I wish 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 need one other 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 connection that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really have to have another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your time so much and thank you for the help if you ask me and others. I thank you 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. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the issue (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they're brought together, only One remains.
The human body and the world are always the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to produce 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 item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to produce an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described as an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who's the writer of Reality. The mind that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, because of it believes so it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it is 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 a great example with this unveiling:
"A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I'm in competition with God."
That 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 your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the issue where it is not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a battle 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 your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or your body, is an attempt to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or viewed 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 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 personal perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is your decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to think that your brain may be separate from God. Once your brain 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 discarded 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 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 world to identify 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 your 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.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are typical part with this construction. The mind is quite shaky about any of it 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 things that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you are a person and you're a good 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 children, you have a fine intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you are a person and you have many of these positive attributes that really cause you to a valuable and worthy person, that make you stand 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 will be: you're never as great as you think you are, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—everything that 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 sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a good threat, for the Holy Spirit contributes to the experience of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
Once 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 are able to appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I'll avoid those negative influences on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join a group where folks are like-minded and overlook the remaining world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to keep 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 appear 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 give personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were created by the ego to deny the truth 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 will present an opportunity 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:
"Once you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will dsicover yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will discover 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'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.
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