The Truth about Your Relationships — There is a strong belief in the mind that this world is real and that people are real. In fact, the truth about your relationships is that they are all a projection of thoughts. Once we can see this we can start to forgive the images that we see. Our aim becomes to see with Christ’s Vision, to see the light in everything we come across. We want to see that everything is love and is wanting to show us our true Christ identity.
Relationships
The Gift of Happiness
The way to receive the gift of happiness is to make a habit of living a Spirit-guided life. To do this we must recognize that the mind, not the body, is the decision maker. Our current perception shows us a fragmented world of fear and rage. So when confronted with a decision it is helpful for us to step back and ask “What is it for?” Then we can choose the Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness or undoing. We can choose to serve something bigger than our self. David and Frances continue on to tell enlightening parables about: opening to love, our one responsibility, Siddhartha and the movie, “Sully.”
This Life Is but a Dream
This world we see can seem very real, but, in fact, it is a dream. We may feel like we have many problems in this life such as money, relationships, jobs, family issues, addictions and all kinds of issues the ego wants us to believe we have. There is only one problem, and that is our perception. By changing our thought and belief system we can wake up from this dream world and change our perception to a happy dream. The ego would have us think that to escape the world as we see it is a very complex mission, whereas the Spirit would have us learn that it is very simple.
What Is the Purpose of My Relationships?
What is the purpose of my relationships? Are they helping me towards my goal of present peace? Notice your own symbols of encouragement. See also where you are compromising. Compromise at any level is a killer of present moment awareness. With this world being created as a trap, compromise is then a trap within a trap. The very moment we compromise, we imprison ourselves in a concrete mold of limitation. No wonder it’s hard to function in the world.
Open Relationships
No matter how many relationships you get into and how much pain you encounter, the key is to always look within. What is the issue in the mind? Unfortunately, the deceived mind is addicted to quite the opposite. It is addicted to projection and denial of this projection. This ACIM healing discussion explores relationships and anger: David uses the example of a friend’s experiment with open relationships to show how the mind can turn away from projection and denial, and towards true healing. David shares that in his story, he had to see that he did not want to project or deny any longer.
It Takes Mind Training!
To be able to trace everything we say, do, think, feel, and touch back to mind takes a considerable amount of mind training. ACIM daily lessons serve as tools to help the mind reorient itself. It is quite common for years and years of humbling to accompany the mind training, before one can truly see that all perception is an impersonal non-located state of mind. When you start to get the awareness that everything is a thought, it is blatantly simple. This is what Workbook Lesson 23 of “A Course in Miracles” refers to: “I can give up this world by giving up attack thoughts.”
Who Assigned Us the Roles We Play?
The essence of who we are is not the role and it is not the name. When I free my mind of thinking of people as those roles and names, and that they are limited by a role and by a name, by a history, by their ambitions, or who they seem to be in a personality way, then I feel all this love. This happens when I do not hold them to something from the past.
Unworthiness and Miracles
Fear of experiencing miracles comes from our deep-seated unworthiness that we are not worthy of love. We need new experiences—miracles—that contradict our limited sense of self. We are afraid to drop the mask and experience our power because we think we misused our power and are afraid of experiencing it again. The ego would keep us small. So, “A Course in Miracles” reminds us of how worthy we are. You are worthy of experiencing miracles. The mind has a deep sense of being not worthy, but the Spirit is trustworthy and worthy of your trust in Him. The belief in being unworthy of love runs deep in the mind, but it is a worthy task to allow feelings of unworthiness to come up for healing. Healing is something you’re worthy of, and you can embrace your own self worth now.
Following the Holy Spirit and Relationships
David explains how listening to and following the Holy Spirit brings peace and joy, as old relationships seem to be let go and new relationships that serve the Holy Spirit’s purpose come into awareness. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that the only right use of judgment is asking yourself, “How do I feel?” If you start to get prompted to call certain people, and after the call you feel a certain vitality, then it shows the prompt came from the Holy Spirit. You listened, followed, and got the experience. If you find yourself being depressed, feeling fatigued or dispirited, and saying, “Wow, I’m glad I got that over with.” Then the prompts are coming in from guilt. All these relationships have guilt in them. Now the Holy Spirit is saying, the way out of the guilt is giving all the relationships to the Holy Spirit.
What Is Thicker than Blood
You start off with loosening what is most dear to you. The ego doesn’t want you to know you’re dreaming. Yet the Holy Spirit uses the symbols in a beautiful way until we know we are the dreamer. Your strength is in the presence, and keeping that in awareness fuels our journey. Ultimately the awareness of dreaming is the function of God’s teachers.