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…
ABOUT MARRIAGE
Extract from Talk # 3 From “Bapak’s Talks Volume 20”, The Complete Recorded Talks Of Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo
Code Number : 68 TJK 2 For Subud Members Only
As Bapak has told you many times before, all of you share the same physical nature: you are people, you are human beings, with the same physical characteristics – men are like men, and women are like women. In other words, you are no different from each other. The only difference is your skin colour: white, yellow, black, golden brown, red – if there is such a thing, but no one has red skin. That is the only difference. But in reality you are all different from each other. What makes you different? Your content. Each of you has a different content. That is what makes human beings higher than any other of God’s creatures. And because their status is higher, people – human beings – contain many secrets
That is not the case with animals, it is not the case with plants, and it is not the case with matter. Whether an animal is called a dog, called a cow or called a cat, makes a difference – it defines its shape and nature. But why is that not so for people? We have different names, but someone’s name is just a label, used so that we do not confuse one person with another. If we did not have names we would not know what to call each other.
But in reality, each of us is different. And sometimes [our differences] are completely hidden; meaning, they are too well camouflaged to see. For example, suppose there are two women – or it could be two men – one is a great beauty, the other is not, she is ugly. That is how they look. Well, most [people] would say that the beautiful woman is certain to have a beautiful content, whereas the ugly one is sure to have a bad content. That is not certain. People who are experienced in the spiritual are able to understand and know this.