Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Desire a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken
I do want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single part of the book it talks about “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds like you need one other specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the partnership that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need to have another to assist you awaken?a course in miracles
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 look deeply at what's underneath these topics and issues. 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 entire world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to produce real problems and struggles on earth and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the merchandise 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 was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it did actually arise. This one problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes so it can produce 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 an excellent example of this unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I'm in competition with God.”
This really is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is cut back to the mind, back again to thinking, and removed from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples 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 this kind of 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 effort to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can only be forgiven or released or viewed as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.
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 always 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 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, since it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was created up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world isn't Identity. This world is 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.” 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 very best of it and find something of the entire world to recognize 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 appears to be identified with the 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 rich family, from a poor family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of this construction. The mind is extremely shaky about any of it small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it appears as though 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 different issues that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems very important (i.e., you're a person 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 kids, you've a fine intellect, you've this kind of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you're a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are a person and you've most of these positive attributes that actually cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that make you stick out above the crowd. You're not only 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're, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—everything 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 sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the experience 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 on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join friends where folks are like-minded and overlook the remaining portion of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an effort to maintain a feeling of specialness, a feeling of separation, a feeling of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They appear to strengthen worth and value and to validate personhood. And they give you 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 suggests that past associations offer nothing of value, for these were created by the ego to deny the reality 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 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:
“Once you meet anyone, remember it is really a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will 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.