Yehochanan - John
God Gives Blessings as Experience: JWK:ATL 6/8
In this section of the lecture, Kaiser digs deeper into the experiental dimension of John the Baptist as an experience. As I’ve mentioned previously, I equate this to the phase of the process that the Course calls the happy learner. Kaiser here reflects on the aspect of spiritual growth that is pictured in the transition from Zachariah, as the father of John, to John. The transition is a matter of choice, as Kaiser sees it, a choice if Zacharias’ son will be called John or still Zacharias. This to me is a parallel with the notion in the Course that the secret of salvation lies in the fact that since we got ourselves in trouble, we can also change our mind and find the way out by tuning to the Holy Spirit and truly putting the future in the hands of God.
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. ²No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. ³Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. ⁴Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. ⁵For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. ⁶Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream. (ACIM, T-27.VIII.10:1-6)
In the grateful experience of God’s Blessings, conveyed in the appearance of John, we connect to the birth of the Jesus child within us that will bring us the Knowledge of Blessings and of Salvation. The rest of the process is about the growth of the Jesus child within us, who eventually lets himself be baptized by John and then experiences what the Course would call that moment of accepting the Atonement. Knowing that nothing happened and that Jesus is God’s Beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Thus John was the Elijah who the Jews wait for at the Passover Seder, making a table setting for him. Kaiser views John-consciousness as a necessary precursor to Jesus consciousness and the expression of a living occurrence on our journey. Again and again, Kaiser comes back to the idea that this is all a parable for the inner experience on our spiritual path, and not helped by any church dogmatism or theology.
Kaiser’s treatment of the actors in the Gospel drama as manifestations of changes in our consciousness, is consistent with how I was first introduced to Jesus as a toddler, as being God’s Help, that was available to all people at all times. You just needed to ask, but, as was also made clear to me, God was not like Santa Claus, and it was not like you were giving him your wish list and hope for the best. Asking for Help required that you accept Help on God’s terms, not yours, so that setting aside your own expectations of what the Help might look like was an essential part of the process of asking for Help. Along those lines, it also always made a lot of sense to me when I heard Ken Wapnick express that:
Jesus is a What, Who looks like a Who, because you think you are a who.
(Ken Wapnick).