Attributes of God (continued)

Los Angeles - 2 April 1958

The attributes of God - that is, the One God - who has created mankind along with everything else, all other creatures, both seen and unseen - the nature of God and His power are that God exists through Himself, meaning: God exists and was brought into being by Himself, and God precedes the first of everything and God goes before everything that is before, and comes after everything that is after. God is within everything that is within and outside everything that is outside.

So where is God? However far man may look, God is always behind man's looking. God is also present within man's wanting to know something; God goes before, within man's heart. God is constant. Constant means that God exists and never changes, never decays, never dies. God's state is timeless, is not enveloped by time as are human beings, so that in God's state there is no limit. God has no colour, shape, but exists. Also, God is neither male nor female. God rules but cannot be ruled, influences but cannot be influenced. God can act - meaning that God can work outside the conditions that apply to man and his physical members. God is really very different from the natures He has created, including mankind. God gives - a way for all things created by Him, a way that can become a bridge or a support - so that all these natures that make up His Creation can come back to the One God.

These, in brief, are the attributes of the One God, which should be known and understood by all of you, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, the attributes of the creatures that have been created by God are each different. Take, for example, mankind. Man can think with his brain, can face something with his heart, can be aware of something with his feeling. In short, in his acting and working, man cannot be free of the tools or parts that he possesses within him. And the creatures that have been created by God, for example human beings, are subject to illness, death, and decay and change and cannot be constant.

But in spite of this, the creatures created by God, especially mankind, have been given something by Him, which, as Bapak said just now, is a support, an unseen tool; this is essentially a guide to the working and the use of the various parts of himself to fulfil the purposes of life in this world, and for life after death.

That is the difference between the creatures that God has created, and the power of God, which has created us. As Bapak said just now, God gives us not only something that we can put into practice to know our life after death, but God also gives us accessories, tools - our complete condition, from our head to our feet, and from our feet to our head. So it is clear that within us human beings two paths or worlds accompany us: one that we can follow to know our true nature, our life after death, and the other that we can pursue in order to perfect our life, fulfil the needs of our life in this world during our time here. So we human beings have to put to work everything that is within us, so that we may live in this world in a way that is organised and complete, and humanitarian, and may not go against or deviate from God's decree for us, which we have received within ourselves as human beings.

So it is clearly not the will of God that we do not use our brain, heart and feelings. Clearly God wills that humans together with these coarse, visible accessories of ours, should make use of them to fulfil the needs of our life in this world. That is the way it is. And because of this, it is advised in religions that mankind should not abandon his life as a social being in this world - for example, having a family, living in society, looking after affairs of state, household and other affairs. So, ladies and gentlemen, do not misunderstand and think that you should carry out your worship of God by going far from society, and giving up all the needs of your life in this world - for example, going to a mountain or an isolated place, and wearing no clothes, and so on.

Why? Because as Bapak said just now, the power of God has no direction, has no location, no country or nationality, so that God's power encompasses everything that He has created; it is not only in a mountain, on a mountainside or in an isolated place. Even when you are at home with your family, God always envelops you with his power. Such being the situation, it is necessary that man knows and can find the tool, the accessory that was given to man at the time he was brought to life and was created on this earth.

And this tool, as Bapak has just said, is none other than the tool that can be used by man so that he can know life after death. And this can only be obtained, can only be found, if man can be aware of his inner feeling, can quieten his inner feeling and can stop his thinking and desires. Clearly, such a tool can only be received if man can quieten his inner feeling, pacify his emotions and stop his thinking and wanting. And you received this, ladies and gentlemen, at the time you were opened by Bapak.

And what is the reason that all of you only receive this now for the first time with Bapak and Ibu? Its because all of you, ladies and gentlemen, from a very young age until adulthood, have always been influenced by the depth and the breadth of your mind. In fact the breadth and depth of your mind blocks and closes the awakening of the human soul [jiwa], which wants to awaken from your inner self. Just now Bapak said that it is the awakening or coming back to life of man's accessory, that can serve as a signpost for man to follow to the true way and to God. This will happen provided that man can become aware of his emotions, quieten his thinking and stop his desires and, second, that he gets close to someone who has already received permission from God to become a channel for others. And what has already been received and been given by God to all of you, ladies and gentlemen and which Bapak has witnessed, is the beginning of the awakening and coming back to life of the human soul, which up to now has been closed up and blocked by your desires and thinking mind.

Certainly, although the human soul has already come alive or has already been awakened by the power of God that is within you, ladies and gentlemen, nevertheless the situation feels like something new for the soul, so that it regards it and experiences it as something still strange or foreign. It does not feel strange to your minds or awareness, ladies and gentlemen, but to your human soul - so that in receiving it, you are not yet able to see what is right and wrong, or what actually is the true situation.

Bapak can illustrate it like this. The inner nature of all of you, ladies and gentlemen, is like a house that, from the moment it exists until the end or until today, has been organised and operated by people who are not the owners, not the master or lady of the house, but by the servants, for example the gardener, the cook, the butler, the washerwoman, the house painter and the other servants. The people that Bapak gives in this example are within man - in other words these are the lower forces below the force of human being: the material force, the plant force, the animal force and the human force. For, as long as the human soul has not woken up or has not yet regained its true place, it is these forces, or servants of the house, who do the work, who organise the contents of the household. So it is certain that a household that has been organised by people who are not the master and mistress of the house will be chaotic, to the extent that the contents of the house will be misused and misplaced. That is just an example.

So it is not unusual that somebody who has attained a high level of education, and has received good advice from people can still unexpectedly behave in a way that deviates from what is right. A situation or happening such as that is no different from when the human self is used by the lower forces below the true human force, or from when the equipment in a house is used by the household servants. That is the loss to the inner self of a human being - or to people such as yourselves, ladies and gentlemen - when the self is used by the forces below your true force.

Before you experienced the real situation after being opened, certainly none of you could possibly know or understand that the actions you performed seven days a week were not from the soul [jiwa] itself, because the real explanation, or true guidance, was as yet unknown or was not born within the inner self. So, with the birth or awakening of your human soul, ladies and gentlemen, you will later be able to recognise and correct the mistakes that you have already made, with the result that you will be able to correct the wrong situation so that it becomes right and in accordance with God's Will. So, by means of what you have all received, you will gradually be able to understand and feel more and more, and finally you will be able to verify what Bapak has said.

Certainly the human soul, which has already awakened, already come to life, as Bapak said just now, should actually occupy its rightful position in the inner self of all of you, ladies and gentlemen. But of course, because it is a latecomer and has only just arrived, first, it feels strange: and second, its way of working cannot be as smooth as that of the desires and the mind. How ever as long as you feel patient and trusting, and diligent in receiving this training [latihan], you will automatically be able to receive smoothly the working of the human soul that is within you.

And it will be able to work smoothly, not because you wish it so, not because it is strengthened by your desire, but the very opposite; in other words you should all feel patient and surrender to the will and power of God, because as Bapak said just now, God knows better than all of you the strength within each one of you. So God gives, and the human soul awakens, in accordance with the strength and capacity that is within the self of each one of you, ladies and gentlemen. And it will work by itself, automatically, not because of your wish, not because of your desire and not because of your intention. Also the manner of working cannot be the same between one person and another, because the measure of each person, the capacity of each person, is different. Nevertheless, it will not clash with what is within each of you. So, for example, women receive as women, and men receive as men. In some way, A will differ from B in receiving what is given in the [latihan].

This explanation of Bapak's concerning the spiritual path is a continuation of explanations that Bapak has given previously. Bapak will take up the thread again if Bapak returns here to Los Angeles. Because much more information is required on this subject if you have some understanding of the spiritual way that is practiced in this worship of ours. And it needs to be accompanied to some extent by testing with all of you who have received.