I want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one area of the book it covers “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you will need another specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the partnership that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your own time so much and many thanks for your help in my experience and others. I many thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.
David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to check deeply at what is 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’re brought together, only One remains.
Your body and the entire world are always the focus of ego’s perspective, because of it seeks to produce real problems and struggles on earth and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit a course in miracles. The ego’s distorted world is the product 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. That one problem could possibly be described as an authority problem or even a confusion in who is the writer of Reality. Your head that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, because of it believes that it can create 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 fantastic example of this unveiling:
“A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.”
That is the start of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is cut back to the mind, back again 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. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to regulate the script or your body, is an endeavor to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can 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 repair or change a person or even a self-image. Personal relationships might seem to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the personal perspective and thus is definitely on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just a decision. Atonement is your decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to trust 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, since it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up as a substitute identity. The sleeping mind is split on your decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, “This world isn’t Identity. This world is 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.” Whilst 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 very best of it and find something of the entire world to spot with. You are able to never return for God will punish you.”
Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with your 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 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 little personal self are all part of this construction. Your head is extremely shaky about this 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 the different issues that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you’re a person 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 youngsters, you’ve an excellent intellect, you’ve this kind of heart, you help serve so many other people, you’re a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you’re a person and you’ve many of these positive attributes that actually allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce 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’re, you’re not this kind of good team player, this kind 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 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 results in the ability of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
When the criticism seems ahead, 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’ll avoid those negative influences on earth and those negative people. I’ll find another individual or join a group where individuals are like-minded and neglect the remaining world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an endeavor 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 give you 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 they certainly 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. Whilst the ego’s believed relationships will seem to be specific, yet every one will present a way 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 just a holy encounter. As you see him you will dsicover yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will discover 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 am always there with you, in remembrance of you.