I wish to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one the main book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you will need an added specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the partnership that reflects enlightenment to me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually need another to assist you awaken?

I appreciate your time so much and many thanks for your help to me 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 are brought together, only One remains.

The human body and the world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it's possible to create 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 did actually arise. This one problem might be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who is the writer of Reality. Your brain that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, because of it believes that it can cause itself. a course in miracles youtube This ego mind also thinks it is 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 the unveiling:

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

That is the start of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your brain, back to thinking, and taken away from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the issue where it is 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 the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or the body, is an attempt to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can just only 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 correct or change an individual or a self-image. Personal relationships might seem to sail happily along for awhile, the make-believe self-concept IS the non-public perspective and thus is obviously 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 trust that your brain could be separate from God. Once your brain 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'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was made 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 an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain constantly, "This world isn't your Home. This world isn't your Identity. This world isn't real." As 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 best of it and find something of the world to identify with. You are able to never return for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind appears 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 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 typical part of the construction. Your brain is extremely 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 different things that these images be seemingly telling this little me be seemingly really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you're an individual and you're a good 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 kids, you have an excellent intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you will be an individual and you have all of these positive attributes that actually allow you to a valuable and worthy person, that produce you stand out 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 much less 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 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 sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a good 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.

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 will avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I'll find another person or join an organization where individuals are like-minded and overlook 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 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 give personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit suggests that past associations offer nothing of value, for they were produced by the ego to deny the facts of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. As the ego's believed relationships will be seemingly specific, yet every one 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:

"Once you meet anyone, remember it is really 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. Remember this, for in him you may find 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.