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

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I wish to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single part of the book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds as though you'll need another specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the partnership that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need to have another to help you awaken? a course in miracles videos

I appreciate your time so much and many thanks for your help if you ask 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 issue (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they are brought together, only One remains.

The human body and the world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles on earth and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the product 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 had been Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it seemed to arise. This one problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, because of it believes that it can make 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 an excellent example with this unveiling:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God."

That is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back once again to thinking, and taken away from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the issue where it's not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type of belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or the body, is an effort to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can just only be forgiven or released or regarded as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change an individual or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships might appear to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the personal perspective and thus is definitely on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to believe that the mind may be separate from God. Once the mind believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, since it believed it'd discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world is not Identity. This world is definitely an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind 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 world to recognize with. You are able to never return back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind appears to be identified with the 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 wealthy family, from a poor family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are part with this construction. The mind is very shaky about that 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 issues that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be 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 good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the kids, you have a fine intellect, you have this type 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're an individual and you have all of these positive attributes that really make you an invaluable and worthy person, which make you stand 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 will be: you're much less great as you think 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 personal self-concept). That's the flip side of the strokes. To this 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 results in the knowledge 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 can 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 someone else or join friends where individuals are like-minded and neglect the remaining portion of the world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an effort 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 shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for these 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 appear to be specific, yet every 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:

"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 think of him you will think of yourself. Always 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 am always there with you, in remembrance of you.