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

[Jhon Dolton]

I want to ask you by 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 like you will need an added specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the partnership that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to assist you awaken?

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

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to look 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.

Your body and the planet are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to make real problems and struggles in the world and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit acim videos. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it's possible to make 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 might be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, because of it believes that it can produce itself. This ego mind also thinks it's in competition with God, although this really 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 fantastic example of this unveiling:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I'm in competition with God."

This is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is cut back to the mind, back to thinking, and removed from the human body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the situation where it's not: in the world. Your brain cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type of belief entails is then projected to the human body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or the human body, is an attempt to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can just only be forgiven or released or seen 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 repair or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships might seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public perspective and thus is obviously on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just a decision. Atonement is the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to think that the mind can 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, because it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made up instead identity. The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world is definitely 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 for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently identified with the human 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.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are all part of this construction. Your brain is extremely shaky about that 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 things that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly 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 good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the youngsters, you have a fine intellect, you have this type of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you have all 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 just 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 believe you are, you're not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—all the things that are taken as insults to the non-public 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 leads to the experience of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

When 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 a group where folks 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 attempt to keep up a feeling of specialness, a feeling of separation, a feeling 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 suggests 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 comes with 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 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 just a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll 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.