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 one the main book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds like you need an added specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the partnership that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really have to have another to assist you awaken?
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 appear deeply at what is 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 planet are always the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to make real problems and struggles on earth and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it is possible to make 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 might be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who is the writer of Reality. The mind that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, for this believes that it can make itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although this really is pushed out of conscious awareness. a course in miracles 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 think 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 once again to thinking, and removed from the human 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 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 the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or the human body, is an attempt to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can just 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 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 personal 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 trust that the mind could 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 entire world was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world is not Identity. This world can be an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind constantly, “This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real.” As 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 planet to spot with. You can never go back for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with the human 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 all part of this construction. The mind is very shaky about any of it small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it seems 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 various items that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems very important (i.e., you are 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've a superb intellect, you've this kind of heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a good team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you've many of these positive attributes that actually cause you to a valuable and worthy person, which 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 could be: you're never as great as you believe you are, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—all the things that are taken as insults to the personal 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 results in the experience 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 on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join an organization where individuals are like-minded and forget about the rest of the world. These new people should me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an attempt to steadfastly keep up 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 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 give 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 has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. As the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet each one of these will present a way 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 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 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.