I wish to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one area of the book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you’ll need an added specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the relationship that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your time so much and thank you for the help if you ask me and others. I thank you and I thank God for you. Namaste.
David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to check deeply at what is underneath these topics and issues. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the problem (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they are brought together, only One remains.
The human body and the entire world are usually the focus of ego’s perspective, because of it seeks to produce real problems and struggles in the world and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego’s distorted world is the merchandise of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to produce an identity which God didn’t create a course in miracles teacher. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it did actually arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who’s mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes so it can create itself. This ego mind also thinks it’s in competition with God, although this is pushed out of conscious awareness. This unconscious ego thought system is exposed in the A Course in Miracles Workbook lessons, and Lesson 13 contains a fantastic example of this unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I am in competition with God.”
That is the start of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back once again to thinking, and recinded from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the problem where it’s not: in the world. Your brain cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type of belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or your body, is an effort to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or regarded as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.
Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to fix or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships might seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is obviously on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is really a decision. The ego is really a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to think that the mind may be separate from God. Once the mind believed so it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, since it believed it’d thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world is not Identity. This world is definitely an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind constantly, “This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real.” Whilst the mind is split it’s hearing another voice (the ego) that’s saying: “You’ve done it. You’ve separated from God. You’d better make the best of it and find something of the entire world to identify with. You are able to never return back for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently identified with your body, with family, with environments that seem to surround it (i.e., I’m an American, Japanese, I’m male, I’m female, I’m from a wealthy family, from an undesirable family, I’m Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Many of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of this construction. Your brain is quite shaky concerning this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it seems like other persons give the small me reality and importance (i.e., you’re my son, my daughter, you’re my boss, you’re a loving father, etc.) and all different things that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you are a person and you’re a great one!).
Praise and acceptance from others SEEM to stabilize this very shaky thing (i.e., you’re a good lover, you’re a good provider, you’re great with the youngsters, you have a fine intellect, you have this type of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you’re a good team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you have many of these positive attributes that actually cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you stand out above the crowd. You’re not merely anyone—you’re somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism would be: you’re never as great as you think you are, you’re not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—everything which are taken as insults to the private self-concept). That’s the flip side of the strokes. To this ego self-concept that believes both sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a good threat, for the Holy Spirit results in the ability of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
Once the criticism seems in the future, the ego attempts a substitution. It thinks, “I don’t need this. I’ll go elsewhere and start other relationships with people who is able to appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I’ll find someone else or join friends where folks are like-minded and neglect the rest of the world. These new people should me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an effort to keep up a sense of specialness, a sense of separation, a sense of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They seem to strengthen worth and value and to validate personhood. And they offer a false witness for clinging to the ego as identity. To the ego, past associations serve to provide personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit implies that past associations offer nothing of value, for they were made by the ego to deny the truth of God’s Love.
Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. Whilst the ego’s believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet each one of these will present a chance to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness could be the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:
“Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is really a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you’ll treat yourself. As you consider him you’ll consider yourself. Remember this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.