I want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single the main book it talks about “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you will need an added specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the connection that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually have to have another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your own 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 appear deeply at what is underneath these topics and issues acim videos. 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.
Your body and the world are usually the focus of ego’s perspective, for this seeks to produce 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 product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it’s possible to produce an identity which God didn’t create. The ego is this identity problem and it had been Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. That one problem could be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes that it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it is 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 with this unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I do 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 to thinking, and removed from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the issue where it is 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 this type of belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or the body, is an attempt to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past 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 fix or change an individual or perhaps 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 definitely on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just 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 the mind may be separate from God. Once the mind believed that 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 world was made up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world isn’t Identity. This world is definitely an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind constantly, “This world isn’t your Home. This world isn’t your Identity. This world isn’t real.” Whilst 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 for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind seems 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 undesirable family, I’m Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are typical part with this construction. The mind is quite shaky concerning this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it looks like 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 different things that these images seem to be telling this little me seem 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 children, you’ve a superb intellect, you’ve this type of heart, you help serve so many others, you’re a good team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you will be an individual and you’ve all of these positive attributes that really allow you to a valuable and worthy person, that produce you be noticeable 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 much less great as you believe you are, you’re not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—everything that are taken as insults to the non-public self-concept). That’s the flip side of the strokes. To the 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 knowledge of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
When 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 are 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 another individual or join friends where people 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 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 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 offer 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 facts of God’s Love.
Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and comes with an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. Whilst the ego’s believed relationships will seem to be specific, yet every one will present an opportunity 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:
“Once you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you’ll treat yourself. As you consider him you’ll consider yourself. Never forget 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.