© Copyright khedmeh Wall
I do want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one part of the book it talks about "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds as though you will need one other specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the partnership that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to help you awaken?
I appreciate your time so much and thanks for the help in my experience and others. I thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.
David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the 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.
The body and the entire world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to make real problems and struggles on earth and to avoid the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit acim free resources. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to make 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 appeared to arise. This 1 problem might be described as an authority problem or perhaps 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, for this believes so 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 a great example of the unveiling:
"A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I am in competition with God."
That is the start of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is brought back to your brain, back once again to thinking, and taken away from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are types of projection, of seeing the issue 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 kind of belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or your body, is an attempt to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can just only be forgiven or released or seen 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 repair or change an individual or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is really a decision. The ego is really 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 brain could be separate from God. Once your brain believed so it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, as 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 is not Identity. This world can be an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain constantly, "This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not 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 very best of it and find something of the entire world to recognize with. You are able to never return for God will punish you."
Thought-form associations seem becoming a 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 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 small personal self are typical part of the construction. Your brain is quite shaky concerning this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it seems like 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 the different issues that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (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 good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the children, you have a fine intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a good team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are an individual and you have all of these positive attributes that actually allow you to a valuable and worthy person, that make 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 kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—everything which are taken as insults to the private 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 good threat, for the Holy Spirit contributes to 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 are able to appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those negative influences on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join friends where individuals are like-minded and forget about the remaining portion of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to keep an expression of specialness, an expression of separation, an expression of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They seem 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 offer 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. As the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet each one of these will present an opportunity 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:
"Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is really 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. Always remember 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.
The Wall