very important for us, to begin to check for ourselves whether or not it is possible for us to feel the Latihan Kejiwaan during our everyday activities, apart from our normal times of doing the latihan. And in order to make it possible for us to begin to check this for ourselves Bapak has advised us to do enterprises because it is through these enterprises that we will begin - we have the opportunity to begin to experience for ourselves and to check that it is possible for us to feel the guidance of the power of God, as we experience in the latihan, in everything that we do in our work and during our everyday life.

For example, supposing we set up an enterprise in the field of music, let's say we have a band or something like that where we play a musical instrument. Through following and receiving the guidance that we get from the power of God we will be able gradually to feel and to be guided how to make a sound with our instrument of such quality that, in the one who hears it, it will awaken a feeling or a wish to worship. God Almighty, and a feeling of happiness.

There is an old story in this connection which relates that once there was a king who had a daughter, and this daughter happened to be sick, very seriously sick. The king had already called many, many doctors to try and cure her, and always they failed. Every medicine they prescribed never had the slightest effect. When the king was about to give up one of his servants told him that he had heard of a man who played the flute, and it was said that people who were sick were able to recover from their illness, whatever it had been, from just hearing the music or sound of his flute. The king was very much excited by this and asked that this man should be brought to him as quickly as possible.

When the flute player arrived the king said: 'Is it true or not that you are able to cure my daughter with your playing?'

And he replied: 'Well, king, I can't say for sure that I can cure her - all I can do is to pray to Almighty God that He will give her His blessing so that by hearing my flute playing her condition perhaps can improve.'

He then played on his flute and because he was guided by the grace of Almighty God, by this that Bapak called the Holy Spirit, through his playing the vibration of this Holy Spirit was able to enter the ear of the princess so that she, in her turn, was awakened inwardly; and, whereas she had been completely paralyzed so she couldn't move at all and was lying on her bed, she suddenly began to move. At first she felt this vibration, and then she was able to sit up and eventually to walk - and she walked over to the king and knelt down before him. The king was overcome with joy and said to the flute player: 'Flute player, I accept this great service you have done me in curing and restoring to health my daughter, and as a reward I am going to make you a very important person at my court.'

This, of course, is just a story, but it, in fact, illustrates what Bapak is trying to explain to us about enterprises. Such experiences as are explained in this story have been experienced by brothers and sisters in Subud; and actually Bapak's purpose, or Bapak's wish in going around and traveling from group to group like he does, is that Bapak wants to see and Bapak wants to hear - Is there anyone yet, having done the latihan now for years and years, maybe more than ten years, who has got results or benefits or some kind of proof of the use or the benefit of the Latihan Kejiwaan in their lives? Because this is the purpose of the Latihan Kejiwaan - that we will be guided, we will never be lost, both in this life and the next.

Bristol, England - July 27, 1977
Code Number : 77 BRS 3

That is why for us we can, without fear, engage in enterprises because it is in these enterprises, while we use our nafsu, we are taught by the power of God not to be influenced any more by the lower forces. Therefore, our jiwa, our inner, and our outer are truly going parallel, and truly go together -that is, our outer which belongs to this world, and our inner which spans both this world and the next. So the kejiwaan is something that is not only effective in the next world - on the contrary, it is also effective in this world. In fact, when we are able to taste the fruit of the latihan -that is, when you have been able to reach the point where you begin to reap the benefits of the latihan you have done - you will see that it is precisely in the outer world that the fruits of the latihan will become clear to you. When you are really able to work according to what Bapak has described, it will be through the success and the fruits of what you do in your enterprise that you will realize and understand the fruits of the Latihan Kejiwaan which have grown within you.

You would certainly like to know and understand really well what is the use and the purpose of enterprises, and for this Bapak wants to explain something to you which is very important. Naturally, you would like that your enterprises, which you start and which you work in, should be successful, but the success of your enterprises depend in a large measure or almost entirely on your progress in the Latihan Kejiwaan - and your progress in the Latihan Kejiwaan is very much influenced by the place you have to do latihan. Actually, it comes back to this, that you will be able to receive well in your latihan, and therefore your enterprises will also be successful, if you give a high priority to a suitable place of latihan for your group and for yourselves. This Bapak considers extremely important and, therefore, Bapak really wants you all to feel about this - not just always each of you to wait for somebody else to do something about it, or to feel about it, but because it's something for your own needs. To satisfy your own need and your own interest, you should think about it yourself and not wait for other people. No matter if you happen to have a lot of money, or if you happen to have no money, don't leave it to other people. Even if you have nothing at ail, you still join in and think about this problem of how to have a proper place of latihan - a really big place where you can be free and which is suitable for your needs. If you have a place of latihan which is really big and open and wide enough for all of you, and really suitable - that will itself give you an additional enthusiasm to do the latihan more; and it is this enthusiasm which will lead you quickly to receive more and deeper guidance which will then be of great use for your life.

You should understand that normally in the olden days, or what is normal for mankind, men and women worship God because they hope thereby to receive a sufficiency in their lives. In other words, one might say that they worship God for material purposes. From worshipping God they hope that their lives will go well. One might say that their worship is directed towards the material. But with us, it is just the other way round. With us, we make the material serve the spiritual, so that we, on the other hand, do enterprises in order to make it possible to worship God. Therefore, it is clear that for us enterprises are not something that will lead us into darkness, or something that will lead us away from our worship of God - on the contrary, for us our enterprises are a bridge whereby we use the material; we manipulate the material, in order to help us to worship God. With us we are aware of two ways: we are aware of how the spiritual helps the material in our enterprises, and then we are aware of how the material helps the spiritual; in other words, helps us to go back again to God.

So it is very important, then, that we should understand that for us the enterprises are something completely different from enterprises done by other people - that is, the enterprises that Bapak tells us to do are not the same as the enterprises that people do normally, because those enterprises are moved by the nafsu. Let us say, they worship God while their enterprises are still going well. But for those people, once their enterprises are successful and they are making lots of money, they will forget about the worship of God, because they are already - whether they like it or not - covered up by the nafsu, by their greed and their wish to make material gain. With us it is different, because from the beginning we are guided by the power of God. We do our enterprises moved by the power of God - therefore, once the enterprises are successful they do not form an obstacle or something in the way of our worship of God Almighty.

Wendhausen, Germany - July 29, 1977
Code Number : 77 WEN 1

Thus it will not then be necessary for anyone to run an enterprise on a basis of testing. That is not the duty of the helpers. The helpers themselves do not understand how to test in the field of enterprises. They cannot do it. On the contrary, that is the reason why so many of the members who run enterprises actually come to grief, as Bapak has heard, and they do not actually achieve any success. On the contrary, they actually fail, because they only lean upon the helpers' testing, whereas it is not the work of the helpers to test the buying and selling of goods or to test about enterprises. No.

It is thus enough to act upon the advice of experts, upon the results of a survey made by the body of experts that we have formed. Thus we have to have a body of experts formed in Subud - experts in trade, for instance, in forestry, in building, in engineering and machinery - so that anyone who is going to run an enterprise should go to the experts for advice. And then those experts will conduct a survey or investigation to see whether the field in which the enterprise is to work is a good one, and able to produce profitable results. They will also see whether the people who ask for advice about running an enterprise possess some foundation and possess some skill in that particular sphere. In this way we shall really run enterprises in the normal way and at the same time we shall be protected by the power of God. That is where the difference lies.

New York, NY U.S.A. - September 11, 1977
Code Number : 77 NYC 3

Brothers and Sisters, it is clear then that the receiving of the grace of the power of God, the receiving of the Latihan Kejiwaan, is something that we obtain in the middle of our everyday activities, in the middle of our everyday life, without sacrificing in any way the activities and our attention to the needs of this world. This is indeed the will of God Almighty. This is what is referred to in Islam by words which mean 'We have to seek for our needs both in this world and in the hereafter.' So, Brothers and Sisters, it means that in order to worship God Almighty in the latihan it is not necessary for us to neglect the needs of our life in this world. On the contrary, it is essential for us to search for and to obtain what we need for our life in this world. This is the reason why Bapak always, over and over again, encourages us to start enterprises, because it is enterprises that provide us with an arena for practicing and becoming able to deal with the problems of this world - to do our work in this world, while at the same time worshipping God Almighty and not neglecting the worship of God Almighty, and always being in touch with the guidance that we receive in the latihan.

This is something that Bapak hopes you will really put into practice. As for the way in which we organize our enterprises, this is done in the normal way. In other words, enterprises have to be carried out by people who are experts in the field of the enterprise itself. That is, if we are setting up an enterprise in buying and selling, then you have to look for a businessman who understands trade. If we are setting up an enterprise in the field of building, we have to look for technical people who understand about building. So it must be that each enterprise is done by the person who is qualified and has the know-how and the expertise to carry it out, and not someone who understands nothing about it but is put there because the helpers received 'Yes' when they tested about it in their testing.

This is something that is the cause of the failure of enterprises. Bapak has heard, for example, that here in the United States you have had enterprises which have failed, and this is because you have gone along and done something which was approved of by the helpers who had actually no understanding about enterprises. What helpers understand is the kejiwaan - and they would be fine, you can use the helpers if you are doing an enterprise in the kejiwaan ( Bapak chuckles ). But there are no enterprises in the kejiwaan, because the One who enterprises in the kejiwaan is God Almighty, and man's enterprise is here in this world. And for that we should be able to do it, because we not only have our know-how and our expertise, but in addition we have the guidance of the power of God Almighty which should enable us to find the right way in anything that we are doing.

Brothers and Sisters, do not be afraid of starting enterprises, because it is through this that we will finally be able to put into practice the ideals of the Subud Brotherhood - that is, to be able to contribute to the social welfare of this world. When we have been able to begin to do this, Subud will begin to acquire a good name in the whole world. So that all doors will be opened to Subud, and Subud will be looked up to by all the countries where it exists as a force for good, as a force for improvement for society. Not only will we be allowed to pursue our activities of doing the latihan, and doing our work, but it may well be that in future years when we want to hold a Subud Congress, the government of the country where we are holding it will put at our disposal a large building or facilities where we can not only do the latihan but have our meetings and achieve the thing that we are trying to do.

Brothers and Sisters, Bapak asks you to pay very close attention to this and not be afraid of starting enterprises, with the idea that once you devote yourself to enterprises this will obstruct your progress in the kejiwaan - because nothing could be further from the truth. We have to pursue both our needs in this world and our needs in the next world without a separation between them, without separating our life in this world and our life in the next world, because the whole world is life, the great life where the power of God leads us and guides us. It is true that experts in the kejiwaan in the past have tried to lead people in a direction where they could become aware of the kejiwaan only when they were still, when they ceased movement, when they were quiet and uttered no sound, so that in this life they became familiar with death. But what we have received is not that. When we have received the latihan it is a latihan of movement, and a latihan of life, and it is through the latihan that we become aware of the great life which extends beyond the boundaries of this world. Our latihan is not a thing of death. We are not directing ourselves towards death, but towards life. And the reason why this is important, why we have to get accustomed to pursuing our everyday life while not neglecting the worship of God Almighty, is because we can die anywhere. It's not sure that we will die on our mattress in bed at home. We may die while we are walking, we may die while we are driving our car, we may die while we are flying in the sky in an airplane. But if we have within us the Latihan Kejiwaan already, as we all have, then no matter where we are, we will always be in the lap of God at that moment.

next

Santa Monica, CA U.S.A. - November 29, 1977
Code Number : 77 LAX 3

The idea that when we worship God we don't need anything in this world, is completely false. On the contrary, it is the things of this world which we obtain which permit us to worship God Almighty. It is through the maintaining of our physical life in this world that we are enabled to worship God. So it is clear that the meaning of enterprises is the latihan. And the latihan that we do twice a week, the latihan that we do on Mondays and Thursdays, and so on, is only the condition, only the basis or the framework that is provided for our latihan. It's only the beginning. That is, only the prerequisite for being in Subud. The latihan for us is throughout our life, throughout our everyday life, because it is through our everyday life, through receiving the guidance of God in our everyday life, that we bring closer the power of God with our own being. In other words, we begin to experience the bringing together of our being with the power of God, so that we will no longer be inferior, for example, to the animals, because we will get to know our right way, we will be shown how to live in this world.

Finally, through setting up enterprises we will also be able to fulfil the needs of our own members; that is, those members who do not yet work, or cannot yet work - that we give them an opportunity and show them and teach them how to work so that their lives are not wasted, so that they can begin to feel what it means to work in an enterprise. Once we have been able to set up enterprises, and once they are going well, they will have a very great use and benefit - not only for Subud itself, but also for society in general. This is why Bapak doesn't like, has never liked and has always discouraged you from making propaganda about Subud, because what is the use of making propaganda if we cannot yet show or demonstrate the fruits of what we have received? But once we have been able to make our enterprises successful so that we are able to demonstrate to society that what we do is for the benefit of society itself, then this will immediately attract the attention of people to Subud and will show them, without the need of any propaganda, what Subud really is. And not only society, but also the governments of the countries where Subud exists will see and take note of the work that Subud does so that our way will always he open. We will never lack for opportunities to do latihan, to hold meetings, to give talks - in other words, everything that we need for our life in our Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud will be fulfilled and be satisfied. For this reason Bapak needs that you all put your lives in order. In other words, bring order to your lives so that you can become an example to society in general.

San Francisco, CA U.S.A. - December 3, 1977
Code Number : 77 SFO 2

Brothers and Sisters, Bapak knows that you are still nervous and worried in facing Bapak's suggestion that you should do enterprises, but actually the enterprises that Bapak encourages you to do are the fruit or the result of your own latihans. But Bapak knows very well that many of you have already experienced, have already received guidelines and indications in the latihan - but because these guidelines and indications are not in accordance with what you hope for, not in accordance with the feelings or the understanding of your heart, you are frightened to put them into effect. You are frightened to go ahead with them because you feel: 'This is not what I understand. This is not what other people have told me.' And if you talk about what you have received in your latihan, people say to you: 'Oh, you can't do that, that is impossible.' Many of you have already received a lot of guidance and indications, but you always put them aside, and what you do instead is what is in accordance with your own heart and your own thinking. So what you do in your outer lives is still not touched or affected by what you receive in the latihan - it is still based on your heart and mind.

Some of you ask Bapak: 'Bapak, please tell me what is my true work? Please, Bapak, tell me what is my real talent, what is my work that is in accordance with my jiwa?'

Very often Bapak answers: 'About your jiwa, Bapak can't say. All that Bapak can say is choose your right work in accordance with the nature of your heart and mind. Try to find something that you understand, that you enjoy doing, that makes you happy when you do it', and so on.

Why does Bapak answer like that? Because the jiwa has not yet shown itself in your life. The guidance or the indication of your jiwa is still buried under the heart and mind. Because it has not yet had a chance to flower or to come forward, it's not yet possible for you to follow the indications or the content of what is in your jiwa.

Actually, it should be that enterprises are a path or a training that opens the way for you. Enterprises are supposed to be, or should be, something that helps you to find your own way in life. But why is it that the enterprises that you do are very often the opposite - that instead of making progress, of being successful, they often fail or go under? The reason for this is that what you do in your enterprises is still not guided by your jiwa, but ,is still only guided or in accordance with your heart and mind. Because you are still working from your heart, your attitude is also conditioned by your heart. For example, you are working in a Subud enterprise - that is, an enterprise that belongs to Subud or belongs to other Subud members -and you feel to yourself: 'Well, if this enterprise fails, it won't hurt me because it's not my enterprise. It is the enterprise of those other people.' This is the nature of the heart. But if your work is already guided by the jiwa, it will be completely different because the jiwa always knows what is right. The jiwa can always distinguish between what is true and false, what is right and wrong.

As when Bapak illustrated to you, when Bapak walks and picks up a wallet. If Bapak ,is still influenced or still moved by his heart, Bapak will not be aware that that wallet is not his. Bapak will only feel: 'Here is a wallet - a big wallet, and I am allowed to keep this because obviously the person who lost it doesn't know it's there, and ! happen to need money badly'. And he will then say: 'Oh God, thank you - you have sent me this wallet, this is my opportunity - this is what I have been waiting for, this is a gift from God.'

But when Bapak is moved by his jiwa, Bapak comes to pick up that wallet - and at that moment, as he picks it up, he is aware: 'This wallet was dropped by somebody who is not aware that he has lost ,it.' Then Bapak can feel: 'What shall ! do with this wallet? I can't go and look for the person because it will take me a long time. Oh yes, there are the police. The police, among other things, have to look after lost property and they have a way of returning it to people who have lost them - maybe by making an announcement in public, or by having a special pool where people can pick up lost things, and so on.' So Bapak automatically takes it to a policeman.

This indicates that if we are doing an enterprise and we are already guided by our jiwa, we will work with all our strength, we will work with all our might to make sure that that enterprise doesn't lose money. We will do everything within our power to make sure that that enterprise is successful, because even though it doesn't belong to us, with the jiwa we know that what is for one is for all, and what is for all is for one. So we know that if someone is disappointed, then we will feel sad; and if someone else makes money or is successful, then we will also be successful. We feel our unity as a brotherhood, as a spiritual brotherhood of people who worship together, so we will really work with all our strength to make that enterprise a success even if it doesn't belong to us. This is the distinction, and this is the difference, if we are working from our jiwa and if we are working still from the heart.
. . . read the complete Talk - 77 SFO 2

Alta Grove, B.C. Canada - December 18, 1977
Code Number : 77 YVR 3

Bapak said it is very important that we, as Subud members, should always do something that is really Subud, and not imitate, or not go along the road that has been followed by people who have been members of religion, or who have been like the great religions in the past. Because the tradition or the habit of religious people in the past has always been that when they wanted to do good or to help other people, or to help society, they have always tried to collect money from people in general. In some countries even this is done under the auspices of the government - in other words, there is a sort of religious tax collected by the government which is put aside in a special social fund and is then used by religion to help the poor and so on. But for us in Subud we do not have something like that, we do not have those facilities. Indeed, that is not the way that we are supposed to do it. In the case of Subud, what we have and what we have received is something completely different from that. When we help society, when we help the poor, When we do things for other people, we must do it out of our own efforts. In other words, out of the money that we have earned ourselves. That is the basis of enterprises. In other words, the enterprises are not just for the benefit of the people who do them, but they are also for the needs of Subud. So from the profits of our enterprises we will eventually make schools for destitute children, we will make hospitals and homes for the old people, and also fulfil our own needs, like building latihan halls, putting up Subud visitors from other places who have come to our city but may not have any money or anywhere to stay, so that we can really extend hospitality to them.

For all this we depend not on donations, but on the profit of our enterprises. If we continue to do like people in the religions of olden days, our aims will never be accomplished. We can only do it if we really work in enterprises.
read the complete talk: 77 YVR 3

Melbourne, Australia - February 5, 1978
Code Number : 78 MEB 2

Quite frankly, Brothers and Sisters, this is the reason why Bapak always advises you to do enterprises. Because the way in which you can really receive this, that you can really try this out, is through your enterprise. Now, don't misunderstand what Bapak means by enterprise. When Bapak talks about enterprise, Bapak does not mean that you all have to become rich or that you must run after money through becoming a businessman or a trader or something like that. Actually 'enterprise' is anything, anything you do, any effort that you make whose purpose is to meet the needs of your life in this world. In other words, it can be as a film star, a musician, a lawyer, a doctor, a civil servant, it can be in any field at all provided that in your work you are able to receive, you are able to do your work with a content, with remembering t, he guidance of the Power of God, as Bapak has just described. In the case of the ladies, you can also do an enterprise in the form of cooking or making clothes or anything else that is suitable for ladies to do.

If you can really do this, if you can put this advice of Bapak's into practice, you will find that you will learn to feel for yourself - you will really learn to feel for yourself how you are, how your situation is and how your life is. So when you are in that state you will no longer be easily influenced by anybody, because you will have your own point of view, you will have your own condition.

This is something that Bapak tested since he has been in Australia. Bapak tested this with our brother Leonard Parker, and Leonard was able to receive this very clearly. So if you can put this into practice, you will see that you will have your own conviction. Your heart will become firm and determined and not at all easily swayed by what is going on around you, because you will have your own guideline - and your ,own part of your life will be clear to you yourself. This is the meaning of the guidance of the Power of God Almighty. And this is what has also been said by the Messengers of God.

Jesus Christ, for example, said that if you are suffering, if you are in trouble, if you are having difficulties - run to God Almighty, none other. And then the person asked Jesus: 'But where is God Almighty?' And Jesus said: 'Brother, God Almighty is within you.' But do not say, you must never say, that God Almighty is only within you. God Almighty is within you and also outside of you. Therefore, the Power of God Almighty is closer to you than your own seeing, is closer to you than anything that you do. You think you imagine that you see, you hear and you sense and you think through your own Power, through your own self. Actually, the reality is that all that is guided and you are able to do it because of the Power of God - only you are not yet aware of it. You are still forgetful and you do not sense, you are not aware of, the Power of God within your seeing and so on.

Perth, Australia - February 15, 1978
Code Number : 78 PER 3

If you can do enterprises and really practice this, it is sure that you will receive more than if you only do your latihan two or three times a week. More, because you receive it more often. Out of every 24 hours maybe you will remember God 50 or 100 times, so that you will receive more than if you do the latihan only twice or three times a week. And also more than if you do what is laid down in religion. For example, you worship God five times a day if you are Muslim, or maybe you pray to God before you eat or before you go to sleep or before you do something. More than that, because you will be able to do it in the midst of whatever you are doing. And then the effect will be that little by little the influence or the power of the nafsu over you and over your life will gradually become less.

If this is so, then you can really say that doing enterprises, working, will not cause your receiving in the latihan to diminish or decline. On the contrary, you will be able to receive more than if you do not work in this way. In other words, if you do not do enterprises.
... READ THE COMPLETE TALK: 78 PER 3

Singapore - February 15, 1978
Code Number : 78 SIN 2

Now to the committee Bapak wants to say something else. Among their other duties, their normal duties, Bapak would like the committee to organize quickly a group or a panel of experts - that is, a group or a body of people who have real expertise in the field of enterprises, and so on. This group can then give advice, guidance, supervision and help to all Subud members who want to start or who have already started Subud enterprises. By 'experts' Bapak means people who have real experience and training in a certain field. For example, experts in industry, agriculture, technology. Also people like lawyers, accountants, and so on. People who can really help those Subud members who want to start enterprises. The problem is this: enterprises are work that is done in this world. The purpose or the aim of enterprises is for this world, in this world. Therefore, they have to be done according to the rules of this world. So if you do an enterprise you have to do it professionally, according to real know-how and real understanding of the field in which you are working. For this reason it is necessary for the committee to get together those Subud members who have some expertise in something so that they will be willing to give a little of their time to help, foster, advise and supervise the work of those who are doing enterprises.

Now, this is very important. What has become customary in the past is that when people doing enterprises have a problem or a question they run to the helpers. So it is the helpers who guide the enterprises. Yet, it is not sure whether those helpers know anything about the field in which the enterprise is. They may not have the faintest idea about industry, or about agriculture or something like that. So when they give advice it is very often not practical or right - with the clear result that the enterprise then starts going downhill, starts to lose money and very often falls on its face, or goes bankrupt, or something like that. There have been examples of this sometimes, in the United States, in England and in Europe.

It is clear that when we do enterprises, we have to do them properly. Because they relate to work in this world they have to be done according to the know-how, according to the way in which things are done correctly in this world. And for this we have to get together and to make use of those of our members who have some expert knowledge or some specialized knowledge in some field. So this is the work of the committee. It is a heavy job but it is something that they must do. However, supposing you need an expert in a certain field, because you are doing an enterprise in a certain field and you don't happen to have that expert and you don't happen to have a Subud member who has that expertise, then there is no objection at all, to taking somebody from outside, someone who gives his time and you either pay him a salary or an honorarium or a fee for his advice, for his services. This is perfectly all right if we do not have someone with that expertise in our Brotherhood, rather than the enterprise going without expert knowledge and getting into trouble.

This is very important because enterprises are very important. Once we have enterprises that are successful and strong, that really can make progress and do well, then part of their profits will go to Subud. It is from this source that all the strength and all the hopes of what we would like to do in Subud will come from. So it is for the benefit of all of us that Bapak gives this advice. It is from these funds derived from our successful enterprises that we will be able to build ourselves latihan halls which will be adequate and big enough for doing latihan. And we should do it. We should build guest houses so that we can entertain and put up members coming from the far corners of the earth to visit us. We can establish charitable and social work such as has been formulated in the various Subud World Congresses - like, for example, Subud schools. Now, why should we want to establish Subud schools? After all, the state already has schools. Well, Bapak can explain it like this. If we set up schools in Subud, firstly, we are helping the state; secondly, we can give our helpers some work to do. So we can put helpers in this Subud school as teachers, and these helpers will be able to test each child who is under their care what their right talent is, what their right work is? Not like nowadays, these children will he able to be guided from the beginning into the subjects and into the fields which are right for them. So that, later, when they grow up, they will be people who are really useful in society; they will not go astray or get stuck because what they are doing is not suited to their personality and their nature. Of course, these helpers must be teachers, they must be people with teachers' diplomas. We won't have helpers there who don't know how to teach or who are not qualified. But they will be teachers who are also helpers, who can also make use of the kejiwaan.

Then, we must eventually set up hospitals. Again, why set up hospitals? Because these hospitals will be staffed by Subud doctors - that is, doctors who are experts with qualifications, but who are also helpers in Subud. When they treat a patient, that patient will recognize something. That patient will feel different than when he is treated by normal doctors who only use their mind. So it is sure that at the end when the patient is cured and is about to leave the hospital, he will ask: 'Doctor, tell me something -is there something else which you used besides medicine, or is there something that strengthens your understanding and your knowledge?' And then the doctor can explain: 'Yes, there is something.' This is the kejiwaan. Some of these patients will want to join Subud. So apart from being able to help and cure people, we then also attract people to join us in the worship of God. Finally, we can also set up old peoples' homes - again, where those who look after these old people are also helpers in Subud. So these old people who are coming to the end of their life can then be shown the way to worship God before they die.

Now all these things which are really beneficial not only for other people but for ourselves - these we can only do with the fruits of enterprises. And to do all this, to move us in this direction, is the job of the committee. This is why Bapak said that the job of the committee is quite heavy, is really heavy - but it is something that they must do.

Finally, in addition to filling the coffers or the treasury of Subud for things that Subud needs to do, enterprises are also necessary in order to give a place of work for our members. So there should not be any Subud members who do not find work, or who cannot work, or who still have not found their right way to work. In this way we should teach our members how to work. Subud should teach all its members to work hard and diligently, because this is the reason why God has created us in this world. It is true that it has become a tradition, or a custom, or a normal thing, for people who pursue the kejiwaan to forget about working, to forget about earning their living. Normally, people are advised that if you are looking for spiritual knowledge you have to leave aside all this business of earning money and so on, and devote yourself entirely to that. Brothers and Sisters, this is not how it is in fact. God has not created man in order that as soon as he comes into this world he starts thinking about his death, and what will happen after he dies. That is not the purpose of God creating man in this world - that man should immediately die, that man should neglect this world and only think constantly about the next world and life after death. And that is what people normally do when they pursue spiritual knowledge. But God's will is different from that. God's will is that God has placed man in this world in order to test him. Man's life in this world is a trial to see whether he can fulfil what God has willed for him in this world; and if man can pass this trial, then it is sure that God will show him the way to return back again to the place that is right for him, the place that is his world of origin.

Jakarta, Indonesia - September 16, 1978
Code Number : 78 JKT 2

The subject of enterprises is still misunderstood, brothers and sisters, especially by us Indonesians, who still get it wrong, although even the Europeans themselves, even the English, still sometimes get it wrong. But yet it is obvious that an enterprise is an undertaking in which one stands on one’s own feet. It is some effort undertaken and worked upon by one’s own will and according to one’s own capacity. It is an undertaking which is appropriate to that person’s own wishes and talents.

Brothers and sisters, that is how it is for all of you, although, as Bapak has just said, even the Europeans themselves, even the English themselves, have also not yet grasped this. People think that an enterprise is only commercial, so that we try to earn money and carry on a business. They even believe and feel that doing this lessens their worship of God. Oh no; not at all. On the contrary, if you can do something that is right on the basis of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud and on the basis of surrender, trust and sincerity, then you will receive guidance from the One Almighty God in what you are doing. This agrees with what is always stated in religious literature, that we are always accompanied and supported by the greatness and the power of the One Almighty God. The one thing that we need to have, and which needs to be present in our selves, is that we must always act honestly in everything we do; and with complete faith in the One Almighty God, for faith in the One Almighty God will make our hearts and our feelings honest and full of love for one another, and for our fellow beings.

This is how Bapak sees it in his visualization of how it will be. When this latihan kejiwaan of Subud becomes generally widespread, then this will provide the necessary conditions; conditions full of the possibility to be able to change the feelings of human beings. Up to now they have found it in their hearts to make weapons which could in fact be used to destroy the world.

Weapons do not matter, brothers and sisters. You can have all the weapons you like, but if your hearts are honest and compassionate towards your fellow beings, these weapons will never be put to any use. It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that the most important and the best thing to do is to change people’s feelings, so that they will understand. Human beings have been commanded by God to live in this world, and have been put into this world to organize it so that it will become prosperous and peaceful, and be a place in which they worship the One Almighty God.

Cilandak, Indonesia - December 23, 1978
Code Number : 78 JOG 2

Once upon a time, the Prophet Muhammad SAW received an invitation from a king. Beside the Prophet Muhammad, also other kings were invited. It is obvious that the kings and the queens will be wearing a lot of diamonds. Then the wife of the Prophet, Khadijah asked : How about this, Prophet? We have received an invitation. What shall we wear? There will be not only common people who will come there, but the wives of kings, at least the wives of generals, of commanders, who will be using diamonds, glittering gold, which will be glowing. “Yes, why?” “Do we need to come?” “Yes. Because we have got an invitation.” “What must I wear?” “Just wear what you have.” “She obeyed, and then they left. Everybody were already there, complete, rich. But when the Prophet arrived with his wife, everybody were surprised. Because they saw Khatijah glittering. “Is this the wife of the Prophet? She must be very rich. They were all astonished. The were blinded by the glitter. Then it was over, they went home. “How was it?” Yes. People saw, that everything you wear was more then the others.” “Why was it so?” “Because of God.”

Thus, without latihan, without God’s blessing, even though you are very clever in beautifying yourself, in Javanese you say “juwarsi”, you are boring. Because your lipstick will reach till here. You won’t look like princess, but like Semar. Your eyes are so beautiful, and you put mascara around it, it will be too black. Bapak doesn’t want to prevent you from going to a beauty salon, a beauty parlor. No. That is all right. But it is better, if you can really feel and can receive the use and benefit of the latihan kejiwaan Subud, not only your face will be protected by God, but also your way. of walking. Wow, if you walk you will walk gracefully. Yes, because it is from God. If it is not from God, then you are a “juwarai”.

So even before you are dead you are dying. Because of that, it is in the wayang play said, that Waro Sembodro the first wife of Arjuno, never dressed herself as beautiful as Siikandi. ( the second wife of Arjuno ). No, She is always simply dressed, moderately, but her twinkling eyes, her behavior is so that they, the men, are all ogling her with big rounded eyes. This is the story, it says that Burisrowo said to her : Sister Sembodro, please look for bugs in my hair. If you can find one bug, hit me hundred times. One bug costs a hundred hits. And the Pandawas are really powerful. So that, that Sembrodo is not the real Sembodro, but Gatutkoco, disguised as Sembodro. Site says :“Brother Burisrowo, I don’t want to hit you a hundred times, but only four times. It is better to hit four times I will even hit you ten times. “It is OK. Go ahead.” So he gets one bug and hits Burisrowo. This is the payment. This is the work of Gatitkoco. This is necessary to take care of the playboys, seeking amusement.

This also happens in the latihan kejiwaan Subud, so that the playboys will quit. This is, brothers and sisters, the wish of Bapak. The suggestion Bapak has given to you, set up enterprises.

And since in the kejiwaan we are already guided and led how important it is to live harmoniously with each other, so that when you have set up an enterprise, be in harmony, be in harmony with each other. When you set up an enterprise in real harmony with each other, It will go well. It will be successful, certainly. But if you are not in harmony with each other, even though you set up several enterprises, it will fail underway. And what kind of enterprise will you need to set up. So that amongst us in Subud should be set up a body, which will be a consultant. In this body should sit our own experts. For example experts in estates, engineers in estates; for experts in building, you need engineers who are always building houses, and others.

We must get used to become a person, that can stand on its own feet, not to be commanded. Why is it so? We are used to that, we will eat only when we are ordered to, this is it. So that when the one who used to give you a meal, does not want to give any more, that is the end. So that amongst you, who are not having a job any more, cannot do a job which required standing on his own feet, they cannot do it. They are like a bird in a cage. Every morning, every evening they are used to get feed, And then they are freed from their cage. They cannot look for their food. It has become strange to them. And yet, every where there is a job, everywhere there is.

NEXX

Toronto, Canada - August 23, 1979
Code Number : 79 YYZ 11

Singapore - September 30, 1979
Code Number : 79 SIN 2
Enterprise is an effort that you do in your life in order to find your living, to satisfy the needs of your life.

The reason why Bapak talks about enterprise is because God will not give you anything unless you move. Bapak explains that the meaning of enterprise is a movement that comes from the Kejiwaan. It is a movement that comes out of your latihan. It is a movement in your everyday life, in the everyday work you do which is not separated from the Guidance of the Power Of Almighty God.

Jakarta, Indonesia - May 3, 1980
Talk to directors and advisors at Bank Susila Bakti
80bsb1

Cilandak, Indonesia - March 6, 1981
Bapak's farwell talk in Cilandak
Bapak has always promoted the idea of enterprises. That is why for the purpose of owning money, you don't do it by com mercializing God's gifts, but by working in this world.

When Bapak says this, people always ask him, "what enterprise shall I do?" So Bapak says, "Well, that's up to you. What is it you are able to do? An enterprise is just doing what you are able to do, just working at the thing that you are good at, that you are able to use to earn your living." And here again, Bapak has to set an example himself. So that is why Bapak has to set up enterprises and is now even setting up a bigger enterprise that those he has done before.

Actually many people react to this, and say, "Oh, Bapak is now deviating by going into the material world. Whereas before Bapak was really spiritual, now Bapak is becoming completely materialistic; now Bapak is only interested in material things."

Sri Lanka - March 13, 1981
Code Number : 81sri-lanka-1

Sri Lanka - March 20, 1981
Code Number : 81 CMB 4

Sao Paulo, Brazil - May 31, 1981
Code Number : 81 SAO 3

Vancouver, Canada - July 20, 1981
Code Number : 81 YVR 4

Jakarta, Indonesia - December 23, 1981
Code Number : 81 JKT 6

Cilandak, Indonesia - January 2, 1982
The meaning of Anugraha Code Number : 82 XTY 2

Melbourne, Australia - May 2, 1982
Code Number : 82 MEB 2

Melbourne, Australia - May 7, 1982
Code Number : 82 MEB 4

Sydney, Australia - May 11, 1982
Code Number : 82 SYD 2

Sydney, Australia - May 17, 1982
Code Number : 82 SYD 6

Auckland, Australia - May 20, 1982
Code Number : 82 AKL 2

Auckland, New Zealand - May 22, 1982
Code Number : 82 AKL 3

Toyko, Japan - May 29, 1982
Code Number : 82 TYO 1

Talk at Bapak's house
Cilandak, Indonesia - July 23, 1982
Code Number : 82 CDK 10

Jakarta, Indonesia - December 15, 1982
Talk at Bank Susila Bakti shareholder meeting
Code Number : 82 JKT 5

Cilandak, Indonesia - March 18, 1983
Code Number : 83 CDK 4

London, England - July 31, 1983
Code Number : 83 LON 1

London, England - August 4, 1983
Code Number : 83 LON 3

London, England - August 9, 1983
Bapak's reply to enterprise reports - 7th Subud world congress
Code Number : 83 LON 6

Anugraha, England August 13, 1983
Bapak's comments after men's latihan at seventh world congress
Code Number : 83 LON 16

Wisma Subud, Cilandak, Indonesia - June 27, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 7

Wisma Subud, Cilandak, Indonesia - July 5, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 10

Jakarta, Indonesia - June 24, 1985
Talk to International helpers and trustees
Code Number : 85 JKT 4

Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo

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