Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Require a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken
I do want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single area of the book it talks about “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you need another specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the connection that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really have to have another to assist you awaken?
I appreciate your own time so much and thank you for your help to me and others. I thank you and I thank God for you. Namaste.
David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to appear 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.
The human body and the planet are always the focus of ego's perspective, for it seeks to create real problems and struggles on the planet and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the merchandise of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to create an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who is the author of Reality. Your head that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, for it believes that it can produce itself. This ego mind also thinks it's in competition with God, although this 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 the unveiling:a course in miracles teachers
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I am in competition with God.”
This is the beginning of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back once again to thinking, and recinded from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are types of projection, of seeing the situation where it's not: in the world. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or your body, is an endeavor to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only 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 correct or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public 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 decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to think that your head may be separate from God. Once your head 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'd discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world is not Identity. This world is an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, “This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real.” As 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 very best of it and find something of the planet to identify with. You can never return back for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently identified with your 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 an undesirable family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are all part of the construction. Your head is very shaky about 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 different things 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 people, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you have many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce 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 will be: you're not 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 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 leads to the knowledge of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
Once the criticism seems to come, 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 the planet and those negative people. I'll find someone else or join an organization where individuals 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 up 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 strengthen 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 offer personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit demonstrates past associations offer nothing of value, for they were created 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. As the ego's believed relationships will be seemingly specific, yet each 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:
“Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is really 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. 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. Don't leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.
