What is a holy relationship?
Where is the holy relationship??
In the ACIM supplement called the Song of Prayer, Jesus tells us not to place forgiveness in an earthly frame.
True forgiveness does not happen between bodies, but only in the mind.
The same is true with the holy relationship. It is not a relationship between bodies, but is an experience of our united holiness as Christ in our mind, in our internal relationship with the Holy Spirit.
To understand this, we must first understand what ACIM means by mind… it is not our brain, but an internal place inside each of us where we either unconsciously choose the ego as our guide and teacher (the unholy relationship), or we consciously choose the Holy Spirit to help us change our perception of ourselves to what we truly are as Christ (the holy relationship).
Puppets in a puppet show can’t have a real relationship. It’s all happening in the mind of the puppeteer.
We as bodies can’t have a holy relationship. Bodies are just figures in a dream… like seemingly interacting puppets in a puppet show, guided by either our relationship with the ego or by our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Our belief that we are actually bodies having relationships with other bodies the Course calls … special relationships.
The holy relationship of oneness is in our one mind, in which we are joined with all other seeming separated minds.
It is the relationship of our mind’s decision maker (the internal part of us that chooses between the ego or the Holy Spirit)… with the Holy Spirit, i.e. with our own Holiness, instead of a relationship with a separated ego ‘self.’
Seen that way, the compulsive desperation for a puppet or body to have a romantic relationship (or any kind of body-to-body relationship) with another body, as intense as it seems to be sometimes, gets pretty silly, and is an obvious major distraction from the ‘real deal’ in the mind.
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However, Jesus is not telling us not to have special relationships as puppets in a puppet show, as bodies in a dream…
but to allow the Holy Spirit to use those special relationships as classrooms, and teach us (as a decision maker in our mind) to wake up and direct our awareness to where the real holy relationship already is, and is already happening… in our own mind, and not between bodies.
Special relationships between bodies can seem sometimes loving or sometimes hateful, or even alternate between the two… to keep us preoccupied and focused as separate selves in an unrecognized dream.
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The real ‘trap’ or goal of special love relationships (with the ego as puppeteer), as described in Chap. 15-16-17 of the Text, is not really to have a ‘loving’ relationship with someone that helps fill the ‘hole’ inside us. But it is to point a blaming finger at someone else (besides ourselves) when that relationship inevitably seems to let us down, whether through betrayal, abandonment, or death.
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Our own chosen belief then is that they robbed me of my peace. And thus we stay blind to our own inner choice to get rid of peace (first obstacle to peace in Chap. 19), and then blame that lack of peace on someone else. Thus the special love relationship is a huge attack or conspiracy against ourselves… to keep us from ever waking up to the beauty of our inner holy relationship with the Holy Spirit, with everyone and everything already included, already there internally in our mind.
![The Holy Relationship: A Stream of Stars [CD]](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2062/0643/products/206-JB_front_CD_480x480.jpg?v=1509586776)
See Ken Wapnick’s Seminar on “The Holy Relationship”
click here
Our major ACIM ‘classrooms’ are always our relationships, especially all the relationship challenges we are facing in this times of crises.
Jesus wants us to learn and practice his non-traditional process of forgiveness as outlined in the Course… his prescribed plan for forgiveness in all our relationships, changing them from special love and special hate into the holy relationship already in our mind.
He tells us… Seek not to change the world and your relationships in it, but seek to change your mind about the world and the relationships that you have. In our School’s online Text series on ACIM Chapters 15, 16, and 17, we have discussed what our ego-based special relationships look like, and how to transform them in our minds, with Jesus help… into a reflection of something already real and holy.
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To see our SFACIM YouTube Video Series on the Text Chapters 15-16-17…
which includes our discussions of special love relationships and the holy relationship:
click here