I want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single area of the book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds as though you will need one other specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I do 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 to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually have to have another to assist you awaken?
I appreciate your own time so much and many thanks for the help in my experience and others. I many 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 acim videos. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the problem (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they're brought together, only One remains.
Your body and the world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles on the planet and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it is possible to create 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 did actually arise. This one problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who's the writer of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes so it can make 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 of the unveiling:
"A meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I'm in competition with God."
This is the start of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your brain, back to thinking, and recinded from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the problem where it is not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, and 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. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or your body, is an attempt to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear 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 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 private 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 believe that your brain can 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 thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made 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." 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 best of it and find something of the world to recognize with. You can never go back for God will punish you."
Thought-form associations seem to become a 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 rich family, from an undesirable family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Many of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are part of the construction. The mind is very shaky relating to this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it appears as though 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 be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly 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 great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the kids, you've a superb intellect, you've this type of heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a great team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you will be an individual and you've many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to a valuable 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 not 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—all the stuff which can be taken as insults to the private 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 great threat, for the Holy Spirit contributes to the ability 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 will appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I'll find someone else or join a group where folks 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 appear to strengthen 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 offer personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit demonstrates past associations offer nothing of value, for they were created by the ego to deny the truth of God's Love.
Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and posseses an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While the ego's believed relationships will be seemingly specific, yet each one will present a way 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 really a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you think of him you'll think of yourself. Never forget 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'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.
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