Unbreakably Given to Each Other
The biggest barriers are within us–fears, resentments, self-preoccupation, guilts, impurities, inferiorities, jealousies, and emptiness. These are the things that separate us from one another, from ourselves, and from God.
So the first day [of our Ashram] we are together we have the “Morning of the Open Heart,” in which we try to get down these barriers. In this Open Heart session we ask the group, “Why have you come? What do you want? What do you really need?” The last question is the really important one. So we ask them to tell their needs. . .
We begin with the Open Heart and end with the Overflowing Heart. We begin with ourselves, for that is the only place we can begin, the only place we can change–now. We begin with ourselves and then work out to the problems of society. . . It is a law of the mind that that which is not expressed dies. Impression minus expression equals depression. To express it is to impress it. It is also spiritually sound. It attaches the changed person to JesusChrist and not to the movement through which the change came. The movement made up of imperfect persons may disappoint you at times, but He abides the same, yesterday and forever.
At the closing session, we hold hands and repeat a motto on the Sat TalAshram walls: “Unreservedly given to God, unbreakably given to each other.” The fellowship is an unbreakable fellowship, for it is in Christ and not in that particular session. That breaks up. He abides.
From “A Song of Ascents: A Spiritual Autobiography” by E. Stanley Jones
