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

[Asad shaikh]

I want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single the main book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you will 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 partnership that reflects enlightenment to me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to assist you awaken?

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

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to check 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 body and the planet are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for it seeks to produce real problems and struggles on the planet and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the merchandise 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 absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who's the author of Reality. Your head that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, for 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 start 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. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. acim free resources The deep-seated control issue this kind 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 days gone by can only just be forgiven or released or viewed 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 an individual or even a self-image. Personal relationships might appear to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is your decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your decision to believe that the mind could 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, as it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was created up instead 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 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 best of it and find something of the planet to spot with. You are able to never return back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with the 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 rich family, from an undesirable 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 part with this construction. Your head is extremely shaky relating to this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it looks 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 things that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you are 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 great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the kids, you have a fine intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a great team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you're an individual and you have many of these positive attributes that really allow you to a valuable and worthy person, that make you stand out above the crowd. You're not merely anyone—you're somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism will be: you're not as great as you believe you are, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—all the things which can be taken as insults to the non-public self-concept). That's the flip side of the strokes. To this 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 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 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 can appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I'll avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I'll find another person or join friends where people are like-minded and neglect the remaining world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an effort to maintain 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 bolster worth and value and to validate personhood. And they provide 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 produced 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 be seemingly 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 might find yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll consider yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will see yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.