I do want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one part of the 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 believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the relationship that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to assist you awaken?

I appreciate your time so much and many thanks for your help to me and others. I many 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 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.

The body and the planet are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to make real problems and struggles on the planet 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 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. This one problem could possibly be described as an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who's the author of Reality. Your head that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes so it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it's in competition with God, although that 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 of this unveiling:

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

This really is the start of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back once again to thinking, and recinded from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the situation where it's not: in the world. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a battle 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 your body and the world. acim free resources Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or your body, is an attempt to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can just only be forgiven or released or seen as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

 

The exact same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to fix or change a person or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, 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 decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to trust that your head could 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, as it believed it'd discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world is not Identity. This world can be an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, "This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real." While 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 best of it and find something of the planet to identify with. You can never go back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with your 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 rich family, from an unhealthy family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are typical part of this construction. Your head is very shaky about this 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 the different issues that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly 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 great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the youngsters, you've a superb intellect, you've this type of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you're a great team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you're a person and you've most of these positive attributes that really cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that make you stick 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 would be: you're never as great as you believe you're, you're not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—everything which are taken as insults to the non-public 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 contributes to the knowledge of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

When the criticism seems to come, 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'll avoid those negative influences on the planet 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 like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to steadfastly 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 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 suggests that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were produced by the ego to deny the facts of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and comes with an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While the ego's believed relationships will be seemingly 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:

"Once you meet anyone, remember it is really 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 discover yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Don't leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.