Jakarta, Indonesia - September 29, 1958
Code Number : 58 JKT 5
There are precedents that confirm our experience in this Subud latihan of ours. What we receive in the latihan is only God's work, the work of God's power. It is not man's work. Truly, it is an immeasurably great release for those who have received it. Such is God's love for human beings. Such is God's grace to human beings. Such is God's help to human beings. For humans are indeed weak by nature. If it were not for God, there is no way it could happen. So we are cherished and loved by God.

Do not think about this. Direct your thinking towards making a living. If there is such a field of study as profiteering, for example, don't try to apply it in this area - do it in the area of money. If you try to make a profit from this, it won't work.

Such are the secrets of life, which always exist in our lives and which you will get to understand. And you will obtain a gift from God so you can understand the changes of content which occur within your being. Through God's power we can change and we can feel what is true within us. So it's not something that is unreal. It is real.

But of course reality is different in different areas. This is real and logical in the realm of the spirit, logical in the eyes of God, or from the point of view of God's greatness and power. But it is not logical from the viewpoint of the thinking, the heart and desires. Indeed, seen from the point of view of the thinking mind, the heart and desires, this is something that is illogical, because it cannot be adjusted to the human way of thinking. This is really not something that needs to be thought about or that can be known by human thought, save through the One God. So there are two kinds of reality. One is free of the thinking mind. The other can be acquired and realized by the thinking mind. If the thinking mind wants to unite these two kinds of reality it will never succeed.

Nice, France - January 6, 1960
Code Number : 60 NCE 1
Brothers and sisters, you need to be aware that the soul is the main factor, or you could say, the content of our being. After the soul is there within us – for our self is like a vessel to receive it – it begins to work. Our tools, or our self, which are like the wrapping of the soul, then work according to whatever is within us; each of our parts and our mind, heart and desires, all work. Naturally this wrapping – including our inner feeling – will, as the wrapping of our soul, behave and work according to its content. So, clearly, if the content of our self is wrong we will be unable to know what is wrong with it, because even though it is wrong, it is us.

It is not that we have to, but we will always say good things about ourselves. Where is the person who will admit his or her own faults? Where is the person who likes to give in to others? Where is the person who likes to criticise himself or herself instead of other people? Rather, when they can, people conceal their bad points and only mention their good ones. They may even slander a good person to cover up their own faults.

Clearly, if our soul is not good we will never be good. Even if we claim to ourselves that we are good, we still are not good. That is why improving our soul is not something that is easy. It is not something we can make an effort and work at doing, as one makes an aeroplane, builds a train or makes an atomic [device], for example. These things are easier to do, because we can use our intelligence to create them. But how can I know my own self? There is no way. There is no one who can make a human being. Not so far. Yes, other than by having a child, which is not the same as making it, because it does not happen intentionally – it is just due to being in love. So it does not happen because you want it, as when you make something; it just happens. That’s the logic of it.

How is it that a human being, as an excellent creation of God, can contain a non-human soul? An animal soul, for example. It is because it is not God who creates human beings these days. The human being was created by God’s own hands in the beginning, when human beings first came into existence. That is why, in the stories of the prophets, it is said that a human being was created by God through God’s power; with God’s own hands, as it were. This was the first human being, called Adam.

Wolfsburg, Germany - June 21, 1975
Code Number : 75 WOB 15
As a matter of fact and of logic, Bapak himself is like a channel. Bapak receives, and passes on what he receives. Bapak is like a channel, a channel for the power of God. So in reality this spiritual association of Subud is guided by the One Almighty God. Of course this Divine guidance cannot be written down in the ordinary manner and formulated into a constitution which can be seen by those who are interested, especially by government authorities. So governments and others who are interested can only see what the organizational structure is like. As for the content of the kejiwaan, it cannot be given a structure, nor can it be known. That is why, even in Indonesia, interested people in the government often ask what Subud is.

Bapak answers that Subud is an association of people who have received grace from God; a kind of latihan kejiwaan or spiritual training. They ask if Subud is a religion. It is not. If Subud were a religion, it would not be able to accept people of different religions. For a religion has a kind of compass, i.e. what is stated in its Holy Books, and thus anything that is not in accord with the scriptures is considered to be false. In that case the error is called a heresy. This is found in every religion.

Subud is not like that. Subud is not a religion; the ones who have religions are the Subud members. Thus this Subud was born and it came to Bapak as a receiving, through which clarification and proof of what is to be Found in the various religions can be received. That is why Bapak says that this latihan kejiwaan of Subud is like a technique. It is the 'technique' of the religions you all profess. Is that really true? Supposing you ask again: if you believe that there is no compass in Subud but faith in God and surrender to God, and that you will receive from the power of God for yourself, then you may join Subud. You may try following the latihan. For people will not believe and will not be able to work out what Subud is unless they experience it for themselves, unless they experience the latihan.

Cilandak, Indonesia - July 2, 1978
Code Number : 78 CDK 14
The vegetable and animal life-forces are already something striking enough. To those there are added the jasmaniah or ordinary human life force. Someone who refrains from sex is not quite a man, but sex can got you into a lot of trouble. How can one have a child and not have trouble? People say that if you are looking for a tests of hell, you can find it by having a child, and indeed this is true. Yea, when the child is grown up, like Harjono, that is all right; he is now a grown man with children of his own. But when he was small he made hell for Bapak. When he saw something he wanted, he would cay “Please daddy, buy me one.” How could I? He knew of a bicycle for sale “Oh daddy, it is a beauty.” He did not understand that his father did not have any money. Thus the greatest of all temptations for a man is a wife. For a woman, it is her husband. That is the ultimate temptation, if you can overcome that, by means of those four linked qualities ( surrender, patience, trustful acceptance and sincere submission ) than you get into the finals. You become one of the finalists, and if you do well, you become a champion. Well, that is how it is if we put it into footballing terms. Thus there are the material, vegetable and animal rounds, and the last round is the jasmaniah. That is like the match between Holland and Argentina ( the finalists the 1970 Gold Cup ). The winners are the world champions. They celebrated the win for a whole week in Argentina, so that the traffic could not move in the streets because of the rejoicing.

What we are talking about is also like that. What are the signs of this? There are signs; that is, what are called wahyu and Anugraha. An earthquake is evidence that the earth shakes. Thus of course everything has its logic, brothers and sisters. There are signs that it exists. Thus when a human being is raised to a level higher than the jasmaniah, there are signs of it, brothers and sisters. You have to look outside to see if there is any wind. There is not. The earth bears witness, the sky bears witness, the sunlight bears witness, everything bears witness to that. That shows that those human beings are on a high level. This is how it is, brothers and sisters; Bapak is not forcing you to reach a higher level. If you can do so, Alhamdulillah. Bapak prays that you will. But you have to begin with patience, trustful acceptance, and sincere submission.

London, England - August 27, 1979
Code Number : 79 LON 2
As Bapak says, we believe in the existence of God, but how are we to believe in what we cannot see? We are accustomed to logic, to proof and evidence. We cannot believe in anything that we have not yet been able to witness. Indeed, that is as God wills; it is His will that we should not believe in anything that we have not yet been able in the latihan to prove. You have to some extent been able in the latihan to prove that there really is a life within our lives. When we are really surrendered to God, when we are really trusting and sincere in our attitude towards God, when we really submit soul and body to God, then there is a vibration within ourselves. This is what is called the khatir ilham. It is the vibration of the life that existed before this world. We receive this, and eventually it spreads to the whole of our selves, so that we begin by being able to walk. Although we could walk from here to New York, nevertheless we are still trained in how to walk. Why are we still being trained in this? It is because when you walk in the ordinary way from here to New York, it is because of the nafsu, and not yet because of God.

Singapore - September 30, 1979
Code Number : 79 SIN 2
It is thus clear that what has happened in Subud is not an illusion, nor is it something extraordinary or way out, but you do really experience it. Thus there is not only what would be called an external logic, but even when it is in the kejiwaan, in the spiritual life, there is evidence. Indeed they are two different cases, which means that what is in this world and what is beyond this world are different, and the soul and the body are also different. So that the logic of the kejiwaan is in the kejiwaan and the logic of this world is in this world.

This is what we have had proved to us, brothers and sisters, so that we can measure and understand what life is like. Up to now, brothers and sisters, people have still been using material evidence to enable them to understand how people lived in past eras; how they lived a thousand years ago, for instance, or two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand years ago. Up to now, people have only been able to find evidence in durable materials such as stone and so on, if they are able to discover this and if it still exists. If there is writing on the stone or on metal, then after a certain number of millennia it will disappear because it is weathered away.

But what is it that endures and does not change? It is the jiwa. The human jiwa has been in existence ever since the beginning right up to the present time. It is the foundation for our aims of knowing and understanding the lives of the beings who lived thousands of years ago. Well, there were already very many of them. Bapak has often tested this. Yes, of course the intellectuals will not believe it, because there is no external evidence. Of course the jiwa cannot be proved by external methods, intellectual methods, but it can be proved through the jiwa. Can it really and truly be proved? Why not? For the power of God, brothers and sisters, preexists and precedes everything that existed at the first beginning of everything, and it follows after the last ending of everything, every final ending; it is within the innermost and beyond the outermost. It is thus clear that everything is surrounded and enveloped by the power of God. It is also clear that if our jiwa can make a connection between the jiwa and our conscious inner-feeling, then we can inwardly follow in the footsteps of God, and we shall be able to understand and to know.

Cilandak, Indonesia - June 21, 1980
Code Number : 80 CDK 3
All that we have in Subud is based upon evidence, brothers and sisters. You must not be cut off from logic and reality. Materialists win their arguments because they base them upon logic; we do not. This is a mistake. We do not lack logic. There was a well-known Communist called Alimin. He resigned from Subud and set out on his own, and other people followed him. Three times Alimin asked for an opportunity to meet Bapak and I was prepared to meet him, but he never came. Eventually Alimin died. He is said to have told his friend that he wanted this, but that every time he was about to come and see me he was afraid of being infected by Subud ( through his friend's crisis ) and that he might have a crisis such as this friend had. This friend was Padmo, who told this to Bapak. 'What happens if I become like you? What if I lose my mind, like you, and run naked through the streets?' 'I was not aware of what I was doing.' Padmo was like a child, running naked through the streets, so that he upset people by dancing about like that. Yes, that was the communist member, Padmo. In the end, Alimin did not dare to, come. Later on Mr. Wongsonegoro wanted three times to meet me, and I was prepared to meet him. Those people want to exchange ideas, but I do not need or want to exchange ideas. When I think something, I think it once and for all. I have only one idea, and it would be terrible to exchange it for another.

This is why what is necessary and important for all of you in Subud in doing the latihan kejiwaan of Subud is just to follow, brothers and sisters. For our movements in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud are like a story whose meaning is not yet clear. It is your own fault that it is not yet clear. Why does it still bear the stamp of the nafsu? You are being trained not to pretend, not to imitate. If you cannot yet do it, just say that you cannot. That is enough. Yes, but rather than admit that you cannot, you claim that you can. Someone says, 'I have already been in Subud for fifty years.' Thus he is saying that for fifty years he has eaten his fill of the salt of Subud. Subud has no salt to offer, but cekok, ( bitter medicine ). Cekok is bitter; cekok is jamu ( herbal medicine ). It is like this. If you have always behaved naturally and honestly, it is like what is experienced in that song from Solo, Wiring kelopo ( in which there is a play on the words selugu ning witing klopa/seluguning witing klopo ), then it gradually becomes quite normal. It is ordinary or normal in the sense that the ruler and the subject are always in contact with one another. You act like that, whether you talk about it or not, and it reaches further and further into you until it is right inside everything, and everything is one in the makrifatullah ( mystical union in the essence of God ). Well, if you are united in yourself, then you wonder what is this feeling in you? If you feel .it in your heart, you wonder what is this feeling of life? It would be better to die, for you do not enjoy anything anymore. If you go to the cinema, the film may be said to be a good one, but you do not enjoy it. If a man sees a pretty woman or a woman sees a handsome man, it gives them no pleasure. What then? Everything is over. It is now clear that the pleasures of this world are just the dregs of heaven. Yes, indeed they are.

Jakarta, Indonesia - July 26, 1980
Code Number : 80 JKT 4
Thus we see the reality: what God's Will is, what the real and correct position and attitude for man's life on earth must be. And it is absolutely true that if this is not from God, man cannot achieve this by himself. If this comes from men, it is like the United Nations, but coming from God, man can reach a point of realizing what God's Will for man is.

This is why the latihan kejiwaan is like an enormous grace, a treasure bestowed upon us. To have been brought to the real experience of what Bapak describes is like that. We do the latihan, next to us is someone from a totally different background, country, race and religion, yet, if that person is sad, we feel sad: we feel his sadness. This proves that man is one, one race, one people.

We have all heard the story of Adam, the story that all mankind, the whole human race derived from one man, one source. If this story is true, then it is logical that we should treat each other as brothers and sisters. But who knows if that story is true? Bapak himself didn't, live in the days when Adam lived. We have no witnesses now, but, through the evidence we receive from God' s Power, we experience the truth; it is to train ourselves; to practice this closeness, this guidance, this reality which God has given us in the latihan kejiwaan; to experience it all the time, to practice it as much as possible: it is for these reasons that Bapak has given us the idea of enterprises. By continuing to talk about enterprises, Bapak is not trying to condemn you to work like a slave in some enterprise or other. Bapak is trying to tell you to find an opportunity to train yourself to work from day to day in your job and everyday life in such a way that you do not lose contact with the inner guidance of the latihan kejiwaan. No matter what you are doing - film work, writing, anything - whatever your talent is - you learn how to do it while keeping in touch with the Power of God Almighty. Just like when you're doing your latihan.

When we are already a little bit in touch, with the power of God, a little bit able to do this in our daily life, then the result will be that whatever we do in this World will be right. We will not then act in a ways in our lives, our business, our worship which harms or oppresses others or produces conflicts. Because in everything we do we will already have the guidance of Almighty God - the guidance which brings us to the reality that the purpose of human life is not to fight with one another, but to cooperate, help each other and feel each other' s needs.

Wolfsburg, Germany - May 3, 1981
Code Number : 81 WOB 6
Now - and this applies especially to the helpers - you may sometimes feel uncomfortable in the presence of some Subud member. This feeling may come either from yourself or from the person in front of you. That is why we ought to be able, so far as is possible, to correct our own selves. It is by no means certain that it is something wrong about the other people; sometimes it is one's own self that is wrong. So it is clear that one can know everything and witness everything and prove everything. There is nothing that is illogical or lacking in its logic.

Many people can give good advice and guidance, but at the same time not be sure of its logicality. So we are very lucky to have a basis of logic and real proof in what we receive, for as a rule spiritual matters cannot be proved in the same way as scientific matters, but why should they not be susceptible of proof if they are truly spiritual and really emanate from the One Almighty God? Of course they can be proved; spiritual matters are proved by spiritual methods and scientific matters are proved by scientific methods, so that each has its own proper place.

Toyko, Japan - June 8, 1982
Code Number : 82 TYO 5
God created man with brains and intelligence. We should therefore make use of these instruments, exercising our minds and intelligence, not just praying to God for help, without experiencing the extent of His Love towards mankind. This does not mean that we are, as the Europeans say, "building castles in the air". We have to be this way in order to experience the extent of Divine Love towards mankind. Man is able to create nuclear and atomic weapons and objects that can fly through the universe, to the moon, all of which only happens through God's love of man, enabling him to expand and perfect technological advances. As far as we ourselves are concerned, Bapak says that the latihan kejiwaan Subud is the source of all knowledge. Bapak has experienced this himself, brothers and sisters. As a result, Bapak has had experiences that defy logic, where things have happened which seemed out of the question, yet they did take place and there are witnesses. Some of these, such as Luqman and Sharif, are right here now. If other people were to hear of these matters, they would think we were not quite right in the head, crazy in fact, because these would seem to be ideas quite impossible to put into practice. You shouldn't think along those lines though, brothers and sisters. A century ago, there was no such thing as an airplane, nor were there any nuclear weapons and atomic bombs, or talk of people going to the moon. Yet as a result of God's love for mankind, people were able to implement the knowledge they received. Nowadays too, brothers and sisters, times are still changing and we should not say things are impossible - they are in fact possible if people really carry them out properly. That is why it is most important that you should broaden your horizons, brothers and sisters. As in the case of Ichiki-San, who should also travel around and find out the way to get various things done. Certainly a way will be found eventually. God will show the way, but not if you are going to lose heart and despair, to say everything is impossible and that you cannot carry it out. If you think like that, then you never will accomplish anything.

Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo