Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Require a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken?
I want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single the main book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds like you'll need another specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the connection that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need to have another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your own 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'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 are brought together, only One remains.
Your body and the entire world are always the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles on the planet and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is 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 did actually arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes that it can create 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 an excellent example of the unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I'm in competition with God.”
This is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back again to thinking, and taken away from the human body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the situation where it's not: in the world. Your brain cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or the human body, is an endeavor to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only just be forgiven or released or viewed as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.
The exact 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 appear to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public perspective and thus is obviously 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 think that the mind can 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, as it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire 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 can be 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's hearing another voice (the ego) that's saying: “You've done it. You've separated from God. You'd better make the best of it and find something of the entire world to spot with. You can never go back for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with the human 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 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 all part of the construction. Your brain is quite shaky about any of it 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 issues that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly 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 good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the children, you have a fine intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you're a person and you have most of these positive attributes that really make you a valuable and worthy person, that make 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're, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—all the things 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 contributes to the experience 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 will 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 someone else or join an organization where people 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 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 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 suggests that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were made 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 be seemingly specific, yet each one 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:a course in miracles teachers
“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you might find 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 see 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'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.