I do want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In a single part of the book it covers "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you'll need one other specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the relationship that reflects enlightenment to me, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually have to have another to help you awaken?

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

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to appear deeply at what's underneath these topics and issues a course in miracles youtube channel. 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.

The body and the world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to make 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 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 seemed to arise. That one problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who's the author of Reality. The mind that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes so it can cause itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although that 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 with this unveiling:

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

This really 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 types of projection, of seeing the situation where it is not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, so 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 days gone by can only just 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 might seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet 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 choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to trust 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, because it believed it'd discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was created up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world is 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." Whilst the mind is split it is 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 world to recognize with. You can never go back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently identified with your 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 wealthy 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 small personal self are all part with this construction. The mind is extremely shaky concerning this 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 the different issues that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems very important (i.e., you're 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've a fine intellect, you've this type of heart, you help serve so many other folks, you're a good team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you are an individual and you've many of these positive attributes that actually cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that make you stand out 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 could be: you're much less great as you think you're, you're not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—all the stuff that 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 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.

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 can appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I'll find another person or join friends where individuals are like-minded and overlook the remaining world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to maintain 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 seem to strengthen 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 shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for they were created 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. Whilst the ego's believed relationships will be seemingly specific, yet each one of these 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:

"Whenever 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.