I do want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single the main book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you need one other specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the connection that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to help you awaken?acim videos

 

I appreciate your own 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'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're brought together, only One remains.



The body and the world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to create 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 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 appeared to arise. That one problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who's the writer of Reality. Your head that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, for this believes so it can make itself. This ego mind also thinks it's 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 great example of the unveiling:



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



This is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back to thinking, and recinded 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'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 the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or the human body, is an effort to regulate 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.



Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change an individual or even a self-image. Personal relationships might appear to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the personal perspective and thus is definitely on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to believe that the mind can be separate from God. Once the mind believed so 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 world was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world is an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind constantly, "This world isn't your Home. This world isn't your Identity. This world isn't 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 world to recognize with. You can never return for God will punish you."



Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently 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 a poor 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 the construction. Your head is extremely shaky concerning this 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 items that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems very important (i.e., you are 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 great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the youngsters, you have a superb intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you're an individual and you have most 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 much less great as you think you are, 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 personal 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 leads to 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 are able to appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I'll avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I'll find another individual or join a group where individuals 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 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 reinforce 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 give personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit demonstrates 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 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 chance to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness may be the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:

"When you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Always remember this, for in him you may find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they're 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.