On the Number 52

1) The 26th even number = 52
2) The 36th composite number = 52
3) Product of the 1st even & 13th even numbers = 2 x 26 = 52
4) Product of the 2nd even & 7th odd numbers = 4 x 13 = 52
5) Sum of the 9th and 10th prime numbers = 23 + 29 = 52
6) Sum of the 3rd and 15th prime numbers = 5 + 47 = 52
7) Sum of the 5th and 13th prime numbers = 11 + 41 = 52
8) Sum of the 3rd and 15th prime numbers = 5 + 47 = 52
9) Sum of the 5th square & 3rd cube numbers = 52 + 33 = 25 + 27 = 52
10) Sum of the 11th odd and 11th prime numbers = 21 + 31 = 52
11) Sum of the 1st & 7th abundant numbers = 12 + 40 = 52
12) Sum of the 3rd through 10th numbers = 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 52
13) Sum of the 5th through 8th even numbers = 10 + 12 + 14 + 16 = 52
14) Sum of the 3rd through 8th Fibonacci numbers = 2 + 3 + 5 + 8 + 13 + 21 = 52
(Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, 1170-1250)
15) The 172nd & 173rd digits of pi = 52
16) The 66th & 67th digits of phi = 52
17) Atomic Number of Tellurium (Te) = 52 (52 protons & 52 electrons)
Tellurium is semi-metallic with silvery lustrous grey color.
18) Atomic Weight of Chromium (Cr) = 52 (51.9961)
Chromium is a steel-gray, lustrous metal.
19) Adrenomedullin is a 52-amino-acid peptide observed to stimulate adenylyl cyclase activity in a platelet bioassay. It was discovered and isolated from human pheochromocytoma extracts.
20) The DNA-binding domain of Myb has been shown to contain three imperfectly conserved repeats of 52 amino acids that constitute the amino-terminal end.
21) The 52nd day of the year = February 21
(Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia was born on February 21, 1893. Obituary)
22) Number of weeks in a solar year = 52
23) Wu Shí Èr is the Chinese ideograph for 52.
24) The Roman numeral for 52 is LII.
25) In Hebrew numerology, Gematria, AYMA (Aima), the Supernal Mother
(a title of Binah) adds up to 52
AYMA = 1 + 10 + 40 + 1 = 52
(Hebrew words that add up to 52; Gematria Server)
26) Deck of playing cards = 52 (History)
27) There are 52 white notes & 36 black notes on the piano keyboard (Piano Details).
28) The Mayan Calendar moves through a complete cycle every 52 years.
(Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, 1993, p. 257)
29) Patolli is an Aztec board game utilizing 52 squares arranged in a cross form. Its name came from the Aztec word for bean— patolli, meaning fava or kidney bean. The game is played on a curious diagonal cross-shaped board with red and blue markers and five beans (or occasionally four beans) as dice. The game's goal is to return the pieces back to the original starting position. Patolli was most likely also used in a religious and ritualistic sense for divination— the throw of the beans was thought to be able to tell the future. (Images.)
30) The movement of the sun, hence the planets through the signs of the zodiac, is affected by the precession of the equinoxes, which is due to a very slow rotation (26,000 years for a full circle) of the earth's axis round that of the ecliptic. Thus the spring equinox goes back 50"2' each year, or 52o in 2000 years. (Charles-Albert Reichen, History of Astronomy, 1963, p. 29)
31) 52 Symbolism: According to mystics: able, determined, loves mountains,
supports adversity with courage and prudence, a traveler. Physical weakness:
the spleen. According to the cabala: loves work, strong, and vigorous,
a soldier or voyager; in low form: conceited.
Gertrude Jobes, Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore and Symbols
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1962, Part 1, p. 567

Morden Blush Rose
32) Morden Blush Rose
      Bred in Canada, 1988
        Parkland Shrub,
        ('Prarie Princess' x
        'Morden Amorette')
        2.75" average diameter

      52 petals

33) Yin Hehuan Lotus
      Hedge Acacia
        double, bowl-shaped
        12 cm diameter

      52 petals


Yin Hehuan Lotus
34) Cities located at 52o latitude:
Berlin, Germany: 52o 27' N latitude & 13o 18' E longitude
Hannover, Germany: 52o 24' N latitude & 9o 40' E longitude
Amsterdam, Netherlands: 52o 23' N latitude & 4o 55' E longitude
Warsaw, Poland: 52o 13' N latitude & 21o 2' W longitude
Birmingham, UK: 52o 29' N latitude & 1o 56' W longitude
35) Fifty Two Weeks for Florette is a short story by Elizabeth Alexander,
published in the Saturday Evening Post on August 13, 1921.
It received the O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921.
A film You Belong to Me was made based on this story.
Richard Bertrand Dimmitt, A Title Guide to the Talkies, 1927-1963,
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1965, p. 505
36) Fifty-Two Miles to Terror is a short story by Alex Gaby,
published in the Saturday Evening Post on January 14, 1956.
37) 52nd Street, United Artists (1937)
80-minutes musical on 15 years in the life of a NYC Street.
Directed by Harold Young. Produced by Walter Wanger.
Starring Leo Carrillo, Ian Hunter, Ella Logan, ZaSu Pitts.
Richard Bertrand Dimmitt, A Title Guide to the Talkies, 1927-1963,
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1965, p. 505
38) 52 Pick-Up, Cannon (1986)
114-minutes action-mystery-thriller film
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Produced by Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus
Based on novel by Elmore Leonard
Starring Roy Scheider, Ann-Margaret, Vanity, John Glover.
Derek Elley (Editor), Variety Movie Guide,
Prentice Hall, New York, p. 195
39) Woody Allen's filmMelinda and Melinda had its premiere on Sept. 17, 2004
at the 52nd San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain. (NY Times, Sept. 25, 2004)
40) Hymn 52 in Book 9 of the Rig Veda is an invocation to Indra's friend Soma Pavamana:
WEALTH-WINNER, dwelling in the sky, bringing us vigour with the juice,
Flow to the filter when effused.
So, in thine ancient ways, may he, beloved, with a thousand streams
Run o'er the fleecy straining-cloth.
Him who is like a caldron shake: O Indu, shake thy gift to us
Shake it, armed Warrior! with thine arms.
Indu, invoked with many a prayer, bring down the vigour of these men,
Of him who threatens us with war.
Indu, Wealth-giver, with thine help pour out for us a hundred, yea,
A thousand of thy pure bright streams.
Rig Veda Book 9, 52.1-5 (circa 1500 B.C.)
41) Nag Hammadi is a set of 52 religious & philosophical texts, hidden in an earthenware jar for 1,600 years, and accidentally unearthed in the village of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in December 1945. Written in Coptic, this corpus of 1200 pages include the Gospel of Thomas recording the secret sayings of Christ.
42) 52nd word of the King James Version of the Bible's Old Testament Genesis = God
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.
    And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis I.1-4 (1611)
43) Number of chapters in Jeremiah in the Old Testament = 52
44) Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah reigned in Jerusalem for 52 years, beginning his reign at the age of 16. (II Kings XV.2)
45) Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign,
and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem
. (II. Chronicles, XXVI.3)
46) The number of children of Nebo who returned from exile was 52. (Ezra, II.29)
47) So the wall was finished in the 25th day of the month Elul, in 52 days. (Nehemiah, VI.15)
48) In the 52nd Psalm, David sings to God:
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

Psalms 52.8
49) 52nd Saying of Gospel of Thomas:
His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and
they all spoke concerning thee." He said them: "You have neglected
him who is alive before you, and have spoken about the dead."

Gospel of Thomas 52 (114 sayings of Jesus)
(translated by Thomas O. Lambdin, 1988)
50) Tradition in the State of Kerala, India, has it that
the Apostle Thomas converted Hindus to Christianity in the year 52 A.D.
51) 52nd Hexagram of the I Ching: Kên / Keeping Still (Mountain)
THE JUDGMENT:
KEEPING STILL. Keeping his back still
So that he no longer feels his body.
He goes into his courtyard
And does not see his people.
No blame.
THE IMAGE:
Mountains standing close together:
The image of KEEPING STILL.
Thus the superior man
Does not permit his thoughts
To go beyond his situation.
52) Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Tao Te Ching, Verse 52:
The world has a maiden
she becomes the world's mother
who knows the mother
understands the child
who understands the child
keeps the mother safe
and lives without trouble
who blocks the opening
who closes the gate
lives without toil
who unblocks the opening
who meddles in affairs
lives without hope
who sees the small has vision
who protects the weak has strength
who uses his light
who trusts his vision
lives beyond death
this is the Hidden Immortal
(translated by Red Pine, Taoteching,
Mercury House, San Francisco, 1996, p. 104)
53) Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Hua Hu Ching, Verse 52:
Do you think you can clear your mind by
sitting constantly in silent meditation?
This makes your mind narrow, not clear.
Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable,
present in all places and at all times.
That is true meditation. Who can attain
clarity and simplicity by avoiding the world?
The Tao is clear and simple,
and it doesn't avoid the world.
Why not simply honor your parents,
love your children,
help your brothers and sisters,
be faithful to your friends,
care for your mate with devotion,
complete your work cooperatively and joyfully,
assume responsibility for problems,
practice virtue without first demanding it of others,
understand the highest truths yet retain an ordinary manner?
That would be true clarity, true simplicity, true mastery.
(translated by Brian Walker,
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu,
Harper SanFrancisco 1992)
54) 52nd Verse of Pythagoras's Golden Verses:
Thou shalt likewise know that according to Law,
the nature of this universe is in all things alike.

Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.), Golden Verses, Verse 52
(translated by A.E.A., Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. V, 1894)
reprinted in Percy Bullock, The Dream of Scipio, Aquarian Press,
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK, 1983, p. 55
55) Chapter 52 of Symbols of Pythagoras: Unum, Duo
One, Two. — Dacier.
By the number One was intended the Divine;
by Two, Nature: if we know nothing of God,
we cannot understand his works.

Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.), Symbols of Pythagoras
(translated by Sapere Aude, Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. V, 1894)
reprinted in Percy Bullock, The Dream of Scipio, Aquarian Press,
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK, 1983, p. 80
56) 52nd Verse of Buddha's Dhammapada: On Flowers
Like a beautiful flower, brightly coloured and scented,
even so useful is the well-uttered speech of one who acts accordingly.

Buddha, Dhammapada Verse 52 (240 B.C.)
(translated by Sangharakshita, Dhammapada: The Way of Truth 2001, p. 27)
57) 52nd Verse in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita
(Krishna's lecture to Arjuna on karma yoga):
When thy mind leaves behind its dark forest of delusion,
thou shalt go beyond the scriptures of times past and still to come.
(2:52)
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 52
(Translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin Books, 1962, p. 53)
58) 52nd Verse in Chapter 18 of Astavakra Gita
(Sage Astavakra's dialogue with King Janaka):
Devoid of desires shines in he who has realized self-conscious while living natural life.
But a false thought of no attachment to desires in mind is not calm in he who is deluded.

Astavakra Gita Chapter 18, Verse 52 (circa 400 B.C.)
59) 52nd Book of Enoch describes the metal mountains:
And after those days in that place where I had seen all the visions of that
which is hidden— for I had been carried off in a whirlwind and they had
borne me towards the west— There mine eyes saw all the secret things of
heaven that shall be, a mountain of iron, and a mountain of copper, and a
mountain of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal,
and a mountain of lead... And the angel of peace said "All these shall be
as wax before the fire... none shall be saved either by gold or by silver,
and none be able to escape... when the Elect One shall appear before the
face of the Lord of Spirits."

Book of Enoch LII.1-2, 5-9 (circa 105 B.C.-64 B.C.)
translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1917, pp. 69-70
60) Han-shan's Poem 52 of Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:
daylong they seem drunk
don't stop at all for years
buried beneath weeds
dawn must be dim
flesh and bones vanished completely
souls about withered away
notwithstanding iron-snapping jaws
helpless to chant the old sutras
Han-shan (fl. 627-649), Collected Songs of Cold Mountain,
Poem 52 (translated by Red Pine, 1990)
( Robert G. Henricks translation, 1990; Burton Watson translation, 1962)
61) Chapter 52 of Mohammed's Holy Koran is titled "The Mountain"
I swear by the Mountain,
And the Book written
In an outstretched fine parchment...
On the day when the heaven shall move from side to side
And the mountains shall pass away passing away altogether.
So woe on that day to those who reject the truth...
sing the praise of your Lord when you rise;
And in the night, give Him glory too, and at the setting of the stars.

Mohammed, Holy Koran 52.1-3, 52.9-11, 52.48-49 (7th century AD)
(translated by M. H. Shakir, Holy Koran, 1983)
62) 52nd Tetragram of the T'ai Hsüan Ching: Measure / Tu
August 8 (pm) - August 12:
Correlates with Earth's Mystery:
Yin ch'i daily leaps up. Yang ch'i daily yields ground.
Leaping and more leaping, receding and more receding,
each attains its proper measure. Since waxing and waning occur in
proper measure, the continuation of the eternal cycle is assured.

Yang Hsiung (53 BC-18 AD),
Canon of Supreme Mystery ( T'ai Hsüan Ching)
(translated by Michael Nylan, 1993)
63) Stanza 52 of Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness:
When the eye does not see itself, how can it see forms?
Therefore the eye and the forms do not have self-existent and
the remaining entrances should be understood in the same way.
Nagarjuna (circa 150-250 A.D.),
Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness
(translated by David Ross Komito, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, 1987, p. 91)
64) 52nd Verse of Sagathakam in Lankavatara Sutra:
When bound in conditions there evolves a mind in all beings;
when released from conditions, I say, I see no mind rising.
Last chapter of The Lankavatara Sutra (before 443 AD)
(translated from the Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki, 1932)
65) 52nd Verse of Chapter 6 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
The mind, because it has no form, cannot be destroyed
by anyone in any place; but because it hinges upon the body,
it is oppressed by the suffering of the body.

Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
VI.52 (Perfection of Patience: Ksanti-paramita) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 177); Bodhisattva Path
66) Section 52 of Huang Po's Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind:
The Master said: Only when your minds cease dwelling upon anything whatsoever will you come to an understanding of the true way of Zen. I may express it thus— the way of the Buddhas flourishes in a mind utterly freed from conceptual thought processes, while discrimination between this and that gives birth to a legion of demons! Finally, remember that from first to last not even the smallest grain of anything perceptible has ever existed or ever will exist. Huang Po (died 850 A.D.), Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind, The Wan Ling Record, Section 52
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1958, p. 127)
67) Case 52 of Hekiganroku: Joshu's Stone Bridge
Main Subject: A monk said to Joshu, "The stone bridge of Joshu is widely renowned,
but coming here I find only a set of stepping stones." Joshu said, "You see only the
stepping stones and do not see the stone bridge." The monk said, "What is the stone bridge?"
Joshu said, "It lets donkeys cross over and horses cross over."

Setcho's Verse:
No show of transcendence,
But his path was high.
If you've entered the great sea of Zen,
You should catch a giant turtle.
I can't help laughing at old Kankei,
His contemporary, who said,
"It is as quick as an arrow"—
A mere waste of labor.
Setcho (980-1052), Hekiganroku, 52 (Blue Cliff Records)
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, pp. 291-292)
68) Verse 52 of Rubáiyát, of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
A moment guess'd— then back behind the Fold
Immerst of Darkness round the Drama roll'd
Which, for the Pastime of Eternity,
He doth Himself contrive, enact, behold.
(translated by Edward Fitzgerald, London, 1st edition 1859, 2nd edition 1868)
69) Verse 52 of Dogen (1200-1253):
Although white snowflakes
Are endlessly falling
In the deepest mountain valley
The clear song of the warbler
Reveals that spring has already come.

(translated by Steven Heine, Zen Poetry of Dogen, Tuttle, Boston, 1997, p. 114)
70) Verse 52 of Rumi Daylight:
Whoever gives reverence receives reverence:
Whoever brings sugar eats almond cake.
Who are the good women for? The good men.
Honor your friend;
or see what happens if you don't.

Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Mathnawi, I.1494-5
Rumi Daylight, Verse 52 (p. 42)
(Edited by Camille & Kabir Helminski, 1994)
71) Chapter 52 of Rumi's Discourses (Fihi ma fihi):
Someone was saying: "I have studied so many branches of knowledge
and mastered so many concepts; yet I still do not know which concept in
man will abide forever. I have not discovered it yet." If it could be known
by means of words, there would be no need for the annihilation of individual
existence or for so much suffering. You must strive to rid yourself of your
own individuation before you can know that thing which will remain.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)
Signs of the Unseen: Discourses of Rumi, Chapter 52
(Translated by W. M. Thackston, Jr., Threshold Books, Putney, VT, 1994, p. 203)
72) Dante writes of the nature of social love in 52nd Canto of Commedia, Line 52:
la qual sanza operar non è sentita,
né si dimostra mai che per effetto,
come per verdi fronde in pianta vita.
a force unknown to us until it acts—
it's never shown except in its effects,
just as green boughs display the life in plants.
Purgatorio 18.52-54 ( Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1984)
73) Dante sets his eyes to stare at the sun in the 52nd line of Paradiso:
così de l'atto suo, per li occhi infuso
ne l'imagine mia, il mio si fece,
e fissi li occhi al sole oltre nostr'uso.
fed by my eyes to my imagination,
my action drew, and on the sun I set
my sight more than we usually do.
Paradiso I.52-54 ( Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1984)
74) Kabir's 52 letters:
Many have joined these fifty-two letters
none saw the one Letter.
O Kabir, those who speak the word of truth
are real pundits, who live fearlessly.
Joining letters may be the business of pundits,
but thinking of truth is the business of the wise.
A person's wisdom is proportional to his mind,
Kabir, say, "He can understand only that much."

Kabir (1398-1448), Raga Gauri-Purabi, 45
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth, Verse 45 (p. 114)
(Translated by Nirmal Dass, State University of NY Press, Albany, 1991)
75) Marvelous knowledge in Kabir's Sabda: Verse 52:
Think about it, knower of Brahma
It's pouring, pouring, the thunder's roaring,
but not one raindrop falls.
An elephant's tied to an ant's foot,
a sheep eats a wolf,
a fish jumps out of the ocean
and builds a house on the beach.
Frog and snake lie down together,
a cat gives birth to a dog,
the lion quakes in fear of the jackal—
these marvels can't be told.
Who tracks down the deer of doubt
in the forest? The archer aims,
trees burn in the sea,
a fish plays hunter.
Oh, what marvelous knowledge!
If anyone can hear,
he'll fly to the sky without wings
and live, not die, says Kabir.

Kabir (1398-1448), The Bijak of Kabir, Sabda: Verse 52 (p. 58)
(Translated by Linda Hess & Shukdev Singh, North Point Press, San Francisco, 1983)
76) The last chapter of Cervantes' Don Quixote, Part I is Chapter 52— Of the Quarrel that Don Quixote Had with the Goatherd:
The goatherd eyed him, and noticing Don Quixote's sorry appearance and looks, he was filled with wonder, and asked the barber, who was next him, "Senor, who is this man who makes such a figure and talks in such a strain?"
"Who should it be," said the barber, "but the famous Don Quixote of La Mancha, the undoer of injustice, the righter of wrongs, the protector of damsels, the terror of giants, and the winner of battles?"

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote Part I, Ch. LII (1605)
(translated by John Ormsby)
77) There are 74 chapters in Part II of Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Chapter 52 is titled "Wherein Is Related the Adventure of the
Second Distressed or Afflicted Duenna, Otherwise Called Dona Rodriguez:
To these words Don Quixote replied very gravely and solemnly, "Worthy duenna, check your tears, or rather dry them, and spare your sighs, for I take it upon myself to obtain redress for your daughter, for whom it would have been better not to have been so ready to believe lovers' promises, which are for the most part quickly made and very slowly performed; and so, with my lord the duke's leave, I will at once go in quest of this inhuman youth, and will find him out and challenge him and slay him, if so be he refuses to keep his promised word; for the chief object of my profession is to spare the humble and chastise the proud; I mean, to help the distressed and destroy the oppressors." Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote Part II, Ch. LII (1615)
(translated by John Ormsby)
78) 52 occurs 4 times in the works of William Shakespeare:
have as many disease as two and fifty horses (Taming of the Shrew, I.2.81)
the turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath, (1st Part of King Henry the Sixth, IV.7.73)
here's but two and fifty hairs on your chin— (Troilus and Cressida, I.2.157)
"two and fifty hairs," quoth he, "and one white (Troilus and Cressida, I.2.1161)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973, p. 411
79) Blessed key & locked treasure in 52nd Sonnet of William Shakespeare:
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key,
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
Since, seldom coming in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,
To make some special instant special-blest,
By new unfolding his imprison'd pride.
Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had, to triumph; being lacked, to hope.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnets LII, Commentary
80) 52nd Section of Swedenborg's Worlds in Space (1758):
I was also shown the kind of faces the inhabitants of the world of Jupiter have... They also believe that after death they will feel a fire which will warm their faces. Their reason for saying this is that the wiser among them know that fire in the spiritual sense means love; love is the fire of life, and it is this fire which gives life to angels. Those of them who have lived in a state of heavenly love actually achieve their ambition; they feel their faces grow warm and the interiors of their minds are fired with love.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), The Worlds in Space, 52
(translated from Latin by John Chadwick, Swedenborg Society, London, 1997, pp. 33-34)
81) 52nd Poem of Thomas Cole is titled "Birdsnest":
On topmost bough swinging in every blast
Of Winter's chilliest, keenest breath there hung
A Birdsnest, which nor wind nor hail had cast
From the tough twigs to which it firmly clung.

No twittering such as in the summer's day
I oft have lingering listened to was heard;
But it was empty torn and bleak and gray
The airy cradle of the happy bird.

Far with the summer fled the birdlets gay
Which in that cradle were so fondly tended,
In some unknown and sunnier land they play
Mid bowers where buds and fruits are sweetly blended.

In some far land unknown! Alas!
How like the Hopes my youthful bosom bred;
No mother's care, no love could mine surpass;
But like the birds when winter came they fled,

And left my heart, where they were fondly nursed
Empty and hollow, like yon tossing nest
The bird will build, so let th' unfading bloom
Of Hope surround my idly tortured breast—

Thomas Cole (1801-1848),
Cedar Grove (Catskill), February 1840
Thomas Cole's Poetry, Poem 52: "Birdsnest"
(Compiled & Edited by Marshall B. Tymn,
Liberty Cap Books, York, Pennsylvania, 1972, p. 117)

Thomas Cole, Self-Portrait (1836)

82) Chapter 52 of Melville's Moby-Dick (1851):
"Ship ahoy! Have ye seen the White Whale?" But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid bulwarks, was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth, it somehow fell from his hand into the sea; and the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make himself heard without it. Meantime his ship was still increasing the distance between us... Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage. But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in tormented chase of the demon phantom that, some time or other, swims before all human hearts; while chasing such over this round globe, they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed. Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick, Chapter 52: The Albatross
83) 52nd Poem of Emily Dickinson:
Whether my bark went down at sea—
Whether she met with gales—
Whether to isles enchanted
She bent her docile sails—

By what mystic mooring
She is held today—
This is the errand of the eye
Out upon the Bay.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 1955)
84) 52nd New Poem of Emily Dickinson:
Gratitude is the timid wealth
of those who have nothing.

Emily Dickinson (Letter 330)
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by William H. Shurr, University of North Carolin Press, 1993, p. 23)
85) Line 52 of Walt Whitman's Passage to India (1871):
I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring, and the shrill steam-whistle,
I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the world;
I cross the Laramie plains— I note the rocks in grotesque shapes— the buttes;
I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions— the barren, colorless, sage— deserts;
I see in glimpses afar, or towering immediately above me, the great mountains—
I see the Wind River and the Wahsatch mountains;

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Passage to India Section 5, Lines 52-57
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)
86)
52nd Verse in Tagore's Gitanjali:
  I thought I should ask of thee— but I dared not— the rose wreath thou hadst on thy neck. Thus I waited for the morning, when thou didst depart, to find a few fragments on the bed. And like a beggar I searched in the dawn only for a stray petal or two.
  Ah me, what is it I find? What token left of thy love? It is no flower, no spices, no vase of perfumed water. It is thy mighty sword, flashing as a flame, heavy as a bolt of thunder. The young light of morning comes through the window and spread itself upon thy bed. The morning bird twitters and asks, 'Woman, what hast thou got?' No, it is no flower, nor spices, nor vase of perfumed water— it is thy dreadful sword.
  I sit and muse in wonder, what gift is this of thine. I can find no place to hide it. I am ashamed to wear it, frail as I am, and it hurts me when press it to my bosom. Yet shall I bear in my heart this honour of the burden of pain, this gift of thine.
  From now there shall be no fear left for me in this world, and thou shalt be victorious in all my strife. Thou hast left death for my companion and I shall crown him with my life. Thy sword is with me to cut asunder my bonds, and there shall be no fear left for me in the world.
  From now I leave off all petty decorations. Lord of my heart, no more shall there be for me waiting and weeping in corners, no more coyness and sweetness of demeanour. Thou hast given me thy sword for adornment. No more doll's decorations for me!

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), Verse 52

Rabindranath Tagore
(1861-1941)
87) 52nd Page lines in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, (7 samples):
rose to his feet and there, far from Tolkaheim, in a quiet English (52.9)
garden (commonplace!), since known as Whiddington Wild, his (52.10)
dearbrathairs, as he, so is a supper as is a sipper, spake of the (52.12)
One and told of the Compassionate, called up before the triad of (52.13)
Television kills telephony in brothers' broil. Our eyes de- (52.18)
mand their turn. Let them be seen! And wolfbone balefires blaze (52.19)
the touching seene. The solence of that stilling! Here one might (52.36)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Finnegans Wake, (1939)
88) Sonnet 52 in Edna St. Vincent Millay's Fatal Interview (1931)
Oh, sleep forever in the Latmian cave
Mortal Endymion, darling of the moon!
Her silver garments by the senseless wave
Shouldered and dropped and on the shingle strewn,
Her fluttering hand against her forehead pressed,
Her scattered looks that trouble all the sky,
Her rapid footsteps running down the west—
Of all her altered state, oblivious lie!
Whom earthen you, by deathless lips adored,
Wild-eyed and stammering to the grasses thrust,
And deep into her crystal body poured
The hot and sorrowful sweetness of the dust:
Whereof she wanders mad, being all unfit
For mortal love, that might not die of it.

Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Harper & Row, NY, 1988, p. 121

Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892-1950)
89) Sonnet 52 in Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1960)
You sing, and your voice peels the husk
of the day's grain, your song with the sun and the sky,
the pine trees speak with their green tongue:
all the birds of the winter whistle.

The sea fills its cellar with footfalls,
with bells, chains, whimpers,
the tools and the metals jangle,
wheels of the caravan creak.

But I hear only your voice, your voice
soars with the zing and precision of an arrow,
it drops with the gravity of rain,

your voice scatters the highest swords
and returns with its cargo of violets:
it accompanies me through the sky.

Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)
Love Sonnet LII, 100 Love Sonnets: Cien Sonetos de Amor
Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1960 (trans. Stephen Tapscott, 1986)
90)
Verse 52 in Jack Kerouac's Sutra,
Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960):

Kindness and sympathy, understanding and encouragement, these give: they are better than just presents and gifts: no reason in the world why not. Anyhow, be nice. Remember the golden eternity is yourself. "If someone will simply practice kindness," said Gotama to Subhuti, "he will soon attain highest perfect wisdom." Then he added: "Kindness after all is only a word and it should be done on the spot without thought of kindness." By practicing kindness all over with everyone you will soon come into the holy trance, infinite distinctions of personalities will become what they really mysteriously are, our common and eternal blissstuff, the pureness of everything forever, the great bright essence of mind, even and one thing everywhere the holy eternal milky love, the white light everywhere everything, emptybliss, svaha, shining, ready, and awake, the compassion in the sound of silence, the swarming myriad trillionaire you are.
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
Totem/Corinth Book, NY, 1970, p. 39
91) Aphorism 52 of Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Consciousness Without an Object (1973):

As the GREAT SPACE is not to be identified with the Universe,
so neither is It to be identified with any Self.

Commentaries: The SPACE of the symbol is here called the GREAT SPACE to emphasize the fact that it is to be understood as space in the ultimate or generic sense, in contradistinction to the special spaces of perception and conception. Further, IT is neither an objective nor a subjective space and hence many not be designated as either the Self or the Universe. [Aphorism 53: The GREAT SPACE is not God, but the comprehender of all Gods, as well as of all lesser creatures.]


Franklin Merrell-Wolff
Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985),
Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object
(Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness)
(Julian Press, NY, 1973, p. 116, p. 256)
92) Chapter 52 of Wei Wu Wei's Ask the Awakened (1963)
is titled "Sidelights on Some Ko-ans, 1":
Kakuan, a Master of the 12th century, made a significant statement when he said:
"Through delusion one makes everything (everything becomes) untrue. Delusion
is not caused by objectivity; it is the result of (personal) subjectivity."
    This seems to mean that everything interpreted by the mind
that is subjected to an I-concept is delusion, but that if that false
identification is eliminated, perceptions (then "pure" perceptions)
are not delusive, for they are purely objective.
    We can now understand what the T'ang Masters
meant when they held up a hossu, a stick, a pot or other object, and cried,
"Do not say it is a hossu, a stick, a pot or other object; do not say
it is not; what is it? Speak! Speak!". The poor, mystified monks were
nonplussed, for the Masters never explained anything, knowing that it was
essential that the understanding should come from within and not from without.
    But we have to understand, for we have no Masters, and they
meant that if the object were given its name that would be an interpretation
by split-mind, a concept, delusory and unreal; what they sought to arouse was
just a pure perception of the object, uninterpreted, which either should produce
awakening or open the way for it on a subsequent occasion.
    That also, no doubt, is the explanation of the Flower Sermon
of the Buddha, when only Mahakasyapa understood the silent
holding-up of a flower— and he smiled, for he was awake.
    The Masters strove to open the way for the "original nature"
by short-circuiting the dualistic reasoning of identified mind.

Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986), Ask the Awakened, Chapter 52 (1963), pp. 114-115
93)

Paul Brunton (1898-1981),
Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
XV, Paras #52
from various chapters
Volume 15:
Advanced Contemplation
& The Peace Within You
,
Larson Publications,
Burdett, NY, 1988,
Part I:
pp. 11, 96, 135, 175, 221;
Part II:
pp. 21, 44, 84
(Excerpts)

Para #52 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "Advanced Contemplation"—
It is at such a time that he needs to go straight to the source of the divine grace, to break his mental alliance with the ego and begin a joyful reliance on the Overself. (1.52)
The Long Path represents a looking of the eyes upon a horizontal plane, the Short Path represents a turning movement of them in an upward direction. (5.52)
The Yoga of the Liberating Smile is to be practised at two special times— when he is falling into sleep at night and when he is waking from sleep in the morning. (6.52)
There are definite stages which mark his progress. First he forgets the larger world, then his immediate surroundings, then his body, and finally his ego. (7.52)
What happens is not a passing-out of consciousness but a passing-into a vast consciousness, an all-space without any objects or any creatures, a Void. (8.52)
Para #52 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "The Peace Within You"—
No pleasure which is brief, sensual, and fugitive is worth exchanging
for equanimity and peace, not even if it is multiplied a thousand times during a lifetime's course.
(2.52)
He who attains this inner equilibrium is neutral to all the ideas thrown at him by books and men, unresponsive to all the suggestions dumped on him by social trends and institutions. His mind dwells in vacuity— free, happy in itself and with itself. His is the centered life. (3.52)
The presence is always there, always waiting to be recognized and felt, but inner silence is needed to make this possible. And few persons possess it or seek it. (4.52)
94) "Psychic Sounds" is Lesson 52
of Subramuniyaswami's Merging with Siva (1999):
As the clear white light becomes more of a friend to his external mind than an experience or vision and can be basked in during contemplative periods of the day, the nourishment to the entirety of the nerve system, as ambrosia, bursts forth from the crown chakra. This is identified inadequately as "the peace that passeth understanding," for he who reaches this state can never seem to explain it.
    The highly trained classical yoga adept intensifies, through techniques imparted to him from his guru, the clear white light to the brink of God Realization, the void. His entire body is faded into a sea of blue-white light, the akasha, where now, past and future are recorded in the linear depths or layers, sometimes seeing himself seated or standing on a lotus flower of shimmering light in an actinodic clear, transparent, neon, plastic-like-body outline as his consciousness touches, in tune with a heart's beat, into the Self, God Realization.
    Keeping this continuity alive and not allowing the external consciousness to reign, the young aspirant lives daily in the clear white light, having occasionally more intense experiences as just described, while meeting daily chores here and now, until he attains the maturity of the nerve fiber essential to burst his consciousness beyond itself into the pure nonconscious state, nirvikalpa samadhi, the Self. Only known and identified by him as an experience experienced, only recognized by others as he maintains his point of reference: that mind is only illusion, ever changing and perpetuating itself by mingling concepts of past and future into the present; that the only reality is the timeless, formless, causeless, spaceless Self beyond the mind. He knows that the mind, which is made from a consciousness of time, creates, maintains and defabricates form, and exists in a relative concept of space. The Self is the only reality and is an intensity far greater than that of any phase of the mind.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)
Merging with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Metaphysics
Himalayan Academy, Kapaa, Hawaii, 1999
95) 52nd Poem of The Crane's Bill:
Flutist Diviner:
Who nowadays hears the ancient tune of Ji Peak?
Master diviner of our destiny, do you?
A, B, C, D, E, F, G—
"Spring Time", "White Snow", "Song of the Partridge".

— Daisen, 13th century
Zen Poems of China and Japan: The Crane's Bill
(translated by Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto, Anchor Books, NY, 1973, p. 31)
96) Koan 52 of Zen Master Seung Sahn:
Big Bell Ceremony:
One day at Su Dok Sah Temple they were having a grand ceremony to dedicate the big new temple bell. Zen Master Hae Am stepped up to give the Dharma speech, saying, "We now have a big bell. Is this bell outside or inside your mind?
When you hear the bell, stand up.
When you hear the drum, fall down. What does this mean?"
No one answered. Then he said,
"I will give you the answer."
He clenched his hand in a fist and held it up.
"If this is correct..." opening his hand,
"then this is not correct."
COMMENTARY:
Zen Master Hae Am was very clever and very stupid.
He opened his mouth, and it was already a mistake.
The stone girl hit him thirty times.
Do you know the true meaning of this?
When Hae Am gave his Dharma speech all the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas faced west and said,
"Great Zen Master is in front of you at this moment."

Seung Sahn (born 1927), The Whole World Is A Single Flower:
365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life
, Tuttle, Boston, 1992, pp. 43-44
97) There are 67 poems in Charles Simic's The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems (1989)
(which was awarded the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry)
Poem 52:
At least four or five Hamlets on this block alone.
Identical Hamlets holding identical monkey-faced spinning toys.
Charles Simic (born May 9, 1938),
The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, NY, 1989, p. 59)
98) There are 52 poems in Charles Simic's Hotel Insomnia (1992):
Poem 52 is titled
"Country Fair":

COUNTRY FAIR

            for Hayden Carruth

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

Charles Simic (born May 9, 1938),
Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, NY, 1992, p. 66)

99) At Age 52:
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) designs Pazzi Chapel, Florence (1429-61)
Adam Smith (1723-1790) writes The Wealth of Nations (1776)
James Watt (1736-1819) invents centrifugal governor (1788) for steam engine
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composes Symphony #9 (1823)
Gail Borden (1801-1874), U.S. inventor of condensed milk (1853)
George Eliot (1819-1880) writes novel Middlemarch (1871)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) composes Symphony #4 (1885)
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) paints The Card Players (1890-1892)
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) composes Symphony #9 "From the New World" (1893)
August Strindberg (1849-1912) writes play Dance of Death (1901)
Robert E. Peary (1856-1920), U.S. explorer, first to reach the North Pole (1909)
Fiorello LaGuardia (1882-1947) becomes Mayor of New York City (1934-1945)
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) writes General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1935)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) heads Chicago's School of Architecture (1938-1958)
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) directs film Strangers on a Train (1951)
Ray A. Kroc (1902-1984) opens his first McDonald's unit in Des Plaines, Ill. (1955)
Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) costume designer for My Fair Lady (1956)
Graham Greene (1904-1991) writes The Quiet American (1955)
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) writes Atlas Shrugged (1957)
An Wang (1920-1990) of Wang Laboratories develops word processing (1972)
[Sources: World Almanac Book of Who (1980); Jeremy Baker, Tolstoy's Bicycle (1982)]
100) Numerology: words whose letters add up to 52

INFINITY: 9 + 5 + 6 + 9 + 5 + 9 + 2 + 7 = 52

GUINEVERE: 7 + 3 + 9 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 9 + 5 = 52

LU HSIANG SHAN: (3+3) + (8+1+9+1+5+7) + (1+8+1+5) = 6 + 31 + 15 = 52

ONE-POETRY: (6 + 5 + 5) + (7 + 6 + 5 + 2 + 9 + 7) = 16 + 36 = 52

CHRIST-COMET: (3 + 8 + 9 + 9 + 1 + 2) + (3 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 2) = 32 + 20 = 52

CHILD-HEART: (3 + 8 + 9 + 3 + 4) + (8 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 2) = 27 + 25 = 52

SAGE-ENERGY: (1 + 1 + 7 + 5) + (5 + 5 + 5 + 9 + 7 + 7) = 14 + 38 = 52

VENUS-FLOWER: (4 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 1) + (6 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 9) = 18 + 34 = 52

FLOWER-DANCE: (6 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 9) + (4 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 5) = 34 + 18 = 52

ROSE-SILENCE: (9 + 6 + 1 + 5) + (1 + 9 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 5) = 21 + 31 = 52

SILENCE-YOGA: (1 + 9 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 5) + (7 + 6 + 7 + 1) = 31 + 21 = 52

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