SPEAKING ABOUT THE EARTH… from a talk by Bapak
Since Subud Voice is now once again available in full to the general public, we no longer publish talks by Bapak or Ibu Rahayu in their entirety, because it is felt that, generally speaking, these are really only comprehensible and of value to people who already practise the latihan.
Bapak always insisted that his talks are “explanations” for people who already follow the latihan. One of his oft-repeated maxims was, “First the experience, then the explanation!”
He compared the latihan to eating a mango. There is no way you can “explain” the taste of a mango to someone who has not tasted one. First, you must experience it for yourself, then you can talk about it.
At the same time, brief quotations from Bapak, the founder of Subud, and his daugther, Ibu Rahayu, are often comprehensible to anyone, and may contain wisdom or advice that is akin to what is said in religion or other spiritual traditions.
So what we will do in Subud Voice from now on is generally suggest a talk which relates in some way to the contents of the issue and include a brief quotation of general interest. Subud members may then go to the www.subudlibrary.net web site to read the talk in its entirety… or click ‘Read More’ for an extract…
Bapak is speaking about the earth
Talk on Aug 16th 1964 Wolfsburg 64 WOB2
Viewed from the realm of the soul … well, Bapak says ‘viewed from the realm of the soul’, but for all of you this is just a story. Just listen to it, you do not need to think deeply about it; and do not ask for proof, because the proof is in the realm of the soul, and as yet you are not able to discover it in your latihan. Bapak is speaking about the earth, which has existed for millions of years: not one thousand or two thousand, not twenty-five thousand or fifty thousand; whereas the stories of human beings that have come down to us, that we can think about, that have been written down from the signs left behind, span at most twenty-five or fifty thousand years. So it is clear that all sorts of things must have taken place on the earth before that time.
And seen from the realm of the soul, it has happened – not just once or twice but over and over again – that the earth was inhabited by human beings who are not spoken about in our histories, only in the history of the soul. During that earlier time it happened repeatedly on this earth that there were human beings whose knowledge surpassed the knowledge of people today.
The same applies to the earth itself: the earth is always experiencing changes. Well, it did not happen yesterday or the day before yesterday, but a few hundred thousand years ago. About half a million years ago there was no dry land in Europe and Asia. All you could see was ocean. The dry land was then all to the south. Then a change came, with the result that now there is Europe, Asia and America; and there is you.
You have probably never guessed this, and are asking yourself, ‘Is it true that such changes occur on the earth?’ Indeed, the human thinking mind would not imagine this, but with the soul, as Bapak just said, you can receive something that is beyond human capability. And whose capability are we using? It is the capability of the Almighty: the Almighty can inform you when your state is beyond the human.
And you certainly wouldn’t imagine that what are now called the south and north poles were once east and west, west and east. Here too, if you ask Bapak for proof, he cannot give you any, unless you are able to receive it for yourself. It is God who can give you this knowledge, not human beings, since it is beyond human ability.
Bapak does not know whether any of you have been able to receive something like this, but there are members who have been able to receive a little. This makes Bapak glad because it confirms the truth of what he has received. Even though he has faith in God, if nobody else could confirm what he has received, it would worry him. He would ask himself, ‘Why can’t anyone else corroborate these things?’