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

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



I wish to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single part of the book it talks about "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds as though you will need another specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the connection that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need to have another to help you awaken?acim teacher

 

I appreciate your time so much and thank you for the help in my experience and others. I thank you and I thank God for you. Namaste.



David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to appear deeply at what is 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 human body and the entire world are always the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to produce real problems and struggles in the world 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 that it is possible to produce 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 seemed to arise. This one problem could be described as an authority problem or even a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes that it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it's in competition with God, although this 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 really is the start of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your brain, back to thinking, and taken away from the human 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 brain 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 the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or the human body, is an endeavor to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can 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 repair or change a person or even a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the personal perspective and thus is obviously on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to think that your brain can be separate from God. Once your brain believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, as it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was created up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world can be an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain 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 best of it and find something of the entire world to identify with. You are able to 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 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.) Many of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of the construction. Your brain is quite shaky relating to this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it appears as though 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 the different things that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely 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 kids, you have an excellent intellect, you have 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 will be a person and you have many of these positive attributes that actually cause you to a valuable and worthy person, that produce 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 believe you are, you're not such a good team player, such a 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 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.



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 is 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 someone else or join an organization where individuals are like-minded and forget about the rest of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an endeavor 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 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 implies that past associations offer nothing of value, for they certainly were made by the ego to deny the reality 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 seem to be specific, yet each one 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 a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Remember this, for in him you will see 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.