In my understanding, if God stopped working, everything would disappear. So if God has to work, how necessary is it for me to work? The next question is what kind of work should I do? Bapak used to test us to feel how it is to do various types of work. Doctor, architect military teacher, etc.. He would explain to us that our soul can do any kind of work. He even tested us being a boxer. Once he said that, “We could choose any kind of work, but he hoped that we would not choose boxing.” What impressed me the most about this testing was that my soul could do any kind of work in this world.

Most of us do work that we learned from our heart and mind. So it might be confusing as to how to work from our soul? Fortunately for us, we have a tool that can help us in this matter. That tool is testing. We can test, “How we normally do our work?” and “How can we do our work from our human soul?” Once we receive how to do that, then we can begin to correct ourselves to work in the right way. You’re probably thinking, “I thought I was not supposed to make an effort?” Well I thought the same thing until I read where Bapak said, “When he first received the latihan, it was very easy to feel it when he did his Muslim prayers, but it was much more difficult to feel it when he was working. So he had to make much more of an effort to feel it at work.”

That gave me the understanding that I also had to make an effort to feel the latihan, or work from my human soul. That was the beginning of my experience of being guided by my soul to work in different fields. Originally I worked as a housepainter. Then I worked in the direct mail field, followed by the field of sales, which led me to the field of art. I owned an art gallery and a publishing company and also represented different artists. All of this happened over a period of years, which was a result of my working from my human soul, which is guided by the power of God.

During that period of time, I also received other talents that were useful for me. I received drawing, singing, healing myself with my voice, song writing and writing books. I also understood that I was born with the talent of clowning, as I saw a pure white clown inside of myself. So I had a choice as to which talent I would make my living with. But the art business was the one that I was guided to make my living with.

In my understanding, this all falls under the umbrella of SICA, bringing our talents out into the world. So any work that is done by our human soul, which is guided by the power of God, is SICA. Any work we do from our human soul is the worship of God. It is an effort that we have to make, in order to achieve this. I hope this is helpful, especially to the younger members in Subud, because you have your whole life ahead of you to put this into practice. May the One Almighty God deepen your understanding about the use and purpose of the latihan? Amin!

Praise be to the One Almighty God!