Munich, Germany - December 6, 1959
Code number of Recording: 59 MUC 1
The illustrations Bapak has just given lead to the conclusion that you must be able to receive. You need to receive. That is why, in the religions, you are required to have faith only in God, and to love God truly; no more and no less. That is it. Nothing else.
This is because it is difficult – it is so difficult to find God and God’s power. It is said in religion, in Christianity as well as in Islam, that to search is wrong, but not to search is also wrong; to meet God is wrong, but not to meet God is also wrong. How can this be? It is because to search would be with the heart2, which is wrong. But not to search would mean we do not have to worship God, and that is also wrong. To meet God is wrong, because if you meet God in the way you meet a person, then it is not God, it is a ghost or a devil. That is the problem. So if you meet it that’s wrong. But if you do not meet God that is also wrong; it means you have no faith in God. So it is indeed very difficult. And that is why in religion you are simply told: ‘Believe in God and love God. When your faith in God is really strong and your love of God is truly great, God will bestow grace on you, and you will spontaneously receive the greatness of God, which is within your being.’
Rio De Janeiro - June 6, 1963
Code Number : 63 RIO 2
Brothers and sisters, do not feel worried or uncertain in following what you receive when you do the latihan. If your heart is worried and uncertain, that shows it is still under the influence of what is in this world: the influence of the material, of the vegetable, the influence of food, of clothes, of every kind of thing that is in this world. And the worldly influences that make your heart feel worried or uncertain are closely connected with the low forces. These ought to be your companions; but if you let yourself be influenced too much by them, you will end up being ordered around by them instead of you ordering them. That will lead you towards a dead end, and you will meet with darkness in your latihan.
Do not let your heart be afraid that you might be taken over by a spirit or a ghost and taken off somewhere unknown. Don’t feel like that. For it is that feeling in your heart that actually opens the door for devils or spirits to enter into you.
So, if you pay no attention to that sort of thing, and you are not afraid of them, then they will all disappear. Because by not being afraid of spirits, by not worrying about anything that is not alive – for example, not thinking about, paying attention to, or praying to stones and so on – it means that you face only the power of God. And God will know and understand that this is how you are and will give to you directly. Not indirectly; not by a path that meanders. No.
Cilandak, Indonesia - February 18, 1967
Code Number : 67 TJK 2
It is told in the [story of the] ascension of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that God called him. How could that be? Well, he was called. That is possible for anybody, if God calls and if God wills it. It was God who willed it, so the means were available and were given. And it happened to Muhammad’s individuality, not to his normal self as a human being. That is why you should not say things like, ‘How can it be that a person who is close to God can die? How can it be that a person who is close to God still needs to eat? How can it be that a person who is close to God still has needs?’ It is because they are still people. They remain human beings. If God had willed that Prophet Muhammad should be other than a human being, it would not have been possible for us to meet him. That’s right; because then he would no longer be human.
That is how it is. For it is also said, ‘If you need a teacher because you want to learn something, then go to a person and get close to them. Do not go to a voice that has no form.’ That is because if you choose to go to a teacher who is just a voice you will end up with a ghost. ‘What … is … your … name?’ [Bapak speaks in a ghostly voice.] There are lots of them in Citalahab [Bapak’s plantation]. [Laughter.]
This is the reason why there is no teaching and no theory in our Susila Budhi Dharma – Subud – Association. There is none. Brothers and sisters, Bapak also once had teachers. Yes, do not imagine that he never had a teacher. Now he knows that their role was to clear a path for his heart to find its way. But everything that he received from them was in the form of teachings and theories. And eventually, when Bapak received, it was free from all that. For how can we reduce God to a theory? You want to study God? Where God is and what God’s power is like? That is impossible.
Cilandak, Indonesia - August 20, 1967
Code Number : 67 TJK 6
The material life force envelops every nature and condition of the material world. This cup, for instance - even a cup is filled with the material life force, and although it is only a cup, it too is enveloped by the Power of God. Even a stone is enveloped by the Power of God. Formerly, before Bapak was able to be aware of it, Bapak considered stone, earth and wood as dead, as lifeless; whereas all these things are alive - and this was proved as Bapak eventually learned, through the existence of the atom bomb - that within a stone there exists a so-called molecule, containing the life force inside it. If you have an instrument with the capacity of enlarging a million times, you may be able to see the movement inside it. This is just a stone.
In the case of a tree, it is already obvious that a tree is alive. So it is clear that the material forces are alive, only they cannot be seen with the ordinary eye unless there is an instrument which can enlarge thousands or millions of times. This has now become an established fact. So what Bapak knew long ago has now turned out to be true. These then, brothers and sisters, are the natures of the life forces which are your servants. The life forces that serve you - take, for instance, the material life force - are millions and millions in number. In short, if you were able to count how many grains of sand there are, one by one, only then would you be able to know their number. This is without even taking into account the nature of other material things.
Also the clothes you wear are material in nature and are filled with material forces. So do not think that the material life forces are very easily disposed of, or that they are very easily removed from the inner feeling, from the heart and the thinking. And not only your clothes - the bones in your body, too, are material in nature. If later you are able to be aware of it, you will know that many people after death are seen as apparitions of skeletons. Thus, a man who during his life on earth has not yet received the Grace of God, will later, when he is dead, become a ghost looking like a skeleton. If a woman has become such a ghost, you will, of course, be afraid of her; whereas, when she was still in the flesh and had a skin, she looked beautiful and her smile was enchanting.
But when she is dead and has become a mere skeleton, even if she does not smile she is frightening, let alone when she smiles. This, brothers and sisters, is the material force.
New York, NY USA - May 5, 1976
Code Number : 76 NYC 1
Brothers and sisters, what Bapak has told you so far is only the beginning, is only the start, that is the forces of the material level, the forces of material objects. In addition to that man is subject to forces of the vegetable world, which man cannot do without, for they are the ones that fill the needs of man's body. For without them, man would not have a body; for it is from vegetable food that man's blood, man's flesh, skin and bones get formed. Therefore, it is clear that without them man could not exist. And these vegetable forces which man needs for forming his physical body, they also are an obstacle to man. When the time comes that he is called by God, when the time comes that he has reached the end of his life in this world, and he is called by God, in order to be conveyed to heaven, at that moment these vegetable forces are also an obstacle, and something that stands in man's way.
Not only that, man is subject to the animal forces. For again man is in their debt. For all his life he eats animal food. He eats, maybe you eat as much a three pounds of steak every day, and that is not a11. On top of that you eat eggs, you eat milk, you eat butter; all these are animal foods, and associated with them are the forces of the animal world. So in the same way when the time comes for you to be called by God, these also stand in your way, and become a boundary for you. But yet, you cannot do without these forces, you cannot do without food. Certainly, it would be possible for man to exist without food, but in that case he would not exist the way he does now. He would exist in the way like satanic beings exist, like a ghost without a body, in other words, invisible. To have a physical body, you need food. But in all this, Bapak has not yet touched on the final one of these forces, which can be said to be the number one tempter for man, and again something that man cannot do without. It is the human force.
For indeed you may say, that men do not eat each other, men do not eat one another in the way that men eat beefsteak or whatever it is; and yet in a sense, they do. Because human beings eat each other in marriage, that is between men and women. But what they eat is not their flesh, but their feelings. You know very well, if you don't believe this, just consider for a moment how it is when a wife nags her husband. It is said that this is the greatest suffering, the greatest pain that a man can experience when he is nagged by his wife; and the reverse is also true. The pain that a woman experiences when she is berated by her husband, let us say. And this is because the two depend each other's feelings. And this is because in the relationship between man and woman, they indeed do eat each other's feelings or what is within them. And this indeed is always a temptation for man. So that you see for example, a human being, a man who has already one wife, so let us say he has already the burden of one temptation, he still looks for another, and then for another, and then for another, so there are men who marry twenty times. But marrying officially is one thing, they even marry unofficially. In fact this is a subject which is something not nice to talk about, or let us say it is dirty. But how can Bapak avoid talking about it, since it is the reality of the human forces? That men sometimes even like to go out and have relations with prostitutes, or women who have no morality. Do not imagine that when men and women have sexual intercourse, that their influence does not touch the jiwa. Indeed that enters the jiwa, what a man receives from the woman, and vice-versa. So that while the material forces only affect the thinking, and the vegetable forces only affect the feeling of man, that is the feeling of the body, the animal forces go deeper than that to within the white blood of man's body; or in other words, to man's inner heart, what is called the "hati nurani".
Jakarta, Indonesia - August 5, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 2
We pray that God's revelation may be given to us so that we may be guided and led by Him, for only He can guide man, can lead him to that realm. Yes, and even beyond.
So it is, brothers and sisters, and that is why the latihan kejiwaan truly comes from God and really cannot be described in any way. You are all very fortunate to have received the latihan kejiwaan, because you have received it suddenly, unexpectedly. You cannot understand. 'Why am I like this?' you ask. 'Is this from Satan? Who is it from?' Ghosts, spirits, you say. The mind probes with such questions because it cannot reach beyond the power of thought. The kejiwaan, however, does not depend on the power of thought, but rather on the glory, the greatness of God, Whose Power envelops all, from the jiwa of matter to the jiwa Rabani ( Spirit of the Almighty ), to the jiwa Ilofi ( the Great Life Force ) and up to the jiwa Roh Kudus ( Holy Spirit ). That is what we follow, what supports us, what the self relies on. Thus you rely on something whose extent and greatness you cannot describe.
You yourselves can certainly know and understand that at some future time the body will disintegrate and return to earth, water, air and fire. But unless you are able to control your jiwa, none of your ability or of your personal awareness of your lifetime can enter and penetrate your jiwa, and you will be unable to feel anything at all after death. The jiwa is therefore being trained so that you will be able to feel, and be able to have a jiwa that really understands everything, as you now do by means of the coarse physical body while living on earth.
So when people say, in speaking of the hereafter, that the perfect state comes with the disappearance of the body, their assertion cannot yet be proved. In the sayings of the prophets and walis, the death of the body is said to be the death of Satan. If you died here, perhaps ( as Javanese legend tells ) you would be immediately transported to the ocean south of Java. In other words, you would be a ghost, still going about in this material world, and you would be worse off than when alive. When you are alive and see a cup of coffee, you can drink it. But if you exist as a ghost, you can only inhale its vapor, or perhaps not even that - just get a whiff of its aroma.
Cilandak, Indonesia - October 3, 1975
Code Number : 75 CDK 7
That is why after fasting one repeats Allahu Akbar four times over. La illaha ilallah. Wa lilah ilhamd - There is no God but Allah and to Him be the praise. Thus it is the One Almighty God Who gives us inspiration and knowledge. Believe in Him. All the more so should Subud members believe; you who have received the Latihan and who have to some extent received proof. This is why Bapak hopes that the older ones amongst you in particular, those who have been a long time in Subud, will not frighten newer and younger ones in any way. You must not frighten them by saying that there is a ghost around. You must not do that. The older ones must give a sense of security; they must reinforce their faith in Almighty God. They must not frighten people.
Cilandak, Indonesia - September 22, 1976
Code Number: 76 CDK 12
This is how it is with the people who live in the jungle and who are not yet able to think, which means they have not yet been able to develop their minds. So these people do not suffer very strong temptations, because they only have very slight, light thoughts about material objects; that is, they only think about the things they use to obtain food, such as in catching fish, for instance. And then they only catch enough to feed them for one day, so that the next day they have to go and catch some more. But because their thoughts are so light weight, as time goes on their minds become more and more blunted, so that they gradually come to have nothing that really resembles human civilization.
That is why many people, in order to avoid the influence of the nafsu which come from the lower forces, that is, from the satanic or material forces, go to lonely places and give up all comforts and pleasures, and also give up wearing clothes. In fact they just wear the one garment, and keep on wearing it for a long time, until it is worn out, and only then do they change it for a new one. That is the way people use their hearts and minds to escape from the satanic life force, the material life force.
But in spite of all they do, it is not possible to avoid these forces, because even though such a person has, for instance, given up every kind of pleasure and also given up wearing any kind of clothing, yet he still wears his physical body, and this coarse physical body, brothers and sisters, is in every way the same. As a material object. That is why many people say that if someone dies without having obtained the mercy of the One Almighty God, such a person upon dying also enters into the realm of the satanic or the material. So that sometimes these people materialize in the darkness of night. Many people have encountered them and have seen something like a skeleton, which means like a memedi, a spook, a ghost. Even in England there are also lots of spooks.
Norwich, England - June 23, 1977
Code Number : 77 NWl 1
Now this vibration, this power that we experience after the opening, is, we who have been longer in Subud, and Bapak, can confirm it, the vibration that exists within all things, within the whole universe; it is the basis or the beginning of the whole universe. Because Bapak happens to be a Muslim, Bapak uses the word, hadir ilham, which expresses the vibration that issues from the will of God. In the Christian religion, this power or this vibration that we receive in the latihan kejiwaan is called the Holy Ghost.
Lausanne, Switzerland - August 13, 1977
Code Number : 77 QLS 1
Starting with the material forces, the Roh Raewani, it is indeed true that these forces are the enemy of one who is trying to worship God Almighty, because it is truly a power that is very disturbing and a great temptation if we try to clear ourselves or empty ourselves so that we can receive the contact with the power of God. It is for this reason that from the earliest times man has tried to avoid the influence of the material forces, so that men started a practice of going away from society, to lonely places where they would put aside all the pleasures and all the necessities of human life. All the things which make human life pleasant or nice, they would put aside in the hope of achieving a feeling of peace and quietness free from the constant influence and disturbance of the material forces, of the satanic forces. Were they able to achieve this or not? The answer is No, because they had to take their human body with them, and this human body itself is a material object, the proof of which is that after we die there is left behind, at very least, a skeleton. We ourselves are material objects living in this world; and this skeleton which is left after we die even sometimes becomes a ghost or something that haunts those who are still alive - something spooky. So it is clear that the material influence is part of us and we take it with us wherever we go, and it is not something that we can put aside at will. Why is that? Because it is precisely through the material force that we are able to live in this world; and it is the fact that we have within us the material forces that we can be human beings, different from the animals, because what distinguishes human beings is that they can make things. They can build houses, they can make clothes, they can organize themselves into a state or a nation. They can make cars, trains - all the things that make life on earth possible. All this is the fruit of the material forces, and without the material forces our brain would not be able to think.
Paris, France - August 22, 1977
Code Number : 77 PAR 3
So these lower forces - that is, the material forces, the vegetable forces, the animal forces and the human forces - these forces are part of man's being, and they are there because without them man could not exist. In other words, in order to be able to live in this world man needs the services of all these forces which are within him; and if you remove these forces from man, automatically he would not exist -man could not exist as man in this world. Take one example. This is the case of the vegetable forces. Now, just think for a moment of the necessity of the vegetable forces for man. The vegetable forces, through our food, give the substance of our bodies; that is, our flesh, our blood, our skin and our bones. All right, it is true that man can survive without food for a short time; if he persists and refuses to eat by the power of his will for any length of time, he will, at the beginning, just get weak - but if he goes on indefinitely, he will certainly die. Now, although at that moment he is dead, his strong nafsu - which enabled him to make this effort and which forced him in this direction - will enable him to live on. In other words, after his body has died, that man can live on because of the strength of his nafsu. But he lives then as a ghost, or as a devil, or whatever you like to call it. In other words - what do they call it? - an astral body, or a fine body which you cannot see and which can be called a jinn, or something like that.
This has been proved many times by the experience of people. For example, in Java. It is quite common for people who practice asceticism and all kinds of self-denial to arrive finally at a point where they can meet these fine bodies, or these devils or ghosts - and it often happens that a man can marry a woman who is not a real woman, but a woman from the other world. In other words, one of these ghosts. It also happens that a woman who does fasting and asceticism and so on finally arrives at a point where she marries a man who is not a real man but a man who is actually a ghost. This is very much proved; this is a reality.
Toronto, Canada - September 26, 1977
Code Number : 77 YYZ 3
But beyond the material forces man still has other inhabitants within his being, and that is the vegetable force. It is the vegetable force that causes the arising of plant life, and it is through the vegetable forces within man that man is able to consume plant life in order to fill out his physical form; that is, his flesh and blood and bones, and so on. Again, no matter what man does, how man wants to separate himself from the influence of the lower forces, man cannot leave behind the vegetable forces, because no matter where man goes - if he becomes a hermit living in a distant place - he still has to eat. But man - and this has happened in the past - can force himself with a very strong will to refrain from every kind of food. True, with that kind of effort man can continue to live without his physical body, but instead of becoming free he becomes, on the contrary, a satanic being - he becomes a ghost. So it is clear that these lower forces are part of man's equipment for living in this world, equipment which he cannot possibly remove from his being, or from which he can free himself while he is living in this world.
Although that is the case, God does not wish man to be at the mercy of these lower forces - and for that reason God has given man another life force; and this life force is greater and more glorious than anything else that man knows. It is finer than any of the lower forces within man: it is greater and more powerful. And anything that man feels, this life force is finer and higher. The furthest thing that man can imagine, this life force is finer and greater than that. This life force has been given to man so that it can penetrate through all the other things that are within him. Man can feel its action within him, and this action can never be subject to, or affected by, the influence of any of the lower forces. Even when man is using his heart and mind, this other force, this other life force, this great life force, is there - deeper and finer and more penetrating than his heart and mind, so that it can always guide him.
Mexico City, Mexico - November 22, 1977
Code Number : 77 MEX 3
Through a woman man can lose his wealth, his position and everything he owns. But also through a woman, if she knows how to accompany her husband correctly, a man can rise up and obtain a high position, great wealth and everything that this world offers.
Through a woman, man can go to heaven or to hell. It depends on whether the woman knows how to accompany her husband according to what is pure and what is right. In short, for man to separate himself from the lower forces, or to put aside the influence of the lower forces, is something completely impossible as long as he lives in this world with a physical body. Because when you try to put aside the lower forces - if you are successful, you end up living without a physical body. And what is it that lives without a physical body? It is a ghost. And a ghost is nothing else than a devil or a satan who lives in the satanic world. It is true that the world is full of beings of this kind - in caves, in great rocks, all over the place there are these ghosts or devils. Indeed, these are beings which you cannot see with the ordinary eyes - but you can see them providing you have the courage not to eat and not sleep for forty days. And people often practice this. They practice this in Indonesia, and in India, in order to be able to see these beings - and maybe here, too, Bapak doesn't know.
These beings are the end result of the way that is followed by Said Anwas. But you are welcome to try, as Bapak has told you. You are welcome to try. Of course, if you manage to reach the level of Said Anwas, of a great being, then you are very lucky, and that's fine. But what happens if you become a low grade satan who just roams around?
Cilandak, Indonesia - March 5, 1978
Code Number : 78 CDK 2
about Said Anwas ..
Eventually, brothers and sisters, this son of Adam, who acted in this way, attained to so much power that he began to regard himself as a god, and he called himself Sang Hyang Nurcahyo. It was this son who eventually gave rise to the dewas.
Yes, this is what happens, brothers and sisters, if you meditate and cut down your food and sleep and practice austerities of this kind. There is indeed a precedent for it. But do not forget, brothers and sisters, that Nurcahyo achieved this very great victory because he had practiced all these austerities, not just for one or two days, one or two months, not for one or two years, not for one or two windus ( a windu is a Javanese cycle of eight years ), but for many decades. He neither ate nor slept, and in fact he no longer resembled a human being, but could be said to be something quite else. He could not even be seen in the ordinary way.
It is thus clear, brothers and sisters, that by following such ways people can attain to miraculous powers, because God always has compassion upon them. It is like it was for the thief whom Bapak mentioned just now, who was granted a blessing even though he was a thief, so that he could get into people’s houses and steal their goods just as he pleased. So Bapak is not surprised if some of you do these things. But you must not forget that it is very difficult for you to obtain any such powers. It is even more difficult in this present era, when if you so much as miss your breakfast you already feel weak. How much weaker you would feel if you missed not only your breakfast but all your other meals as well, and went without them for month after month and year after year. Eventually, brothers and sisters, you would become unlike ordinary human beings. You might even become invisible. Well, what are such beings called? If you turn into an invisible creature, then when you eat, you eat invisible food. Well, what are you eating? You cannot see what you are eating.
There is a story, brothers and sisters, a story about a child who was carried off by a silumen ( a kind of ghost or spirit ), a creature whose wordly form was invisible; that is, it was made of a very fine and transparent substance. The siluman took the child away and kept him for many days, and then eventually returned him to his parents. His parents questioned him, but his mind was so disturbed that for the next little while he could not speak, and he was in an abnormal state; that is, he was in the state of a siluman. That is what is called being in a state of sunva run ( emptiness ); being in what is called the invisible world. His parents asked him what he had had to eat. “I had something like bakmi ( noodles )”, he said. But in fact it had not been bakmi noodles but a dish of worms. Yea. Well, that is the story. You may have read it yourselves at some time in the papers.
So obviously that was not at all nice; it is much nicer to worship God in the normal way. That means that you can still live together with your wife and children, and have a happy family life. You can still even have a car, you can still wear good clothes. Well, that is like what we have in Subud, brothers and sisters, so that you live like ordinary normal people, but you are always able to receive guidance from the One Almighty God.
Singapore - September 30, 1979
Code Number : 79 SIN 2
God has given all that to human beings, like chickens who are cared for by the mother hen. Now you are adults, and you have to live your own lives. But you know that a great responsibility has been laid upon you. It is like it was when Adam was sent down to earth and God said to him: 'Adam, I have given you all that you need, and it is for you to perfect it. I have not done it all for you. What I have given to you is enough.' Amongst all that Adam forgot, there was something that reminded him; that is, the roh rohani ( the true human life-force ), the roh that is called the roh ilofi, the roh which is guidance and direction, the roh which is the star that steers human beings at those times when they forget and become influenced by the nafsu. And the nafsu seethe and boil and work with the material life-force, with the lower life-forces which are necessary to human beings. What is it that is called the roh ilofi? It is the Roh Suci, which in Christianity is called the Holy Spirit. In Islam it is called the Roh Suci, the Roh Hofi, whose nature is that of a messenger to mankind from the One Almighty God. Who are the messengers of the One Almighty God? They are human beings. Human beings may wish to find a messenger who resembles a genderwo ( ghost ), which is invisible, but which says, 'Hey, man, I bring you knowledge,' but in fact they would be frightened if they did. God creates His messengers to convey His commandments to their fellow creatures, which means to their fellow men. But human beings are sometimes very strange. 'Oh, that is just a human being. How can I believe in anyone who is not God?' How can you? If God told you something, you would not understand, for there would be a disembodied voice, saying: 'Hey, man; I am God'. You would actually be afraid. That is why it is not God's will to do this. God conveys knowledge and understanding to mankind through His messengers, so that mankind will believe because it is clear for them. The person who is telling them, who is like a messenger, also partakes of the same nature as they do. Of course it is like that, brothers and sisters. A patient would not believe in the doctor or the nurse unless the doctor himself partook of the same experience as the patient. That is how it is for human beings.
Cilandak, Indonesia - February 16, 1980
Code Number : 80 CDK 2
( Testing )
How is it, brothers and sisters? Is that clear? If not, then you can test it for yourselves. Thus we must not merely follow the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, but one's inner-self must question everything. One must not just drift about, pushed by this and by that. There are a great many things in this world like that friend Bapak told you about, the one who practiced asceticism for so many years. On one occasion he said to Kiyai Abdulrachman:
'Kiyai, I received something in my meditation that was like this and like that.' 'That was what is called a genderwo, a ghost,' answered the Kiyai. 'Well, that is awful. How could it be a genderwo ?' said my friend. 'Yes, it was a setan, a devil.'
'Yes, even up to now, brothers and sisters, there are still a great many of them about in Mojokerto and Mojopahit. But they are in a finer, invisible, astral state. You would be able to find out about them if you had the courage and strength to practice self-denial by cutting down your food and sleep, for instance; then you would be able to know what they are like and what their palaces are like. Yes.
Cilandak, Indonesia - February 17, 1982
Code Number : 82 CDK 1
So it went on, brothers and sisters, on and on, not just for one or two days but for months. Then one day, when I was in latihan, a book fell down, brothers and sisters. I really felt it fall, as if someone had dropped it into my lap. This happened while I was in latihan. I was not really frightened; I just thought it must have been a gendruwo ( ghost ) who dropped the book. I just trusted in God. I have great faith in God, so that - as I always say - even when I am ill, even when I die, my worship of God will not cease. Well, I opened that book; it was a big book, the size of an atlas of the world. I opened it, and there on the front page, brothers and sisters, was a picture of an Arab, and beneath it was some writing; some Arabic writing. I had learnt to read Arabic as a child, when I went to a religious school, but as I was trying to make this writing out it changed into Roman lettering. So obviously God does not make things difficult for human beings, and if they find something too hard for them it is made easier. So the Arabic inscription was changed into Roman characters, which read Nabi Muhammad Rasulullah. So this was a picture of the prophet Muhammad, the messenger of God. Then the picture nodded assent. That was strange - a picture which could nod. I was very surprised.
Then I opened the book again and saw another picture. This time the picture showed a lot of people. There were women in the picture - yes, and men too. They were all moving; some dancing, some doing various other things. The people in this picture were not just Javanese, but there were people of all sorts. Some were white, some black, some yellow. So here was a picture which could move. I say that it could move, but this picture could also produce sounds, could speak. Some of the people were weeping, some were singing, some were making various other sounds. "Oh, I must show this book to my friends," I thought, "I must show it to my fellow students. They will enjoy it very much.” Then I opened the book at another page, at perhaps three or four other pages, and then I closed it, thinking that this was a very beautiful book and tomorrow I would show it to my friends. I held it to me, and it vanished. whether this was a demit (demon or ghost), or whatever it was, that is what I received.
Melbourne, Australia - May 2, 1982
Code Number : 82 MEB 2
If you truly have faith in God's presence you need never again be disturbed by spirits, you need never think to yourself: is there a ghost or a jinn at work here? - never. The jinn and the devils submit to man and fear him. People claim that Kalimantan is full of jinn and devils, but this is of no consequence for Subud. In fact, it is these very devils that will serve Subud or serve us human beings. So, brothers and sisters, the project Bapak is planning in Kalimantan is really a place for Subud brothers and sisters to train themselves, to learn to distinguish between what they receive from God for their life in the next world, and the way to live in this world in the proper way. You can therefore carry out both your duties, in the one case just following whatever happens and in the other exerting yourself - and that is what Bapak calls an enterprise.
Auckland, Australia - May 27, 1982
Code Number : 82 AKL 7
That, brothers and sisters, is why Bapak always says that you must follow the way of the latihan kejiwaan faithfully, but not think about it, because to think about the latihan kejiwaan is not only useless but will actually soil your inner-feeling. Thus you can be sure, brothers and sisters, that the latihan kejiwaan of Subud will go by itself, by the guidance of the One Almighty God, and the One Almighty God, brothers and sisters, knows everything. He knows exactly about your present and future capacity. Although you pray to God that you will quickly be able to achieve what was achieved by the messengers of God, for instance, you will not be able to achieve it if it is not yet the time and if God has not yet granted you His blessing. But you must always remain resolute and you must always be diligent in following the latihan kejiwaan. That is why it is to be kept apart, in order that the latihan kejiwaan will continue to go by itself. Now what happens, brothers and sisters, if you. are cut off from the latihan kejiwaan? Will you just stay us you are? No. It is obvious that in this world you live with the nafsu; obvious because the nafsu go side by side with everything that exists in this world, such as material objects, trees, animals and your own selves. You could not live in this world were it not for the nafsu. Nor could you possess a strong will unless you eat meat, unless you eat animals, you will not be able to think intelligently unless you live like human beings. Nor would you be able to make any of the things you see around you without the material force, the roh raewani.
So all this follows in logical sequence, everything both fills and is filled, rules and is ruled. You could not live in this world otherwise, you could not survive. Unless you eat, drink, act and in general behave like human beings, you will automatically fade away. You will turn into an invisible being, a ghost, a being on the satanic level. So that is even more dangerous than living with the nafsu. So how are you to remain whole and intact as human beings, brothers and sisters, and yet be able to worship God according to His will? There is no other way than by surrendering to the One Almighty God; surrendering with patience, trust and sincere submission to the will of god.
Singapore - June 12, 1982
Code Number : 82 SIN 1
Above this is the Nabati life force, the vegetable force. If you did not have the vegetable force, you would not be able to live. This flesh is built up from food. Therefore if you, or if a person decides not to eat or sleep at all, he will disappear and become a ghost. This is the nature of the vegetable force. The vegetable force can also become a temptation for man in his worship of Almighty God. Although this is the case, man needs it; he cannot live without it'.
Wisma Subud, - Cilandak, Indonesia - June 27, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 7a
Brothers and sisters, our life in this world, our body or framework for our life in this world, is based on the material. The bit of us that is not the jiwa is actually built of the material. This is very clear: our houses, our tools, our equipment are material. Our clothes are material and finally our bodies are material. The proof of that is that when you die you end up with a skeleton and that skeleton is just a piece of matter just like everything else. What people who are interested in the kejiwaan are working towards is to be able to transfer their life to their jiwa after they die so that their jiwa will go on living. They are aware that what is needed is that their jiwa should be a human jiwa so that their jiwa will go to the human world and not to live as a skeleton. Most of us are aware of the fact that it is true that there are such things as spooks, ghosts ( meaning people who are alive, but alive as "skeletons" ).
This is the big question. How can you live after you have died, as a human jiwa in a world that is above the four levels ( meaning in the realm of the rohani, rahmani, rabani, as far as you are able to get ), and not in the world below that line, where you live as a ghost? People in the olden days who followed the kejiwaan were aware that their aim was to end up as a human jiwa, so they preferred to neglect or put aside intercourse with the material because that intercourse with the material was irrelevant to their aim of eternal life in the human world.
Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo