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

I appreciate your time so much and thanks for your help if you ask 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 situation (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they are brought together, only One remains.

The body and the entire world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to produce real problems and struggles on earth and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it's possible to produce an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it had been Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it did actually arise. This 1 problem could be described being an authority problem or even a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. Your head that believes in the fact of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes that it can produce itself. This ego mind also thinks it's 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 an excellent example of this unveiling:

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

This 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 situation where it's not: in the world. Your head cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. acim teacher The deep-seated control issue such a belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to control the script or your body, is an attempt to control 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.

Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change a person or even a self-image. Personal relationships might seem 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 a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to think that your brain can 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, because it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was created up instead identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice 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 can never return back 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 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 unhealthy family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are typical part of this construction. Your head is quite shaky about this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it seems 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 various items that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you are a person and you're a good 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 youngsters, you've an excellent intellect, you've such a heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a great team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you are a person and you've many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to a valuable and worthy person, which 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 could be: you're not as great as you believe you are, you're not such a good team player, such a 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 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 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'll avoid those negative influences on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join a group where people are like-minded and overlook the remaining world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt 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 seem to reinforce worth and value and to validate personhood. And they give you 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 implies 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 seem to be specific, yet each one of these will present a chance to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness is 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 a holy encounter. As you see him you will dsicover yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of 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. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.