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

[Jhon Dolton]

I want to ask you about 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 as though you'll need one other 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 connection that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to help you awaken?

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

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the 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're brought together, only One remains.

The human body and the world are always the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world 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 acim youtube channel. The ego is this identity problem and it had been 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 mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for this believes so it can cause 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 an excellent example of this unveiling:

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

This is the start of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back once again to thinking, and recinded from your 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 battle with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type 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 attempt to regulate the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can only just be forgiven or released or regarded 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 fix or change a person or even a self-image. Personal relationships might appear 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 your decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to think that your head could be separate from God. Once your head believed so it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, since it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was made 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 definitely an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, "This world isn't your Home. This world isn't your Identity. This world isn't real." As 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 for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently 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 rich family, from an unhealthy family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of this construction. Your brain is quite shaky about that 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 different items that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you are 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 children, you have an excellent intellect, you have this type of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a great team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you will be a person and you have many of these positive attributes that really make you 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 would be: you're never as great as you think 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 great threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the knowledge of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

Once 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 will avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I'll find another individual or join a group where people are like-minded and neglect the rest of the world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to steadfastly keep up 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 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 shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for these were produced 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. As the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet every one will present an opportunity 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 just a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find 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'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.