Miscellaneous note 39 ・ Notes on nafsu @ Talk translation team

Here is a comment on nafsu by the translation team in Bapak's talk on August 16, 1970 in Canada.
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Notes
Nafsu: Since the beginning of translating Bapak's talks into English, finding the best translation for the word nafsu - has been challenging.

The words passionsns, ego, and most commonly desires have been used, but even when these work in context in the English, they do not fully convey the meaning Bapak ascribes to the word and they do not necessarily translate with accuracy into other languages.

In Bahasa Indonesian the word nafsu translates literally as lust or passion, which is far narrower in meaning than that given to the word by Bapak.

The Arabic - nafs - is closer, which in Islam is usually considered to relate to the psyche, self, or ego, and indeed Bapak often uses the Arabic words ammarah, lawwamah, supiyah and mutmainna to name the four nafsu when he is describing their attributes.
(Quoted Note: Although it is said to be Arabic, nafs is a word that appears in the Koran.)

But it is clear from listening to Bapak's descriptions that even these traditional meanings do not encompass Bapak's understanding of what the nafsu are.

As with some other terms, Bapak's use of the word nafsu was uniquely his own.

Therefore, following discussions between the translation team and Ibu Rahayu, it has been agreed that the best course is to revert to using Bapak's own word.

This has been implemented from Volume 32 onwards.
(Quoted Note: Quotations from Bapak's talk continue below.)

"Then something happened that could be called miraculous - miraculous does not mean it is strange; it means something beyond the grasp of the mind, beyond human comprehension - it was God's will.

As a result, a movement was generated in that state of silence and stillness, a movement that, in the language of those who have received the miraculous from Almighty God, is called khatir ilham [Arab.: the vibration of revelation].

That was the first time.

People could tell this story because later they received it from Almighty God.

That was the first time there was an awakening, a movement in that state of unspeakable size and breadth.

Then, from that movement, from the khatir ilham - that vibration - the state of nothingness separated into the coarse, the fine, the finer and the finer still.

Scientists have discovered those elements and call them: earth, water, air and fire.

Those four components - four elements - when they manifest in a human being and give us the drive to work, the drive to move, are called the nafsu.

There are four categories of nafsu: ammara, lawwama, supiyah, mutmainnah.

Once those four elements existed, they moved and rubbed against each other until they produced something alive, which was made from and composed of those four components.

So, life, anything that moves, is moved by those four elements - earth, water, air and fire."
Bapak, Purworejo, 1970. 70 PUR 1

"So, here inside you there are two vibrations.

There is the original vibration, which you feel when you quieten the nafsu.

But there is another vibration, which comes from the nafsu.

These vibrations are also known as the vibration of revelation and the vibration of temptation."
Bapak, Cilandak, 1968. 68 TJK 4

"The content of the nafsu is the wish to be capable, the wish to be good, the wish to receive more quickly, the wish to be cleverer than others, not wanting to give in, not wanting to be called stupid, and so on.

It longs for speedy receiving and to be close to God.

It also leads the feelings to imagine that one has already found God, met God, spoken with God, and become God's beloved, and so on."
Bapak, Paris 1959. 59 PAR 3

"So it is clear that God's guidance and direction, which have manifested in the latihan, will in time enable you to manage your being.

But what do you have in you that needs to be managed?

There are life forces inside you - the material life force, the life force of plants, the life force of animals, the physical human life force and the ruhani life force, and others higher still.

Having life forces inside you does not mean, in the case of the animal force, that you have a buffalo inside you, no.

If you had a buffalo inside you, how could you contain it?
No, it is the essence.
Essence means life essence.

When the life essences of the different forces ? matter or what is termed the satanic, plants, animals, people ?
are inside you, they give rise to what we call the nafsu ...

These are essential for your life in this world."
Bapak, Cilandak, 1970. 70 TJK 4

"Human beings possess these four nafsu in order to strengthen their will and their wish to work and to do the things they intend.

It is thus clear that these four nafsu, both the strong and the good, are very useful to human beings, because without them people's strength and will would be weak.

The nature of the nafsu in human beings is that of tools or instruments to be used as necessary.

But because of the faults in human beings, acquired during childhood and on into adulthood and old age, they always give precedence to the wishes that want to be or to have more than others, or which desire personal power.

So, of the four nafsu, the ones people use most are the strong nafsu, the nafsu ammara, the nafsu that very much wants to be more than others.

Whereas what Bapak just now called the good nafsu - the one that surrenders, accepts, is willing to give way to others - is very seldom used by human beings.

They are not really to blame for this situation, for the nature of people on this earth is really weak."
(Quoted Note: However, there is no such thing as human beings are not responsible for it or whether they are exempted from duty, of course.)
Bapak, Coombe Springs, 1957. 57 CSP 4

"Whenever we receive the latihan, whenever our inner feeling is touched by the contact from the power of God, the influence of the nafsu that nestle in our heart and mind ceases.

Whereas normally, stopping the influence of the nafsu in the heart and mind is something
that a human being cannot possibly do.
Why is it not possible?

It is because if a person no longer had nafsu in their heart and mind, that person would be dead - they would be powerless."
Bapak, Cilandak, 1970. 70 TJK 4

"Why do the nafsu you have within you, which are in all human beings, have such a strong influence?

The reason is that those nafsu are the content, the essences of life forces that participate in a human being's life.

The first comes from the material life force or matter - the essence of the life force of matter.
When that becomes active and starts working in a human being, it manifests as a nafsu that is called ammara.

The second one is the life force of plants.
When the life force of plants, which is a participant in a human being's life, starts working inside a person, it manifests as a nafsu called lawwama.

And from the life force of animals, once the animal life force functions in a human being, that essence manifests as a nafsu called supiyah.

Now for the fourth life force, the physical human life force: this is the life force of people, of human beings.
Once this life force works in a human being, it manifests as a nafsu called mutmainnah.

Could human beings survive in this world without these nafsu?
It is not possible.

That is why they cannot eliminate the nafsu from themselves; it cannot be done."
Bapak, Leicester 1970. 70 LCT 1

(Quoted Note: The following is a comment to word called hati by the translation team in Bapak's talk in Paris in November 11, 1959.)
"Heart: the word hati, which is usually translated as heart, is the feeling that is limited to our mortal nature.

Literally, hati means the liver - and is considered to be the seat of the feelings, emotions and desires.
heart is not a perfect fit however, for in Bapak's usage it is also the place where imagining and daydreaming take place.

Therefore in some places the word imagination has been considered to be a more appropriate translation.

The content of the human heart is the images of all that a person has experienced from childhood, throughout their life and into old age."
Bapak, Paris 1959. [Vol. 6, 59 PAR 3.]
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After the death of Bapak, when the translation team who was progressing the official translation of Bapak's talk (Indonesian ーー＞ English) sequentially started "Talk of Bapak in Canada on August 16, 1970", It is a record that the translation word of Nafsu became a problem and consulted with Ibu Rahayu.

In that way, we can see that the translation team's official view on the correspondence of the four low-order forces and nafsus, and the content that Ibu Rahayu is tolerating is finally as follows.

Material life force ーー＞ Nafsu amara
Plant life force ーー＞ Nafsu lawwama (aka: Nafsu aluamah)
Animal life force ーー＞ Nafsu supiyah
Human life force ーー＞ Nafsu mutmainnah

In connection with this, for articles that understand how Bapak is the most reasonable to associate nafsu with material life force and plant life force for the correspondence relationship of four low-order forces and nafsu, See below.
Susila Budhi Dharma ・ Chapter 2 nafsu Amarah (anger) and nafsu Aluamah (greed)＜－－link

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Susila Budhi Dharma/・Chapter ５ Internal characteristics of man and four kinds of land (no.2)//

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So, why are they out of balance today?

To begin with, in Prophet Adam's time, or when there were just a few people around, the differences between human beings were not so glaring.

Why was that?

The reason was that the first human beings were made by God.

The first people were made by God, but thereafter people were granted free will.

At first it was by God's will, then it was by our will.

[God said], now, human beings, I give you permission and I give you the power to reproduce, to create something like you; you can have children.?

So, after human beings started to be made by human beings , even though we do not make people in the same way we make other things, we still say, that's my child; I did it.

After God's power to create passed to humankind, and people could make other people by having children, that is when it started.

For God is not like human beings and human beings are not like God.

When God made human beings God had no worldly self-interest, so made them correctly, in balance.

But after humankind took over it was different.

Could human beings do it that way?

They had no idea that people should be made like that, they had no idea they were at fault; they did not understand.

They just knew that they had to have children.

That is the root of the problem, because in truth a human embryo encapsulates the understanding and quality of its parents.

That's it.

Well, it's because it is normal for people, a man and a woman, to marry only out of love, only out of attraction based on allure or beauty.

What else causes attraction?

Money or wealth.

What else causes attraction?

Power or intelligence.

People do not marry because they are soul mates.

People who are true soul mates do not worry about beauty or other factors.

Instead, they are one soul.

So what Bapak is explaining to you concerns marriage.

Now, let's look at the child.

A child is made by the parents; we can say he or she is made by both parents.

But before making a child, of course, this is due to the influence of this world, the parents may have taken pleasure in punching people, or in criticising people, or in boasting, or being selfish or egotistic.

There are also parents who helped others, who were hospitable and well-behaved.

That is what creates the foundation.

If a man of good character gets married, if he takes a wife and God blesses that man with a child, the child will have a core made up of the four soil types; in all likelihood they will be in reasonable balance.

There will be fertile soil, clay, stony soil and sand. (Note 1)

The reason for that is because if you contained only fertile soil you could not survive in this world.

If your nature was too generous, and you always gave in to other people, how could you live in this world?

You could not.

Even though you give, you should also receive, you should receive and you should give.

If you help others, you too should accept help.

In other words there is mutual co-operation.

But it is rare to find someone like this.

It is very rare.

There are very few people with a truly good character.

This is why it is so important for all of you, as you receive and follow the latihan, to increase or deepen the level of your submission to God.

Almighty God is the original creator of human beings and can restore balance inside someone.

Therefore, if you surrender to God, to the All-knowing, the All-enveloping and the All-powerful, then God will be able to sort this out.

In truth, brothers and sisters, the nature of soil has a profound influence on human life.

This is a sign or proof that one's being really is like soil, because we are in fact made out of earth, as Bapak said.
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Even human beings can convert sandy soil into fertile soil by piling on fertiliser or lots of manure; or by bringing in good soil and layering it on top of the sand until the soil is fertile.

Just look at Kuwait.

In Kuwait the soil is sand and well, Bapak is not saying that Arabs are like this, no, but what can I say ? [Bapak smiles.]

However, people can make efforts.

So they brought in good-quality soil.

They piled it on the sand.

Now Kuwait has fertile soil.

They can plant all kinds of plants, which flourish and bear fruit, and which can be consumed by people, by society.

If human beings can do this, then God certainly can.

Therefore, if you are able to leave this to God by having an attitude of patience, acceptance and a willingness to let go, because actually it is hard to be accepting, and it is also hard to be patient; and to be willing to let go, that is very hard, God will do the work.

And God is an extraordinary Contractor.

God can take on the job of making bad soil good.

For God has enormous bulldozers; God can work extremely fast.

Even so, it is a slow process.

I offer the example of your own situation.

We can say that all of you who receive the latihan are being led, you are being educated, your soil, so to speak, is being worked on , by the power of God.

And yet it will take a long time.

As Bapak said, or as people have asked, Why is that?

What are we doing wrong ? [inaudible]?

We behave well, we get along, so why aren't we making progress?

That is it.

In fact you are not doing anything wrong.

Your slow progress is a consequence of your natures.

Even though God is working inside you, it will take a long time.

Why?

The problem is not just the imbalance of soil types in your inner feeling, but also the topography ? the topography of your inner feeling, the lay of the land inside.

Bapak will illustrate: suppose this is soil, the soil lies like this [gestures].

It is like this, this, this and that.

But once your soil has been levelled it will be a different matter.

Then it is certain that your content and inner feeling will bring about a change in your outer life.

[People] will be delighted to see you, they will want to spend time with you and they will want to know why you are like that, and about other things too.

This is why Bapak says that, let's say you are soil, the prerequisite for you to become fertile soil - for your life force to be human, your passion to be mutmainnah,

and your light to be white - is that you have to be patient, accepting, willing to let go and to leave this to Almighty God.
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Note 1
"Now, let's look at the child.
A child is made by the parents; we can say he or she is made by both parents. "

Bapak uses the expression as above in this case.

However, this is a stance in the case of looking at the birth of a child with parents' eyes.

For children born on the other hand, they had choosed parents who were in line with your Jiwa's situation or level.

Children's Jiwa were attracted to parents' sexual union whose level were matching children's level is Bapak's explanation when "When a children were born, how the children's Jiwa were into in fertilized eggs" .

So, if a child born is "having good soil" it will require the premise that the child's level was originally such.

If we say it in another, it means that the child's karma, the child's personal Jiwa level has already been "good" in the past life before this life.

And for the birth of that child this time it means "Good parents' sexual union was necessary."

Please refer to "Human seed" for details about this area. ＜－－ Link (Sorry. Under construction.)
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Susila Budhi Dharma is a series of psalms received at Yogyakarta in 1952.

And the talk quoted here is at Peru in 1968 April 4th.

There is a change due to what has been 16 years since receiving Susila Budhi Dharma.

According to Susila Budhi Dharma Japanese translation 1987 edition, the part which deals with this theme is P 145 ～ P 158.

We say it in each chapter , it will be as follows.

Chapter11, ASMARANDANA 36 to 50
Chapter12, PANGKUR 1 to 30
Chapter13, DHANDHANGGULA 1 to 5

There are two types of nafsu appearing in roughly divided areas.

One is nafsu represented by fire and wind, it is thought to be amarah and aluamah (lawwama) in anger and greedy nafsu.

Next is nafsu represented by water and earth, patience and acceptance nafsu mutmainnah.

So in Susila Budhi Dharma nafsu called supiah has not appeared.

Then, the nature of the four kinds of land is explained by these two types of nafsu.

(One type is nafsu amarah and aluamah (lawwama) ,and the other type is nafsu mutmainnah.)

1, fertile land (golden land): A = B : Balanced between A and B nafsu.

2, clay-based land: A> B

3, Padas, hard-to-plow land (stone and rocky wasteland): A >> B

4, Lands made of sand and dust <- only for anger and greedy nafsu : A >>> B

However
A: amarah and lawwama (aluamah)
B: mutmainnah

As the number goes up, the balance between nafsu collapses, the proportion of nafsu represented by fire and wind increases, occupied by anger and greedy nafsu increases.

Next, on April 4, 1968, in the Peru talk, nafsu supiah is made to appear, and we correspond four nafsu and four kinds of land one by one.

1, fertile land: mutmainnah, its light is white, human force corresponds.

2, clay-based land: supiah, its light yellow, animal force corresponds.

3, Land of the stone: amarah, its light is red, plant force corresponds.

4, land of sand: lawwama (aluamah), its light is black, material force corresponds.

Although the types of the four lands that appeared in Susila Budhi Dharma did not change, you can see that the way of explanation using the four nafsu of each land has changed.

In addition, in this talk Amarah has to correspond to plant force and lawwama ( aluamah) is correspond to material force, but in the end Bapak will transfer the material force to Amarah and plant force to lawwama (aluamah) .

However, at the time of this talk, the way of correspondence is different from the final one, and the order is reversed. ＜－－ Link

PS
Amarah, aluamah, supiah, each of nafsu or desire interferes with "getting in Latihan", but without those desires people can not live as Bapak points out .

Therefore, the existence and work of mutmainnah as a counterbalance for those ego-like nafsu becomes important.

Then, to maintain balance between nafsu like that, to bring a balance needs to be made in everyday daily life.

Otherwise only during Latihan we simply follow the attention that Bapak says.

"It is important to accept patiently, let go (abandon), give up on God 's power to lead Latihan" .

If we do so, it is only plating, then it seems not to lead to essential progress.

PS
Abraham's religion, Bapak belonged to one of them, but its object of faith is the transcendent who is said to be "the only one god".

Then, among those religions there is an avid believer, and it seems that there are also many people who are still in Latihan again.

Those people's "thoughts on God" are strong.

However, as in the above talk, Latihan seems to be demanding that it is "a thought on God" with the characteristics of mutmainnah.

Then, in reality, it seems that there is no situation that the progress of Latihan is faster, because of it is the same religion as Bapak.

If so, being a believer in a certain religion seems to say that it will not be an advantage in receiving Latihan.

The reason is It is difficult to say" Thoughts on God "with the characteristics of mutmainnah regardless of which religion it belongs to.

Conversely, if you are not a "believer of a particular religion" but have a character of mutmainnah ,we can say that Latihan's progress will be early.

That's why the big point tend to be overlooked is "How do you get the characteristics of mutmainnah?" ＜－－ Link


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