 Marriage is really synonymous with union. In fact, if you listen to the marriage vows where two become as one where a man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home You know, it's it's a symbol of joining together and coming together in union. That's really what the intent is behind marriage Now the more you start to understand the metaphysics of this world you start to realize that that when you have two separate human beings that perceive themselves as private individuals with private minds and private thoughts that the attempt at joining It's going to you know, there's going to be all hell breaking was before this union is consummated It would be so easy just to have sex to consummate the union But that's not the way it works Because there's going to be what people enter into a committed relationship But it's just a significant other or whether it is actually a legal marriage or whatever What you're going to find is there's an enormous amount of mirroring that's going to go on and flushing up an enormous darkness unconscious fear and guilt and hatred and worthiness issues and All these past issues that have been pushed down under awareness get flushed up in significant other kind of relationships, so In one sense you might say there's it's a nice impetus behind it or to become as one But when you get into what Jesus is teaching us in the course is the two never become one But you have to let go of the mask of your individuality to recognize that you already are one that God created you Whom God has joined together and let no man put us under you can't Really break apart from each other or from God and that's really the goal of Marriage and if it's given over to the Holy Spirit or if it's given over to your higher power The Holy Spirit will use that commitment to flush up everything that's not love so you can see that you are truly one line Sometimes you hear about like my grandmother I mentioned earlier she and Lillian and Harry were married for 57 years and They went through lots of stuff in those 57 years, but a lot of times if you really do move move towards that union experience It's like two people finishing each other's senses It gets really telepathic if it's truly used by the Holy Spirit You start to lay down the walls lay down the projections and the grievances and you reach better and better communication loving respectful open-minded heartfelt intimate communication and actually starts to take you actually into telepathy And that's what soulmates are all about You know where you you your souls kind of beat beat as one and you're so tuned in that you hardly need words You just can look at each other know what you're thinking now to the ego The ego has its own version of marriage bodies together minds apart And we've heard about those marriages that may seem to last But the quality of the marriage is not good at all. It's like it's dark. It's like ships passing in the night It's a sense of privacy. It's a sense of like, you know, just digging in and saying well I will stay together for the sake of the kids or the sake of the whatever the sake of Finances or whatever and that's when the ego's got a hold of the so-called marriage and it's using it to reinforce separation and So divorce is so there's a connotation around divorce. It's a terrible thing divorce isn't always a bad thing if If the ego's got the whole of your marriage The Holy Spirit may come swooping into your mind and go It's time to get a divorce Because you know you want to grow and you want to open up and and it's one thing to Open towards this high quality, but it's another thing to just stick it out Just for the sake of hanging in there to keep the bodies together So if the minds aren't really communicating and you don't really share a purpose Then it's good to be actually good to start the question. What's the purpose of hanging on here? Where's the aliveness? Where's the joy? Where's the happiness and freedom? Now when you get to the Course of Miracles, he says The only true union is at the level of the Christ mind so Even the best of marriages in this world, you know Aspire to that but the Christ mind the level of the Christ mind That is a realm of pure oneness because the Christ mind is pure oneness And that really gets into mysticism. So you might say that That some of these mystics and saints when you are just playing st. Francis and you think of Jesus and the apostles and St. John the cross and all these mystics and saints They've been going for union with God too When I've met I've gone to convents. I've gone to monasteries I've talked to priests nuns Revised monks when we really go deep into the discussion What we find is that they're going for union with God too. They're going for a marriage of their own kind In fact nuns go through quite a series of steps to become the bright Christ Literally, and I had a friend that traveled with me in the early years. She went into the convent at 14 And then stayed in there for like eight years until she was supposed to take her final vows and they get dressed up and Wiped and married Jesus and she left Jesus at the altar though. She couldn't She got that all the way to that point to take her final vows and then she went I'm out of here And so and I had worked with her You know after she left there She had done that she talked to the most superior says I can't do this. I'm out of here She just bolted from the convent and she got married within like a couple years to a man And then they were married for a while then she he seemed to go insane and crazy and didn't know who she was And so she divorced him and then she tried the peace corps and all these things and I had worked with her Many years ago and then when she found me again. I was so lit up with joy. She just was like, what have you been doing? What are you into? I mean my gosh, you are just so lit and that's now it's been a course of miracles and that So she ended up taking off and traveling with me But that was another good example about how even when you're trying to be the bride of christ You've got to face those unconscious dark things That are there whether you do it through a partnership or you do it with the mother superior Whatever you're going to have to go through those dark things and so I kind of keep it in a larger context of It's really about following your inner prompts and it's really about being True to that guidance because this holy spirit is inside you And there's nothing special about being married or single And there's nothing special or better about going into a convent or going through a marriage relationship