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

I do want to ask you by 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 believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the partnership that reflects enlightenment to me, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need to have another to help you awaken?

I appreciate your own time so much and thanks for your help to me and others. I thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to look deeply at what’s underneath these topics and issues acim teacher. 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.

The human body and the planet are always 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 it is possible to create an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it did actually arise. This one problem could be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who is mcdougal 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’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 a great example of the unveiling:

“A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I’m in competition with God.”

That is the start of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, 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 issue where it’s not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue such a 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 effort to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or regarded as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

The same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to repair or change a person or 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 definitely 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 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, as it believed it’d discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was created up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world isn’t Identity. This world can be 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.” 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 most effective of it and find something of the planet to identify with. You can never return back for God will punish you.”

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind seems 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 unhealthy family, I’m Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Many of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are all part of the construction. The mind is very shaky about 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 different issues that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems very important (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 great lover, you’re a great provider, you’re great with the youngsters, you’ve a superb intellect, you’ve such a 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’re a person and you’ve most of these positive attributes that really cause you to 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 could be: you’re not as great as you think you are, you’re not such a good team player, such a good provider, so good in bed—everything 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 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 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 will avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I’ll find another individual 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 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 appear 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 provide personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit implies that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were made 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. While 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 is 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 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 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.

I do want to ask you by 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 believe I approach each new person with the expectation…

I do want to ask you by 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 believe I approach each new person with the expectation…