Coombe Springs, England August 10, 1957
Code Number : 57 CSP 6
What Bapak is saying is very much in keeping with the holy books that have been bequeathed to us by the messengers and prophets of God, who lived many years ago. Therefore, those of you who have read the Bible, those of you who have read the Quran, and those who have read the other holy books, can perceive and consider what Bapak is saying. It will be even better when you can receive for yourselves whether what Bapak is saying is true or not.
Because of this, Bapak again hopes that you will not become disappointed and feel that you cannot really receive yet, resulting in an urge to accelerate your receiving and your understanding. A heart or inner feeling that is in a hurry to know, to understand, will not increase your receiving or your ability, but will, on the contrary, disturb your inner feeling, with the result that you will not experience, or you will suffer a delay in, the receiving in the latihan that you are practicing.
Eindhoven, Netherlands - October 11, 1957
Code Number : 57 EIN 2
God did not create us humans to be useless, that is to say, only to die and be buried in the ground. If you were to make something, would you, after making it, just throw it away? When you make it and fashion it, you certainly want other people to like it, to possess it, to enjoy it and approve of it. Clearly, God created human beings not just to die on this earth, but to experience something, so that they can return to the perfect world, the human world, which is greater, more prosperous and more beautiful than this earth.
Thus God created us humans. And that's why human beings are accompanied by something that is not easy to perceive, but which certainly belongs to them, and that is the real path to God, which arises and exists because of a human being's peacefulness, patience, surrender, sincere submission and trusting himself to God. And this will exist within all of our physical members, once we have reached that stage. For example, it will exist within our body, our brain and our feelings.
Coombe Springs, England - March 15, 1958
Code Number : 58 CSP 3
So the gift from God, as Bapak just mentioned, received by a human being, penetrates everything that is in us, and our thinking mind is powerless. Why? Because the heart and mind and everything that is within a human being is penetrated by God's power. That is the way God gives to human beings, not in the outer sense, but within their innermost thoughts, so that their ordinary instruments cannot perceive it. But the reality is that although we don't think of anything and we appear to forget in the latihan, we are always in a state of consciousness and self-awareness. It's the mind that forgets, but certainly all of you have received and felt the awareness that is awakened by God's power within us.
New York, NY USA - May 3, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 1
Bapak will illustrate. All of you began as small children, as babies. A baby, a tiny newborn child, although they can't yet see the shapes of the world, although they can't yet hear the sounds of this world or perceive anything else that is in this world, can already, small as they are, receive something that comes, not from outside but from within - from their soul. And so from time to time this tiny infant will look happy. Sometimes they will look troubled, as if they're suffering. Certainly this shows that they are receiving and experiencing something. For you, this behavior of such a small child is just normal. But in fact, at those moments, this tiny child is still closely connected with its soul while still distant from the influences of the world.
New York, NY USA - May 6, 1959
Code Number : 59 NYC 2
It may be that there are many among you, both men and women, who have not yet been able to perceive that, within the self, within the inner feeling, there are a variety of life forces. These can be referred to as spiritual entities, which form the content of the human self, the human body. It was God's will that these various forces make up the content of the human self, so that with them, human beings should be able to act as messengers of God, willed by God to be capable of living in prosperity and happiness on this earth and also of living happily in the hereafter.
Los Angeles, CA USA - July 24, 1959
Code Number : 59 LAX 5
Olso, Norway - August 7, 1959
Code Number : 59 OSL 3
Bapak has seen himself black like a Negro; he has seen himself red like a Red Indian; he has also seen himself yellow like a Chinese or a Japanese - who are generally regarded by people here as a race of yellow color; Bapak has also seen himself just as he usually looks, but quite white like a European, as white as a Norwegian; and Bapak has also seen himself with the color that is proper for him.
Thus God has given Man evidence that, although there are the black, the red, the white, the yellow, and the brown, yet they are all brothers to one another, at one, united in the being of man. And some day you may be able to bear witness; so Bapak hopes that when you come to meet with this, you will not be frightened, because they are your own brothers, and not only brothers from the same womb, but brothers that were born together and will enter the grave together. And when your smelling power will be more strongly developed, you may well smell their odor occasionally, for they also have a customary odor which can be perceived by the nose.
If you happen to smell an unpleasant odor, such as that of a male goat, this is the odor of the black brother; on another occasion you may smell something like burnt bone, which is the odor of the red brother; the smell of fish ( 'amis' ) is the odor of the yellow-skinned brother; that. of slaked lime ( chalk ) belongs to the white brother; and, finally, the smell of clay is the odor of the brown brother - the combination of all these odors.
Bapak tells you all this because you may possibly have smelt such odors without, at the time, understanding their significance. And these five brothers of yours act in complete unison or unanimity with you in every matter or circumstance.
Of this fact great use has been made by teachers of mystical and ascetic practices, for these five brothers often arouse the emotions or the spirit of man so that the enthusiasm is generated for such action or work as this man intended to do. And if you had control over this mechanism, you would become someone to commend respect and admiration, for you would be able, for instance, to make a piece of rope stand upright without any visible means, or to move a load from one place to another without picking it up or otherwise touching it. Many other magical actions could be performed, as there are in Africa, where objects lying somewhere above the ground are moved down by a mere gesture of the hand.
In the intellect of educated people such magical actions are replaced by terminology; they speak of spiritualism, hypnotism, magnetism, occultism - and which, furthermore, are considered as forms of worship. And they are effective; but it means that the inner being is actuated exclusively by the power of the desires or the thinking mind. And it must not be forgotten, that if you use the desires with full force during all your life in this world, then in your death the right path which might lead you to God or the path which leads to a level higher and loftier than this world, may be barred to you because from your life in this world only the four or five passions remain with you. Whereas, what is really needful for you is the ability to enter into that blissful world which belongs to the perfected human being. To acquire this ability it is necessary for you to integrate everything into a whole, so that the five become one, in what Bapak calls the brown nature, and then you will truly be able to get into contact with what Bapak called the mighty life-force.
London, England - August 17, 1959
Code Number : 59 LON 2
Therefore, in Subud, in your worship, Bapak would like you to look upon all living beings - upon all your brothers and sisters - as you do yourself, truly one in feeling, truly united. For the heart and the thinking mind, which continually make a distinction between 'I' and 'you', are only motivated by the low forces, forces that always seek to bring about disorder in human life, so that human beings argue with one another. That is what the low forces want; they want human beings to fall from their proper level so that low forces can take their place. This is the way and behavior of the low forces; they fill people's being in order that they may carry out their will without people being aware of it. Since the entire being of a person - their feelings, heart and brain - are permeated by these forces, it is impossible for that person to perceive reality or understand his or her true condition.
Coombe Springs, England - August 26, 1959
Code number of Recording: 59 CSP 15
As Bapak has already shown you, the nature of these low forces within people will impart specific characteristics. If it is the material forces, the person will be ignorant of humane values; meaning they will have no love for other living beings, and will only be concerned with their own life, their own supremacy and their own wealth. They will not believe in the greatness of God, which God has given to humankind.
When it is the vegetable forces that dominate them, they will be greedy; they will pursue grandeur, comfort and self-indulgence, forgetting their friends and even their family. If it is the animal forces, their character will be such that they are happy when they can defeat an enemy. They feel pleasure in being recognized as a winner, and they feel sad if they are defeated. They feel disappointed if they are criticized, whereas, from a human point of view, when a person is criticized it helps them to develop their understanding; if a person is not criticized, they will never find out where their own faults lie. Bapak has heard that really great politicians very much welcome criticism, because it is the means by which they can perceive and correct a faulty attitude that might otherwise not be apparent to them.
So, if we still have such characteristics within us it means that we are very easily disturbed and influenced by the low forces, which claim to be God and deserving of worship. That's how it is. But through this latihan, because we are convinced that whatever we receive comes from the perfect force that can correct all this, we can truly find out what the truth is, as willed by God.
Colet Garderns, London, England - September 22, 1959
Code number of Recording: 59 LON 7
Many people have endeavored to comprehend and know how the soul grows, using their mind and their intellect. It cannot be done. They are completely unable to find what they are looking for because they are still using their minds to be aware of and experience the growth of the soul; they believe that their mind can perceive and understand the growth of their soul within their being.
In spite of this, people who make efforts on the spiritual path – meaning those who study spiritual matters – still keep using their thinking mind. And, because they force their mind to try to comprehend the progress of the soul and the nature of the soul, their entire thinking, heart and desires become immersed in the inner feeling. This eventually leads them to neglect and ignore their everyday needs as human beings living in this world. Because of this, other people say that those who study spiritual matters, or those who try to experience the growth of their soul, neglect and go against the development of their life in the world, so their life deteriorates and their position in society worsens.
Because the results they achieve are unconvincing for people in general, and their worldly lives suffer a decline, many people, particularly intellectuals, feel that the worship of God is in fact useless. Many of them say God does not actually exist and that it is better to study things that can really be known and understood by the thinking mind – for that is where the truth is.
Brisbane, Australia - March 12, 1963
Code Number : 63 BNE 1
As you know, the Subud latihan cannot really be called training. But as it is difficult to find words that convey accurately what happens in the latihan, Bapak is obliged to use an ordinary word like the word ‘latihan’, which means training, and which sounds like physical training, sports training or the like. Even so, it is better to use a simple word. Meanwhile we can perceive that it contains something that is very important for human life – especially for those of us who have received the latihan.
Buenos Aires, Argentina - May 20, 1963
Code Number : 63 BUE 1
At first glance, if you look at it just with your thinking mind, there are many things that resemble the Subud latihan; for instance, hypnotism, spiritism, magnetism, occultism and other such ‘isms’. But if you were really able to perceive what hypnotism, spiritism, magnetism and occultism are, you would understand that such practices in fact deaden the inner feeling. That is why people who have had training in hypnotism, spiritism, magnetism and occultism feel they are living in their thinking, and they forget their self-awareness. This damages the self of those who do it.
But, as Bapak just said, the Subud latihan comes from God. It is a training that truly awakens all your senses, your entire inner feeling and all the parts of your body. They are all brought to life so that they can really and truly feel – they become truly sensitive. So, clearly it is God’s will for human beings that their inner feeling should be really alive, as well as their heart and thinking mind. This is necessary, so that in the end, after death, when their heart and mind are not working any more, their inner feeling may live on and understand and be aware of everything that befalls them. So this [latihan] can go on even in the life after death.
New York, NY USA - June 27, 1963
Code Number : 63 NYC 2
A newborn child is still in contact with their soul, and their soul is still close to the power of God; so they are said to be still under the guidance of Almighty God. That is why a newborn child sometimes looks sad, sometimes looks happy, sometimes cries and sometimes laughs. This is not something trivial; there is certainly a reason for it. The reason is that a newborn baby knows what is going on in the realm of the soul. They can hear it and perceive it with all their senses. Whenever they receive something unpleasant they will feel sad, whereas if what they receive is pleasant they feel happy. Meanwhile, the fact is that an adult, seeing a small child behaving like that, will consider that it is just the normal behaviour of a small child. The truth, however, is something special, which is still hidden from your knowledge.
Briarcliff, NY USA - July 22, 1963
Second Subud World Congress
Code Number : 63 BCL 9
The content follows the nature of the vessel. When the vessel is one that possesses thought and intelligence, even though its content or soul is small and narrow – that is, material – the life of that soul will express itself according to the nature of that vessel. Bapak will give an illustration: suppose there are two souls of the same kind, both material, but one has as its vehicle the body of a human being, and the other the body of an animal – a dog, for example. Although the content of both is the same, the same kind of soul, yet because they differ in their nature, one being human and the other a dog, the two souls manifest with different voices. The human voice, being the voice of a person, will make sounds such as ‘A, B, C’, but the voice of the dog, since it cannot say ‘A, B, C’, will be ‘woof, woof, woof’.
That is how it is. So it is clear that human beings are capable of perceiving only the nature of the vessel, they cannot perceive the soul. For human beings it is very hard to discern the soul; only God can discern that. In short, in everything that has to do with the soul, including changing it to make it better, no one can do anything except God.
Detroit, MI USA - August 1, 1963
Code Number : 63 DTT 1
So in reality the Subud latihan is not like what is called an inner or spiritual exercise. It concerns not only the inner self but also the outer. Therefore the Subud latihan can be called a training for a human life. It envelops the outer and the inner, the inner and the outer.
Bapak is saying this because we have received proof from the latihan, which starts with all kinds of movements: walking, making sounds and so on. And this spreads to all the parts of your body.
Eventually you can become truly aware, and understand that putting on make-up comes not only from the wish of your heart, it is also God’s will that you should be able to make yourself look beautiful in the right way. Eventually you will truly receive and become aware that, when you want to use a perfume, it is not only your heart but also your soul that wants to use it. Then you will not only perceive the fragrance with your physical sense of smell, your soul will smell it also.
This has been verified. There are times when nobody is using any perfume in the latihan but, after your soul has done latihan for a long time, you can smell a really beautiful fragrance that one rarely smells in this world. That is the fragrance of the soul. In this way, you become able to make yourself look good outwardly and also inwardly.
That is why people who are respected in religion have the habit of using a sweet-smelling fragrance when they congregate in the mosque or in the church. It symbolises the truth that when a person has been purified by God, so that their inner feeling is truly clean and they are truly guided by God, their soul will have a sweet fragrance.
Montreal, Canada - October 5, 1963
Code Number : 63 YUL 1
It is clear that the human heart and the thinking brain are completely filled with what concerns this world, and are devoid of anything to do with the soul. That is why the thinking and the heart cannot be relied on to understand and perceive what is in the realm of the soul. They have already become filled with the things that go on in this world.
So it is not surprising if there are people who do not believe in God. It is understandable, because they think, ‘How can you believe in something you cannot see? How can you believe in something you cannot hear? And how can you believe in someone or something that you cannot touch or taste or smell?’
Indeed, brothers and sisters, the realm of the soul is not something you can think about. All you can do is extinguish the power of your mind; quieten the influence of the desires, heart and mind. Only then can you receive the whisper of your soul; only then can you feel the vibration of life within you. That is how it is. So, in the latihan, we Subud members move and receive movement from within as long as we do not think about it. If we think about it, the movement will stop.
Montreal, Canada - October 10, 1963
Code Number : 63 YUL 2
It is really unnecessary and pointless for you to argue among yourselves about what you receive in the latihan, because the fact is that your heart and mind cannot understand it. Only God can understand it. Why is that? It is because, as Bapak said the other day, all the parts of your body, as well as your heart and your brain, need to be cleaned or repaired; the content of your whole being – that which you consider to be your individuality – is in fact still wrong. It is a content that is attracted to and influenced solely by the progress or the beauty of this world, and so it really needs to be put aside and cleaned out. Only then will you be able to receive the true content of your individuality.
Because this is so, the ideas the heart and mind have about God and God’s power cannot be right or accurate. In fact, because your heart and mind are filled with this world, the way you perceive God and God’s power will be the same as the way you perceive this world. So if you do look at, visualise or think about heaven or about God, the point of view your heart and thinking have of it will be no different from their view of this world. Therefore you will of course visualise heaven as a cool and beautiful place, with wonderful scenery. And you will visualise God as superb, wondrous, and so on. In short, your images will not differ from your images of this world.
So it is clear that you do not need to think about God and God’s power; you do not need to try to understand it. For even though you do not think about God, once you are clean God will be there, in your thoughts. In the same way, even though you do not pay attention to God, you will be made aware of God’s power once the impurities in your heart have been cleansed.
Therefore the best way for us – not for other people, for us; for all of you – is none other than to do the latihan diligently and follow what we have obtained in the latihan. We should not feel that we are competing with each other, wanting more and better for ourselves while criticising others. Don’t do that; just receive what you receive. And if others receive differently from you, you need to realise – as Bapak has said before – that all of you differ in what you receive.
Clearly, you are being trained to be yourself as a complete being. This means that the latihan will not go against or exceed your own individuality. In this way you will become aware that God’s power really leads, guides and educates you to be able to grasp, feel, understand and become conscious of, your entire individuality, which will become part of your everyday life.
And the way you do the latihan is – as Bapak usually says – by surrendering to God, which means emptying your thinking. But besides that, it is good if you feel it in a state of peace and tranquillity. It is not necessary for you to force yourself to do the latihan too much or to do it a lot.
And suppose that you cry, shout or sing in the latihan: it is true that there are times when you are required from within to cry, shout and talk as loud as you can. This is a sign that in fact your heart and your desires are strong-willed; that is why you need to be loud in the latihan. But if that happens, you can also ask God within you that you should not be too loud, because God will accommodate that.
This is something Bapak has experienced himself. In the beginning when he was receiving – just like you – he was made to use his voice as loud as he could. After doing this once or twice his neighbours woke up with a start, and he could feel for himself how it must be for them. Bapak asked God, and his request was granted so that the third and fourth time – while not exactly soft, Bapak could still hear it – it did not have to be so loud. Nevertheless, Bapak still needed to make a loud sound; so, instead of doing it in the house, he looked for a place that was far from his neighbours, and there he made a sound that was as loud as he could. That was very necessary for him, in order that his voice could be purified.
In fact it was not only shouting that Bapak experienced. He was also required to run as fast as he could. So he ran as fast as he could and also threw somersaults. In short, he was required to move extremely energetically. And because Bapak could not do this at home or in a latihan hall – at that time there were no latihan halls and he was doing latihan at home – he had to go to an empty place, far away from his neighbours. There, Bapak could run as fast as possible; in fact he climbed mountains and did other things. But after doing all that it eventually changed, and his latihan became more and more refined and more and more orderly, until he received the latihan only when it was needed. That is to say, if Bapak needed to receive something only then would he do latihan. That was how it was. Therefore Bapak hopes that you follow and do the latihan as he has described.
Brothers and sisters, Bapak does not say that doing a loud latihan is wrong, nor does he say that it is right. However, we, as human beings, should be able to be aware; we need to learn to make our feelings as perceptive as possible. If we shout very loud in our latihan, our neighbours who know nothing about the latihan are bound to be alarmed. So if we then go on with such a latihan, it is as if we couldn’t care less. It is as if our feelings are like stone; they are not really perceptive and we are oblivious to how people around us are feeling. Whereas in fact, if we – if you – receive the latihan in a state of peace and with patience, your neighbours do not even need to feel alarmed: even if they just think to themselves, ‘What a strange kind of training!’ your latihan will stop.
Such is our receiving in the realm of the soul. It is clear that a soul that has grown wide and has developed, and a feeling that is beginning to be clean, can penetrate the feelings of all the people around it, and even those of people far, far away. So we should be more considerate than normal people.
If we do latihan, and if, as we should, we maintain that, ‘the latihan is from God, not from my own will, so it is a true training, one that is good and right’ – if that is really true, then if the latihan is received in the right way, certainly our feelings must come alive. This means that we can grasp what is going on around us and with our neighbours.
That is it. We ought to be able to demonstrate what our true latihan is like: that it gets deeper and wider with time, that with time we become more sensitive, more alive and more able to perceive what people around us feel about us.
Colombo, Sri Lanka - February 26, 1967
Code Number : 67 CMB 3
The only knowledge that can be had without study, that you do not have to seek through great sacrifice, comes from God. Not from someone else, not from a human being. You should reflect on this as deeply as possible. To be absolutely clear, God is looking after you. And if you do not feel you are being cared for by God, that is a great loss; you will lose a guide and basis for your life that is without measure.
Of course you are not yet able to perceive, you cannot see that, even now, not only does God know that you are here, but there are thousands and thousands of angels among you witnessing this [talk]. You cannot see them. Why not? Because … [inaudible] your vision, your hearing, your sense of smell, your feelings and your thinking are still thickly covered by your desires – the desires of this world that are manipulated and controlled by low forces that are ever present on your left, on your right, behind and in front of you.
Paris, France - April 20, 1967
Code Number : 67 PAR 3
It is also said that angels can change their shape and nature to be whatever they want to be. They can change into any nature, any creature, millions of times. It is told – this is recorded in the Bible and the Quran – that there was once a town where men liked men, they did not like women. God wanted the angels to learn the truth, so God sent an angel to witness and get proof of what was going on in that community. So an angel went there. The angel wanted to know what was really going on and what the people in that community were doing, so the angel transformed into a handsome, well-built and attractive man. It was true. On arriving at the place where that community lived, because the men liked men, as soon as they saw that handsome, well-built man their hearts longed to be with and seduce him. And because that man was an angel, the angel said, ‘Ah, now I know for sure; you do not behave as God wills, you have violated your own nature, so you will go to hell, not to heaven.’
Satanic beings are not supposed to perceive human beings; it is human beings who should perceive satanic beings. A satanic being can only perceive or tempt a human being when that person’s heart worries about the satanic. That is why Bapak tells you never to have doubts, never worry that you are being controlled by satanic forces in the latihan, or that the latihan comes from the satanic realm. If your heart worries about it you will be influenced by the satanic. Your own heart will be the pathway for satanic beings to get inside you.
Skymont, Virginia USA - August 17, 1970
Code Number : 70 SKY 1
Thus, brothers and sisters, as well as worshipping in accordance with the latihan kejiwaan that we receive and whose way we follow, we who are in Subud need to establish some kind of work that can provide us with the means to fulfill our needs in life - that is, establish what are called enterprises of Subud members. That is to say, we should work to carry out enterprises, do something we can use to obtain money and fill our coffers in order to strengthen our brotherhood. We can also put into practice the latihan kejiwaan of Subud as it rightly is; for it is not a passive latihan but a latihan of activity or life. In this way the members will be able to perceive and be aware that we do not only worship God at times we have fixed, as people usually do, but that our worship of God, present in all our deeds and activities, if we really can receive that embodiment of the power of God within our selves which the messengers of God in former times expressed by saying that God is always with man.
Jakarta, Indonesia - August 16, 1971
Code Number : 71 TJK 13
Clearly then, brothers and sisters, you only need now to do the latihan kejiwaan. You need not search and search. That is not necessary. Don't, for instance, ponder 'Why is the latihan kejiwaan like this?' and then seek another practice so as to speed up the training. That is like looking for a second wife when you lack harmony with the first. If you cannot get on with Subud, you will fare worse with another practice.
Well now, why consider the latihan kejiwaan to be like a wife? When you receive the latihan, where is it from?
The latihan kejiwaan means becoming one, coming together as one. Bapak has said you were in existence before your birth in this world. Thus before Adam was brought to the world, he and Eve were one, united. That is a fact. The name Eve did not exist nor the name Adam. There was not even a name; there was just light, the seed of man. Later they were sent down to earth as two separate beings, to unite again and become one, as formerly.
Their union after coming to earth was that of two separate beings, in order that they should be aware of it. Why was that? To ensure that Adam and Eve should have many descendants, that there should be many people to follow them.
After a man is able to feel one with his wife, a child, a third person, then comes into being. Well, this is a true lesson, a lesson brought to life. After that a man can perceive 'I know my wife's feelings. I have the same feelings as my child'.
You who have children may go to a shop intending to buy clothes for yourself. But before you reach the clothing section you see balloons, toy wagons and other children's playthings. If you go straight on to the clothing department, it means you are not yet able to feel the needs of children, cannot feel how they feel. But if you stop where the toy wagons and balloons are being sold, it shows you can feel how a child feels. Sometimes you only reach that point and then return home. 'Well, I wanted to get some clothes, but I bought balloons for the child.'
You thus begin to feel the state of a third being. If you cannot do so with one child, then increase the number of children, up to ten. If a parent is still unable then to feel the children's feelings, it is his own fault.
Washington, DC, USA - May 5, 1972
Code Number : 72 WAS 1
You are already able to know and understand that death is a certainty, something inevitable. You are all sure to die, sure to leave this world. Thus we have no need to fear the subject of death, to which we are actually drawing closer all through our lives. Your life and your death are thus near neighbors. If you can really be aware of this and accept it, then there is no death. What dies is your nafsu. Your jiwa remains alive; alive for ever. Such is the Will of the One Almighty God.
Your nearness to the power of the One Almighty God that envelops your selves both outwardly and inwardly causes your inner feeling to be able to perceive what it is like when the jiwa awakens and what it is like when the nafsu awaken. Thus when eventually the time comes for you to die, your understanding and your consciousness of life will become the consciousness and understanding of the life of your jiwa. So you will not feel strange in your death, because you have already begun beforehand to be trained in the way to understand, the way to be conscious of life with your jiwa.
Baukru, Brazil - May 15, 1972
Code Number : 72 BAU 1
If you are to think about God, and where He is and What He is, you have at the least to be able to see, to understand, to think of everything that He has created. That is the reason why one can therefore only say that God is the One Almighty, All-glorious, All-great, and that He envelops the whole universe. And to find the way that you, as human beings, can come to believe in God, it is enough for those who have received it to look into themselves, to see whether there is within them something that is beyond the ordinary. That is the way, the road by which human beings can come to the power of the One Almighty God. Thus it is enough for people to look into themselves because the whole of themselves has been created and ruled by the will of the One Almighty God. That is indeed the way by which human beings can return to God and can know where and what God is.
Cilandak, Indonesia - November 24, 1973
Code Number : 73 CDK 15
We are creatures with feeling, creatures with intelligence, creatures who can perceive the refined as well as the coarse. We are different from animals. Animals can be glad, they can. Animals can feel pleased, they can. But show their pleasure and joy they cannot. Where is there the animal that can laugh? If there was an animal that could laugh, it would be worth, not a rupiah or two, but maybe millions. It would be put into a zoo. If you are looking for an animal that can laugh, it is man.
So we must not just remain apathetic, we must not be like things. We should feel.
This is how it is, brothers and sisters, so we must not be unintelligent or lacking in insight in either spiritual or worldly matters, nor must we fail to make use of our intelligence and our wisdom and to make use of our feelings and emotions. We must not. We must use them all. And in your case you can already receive the difference between the two states: the state in which your feelings, your intelligence and your awareness of your inner self are being used by the nafsu and the state in which they are being used by the jiwa. This you have already been able to receive, so there is no doubt that you follow the one which is using them. If the nafsu is using them, you are almost entirely immersed in a worldly ambience. But if you are not within that ambience you cannot be used by the nafsu.
Cilandak, Indonesia - December 1, 1974
Code Number : 74 CDK 22
This, now, is something you need to feel. Don't hastily blame God. The one to be blamed is yourself. Try to feel the cause of what happens to you. 'Why am I just unlucky? How does it come about? I sell something and I'm swindled and my capital was borrowed. How does this happen? Money is borrowed, things are bought, then they are sold, but someone cheats me. So it makes no sense to me.' Then the one accused, the one blamed is the Lord God. He is called unjust. It is not that God is unjust. Nobody owns the Lord God. Who can create a man, much less the universe?
In other words, then, brothers and sisters, if you do not make progress in the Latihan, you yourselves are at fault. So keep on with the Latihan.
As in the example just now, plant in yourself good conduct, the best conduct, which both you and your community can perceive to be so.
There is no need to look far afield for these lessons. Just become aware of your self. Look into your own self. Not look to see if there is any lump, that is not what is meant. Probe with the feeling. If you don't want people to abuse you, if you don't want to hear people calling you a scoundrel, for example, then never call them scoundrels. So if somebody calls you a scoundrel when you call that person a scoundrel, that evens things up and is fitting. 'Oh dear, why did I speak like that!': if you look into your self in that way, there will no longer be a lump in your heart. That is the remedy.
Cilandak, Indonesia - March 28, 1976
Code Number : 76 CDK 5
Because God is not of the same kind as the creatures He has made, or God is not of the same kind as mankind. Since God is not of the same kind as mankind, human beings with everything associated with them, all their abilities, all they possess, cannot possibly use them to be able to know what God and His power are like. How much the less can human beings know God when you yourselves do not understand your true identity.
So you will not be able to know, to perceive, what the power of God is like when you are not yet conscious of your own identity. Your own identity, brothers and sisters, covers not only your body but your jiwa. These are accompanied by your mind, your understanding, your imagination. But all these are means to enable you to understand things, and are only adjuncts for taking care of yourselves, for assuring your lives, as long as you live on earth. So they are not for knowing God, where God is and what His power is like.
London, England - June 25, 1977
Code Number : 77 LON 4
Now this is something that you have frequently experienced for yourselves, that when you sit quietly, when you happen to be very quiet, and at a time when you are feeling very peaceful and not influenced by your heart - then at that moment there suddenly awakens in you a kind of vibration or a movement, but a movement which affects your senses rather than your physical body; that is, your smelling, your seeing, your hearing, your speaking or your feeling. It is as though, for example, you suddenly see a light, or a flash of light, or something like a star. But because you are used to being influenced by the heart and mind it is as though you regard this as something very trivial or not worth paying attention to, and you ignore it. You do not suspect that in that is a teaching and a message from the power of God Almighty. As Bapak says, the bodies of God's messengers are made of light and when you are in this state you are able to perceive that - and this is a teaching and an education from God Almighty for you.
Similarly, as many of you will have experienced, this can also affect your other senses. For example, you may hear something that does not originate from your surroundings, or you may smell something which again has nothing to do with what is around you, and you may have a very nice taste in your mouth suddenly - it has nothing to do with what you have eaten. Maybe you think to yourself: 'Oh, I must have eaten something and now I can taste it again', or something. But if you really experience it, if you are attentive, you will see that this taste is nothing like what you eat. What you eat may be nice, may be not nice - but this is something different. This, then, is the fruit, or the effect of this vibration of the power of God which, as Bapak has said, is a life within your life. This is something that can exist within us and cannot be grasped by the heart and mind. It's something that cannot be understood by the heart and mind, but can only be achieved, or can only be felt, by complete surrender to the power of God Almighty.
Yogyakarta, Indonesia - December 23, 1978
Code Number : 78 JOG 2
But brothers and sisters, even though the animal forces, the satanic forces or the material forces which have formed a hindrance to you, while you are carrying out your devotion to God Almighty, without those forces your life on this world doesn’t have a meaning. Why doesn’t it have any meaning? If you are not acquainted with material, if there is no material, your heart and mind will never work. What more is, even though there is material, sometimes your heart and mind doesn’t want to work. Even material can be the cause of a setback ( deterioration ) in your life. This is why up to this second, in this world there are still people who are called by foreigners, a foreign nation that is not yet cultured, they originated from laziness. Thus brothers and sisters, if you want to enter a group, or a religion, go look for a group or religion that really gives attention and feeling to life, whether in this world or in the hereafter. If you only perceive life after death, then, if you walk, it will not be in accordance with God’s Omnipotence.
Thus you are predestinated by God to have enough with you within your inner self. This is to let you live with care and without shortage. So that in fact, brothers and sisters, this world is like a bridge or a road to your safety in this world as well as after you have died.
Cilandak, Indonesia March 4, 1979
Code Number : 79 CDK 6
Brothers and sisters, it is known to medical science, and especially to doctors and chemists, that the being of man, this physical body, if you look in there you can find elements of every kind belonging to this world. You can find iron, you can find gold, you can find silver - you can find all the elements of this world. All these form part of man's physical body. And some of them are there in a form which you can separate out as a material thing; some of them are there in the form of light or color.
Before man can see the color blue, let us say, or the color yellow, in fact before his eyes can see anything, those colors are already within man's own being. And the reason why man can see yellow and blue and green, and so on, is because these colors already exist within his own being. So that before man is able to perceive this world, actually the whole of this world is already within him. And it is this that permits him to experience that which is outside him. So that actually man's being is already put together in such a way that he has everything within him that he needs to relate to the world outside.
When Bapak says this, it is not in the sense that, 'What a fantastic thing that God Almighty can create such a fantastic thing,' because that's not how it is. This is part of nature, that's how it evolved. And it is like that because that is the way this world is put together. It is something that is already natural and has to be like that.
London, England - August 27, 1979
Code Number : 79 LON 2
God has power over the beginning and the end; before Adam existed and after Adam had ceased to exist. Thus there is no more question of what was before and after Adam. That is why it is correct to say that the first and foremost of teachers is the One Almighty God. But how, brothers and sisters, when God does not belong to the human race but is, on the contrary, its Creator how then can we believe in Him, when it is impossible for us to perceive what God is like in the day of His power? It is not possible for us to see God, because we are closed up by our own seeing. We cannot hear God, even though He is walking beside us, before us, behind us. Why is that? It is because we are closed up by our own hearing. We cannot speak with God, because we are closed up by our own mouths. Why are our mouths closed up by falsehood, by saying things that are not true? We must always speak the truth, for lies close us off. That is how human beings are, brothers and sisters, so we must not blame God if we are unable to see or hear Him. No; He can be seen and He can be heard, but the fault in this case is that of the human beings themselves, for they are closed over by the nafsu.
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 28, 1979
Code Number : 79 SIN 1
Before you received the latihan and began to follow the way of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, you still used to get angry quickly when you were criticized, and you also became angry quickly if you did not get things to satisfy your hearts. But after doing the latihan kejiwaan, your anger and bad temper soon abated and became less, so that you were more patient and less bad-tempered than before. So that shows that it is not only your physical body that is affected by the latihan kejiwaan; your inner-feelings also undergo training, so that everything is purified. When all that is able to run properly, then of course you will be able to receive the reason why it is not easy for you to perceive the hidden mysteries. It is because your eyes are still closely covered over by the environment of this world. It is as if from babyhood onward you have always seen all kinds of things. And why can you not hear the voice of the silence, to which people are usually deaf2. Why is it? It is because your hearing is blocked by the environment of this world. This is beginning to be purified by the power of God. That is what is present and that is what is always manifested in the latihan kejiwaan of Subud.
Toyko, Japan - January 1, 1980
Code Number : 80 TYO 1
That is why you feel it is strange the first time that you receive and practice the Latihan Kejiwaan, and you wonder why there is something coming to life in your self, and it is clear that there is a life within your life. As Bapak said just now, it has been decreed that you should have within your selves all the life-forces which are necessary for your lives in this worldly life and also in your life in practicing the worship of the One Almighty God. At that moment Adam understood: 'If that is how it is, oh God, I am ready to be sent down into the world.' So Adam was sent down to earth.
So in fact, brothers and sisters, human beings picture Adam as being completely naked at that moment, with no clothes, which means that he was still pure and unsullied and blank. But the blank simplicity of Adam was not the blankness of having nothing inside him, the blankness of being incomplete in his life. Although he was blank, Adam understood about human life. Although the moment for it had not yet come, Adam could at that time receive and understand about what is now called the nuclear age, the atomic age, the age of flight.
It was like it is for a small child, who already has the ability and the desire to run; the ability to run is already there beforehand. Before a child knows which forms are beautiful and which are ugly, before it can recognize red and black and blue and green and so on, the power to perceive these things is already present in that child, although it is not yet time to experience that, because this is connected with the strength of the inner-self. How, when it cannot yet even walk, can a small child actualize something that it will later on be able to do; that is, to climb? How can a small child sing in tune before it can even speak? All it can manage is 'ae, ae, ae'. That is how human beings are to begin with. But although a child may not yet be able to speak, it can say 'pa-pa'. Bapak does not know what they mean here, but in Indonesian bapak, papah, baba are all words meaning father. These are words, and so it really is true that there is nothing in this world that is foreign to it; everything is there. As I have illustrated, there was one common human language even before human beings were able to speak as they do now. ( Bapak says various words ). That was their language. If you ask Bapak what that language was, well, it was the language people spoke before they understood its meaning, but it was the language of the human beings who would eventually exist here. When I listen to the television here, of course Bapak does not understand Japanese, but of course as a human language it is included in what was said just now.
Wisma Mulia, England - April 14, 1981
Code Number : 81 FOS 1
Of course, from our life here when we live in this world, the realm of death seems very far away, as if something very far distant and very hard to perceive. But that is only from the point of view of the nafsu, because what dies at the boundary of life in this world is only the nafsu and the heart and mind - so, indeed, for the nafsu and the heart and mind death is something mysterious and far off. But for our jiwa there is no boundary, because our jiwa will never die and it will simply continue its life as we have experienced in this world.
So what Bapak hopes, brothers and sisters, is that as you live here, you should really continue with your latihan kejiwaan and remember that the latihan kejiwaan is not something that is limited to when you are doing your latihan half-an-hour twice a week, or something like that, that actually you can do your latihan anywhere, and anytime. You needn't worry if you are no longer able to stand up and do the latihan, you can do the latihan while you are lying in your bed, while you are sitting down, in every activity, in every position, in every moment of your life. All that is needed is that in whatever you do, and wherever you are, you always remember Almighty God; and when you remember Almighty God, when you feel within yourself this 'God, God, God, Allah, Allah, Allah', then at that moment you will experience the life of the jiwa that is a feeling of peace, a feeling of happiness, a feeling of lightness, a feeling of satisfaction and joy which is the symptom or the sign of the closeness of the power of God to our being.
Cilandak, Indonesia - August 30, 1981
Code Number : 81 CDK 6
That, brothers and sisters, is why we are trained in the latihan, so that we can really do amal; not do it because we do it through our own will, but do it through receiving God's love for mankind. We can see with mata in the ordinary way that people see. We can see not with mata, but with paningal, so that our eyes are not closed by our material surroundings. That is why it was said by the prophets and messengers of God that there is only a thin line between life here and the life there in the world after death. Thus while the prophet Muhammad was worshipping God and saying Allahu Akbar, he could already perceive the hereafter. After he had ended his worship and said Assalaum 'alaikum wa rakhmatullahi wa barakatuh, he saw this world again. That is why it is said that in the time of the prophet, Muslims did not fear death, brothers and sisters. Why was that? Death is nothing; it is only the bystanders who mourn. The one who is dying, who is experiencing the death, feels it as something natural. He does not care if the bystanders cry. He just dies.
Bogor, Indonesia - February 27, 1982
Code Number : 82 BGZ 1
Truly it is an immeasurably great blessing that Almighty God has given His Grace to mankind, first of all to the people of Java, Indonesia. What you practice, what you receive is what is been prayed for or sought by mankind from the beginning until now. This is the content of the worship by man of Almighty God, which is called in Javanese “puji tan kenaning pedot” or the “Salat da’im” ( the continuous prayer ) which is at one with our breath, our heart beat, our pulse. This is what is sought for.
Now to get close to this people use a tasbih or Rosary. This tasbih is a means of counting which we do in time with our heart beat. But with the latihan kejiwaan it is much more than this. We can worship Almighty God Who cannot be counted, so that our worship becomes one with our seeing, one with our hearing, with our sense of smell, with our feelings. It even becomes one with our thinking. Where's the counting in this? There is none. Therefore if this can be practiced by you, my children, even 10 percent of it, this is an incredible gift which is been given to mankind. So you can be called people who believe, and who are devout and opened.
We become accustomed to show ourselves, so don't have a feeling of shyness, eweh-pakewuh in Javanese. In the latihan kejiwaan we are taught to become people who have courage. This latihan kejiwaan is like facing death. But this death is not difficult at all. The one who sees someone dead is the one who feels sad. For the one was going it doesn't matter. He passes on. Dead men seldom comeback. Even though a few comeback is no use.
Perth, Australia - April 25, 1982
Code Number : 82 PER 2
Clearly, in our worship of God through the latihan kejiwaan of Subud, things are made easy for us. That in fact is the way God works. Almighty God makes it easy for man to worship Him, without his having to force himself into isolation in lonely or dangerous places. One simply carries on in the normal way, in one's own home, in the company of one's wife and children. Clearly then, brothers and sisters, it is God's Will for mankind that people should be able to worship God in the easiest possible way, in a way that is completely normal for human beings. As far as Bapak can understand, this is happening now for the first time, in Bapak's lifetime. Bapak himself may not fully understand why God has only now chosen to vouchsafe this grace to mankind so that they may worship God in the simplest possible way. Nevertheless, brothers and sisters, you must all be vigilant. Something that is very easy, something people take to very easily because they can practise it with so little effort, is full of danger. For example, if you study a useful subject that is of great benefit to you, it is often perceived as being fraught with difficulties, and you may consider the difficulty as a nuisance, an obstacle for you. But the study of that which is harmful is very easy and you also have a feeling of enthusiasm in pursuing it. So clearly, the study of that which is good does not immediately awaken enthusiasm in man, unlike that which is not good.
Anugraha, England August 8, 1983
Code Number : 83 LON 4
The latihan kejiwaan looks like children playing games, and indeed some people say that this cannot be spiritual knowledge for spiritual knowledge is something to be spoken in a whisper, so that no-one else can hear. That kind of spiritual knowledge is called occultism and those who practice it become demons when they die, unlike us. If you can perceive it truly, this latihan kejiwaan is no different from that which was received by the prophets, by Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
Cilandak, Indonesia - April 8, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 1
Although man claims to have attained an extraordinary intelligence, being able nowadays to make things which previously were unimaginable, which people living in earlier clays would have considered beyond the bounds of possibility, yet we must not perceive this development and progress of man's thinking as an intelligence which we have created ourselves. It is dear, brothers and sisters, that it is a proof of God's profound and great love for mankind and for all His creatures.
Wisma Subud, - Cilandak, Indonesia - June 27, 1984
Code Number : 84 CDK 7a
Brothers and sisters, what is clear in Subud is that you may not look for the content or the meaning of what you receive because what you receive is not intentional, it is spontaneous. It is something that develops by itself. It is alive. For example, suppose you are a mathematician. The way the latihan works is that, as you pursue and study your mathematics, the secrets of what you are studying open up spontaneously. Such is the working of the latihan kejiwaan. It is not your effort in looking for the content of the kejiwaan but the spontaneous working of the kejiwaan, that opens up doors for you in what you are trying to do.
This is not limited to mathematics. If God's grace opens up your voice, everyone will be astonished with the beauty with which you can sing. If it manifests through the skill of painting, your skill as a painter will truly astonish everyone. An example of this is Rembrandt. Rembrandt's skill was not something that originated from this study, the working of his heart and mind. Something else was added to it. The working of God's grace, like what you have received in the latihan, is always characterized by the fact that it cannot be imitated. It is impossible for someone to imitate Rembrandt and paint like him. It is something special. The only thing people can do is point to him and say, "That is a man who has really received a special skill, or grace, in painting." But you can't do anything more than that. You can just say, "There he is. He has received it." But there is no way of saying, "This is how you do it. This is the secret."
Another example of that was Raden Saleh in Indonesia who was also a great painter. His paintings astonished people. His ability to see the way a person moved, the way a person looked to right or left, the way he walked: all that was accurately reflected in his paintings, but people couldn't understand how it was done. Yet he was not someone who studied very long or who went to some famous art school. Not at all. It was a special gift. This is also like the fruit of the latihan kejiwaan.
Brothers and sisters, yet another example is Charlie Chaplin. Again, everybody wants to watch Charlie Chaplin even though his performances were given in the era of silent movies. You can't even hear him, and yet the moment he starts moving, he is funny. Again that is something that you cannot imitate. It is a gift. Such is supposed to be the result of the latihan kejiwaan.
Brothers and sisters, that is why Bapak is a little bit disappointed because he waits for you to receive this kind of thing. But so far it is not so many people, not so many Subud members yet who show an evidence of this.
If you want more evidence, another example, it is something that is reflected in Bapak's own life, in Bapak's own development. When Bapak was very young it was prophesied or said by older people close to Bapak who has the skill of divining a person's nature, that Bapak would one day be a great man. Bapak's grandmother, who heard this prophecy or this perception, was very surprised because, for her, to become a great man in those days in Java meant that he would one day become bupati or a regional administrator or something.
Bapak's early development didn't at all reflect such a perception. For example, Bapak wasn't able to have a good education. In Semarang at that time there was only one good school and many, many people wanted to enter it so it was extremely difficult to get in. So Bapak didn't even experience what we call today a lower high school. Bapak never got that far. So one would say that Bapak's chances of becoming a great man were very limited.
But this is the whole point. That is not God's way. God made his own decision. God had his own plan for Bapak. Bapak was actually able to learn and study, not through going to high school and university, but through a great desire to learn. Bapak had an extraordinary desire to learn and to study. So he studied by himself and learned as he went along. Thereby, through his own efforts he came to be in what was known in those days as the "middle class". He was able to earn a good living, he was able to get a job in the government and so on. But once again, this was not the final result that God intended for Bapak. Again, everything that happened was beyond Bapak's own plan or intention.
Amen. Bapak Muhammad-Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo