In the Book of Daniel, Chapter Four is narrated, after the events of the chapter, by a much-changed Nebuchadnezzar. In the internal sense, the story shows both the Lord's mercy in leading us, and also the depths of despair to which we sink before we willingly open our minds to the Lord and pray for His leadership.

At the beginning of the story, Nebuchadnezzar's idleness imitates the sense of complacency when things seem to be going right, when no temptations darken our skies, and essential selfishness asserts itself once again. Our mind is its house, its palace. We come into this state after a temptation or battle against our sense of selfishness, when we put the struggle aside and rest on our laurels. We are oblivious to the fact that regeneration is an ongoing state, that one temptation succeeds another, and that once conscience has been established in our thought processes, it will not be too long before the lethargy of selfishness is challenged.

While Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in his house, he had a disturbing dream, one unknown to him. As before when he did not understand his dreams, he called the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers, who, once again, could not interpret the dream.

Often we feel that we face the same temptations over and over again. We might wonder if we will ever regenerate. This is because we fall into a state of selfishness, represented by the king at rest. But when we encounter resistance to that selfishness, we turn back to all our old thought patterns to help us.

Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar called Daniel to tell him his dream. As he recounts the story after the seven years of illness, he uses the words he had spoken before. He addresses Daniel as Belteshazzar, because that is how he saw him before the temptation. Even so, he recognized the presence of the Spirit of the Holy God within him, acknowledging Daniel's power to explain dreams and give interpretations.

The king's second dream took the image of a great tree, planted in the earth, so high it could be seen from the ends of the earth. This parallels the image of the great statue, whose head was gold. As we saw earlier, this image represents the initial state of perfection, followed by a decline as a person turns away from this ideal. The statue shows how self love takes dominance in our lives if unchecked, and brings us into a final state of spiritual destruction.

In this new dream, the tree in the midst of the earth is a reference to the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Both trees symbolize wisdom. The Tree of Life represented the perception the Most Ancient people had from love (Arcana Coelestia 103), but Nebuchadnezzar's tree is from the love of self and the different perceptions people have when motivated by that love (Apocalypse Explained 1029:6).

But when Nebuchadnezzar saw the tree in his dream, it was lovely. Everything in the dream which normally has a good and beautiful significance, instead takes on a negative meaning. The leaves and flowers, which should have been a picture of guiding truths (Arcana Coelestia 9553), represent the opposite, as the falsities which mislead us. We saw how the king called his false guides: the magicians, soothsayers, astrologers, and Chaldeans.

The birds represent the false thoughts from selfishness (Arcana Coelestia 5149). These give credence to selfishness, to justify it and find new ways to express it. So the tree takes on an intellectual picture of the selfish mind. But the mind is made up of both intellect and emotion. There were also beasts sheltering under the tree representing the things we care about.

When selfishness rules in us, just as Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, all the lesser loves take their cue from this leading love. Thus the beasts of the field, were drawn to the tree for food and shelter.

After this scene is set, Nebuchadnezzar sees "a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven." The introduction of the indescribable watcher is the turning point in the dream, marking the beginning of the end for this marvel reaching up to heaven.

In a state of selfishness, we are spiritually asleep, just as Nebuchadnezzar was asleep when he dreamed. But the Lord never sleeps. Truth in our minds is always vigilant, looking for ways of bringing itself to our consciousness to lead us out of our selfish state. Just as everything seemed right in Nebuchadnezzar's world, he became aware of a watcher—the truth.

In an instant, the king's serenity was changed: a force greater than himself commanded the destruction of the tree, and there was nothing he could do about it. These words make it clear just how vulnerable our selfish states are. At their height, they seem so powerful, but in the face of truth they are shown for the sordid little nothings they are. Truth has the power to expose evil, and we should not be afraid to allow it to do so in our own lives. To stand indicted of selfishness is not the end of life, as it may feel, but the beginning of a new life of liberation.

But we still need some sense of self. There is nothing wrong with being concerned with our own well-being; it is vital to our lives. Selfishness is a part of us, but it needs to be kept under control, subordinated to the higher loves of serving the Lord and our neighbor.

This is why the watcher did not order the complete destruction of the tree: the stump is all that is left of a rampant selfishness, the bands of iron and brass represent thoughts and feelings which originate in selfishness, which can be used to keep it under control (Apocalypse Explained 650:32).

Finally, with the tree destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar himself had to be changed. The watcher commanded that the king is given the heart of an animal for seven years. In substance abuse recovery programs, it is said that an addict cannot change until they hit rock-bottom—when they realize the full necessity of change. In spiritual life, this rock bottom is a point at which we almost lose our humanity, we are so dominated by selfishness, greed and the lust of dominion that we lose our ability to think rationally. We become animals. The difference between humans and animals is our ability to think and act in freedom. Self-love destroys that freedom, thus destroying all humanity within us.

In this prophesy, we see a descent: from man, to beast, to ox. People are human because they are created in the image and likeness of the Lord. Thus human beings have the ability to think and act according to reason. This is the essence of our humanity (Arcana Coelestia 477, 2305, 4051, 585, 1555). When these are in tune with truth and goodness from the Lord, then we are truly human, because the image of the Lord is in us.

So again, we see this slide from an ideal to a lesser state: from man, the king became a beast. From rationality and freedom, he entered slavery. This fall appears earlier in the Word: when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were cast out.

Finally he was told that he would eat grass like oxen. In a positive sense, oxen represent our affections (Arcana Coelestia 5198, 5642, 6357), or our love of the things of this world. But the opposite meaning of 'ox' is the perversion of goodness (Arcana Coelestia 9083), and the affection for injuring others (Arcana Coelestia 9094).

This humbling of the king represents the proper use of the love of self, and shows that the Lord does not eradicate it, because it is the foundation of true relationships with other people and the Lord Himself. But before it can become useful, selfishness needs to be converted into a humbled love of self, and we must return from the ox state.

As Daniel explained the meaning of the dream, he offered the king counsel: 'break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.' This is the next step in spiritual awareness. Seeing our selfishness, coupled with an increased awareness of the Lord, we reach the point where thoughts must become actions. At first glance, the concept of 'sins and iniquities' may seem redundant. But in the Word, pairs of synonymous words reflect two internal senses: the celestial and the spiritual (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 80). The celestial relates broadly to goodness, and the spiritual to truth. Together they make one.

Daniel's advice to Nebuchadnezzar is to repent. Repentance is the only way out of the quicksand of selfishness. The Lord taught that we should love one another as He loves us (John 13:34, John 15:12). To love ourselves alone, and to wish to control others is not in keeping with the Lord's teachings. The only solution is to listen to the voice of our conscience and allow ourselves to be guided by the truth.

In spite of everything, Nebuchadnezzar's pride was not reduced. As he walked around his palace, his heart was filled with pride: 'is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?'

A selfish person believes that everything they own or have accomplished is by their own power. There is no place for God or anyone else. When people do not listen to the Lord's teachings and reject His counsel, there is nothing the Lord can do but allow the person to reap the consequences of their choice.

The king remained in this ox-state until seven times passed over him, which illustrates that the Lord leaves us in this state until it runs its course. Sometimes it takes us a lifetime to see how our selfishness hurts others, and ourselves. Yet the Lord never leaves us. The promise of the root of the tree, bound with bands of iron and bronze is always there. The Lord works unceasingly to bring our selfishness under control until it can serve the higher loves of our neighbor and the Lord Himself.

Forgiveness begins in the recognition that we are in sin. In his ox-like state, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven. Eyes represent understanding (Arcana Coelestia 2975, 3863), and to lift them to heaven is to lift our understanding to the truths the Lord has given us. The king had been given some truths in his dreams and in the interpretation of them. He knew from Daniel's advice that he needed to repent and change his ways. As he did so, his understanding and appreciation of the Lord grew. He realized how small he was in the grand scheme of things. The inflated ego of selfishness was deflated by the recognition that all things had been given to him by the Lord.

His story is our story. We each build our empires in one way or another. We hold the power of life and death over others in a figurative sense—do we not decide who we like and dislike, who is admitted out our 'inner circle' and who is beyond the pale? The warnings the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar apply to us, and like the king, we can also ignore them. The consequences in our lives are the same, as we are reduced to a merely animal-being, wet with the dew of heaven.

Yet can we hear the Lord's voice calling, for unless we do, we will remain in that state. Can we lift our eyes to heaven and search for the truth leading to the greatest declaration one can make, provided it is done with the heart and not with the lips:

Now I … praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and his ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to abase.

47. From Secrets of Heaven

On our inner and outer natures. While it is recognized in the Christian world ¹ that we have an inner level and an outer level or an inner self and an outer self, there is little knowledge of the nature of either: 1889, 1940. The inner self is spiritual and the outer self is earthly: 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9708. An inner self that is spiritual is formed into an image of heaven, and an outer self that is earthly is formed into an image of this world-how this happens, and how it is the reason the ancients called the human being a microcosm: 3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472. This means that the spiritual world and the earthly world are joined together in us: 6057, 10472. It means that we have the ability to look upward toward heaven and downward toward earth: 7601, 7604, 7607. When we look up we are in heaven's light and see what it shows us, while when we look down we are in the world's light and see what it shows us: 3167, 10134. In humankind a pathway has been created from the spiritual world into the earthly one: 3702, 4042.

[2] The inner self (which is spiritual) and the outer self (which is earthly) are completely distinct from each other: 1999, 2018, 3691, 4459. The distinction is like that between a cause and its effect and like that between what is prior and what is subsequent; it is not along a continuum: 3691, 4145, 5146, 5711, 6275, 6284, 6299, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10076, 10099, 10181. So the difference is like that between heaven and this world or between something spiritual and something earthly: 6055. Our inner and outer natures are not along a continuum but are separated on distinctly different levels that have well-defined boundaries: 3691, 4145, 5114, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10099. Anyone who does not perceive the distinctions between our inner and outer natures in keeping with their levels and who does not understand what the levels are like cannot comprehend our inner and outer selves: 5146, 6465, 10099, 10181. Things that are on a higher level are more perfect than things that are on a lower level: 3405. There are three levels in us that are in accord with the three heavens: 4154. The outer things in us are relatively remote from the Divine, so they are more obscure and general: 6451. They are also relatively disorganized: 996, 3855. Inner things are more perfect because they are closer to the Divine: 5146, 5147. There are thousands upon thousands of things in our inner self that appear as one general thing in the outer self: 5707. So the more inward our thinking and perception are, the clearer they are: 5920. It follows then that we should concentrate on what lies in the deeper levels: 1175, 4464.

[3] When we are focused on love and caring, the deeper levels of our mind are actually raised up by the Lord. Otherwise they would face downward: 6952, 6954, 10330. When our inner natures are actively raised up by the Lord, the result is an inflow and enlightenment for us out of heaven: 7816, 10330. When we turn our attention to spiritual matters we are raised up: 9922. To the extent that we are raised up from outward concerns toward inward ones we come into the light and therefore into intelligence; or as the ancients used to say, this happens when the mind withdraws from sense impressions: 6183, 6313. Being raised up from outward to inward concerns is like being lifted out of a fog into the light: 4598.

[4] The inflow from the Lord comes through our inner self into our outer self: 1940, 5119. There can be an inflow from our inner self into our outer self, because inflow is spiritual, not physical-that is, there can be a flow from the spiritual self into the earthly self but not from the earthly self into the spiritual self: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9110. From the inner realm, where it is peaceful, the Lord governs the outer realm, where it is chaotic: 5396a.

[5] The inner self can see everything in the outer self, but not the reverse: 1914, 1953, 5427, 5428, 5477. While we are living in this world, the thinking in our outer self comes from our inner self; our spiritual thinking flows into our earthly thinking and presents itself in earthly forms: 3679. When we are thinking well, those thoughts are coming from our inner or spiritual self into our outer or earthly self: 9704, 9705, 9707. How the outer self thinks and intends depends on its relationship with the inner self: 9702, 9703.

There is inner thinking and there is outer thinking: 2515, 2552, 5127, 5141, 5168, 6007 (which include information about what each type of thinking is like). As long as we are living in this world we do not perceive the thinking and feeling that are going on in our inner self; we perceive only the thinking and feeling that result from this in our outer self: 10236, 10240. In the other life, though, our outer layer is stripped away and we are brought into our true inner nature: 8870. We can then see what inner things are like: 1806, 1807.

[6] Our inner self produces our outer self: 994, 995. The inner self then clothes itself in whatever enables it get results in the outer self (6275, 6284, 6299) and to live in the outer self (1175, 6275). When the Lord regenerates us, he joins our inner or spiritual self to our outer or earthly self: 1577, 1594, 1904, 1999. The outer or earthly self is then put in its rightful place by means of the inner or spiritual self and becomes subservient: 9708.

[7] The outer self needs to be subservient and subject to the inner self: 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272. The outer self was designed and created to serve the inner self: 5947. The inner self must be the master and the outer self a servant and in a certain respect even a slave: 10471.

[8] The outer self needs to correspond to the inner in order for the two to be joined together: 5427, 5428. What the outer self is like when it corresponds to the inner self and what it is like when it does not: 3493, 5422, 5423, 5427, 5428, 5477, 5512. There are things in the outer self that correspond to and stand in harmony with the inner, and there are things that do not correspond or stand in harmony: 1563, 1568.

[9] The outer self derives its nature from the inner: 9912, 9921, 9922. How great the beauty of the outer self is when it is joined to the inner self (1590) and how ugly it is when it is not (1598). Love for the Lord and caring about our neighbor join the outer self to the inner: 1594. Unless the inner self is joined to the outer there is no fruitfulness: 3987.

[10] Things that are deep within flow down into more outward levels by stages until finally they flow into the outermost or last, which is where they become manifest together and persist: 634, 6239, 9216. They not only flow in by stages, they also all come together on the last [and lowest] level in accord with the design: 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099. All that lies within is held in a connection from first to last: 9828. This also gives things that are on the outermost level strength and power: 9836. The result is that answers and revelations come through the outermost level: 9905, 10548. This is also why the outermost level is more holy than the inner levels: 9824. So in the Word, "the First and the Last" means every single thing and therefore all there is: 10044, 10329, 10335.

[11] The inner self is open when we are in accord with the divine design and closed when we are not in accord with the divine design: 8513. Without the inner self, heaven has no way of being joined to the outer self: 9380. Both evils and the falsities that come from them close the inner self and limit us to the outermost level (1587, 10492); especially evils that result from self-love (1594). If we refuse to receive what flows in from the Divine, our deeper levels are closed until we are reduced to the sensory level, which is the last [and lowest]: 6564. In the intelligent and learned of this world who take stances against the truths of heaven and the church on the basis of facts they have learned, the inner level is more completely closed than it is for similarly minded simple people: 10492.

[12] Since the inner self is in heaven's light and the outer is in this world's light, if we are focused on the outer to the exclusion of the inner (that is, if our inner self is closed) we have no appetite for profound truths about heaven and the church: 4464, 4946. In that case, in the other life we cannot bear things of an internal nature: 10694, 10701, 10707. We do not believe anything: 10396, 10400, 10411, 10429. We love ourselves and the world more than anything else: 10407, 10412, 10420. No matter how we may seem outwardly, our deeper levels-the processes of our thinking and feeling-are ugly, foul, and profane: 1182, 7046, 9962. Our ideas and thinking are materialistic and not in the least spiritual: 10582. What we are like when our inner level, which faces heaven, is closed: 4459, 9709, 10284, 10286, 10429, 10472, 10492, 10602, 10683.

[13] As our inner, spiritual self is more and more opened, the kinds of goodness and truth we have multiply; as our inner, spiritual self is more and more closed, the kinds of goodness and truth we have disappear: 4099. The church exists in our inner, spiritual self because that self is in heaven; it does not exist in our outer self apart from the inner: 10698. Therefore if we do not have the church in our internal life, having the trappings of it in our external life does nothing for us: 1795. Outward worship apart from inner worship is no worship at all: 1094, 1175. About people who are focused on the inner aspects of the church, worship, and the Word; people who are focused on outward aspects that contain the inner; and people who are focused on outward aspects that lack the inner: 10683. When the inner aspects are lacking, the outward aspects take on a hardness: 9377, 10429.

[14] Merely earthly people are an embodiment of hell unless they become spiritual by means of regeneration: 10156. Everyone who is absorbed in the outer level apart from anything inner, or anyone whose inner, spiritual self is closed, is in hell: 9128, 10483, 10489.

[15] Our inner selves turn actively toward the things we love: 10702. Absolutely everything must have both an inner level and an outer level if it is to exist at all: 9473.

[16] In the Word, "lofty and high" means inner: 1735, 2148, 4210, 4599. So in the Word, "higher" means more inward and "lower" means more outward: 3084.

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