I want to ask you by what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single area of the book it discusses “entering the ark” together, and it almost sounds as though you will need another specific person to be able to awaken acim teachers. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the connection that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need to have another to assist you awaken?

I appreciate your time so much and thank you for the help if you ask me and others. I thank you 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 teaches that the split mind contains both the situation (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they’re brought together, only One remains.

The human body and the entire world are usually the focus of ego’s perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world 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 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 appeared to arise. This 1 problem might be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who’s mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, because of it believes so it can create 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 this unveiling:

“A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.”

That is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is cut back to the mind, back again to thinking, and taken away from the 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 brain cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, and this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type 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 endeavor to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only be forgiven or released or regarded as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

The same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to repair or change a person or 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 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 believe that the mind can be separate from God. Once the mind 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 had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made up as a substitute 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 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 most effective of it and find something of the entire world to identify with. You are able to never return back for God will punish you.”

Thought-form associations seem to become 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 a poor 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 typical part of this construction. Your brain is quite shaky concerning this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the little me is shaky, and it appears as though 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 items that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems very 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 children, you’ve a fine intellect, you’ve this type of heart, you help serve so many other people, you’re a great team-player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you are a person and you’ve most of these positive attributes that basically allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you be noticeable 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 could be: you’re much less great as you believe you are, you’re not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—everything 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 sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the knowledge 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 is able to 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 friends where individuals are like-minded and forget about the remaining portion of the world. These new people should me and stroke me and praise me.” The attempt at substitution is an endeavor to steadfastly keep up 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 reinforce 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 these 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. While the ego’s believed relationships will appear 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 may be the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:

“When you meet anyone, remember it is really a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Always remember this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they’re 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.