Fellow A Course In Miracles enthusiast, student, and teacher Stefan Bolz shares some of his history with the Course and much more in this fun, helpful, and engaging video conversation.
We shared our appreciation for the crucial idea – often overlooked by even long-time Course students – that ACIM isn’t about affirming the “positive” but rather undoing our made-up “negative” mindset – Rather than a “yes” curriculum, it is a “not no” curriculum as our beloved teacher Ken Wapnick of the Foundation for A Course In Miracles (FACIM) advised throughout his teaching. The unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable (eternal) Truth doesn’t need our help to be what it is. Fortunately, that (unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable (eternal) Truth) is our real identity. ACIM doesn’t attempt to teach us the meaning of our real Identity – Love – since that will be revealed to us after we’ve removed the metaphoric wheel chocks and tie-downs that are keeping the plane of our mind grounded on the tarmac – or mired in ego’s quicksand, to mix metaphors a bit!
“It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.” (ACIM, T-in.1:7)
“If you would look upon love, which is the world’s reality, how could you do better than to recognize, in every defense against it, the underlying appeal for it?” (ACIM, T-12.I.10:1)
“A happy outcome to all things is sure.” (ACIM, W-292)
We talked briefly about his video “A Course in Miracles – Applied: Purpose – The Final Frontier of Spirituality” and also referred to a favorite Workbook lesson 182 – “I will be still an instant and go home.” (ACIM, W-182) that speaks to our essential nostalgia for the eternal, innocent identity we thought we had forsaken, but this alleged crime is impossible.
“Nothing survives its purpose.” (ACIM, T-29.VI.3:1)
Stefan offered a very helpful metaphor: that we’re in ego’s metaphoric quicksand with our head barely above water.
We need Holy Spirit’s help to look at what our ego is doing and let go of our investment in its completely erroneous propaganda; we need to not be content with the hellacious dream we fabricated; which prompted recalling these favorite quotes (not from ACIM, but pertinent):
and
Stafan’s comments quoted below remind me of a “freeze frame” technique I find helpful: to imagine having our insane thoughts captured like a slow-motion sports replay where we can see ego “fumbling the ball” so to speak and notice how Holy Spirit (a.k.a. Jesus of ACIM) never fumbles, but ego always fumbles everything by projecting and condemning every projected, dissociated thought onto this surreal world. Ego doesn’t know how to deal with what is true, kind, peaceful, or any identity other than a separate state. Looking at this contrast with our Inner Kindness Teacher (Holy Spirit) is like just observing how we put ourselves in proverbial quicksand and we need to practice the “3 R’s of Forgiveness:
- Reveal how our decision for ego got us into our seeming perplexities
- Release our grip (our white-knuckled determination to hold fast to what doesn’t work) and let go of trying to solve things ourselves
- Allow Holy Spirit (with no effort or interference on our part) to Replace our (ego) insanity with His serene, certain, comforting, sanity.
Another alliterative acronym (the 3 L’s of forgiveness) is:
- Look (with Holy Spirit or Jesus or any purely non-ego presence in your mind) at ego including each specific grievance, accusation or depressing misinterpretation
- Let go (of our insistence on being “right” instead of happy)
- Let in (the profound peace that is waiting patiently for our welcoming of it)
“You see the judgment all around you and there’s no way out. The only real thing that helps at that moment … is to take Jesus’ hand and stay with that sense of doom (with Jesus) and not try to get out and not try to change it and not try to feel better or anything like that, just stay in it. Stay with the pain and stop there. Don’t try anything. Don’t try to get out. Don’t try to escape the pain. Just stay there with Jesus. That’s … the core of looking.” – Stefan Bolz
“You make it difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need do. ³You find it difficult to accept the idea that you need give so little, to receive so much. ⁴And it is very hard for you to realize it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit’s are so extremely disproportionate. ⁵You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. ⁶Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. ⁷Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot give right now.” (ACIM, T-18.IV.7:2-7)
Don’t work on it. (Don’t try to solve ego with ego.) Working implies lack, and deficiency and makes our made-up dream seem to be real.
“Do not fight yourself.” (ACIM, T-30.I.1:7)
“I Need Do Nothing.” (ACIM, T-18.VII)
“Once God’s Son is seen as guilty, illness becomes inevitable. ²It has been asked for and will be received. ³And all who ask for illness have now condemned themselves to seek for remedies that cannot help, because their faith is in the illness and not in salvation. ⁴There can be nothing that a change of mind cannot effect, for all external things are only shadows of a decision already made. ⁵Change the decision, and how can its shadow be unchanged? ⁶Illness can be but guilt’s shadow, grotesque and ugly since it mimics deformity. ⁷If a deformity is seen as real, what could its shadow be except deformed?” (ACIM, P-2.IV.2:1-7)
The separation isn’t the problem; the BELIEF in separation is the problem!
Two pairs of lessons (among all of them) can be quite helpful:
“Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” (ACIM, W-79) … Let me stay with Holy Spirit in ego’s quicksand just long enough to allow it to be seen for what it is, and let go of it’s quaint absurdity and utter hopelessness; and then “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.” (ACIM, W-80)
As Ken Wapnick reminded, if we can only remember two workbook lessons, these are two that summarize what we need to do to apply the Course over and over and over:
“I am never upset for the reason I think.” (ACIM, W-5)
and
“I could see peace instead of this.” (ACIM, W-34)
“Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Answer, not the question. The ego always speaks first.” (ACIM, T-6.IV.1:1-2)
… and of course, the ego is always wrong!
Here’s another quote we drew from that rephrases the first two steps in the forgiveness process:
“Healing occurs as a patient begins to hear the dirge he sings, and questions its validity. ⁶Until he hears it, he cannot understand that it is he who sings it to himself. ⁷To hear it is the first step in recovery. ⁸To question it must then become his choice.” (ACIM, P-2.VI.1:5-8)
We need to be gently, patiently vigilant for our ego’s sabotage, luring us persistently into mental quicksand. As Stefan noted, we have a tendency to make the curriculum seem easier than it is; but the happy outcome is certain. We’re all recovering bliss-ninnies.
Stefan asked “Am I really sinful?” as the pivotal question we all must ask ourselves over and over until we can answer (with Holy Spirit’s help) … No!
Stefan mentioned working with one of the German translators of ACIM, Franchita Cattani who also contributed to ACIM’s French translation.
We also shared praise for the Web Edition of ACIM; thanks to Felix and everyone at Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) for this truly helpful resource!
This video was recorded on October 19, 2023.
Stefan’s excellent YouTube channel – A Course In Miracles – Applied – has over 100 insightful, clear presentations of important Course topics; here is his description of the channel:
“The purpose of this channel is to help students of A Course in Miracles deepen their understanding of the material by discussing key concepts and applying its principles to one’s life. A Course in Miracles lays forth a complete path, picking us up from where we are, and leading us to the peace of God – the home we have never left. This journey is challenging. Not because the path is hard in and of itself, but because of our resistance to remembering who and what we are in truth. The Course is written in the Christian language but its goal is to lead beyond any religion to a true experience of peace. One way of beginning on this channel might be the playlist “A Journey Through the Teachings of ACIM” which provides a logical sequence of topics tailored to build on each other and thereby slowly expanding one’s understanding of the material. It is my sincere hope that you find the explanations helpful on your own journey with the Course. Peace, Stefan Bolz.”
He is also the author of several books and many other contributions to collaborative works which you can find here on Amazon, as well as more info on his blog: Stefan’s Writing Desk: Stories of Hope and Splendor. and Facebook page: Stefan Bolz, Author.
