The author of the Book of Revelation remains veiled in mystery, although scholars mainly concur that he was a Jewish-Christian prophet living in Asia Minor as an exile on the isle of Patmos in the closing years of the first century. It largely forecasts the end of an age, not unlike our own which began in 2012–an age of constant tribulation. I have chosen the translation from the New Jerusalem Bible–most faithful to the Greek text.
The opening prologue (1:1-20) reads like the beginning of a movie script. 1:1-8 focuses the camera on John who is situated on the small island named Patmos, which is in the Aegean Sea. All about him suddenly shifts, and he is taken up as if in clouds of visionary splendor:
Rev 1:3 Blessed is anyone who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed those who hear them, if they treasure the content, because the Time is near.
Rev 1:4 John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,
Rev 1:6 and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen
seven spirits who are before his throne:
1) The Spirit of the LORD
2) The Spirit of wisdom
3) The Spirit of understanding
4) The Spirit of counsel
5) The Spirit of power
6) The Spirit of knowledge
7) The Spirit of the fear of the Lord
and from Jesus Christ:
The Great Light-Bearer–an anointed Bodhisattva.
a Kingdom of Priests:
For our singular reference, these are Bodhisattvas, mediators of the Buddhadharma to the less fortunate.
Rev 1:7 Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen.
Rev 1:8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
Rev 1:9 I, John, your brother and partner in hardships, in the kingdom and in perseverance in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos on account of the Word of God and of witness to Jesus;
Rev 1:10 it was the Lord’s Day and I was in ecstasy, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like the sound of a trumpet, saying,
Rev 1:11 ‘Write down in a book all that you see, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Alpha and the Omega: Greek for first and last. The one who is, who was, and who is to come, bespeaks a mighty Tathagata, the thus come and thus gone—and who was also prior and after all that is.
the island of Patmos: the initial setting, one that is soon transfigured into a magnificent Buddhafield on the spiritual plane of Sambhogakāya. As in numerous Sutras, the action takes place on this spiritual plane from which many truths are revealed. Indeed, imbued with Recollective fervor, John’s Manomakayic-Spirit became enraptured with the Transcendent-descent as it entered fully into the ever-expanding plane of Sambhogakāya.
Rev 1:12 I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands
Rev 1:13 and, in the middle of them, one like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold.
Rev 1:14 His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame,
Rev 1:15 his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean.
Rev 1:16 In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.
Rev 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One,
Rev 1:18 I was dead and look — I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades.
Rev 1:19 Now write down all that you see of present happenings and what is still to come.
Rev 1:20 The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands, is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches themselves.’
These passages are the beginning of what we referred to previously in the series concerning the Mystical Number Seven. The seven stars (dakinis) are also astrological signifiers for the known seven planets at the time. The seven churches (candles) are the seven mystical communities which we will be covering in the next blog—supreme centers of Unborn Light. The double-edged sword emanating from his mouth indicates the sign of adamantine wisdom. The figure Itself is a composite of the seven-spirits in the person of the Cosmic Christ—most magnificent to behold!
