Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Desire a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken?
I wish to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single the main book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds like you will need another specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the connection that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your time so much and thanks for the help if you ask me and others. I thanks 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 acim. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the situation (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they’re brought together, only One remains.
The body and the world are usually the focus of ego’s perspective, for this seeks to make real problems and struggles on the planet and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego’s distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to make an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it seemed to arise. This 1 problem might be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes so it can make itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although that 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 the unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I’m in competition with God.”
This really is the beginning of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your brain, back once again to thinking, and taken away from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the situation where it is not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue such a belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or your body, is an attempt to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can 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 repair or change an individual or even a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, 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 trust that your brain can be separate from God. Once your brain believed so it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, because it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world is not Identity. This world can be an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain constantly, “This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real.” As the mind is split it is hearing another voice (the ego) that’s saying: “You’ve done it. You’ve separated from God. You’d better make the most effective of it and find something of the world to recognize with. You can never return back for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind appears to be identified with your body, with family, with environments that appear 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.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of the construction. The mind is very shaky about any of it 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 the various things that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you are an individual and you’re a good one!).
Praise and acceptance from others SEEM to stabilize this very shaky thing (i.e., you’re a great lover, you’re a great provider, you’re great with the children, you have a superb intellect, you have such a heart, you help serve so many others, you’re a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you will be an individual and you have many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, which make you stick out above the crowd. You’re not just anyone—you’re somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism will be: you’re not as great as you believe you are, you’re not such a good team player, such a good provider, so good in bed—all the things which can be taken as insults to the private self-concept). That’s the flip side of the strokes. To the ego self-concept that believes both parties (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit results in the knowledge 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’ll avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I’ll find another person or join a group where individuals are like-minded and overlook the rest of the world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an attempt to maintain 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 reinforce 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 produced by the ego to deny the reality of God’s Love.
Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. As the ego’s believed relationships will seem to be specific, yet each one of these will present an opportunity to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness may 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 discover yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they’re given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I’m always there with you, in remembrance of you.
