Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Desire a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken?
I do want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single the main book it discusses “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you need an added specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the connection that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need to have another to assist you awaken?
I appreciate your own time so much and thank you for the help to 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 issue (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they’re brought together, only One remains.
The body and the entire world are always the focus of ego’s perspective, because of it 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 product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it’s possible to create an identity which God didn’t create acim free resources. The ego is this identity problem and it absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. This 1 problem could be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who’s the writer of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, because of it believes that it can produce 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 fantastic example of the unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I am in competition with God.”
That is the beginning of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is brought back to your brain, back again to thinking, and recinded 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, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or the body, is an effort to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only just 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 a person or even a self-image. Personal relationships may 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 decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to trust that your brain can be separate from God. Once your brain believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, since it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was created up instead identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world is not Identity. This world is definitely 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.” While 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 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 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 rich family, from a poor 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 all part of the construction. The mind is quite shaky concerning this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it looks 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 items that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you’re 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 children, you have an excellent intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you’re a good team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are a person and you have many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you be noticeable 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 could be: you’re much less great as you think you’re, you’re not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—all the stuff which are 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 knowledge 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 are able to 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 another individual or join friends where folks are like-minded and neglect the remaining world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an effort to keep an expression of specialness, an expression of separation, an expression 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 provide personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were created 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. While 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 is the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:
“When you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you will dsicover yourself. As you treat him you’ll treat yourself. As you think of him you’ll think of 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. Don’t leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.