I wish to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single area of the book it discusses “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds like you need one other specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might 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 time so much and thanks for your help to me and others. I thanks 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 youtube. 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 world are always the focus of ego’s perspective, for this seeks to produce 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 merchandise of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it is possible to produce 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 did actually arise. That one problem might be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who is the writer of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes so it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it is 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 meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I’m in competition with God.”
This is the beginning of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back 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 is not: in the world. Your brain cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type of belief entails is then projected to the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or the human body, is an effort to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or regarded 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 perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships may appear to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is obviously 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 head can be separate from God. Once your head 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 entire world was created up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world isn’t Identity. This world can be an illusion.” And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, “This world isn’t your Home. This world isn’t your Identity. This world isn’t 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 world to recognize with. You can never return 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 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 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 typical part of the construction. Your brain is extremely 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 different items 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 great 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 youngsters, you have a superb intellect, you have this type of heart, you help serve so many other people, you’re a great 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 actually cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you stand 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 could be: you’re much less great as you think you’re, you’re not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—all the stuff that are taken as insults to the private self-concept). That’s the flip side of the strokes. To the ego self-concept that believes both parties (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit results in the ability of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
Once 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 will avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I’ll find another person or join a group where people 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 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 seem 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 offer personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for these were made by the ego to deny the reality 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 of these will present a way 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:
“Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you will see 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 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.