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Tablet Three
VISION OF THE
FOUR BEASTS BY DANIEL
Chapter 7
"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a
dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream,
and told the sum of the matters." (Daniel 7:1)
<1>This is a dream by Daniel himself. Also it is not a
usual dream but it is a "dream and visions." It is the kind of
dream which comes to a person as a message from the spiritual world
(Unconscious Mind,
Universal Mind).
"Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold,
the four winds of the
heaven strove upon
the great sea."
(Daniel 7:2)
<2>As it was explained,
wind is the symbol of the
illusion of life (Maya).
These illusions which are the cause of all suffering are four:
attraction, desire and its fulfillment, attachment, and greed. <3>The excess (unnecessary)
attraction
toward the external world and its temporary pleasures create desires in man.
Fulfillment of desires causes man to become attached
to the external world, attachment
increases the desires and brings greed to have more and more, and greed drowns the man deeper into the ocean of
Maya (illusion).
<4>As the man sinks deeper into these four illusionary
phenomena, they become even stronger to confuse the person. <5>That
is why they are like the "four
winds of the
heaven" which hit "the
great sea."
<6>Water is a
symbol for consciousness. When symbolized as a river, sea, or ocean
(restless
waters), it implies
confused consciousness (mind).
<7>The confusion of the
mind is created by these
four "winds of the
heaven." As the
hurricane creates much restlessness in the ocean, also it is these
four
winds which cause desires
to arise in the consciousness and create attachment, greed, more
attraction, more desires, and so on. <8>"The
great sea" here is the symbol of the
collective consciousness
of the people of the earth. ("Great sea" -- ocean -- is different
than "sea." The great
sea is the symbol for the
collective consciousness of many humans, but sea is the symbol
of the confused
mind of one
unit
consciousness or human).
"And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from
another." (Daniel 7:3)
<9>"Four great beasts came up" from this confused world. They
arose from the earth
with earthly standards (these beasts are different than the ones
described in The Revelation. Those beasts have arisen from
the sea, not from
the great sea).
<10>As it will be described later on in this chapter, "These
great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out
of the
earth" (verse 17).
Again the emphasis is that they "shall arise out of the
earth," so that
great sea (earth)
is from where their standards have come. These kings are not from
heaven but from
earth. They are as
confused as others on
earth, and have
arisen from this confusion.
<11>They are "diverse one from another," or they are not from
the same quality but are different with separate purposes.
<12>Also, the fourth beast had ten horns on his head,
"...fourth beast,... and it had ten horns" (verse 7). <13>These
ten horns are the ten kings which would come out of the fourth
kingdom, "And the ten horns out of this kingdom [fourth kingdom] are
ten kings that shall arise;..." (verse 24).
<14In the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, the ten toes which
had come out of the feet and legs of the fourth kingdom were the ten
kings who would arise in later days. Here in Daniel's dream, these
ten horns have the same meaning as those ten toes.
<15>Therefore, the vision-dream of Daniel and the dream about
the metal image have identical messages and also are complementary.
So the first beast will be as the first kingdom, or the head of
gold, or the Chaldean Empire with King Nebuchadnezzar as its leader.
<16>The second beast is the same as the silver part of the
metal image. The third beast is the brass part, and the fourth is
the iron part of the image. The ten toes are the same as the ten
horns, which will be ten kings who will arise from the
earth.
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