On the Number 27

The 14th odd number = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27

The 3rd cube number = 1, 8, 27

27 is the first odd or masculine cube.
(Plutarch, De animae procreatione, 1;
Vincent Foster Hopper, Medieval Number Symbolism, 1938, p. 45)

The 3rd coupled exponential = 1¹, 2², 3³ = 1, 4, 27

Product of the 2nd and 5th odd numbers = 3 x 9 = 27

Sum of the 7th odd & 7th even numbers = 13 + 14 = 27

Sum of the 2nd & 12th composite numbers = 6 + 21 = 27

Sum of the 1st & 3rd heptagonal pyramidal number = 1 + 26 = 27

Sum of the 3rd & 6th triangular numbers = 6 + 21 = 27

10)

Sum of the 2nd, 3rd, & 8th prime numbers = 3 + + 5 + 19 = 27

11)

Sum of the 1st, 5th, and 8th Fibonacci numbers = 1 + 5 + 21 = 27
(Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, 1170-1250)

12)

Sum of the 2nd through 7th numbers: 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 27

13)

Difference in the 6th and 3rd square numbers = 6² + 3² = 36 - 9 = 27

14)

The 27th lucky number is 127.

15)

The sum of the 2nd, 4th, and 6th lucky numbers = 3 + 9 + 15 = 27

16)

The quotient of the 25th abundant number and the 2nd square number = 108 / 4 = 27

17)

27 is the smallest integer which is the sum of three squares in two different ways.
(1² + 1² + 5² = 27 and 3² + 3² + 3² = 27)

18)

Octillion = 10²⁷ = 1 followed by 27 zeros
In the British system, octillion = 10⁴⁸

19)

The 28th & 29th digits of pi, π = 27 (27 and the Number Pi)
(Note: 27 appears after the 27th digit 3 and before the 30th digit 9; 3 x 9 = 27)
(First 40 digits of π: 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971)

20)

The 63rd & 64th digits of phi, φ = 27

21)

Number
of bones
in the
human hand
= 27

22)

Vedic astrology alludes to 27 houses of the Moon since the moon is
best visible on 27 nights and it takes the Moon 27.3 days (sidereal period)
to move completely around the sky against the background of the stars.

23)

Number of cubies in a Rubik's cube = 27 (center cube is invisible)

24)

The Roman numeral for 27 is XXVII.

25)

Èr Shí Qi is the Chinese ideograph for 27.

26)

In the 1977 Carl Reiner movie Oh, God!, Jerry Landers (John Denver),
a supermarket manager meets God (George Burns) on the 27th floor in Room 2700.

27)

27 is the highest number of the Platonic Lambda series
which God created the soul of the universe (Plato, Timaeus, 35b):

Double interval series: 1, 2, 4, 8
Triple interval series: 1, 3, 9, 27
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 8 + 9 = 27
Dante's 55 & the Platonic Lambda

28)

The 27th day of the year = January 27
(January 27 Birthdays: Mozart 1756, Lewis Carroll 1832, Jerome Kern 1885)

29)

Atomic Number of Cobalt (Co) = 27 (27 protons & 27 electrons)

30)

Atomic Weight of Aluminum (Al) = 27 (26.981538)

31)

Number of amino acids in the digestive hormone secretin = 27
Sequence: His-Ser-Asp-Gly-Thr-Phe-Thr-Ser-Glu-Leu-Ser-Arg-Leu-
Arg-Asp-Ser-Ala-Arg-Leu-Gln-Arg -Leu-Leu-Gln Gly-Leu-Val

32)

The 27th amino acid in the 141-residue alpha-chain of Human Hemoglobin is Glutamic Acid (E)
The 27th amino acid in the 146-residue beta-chain of Human Hemoglobin is Alanine (A)
Single-Letter Amino Acid Code
Alpha-chain sequence of human hemoglobin:
VLSPADKTNVKAAWGKVGAHAGEYGAEALERMFLSFPTTKTYFPHFDLSH
GSAQVKGHGKKVADALTNAVAHVDDMPNALSALSDLHAHKLRVDPVNFKL
LSHCLLVTLAAHLPAEFTPAVHASLDKFLASVSTVLTSKYR
Beta-chain sequence of human hemoglobin:
VHLTPEEKSAVTALWGKVNVDEVGGEALGRLLVVYPWTQRFFESFGDLST
PDAVMGNPKVKAHGKKVLGAFSDGLAHLDNLKGTFATLSELHCDKLHVDP
ENFRLLGNVLVCVLAHHFGKEFTPPVQAAYQKVVAGVANALAHKYH

32A)

Solar rotation: The Sun rotates on its axis once in about 27 days.

Rosa 'Country Dancer'

33) Rosa 'Country Dancer'
Modern Shrub Rose
Dr. Griffith Buck, 1973
Iowa State University
Double (27 petals)
Deep pink, fragrant cloves
1 meter high & wide

34) Bird Nest Cluster
27 leaves

Bird Nest Cluster

35)

27th President of the United States is William Howard Taft (1857-1930),
who served (1909-1913). He later served as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1921-1930).

36)

27th State to enter the Union is Florida (March 3, 1845)

37)

The size of a tennis court for singles is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide.

38)

Cities located at 27^o longitude:
Lajes, Azores: 27^o 5' W longitude & 38^o 45' N latitude
Izmir, Turkey: 27^o 10' E longitude & 38^o 26' N latitude
Cities located at 27^o latitude:
Brisbane, Australia: 27^o 28' S latitude & 153^o 2' E longitude
Katmandu, Nepal: 27^o 42' N latitude & 85^o 12' E longitude

39)

27th Street in New York City:
Chelsea Park (10th Ave), Fashion Institute of Technology (8th Ave),
Center for Book Arts 28 West 27th St. (6th Ave)
Radio Wave Building, 49 West 27th St. (6th Ave) was the home of Nikolai Tesla.

40)

Carlton Fisk, Baseball Hall of Famer, wore uniform #27 while playing with the Boston Red Sox. Fisk waves his homer fair to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series 7-6 in the 12th inning against the Cinncinati Reds.

41)

Number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet = 27
(22 medial letters Aleph to Tov + 5 final-letter forms)

42)

The Sephiroth Path: Chokmah (Wisdom), Tiphareth (Beauty), Yesod (Foundation),
and Malkuth (Kingdom), has a numerical sum: 2 + 6 + 9 + 10 = 27

43)

Gematria 27 by Harris Lenowitz and Jerome Rothenberg
was published in 1977 by Membrane Press as a boxed set of cards.

44)

Hymn 27 in Book 4 of the Rig Veda is an invocation to the Falcon:
I, As I lay within the womb, considered all generations of these Gods in order.
A hundred iron fortresses confined me but forth I flew with rapid speed a Falcon.
Not at his own free pleasure did he bear me: he conquered with his strength and manly courage.
Straightway the Bold One left the fiends behind him and passed the winds as he grew yet more mighty.
When with loud cry from heaven down sped the Falcon, thence hasting like the wind he bore the Bold One.
Then, wildly raging in his mind, the archer Krsanu aimed and loosed the string to strike him.
The Falcon bore him from heaven's lofty summit as the swift car of Indra's Friend bore Bhujyu.
Then downward bither fell a flying feather of the Bird hasting forward in his journey.
And now let Maghavan accept the beaker, white, filled with milk, filled with the shining liquid;
The best of sweet meath which the priests have offered: that Indra to his joy may drink,
the Hero, that he may take and drink it to his rapture.
Rig Veda Book 4, 27.1-5 (circa 1500 B.C.)
(translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896)

45)

Six occurences of 27th in the Bible: Genesis 8.14; I Kings 16.10, 16.15;
2 Kings 15.1, 25.27; Ezekiel 29.17

After the Flood, the earth was dried on the 27th day of the 2nd month (Genesis 8.14):
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

Ezekiel 29.17 (589 BC) In the 27th year the Lord gave Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon:
And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of
the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying

46)

Number of books in the New Testament = 27

47)

The Book of Revelation is the 27th Book and last book of the New Testament.
The Feast Day of its author, Saint John of Patmos, is celebrated on the
27th day of the last month of the year (December 27).

48)

27th word of the King James Version of the Bible's Old Testament Genesis = deep
1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
— Genesis I.1-2 (1611)

49)

Number of chapters in Leviticus in the Old Testament = 27

50)

God creates man "male & female" in the 27th verse in Genesis I:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.
(Note: "The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two" (Tao Te Ching, 42). Ho-Shang Kung (d. 159 BC) says: "The Tao gives birth to the beginning. One gives birth to yin & yang." If we are created in God's image, we are both male & female, light & dark, Yang & Yin. Using Adobe Photoshop, I've changed Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam", replacing Adam with the Tao symbol of Yin-Yang.)

51)

In the 27th Psalm, David sustains his faith by the power of God:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalms 27.1 & 27.14 (1017 BC)

52)

Book 27 of Proverbs has 27 verses:
And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food,
for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.
Proverbs 27.27 (700 BC)

53)

27th Hexagram of the I Ching: I / Corners of the Mouth (Providing Nourishment)

THE JUDGMENT:
THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Pay heed to the providing of nourishment
And to what a man seeks
To fill his own mouth with.

THE IMAGE:
At the foot of the mountain, thunder:
The image of providing nourishment.
Thus the superior man is careful of his words
And temperate in eating and drinking.

54)

Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Tao Te Ching, Verse 27:
Good walking leaves no tracks
good talking reveals no flaws
good counting counts no beads
good closing locks no locks
and yet it can't be opened
good tying ties no knots
and yet it can't be undone
thus the sage is good at saving
and yet abandons no one
nor anything of use
this is called cloaking the light
thus the good instruct the bad
the bad learn from the good
not honoring their teachers
not cherishing their students
the wise alone are perfectly blind
this is called peering into the distance.

(translated by Red Pine, Taoteching,
Mercury House, San Francisco, 1996)

55)

27th Verse in Chapter 5 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "In a hamlet of ten families, there may be found
one honorable and sincere as I am, but not so fond of learning."
27th Verse in Chapter 6 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Constant
Mean! Rare for a long time has been its practice among the people."
27th Verse in Chapter 13 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue."

Confucius (551-479 B.C.),
Analects, 5.27, 6.27, 13.27, (circa 500 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge,
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893

56)

Tsze-sze, Doctrine of the Mean or Chung Yun, Verse 27:
1. How great is the path proper to the Sage!
2. Like overflowing water, it sends forth and nourishes
all things, and rises up to the height of heaven.
3. All-complete is its greatness! It embraces the three hundred rules
of ceremony, and the three thousand rules of demeanor.
4. It waits for the proper man, and then it is trodden.
5. Hence it is said, "Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path,
in all its courses, be made a fact."
6. Therefore, the superior man honors his virtuous nature, and
maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to
its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite
and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest
height and brilliancy, so as to pursue the course of the Mean.
He cherishes his old knowledge, and is continually acquiring new.
He exerts an honest, generous earnestness, in the esteem and
practice of all propriety.
7. Thus, when occupying a high situation he is not proud, and in a low
situation he is not insubordinate. When the kingdom is well governed,
he is sure by his words to rise; and when it is ill governed,
he is sure by his silence to command forbearance to himself.
Is not this what we find in the Book of Poetry—
"Intelligent is he and prudent, and so preserves his person?"
Tsze-sze, (492-431 B.C.), Doctrine of the Mean, 27.1-7, (circa 400 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893

57)

27th Verse in Chapter 18 of Astavakra Gita
(Sage Astavakra's dialogue with King Janaka):
Withdrawing himself from diverse reasonings,
the wise one attains complete repose.
He does not thinks, knows, hears or sees.
Astavakra Gita Chapter 18, Verse 27 (circa 400 B.C.)
(translated by Radhakamal Mukerjee, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1971, p. 142)

58)

27th Verse of Buddha's Diamond Sutra:
"Subhuti, what do you think? Was it due to the possession of attributes that the Tathagata
realized unexcelled, perfect enlightenment? Subhuti, you should hold no such view. And why not?
Subhuti, it could not have been due to the possession of attributes that the Tathagata realized
unexcelled, perfect enlightenment. "Furthermore, Subhut, someone may claim, 'Those who set forth
on the bodhisattva path announce the destruction or the end of some dharma.' Subhuti, you should
hold no such view. And why not? Those who set forth on the bodhisattva path do not announce the
destruction or the end of any dharma.
Buddha, Diamond Sutra Verse 27 (400 B.C.)
(translated by Red Pine, Counterpoint, Washington DC, 2001)
(translated by A. F. Price, 1947)

59)

27th Verse of Buddha's Dhammapada: Mindfulness
Do not abandon yourselves to unmindfulness;
have no intimacy with sensuous delights.
The mindful person, absorbed in superconscious states,
gains ample bliss.
Buddha, Dhammapada Verse 27 (240 B.C.)
(translated by Sangharakshita, Dhammapada: The Way of Truth, 2001)

60)

Chapter 27 of Chuang Tzu is titled "Language":
All things spring from seeds. Under many diverse forms
these things are ever being reproduced. Round and round,
like a wheel, no part of which is more the starting-point
than any other. This is called the equilibrium of God.
And he who holds the scales is God.
Chuang Tzu (369 BC-286 BC)
Chuang Tzu: Taoist Philosopher and Chinese Mystic,
Chapter XXVII: Language, p. 267
Translated by Herbert A. Giles (2nd Edition, 1926)
George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1961.

61)

27th Book of Enoch describes the purpose of the accursed valley:
Then said I: 'For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees,
and this accursed valley between?' Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me,
answered and said: 'This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: Here
shall all the accursed be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord
unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things. Here shall they be gathered together,
and here shall be their place of judgment. In the last days there shall be upon them
the spectacle of righteous judgment in the presence of the righteous for ever: here
shall the merciful bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King. In the days of judgment
over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has
assigned them (their lot).' Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His glory
and lauded Him gloriously.
— Book of Enoch XXVII.1-5 (circa 105 B.C.-64 B.C.)
translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1917, p. 52

62)

27th Saying of Gospel of Thomas (circa 150 A.D.):
Jesus said: "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the Kingdom.
If you do not observe the sabbath day as a sabbath day you will not see the Father."
Gospel of Thomas 27 (114 sayings of Jesus)
(translated by Marvin Meyer, 1992 & Elaine Pagels, 2003)

63)

Chapter 27 of Pistis Sophia (circa 150 A.D.):
[Jesus said:] "It happened now when I came to go forth for the service for the sake of which
I was appointed, through the command of the First Mystery, I came forth to the midst of the
tyrants of the archons of the twelve aeons. And my garment of light was upon me, and I was
shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had... And further I lessened
their times and their periods, so that the perfect number of souls which will receive mysteries
and which will be in the Treasury of the Light should be completed quickly."
Pistis Sophia Ch. 27
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, IX: Pistis Sophia, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, pp. 37-39)

64)

Chapter 27 of Books of Jeu (circa 200 A.D.):
And there are twelve heads in his treasury; that is, the names are these which
are in the places. And there are twelve in each rank, and this name is that
of the twelve, except for those that will be in them, when they sing praises
to my Father, so that he gives light-power to them. These are they which ...
emanated forth when the power of my Father radiated within him. He emanated
twelve emanations. And there are twelve heads in each emanation, and this
name is that of the twelve; and there are twelve in each one of the ranks, these
being their names, except for their watchers. The three watchers...
Books of Jeu Ch. 27
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, XIII: The Books of Jeu, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, p. 73)

65)

27th Tetragram of the T'ai Hsüan Ching: Shih / Duties
April 18 - April 22 (a.m.):

Correlates with Heaven's Mystery:
Yang; the phase Metal; and the Yi Ching Hexagram 18,
Undertakings; the sun enters the Mane constellation.
Head: Yang ch'i greatly stimulates and shed lights
on the duties of the myriad things. Things expand
and expand according to rule, each one exerting
its own strength to the fullest.
Yang Hsiung (53 BC-18 AD),
Canon of Supreme Mystery ( T'ai Hsüan Ching)
(translated by Michael Nylan, 1993)

66)

Stanza 27 of Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness:
Without depending on the defined one cannot establish a definition and
without considering the definition one cannot establish the defined.
As they depend on each other, they have not arisen by themselves, so
therefore the defined and the definition are devoid of inherent
existence and also they do not exist inherently in a mutually dependent way, so
none of them can e used to establish the inherent existence of another one.
Nagarjuna (circa 150-250 A.D.),
Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness
(translated by David Ross Komito, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, 1987, pp. 136-137)

67)

27th Trigraph of the Ling Ch'i Ching: Pi O / Expelling Evil
The image of awesome Virtue
Yin weak, yang strong.
Oracle:
The masses of people, loving their ruler,
expel trouble and eliminate misfortune.
The fierce dog does not bite.
The myriad affairs will certainly be fruitful.
Verse:
A dragon spews water; it's the moment of spring,
Withered grass and dry trees are completely renewed.
Happily I have found an old man who speaks with me,
Henceforth my impoverished path becomes enriched.
Tung-fang Shuo,
Ling Ch'i Ching (circa 222-419)
(trans. Ralph D. Sawyer & Mei-Chün Lee Sawyer, 1995)

68)

27th Verse of Chapter 2 in Lankavatara Sutra:
Mahamati the Bodhisatva-Mahasattva's Questions to the Buddha:
What is meant by the world being above birth and death?
or being like the flower in the air?
How do you understand it?
Why do you regard it as being beyond words?
The Lankavatara Sutra (before 443 AD)
(translated from the Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki, 1932, p. 25)

69)

Han-shan's 27th Poem of Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:
a man who dines on sunsets
shunned the usual haunts for a home
any season it's truly dead
in summer just like fall
a dark gorge always babbles
a towering pine wind sighs
he sits there half a day
and forgets a lifetime of sorrow
Han-shan (fl. 627-649), Collected Songs of Cold Mountain,
Poem 27 (translated by Red Pine, 1990)
( Robert G. Henricks translation, 1990; Burton Watson translation, 1962)

70)

Chapter 27 of Mohammed's Holy Koran is titled "The Ant"
O men! we have been taught the language of birds, and we have
been given all things; most surely this is manifest grace.
And you see the mountains, you think them to be solid,
and they shall pass away as the passing away of the cloud—
the handiwork of Allah Who has made every thing thoroughly;
surely He is Aware of what you do.
Mohammed (570-632), Holy Koran 27.16, 27.88 (7th century AD)
(translated by M. H. Shakir, Holy Koran, 1983)

71)

Section 27 of Hui-Neng's Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (714)
Good friends, this teaching derives from the 84,000 wisdoms. Why is this so?
Because there are 84,000 passions in this world. If the passions are gone,
prajña [wisdom] is always there, and is not apart from your own nature.
If you awaken to this Dharma you will have no thoughts, no recollections,
no attachments. Do not depart from deceptions and errors; for they of
themselves are the nature of True Reality. When all things are illumined
by wisdom and there is neither grasping nor throwing away, then you can
see into your own nature and realize the Buddha Way.
Hui-Neng (638-713), Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Section 27
(translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, pp. 148-149)

72)

27th Verse of Chapter 1 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
The worship of Buddhas is excelled by merely having
a desire for goodness: How much more by zeal for
the total welfare of all beings?
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
I.27 (Praising the Thought of Enlightenment) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 146)

73)

Section 27 of Hui Hai's Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination:
Q: Please explain the two statements: 'The Buddha-dharma neither annihilates
the worldly (yu wei) nor gets bogged down in the transcendental (wu wei).'
A: The first means that the Buddha never rejected any thing phenomenal from the
moment when he first determined upon his quest up to the time when he achieved
enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, and from then up to his entrance into
parinirvana beneath the twin sala trees. This is 'nonannihilation of the worldly'.
The other statement means that, although he achieved absence of thought, he never
looked upon this as an attainment; that, although he reached immaterial and
nonactive bodhi and nirvana, he never held that these states marked an attainment.
This is what is meant by 'not getting bogged down in the transcendental'.
Hui Hai (circa 788 A.D.), Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination, Section 27
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1962, p. 68)

74)

Section 27 of Huang Po's Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind:
Q: What is the Way and how must it be followed?
A: What sort of thing do you suppose the Way to be,
that you should wish to follow it?
Q: Since there is no need to seek, why do you
also say that not everything is eliminated?
A: Not to seek is to rest tranquil. Who told you
to eliminate anything? Look at the void in front
of your eyes. How can you produce it or eliminate it?
Huang Po (died 850 A.D.), Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind,
The Chün Chou Record, Section 27
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1958, pp. 52-53)

75)

Section 27 of Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds":
"How about the place of non-thinking?"
The Master replied, "Cognition can hardly fathom it."
Master Yun-Men (864-949),
Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds"
translated by Urs App, Kodansha International, NY & Tokyo, 1994, p. 97

76)

Case 27 of Hekiganroku: Ummon's "Golden Breeze"
Main Subject: A monk asked Ummon, "What will it be when trees wither
and leaves fall?" Ummon said, "You embody the golden breeze."
Setcho's Verse:
Significant the question,
Pregnant the answer, too!
The three phrases are satisfied,
The arrow penetrates the universe.
The wind blows across the plain,
Soft rain clouds the sky.
Don't you see the master of Shorin Temple,
Not yet returning, wall-gazing,
Meditating quietly now on Yuji Peak?
Setcho (980-1052), Hekiganroku, 27 (Blue Cliff Records)
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, p. 218)

77)

Chou Tun-Yi (1017-1073), Penetrating Book of Changes,
Ch. 27: Tendencies
The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong
or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is
possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control
it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy
to apply effort. If one has exerted his effort and does not succeed, that is due
to Heaven, but if one either does not realize or does not apply effort, that is
due to man. Is it due to Heaven? No, it is due to man. Why complain?
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 476)

78)

Shao Yung (1011-1077), Supreme Principles Governing the World, Section 27:
The mind is the Great Ultimate. The human mind
should be as calm as still water. Being calm, it will be tranquil.
Being tranquil, it will be enlightened. In the study of prior existence,
sincerity is basic. Perfect sincerity can penetrate all spirits.
Without sincerity, the Way cannot be attained. Our nature comes from
Heaven, but learning lies with man. Our nature develops from within,
while learning enters into us from without. "It is due to our nature
that enlightenment results from sincerity," but it is due to learning
that sincerity results from intelligence. The learning of a sage aims
precisely at enriching his mind. The rest, such as governing people
and handling things, is all secondary. Without sincerity, one cannot
investigate principle to the utmost. Sincerity is the controlling
factor in one's nature. It is beyond space and time. He who acts
in accordance with the Principle of Nature will have the entire
process of creation in his grip. When the Principle of Nature is
achieved, not only his personality, but his mind also, are enriched.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 493)

79)

Chapter 27: The Invitation from the King of Nepal
from Mila Grubum or The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa:
My faith is the Royal Precious Wheel
Revolving around the Virtues day and night
My wisdom is the Royal Precious Gem
Fulfulling all the wishes of the self and others...
This is a place where flowers bloom,
And many kinds of trees dance and sway;
The birds here sing their tuneful melodies,
And monkeys gambol in the woods.
It is pleasant and delightful to stay here alone.
Truly this is a quiet and peaceful place.
Happy is the melting away of dreams of confusion;
Joyous is absorption in the Great Illumination;
Happy is the sight of the dark Blindness leaving;
Joyful it is to become Buddha Himself
Without practicing Transformation Yoga.
Milarepa (1040-1123), The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Ch. 27
(translated by Garma C. C. Chang, Shambhala, Boston, 1999)

80)

Verse 27 of Rubáiyát, of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.
(translated by Edward Fitzgerald, London, 1st edition 1859, 2nd edition 1868)

81)

Section 27 of St. Bernard's On Loving God: discusses the fourth degree of love:
Happy the man who has attained the fourth degree of love, he no longer even
loves himself except for God. "O God, your justice is like the mountains of God."
This love is a mountain, God's towering peak... I would say that man is blessed
and holy to whom it is given to experience something of this sort, so rare in life,
even if it be but once and for the space of a moment. To lose yourself, as if you
no longer existed, to cease completely to experience yourself, to reduce yourself
to nothing is not a human sentiment but a divine experience.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), On Loving God
Chapter X.27: The fourth degree of love: man loves himself for the sake of God
(Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God with Analytical Commentary by Emero Stiegman,
Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1995, pp. 29-30, pp. 123-126)

82)

Chapter 27 of Saint Francis of Assisi's The Little Flowers:
When St. Francis once came to the city of Bologna, the entire population
came out to see him, and the crowd was so great that St. Francis could barely
get to the square, which was filled with men, women, and scholars. St. Francis
made his way to the center of the square and, slightly raised above the crowd,
began to preach as the Holy Spirit inspired him; and he preached so marvelously
that he seemed more angel than man. His heavenly words were like shafts of lightning
that pierced the hearts of those who heard him, for among those who heard him
a great multitude of men and women were turned to penance.
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226),
The Little Flowers of St. Francis Ch. XXVII
(translated by Serge Hughes,
Mentor-Omega Book, New York, 1964, p. 101)

83)

Chapter 27 of William of Auvergne's The Trinity, or the First Principle:
The spring is not the stream nor the river the pond, nor is the converse true.
The water is in this case like the common essence. The source and the stream are
the first generator and first-born; the Spirit, like the pond containing all outpourings
of the gifts, receives all intelligible spirits, as we read in chapter seven of Wisdom
[Wisdom 7:26], the Spirit of course, as the one in whom the whole abundance
of the goodness of both the Father and the Son is poured forth.
William of Auvergne (1180-1249), The Trinity, or the First Principle, Ch. XXVII
(translated by Roland J. Teske & Francis C. Wade,
Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1989, pp. 177-180)

84)

Case 27 of Mumonkan: Nansen's "Not Mind, Not Buddha, Not Things"
A monk asked Nansen, "Is there any Dharma that has not been
not preached to the people?" Nansen answered, "There is."
"What is the truth that has not been taught?" asked the monk.
Nansen said, "It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things."
Mumon's Comment:
At this question, Nansen used up all his
treasure and was not a little confused.
Mumon's Verse:
Talking too much spoils your virtue;
Silence is truly unequaled.
Let the mountains become the sea;
I'll give you no comment.
Mumon Ekai (1183-1260), Mumonkan, 27
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, pp. 91-92)

85)

Verse 27 of Dogen (1200-1253):
Surely it is spring,
For the fragrance of flowers
Circulated by the mountain breeze
Spread throughout
The peaks and valleys.
(translated by Steven Heine, Zen Poetry of Dogen,
Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1997, p. 108)

86)

Verse 27 of Rumi Daylight:
Feed you heart in conversation
with someone harmonious with it;
seek spiritual advancement
from one who is advanced.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Mathnawi, I.726
Rumi Daylight, Verse 27
(Edited by Camille & Kabir Helminski, 1994)

87)

Verse 27 of Rumi's Dîvân-i Kebîr:
Don't rush. The table is set in the garden.
Lots of foods and favors are put on it.
Soon the time will come for the meal.
They will call you.

Don't stay away from the friends of the rose garden
Because of the scratches of the thorns.
An armed friend is needed at the caravan.

Be silent O heart.
The one who wishes and desires
Always stays silent.
Their silence tells of the seriousness
Of their wishes and desires.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Dîvân-i Kebîr, Meters 5
Verse 27, Stanzas 20-22 (Translated by Nevit Oguz Ergin,
Echo Publications, San Clemente, California, 1995, p. 10)

88)

Verse 27 of Yunus Emre's Lyric Poems:
If you've broken a single heart,
the prayers you make aren't accepted.
The seventy-two peoples of the world
could not wash your hands and face.
So many masters have come and gone.
They migrated. their ancient lands remain.
they opened their wings and flew to God,
not as geese but as eagles.
A way is true if it's straight.
An eye is that which can see the Real.
And doing good even once is no small thing.
It can return a thousandfold.
Yunus combines words
as if mixing honey into butter.
He's in business among people,
with goods of the highest worth.
Yunus Emre (1238-1321),
The Drop that Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre
(Translated from the Turkish by Kabir Helminski & Refik Algan,
Threshold Books, Putney, Vermont, p. 52)

89)

Chapter 27 of Dante's Vita Nuova (1294):
After that, I began to reflect one day about what I had said about my lady:
that is, in these two preceding sonnets; and seeing, as I reflected, that I had not
spoken of what at that time she worked in me, I seemed to have spoken imperfectly.
I therefore resolved to write verses in which I would say how I seemed to be disposed
to her working, and how her power worked in me; and not believing that I could relate
this in the brevity of a sonnet, I therefore began a canzone, which begins: For so long.

For so long has Love possessed me
and accustomed me to his lordship
that as much as he was harsh to me at first
is he now gentle in my heart.
Therefore, when he takes away my strength so
that my spirits seem to flee,
then my frail soul feels
so much sweetness that my face pales from it,
for Love grows in me to such power
that it makes my spirits go speaking,
and they issue forth calling
my lady to give me greater beatitude.
This occurs to me wherever she sees me,
and is a thing so humble, it can hardly be believed.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Vita Nuova
( translated by Dino S. Cervigni & Edward Vasta,
University of Notre Dame Press, 1995, p. 115)

90)

Canto 27 of Dante's Inferno:
(Circle 8, Bolgia 8: The Evil Counselors— The double flame departs at a word from Virgil
and behind it appears another which contains the soul of Count Guido da Montefeltro):

Già era dritta in sù la fiamma e queta
per non dir più, e già da noi sen gia
con la licenza del dolce poeta,
quand'un'altra, che dietro a lei venia,
ne fece volger li occhi a la sua cima
per un confuso suon che fuor n'uscia.

The flame already was erect and silent—
it had no more to say. Now it had left us
with the permission of the gentle poet,
when, just behind it, came another flame
that drew our eyes to watch its tip because
of the perplexing sound that it sent forth.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Inferno 27.1-6
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

91)

Canto 27 of Dante's Purgatorio:
(7th Cornice, Angel of Chastity, Wall of Fire, Earthly Paradise, The Angel Guardian):

Sì come quando i primi raggi vibra
là dove il suo fattor lo sangue sparse,
cadendo Ibero sotto l'alta Libra,
e l'onde in Gange da nona riarse,
sì stava il sole; onde 'l giorno sen giva,
come l'angel di Dio lieto ci apparse.

were scorching Ganges' waves; so here, the sun
stood at the point of day's departure when
God's angel-happy-showed himself to us.
Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood,
the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay
beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour's rays

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Purgatorio 27.1-6
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

92)

Canto 27 of Dante's Paradiso:
(In the 8th Heaven, Sphere of the Fixed Stars, Ascent to the Primum Mobile):

'Al Padre, al Figlio, a lo Spirito Santo',
cominciò, 'gloria!', tutto 'l paradiso,
sì che m'inebriava il dolce canto.
Ciò ch'io vedeva mi sembiava un riso
de l'universo; per che mia ebbrezza
intrava per l'udire e per lo viso.
Oh gioia! oh ineffabile allegrezza!
oh vita intègra d'amore e di pace!
oh sanza brama sicura ricchezza!

Le parti sue vivissime ed eccelse
sì uniforme son, ch'i' non so dire
qual Beatrice per loco mi scelse.
Ma ella, che vedea 'l mio disire,
incominciò, ridendo tanto lieta,
che Dio parea nel suo volto gioire:
"La natura del mondo, che quieta
il mezzo e tutto l'altro intorno move,
quinci comincia come da sua meta;
e questo cielo non ha altro dove
che la mente divina, in che s'accende
l'amor che 'l volge e la virtù ch'ei piove.

Unto the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
glory!"— all Paradise began, so that
the sweetness of the singing held me rapt.
What I saw seemed to me to be a smile
the universe had smiled; my rapture had
entered by way of hearing and of sight.
O joy! O gladness words can never speak!
O life perfected by both love and peace!
O richness so assured, that knows no longing!

From its upper and lower limits to its center
it is so uniform, I cannot say
what point my lady chose for me to enter.
But she, knowing what yearning burned in me,
began thus— with so rapturous a smile
God seemed to shine forth from her ecstasy:
"The order of the universe, whose nature
holds firm the center and spins all else around it,
takes from this heaven its first point of departure.
This heaven does not exist in any place
but in God's mind, where burns the love that turns it
and the power that rains to it from all of space.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Paradiso 27.1-9, 27.100-111
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)
(27.100-111 translated by John Ciardi, Divine Comedy, Norton, NY, 1970, pp. 562-563)

93)

Verse 27 of Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden:
O wine that can transform the coward snail
Into the bounding deer! The nightingale
Sang unto me last night; methought she cried:
My voice was made for you, O Drinker— hail!
Hafiz (1320-1389), Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden, Verse 27
adaptation by Clarence K. Streit, Viking Press, NY, 1928
(Streit on Time magazine cover, March 27, 1950)

94)

Verse 27 of Drg-Drsya-Viveka ("Seer-Seen Discernment") by Bharati Tirtha (c. 1328-1380):
The first kind of Samadhi is possible with the help of any
external object as it is with the help of an internal object.
In that Samadhi the name and form are separated
from what is Pure Existence (Brahman)
(translated by Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore, 1964, p. 36)

95)

Line 27 from the Pearl Poet's Pearl: "yellow flowers and blue and red"

pat spot of spysez mot nedez sprede,
per such rychez to rot is runne,
Blomez blayke and blwe and rede
per schyne ful schyr agayn pe sunne.

That spot of spices needs must spread
Where such rich bounty doth decay,
With yellow flowers and blue and red
That shine so bright in sun's clear ray.

Pearl (c. 1370-1400) Lines 25-28
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 55)
(This Pearl translation: by Bill Stanton, another by Vernon Eller)

96)

Line 27 from the Pearl Poet's Purity or Cleanness:

the hathel clene of his hert hapenez ful fayre,

"The man clean of heart gains good fortune."

Cleanness (c. 1370-1400) Line 27
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 112,
above translation by J.J. Anderson, 1996, p. 46)

97)

Line 27 from the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Praise for King Arthur

Bot of alle pat here bult, of Bretaygne kynges,
Ay watz Arthur pe hendest, as I haf herde telle.
Forpi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe,
Dat a selly in sizt summe men hit holden,
And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez.

But of all who lived here as kings of Britain
Arthur was ever the noblest, as I have heard tell
So I intend to tell of one adventure that happened
Which some have considered a marvel to behold,
One of the wonders that are told about Arthur.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1375-1400) Lines 25-29
( Verse translation by W. S. Merwin, Knopf, NY, 2002, p. 5)

98)

Verse 27 of Kabir's Raga Gauri-Purabi:
The Endless has no end:
I am in love with the Supreme Light.
I overcame the five senses—
now I am beyond virtue and sin.
Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 111

99)

Letter 27 of The Letters of Marsilio Ficino:
I see the Phoenix in the Phoenix, the light in the sunbeam.
That splendour of Cosimo now shines daily from our Lorenzo in
many forms, bringing glory to the Florentine Republic...
I pray that those three Graces described by Orpheus, namely
splendour, joy and vigour, will support our Medici; that is,
splendour of intellect, joy in the exercise of will, vigour
and prosperity of body. These Graces now inspire Lorenzo from
on high, and they will do so as long as he only acknowledges
that he has freely received these favours from God alone.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Letter to Niccolo Michelozzi (Florence, 21st January, 1473)
The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, Vol. I, Shepheard-Walwyn, London, 1975, pp. 66-67

100)

Section 27 of Lo Ch'in-shun's Knowledge Painfully Acquired:
The transformations of heaven and earth, the life of human beings and
other living things, the beauty of ritual, the mysteries of positive and
negative spiritual forces, the passage of time, the metamorphoses of life
and death, the circumstances of good and ill fortune, remorse and humiliation—
the theories about them are endless. Yet they may be summarized in a single phrase:
"yin and yang succeeding one another is called the Way."
Lo Ch'in-shun (1465-1547), Knowledge Painfully Acquired or K'un-chih chi
translated by Irene Bloom, Columbia University Press, NY, 1987, p. 76

101)

Chapter 27 of Cervantes' Don Quixote where the curate
and the barber proceeded with their scheme:
Oh memory, mortal foe of my peace! why bring before me
now the incomparable beauty of that adored enemy of mine?
Were it not better, cruel memory, to remind me and recall
what she then did, that stirred by a wrong so glaring I may
seek, if not vengeance now, at least to rid myself of life?
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote Part I, Ch. XXVII (1605)
(translated by John Ormsby)

102)

Giordano Bruno's 27th Seal: The Rhetorician—
Furnished with 24 attributes [letters of the Latin alphabet], the rhetoricain
enters the house of the 12 principles, so that all of them may assist him in
the three-fold nature of his work. Moreover, in courtroom rhetoric Jupiter is
primary to him, in deliberative speech Sol [Apollo], in demonstrative speech
Pallas [Athena]. Others seal aid him, the Farmer perhaps beyond the others.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), On the Composition of Images, Signs & Ideas (1591)
Book Three, which is about the images of the Thirty Seals, 3.14
(translated by Charles Doria, Willis, Locker & Owens, NY, 1991, p. 272)

103)

27 occurs only once in the works of William Shakespeare:
VOLUMNIA: He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him.
MENENIUS: Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's grave.
A shout and flourish
Hark! the trumpets.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Coriolanus, II.1.155
Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973

104)

Sleeplessness & Separation in 27th Sonnet of William Shakespeare:
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts— from far where I abide—
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnets XXVII, Commentary

105)

Emblema 27 of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617):
Emblema XXVII: He who tries to penetrate into the Philosophical Rose
Garden without a key, resembles a man who wants to walk without feet.

Epigramma XXVII:
The Rose Garden of Wisdom has an abundance of various flowers,
But the gate is always closed with strong bolts;
Only one thing of little value is found in the world which is the key to it.
Without this key you will walk like somebody without legs.
You will try in vain to climb up to the steep top of the Parnassus,
You, who have hardly sufficient strength to remain standing on flat ground.

Michael Maier (1566-1622), Atalanta Fugiens, 27
(translated by H.M.E. de Jong,
Gardening: Maitreya Three, Shambala, Berkeley, 1972, p. 79)

106)

Hymn 27 of Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629):
But see, the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest:
Time is our tedious song should here have ending.
Heav'n's youngest-teemed star,
Hath fix'd her polish'd car,
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;
And all about the courtly stable,
Bright-harness'd Angels sit in order serviceable.
John Milton (1608-1674), On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, Hymn XXVII

107)

Section 27 of Swedenborg's The New Jerusalem (1758):
That wisdom is from good by truths: Truths with man are called interior when
they are implanted in his life, and not in consequence of his knowing them,
although they may be truths which are called interior. In good there is the
faculty of becoming wise, whence those who have lived in good in the world
come into angelic wisdom... The good of infancy by truths, and by a life
according to them, becomes the good of wisdom... Good is called in the Word
the "brother" of truth. Also in a certain respect, good is called "lord",
and truth, "servant".
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772),
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, 27 (London, 1758)
(Miscellaneous Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg
translated by John Whitehead, Swedenborg Foundation, NY, 1857, pp. 31-33)

108)

Section 27 of Swedenborg's Worlds in Space (1758):
When the spirits of Mercury were with me... I told them that many people
in this world are unaware that there is an inner man which acts upon
the outer man and causes him to be alive; but they convince themselves
from delusive sense-impressions that the body possesses life... I told
them that those who had lived good lives of faith and charity become
angels, being no longer concerned with outward and material affairs,
but with inward and spiritual ones. When they reach that state, they
enjoy light surpassing that of the spirits from Mercury.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), The Worlds in Space, 27
(translated from Latin by John Chadwick, Swedenborg Society, London, 1997, p. 15)

109)

27th Poem of Thomas Cole:

"Cast off the bands that bind thee now
Each strand is steep'd in pain."
Thus spoke a voice— I made a vow
To break them all— 'twas vain—

Shall man within whose heart's core flows
Affection's burning tide
Chill it with wordliness and close
Its gush in icy pride?

He cannot if he has that spark
Of heaven's fire called love
Quenchless it burns amid the storm
True as the stars above.

May 28, 1835

Thomas Cole (1801-1848), Thomas Cole's Poetry
(Compiled & Edited by Marshall B. Tymn, 1972, p. 75)

Thomas Cole, Self-Portrait (1836)

110)

Sonnet 27 of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850):
My own Beloved, who hast lifted me
From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown
A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully
Shines out again, as all the angels see,
Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,
Who camest to me when the world was gone,
And I who looked for only God, found thee!
I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.
As one who stands in dewless asphodel
Looks backward on the tedious time he had
In the upper life,— so I, with bosom-swell,
Make witness, here, between the good and bad,
That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861),
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), Poem 27

111)

Chapter 27 of Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851):
Now these three mates- Starbuck, Stubb and Flask, were momentous men.
They was who by universal prescription commanded three of the Pequod's
boats as headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which Captain Ahab
would probably marshal his forces to descend on the whales, these
three headsmen were as captains of companies. Or, being armed with
their long keen whaling spears, they were as a picked trio of lancers;
even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.
Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick or The Whale, Chapter 27: Knights & Squires

112)

27th Poem of Emily Dickinson:

Morns like these— we parted—
Noons like these— she rose—
Fluttering first— then firmer
To her fair repose.

Never did she lisp it—
It was not for me—
She— was mute from transport—
I— from agony—

Till— the evening nearing
One the curtains drew—
Quick! A Sharper rustling!
And this linnet flew!

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 1955)

113)

27th New Poem of Emily Dickinson:
Many can boast a hollyhock,
but few can bear a rose!
Emily Dickinson (Letter 203)
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by William H. Shurr, University of North Carolin Press, 1993, p. 21)

114)

"fables immortal from mortal dreams" in Line 27 of Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1871):
You lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled, red as roses, burnish'd with gold!
Towers of fables immortal, fashion'd from mortal dreams!
You too I welcome, and fully, the same as the rest;
You too with joy I sing.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Passage to India Section 2, Lines 26-29
A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, Vol. III, Poems, 1870-1891
(Edited by Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett, Arthur Golden, William White
New York University Press, 1980, p. 568)

115)

27th Verse in Tagore's Gitanjali:
Light, oh where is the light? Kindle it with the burning fire of desire!
There is the lamp but never a flicker of a flame—
is such thy fate, my heart?
Ah, death were better by far for thee!
Misery knocks at thy door, and her message is that thy lord is wakeful,
and he calls thee to the love-tryst through the darkness of night.
The sky is overcast with clouds and the rain is ceaseless.
I know not what this is that stirs in me— I know not its meaning.
A moment's flash of lightning drags down a deeper gloom on my sight,
and my heart gropes for the path to where the music of the night calls me.
Light, oh where is the light! Kindle it with the burning fire of desire!
It thunders and the wind rushes screaming through the void.
The night is black as a black stone.
Let not the hours pass by in the dark.
Kindle the lamp of love with thy life.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), Verse 27

116)

Sonnet 27 of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus: Part 2

Gibt es wirklich die Zeit, die zerstörende?
Wann, auf dem ruhenden Berg, zerbricht sie die Burg?
Dieses Herz, das unendlich den Göttern gehörende,
wann vergewaltigts der Demiurg?

Sind wir wirklich so ängstlich Zerbrechliche,
wie das Schicksal uns wahrmachen will?
Ist die Kindheit, die tiefe, versprechliche,
in den Wurzeln— später— still?

Ach, das Gespenst des Vergänglichen,
durch den arglos Empfänglichen
geht es, als wär es ein Rauch.

Als die, die wir sind, als die Treibenden,
gelten wir doch bei bleibenden
Kräften als göttlicher Brauch.

Does time the destroyer really exist?
When will it shatter the peaceful mountain's tower?
When will the demiurge overpower
this heart that always belongs to the gods?

Are we really as anxiously brittle
as fate wants to prove us?
Is childhood, so deep, so full of promise
in its roots— later— made still?

Ah, the apparition of impermanence;
it slides through the innocent
receiver as if it were steam.

As these which we are, the drivers,
among the lasting powers
we still matter as a divine means.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Sonnets to Orpheus (1921), II.27
(translated by A. Poulin, Jr., Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1977, p. 191)
(cf. translations by Howard A. Landman and Robert Hunter)

117)

Section 27 in Wallace Stevens, The Man with the Blue Guitar:
It is the sea that whitens the roof.
The sea drifts through the winter air.

It is the sea that the north wind makes.
The sea is the falling snow.

This gloom is the darkness of the sea.
Geographers and philosophers,

Regard. But for that salty cup,
But for the icicles on the eaves—

the sea is a form of ridicule.
The iceberg settings satirize

The demon that cannot be himself,
That tours to shift the shifting scene.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),
The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Section XXVII
Collected Poetry and Prose, Library of America, NY, 1997, p. 147

118)

Section 27 in William Carlos Williams, Spring and All:
Black eyed susan
rich orange
round the purple core

the white daisy
is not
enough

Crowds are white
as farmers
who live poorly

But you
are rich
in savagery—

Arab
Indian
dark woman

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Spring and All, XXVII
Contact Publishing Co., Dijon (1923)

119)

27th Page lines in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, (7 samples):
making encostive inkum out of the last of his lavings and writing (27.10)
a blue streak over his bourseday shirt. Hetty Jane's a child of (27.11)
white of gold with a tourch of ivy to rekindle the flame on Felix (27.13)
may God strengthen you! It's our warm spirits, boys, he's spoor- (27.24)
where misches lodge none, where mystries pour kind on, O (27.29)
sleepy! So be yet! (27.30)
sure there! And we put on your clock again, sir, for you. Did or (27.34)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Finnegans Wake, (1939)

120)

Chapter 27 of Ezra Pound's Cantos (selections):
Till this year, '27, Hotel Angioli, in Milan,
With an air Clara d'Ellébeuse,
With their lakelike and foxlike eyes,...
Carved stone upon stone.
But in sleep, in the waking dream,
Petal'd the air;
twig where but wind-streak had been;
Moving bough without root,...
and I reap
Nothing; with the thirtieth autumn
I sleep, I sleep not, I rot
And I build no wall...
"The air burst into leaf."
"Hung there flowered acanthus,
"Can you tell the down from the up?"
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), The Cantos (XVII-XXVII), (1928);
The Cantos (1-95), New Directions, NY, 1956, pp. 129-132

121)

Poem 27 in H.D.'s The Walls Do Not Fall (1944):

Is ours lotus-tree
from the lotus-grove,

magnolia's heavy, heady, sleepy
dream?

or pomegranate
whose name decorates sonnets,

but either acid or over-ripe,
perfect only for the moment?

of all the flowering of the wood,
are we wild-almond, winter-cherry?

or are we pine or fir,
sentinel, solitary?

or cypress,
arbutus-fragrant?

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)
Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall, Oxford University Press (1944), Poem 27
New Directions Paperbook (1998), Introduction & Notes by Aliki Barnstone

122)

Sonnet 27 in Edna St. Vincent Millay's Collected Sonnets

I know I am but summer to your heart,
And not the full four seasons of the year;
And you must welcome from another part
Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.
No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell
Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing;
And I have loved you all too long and well
To carry still the high sweet breast of Spring.
Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes,
I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums,
That you may hail anew the bird and rose
When I come back to you, as summer comes.
Else will you seek, at some not distant time,
Even your summer in another clime.

Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Harper & Brothers, NY, 1941, p. 27

Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892-1950)

123)

Poem 27 in e.e. cummings' Xaipe (1950)

"summer is over
— it's no use demanding
that lending be giving;
it's no good pretending
befriending means loving"
(sighs mind:and he's clever)
"for all,yes for all
sweet things are until"

"spring follows winter
as clover knows,maybe"
(heart makes the suggestion)
"or even a daisy—
your thorniest question
my roses will answer"
"but dying's meanwhile" (mind murmurs;the fool)

"truth would prove truthless
and life a mere pastime
— each joy a deceiver,
and sorrow a system—
if now than forever
could never(by breathless
one breathing)be" soul
"more" cries;with a smile

e. e. cummings
(1894-1962)

Poem 27, Xaipe
Liveright, NY, 1979, p. 27

124)

Poem 27 in George Oppen's Of Being Numerous:
It is difficult now to speak of poetry—

about those who have recognized the range of choice or those
who have lived within the life they were born to—. It is not
precisely a question of profundity but a different order of
experience. One would have to tell what happens in a life,
what choices present themselves, what the world is for us,
what happens in time, what thought is in the course of a life
and therefore what art is, and the isolation of the actual

I would want to talk of rooms and of what they look out on
and of basements, the rough walls bearing the marks of the
forms, the old marks of wood in the concrete, such solitude
as we know—

and the swept floors. Someone, a workman bearing about
him, feeling about him that peculiar word like a dishonored
fatherhood has swept this solitary floor, this profoundly
hidden floor— such solitude as we know.

One must not come to feel that he has a thousand threads
in his hands,
He must somehow see the one thing;
This is the level of art
There are other levels
But there is no other level of art
George Oppen (1908-1984),
Of Being Numerous (1968), Poem 27
New Directions, NY, 1968, p. 30
Review of Oppen's New Collected Poems

125)

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
The Scripture of the
Golden Eternity
Totem/Corinth Book,
NY, 1970, p. 27

Verse 27 in Jack Kerouac's Sutra,
Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960):

Discard such definite imaginations of phenomena as your own self,
thou human being, thou'rt a numberless mass of sun-motes:
each mote a shrine. The same as to your shyness of other selves,
selfness as divided into infinite numbers of beings, or selfness
as identified as one self existing eternally. Be obliging and noble,
be generous with your time and help and possessions, and be kind,
because the emptiness of this little place of flesh you carry
around and call your soul, your entity, is the same emptiness
in every direction of space unmeasurable emptiness, the same,
one, and holy emptiness everywhere: why be selfy and unfree,
Man God, in your dream? Wake up, thou'rt selfless and free.
"Even and upright your mind abides nowhere," states
Hui Neng of China. We're all in heaven now.

126)

Aphorism 27 of Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Consciousness Without an Object (1973):

Consciousness of Equilibrium is Nirvana.

Commentaries: The idea of "Nirvana" as employed in the present
exposition, is not a notion of exclusively religious significance...
when an adequate equation has been found, then there is a sense of
conquest, rest, and peace. There is no need in man more profound
than just this. If no success in this direction were ever attained,
life would become unendurable, sooner or later... The less there is
of realization of equilibrium, the more painful life becomes, and
likewise, the more realization of equilibrium achieved, the greater
the joy and peace. Without consciousness of equilibrium, life is only
a painful battle and a storm of conflicts that leads nowhere.
[Aphorism 27: Consciousness of Equilibrium is Nirvana]
Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985),
Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object
(Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness)
(Julian Press, NY, 1973, p. 109, pp. 230-234)

127)

Chapter 27 of Wei Wu Wei's Open Secret is titled "Transcendence and Immanence":
I am the dreamer of myself in the dream in which I appear, but as such what
I am is not the objective (dreamed) appearance, and so I am no entity.

It is not the object that awakens, but it is the identification of the dreamer
with his object that causes the illusion of bondage.

Awakening is disappearing, dissolving, vanishing as an object.
Awakening is the dissolution of appearance,
the evaporation of a dream or an illusion.

Awakening is the dis-appearance of phenomenality (of the objective, as such).
Awakening is the dis-covery that the apparently objective is in fact 'subjective',
and the apparent entity has dis-appeared with the total appearance.
Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986), Open Secret,
Hong Kong University Press, 1965, p. 47

128)

Category 27 of Paul Brunton's Notebooks is titled "World-Mind":
The World-Mind eternally thinks this universe into being in a pulsating
rhythm of thought and rest. The process is eternal as the World-Mind itself.
The energies which accompany this thinking are electrical. The scientists note
and tap the energies, and ignore the Idea and the Mind they are experiencing.
Paul Brunton (1898-1981), Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
Volume I: Perspectives, Ch. 27: World Mind,
Larson Publications, Burdett, NY, 1984, p. 374

129)

Rafael Alberti's Poem 27 of Between the Carnation and the Sword:
I opened the door.
Where there was no road
I saw a path.
I took it.

I walked, and on both sides,
sound asleep, I began to sow:
in one, a pasture of silver;
in the other, gold.

When I returned,
like a shadow, I saw a bull,
crying.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999), Poem 27 of Entre El Clavel Y La Espada
Between the Carnation and the Sword included in
The Other Shore: 100 Poems, (edited by Kosrof Chantikian,
translated by José A. Elgorriaga & Martin Paul, 1981, p. 181)

130)

Sonnet 27: "Morning" in Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1960)

Naked you are simple as one of your hands;
Smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round.
You've moon-lines, apple pathways
Naked you are slender as a naked grain of wheat.

Naked you are blue as a night in Cuba;
You've vines and stars in your hair.
Naked you are spacious and yellow
As summer in a golden church.

Naked you are tiny as one of your nails;
Curved, subtle, rosy, till the day is born
And you withdraw to the underground world.

As if down a long tunnel of clothing and of chores;
Your clear light dims, gets dressed, drops its leaves,
And becomes a naked hand again.

Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)

Love Sonnet XXVII, 100 Love Sonnets: Cien Sonetos de Amor
Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1960 (trans. Stephen Tapscott, 1986)

131)

Robert Lax's Poem 27 of A Thing That Is (1997):

(life) is not hol y be cause it is beau ti ful it is beau ti ful be cause it is hol y	Robert LAX (1915-2000)
Robert Lax (1915-2000), A Thing That Is, Poem 27 (edited by Paul J. Spaeth, Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY, 1997, p. 47)

132)

27th & 4th is a poem by Robert Lax (1958).
It is an address in New York City. It was through a window from an office
at that address that Robert Lax observed the life that he used as the basis
for this poem. The place where Lax sat and watched the world was the
office of Jubilee magazine which Lax started in 1953 and acted as its
"roving editor" until 1967. This poem first appeared in PAX #8
(NY, 1958) under the pseudonym Peter Lewis. Sample selection:

the contact
of the inner self
with the outer
reality

God beyond
is looking for
God within

looking here?

but i
am O

i have
O

be nothing
that He may
fill you up...

a young man
and a young girl
in grey, and pink
and black
sort down
27th street
like Adam &
Eve from the
garden.

Robert Lax (1915-2000), 27th & 4th
(afterword by Paul J. Spaeth, Stride, Devon, UK. 1994)

133)

Koan 27 of Zen Master Seung Sahn: The Stone Man Is Crying:
As a young monk, Zen Master Man Gong was asked, "The ten thousand dharmas return to the One. Where does the One return?" He could not answer this question, and for a long time it would not let him go. Then one day, he heard the sound of the temple bell, and got enlightenment. Overjoyed, and very confident, he went around from temple to temple, testing many Zen Masters and hitting them when they couldn't answer his questions. Eventually, he met Zen Master Kyong Ho at Ma Gok Sah Temple, who asked him, "This is a brush. This is paper. Are they the same or different?" Man Gong thought, "That's no problem, very easy," and replied "The paper is the brush, the brush is the paper." "Then I ask you: The paper and the brush come from where?" Man Gong shouted, "KATZ!" "Not good, not bad," Kyong Ho said, and asked several more questions, which Man Gong answered easily. Finally, Kyong Ho asked, "The traditional funeral ceremony chant says, 'The stone man is crying.' What does this mean?" Man Gong was stuck. He had never heard this kind of question before. His mind became tight, and all his pride vanished. Kyong Ho shouted at him, "You don't understand this meaning! How can you say, 'The brush is the paper, the paper is the brush'?" Man Gong bowed deeply and said, "I'm sorry. Please teach me." "A long time ago, a monk asked Zen Master Joju, 'Does a dog have Buddha nature?' Joju said, 'Mu.' Do you understand that?" "I don't know." Then Kyong Ho said, "Only go straight, don't know! OK?" For the next three years, Man Gong did very hard training, always keeping only don't-know. One day, he was sitting at Tong Do Sah's Absolute Bliss Zen Center. Again, he heard the sound of a bell and this time got complete enlightenment. He sent a letter to Kyong Ho that said, "Thank you very much for your great teaching. Now I understand: kimchee is hot, sugar is sweet." Zen Master Kyong Ho was very happy, and gave Dharma Transmission to Man Gong.

Seung Sahn (born 1927), The Whole World Is A Single Flower
365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life,
Charles E. Tuttle Co., Boston, 1992, pp. 22-23

134)

At Age 27:
John Calvin (1509-1564) publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)
John Smith (1580-1631) leads first English settlement in North America
at Jamestown, Virginia (1607) & saved from death by Pocohontas
Robert Burns (1759-1796) publishes The Kilmarnock Poems (1786)
Napoleon (1769-1821) named commander of the army of Italy (March 2, 1796)
Zebulon M. Pike (1779-1813) discovers Pike's Peak, Colorado (1806)
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) publishes Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812-1815)
George Sand (1804-1876) publishes her first book, Indiana (1831)
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) publishes The Inspector General (1836)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) moves to Walden Pond (July 4, 1845)
Elias Howe (1819-1867) invents the first sewing machine (1846)
Captain Matthew Webb (1848-1883) is the first person to swim the English Channel (1875)
He takes 21 hours 43 minutes for the distance of 21 miles. At 35, Webb drowns
while trying to swim across the waters above Niagara Falls— an attempt
to exploit his fame as a swimmer. A memorial stone to Webb carries this
inscription: "Nothing Great Is Easy".
F.W. Woolworth (1852-1919) founded Woolworth Co. (1879) selling 5¢ and 10¢ merchandise
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composes Claire de Lune (1890)
Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) publishes The Jungle (1906)
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) writes poem "If I should die, think only this of me..." (1914)
and dies in the following yuear (1915) in World War I
Bill Tilden (1893-1953) wins Wimbledon tennis championship (1920)
for the first time, and again at 28 (1921) and 37 (1930)
wins U.S. championship seven times (1920-1925, 1929)
Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) stars in film Blood and Sand (1922)
Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) directs film The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Greta Garbo (1905-1990) says "I want to be alone" in film Grand Hotel (1932)
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) stars in film Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Ingmar Bergman (born 7-14-1918) directs his first film Crisis (1945)
Bob Feller (born 11-3-1918) strike-out record of 348 batters (1946)
Deanna Durbin (born 12-4-1921), teenage star retires (1949) after her 22 films
Hugh Hefner (born 1926) publishes Playboy magazine (1953)
Grace Kelly (1929-1982) marries Prince Rainier of Monaco (1956) and retires from films
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space (April 12, 1961)
Julie Andrews (born 1935) stars in her first film Mary Poppins (1963)
and wins Oscar for the Best Actress (1964)
Sandy Koufax (born 12-30-1935) breaks his own NL strike-out record with 276 (1963)
also sets major-league record with 11 shut-outs for a left-hander
Dawn Fraser (born 9-4-1937) wins Olympic 100-meters freestyle swimming (1964)
She had previously won this gold medal at 19 (1956) and 22 (1960)
Janis Joplin (1943-1970), rock singer, died from drugs overdose (1970)
Jimm Hendrix (1942-1970), rock guitarist, died from drugs overdose (1970)
Jim Morrison (1943-1971), rock singer, died from a heart attack (1971)
Kurt Corbain (1967-1994), rock singer, died from drugs overdose (1994)
Richard Dreyfuss (born 1947) stars in film Jaws (1975)
Garry Trudeau (born 7-21-1948) becomes the youngest to receive Yale honorary degree (1976)
for his Doonesbury comic strip which he started at 20 while at Yale.
[Sources: World Almanac Book of Who (1980); Jeremy Baker, Tolstoy's Bicycle (1982)]

135)

Numerology: words whose letters add up to 27

BREATH: 2 + 9 + 5 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 27

CHILD: 3 + 8 + 9 + 3 + 4 = 27

ELEVEN: 5 + 3 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 27

LOVER: 3 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 9 = 27

MONEY: 4 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 7 = 27

MONDAY: 4 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 1 + 7 = 27

JANUARY: 1 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 1 + 9 + 7 = 27

WORLD: 5 + 6 + 9 + 3 + 4 = 27

JNANA SAGE: (1 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 1) + (1 + 1 + 7 + 5) = 13 + 14 = 27

SOUL STARS: (1 + 6 + 3 + 3) + (1 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 1) = 13 + 14 = 27

SUN DANCE: (1 + 3 + 5) + (4 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 5) = 9 + 18 = 27

WU WEI: (5 + 3) + (5 + 5 + 9) = 8 + 19 = 27

I AM THAT: 9 + (1 + 4) + (2 + 8 + 1 + 2) = 9 + 5 + 13 = 27

TAT TWAM ASI = (2 + 1 + 2) + (2 + 4 + 1 + 4) + (1 + 1 + 9) = 5 + 11 + 11 = 27