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I wish to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one the main book it talks about "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you'll need one other specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS might be the partnership that reflects enlightenment to 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 own time so much and thanks for your help to me and others. I thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for your openness and your willingness to appear deeply at what's underneath these topics and issues a course in miracles teacher. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the problem (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 make real problems and struggles on the planet and to avoid 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 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. This one problem might be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes so it can make itself. This ego mind also thinks it's 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 think I'm in competition with God."

That is the beginning of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back once again to thinking, and recinded from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the problem where it's not: in the world. The mind 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 manage the script or the body, is an attempt to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that yesteryear can 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 correct or change a person or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships might appear to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is obviously on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just 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 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, as it believed it had 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 isn't Identity. This world can be 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'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 recognize with. You can never go back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently 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 rich family, from an unhealthy 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 part of the construction. The mind is extremely shaky about that 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 different issues that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you're a person 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 type 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 will be a person and you have many of these positive attributes that basically allow you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you stick 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 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—everything which can be 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 ability of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

When 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 will 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 an organization where folks are like-minded and overlook the rest 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 up 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 offer 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 these were created by the ego to deny the facts of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and comes with an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. Whilst the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet every one will present an opportunity to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness could 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 think of him you'll think of yourself. Always remember this, for in him you may find 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'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.