I want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single area of the book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you need another specific person in order to awaken a course in miracles youtube channel. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the relationship that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really have to have another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your time so much and thanks for your help in my experience and others. I thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.
David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your 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 issue (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, for this seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego’s distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it’s possible to create an identity which God didn’t create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. That one problem could possibly be described as an authority problem or a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, for this believes so it can make itself. This ego mind also thinks it’s in competition with God, although this really 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 great example of this unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I am in competition with God.”
This is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back once again to thinking, and recinded from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the issue where it’s not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue such a belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or the body, is an endeavor to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can only just be forgiven or released or seen as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.
The same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change an individual or a self-image. Personal relationships might seem to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to believe that the mind could 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, as it believed it’d discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was made 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 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.” While 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 most effective of it and find something of the entire world to identify with. You can never return for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind appears to be identified with the 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 unhealthy family, I’m Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Many of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are typical part of this construction. The mind is very shaky about that small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it appears as though other persons give the little 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 issues that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (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 good lover, you’re a good provider, you’re great with the kids, you have a superb intellect, you have such a heart, you help serve so many others, you’re a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you’re an individual and you have most of these positive attributes that basically cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, which make you stand 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 would be: you’re never as great as you think you are, you’re not such a good team player, such a good provider, so good in bed—all the stuff which can be taken as insults to the non-public self-concept). That’s the flip side of the strokes. To this ego self-concept that believes both parties (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a good threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the ability of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
When the criticism seems ahead, the ego attempts a substitution. It thinks, “I don’t need this. I’ll go elsewhere and start other relationships with people who can appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I’ll avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I’ll find someone else or join friends where people are like-minded and forget about the rest of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an endeavor to keep 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 appear to bolster worth and value and to validate personhood. And they provide 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 demonstrates 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 posseses an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While 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 is the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:
“Once you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Always 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.