I wish to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single area of the book it talks about "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you'll 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 relationship that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to help you awaken? acim videos

I appreciate your own time so much and thanks for the help in my experience 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 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 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 earth 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 that 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 seemed to arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. Your head that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, because of it believes that it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it is 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 a fantastic example with this unveiling:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I'm in competition with God."

This is the start of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is brought back to your brain, back once again to thinking, and taken away from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are types of projection, of seeing the situation where it is not: in the world. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a war 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 regulate the script or the body, is an attempt to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear 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 fix or change an individual 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 choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to trust that your brain could be separate from God. Once your brain 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'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up instead identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world is not Identity. This world is definitely an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain 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 best of it and find something of the entire world to spot 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 seems 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 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 with this construction. Your head is quite shaky about that 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 different issues that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you're an individual 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 kids, you've a superb intellect, you've this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a good team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are an individual and you've all of these positive attributes that really cause you to a valuable and worthy person, that produce you stick out above the crowd. You're not merely anyone—you're somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism would be: you're not as 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 stuff 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 leads to the ability 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 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 individual or join friends where people are like-minded and neglect the remaining world. These new people should me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to maintain 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 seem to bolster 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 they certainly 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 seem to be specific, yet every one will present a chance 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 really a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll consider yourself. Always 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. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.