Necessarily, since this is his real condition, man cannot with his heart and mind understand or reflect on the Nature and Power of God. This is why, whenever people try to find a way that may lead to contact with the Great Life, many are stranded on the path or, if not, are impelled -- not having a conscious soul [jiwa] to stray in other directions, directions which in reality are mirages of the imagination, heart and mind.

So man, in seeking the nature of worship that can make contact with the Great Life, needs above all to stop the welling up of his imagination and thinking. For by doing that he really paralyses his nafsu [passions] and surrenders his human ability and wisdom; that is to say, the human being obeys and submits with complete sincerity to God who rules within him.

This in fact is nothing new, for men of old followed this path and found a contact of this quality that they could feel within them. Why, then,are there not many people like that in our own time who still have that contact? The reason is simply that conditions on earth for mankind keep changing as generation succeeds generation, and many people are easily affected by the influence of these ever-changing conditions that face them.Especially has this been so as the human mind has progressively developed its science. This has, as it were, increasingly opened the way for the inner feeling to fall from the realm of inner peace into the realm of thought. In consequence, the human self gradually comes to be ruled more and more by thought, instead of by the quietness of the inner feeling or the inner self, so that in the end man's emotions and brain are always busy and his inner feeling has almost no opportunity to be at peace.

Certainly men must think, for thought is an important tool with which they can strive to fulfil the needs of their life on earth and so make their existence here an orderly one. But to become aware of the spiritual life [kejiwaan] and make contact again with the Great Life men do not need to use their minds. On the contrary, they should stop the process of their thinking and imagining. For only by so doing can a person receive something from beyond his reach that at length attracts a vibration of energy felt within the self. Clearly, then, the sole way to make contact with the Great Life, or with the Power of God, is for a man to surrender sincerely and earnestly. And this surrender must not be in word only, but must penetrate throughout his inner feeling until he truly feels that he believes in, praises and worships no one but God Almighty.

When he can really do this, at that moment he will also feel powerless, but with no sense of loss, and still conscious.

That is to say, he will feel powerless because at that moment the strength of his nafsu, heart and mind will have gone from him; and he will still feel complete because his inner feeling will then be filled with something that comes from the Great Life; finally, he will feel conscious because of the revival of his human soul [jiwa].

So it is, if a man can do this in the right way. But when, in his efforts to do this, he keeps using thought because he regards it as a means or tool able to overcome everything, then he can hardly hope that it will be possible to make contact with the Great Life.

This truth was often stated by those who received while living on earth in centuries long past. They said that man's one and only way to be able to draw near to the Power of God is that he must be willing to quieten his inner feeling with complete patience, trust and sincerity.

This has been an absolute requirement, for in truth this gift from God can only be received by those who have inner feelings filled with surrender, patience, trust and sincerity before the Greatness of God.

Such are Bapak's words to all who may wish to read this book. The explanations in the pages which follow show the way of the spiritual life that is found in receiving the latihan.