Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Desire a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken



I want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single area of the book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you will need another specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the connection 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?



I appreciate your own time so much and thank you for the help in my experience and others. I thank you and I thank God for you. Namaste.



David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to check deeply at what is underneath these topics and issues. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the issue (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they are brought together, only One remains.a course in miracles

 

Your body and the planet are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world 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 absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it did actually arise. This 1 problem could be described as an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, for this believes that it can produce 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 an excellent example with this unveiling:



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



This really 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 human body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the issue 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 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 days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or seen as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.



Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change a person or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships might appear 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 the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to believe that your brain can 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, since it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was created up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world is an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain constantly, "This world isn't your Home. This world isn't your Identity. This world isn't real." While 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 recognize with. You are able to never go back for God will punish you."



Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind appears 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 small personal self are all part with this construction. Your brain is very shaky relating to this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it seems 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 the various items that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely 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 good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the youngsters, you've an excellent intellect, you've this kind of heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a good team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you've many of these positive attributes that really make you an invaluable and worthy person, that make you be noticeable 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 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 stuff 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 sides (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.



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 is 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 someone else or join friends where people are like-minded and neglect the rest of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt 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 seem to bolster 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 implies that past associations offer nothing of value, for these 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 seem to be specific, yet every 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 a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll consider 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. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.