On the Number 28: Part 2

28 in Philosophy & Religion
295) Hymn 28 in Book 3 of the Rig Veda is an invocation to the fire god Agni:
1. Agni who knowest all, accept our offering and the cake of meal,
    At dawn's libation, rich in prayer!
2. Agni, the sacrificial cake hath been prepared and dressed for thee:
    Accept it, O Most Youthful God.
3. Agni, enjoy the cake of meal and our oblation three days old:
    Thou, Son of Strength, art stablished at our sacrifice.
4. Here at the midday sacrifice enjoy thou the sacrificial cake, wise, Jatavedas!
    Agni, the sages in assemblies never minish the portion due to thee the Mighty.
5. O Agni, at the third libation takewith joy the offered cake of sacrifice,
    thou, Son of Strength. Through skill in song bear to the Gods
    our sacrifice, watchful and fraught with riches, to Immortal God.
6. O waxing Agni, knower, thou, of all, accept our gifts, the cake,
    And that prepared ere yesterday.
 Rig Veda Book 3, 28.1-6 (circa 1500 B.C.)
296) Chapter 28 in The Papyrus of Ani, Egyptian Book of the Dead:
Not permitting N's heart to be taken
from him in the God's Domain—
O Lion, I am a Weneb-flower; the slaughterhouse
of the god is what I abhor, and my heart shall not
be taken from me by those who fought in Heliopolis.
Egyptian Book of the Dead: Book of Going Forth by Day
Complete Papyrus of Ani, Chapter 28 (circa 1250 B.C.)
(translated by Raymond Faulkner),
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994, p. 103
297) Hexagram 28 of the I Ching (circa 1000 B.C.)
Ta Kuo / Preponderance of the Great
THE JUDGMENT:
PREPONDERANCE OF THE GREAT.
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Success. 		THE IMAGE:
The lake rises above the trees:
The image of PREPONDERANCE OF THE GREAT.
Thus the superior man, when he stands alone,
Is unconcerned,
And if he has to renounce the world,
He is undaunted.
298) Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Tao Te Ching, Verse 28:
Recognize the male
but hold onto the female
and be the world's maid
being the world's maid
don't lose your ancient virtue
not losing your ancient virtue
be a newborn child again
recognize the pure
but hold onto the defiled
and be the world's valley
being the world's valley
be filled with ancient virtue
be uncarved wood again
recognize the white
but hold onto the black
and be the world's guide
being the world's guide
don't stray from ancient virtue
not straying from ancient virtue
be without limits again
uncarved wood can be split to make tools
the sage makes it his chief official
a master tailor doesn't cut

(translated by Red Pine, Taoteching,
Mercury House, San Francisco, 1996, p. 56)
299) Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Hua Hu Ching, Verse 28:
It is tempting to view the vast and luminous heavens as the body of the Tao.
That would be a mistake, however. If you identify the Tao
with a particular shape, you won't ever see it.
 (translated by Brian Walker,
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu,
Harper SanFrancisco 1992)
300) Verse 28 of Pythagoras's Golden Verses:
For it is the part of a stupid man to speak and to act without reflection.
Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.), Golden Verses, Verse 28
(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. 54
301) Chapter 28 of Symbols of Pythagoras:
Dentes ne frangito.
Break not the teeth. — Dacier.
The Romans used this formula to mean "do not revile," or "avoid satire".
Do not break your teeth is a wise maxim, for the teeth are necessary to
good digestion, and in ethical matters a good perception must precede
clear development and real progress.
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. 74
302) Section 28 of Plato's Philebus— Socrates to Protarchus on reason:
For all the wise agree, thereby glorifying themselves in earnest,
that in reason we have the king of heaven and earth. And I fancy
they are right. But I should like us, if you don't mind, to make
a fuller investigation of the kind in question itself.
Plato (428-348 BC), Philebus 28c (360 BC)
(trans. R. Hackforth), Edited by Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns,
Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Bollingen Series LXXI,
Princeton University Press, 1961, p. 1105
303) Section 28 of Plato's Timaeus— Timaeus to Socrates on creation:
Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause,
for without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator, whenever he looks
to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable
pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect, but when he looks to the created
only and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect. Was the heaven then or
the world, whether called by this or by any other more appropriate name—...
was the world always in existence and without a beginning, or created, and had a
beginning?... But the father and maker of all this universe is past finding out,
and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible.
Plato (428-348 BC), Timaeus 28a-28c (360 BC)
(trans. Benjamin Jowett), Edited by Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns,
Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Bollingen Series LXXI,
Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 1161-1162
304) Verse 28 in Chapter 6 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established
himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself,
he seeks also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what
is nigh in ourselves— this may be called the art of virtue."
Verse 28 in Chapter 9 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "The wise are free from perplexities;
the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear."
Verse 28 in Chapter 13 of Analects of Confucius:
Tsze-lu asked, "What qualities must a man possess to entitle him to be
called a scholar?" Confucius said, "He must be thus— earnest, urgent,
and bland; among his friends, earnest and urgent; among his brethen, bland."
Confucius (551-479 B.C.),
Analects, VI.28.2-3, IX.28, XIII.28, (circa 500 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893
305) Tsze-sze, Doctrine of the Mean or Chung Yun, Verse 28:
1. The Master said, "Let a man who is ignorant be fond of using his own judgment;
    let a man without rank be fond of assuming a directing power to himself;
    let a man who is living in the present age go back to the ways of antiquity;—
    on the persons of all who act thus calamities will be sure to come."
2. To no one but the Son of Heaven does it belong to order ceremonies, to fix
    the measures, and to determine the written characters.
3. Now over the kingdom, carriages have all wheels, of the-same size; all writing
    is with the same characters; and for conduct there are the same rules.
4. One may occupy the throne, but if he have not the proper virtue, he may
    not dare to make ceremonies or music. One may have the virtue, but if he
    do not occupy the throne, he may not presume to make ceremonies or music.
5. The Master said, "I may describe the ceremonies of the Hsia dynasty,
    but Chî cannot sufficiently attest my words. I have learned the ceremonies
    of the Yin dynasty, and in Sung they still continue. I have learned
    the ceremonies of Châu, which are now used, and I follow Châu."
Tsze-sze (492-431 B.C.), Doctrine of the Mean, 28.1-5, (circa 400 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893, pp. 34-35
306) Section 28 of Works of Mencius:
1. Mencius said, "That whereby the superior man is distinguished from other men
    is what he preserves in his heart— namely, benevolence and propriety."
2. 'The benevolent man loves others. The man of propriety shows respect to others.
3. 'He who loves others is constantly loved by them.
    He who respects others is constantly respected by them.
4. 'Here is a man, who treats me in a perverse and unreasonable manner.
    The superior man in such a case will turn round upon himself—
    "I must have been wanting in benevolence; I must have been
    wanting in propriety;— how should this have happened to me?"
5. He examines himself, and is specially benevolent. He turns
    round upon himself, and is specially observant of propriety.
    The perversity and unreasonableness of the other, however,
    are still the same. The superior man will again turn round
    on himself—"I must have been failing to do my utmost."
6. 'He turns round upon himself, and proceeds to do his utmost, but
    still the perversity and unreasonableness of the other
    are repeated. On this the superior man says, "This is
    a man utterly lost indeed! Since he conducts himself so,
    what is there to choose between him and a brute?
    Why should I go to contend with a brute?"
7. 'Thus it is that the superior man has a life-long anxiety and
not one morning's calamity. As to what is matter of anxiety
to him,that indeed be has.-- He says, "Shun was a man, and
I also am a man. But Shun became an example to all the kingdom,
and his conduct was worthy to be handed down to after ages,
while I am nothing better than a villager." This indeed is
the proper matter of anxiety to him. And in what way is he
anxious about it? Just that he maybe like Shun:-- then only
will he stop. As to what the superior man would feel to be a
calamity, there is no such thing. He does nothing which is not
according to propriety. If there should befall him one morning's
calamity, the superior man does not account it a calamity.' (IV.ii.28)
Mencius said, "The precious things of a prince are three— the territory,
the people, the government and its business. If one value as most precious
pearls and stones, calamity is sure to befall him. (VII.ii.28)
Mencius (371-289 B.C.), Works of Mencius, (circa 300 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893
307) Verse 28 of Buddha's Diamond Sutra:
"Furthermore, Subhuti, if a noble son or daughter took as many worlds as there are
grains of sand in the Ganges and covered them with the seven jewels and gave them
as a gift to the tathagatas, the arhans, the fully-enlightened ones, and a bodhisattva
gained an acceptance of the selfless, birthless nature of dharmas, the body of merit
produced as a result would be immeasurably, infinitely greater. And yet, Subhuti,
this fearless bodhisattva would not obtain a body of merit.
The venerable Subhuti said, "But surely, Bhagavan,
this bodhisattva would obtain a body of merit!"
The Buddha replied, "They would, Subhuti, but without
grasping it. Thus is it called 'obtaining'."
Buddha, Diamond Sutra Verse 28 (400 B.C.)
(translated by Red Pine, Counterpoint, Washington DC, 2001, p. 393);
(translated by A. F. Price, 1947). Commentary:
Hui-neng says, "Great minds achieve the acceptance of things because
they are free of attachments. Their worldly merit is so great, why would they want
to possess anything?... To penetrate all dharmas without thoughts of a subject or
object is what is meant by acceptance. The merit obtained by such persons exceeds
the merit from the seven jewels because the merit produced by bodhisattvas is not
for themselves. But because their thoughts are focused on helping all beings,
it is said that they do not possess merit." (Red Pine translation, pp. 394-395)
308) Verse 28 of Buddha's Dhammapada: Mindfulness
As a dweller in the mountains looks down on those who live in the valley,
so the spiritually mature person, the hero free from sorrow, having driven
out unmindfulness by means of mindfulness, ascends to the Palace of Wisdom
and looks down at the sorrowful, spiritually immature multitude (below)..
Buddha, Dhammapada Verse 28 (240 B.C.)
(translated by Sangharakshita, Dhammapada: The Way of Truth 2001, p. 20)
309) Chapter 28 of Chuang Tzu is titled "On Declining Power":
Confucius said: "The superior man who succeeds in Tao, has success. If he fails
in Tao, he makes a failure. Now I, holding fast to the Tao of charity and duty
towards one's neighbour, have fallen among the troubles of a disordered age.
What failure is there in that? Therefore it is that by cultivation of the inner
man there is no failure in Tao, and when danger comes there is no loss of virture.
It is the chill winter weather, it is frost, it is snow, which bring out the
luxuriance of the pine and the fir. I regard it as a positive blessing to be
thus situated as I am." Thereupon he turned abruptly round and went on playing
and singing. At this Tzu Lu hastily seized a shield and began dancing to the
music, whil Tzu Kung said, "I had no idea of the height of heaven and the depth
of earth." The ancients who attained Tao were equally happy under success or
failure. Their happiness had nothing to do with their failure or their success.
Tao once attained, failure and success became mere links in a chain, like cold,
heat, wind, and rain. Thus Hsü Yu enjoyed himself at Ying-yang, and
Kung Poh found happiness on the hill-top.
 Chuang Tzu (369 BC-286 BC)
Chuang Tzu: Taoist Philosopher and Chinese Mystic,
Chapter XXVIII: On Declining Power, p. 278
Translated by Herbert A. Giles (2nd Edition, 1926)
George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1961.
310) Verse 28 in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita
(Krishna's lecture to Arjuna on karma yoga):
Invisible before birth are all beings and after death invisible again.
They are seen between two unseens. Why in this truth find sorrow?
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 28
(Translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin Books, 1962, p. 51)
311) Verse 28 in Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita
(Krishna lectures to Arjuna on the knower of the field):
And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same
God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others:
then he goes indeed to the highest Path.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18, Verse 28
(Translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin Books, 1962, p. 101)
312) Verse 28 in Chapter 18 of Astavakra Gita
(Sage Astavakra's dialogue with King Janaka):
The wise one being without both concentration and distraction is neither
a seeker of liberation nor in bondage. Knowing for certain that this world
is a figment of imagination, even though he sees it, he lives as Brahman.
Astavakra Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 28 (circa 400 B.C.)
translated by Radhakamal Mukerjee, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1971, p. 142
313) Aphroism 28 of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra:
Its repetition and the understanding of its meaning.
Vyasa Commentary: The Vedic teachers hold that the relation of word and meaning
is eternal, inasmuch as one coexists with the other. The Yogi who has come to know
well the relation between word and meaning must constantly repeat it, and habituate
the mind to the manifestation therein of its meaning. The constant repetition is to
be of the Pranava (AUM) and the habitual mental manifestation is to be of what it
signifies, Iswara. The mind of the Yogi who constantly repeats the Pranava and
habituates the mind to the constant manifestation of the idea it carries, becomes
one-pointed. And so it has been said: 'Let the Yoga be practised through study, and
let study be effected through Yoga. By Yoga and study together the Highest Self shines'
Patanjali (circa 200 B.C.), Yoga Sutra I.28: Aphroism 28 (circa 200 B.C.)
translated by Rama Prasada, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi, 1995, pp. 50-51
314) Tetragram 28 of the T'ai Hsüan Ching: Keng / Change
April 22 (pm)-April 26:
Correlates with Earth's Mystery:
Yin; the phase Water; and the Yi Ching
Hexagram #49, Molting [and so Renewal];
the sun enters the Mane constellation, 9th degree;
the Clear Brightness solar period
Head: Yang ch'i, already flying up, alters tendencies and shifts forms.
Things change with regard to their spirit potencies.
According to the Changes, "What establishes the Way of Earth
is the interaction between weakness and firmness. The Yi Ching
goes on to say, "Only through change and transformation can all
things come to perfection."
Yang Hsiung (53 BC-18 AD),
Canon of Supreme Mystery ( T'ai Hsüan Ching)
(translated by Michael Nylan, 1993, p. 214)
315) Section 28 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD):
Seek refuge in yourself. The knowledge of having acted justly is all your
reasoning inner self needs to be fully content and at peace with itself. (VII.28)
Up and down, from age to age, the world's repeating cycles are the same.
Either the cosmic mind initiates everything individually (in which case
welcome whatever it initiates), or else it initiated things once for all
time and every subsequent effect serves also as a cause. Destiny or atoms,
what does it matter? If God is discharging every detail, then all is well;
and if everything's a matter of chance, still you don't have to be ruled by
chance. The earth will soon cover us all. Then the earth itself will change,
and that changed earth will change again, and then again, changing into
eternity. Anyone who contemplates these endless waves of change and
transformation will look with indifference on every mortal thing. (IX.28)
To those who ask, "Where have you seen gods, and how can you be
so sure of their existence that you worship them?" I reply: First, they
are clearly visible to the eye; and second, I've never set eyes on my soul,
yet I honor it. So it is with the gods: I see their power at work around
me every day, and I conclude that they exist, and I worship them. (XII.28)
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD): Meditations, VI.8.16
New translation of the Meditations by C. Scot Hicks & David V. Hicks
Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor's Handbook, Scribner, NY, 2002, pp. 81,
316) Stanza 28 of Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness:
Following the logic of this explanation of mutually dependent origination
one cannot use the cause of a result to prove that the result has inherent
existence because the cause of the result originates in dependence on
the result and so is devoid of inherent existence. The same applies
to all the pairs such as feeling and the one who feels or seeing and
the seer, and so forth. Taking these as examples one should understand
how all the pairs are explained as being devoid of inherent existence
because they originate in mutual dependence.
Nagarjuna (circa 150-250 A.D.), Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness
(translated by David Ross Komito, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, 1987, pp. 85-86)
317) Trigraph 28 of the Ling Ch'i Ching: Ta Huo / Great Harvest
The image of profitable things
Yang in the middle controls yin
K'an (Water) * True North
Oracle:
Han's great black dog pursues a rabbit; running along,
it hardly stretches its legs. The rabbit, being bitten at,
is in front; the pursuer is behind. Repeatedly the dog
catches it; once seized, it is unable to run off.
Verse:
The ways of the world have no brambles,
Hereafter human hearts should not sigh.
In seeing fame and pursuing profits,
Bitter efforts will ensure your livelihood.
Tung-fang Shuo,
Ling Ch'i Ching (circa 222-419)
(trans. Ralph D. Sawyer & Mei-Chün Lee Sawyer, 1995, p. 84
318) Text 28 of On Prayer: 153 Texts
of Evagrios the Solitary (345-399 AD)
Do not pray only with outward forms and gestures, but with reverence
and awe try to make your intellect conscious of spiritual prayer.
The Philokalia (4th-15th century AD),
translated by F.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, & Kallistos Ware,
Faber & Faber, London, 1979, p. 59)
319) Text 28 of On the Spiritual Law: 200 Texts
of Saint Mark the Ascetic (early 5th century AD)
Just as a thought is made manifest through actions and words,
so is our future reward through the impulses of the heart.
The Philokalia (4th-15th century AD),
translated by F.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, & Kallistos Ware,
Faber & Faber, London, 1979, p. 112)
320) Text 28 of On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: 100 Texts
of Saint Diadochos of Photiki (400-486 AD)
Only the Holy Spirit can purify the intellect, for unless a greater power
comes and overthrows the despoiler, what he has taken captive will never be
set free. In every way, therefore, and especially through peace of soul,
we must make ourselves a dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit. Then we shall
have the lamp of spiritual knowledge burning always within us.
The Philokalia (4th-15th century AD),
translated by F.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, & Kallistos Ware,
Faber & Faber, London, 1979, p. 260)
321) Text 28 of For the Encouragement of the Monks in India who had Written to Him: 100 Texts
of Saint John of Karpathos (circa 680 AD)
You will not be able to 'tread upon the asp and cobra' (Psalms 91:13),
unless in answer to our constant prayers God sends His angels to protect you.
They will support you with their hands and raise you above the mire of impurity.
The Philokalia (4th-15th century AD),
translated by F.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, & Kallistos Ware,
Faber & Faber, London, 1979, p. 304)
322) Section 28 of Chapter 2 in Lankavatara Sutra:
Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva asked: Is not this Tathagata-garbha
taught by the Blessed One the same as the ego-substance taught by the
philosophers? The ego as taught in the systems of the philosophers
is an eternal creator, unqualified, omnipresent, and imperishable.
    The Blessed One replied: No, Mahamati, my Tathagata-garbha
is not the same as the ego taught by the philosophers; for what the Tathagatas
teach is the Tathagata-garbha in the sense that it is emptiness, reality-limit,
Nirvana, being unborn, unqualified, and devoid of will-effort; the reason why
the Tathagatas who are Arhats and Fully-Enlightened Ones, teach the doctrine
pointing to the Tathagata-garbha is to make the ignorant cast aside their fear
when they listen to the teaching of egolessness and to have them realise the state
of non-discrimination and imagelessness... Thus Mahamati, the doctrine of the
Tathagata-garbha is disclosed in order to awaken the philosophers from their
clinging to the idea of the ego, so that those minds that have fallen into
the views imagining the non-existent ego as real, and also into the notion
that the triple emancipation is final, may rapidly be awakened to the state
of supremen enlightenment... Therefore, Mahamati, in order to abandon
the misconception cherished by the philosophers, you must strive after
the teaching of egolessness and the Tathagata-garbha.
 The Lankavatara Sutra, II.28 (before 443 AD)
(translated from the Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki, 1932, pp. 68-70)
323) Chapter 28 of Mohammed's Holy Koran is titled "The Narratives"
2. These are the verses of the Book that makes things clear.
14. And when he attained his maturity and became full grown,
    We granted him wisdom and knowledge;
    and thus do We reward those who do good to others.
30. And when he came to it, a voice was uttered from the right side
    of the valley in the blessed spot of the bush, saying:
    O Musa! surely I am Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
31. And saying: Cast down you staff. So when he saw it in motion
    as if it were a serpent, he turned back retreating, and did not return.
    O Musa! come forward and fear not; surely you are of those who are secure;
56. Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom
    He pleases, and He knows best the followers of the right way.
70. And He is Allah, there is no god but He! All praise is due to Him
    in this life and the hereafter, and His is the judgment,
    and to Him you shall be brought back.
73. And out of His mercy He has made for you the night
    and the day, that you may rest therein, and that you
    may seek of His grace, and that you may give thanks.
84. Whoever brings good, he shall have better than it,
    and whoever brings evil, those who do evil shall not
    be rewarded for aught except what they did.
Mohammed, Holy Koran, 28.2, 14, 30-31, 56, 70, 73, 84 (7th century AD)
(translated by M. H. Shakir, Holy Koran, 1983)
324) In the 99 Names of Allah, the 28th Name is Al-Baseer:
The All-Seeing, The One who Sees all things that are seen by
His Eternal Seeing without a pupil or any other instrument.
["Al-Ra'uf, The Gentle, who is compassionate toward His people"
is listed as the 28th Name of Allah in Arthur Jeffrey,
Islam: Muhammad and His Religion (1958), pp. 93-98].
325) Section 28 of Hui-Neng's Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (714)
"Good friends, if you wish to enter the most profound Dharma realm of the
prajna samadhi, you must straightforwardly practice the prajnaparmita.
With only the one volume of the Diamond Sutra you may see into your own
natures and enter into the prajna samadhi. You will surely understand that
the merit of such a person is without bounds. In the sutras it is clearly praised
and there is no need for me to elaborate. It is the Dharma of the Supreme Way that
is expounded for men of great wisdom and high capacities. Should a man of small
capability for knowledge hear this Dharma, faith would not be produced in his mind.
Why is this so? Should a great dragon deluge the earth (Jambudvipa) with a great rain,
[then cities, towns, and villages would all be washed away] like floating grass and
leaves. But should this great rain fall in the great ocean, its water would neither
increase nor lessen.
    "Should a person of the Mahayana hear the Diamond Sutra, his mind will open
and he will gain awakening. Therefore we can say that in the original nature itself
the wisdom of of prajna exists, and that by using this wisdom yourself and
illuminating with it, there is no need to depend on written words. It is as though
the rain waters did not come from heaven, but from the beginning the dragon king
draws up the water from the rivers and seas and covers all beings, trees, and grasses,
things, sentient and nonsentient, with its wetness. All these waters flow together and
enter into the great sea, and the sea gathers them together and combines them into
one. So it is with the prajna wisdom of the original natures of sentient beings.
Hui-Neng (638-713), Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Section 28
(translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, pp. 149-150)
326) Verse 28 of Chapter 3 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
This elixir [Thought of Enlightenment] has originated for the destruction of death
in the world. It is the imperishable treasure which alleviates the world's poverty.
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
III.28 (Grasping the Thought of Enlightenment: Bodhicittaparigraha) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 155)
327) Verse 28 of Chapter 7 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
The body is happy by means of merit; the mind (manas) is happy
by means of learning: What can hurt te Compassionate One as he remains
in the realm of rebirth for the sake of others.
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
VII.28 (Perfection of Strength: Virya-paramita) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 188)
328) Verse 28 of Chapter 9 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
If that which is seen is as unreal as illusion, then so is the one who
sees the mind. If the realms of rebirth are based on reality, they must
be as different [from reality] as the sky is different from reality.
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
IX.28 (Perfection of Wisdom: Prajna-paramita) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 214)
329) Saying 28 of Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu:
A monk asked, "During the 24 hours, how is mind put to use?"
The master said, "You are used by the 24 hours;
I use the 24 hours. Which of these 'times'
are you talking about?"
 Chao Chou (778-897),
The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu
translated by James Green, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 1998, p. 21
330) Section 28 of Hui Hai's Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination:
Q: Is there really a hell?
A: There is and there is not.
Q: How so?
A: In that our minds have constructed many sorts of evil karma,
there is hell; but, since everyone1s self-nature is void,
for those whose minds have been freed of attach-ment1s
stains there can be no hell.
Q: Do evildoers possess the Buddha-nature?
A: Yes, they have it too.
Q: Then, if they too have this nature,
does it enter hell with them or not?
A: It does not enter with them.
Q: But, when they enter hell, where is their Buddha-nature?
A: It also enters hell.
Q: That being so, while they are undergoing punishment there,
does their Buddha-nature share the punishment?
A: No. Although the Buddha-nature remains with these people
while they are in hell, it is the individuals themselves who suffer;
the Buddha-nature is fundamentally beyond punishment.
Q: Yet, if they enter together, how can the Buddha-nature not suffer?
A: Sentient beings possess forms and whatsoever has form is subject
to formation and destruction1s whereas the Buddha-nature is formless
and, being formless, is immaterial, for which reason it is the very
nature of the void itself and cannot be destroyed. Were someone
to make a pile of faggots in a vacuum, the faggots could come
to harm but not the vacuum. In this analogy, the vacuum symbolizes
the Buddha-nature and the faggots represent sentient beings.
therefore it is written: 'They enter together but do not suffer together.'
 Hui Hai (circa 788 A.D.), Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination, Section 28
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1962, p. 69)
331) Section 28 of Huang Po's Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind:
Q: Up to now, you have refuted everything which has been said.
You have done nothing to point out the true Dharma to us.
A: In the true Dharma there is no confusion, but you produce confusion
by such questions. What sort of 'true Dharma' can you go seeking for?
Q: Since the confusion arises from my questions,
what will Your Reverence's answer be?
A: Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people.
There are some people just like mad dogs barking at everything that moves,
even barking when the wind stirs among the grass and leaves.
 — Huang Po (died 850 A.D.), Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind,
The Chün Chou Record, Section 28
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1958, p. 54)
332) Section 28 of Rinzai's Lin-chi Lu:
Students flock to me from all parts. I sort them out according to three kinds of root-ability.
If a middling to low one comes, I snatch away the circumstance but leave him the Dharma.
If one with a middling to high ability comes, I snatch away both the circumstance
and the Dharma. If one with an exceptionally high ability comes, I snatch neither
the circumstance nor the Dharma nor the man. And if there should come one whose
understanding is outside the norm, I act from the wholeness without bothering about
the rootability. Venerable ones, if a student has reached this, he is so firm and
strong that no storm can pass through, immediate as spark flies from flint, or
lightning flares. If a student has the true eye, nothing further needs to be said.
    All deliberation of heart misses the target. All movement of thought goes to a contrary end.
If people can understand this, they are not separate from the one here before the eyes.
And yet, venerable ones, you go burdened with your bowl and bag, carrying your load of
excrement and run about looking for the Buddha and the Dharma. Do you know him who thus runs
about seeking? He is lively as a fish in water, and has neither root nor trunk; though you
embrace him you cannot possess him; though you move away from him, you cannot get rid of him.
The more you seek him, the farther away he is; and if you do not seek him, he is right before
your eyes. If a man has no faith, in vain will he labor for a hundred years. Followers of the Way,
in an instant one enters the Lotus Paradise, Vairocana's realm, the land of deliverance,
the domain of the supernatural powers; the Pure Land, the Dharma world, enters the tainted,
the pure, the worldly, the sacred, the condition of Hungry Ghosts and of animals. In all of those,
however much you search them, nowhere will you find the existence of birth and death—
for those are but empty names. "Changing phantoms, flowers in the empty sky, Why tire yourself
in trying to seize them? Gain and loss, yes and no, Throw them all away in one go."
Rinzai Gigen (died Jan. 10, 866 A.D.),
The Zen Teaching of Rinzai, Section 28
(translated from the Chinese by Irmgard Schloegl)
Shambhala, Berkeley, 1976, pp. 50-51
333) Section 28 of Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds":
"How about when one makes a hole in the wall
in order to steal the neighbor's light?"
    "There it is!"
 Master Yunmen (864-949),
Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds"
translated by Urs App, Kodansha International, NY & Tokyo, 1994, p. 97
334) 28th Teaching of Teachings of Quetzalcoatl:
[Ce Acatl told them:] "How good if by your side the positive word is spoken,
the word that causes no harm. If you transmit it, do not enhance or diminish
it; say only the exact word. But beware of empty and distracted words. For
those only provoke perversion. They are not serene, straight words. The one
who speaks them falls into a vacuum; the words take him into a trap to be
tied up with a rope, to be stoned, and beaten with a stick."
Quetzalcoatl Ce Acatl (b. 947 A.D.),
Gospel of the Toltecs: The Life & Teachings of Quetzalcoatl, XI.28
by Frank Díaz, Bear & Company, Rochester, VT, 2002, p. 146
335) Case 28 of Hekiganroku: What the Holy Ones Have Not Preached
Main Subject: Nansen came to see Hyakujo Nehan Osho.
Jo said, "Is there any Dharma that the holy ones have not preached to the people?"
Nansen said, "There is."
Jo said, "What is the Dharma that has not been preached to the people?"
Nansen said, "It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things."
Jo said, "You have preached."
Nansen said, "I am like this. How about you?"
Jo said, "I am not a man of great wisdom. How can I tell
if there is preaching or no preaching?"
Nansen said, "I don't follow you."
Jo said, "I have talked quite enough for you."
Setcho's Verse:
Patriarchs and Buddhas have not preached,
Yet monks run after preachers.
Clear mirror on the stand, sharply imaging.
Looking southward, see the Great Bear.
The shaft hangs down. Where do you find it?
Saving your nostrils, you have lost your mouth.
 Setcho (980-1052), Hekiganroku, 28 (Blue Cliff Records)
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, pp. 220-221)
336) Chou Tun-Yi (1017-1073), Penetrating Book of Changes,
Ch. 28: Literary Expressions
Literature is a vehicle of moral principles. If wheels and shafts of carriages
are decorated but are not used, they would have been decorated for nothing. How much
less useful would an undecorated carriage be! Literary expressions are art and moral
principles are substance. If one is earnest about substance and writes it down with art,
it will be beautiful and loved. As it is loved, it will be transmitted to posterity.
The worthy can then learn it and achieve its object. This is education. This is why
it is said, "Words without literary quality will not go very far." But unworthy people
will not learn even if their parents supervise them or if teachers and tutors exhort them.
They will not obey even if they are forced to. They do not know to devote themselves to
moral principles and virtue and merely apply their ability to literary expressions.
This is no more than art. Alas! This defect has existed for a long time.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 476)
337) Shao Yung (1011-1077), Supreme Principles Governing the World, Section 28:
When one can be happy or sad with things as though he were the things themselves,
one's feelings may be said to have been aroused and to have acted to a proper degree.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 493)
338) Chang Tsai (1020-1077), Correcting Youthful Ignorance, Section 28:
Only through fully developing one's nature can one realize
that he possesses nothing in life and loses nothing at death.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 508)
339) Ch'eng Hao (1032-1085), Selected Sayings, Section 28:
Observe the chicks. One can see jen in this way.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 535)
[jen: humanity, altruism, benevolence, goodness, universal love, perfect virtue]
340) Ch'eng I (1033-1107), Selected Sayings, Section 28:
Essentially speaking, the way of jen may be expressed in one word,
namely, impartiality. However, impartiality is but the principle of jen;
it should not be equated with jen itself. When one makes impartiality
the substance of his person, that is jen/ Because of his impartiality
there will be no distinction between himself and others. Therefore
a man of jen is a man of both altruism and love. Altruism is the
application of jen, while love is its function.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 556)
341) Chapter 28: The Goddess Tserinma's Attack
from Mila Grubum or The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa:
In the snow country to the North, on the border between Tibet and Nepal,
there was once a magnificent and prosperous trading center where one could
find all kinds of merchandise. There stood the palace of the King of the Nagas,
and there the sound of the conch-trumpet could be heard. On the east side of
the gem rock rising like a leaping lion, at the left corner where the Heavenly
Nun, the Propitious Goddess of Long Life [Tserinma] lives, there was a quiet spot
where dwelt the great Repa Yogi, Milarepa. In the year of the Water Dragon, while
Milarepa was practicing the Flowing-River Yoga, just past midnight of the 8th day
of the first month of the summer season, the eighteen Great Demons, leading all
the ghosts and spirits in the whole Universe, came to attack him in order to
hinder his devotion. By their great power they shook the earth, changed the
appearance of the sky, and made their magic. Milarepa sang a song,
"Calling the Buddhas and Dakinis for my Army":
I pray to you, precious Guru,
Father from the Realm of No-form
You see all that happens...

Destroy the nets and snares of all these demons!
That which hinders body is thus destroyed without;
That which hinders mind is thus destroyed within;
The unfavorable conditions are thus transmuted
Into the practices and teachings of the Bodhi Path.
Pray drown these vicious demons in your floods.

Milarepa thought, "You demons are merely conjurations of one's own mind,
produced by habitual-thinking derived from Original Blindness since
beginningless time in Samsara. In these phantom visions there is nothing
to be afraid of." Milarepa absorbed himself into the Realm of Reality.
Fearlessly, and with unshakable confidence, he sang a song:
Since I know the Illuminating Void,
I fear not life or death.
I train myself to watch the Law of Karma
And take refuge in the Three Precious Ones.
Whatever may appear before me,
I see as false illusions.
I am a yogi of the Void,
Who clearly sees the nature of Ignorance...

Before Enlightenment,
All things in the outer world
Are deceptive and confusing;
Clinging to outer forms,
One is ever thus entangled.
After Enlightenment,
one sees all things and objects
As but magic shadow-plays,
And all objective things
Become his helpful friends...
Before Enlightenment,
The ever-running Mind-consciousness within
Is shut in a confusing blindness
Which is the source of passions, actions, and desires.
After Enlightenment,
it becomes the Self-illuminating Wisdom—
All merits and virtues spring from it.
In Ultimate Truth there is not even Wisdom;
Here's the Realm where Dharma is exhausted...

Now, through the Holy One's grace and blessing
I realize that both Samsara and Nirvana
Are neither existent nor non-existent...
Ignorance and confusion vanish without trace.
This is the truth I have experienced within.
Again, the foolish concept "demons" itself
Is groundless, void, and yet illuminating!
Oh, this indeed is marvelous and wonderful!
 Milarepa (1040-1123), The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Ch. 28
(translated by Garma C. C. Chang, Shambhala, Boston, 1999, pp. 296-311)
342) Aphroism 28 of Guigo's Meditations:
Adversity teaches one to desire peace; but in your blindness
you desire that which, as long as you love and desire it, is
[quite] impossible, namely, to have peace.
Guiges de Chastel (1083-1137), Meditations of Guigo, Prior of the Charterhouse
translated by John J. Jolin, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1951, p. 10
343) Section 28 of Tai Hui's Swampland Flowers— Ignorance:
In the conduct of their daily activities sentient beings have no illumination.
If you go along with their ignorance, they're happy; if you oppose their ignorance,
they become vexed. Buddhas and bodhisattvas are not this way: they make use of
ignorance, considering this the business of buddhas. Since sentient beings make
ignorance their home, to go against it amounts to breaking up their home; going
with it is adapting to where they're at to influence and guide them.
Tai Hui (1088-1163),
Swampland Flowers (Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui)
Letter to Commander Chang Yi-chih
translated by Christopher Cleary, Grove Press, New York, 1977, p. 63
344) Section 28 of St. Bernard's On Loving God: discusses the fourth degree of love:
The satisfaction of our wants, chance happiness, delights us less than to see
his will done in us and for us, which we implore every day in prayer saying:
"thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". O pure and sacred love! O sweet
and pleasant affection!... It is deifying to go through such an experience.
As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a big quantity of wine,
even assuming the wine's taste and color; just as red, molten iron becomes
so much like fire it seems to lose its primary state; just as the air on a
sunny day seems transformed into sunshine instead of being lit up; so it is
necessary for the saints that all human feelings melt in a mysterious way
and flow into the will of God... "When shall I come and when shall I appear
in God's presence?" O my Lord, my God, "My heart said to you: my face has
sought you; Lord, I will seek your face." Do you think I shall see your holy temple?
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), On Loving God
Chapter X.28: 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. 30-31, pp. 123-129)
[Note: The last three quotes from Psalms, 41:3, 26:8, 26:4]
345) Section 28 in Chapter IV:
"Preserving One's Mind and Nourishing One's Nature"
of Chu Hsi's Chin-ssu lu (1175):
One does not move others simply because he is not perfectly sincere.
When one feels wearied or tired while doing things,
that is a case of lack of sincerity.
Chu Hsi (1130-1200), Reflections on Things at Hand (Chin-ssu lu)
translated by Wing-Tsit Chan, Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, p. 135
346) Lu Hsiang-shan (1139-1193), Complete Works, Section 28:
When the Teacher resided in Hsiang-shan, he often said to his pupils, "Your hearing
is by nature distinct and your vision is by nature clear. By natural endowment you
are capable of serving your father with filial piety and your elder brother with
respect. Fundamentally there is nothing wanting in you. There is no need to seek
elsewhere. All depends on your establishing yourself in life."
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 582)
347) Chapter 28 in Part I of Moses Maimonides'
The Guide for the Perplexed is titled "On regel":
The term regel is homonymous, signifying, in the first place, the foot.
of a living being... the Hebrew text, of which the literal rendering is:
"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives" (Zech. xiv.4)
can be explained in the following way: "And the things caused by him (raglav)
on that day upon the Mount of Olives, that is to say, the wonders which will then be
seen, and of which God will be the Cause or the Maker, will remain permanently."...
According to our opinion "under his feet" (raglav) denotes "under that of which
He is the cause," "that which exists through Him," as we have already stated. They
(the nobles of the children of Israel) therefore comprehended the real nature of the
materia prima, which emanated from Him, and of whose existence He is the only
cause. Consider well the phrase, "like the action of the whiteness of the sapphire
stone." If the colour were the point of comparison, the words, "as the whiteness of
the sapphire stone" would have sufficed; but the addition of "like the action" was
necessary, because matter, as such, is, as you are well aware, always receptive and
passive, active only by some accident. On the other hand, form, as such, is always
active, and only passive by some accident, as is explained in works on Physics.
This explains the addition of "like the action" in reference to the materia prima.
The expression "the whiteness of the sapphire" refers to the transparency, not to
the white colour; for "the whiteness" of the sapphire is not a white colour,
but the property of being transparent. Things, however, which are transparent, have
no colour of their own, as is proved in works of Physics; for if they had a colour
they would not permit all the colours to pass through them nor would they receive
colours; it is only when the transparent object is totally colourless, that it is able
to receive successively all the colours. In this respect it (the whiteness of the sapphire)
is like the materia prima, which as such is entirely formless, and thus receives
all the forms one after the other... The primary object of every intelligent person
must be to deny the corporeality of God, and to believe that all those perceptions
(described in the above passage) were of a spiritual not of a material character.
Note this and consider it well.
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide for the Perplexed, I.28
translated by M. Friedlander, Routledge, London, 1904, pp. 37-38
348) Section 28 of William of Auvergne's The Trinity, or the First Principle:
But universality excludes this sort of inseparability. Thus it is impossible that
it be universal or common, and it is necessary that it be singular and a "this something."
Furthermore, everything essential and common is prior in the order of being (essendi) to
any one of its particulars and is more bare than it and is its cause... Thus it is not
possible that something which is a being (ens) through its essence, be ordered or
counted under anything essential and common... Since in this intention being (ens) is
said "through its essence" as singular, it will be incommunicable to an essential plurality.
Also, the first unity is numerical unity, not unity in reason. Unity in reason cannot be first,
since it is potentially multiple and potentially a plurality... Thus the numerically one is
the first one, and it precedes every other one. Hence, it precedes every one in reason only.
William of Auvergne (1180-1249), The Trinity, or the First Principle, Ch. IV
(translated by Roland J. Teske & Francis C. Wade,
Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1989, pp. 74-75)
349) Saint Francis Chapter 28 of Saint Francis of Assisi's The Little Flowers:
How Brother Bernardo da Quintavalle remained
rapt in ecstasy from matin until none.
How much grace God often shows to the evangelical poor who out of love of Christ abandon the world was shown in Brother Bernardo de Quintavalle. After taking the habit of St. Francis, Brother Bernardo was frequently lifted up to God in contemplation of celestial things. Among other things, it happened once that in church, as he was hearing Mass, with all his mind suspended in God, he became so absorbed and lifted up in contemplation that he gave no sign of being aware of the elevation of the Host and did not kneel nor pull down his cowl as others did, but without blinking he stood looking fixedly ahead from matin until none.
    Coming back to himself, he went about the shelter, shouting out in admiring tones: "Brothers, O brothers, brothers! There is no one in these parts so great or so noble that, were he promised the most beautiful palace filled with gold, would not, in order to gain that treasure, willingly carry to it a sack of dung."
    This heavenly treasure, promised to those who love God, was so abundantly given to Brother Bernardo that for fifteen consecutive years he always went about with his mind and countenance raised to the heavens. In that time he never satisfied his hunger at the table, although he always ate a bit of what was placed before him. He used to say that abstaining from that which one does not enjoy is not perfect abstinence, but true abstinence is partaking modestly of things that taste good to the palate.
    In keeping with this belief he acquired such clarity and intellectual light that even great clerics came to him to solve difficult questions and difficult passages in scripture, and he solved their every difficulty. Since his mind was completely freed from and cut off from terrestrial things, he, like a swallow, soared high in contemplation, so that sometimes for twenty and other times for thirty days he would stay alone on the summits of high mountains, contemplating heavenly things. Brother Egidio used to say of him that the gift which had been given to Brother Bernardo da Quintavalle, who, soaring, nourished himself like a swallow, was not given to other men.
    And because of this high grace he had from God, St. Francis gladly and frequently spoke with him day and night; and they were often found together in the wood throughout the night, lifted up in God, both of them intent on speaking of God, who is blessed for all eternity. Amen.
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226),
The Little Flowers of St. Francis, Ch. XXVIII
(translated by Serge Hughes, Mentor-Omega Book, New York, 1964, pp. 103-104)
( Another translation: Dom Roger Hudleston)
350) Case 28 of Mumonkan: Ryutan Blows Out the Candle [circa 850 AD]
Tokusan asked Ryutan about Zen far into the night. At last Ryutan said,
"The night is late. Why don't you retire? Tokusan made his bows and lifted
the blinds to withdraw, but he was met by darkness. Turning back to Ryutan,
he said, "It is dark outside." Ryutan lit a paper candle and handed it to him.
Tokusan was about to take it when Ryutan blew it out. At this, all of a sudden,
Tokusan went through a deep experience and made bows.
    Ryutan said, "What sort of realization do you have?"
"From now on," said Tokusan, "I will not doubt the words of an old
ohso who is renowned everywhere under the sun."
    The next day, Ryutan ascended the rostrum and said, "I see a fellow
among you. His fangs are like the sword tree. His mouth is like a blood bowl.
Strike him with a stick, and he won't turn his head to look at you. Someday
or other, he will climb the highest of the peaks and establish our Way there."
    Tokusan brought his notes on the Diamond Sutra to the front
of the hall, pointed to them with a torch, and said, "Even though you have
exhausted the abstruse doctrines, it is like placing a hair in a vast space.
Even though you have learned all the secrets of the world, it is like a drop
of water dripped on the great ocean." And he burned all his notes.
Then, making bows, he took his leave of his teacher.
Mumon's Comment:
Before Tokusan crossed the barrier from his native place [Chengtu, Szechwan],
his mind burned and his mouth uttered bitterness. He went southward, intending
to stamp out the doctrines of special transmission outside the sutras. When he
reached the road to Reishu, he asked an old woman to let him have lunch to
"refresh the mind." "Your worship, what sort of literature do you carry in
your pack?" the old woman asked. "Commentaries on the Diamond Sutra,
replied Tokusan. The old woman said, "I hear it is said in that sutra,
'The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future
mind cannot be held.' Now, I would like to ask you, what mind are you going
to have refreshed?" At this question Tokusan was dumbfounded. However, he did
not remain inert under her words but asked, "Do you know of any good teacher
around here?" The old woman said, "Five miles from here you will find Ryutan Osho."
Coming to Ryutan, Tokusan got the worst of it. His former words were inconsistent
with his later ones. As for Ryutan, he seemed to have lost all sense of shame in
his compassion toward his son. Finding a bit of live coal in the other, enough
to start a fire, he hurriedly poured on muddy water to annihilate everything
at once. A little cool reflection tells us it was all a farce.
Mumon's Verse:
Hearing the name cannot surpass seeing the face;
Seeing the face cannot surpass hearing the name.
He may have saved his nose,
But alas! he lost his eyes.
 Mumon Ekai (1183-1260), Mumonkan, Case 28
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, pp. 93-94)
351) Koan 28 of Master Kido's Kidogoroku:
Perfectly Imperfect
One day Master Chokei held his lecture in the hall.
When everyone had gathered, he dragged out a monk and said,
"Let us all bow to this monk." Then he added, "What merits
has this monk, that all of us should be made to bow to him?"
The people were silent.
Master Kido:
All right! All right! All right!
Master Hakuin:
Daitsuchisho Buddha [a legendary Buddha who meditated for a very long time
without attaining enlightenment] sat in meditation for ten kalpa [eons].
As much as he practiced, the truth [of Buddhism] cannnot be attained.
Plain Saying:
Everything in the universe (in the heavens— the sun, the moon,
star, wind, cloud, rain, snow, hail, mist; on the earth— mountain,
river, plain, turtle, snake, grass, dust, man, beast), each and every
thing emits great light... fried bean paste, leftovers—
each as it is, nothing is missing
 Kido Chigu (1189-1269), every end exposed, Koan 28
(translated by Yoel Hoffmann, Autumn Press, Brookline, MA, 1977, p. 50)
352) Chapter 28 of Rumi's Discourses (Fihi ma fihi):
The saying, "Adopt the qualities of God" has been realized; the saying,
"I will be His hearing and sight" has become a reality. This is a very powerful
station; to speak of it is a shame. It cannot be understood by spelling out
the words. If a little of its power were actualized, then the word itself would
become unpronounceable and nothing would remain, neither physical nor psychic
force. The "city of existence" is destroyed by the armies of light... Now that
I have spoken at length about the stage of aspirants, what can I say of the
state of those who have achieved union, except that it has no end? The former
does have an end, and that is union. What then is the end for those who have
already attained that union that knows no separation? No red grape ever returns
to a green state; no ripe fruit ever becomes unripe again.
 Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)
Signs of the Unseen: Discourses of Rumi, Chapter 28
(Translated by W. M. Thackston, Jr., Threshold Books, Putney, VT, 1994, pp. 127-129)
353) Sermon 28 of Meister Eckhart: Where the Soul Is, There Is God
God lives in the soul with everything that he and all creatures are.
Therefore, where the soul is, there God is, for the soul is in God...
Where my soul is, there is God, and where God is, there my soul is also.
And this is as true as God is God... My soul rejoices not only through
its nature but also beyond its nature in all the joy and all the bliss
in which God himself rejoices through his divine nature, whether happily
or unhappily. for only one thing is important there, and where this one
thing is, I have everything. Where I have everything, there is oly one
thing. This truth is certain. Where the soul is, God is, and where God is,
the soul is also... Those who ask for something other than God alone or
for God's sake are asking wrongly. If I ask for nothing, I am asking for
what is right, and such a prayer is appropriate and powerful... The true
men and women of prayer are those who pray to God in truth and in the
Spirit, that is, in the Holy Spirit... The soul is taken up into the
divine Persons and conducts itself in accord with the power of the Father,
and the wisdom of the Son, and the goodness of the Holy Spirit. Above all
this, no being is more efficacious. But there, in the threefold "image"
of the soul, there is only being and action.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1329), Sermon 28
Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality
(Translated by Matthew Fox, Doubleday, NY, 1980, pp. 388-389)
354) Verse 28 of Drg-Drsya-Viveka ("Seer-Seen Discernment") by Bharati Tirtha (c. 1328-1380):
The entity which is always of the same nature and unlimited by time & space,
and which is characterised by Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda),
is verily Brahman. Such uninterrupted reflection is called the intermediate absorption,
that is, the Savikalpaka-Samadhi associated with sound (object).
 (translated by Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore, 1964, p. 37)
355) Letter 28 of The Letters of Marsilio Ficino (1474):
Amatoria: Matters of love:
How wrong was my judgment of you, and how right the old saying 'Out of sight,
out of mind'. Who would have believed it? Indeed, I can scarcely believe my own eyes.
I sent two letters to you; you sent scarcely one to me, and it was so sparing in words
that if you leave out the greetings at the start, the farewell at the end, the date and
address, there is almost nothing left. Should a philosopher be talkative, or should
he be mute? Certainly, Terence gives us this precept, which he is said to have got from
the Greeks: 'Nothing to excess'. No, I see even at this distance the reason that I am
out of your thoughts. When you have every day before your eyes the divine Christopher,
to whom your church is dedicated, his body looms so large that it prevents you seeing
anything else, and causes, as it were, an eclipse between us.
    Yet I am amazed and I really cannot find the words with which to accuse
you, for there is no word so harsh or so abusive that Marsilian taciturnity does not
far surpass it. By this you have betrayed your faith and our friendship. I am indeed
hurt in your breaking faith with me, and by the blow you have dealt to our friendship.
But much more wounding still is that, in setting the love between us at naught, you have
separated me from the good will of all other men, and there seems no one left now to whom
I can entrust my faith. For there appeared to be nothing so perfect, so constant, so true,
as our friendship which had grown by your virtue and the passage of time, to such an
extent that, if this is now bankrupt, there is no friendship left in which I can safely trust.
    Know therefore that my anger towards you is exceedingly fierce: yet it is not so
fierce that should one of your wonderful letters at last arrive, it could not soothe
all my resentment and bitterness by its incredible sweetness. For since you have in
your hands the spear of Achilles, the delay in writing being the point with which you
pierce me, know that a letter from you could so heal the wound that has been inflicted,
that it would not only cure the wound itself, but even remove all trace of a scar.
    Farewell.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492) to Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499),
Letter of Lorenzo de' Medici to the Platonic Philosopher, Marsilio Ficino
The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, Vol. I, Shepheard-Walwyn, London, 1975, pp. 68-69
356) Section 28 of Wang Yang Ming's Instructions for Practical Living:
I asked, "When one's mind is preserved in peace and tranquillity, can
it be called the state of 'equilibrium before one's feelings are aroused'?"
The Teacher said, "Nowadays when people preserve their mind, only their
vital force is calm. When they are peaceful and tranquil, it is only their
vital force that is peaceful and tranquil. That cannot be considered as
the state of equilibrium before feelings are aroused."
"If it is not equilibrium, isn't it perhaps the way to achieve it?"
"The only way is to get rid of selfish human desires and preserve
the Principle of Nature. When tranquil, direct every thought to removing
selfish human desires and preserving the Principle of Nature, and when
active, direct every thought to doing the same. One should never mind
whether or not one is at peace and tranquil. If he depends on that peace
and tranquillity, not only will there be the fault of gradually becoming
fond of quietness and tired of activity, but there will be many defects
latent in that state of mind. They cannot be eliminated but will grow as
usual when something happens. If one regards following principle as
fundamental, when is it that one will not be peaceful and tranquil?
But if one regards peace and tranquillity as fundamental, he is not
necessarily able to follow principle."
Wang Yang Ming (1472-1529),
Instructions for Practical Living or Ch'uan-hsi lu (1518), I.28
(translated by Wing-tsit Chan, Columbia University Press, NY, 1963, p. 30)
357) Section 28 of Lo Ch'in-shun's Knowledge Painfully Acquired:
"The doings of high heaven have neither sound nor smell." This does not go
beyond the sphere of the activity and tranquillity of the human mind
and the constant relationships and daily occurrences of human life.
When the Ode says,
                                    Great heaven is bright,
                                    And is with you wherever you may go,
                                    Great heaven is clear,
                                    And is with you wherever you may wander
this is its significance. "When the gentleman is reverent and not neglectful,"
he is close to fulfilling the Way of heaven. If the singleness of the sage is
likewise unceasing, then he will assuredly become one with heaven.
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
358) Magical Figure 28 of Prophecies of Paracelsus:
"There will be no common voice, therefore it will be in vain
that the five consult together. Have care of the future— forty-two
and a little before and after will he come and do as he pleaseth,
and bend you like a branch, and gird you in a wise such as will
not please you. For thy council is not of him who is sought nor
of whom thou deemest it to be. If ye would consider that there
is no wisdom at all in man when he throweth off the yoke, he
would himself be opposed to it and would not throw off the yoke,
but would think of the heavy reckoning in the day of wrath."
 Paracelsus (1493-1541), Prophecies of Paracelsus, Magical Figure 28
(translated by Franz Hartmann, M.D.,
Rudolf Steiner Publications, Blauvelt, NY, 1973, p. 64)
359) Verse 28 of Nostradamus's Centuries IV:
Lors que Venus du Sol sera couvert,
Sous la splendeur sera forme occulte:
Mercure au feu les aura découvert,
Par bruit bellique sera mis à l'insulte.
 		When Venus will be covered by the Sun,
Under the splendor will be a hidden form:
Mercury will have exposed them to the fire,
Through warlike noise it will be insulted.
Nostradamus (1503-1566), Centuries IV.28 (1555)
Edgar Leoni, Nostradamus: Life and Literature
Exposition Press, New York, 1961, pp. 228-229
360) Giordano Bruno's 28th Seal: The Priest—
The priest is rich in the field of one who generates, who gives birth,
who passes away, who raises up, who judge, of the king, of the counter,
the sufferer, the cithar-player, the wise, of the desirer, the prophet,
the divine, the tragic, the boy, the bull, eagle, lion, Roman, Jew, one
who acts on things and others. While each and every one of them travels
through the hundred cubicles, there is nothing which they cannot fill
with the Chain and Theutis's abacus assisting.
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. 273)
361) Emblema 28 of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617):
Emblema XXVIII: The king is bathed, sitting in a steam-bath,
and he is freed from the the black bile by Pharut.

Epigramma XXVIII:
King Duenech, shining with the weapons of the Green Lion,
Swollen by bile, was horrible in his behavior,
Thereupon he sends for the physician Pharut,
The latter promises him health & has a steam-bath prepared,
Herein he bathes & bathes again, under the glass arch,
Till, by the wet dew, he is freed from all bile.

Michael Maier (1566-1622), Atalanta Fugiens, 28
(translated by H.M.E. de Jong,
Gardening: Maitreya Three, Shambala, Berkeley, 1972, p. 80)

362) Chapter VII, Section 28 of Jacob Boehme's Signatura Rerum (1621):
The Father of all essences begets this holy desire through his fire-source,
which is now his heart of love, which gives in his fire the shining lustre
and splendour; even there the wrath in the fire's property dies from eternity
to eternity, and is changed into a love-desire.
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)
Signature of All Things, or Signatura Rerum (1621), VII.28
(translated by William Law
James Clarke & Co., Cambridge, UK, 1981, p. 63)
Bibliography, Online texts
363) Verse 28 of Angelus Silesius The Cherubinic Wanderer (1657):
Gott nichts und alles.

Gott ist ein Geist / ein Feur / ein Wesen und ein Licht:
Und ist doch wiederumb auch dieses alles nicht. 		God Naught and All

God is a Spirit, a Fire, a Being and a Flame,
And yet again He is not one of all these same.
Angelus Silesius (1624-1677), The Cherubinic Wanderer I.28
translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch, Angelus Silesius' Cherubinischer Wandersmann
George Allen & Unwin, London, 1932, p. 106 (German version, IV.38)
364) Section 28 of Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia (1837):
And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters
called He seas; and God saw that it was good. It is a very common thing in
the Word for "waters" to signify knowledges (cognitinones et scientifica), and
consequently for "seas" to signify a collection of knowledges. As in Isaiah, XI.9:
"The earth shall be full of the knowledge (scientia)
of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea."
That the "earth" signifies a recipient, appears from Zechariah, XII.1:
"Jehovah stretchs forth the heavens, and lays the foundations
of the earth, and forms the spirit of man in the midst of him.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)
Arcana Coelestia, 28 (Swedenborg Foundation, NY, 1965, pp. 13-14)
365) Section 28 of Swedenborg's Worlds in Space (1758):
Afterwards the spirits of Mercury sent me a long piece of paper of irregular shape, being a number of sheets glued together, which looked to be printed in the sort of type used in this world. I asked whether they had papers like this in their world; they said no, but they knew such papers existed in our world. They were unwilling to say more; but I perceived that they thought knowledge in our world was committeed to paper rather than to people, poking fun at us as if papers knew things that people do not. But they were informed what is the truth about this. Some time later they came back and sent me another paper, also printed like the previous one, not glued together and untidy, but clean and neat. They said that they had received further information that in this world papers existed such as this, from which books are made.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), The Worlds in Space, 28
(translated from Latin by John Chadwick, Swedenborg Society, London, 1997, pp. 15-16)
366) Section 28 of Sage Ninomiya's Evening Talks: The Law of Cause and Effect
To explain the law of cause and effect by referring to a persimmon tree, look at its fruit. some will be made food for men, some will be eaten by birds and some will fall down upon the ground to rot. When they are on the tree and nothing is known as to what they will be in the future, they take various sizes under the shade of branches and leaves in proportion to the amount of nourishment they absorb and when after ripening they are sent to the market to be sold, some will fetch to the price of 3 rin each, some of 5 rin each and some of 1 sen each. That the fruit coming from one and the same tree thus vary in price when they are ripe is due to the difference in the amount of nourishment they absorbed while growing on branches in the past. Such is the case with all things existing between Heaven and Earth: they grow up in secret, and when they are taken possession of by men they show their merits. It is so with men. Success in his life work comes to a man, who, while growing up under the care of his parents, has cultivated his moral character, learned various arts and worked hard, it being the reward for all these efforts. A man who regrets that he has not learned enough while young is like a persimmon fruit, which, when put on the market for sale, regrets that it has not absorbed enough nourishment to grow larger and be more delicious. One may repent of things past, but cannot revoke them. A wise man of old times taught that one should repent before it is too late. This is a matter which all young men should deeply consider. One should prosecute one's studies before one can judge whether things one learns will turn out useful or not. Otherwise he will not become a useful man, and will be just like a persimmon fruit which because it has not grown large enough while growing on its parent tree, when put on the market nobody will buy. Such is the law of cause and effect.
Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856),
Sage Ninomiya's Evening Talks, Section 28
translated by Isoh Yamagata from Ninomiya-Ô Yawa,
Tokuno Kyokai, Tokyo, 1937, pp. 65-66)
367)
Verse 28 in Jack Kerouac's Sutra,
Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960):

Roaring dreams take place in a perfectly silent mind.
Now that we know this, throw the raft away.

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
 The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
Totem/Corinth Book, NY, 1970, p. 27
368) Chapter 28 in René Guénon's
Symbolism of the Cross (1958) is titled "The Great Triad":
According to the Far-Eastern tradition, the "true man" (Cheng-jen) is he who,
having realized the return to the "Primordial State", is thenceforth established for good
in the "Invariable Middle", and thereby escapes from the vicissitudes of the "round of
existence". Above this degree is that of "Divine Man" (Shen-jen), who strictly speaking
is no longer a man, because he has risen above humanity and is wholly emancipated
from its specific conditions; he is one who has achieved total realization and attained
the Supreme Identity, and such a one has therefore truly become "Universal Man".
René Guénon (1886-1951), Symbolism of the Cross
translated by Angus MacNab, Luzac & Co., London, 1958, p. 123
369) Chapter 28 of Franklin Merell-Wolff's Pathways through to Space (1936):
is titled "How to Understand Mystic Writings"
As I look back upon these writings, I note the curious fact that, at times,
there is an impulse to write essentially poetic ideas. In these cases, admittedly,
the form is not poetical in the conventional sense, but the essence is. Now,
heretofore, throughout my life I have not been a lover of poetry and, much of
the time, I had a decided distaste for it. Much less was I ever a writer of poetry.
Yet now there comes a thought which requires poetry for its expression!
    As I run through the pages of Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness I find
a notable tendency, in the instances that he gives of what he calls the 'Cosmic Sense,'
to give expression in poetry, though generally in the free form. The reason is becoming
clear to me. Consciousness, descending from above the field of subject-object knowledge,
is distorted just as soon as it is forced into relative form of expression. In the latter
field, discursive formulation has finished its task when it has finally shown what
non-relative Knowledge is not. It clears the ground so that no obstruction remains
for entering the Darkness and Silence. But when the 'Voice of the Silence' speaks into
the relative world, the Meaning lies between the words, as it were, rather than in the
direct content of the words themselves. The result is that the external meanng of the
word, in a greater or less degree, seems like "foolishness," as St. Paul said. Such writings,
read in the ordinary subject-object sense of meaning, are often quite unintelligible
and, in cases where they do convey a connected meaning, it is not quite this meaning,
but something else, that is the real Meaning intended. We may say that the sequence
of words is like the obverse side of an embroidered design. One must turn to the other
side of the cloth to see the real figure. But the threads on the obverse side are
continuous with those that actually display the design and, thus, there is a correlation.
So it is with the words of the poet who is Awakened to the Cosmic or Transcendent.
They become threads by which the intuitive consciousness may be stirred to a Recognition
of an inexpressible Reality. The obverse may be quite lacking in pattern and, in that case,
the writings are wholly unintelligible to the ordinary egoistic consciousness. On the other
hand, they may be woven into a secondary pattern that is intelligible, which, therefore,
more effectively holds the attention of the subject-object consciousness.
    The foregoing indicates how to read poetry or other forms of expression
of this type. The reading should be done without strained effort in the intellectual sense.
The reader should let a sort of 'current' flow into and through him, and not feel troubled
as to whether he has understood anything or not, at the time. He may feel, or deeply cognize,
something, though he may be unable to say what it is. If he is responsive, he will presently
feel filled in a very curious but satisfying sense. He will return to the same Found again
and again, and presently, from out of Inner Meaning, understanding will begin to blossom
in him. Perhaps he will find a degree of Recognition induced. Then, for him, the mystic
writers will become progressively less and less obscure. He will enter into Communion on
the level of a new kind of Language. On the new Level he will find the Living Presence of
Those who have gone before him by the same Route. There is no death There, the possession
or non-possession of physical bodies being of no moment.
Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985)
Pathways through to Space
Chapter XXVIII: "How to Understand Mystic Writings"
(2nd Edition, Julian Press, NY, 1973, pp. 55-57)
370) Aphorism 28 of Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Consciousness Without an Object (1973):

But for Consciousness-without-an-object
there is neither tension nor Equilibrium.

Commentaries: This is true for the simple reason that Consciousness-without-an-object
can never be comprehended by any partial or fractional phase of consciousness. Any phase
implies its other, and Consciousness-without-an-object is their mutual comprehender,
or rather, the conceptual symbol of that forever inconceivable Reality that underlies
and envelops all partial aspects. Where there is no awareness of tension, no meaning
attaches to equilibrium. Here we may think of the "equals sign" in mathematics as
symbolizing equilibrium, while zero symbolizes Consciousness-without-an-object. As an
actually realized consciousness the distinction here is extremely subtle, and yet of
vital significance. It is very easy for the mystic to combine these two states into one
and simply call them both "Nirvana." In most, but not all, literature on the subject
this seems to have been done, and the result on the whole seems to have been confusing,
at least to the western mind. For this treatment gives to the Reality an overly introverted
interpretation, and this is quite naturally repugnant to the extremely extroverted West.
On the other hand, when Consciousness-without-an-object is distinguished from the purely
subjective Nirvanic phase, a kind of mathematical clarity results. The subjective and
objective are then seen to inhere in a neutral and more primary principle, and thus they
acquire a more thinkable perspective. In the final analysis, this means that the peculiar
genius of neither the East nor the West is nearer the ultimate Reality. Both are seen to
stand as partial phases of a more comprehensive whole. Each has a half-truth, which is
unavoidably blended with error when taken in the partial form alone. And each must add
its neglected half to its recognized half to find the ultimate durable.


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. 109, pp. 234-235)
371) Chapter 28 of Wei Wu Wei's Ask the Awakened (1963) is titled "Néant":
The current theories to the effect that the Void does not in fact mean what it says,
that it is not emptiness, is not nothing but is only emptiness of something,
imply that it is something, and moreover something in something.
    Surely this is shirking the truth: it is everything we think we know,
therefore it must be nothing we know. It is Nothing, therefore everything is.
Were it anything there could not be anything. It is precisely because it is
Nothing that there can be anything. Either one sees this or one
does not: it is evident, but it cannot be proved.
    'Form is emptiness', says the Heart Sutra (the Heart of the Prajna-paramita),
'and emptiness is form'. Then it explains: 'Emptiness is nothing but
form, and form is nothing but emptiness.' Finally it completes
the definition by adding: 'Apart from emptiness there is no form,
and apart from form there is no emptiness.' In other words: 'Apart from
nothing there is no anything, and apart from anything there is no nothing.'
Or, again: 'Apart from our phenomenal world there is no Void,
and apart from the Void there is no phenomenal world.'
    The void then is nothing absolutely nothing— and Nothing
is absolutely everything. For both exist only in mind.
    All talk about the Void being this and that, not meaning that
and the other, is not only baulking the issue— it is shutting oneself
off from the truth. It is necessary to realise that the Void means exactly
Nothing, and that exactly Nothing is all that there is. And that that is
the reason why anything can appear to be. Otherwise one has the whole
situation the wrong way round, for one continues to think that reality
is positive, something positively existing, of which the negative
is inconceivable. But reality itself is negative, and its positive
is just appearance, and both are concepts of the split or samsaric
mind. In whole-mind reality is neither positive nor negative—
for there is nothing of the kind. Reality simply is NOT.
    This seems to be the Essential Doctrine of the Prajna-paramita,
revealing the illusion which constitutes the bondage of Samsara,
the barrier which prevents mind from knowing itself as no-mind,
pure negativity or the absolute unconscious.
Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986), Ask the Awakened (1963), pp. 62-63
372) Chapter 28 of Wei Wu Wei's Open Secret is titled "Integral Seeing":
Seeing phenomena as noumenon is true seeing.
    It is seeing noumenally— that is, in non-objective relation with 'things',
instead o seeing phenomenally— which is in objective relation with 'things'.
    Seeing phenomenally is seeing phenomena as our objects.
    Seeing noumenally is seeing phenomena as our selves, as all they are, as their
source and as our source. It is very precisely not seeing them as our objects but as their
subject, not objectively but subjectively, not as being 'without' but as being 'within'.
It is reuniting the separated with their integer which is all that we are.
    Such true seeing, therefore, is no-seeing (of some thing by some thing),
ultimately neither seeing nor non-seeing— since there is then no object to see
or not to see, and no subject of no object.
    It is re-absorption, re-union, re-identification of the dis-united,
making split-mind whole, at-one-ment.
Note: True seeing might perhaps be indicated by the term 'apperceiving' as sometimes used herein.
Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986), Open Secret,
Hong Kong University Press, 1965, p. 48
373)

Paul Brunton (1898-1981),
Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
XV, Paras #28
from various chapters
Volume 15:
Advanced Contemplation
& The Peace Within You,
Larson Publications,
Burdett, NY, 1988,
Part I: pp. 7, 31,
131, 172, 217;
Part II:
pp. 6, 19, 41, 81
(Excerpts)

 Para #28 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "Advanced Contemplation"—
Because what we seek is ours already, because the Overself is always here and now, there is in reality no quest to follow, no path to travel, and no goal to reach. (1.28)
It is an ancient error which makes unimportant the strivings for moral virtue provided they are replaced by strivings for ultimate knowledge. (2.28)
It is an error to think of the advanced contemplative practices as specially intended for sitting only. In the end they are just as much for walking and standing. (6.28)
There is a state of mental silence, when no analytic thinking, logical deliberation, or argumentative discussion is possible. The mind is so stilled that all its discursive operations stop completely. By its very nature this state cannot last. It is temporary— from a few minutes to a few days. (7.28)
We cannot enter the Void if we carry any possessions— material or intellectual, emotional or social— with us. This is surely what Jesus meant when he said that the rich man could not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is not the bank book that can prevent anyone's entry, but rather the heart that is unable to leave the bank book. (8.28)

Para #28 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "The Peace Within You"—
It is pleasant to be so optimistic by temperament as to see a rainbow in every sky. But is it always TRUE?" (1.28)
Half of Asia holds this faith, burns its sweet-scented incense before the firm conviction that the search for inner calm and emotional freedom is the highest duty of man. (2.28)
For a sensitive person, living in the world is difficult: he is tempted to renouncek desert, or hide from it and go his own way. But if he gains this inward peace and is practised enough to stay in his centre, then worldly life turns into a sacrament, is known for the passing spiritual drama that it is, and is borne philosophically. (3.28)
The immobility of that higher plane of being frightens most people away from it.
They are ignorant of the blessed peace that is conjoined with it. (4.28)
374) "Siva's Perfect Universe" is Lesson 28
of Subramuniyaswami's Merging with Siva (1999):
Slowly, slowly, by performing Ganga Sadhana you will blend your external consciousness with our most perfect universal consciousness. While sitting by the river, close enough to touch the water, on a rock or tree limb, you are truly uninvolved with everything but yourself. You are now in tune with nature itself. Earth is there. Water is there. Fire is there. Air is there. Akasha is there. All the five elements are there. They are outside of you to see and feel, as well as inside of you to see and feel. The goal is to release that part of your subconscious mind that doesn't blend the within of you with that which is outside of you. You perform this blending by listening to the river murmur, "Aum Namah Sivaya, Sivaya Namah Aum," the sounds of Siva's perfect universe.
Now the challenge. This will not be an easy task. The quiet of the noise of nature will release thought after thought from your subconscious mind. So, when each new thought arises— a mental argument or something which has not been settled in your past, an appointment missed or an image of a loved one— gather up the pranic energy of the thought and put its vibrations into a leaf. To do this, hold the leaf in your right hand and project your prana into it along with the thought form that distracted you. Then release the leaf and with it the thought patterns into the river. Let the river take them away, while you listen to "Aum Namah Sivaya, Sivaya Namah Aum" of the river as it does. Each time this happens, thank the river by humbly offering a flower with the right hand into the river in appreciation of its having absorbed the worldly thought. To show appreciation is a quality of the soul, something not to be ignored, and, therefore, a vital part of this sadhana.
Sadhana is performing the same discipline over and over and over again. Just as we methodically exercise the physical body to build up its muscles, we perform spiritual disciplines over and over again to strengthen our spiritual, inner bodies. Perform Ganga Sadhana time and time again. You will rapidly advance. Remember, the outer river is symbolically representing the inner river of your own nerve system, life force and consciousness that flows through you night and day. So, even as you sit on this rock and look upon the water, in a mystical way, see it as your own superconscious energies, taking away these problems, worries, doubts, ill-conceived and unresolved experiences of the past. Flow with the river of life and merge in Siva's ocean of oneness.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)
Merging with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Metaphysics
Himalayan Academy, Kapaa, Hawaii, 1999, pp. 56-57
375) Koan 28 of Zen Master Seung Sahn:
Three Statements:
The Compass of Zen says that there are three kinds of Zen:
Theoretical Zen teaches, "Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form."
Tathagata Zen teaches, "No form. No emptiness."
Patriarchal Zen teaches, "Form is form. Emptiness is emptiness."

    1. Which is correct?
    2. "Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form." What does this mean?
    3. "No form. No emptiness." What does this mean?
    4. "Form is form. Emptiness is emptiness." What does this mean?

COMMENTARY:
Mountain is water, water is mountain. But originally there is nothing.
If you don't make anything, then no mountain and no water.
Then your mind is clear like space, which means it is
clear like a mirror: mountain is mountain, water is water.
The mirror correctly reflects everything.
Of these three statements, which is correct?
If you find the correct one, you lose your life;
if you cannot find it, you lose your body.
What can you do? Go drink tea—
then it's clearly in front of you:
mountain is blue, water is flowing.

Seung Sahn (born 1927), The Whole World Is A Single Flower:
365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life, Tuttle, Boston, 1992, p. 24
28 in Poetry & Literature
376) Chryses, Apollo's Priest, ransoms his daughter Chryseis in Line 28
from Book I of Homer's Iliad:
"Sons of Atreus and Greek heroes all:
May the gods on Olympus grant you plunder
Of Priam's city and a safe return home.
But give me my daughter back and accept
This ransom out of respect for Zeus' son,
Lord Apollo, who deals death from afar."
Homer, The Iliad, I.24-29 (circa 800 BC)
(translated by Stanley Lombardo)
Hackett Publishing Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1997, p. 2
377) Zeus speaks to the men of Odysseus
in Line 28 from Book 1 of Homer's Odyssey
He was taking part in the sacrifice of bulls and rams,
And enjoyed being present at a feast there. The others
Were gathered together in the halls of Olympian Zeus.
The father of men and gods began to speak among them.
In his heart he was remembering excellent Aegisthus
Whom Agamemnon's son, far-famed Orestes, had slain.
Homer, The Odyssey, I.25-30 (circa 800 BC)
(A new verse translation by Albert Cook,
W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1967, pp. 3-4
378) Han-shan's Poem 28 of Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:
your maid's lived in Han Tan
her singing has the lilt
make use of her refuge
this song has long been long
you're drunk don't talk of going
stay the day's not done
where you sleep tonight
her quilt fills a silver bed
 Han-shan (fl. 627-649), Collected Songs of Cold Mountain,
Poem 28 (translated by Red Pine, 1990)
( Robert G. Henricks translation, 1990; Burton Watson translation, 1962)
379) Poem 28 from The Manyoshu:
Must they veil Mount Miwa so?
Even clouds might have compassion;
Should ye, O clouds, conceal it from me?
The Manyoshu, Poem 28 (circa 750 AD)
(The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai translation of One Thousand Poems
Foreword by Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, NY, 1965, p. 11) Japanese text
380) Poem 28 of Su Tung-p'o (1036-1101)
is titled "Ten Years— Dead and Living Dim and Draw Apart" (1075):
Ten years— dead and living dim and draw apart.
I don't try to remember
But forgetting is hard.
Lonely grave a thousand miles off,
Cold thoughts— where can I talk them out?
Even if we met you wouldn't know me,
Dust on my face,
Hair like frost—

In a dream last night suddenly I was home.
By the window of the little room
You were combing your hair and making up.
You turned and looked, not speaking,
Only lines of tears coursing down—
Year after year will it break my heart?
The moonlit grave,
Its stubby pines—

(Written at Mi-chou in 1075. The dream was of the poet's first wife, Wang Fu,
whom he married in 1054, when she was 15. She died in 1065, and the following year, when
the poet's father died, he carried her remains back to his old home in Szechwan and buried
them in the family plot, planting a number of little pine trees around the grave mound.)
— translated by Burton Watson,
Su Tung-P'o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet,
Columbia University Press, New York, 1965, pp. 54-55
Expanded edition, Copper Canyon Press, 1994, p. 65)
381) Preserving Parzival's life
in Line 28 of Book 15 in Eschenbach's Parzival:
May this give strength to him in strife
And help him to preserve his life.
for now the tale has gone so far
That he must face a master of war
On his intrepid journey.
From heathen lands he hither came
and ne'er had had baptismal name.
Proceeding, Parzival could ride
Into a forest deep and wide,
 Wolfram von Eschenbach (1165-1217) Parzival (1195)
Book 15: "Parzival and Feirefiz", Lines 27-36
(translated by Edwin H. Zeydel & Bayard Quincy Morgan,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1951, p. 299)
382) Verse 28 of Rubáiyát, of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd—
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
(translated by Edward Fitzgerald, London, 1st edition 1859, 2nd edition 1868)
383) Verse 28 of Saigyo's Mirror for the Moon:
Insect cries more faint
In these clumps of autumn grass
Going dry: sympathy
Lent this field by shafts
Of the moon's light on it.
Saigyo (1118-1190), Mirror for the Moon,
(translated by William R. LaFleur, New Directions, NY, 1978, p. 15)
384) Verse 28 of Dogen (1200-1253):
A traveler in Echizen
Wrapping my sorrow with a linen sleeve;
My plea that I be veiled
By the compassion
Of the original Lord.
(translated by Steven Heine,
Zen Poetry of Dogen, Tuttle, Boston, 1997, p. 108)
385) Verse 28 of Rumi Daylight:
God has scattered His light over all souls;
happy are they who have held up their skirts to receive it.
Those lucky ones don't look to anything but God;
without that skirt of love,
we miss our share.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Mathnawi, I.760-2
Rumi Daylight, Verse 28 (p. 31)
(Edited by Camille & Kabir Helminski, 1994)
386) Chapter 28 of Attar's The Conference of the Birds
is titled "Question of the Twelfth Bird"
Another bird said to the Hoopoe: 'O you, who are our guide, what will be
the result if I surrender my will to you? I cannot of my own will accept
the toil and suffering that I know I shall have to undergo, but I can agree to
obey you commands; and if I should chance to turn my head away I will make amends.
    The Hoopoe replied: 'You have spoken well, one cannot expect better
than this. For how can you remain master of yourself if you follow your likes
and dislikes? But if you obey voluntarily you may become your own master. He who
submits to obedience on this path is delivered from deception and escapes many
difficulties. One hour of serving God in accordance with the true law is worth
a lifetime of serving the world. He who accepts passive suffering is like a
stray dog which has to obey the whim of every passer-by. But he who endures
even a moment of active suffering on this path is fully recompensed.'
Farid al-Din Attar (c. 1230), The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-tayr)
(translated by C. S. Nott, Shambhala, Boston, 1993, pp. 71-72)
387) Verse 28 of Yunus Emre's Lyric Poems
is Those who became complete:

Those who became complete
didn't live this life in hypocrisy,
didn't learn the meaning of things
by reading commentaries.

Reality is an ocean; the Law is a ship.
Many have never left the ship,
never jumped into the sea.

They might have come to Worship
but they stopped at rituals.
They never knew or entered the Inside.

Those who think the Four Books
were meant to be talked about,
who have only read explanations
and never entered meaning,
are really in sin.

Yunus means "true friend"
for one whose journey has begun.
Until we transform our Names,
we haven't found the Way.
 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. 53)
388) Chapter 28 of Dante's Vita Nuova (1294):
"How solitary lies the city, once full of people! Once great among the nations,
she has become like a widow]. I was still intent on this conzone, of which I had
completed the stanza transcribed above, when the Lord of Justice called this most
gentle one to glory under the sign of the blessed queen, the virgin Mary, whose name
was in greatest reverence in the words of this blessed Beatrice. And although it might
perhaps be pleasing at this point to treat somewhat her departure from us, it is not
my purpose to deal with it here for three reasons: the first is tha it is not part of
the present purpose, if we want to consider the proem that precedes this little book;
the second is that, supposing it did pertain to the present purpose, my language
would still be inadequate to deal with it properly; the third is that, given the first
and second conditions, it is not becoming of me to treat of it, for the reason that,
by treating it, I would be obliged to be a praiser of myself, which thing is at all times
reprehensible to whoever does it; and therefore I leave this matter to some other glossator.
Nevertheless, since the number nine has many times occurred among the previous words,
which evidently is not without a reason, and because in her departure that number has
clearly figured repeatedly, it is fitting, therefore, to say a few things, for it appears
to befit my purpose. Hence, first I will say how this number figured in her departure,
and then I will give a reason why this number was so much her friend.
 Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Vita Nuova, XXVIII
( translated by Dino S. Cervigni & Edward Vasta,
University of Notre Dame Press, 1995, pp. 115-116)
389) Chapter 28 of Dante's Convivio (1304) compares the soul in the last
age of life as a ship's journey coming in from sea and returning to port:
Here it should be observed that a natural death, as Tully says in his book On Old Age,
is, as it were, a port and site of repose after our long journey. This is quite true,
for just as a good sailor lowers his sails as he approaches port and, pressing forward
lightly, enters it gently, so we must lower the sails of our worldly preoccupations and
return to God with all our mind and heart, so that we may reach that port with perfect
gentleness and perfect peace... Hence in his book On Youth and Old Age, Aristotle says
that "death that takes place in old age is without sadness." And just as a man returning
from a long journey is met by the citizens of his city as he enters its gates, so the
noble soul is met, as it should be, by the citizens of the eternal life... The noble soul,
then, surrenders itself to God in this age of life and awaits the end of this life with
great desire, and seems to be leaving an inn and returning to its proper dwelling,
seems to be coming back from a journey and returning to the city, seems to be coming
in from the sea and returning to port.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Convivio (The Banquet), Book IV.28
( translated by Richard H. Lansing,
Garland Publishing, New York, 1990, pp. 232-235)
390) Canto 28 of Dante's Purgatorio:
(Earthly Paradise, Divine Forest, River of Lethe, Meeting Matilda):
una donna soletta che si gia
e cantando e scegliendo fior da fiore
ond'era pinta tutta la sua via.

Lo sommo Ben, che solo esso a sé piace,
fé l'uom buono e a bene, e questo loco
diede per arr'a lui d'etterna pace.

Qui fu innocente l'umana radice;
qui primavera sempre e ogne frutto;
nettare ` questo di che ciascun dice".
 		I saw a solitary woman moving,
singing, and gathering up flower on flower—
the flowers that colored all of her pathway.

The Highest Good, whose sole joy is Himself,
made man to be— and to enact— good; He
gave man this place as pledge of endless peace.

Here, mankind's root was innocent; and here
were every fruit and never-ending spring;
these streams-the nectar of which poets sing."
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Purgatorio 28.40-42, 28.91-93, 28.142-144
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1981)
391) Canto 28 of Dante's Paradiso:
(In the 9th Heaven, the Primum Mobile & the celestial hierarchy):
La donna mia, che mi vedea in cura
forte sospeso, disse: "Da quel punto
depende il cielo e tutta la natura.
Mira quel cerchio che più li è congiunto;
e sappi che 'l suo muovere è sì tosto
per l'affocato amore ond'elli è punto".

Quinci si può veder come si fonda
l'essere beato ne l'atto che vede,
non in quel ch'ama, che poscia seconda;
e del vedere è misura mercede,
che grazia partorisce e buona voglia:
così di grado in grado si procede.
 		My lady, who saw my perplexity—
I was in such suspense—said: "On that Point
depend the heavens and the whole of nature.
Look at the circle that is nearest It,
and know: its revolutions are so swift
because of burning love that urges it."

From this you see that blessedness depends
upon the act of vision, not upon
the act of love-which is a consequence;
the measure of their vision lies in merit,
produced by grace and then by will to goodness:
and this is the progression, step by step.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Paradiso 28.40-45, 28.109-114
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1982, pp. 252-259)
392) Poem 28 of The Zen Works of Stonehouse:
A friend of seclusion arrives at my gate
we greet and pardon our lack of decorum
a white mane gathered in back
a monk's robe worn untied
embers of leaves at the end of the night
howl of a gibbon announcing the dawn
sitting on cushions wrapped in quilts
words forgotten finally we meet
 Ch'ing-hung (1272-1352), The Zen Works of Stonehouse, Book I, Poem 28
translated by Red Pine (Bill Porter),
Mercury House, San Francisco, p. 15 (Zen Poems)
393) Verse 28 of Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden:
God keep us from these men who fatuously
Judge worth by mass, not by capacity;
    Of all the weighty things the world provides
A quart up full has weight enough for me.
Hafiz (1320-1389), Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden, Verse 28
adaptation by Clarence K. Streit, Viking Press, NY, 1928
(Author on Time cover, March 27, 1950)
394) Verse 28 of The Divan of Hafez:
If the candle's tongue boasted of having your smiling face,
It rose to compensation every night in front of your lovers.
In the chaman, from the side of the rose and the cypresse,
The spring wind rose to admire your face and stature.
Intoxicated, you passed by; and from the angels of heaven,
As they watched you, the tumult of Resurrection rose.
The haughty cypress whose stature rose proudly,
Did not move a foot from shame before your gait.
 Hafiz (1320-1389), The Divan of Hafez, Verse 28
translated from the Persian by Reza Saberi,
University Press of American, Lanham, MD, 2002, p. 35
395) Line 28 from the Pearl Poet's Pearl: "shine so bright in sun's clear ray"
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)
396) Line 28 from the Pearl Poet's Purity or Cleanness:
For he schal loke on oure Lorde with a loue chere.
 For he shall look on our Lord with a humble countenance.
Cleanness (c. 1370-1400) Line 28
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 112,
above translation by J.J. Anderson, 1996, p. 48)
397) Line 28 from the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: "a marvel to behold"
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)
398) Poem 28 of Ikkyu's Wild Ways
is titled "Poem Exchanged for Food"
Once again I'm roaming East Mountain hungry.
When you are starving, a bowl of rice is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
An ancient worthy swapped his wisdom for a few lichee nuts,
Yet I still cannot refrain from singing odes to the wind and moon.
 Ikkyu (1394-1481), Wild Ways: Zen Poems, Poem 28
(Translated by John Stevens, White Pine Press, Buffalo, NY, p. 54)
399) Verse 28 of Songs of Kabir:
Before the Unconditioned, the Conditioned dances:
"Thou and I are one!" this trumpet proclaims.
The Guru comes, and bows down before the disciple:
This is the greatest of wonders.
 Kabir (1398-1448), Songs of Kabir, Verse XXVIII
(Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, Macmillan, NY, 1916, pp. 76-77)
400) Verse 28 of Kabir's Raga Gauri:
The nature of your heart
determines your mind:
So how can you be enlightened
if you smother your heart?

People speak
what is in their hearts—
but you cannot know devotion
without first stifling your heart.

Kabir, say,
"Those who know the secret
becomelike Madhusudan,
the Preserver of the three worlds."
Kabir (1398-1448), Raga Gauri,
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth, Verse 28 (p. 57)
(Translated by Nirmal Dass, State University of NY Press, Albany, 1991)
401) Verse 28 of Kabir's Raga Asa:
Though I have taken on
many forms
in the past,
I shall now take on none.
The lute's strings are slack:
I am in the power of Ram's name.

I no longer know how to dance:
My heart drums no longer.

I have burned off
lust, anger, Maya;
greed's clay-pot
has shattered;
lust's robe is now threadbare:
Gone are all my doubts.

I now recognize
the One in all beings—
there's no need to quarrel.
Kabir, say,
"I have found God, the complete:
Ram has been merciful to me."
Kabir (1398-1448), Raga Gauri,
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth, Verse 28 (p. 144)
(Translated by Nirmal Dass, State University of NY Press, Albany, 1991)
402) Sloka 28 of Kabir's Slokas of Kabir:
Kabir,
this body must go,
but try to lead it
to that road
where it can meet saints
and sing Hari's praise.
 Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 263
403) Chapter 28 of Wu Ch'eng-en's The Journey to the West:
At Flower-Fruit Mountain a pack of fiends hold assembly:
At the Black Pine Forest Tripitaka meets demons.
The Great Sage said to himself: "I haven't come this way for
five hundred years!" This is what he saw as he looked at the ocean:
Vast, misty currents,
Huge, far-reaching waves—
Vast, misty currents that join the Milky Way;
Huge, far-reaching waves that touch the pulse of Earth.
The tide rises in salvos;
The water engulfs the bays—
The tide rises in salvos
Like the clap of thunder in Triple Spring;
The water engulfs the bays
As violent gales that blow in late summer...
Waves roll like a thousand year's snow;
Wind howls as if autumn's in June.
Wild birds can come and go at will;
Water fowls may stay afloat or dive.
There's no fisher before your eyes;
Your ears hear only the sea gulls.
Deep in the sea fishes frolic;
Across the sky wild geese languish.
 Wu Ch'eng-en (1500-1582),
The Journey to the West or Hsi-yu chi (1518), Volume 2, Chapter 28
(translated by Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago Press, 1978, p. 33)
404) There are 52 chapters in Part I of Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Chapter 28 is titled "The Strange and Delightful Adventure
that Befell the Curate and the Barber in the Sierra-Morena":
Happy and fortunate were the times when that most daring knight
Don Quixote of La Mancha was sent into the world; for by reason of
his having formed a resolution so honourable as that of seeking to
revive and restore to the world the long-lost and almost defunct order
of knight-errantry, we now enjoy in this age of ours, so poor in light
entertainment, not only the charm of his veracious history, but also
of the tales and episodes contained in it which are, in a measure,
no less pleasing, ingenious, and truthful, than the history itself...
[Dorothea tells her tale of Don Fernando and her misfortunes]
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616),
Don Quixote Part I, Ch. XXVIII (1605)
(translated by John Ormsby)
405) There are 74 chapters in Part II of Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Chapter 28 is titled "Of Matters that Benengeli Says He Who
Reads Them Will Know, If He Reads Them with Attention":
"He does not fly who retires," returned Don Quixote; "for I would have thee know, Sancho,
that the valour which is not based upon a foundation of prudence is called rashness, and
the exploits of the rash man are to be attributed rather to good fortune than to courage;
and so I own that I retired, but not that I fled; and therein I have followed the example
of many valiant men who have reserved themselves for better times; the histories are full
of instances of this, but as it would not be any good to thee or pleasure to me, I will
not recount them to thee now."... Sancho said he would do so, and keep up his heart as
best he could. They then entered the grove, and Don Quixote settled himself at the foot
of an elm, and Sancho at that of a beech, for trees of this kind and others like them
always have feet but no hands. Sancho passed the night in pain, for with the evening
dews the blow of the staff made itself felt all the more. Don Quixote passed it in his
never-failing meditations; but, for all that, they had some winks of sleep, and with the
appearance of daylight they pursued their journey in quest of the banks of the famous Ebro,
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616),
Don Quixote Part II, Ch. XXVIII (1615)
(translated by John Ormsby)
406) Lover oppressed by the absence of his beloved
in Sonnet 28 of William Shakespeare:
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnet XXVIII, Commentary
407) 28 citations of blue in Shakespeare.
Other colors: green 97, red 96, grey 42, yellow 30, purple 18)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616),
Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973
408) Haiku 28 of Basho's Haiku (1678):
Even with blossoms,
To my regret I can't open
My bag of poems!
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Basho's Haiku, Vol. 2, Haiku 28
(translated by Toshiharu Oseko, Maruzen, Tokyo, 1996, p. 20)
409) Poem 28 of Goethe, the Lyrist: 100 Poems
GUTER RAT
Geschieht wohl, dass man einen Tag
Weder sich noch andre leiden mag,
Will nichts dir nach dem Herzen ein;
Sollt's in der Kunst wohl anders sein?
Drum hetze dich nicht zur schlimmen Zeit,
Denn Füll' und Kraft sind nimmer weit:
Hast in der bösen Stund' geruht,
Ist dir die gute doppelt gut. 		GOOD ADVICE
On certain days, it may be true,
You'll hate all men, including you.
Nothing will seem to please your heart.
Why should it not be so in art?
So don't strain hard on your wretched day;
Full strength is never far away.
If you have rested in evil hours,
The good ones will have twofold powers.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), "Guter Rat"
Goethe, the Lyrist: 100 Poems, (translated by Edwin H. Zeydel, 1955, p. 79)
410) Plate 28 of William Blake's Song of Innocence:
"The Divine Image" (1789)

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
All pray in their distress:
And to these virtues of delight.
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
Is God our father dear:
And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine.
And Peace. the human dress.

Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine
Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew,
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too.
William Blake (1757-1827)
Song of Innocence (1789), Plate 28: "The Divine Image" (Huntington Library)
Plate 28: "The Blossom" (Library of Congress)
411) Haiku 28 of Issa's Haiku:
Moist spring moon—
raise a finger
and it drips.
 Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827),
The Dumpling Field: Poems of Issa, Haiku 28
(translated by Lucien Stryk, Swallow Press, Athens, Ohio, 1991, p. 11)
412) Poem 28 of Thomas Cole's Poetry:
Hope and Trust Spring from the
Contemplation of the Works of God

Mine eyes bedimmed with tears I heavenward raised
Called by some Spirit of a better sphere,
And through the universal ether gazed
Ad marked the golden orbs that did appear
To tremble mid the dark abyss profound;
But yet they faltered not; nor sank; nor swerved
In glory marching their majestic round,
In everlasting harmony preserved.

"Is there cause for tears" the spirit said:
"When all these ponderous worlds are thus sustained
by that invisible hand and gently led
Through the wide fields of heave; like sheep restrained
From wandering by their shepherd's gentle voice.
Within His hand is held thy soul, thine all;
List! thou wilt hear that Shepherd's loving call.
Is there then cause for tears? Thou shouldst rejoice!"

Thomas Cole (1801-1848),
Thomas Cole's Poetry, Poem 28 (August 16, 1835)
(Compiled & Edited by Marshall B. Tymn,
Liberty Cap Books, York, Pennsylvania, 1972, p. 76

Thomas Cole,
Self-Portrait (1836)

413) Sonnets from the Portuguese 28: My Letters!
of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861):
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said,— he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand ... a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it!— this, ... the paper's light...
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine— and so its ink has paled
With Iying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this ... O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861),
Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 28
414) Poem 28 of Gérard de Nerval's Fortune's Fool
is titled "The Serenade" (1830), After Uhland

"What awakes me? what sweet singing?"
"I hear nothing, no song ringing,
Though I watch beside you here;
It is fancy! sleep again!"
"From outside there comes the strain,
Voices thrilling on the air."

"Child, it is your mounting fever..."
"Through the window nearer, ever
Nearer sounds this serenad!"
"Sleep, my poor sick child! it seems
You hear serenades in dreams...
Gallant lovers are abed."

"What have I to do with lovers?
World, farewell! a cloud-shape hovers,
Lifts and bears me to the sky.
Mother, this unearthly song
Rises where an angel throng
Cries my name to God on high!"

 Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855)
Fortune's Fool, 35 poems translated from French by Brian Hill
Rupert Hart-Davis, Soho Square, London, 1959, 63 pp.
(Another translation; La Sérènade)
415) Chapter 28 of Melville's Moby-Dick (1851):
For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen of Captain Ahab.
It was one of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition,
when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping
and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deckat the call of the forenoon watch, so soon
as I levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran
apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck... His whole high, broad form, seemed made
of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini's cast Perseus... So powerfully
did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me, and the livid brand which streaked it, that for
the first few moments I hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing
to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood. It had previously come to me that this
ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whale's jaw... I was
struck with the singular posture he maintained. Upon each side of the Pequod's quarter deck,
and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds, there was an auger hole, bored about half an inch or so,
into the plank. His bone leg steadied in that hole; one arm elevated, and holding by a shroud;
Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the ship's ever-pitching prow. There was
an infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and
fearless, forward dedication of that glance... More than once did he put forth the faint blossom
of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.
 Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick, Chapter 28: Ahab
416) Poem 28 of Emily Dickinson:

So has a Daisy vanished
From the fields today—
So tiptoed many a slipper
To Paradise away—

Oozed so in crimson bubbles
Day's departing tide—
Blooming— tripping— flowing
Are ye then with God?

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Poem 28
(edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 1955, p. 19)
417) 28th New Poem of Emily Dickinson:
That Bareheaded life— under the grass—
worries one like a Wasp.
Emily Dickinson (Letter 220 to Samuel Bowles, about 1860)
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by William H. Shurr, University of North Carolin Press, 1993, p. 21)
418) 28 in Walt Whitman's "I Celebrate Myself": Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore;
Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly:
Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lonesome.
Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
 Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass
"I Celebrate Myself", Stanza 11, Lines 1-3, 10-11
419) "You too I welcome, and fully, the same as the rest"
in Line 28 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. 564)
420)
Verse 28 in Tagore's Gitanjali:
Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart
aches when I try to break them.
Freedom is all I want, but to hope
for it I feel ashamed.
I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee,
and that thou art my best friend,
but I have not the heart to sweep
away the tinsel that fills my room.
The shroud that covers me
is a shroud of dust and death;
I hate it, yet hug it in love.
My debts are large, my failures great,
my shame secret and heavy;
yet when I come to ask for my good,
I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), Verse 28
Rabindranath Tagore
(1861-1941)
421) Poem 28 in George William Russell's Voices of the Stones (1925):
is titled "Magnificence"
Cloistered amid these austere rocks,
A brooding seer, I watched an hour,
Close to the earth, lost to all else,
The marvel of a tiny flower.

To build its palace walls of jade
What myriads toiled in dark and cold:
And what gay traders fronm the sun
Brought down its sapphire and its gold!

Oh, palace of the universe!
Oh, changing halls of day and night!
Does the high Builder dream in thee
With more of wonder and delight?
 A. E. (George William Russell) (1867-1935)
"Magnificence" from Voices of the Stones (1925) included in
Collected Poems by A .E., 2nd Ed., Macmillan, London (1927), p. 337
422) Page 28 in A. E.'s Song and its Fountains:
[The love which was in my heart drew me inwards, and I was breaking through
one ring of being after another seeking for that innermost centre where
spirit could pass into] spirit. But when the last gate was passed I was
not in that spirit I adored, but trembled on the verge of some infinite
being; and then consciousness was blinded and melted into unconsciousness,
and I came at last out of that trance feeling an outcast on the distant and
desert verge of things, though there eas a cheek beside mine and I felt a
wetness and I did not know whethere it was the dew of night or weeping.
Then the dream closed. I had learned to be still when such visitations
came, not to alter, not to remould. It was as truly dream and uncreated
by the waking consciousness s any of the images which visited me in sleep.
The dream, which was burdened with such intensities of emotion, when it
departed left behind a slight lyric which could not hold or hardly hint
at the love which had passed from earth to heaven and had forgotten the
love which gave it wings to rise.
A. E. (George William Russell) (1867-1935)
Song and its Fountains, Macmillan, New York (1932), p. 28
(New Edition, Larson Publications, 1991)
(Poem cited: By the Margin of the Great Deep, 1913)
[Note: Typesetting on page 28 is from the 1932 edition.
Lines in brackets are from page 27.]
423) Page 28 lines in James Joyce's Ulysses, (Lines 26-29):
Stephen touched the edges of the book. Futility.
— Do you understand how to do them now? he asked.
— Numbers eleven to fifteen, Sargent answered. Mr Deasy
said I was to copy them off the board, sir. (28.26-29)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Ulysses, (1st edition, 1922)
Random House, New York (1946), p. 28
424) Page 28 lines in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, (12 samples):
hours on the Pollockses' woolly round tabouretcushion watch- (28.6)
ing her sewing a dream together, the tailor's daughter, stitch to (28.7)
her last. Or while waiting for winter to fire the enchantement, (28.8)
a concertina and pairs passing when she's had her forty winks (28.18)
it smarts, full lengths or swaggers. News, news, all the news. (28.21)
Stilla Star with her lucky in goingaways. Opportunity fair with (28.23)
the China floods and we hear these rosy rumours. Ding Tams he (28.24)
final tear. Zee End. But that's a world of ways away. Till track (28.29)
laws time. No silver ash or switches for that one! While flattering (28.30)
candles flare. Anna Stacey's how are you! Worther waist in the (28.31)
noblest, says Adams and Sons, the wouldpay actionneers. Her (28.32)
hair's as brown as ever it was. And wivvy and wavy. Repose you (28.33)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Finnegans Wake, (1939)
425) Sonnet 28 of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus: Part 2
O komm und geh. Du, fast noch Kind, ergänze
für einen Augenblick die Tanzfigur
zum reinen Sternbild einer jener Tänze,
darin wir die dumpf ordnende Natur

vergänglich übertreffen. Denn sie regte
sich völlig hörend nur, da Orpheus sang.
Du warst noch die von damals her Bewegte
und leicht befremdet, wenn ein Baum sich lang

besann, mit dir nach dem Gehör zu gehn.
Du wußtest noch die Stelle, wo die Leier
sich tönend hob—; die unerhörte Mitte.

Für sie versuchtest du die schönen Schritte
und hofftest, einmal zu der heilen Feier
des Freundes Gang und Antlitz hinzudrehn.
 Oh come and go. You, almost still a child—
for just a moment fill out the dance-figure
into the constellation of those bold
dances in which dull, obsessive Nature

is fleetingly surpassed. For she was stirred
to total hearing just when Orpheus sang.
You were still moved by those primeval words
and a bit surprised if any tree took long

to step with you into the listening ear.
You knew the place where once the lyre arose
resounding: the unheard, unheard-of center.

For its sake you tried out your lovely motion
and hoped that you would one day turn your friend's
body toward the perfect celebration.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Sonnets to Orpheus (1921), II.28
( translated by Stephen Mitchell, The Sonnets to Orpheus,
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1985, pp. 126-127)
(cf. translations by Howard A. Landman and Robert Hunter)
426) Line 28 of Rilke's Duino Elegies IX: not a handful of earth to the valley:

Bringt doch der Wanderer auch vom Hange des Bergrands
nicht eine Hand voll Erde ins Tal, die Allen unsägliche, sondern
ein erworbenes Wort, reines, den gelben und blaun
Enzian. Sind wir vielleicht hier, um zu sagen: Haus,

For the wanderer brings down from the mountainside
not a handful of earth to the valley, all indescribable,
but the word he has gained there, pure, the yellow and blue
gentian. Are we perhaps here just to say House,

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926),
Duino Elegies (1923), IX.27-30
(translated by Stephen Garmey & Jay Wilson)
Harper & Row, New York, p. 66)
(Other translations: Edward Snow; Robert Hunter)

427) Section 28 in Wallace Stevens, The Man with the Blue Guitar:
I am a native in this world
And think in it as a native thinks.

Gesu, not native of a mind
Thinking the thoughts I call my own,

Native, a native in the world
And like a native think in it.

It could not be a mind, the wave
In which the watery grasses flow

And yet are fixed as a photograph,
The wind in which the dead leaves blow.

Here I inhale profounder strength
and as I am, I speak and move

And things are as I think they are
And say they are on the blue guitar.

 Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),
The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Section XXVIII
Collected Poetry and Prose, Library of America, NY, 1997, pp. 147-148
428) There are 28 chapters in Khalil Gibran's, The Prophet (1923).
Chapter 28 is titled "The Farewell":
We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in
our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are
given to the wind and are scattered...
Know, therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return.
The mist that drifts away at dawn, leaving but dew
in the fields, shall rise and gather into a cloud
and then fall down in rain...
And to my silence came the laughter of your children in streams,
and the longing of your youths in rivers...
For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things,
And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light...
A little while, and my longing shall gather dust
and foam for another body.
A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind,
and another woman shall bear me.
 Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), The Prophet
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1923, Ch. 28, pp. 73-84
429) There are 53 poems in William Carlos Williams' Sour Grapes Poem 28 is titled "Lines":
Leaves are greygreen,
the glass broken, bright green.

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), Sour Grapes, Four Seas Company, Boston (1921), p. 51
The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams
Volume I, 1909-1939, New Directions, NY, 1986, p. 159
430) Page 28 in William Carlos Williams' Paterson (1958)
is the end of Book One, Section II (1946) and contains a letter
from E. D. [Edward Dahlberg to WCW (1943)], Lines 6-9:

Once Plotinus asked, "What is philosophy?" and he replied,
"What is most important." The late Miguel de Unamuno also
cried out, not "More light, more light!" as Goethe did
when he was dying, but "More warmth, more warmth!"

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), Paterson (1958)
Edited by Christopher MacGowan
New Directions, NY, 1992, p. 28

431) Chapter 28 of Ezra Pound's Cantos (selections):
And God the Father Eternal (Boja d'un Dio!)
Having made all things he cd.
think of, felt yet
That something was lacking, and thought
Still more, and reflect that...
And he admired the Sage of Concord         "Too broad ever to makee up his mind"...
Mr Lizt had come to the home of her parents
And taken her on his prevalent knew and
she held that a sonnet was a sonnet
and ought never be destroyed,...
Uniform out for Peace Day
And that lie about the Tibetan temple
(happens by the way to be true,
they do carry you up on their shoulders) but
Bad for his medical practice...
Borne into the tempest, black cloud wrapping their wings,
The night hollow beneath them
And fell with dawn into ocean
But for the night saw neither sky nor ocean...
That flew out into nothingness
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), The Cantos (1-95), New Directions, NY, 1956, pp. 133-140
432) Poem 28 in H.D.'s The Walls Do Not Fall (1944):
O Heart, small urn
of porphyry, agate or cornelian,

bow imperceptibly the grain fell
between a heart-beat of pleasure

and a heart-beat of pain;
I do not know how it came

nor how long it had lain there,
nor can I say

how it escaped tempest
of passion and malice,

nor why it was not washed away
in flood of sorrow,

or dried up in the bleak drought
of bitter thought.
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)
Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall, Oxford University Press (1944), Poem 28
Carcabet Press, Cheshire, UK (1973), Foreword by Norman Holmes Pearson, p. 38
433) Poem 28 in H.D.'s Tribute to the Angels (1945):
I had been thinking of Gabriel,
of the moon-cycle, of the moon-shell,

of the moon-crescent
and the moon at full:

I had been thinking of Gabriel,
the moon-regent, the Angel,

and I had intended to recall him
in the sequence of candle and fire

and the law of the seven;
I had not forgotten

his special attribute
of annunciator; I had thought

to address him as I had the others,
Uriel, Annael;

how could I imagine
the Lady herself would come instead?
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)
Trilogy: Tribute to the Angels, Oxford University Press (1945), Poem 28
Carcabet Press, Cheshire, UK (1973), Foreword by Norman Holmes Pearson, p. 92
434) Sonnet 28 in Edna St. Vincent Millay's Fatal Interview (1931)
When we are old and those rejoicing veins
Are frosty channels to a muted stream,
And out of all our burning there remains
No feeblest spark to fire us, even in a dream,
This be our solace: that it was not said
When we were young and warm and in our prime,
Upon our couch we lay as lie the dead,
Sleeping away the unreturning time.
O sweet, O heavy-lidded, O my love,
When morning strikes her spear upon the land,
And we must rise and arm us and reprove
The insolent daylight with a steady hand,
Be not discountenanced if the knowing know
We rose from rapture but an hour ago.
Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Harper & Brothers, NY, 1941, p. 97
Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892-1950)
435) Poem 28 in e.e. cummings' Xaipe (1950)
noone" autumnal this great lady's gaze

enters a sunset "can grow(gracefully or
otherwise)old. Old may mean anything
which everyone would rather not become;
but growing is" erect her whole life smiled

"was and will always remain:who i am.

Look at these(each serenely welcoming
his only and illimitably his
destiny)mountains!how can each" while flame
crashed "be so am and i and who?each grows"

then in a whisper,as time turned to dream

"and poets grow;and(there—see?)children" nor
might any earth's first morning have concealed
so unimaginably young a star
e. e. cummings
(1894-1962)
Poem 28, Xaipe
Liveright, NY, 1979, p. 28
436) Rafael Alberti's Poem 28 of Between the Carnation and the Sword:
Those carob trees
heard me singing,
by the noble death
and the noble sea.

Poor bull close by,
I hear you bellowing.

Carobs of America,
you see me crying,
by the shattered life
and the new life.

Poor bull so far away,
I hear you bellowing.
 Rafael Alberti (1902-1999), Poem 28 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. 183)
437) There are 30 poems in Charles Reznikoff's Poems (1920)
Poem 28
I have watched trees and the moon and walked on—
she would be beauty to go wherever I go.
 Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976),
Poems 1918-1975: The Complete Poems of Charles Reznikoff,
Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara, 1989, p. 36
438) There are 53 poems in Charles Reznikoff's Inscriptions: 1944-1956 (1959)
Poem 28
It had been snowing at night
and the snow could still be seen
on the roofs, parapets, and water-tanks.
Slowly the sky grew brighter,
the room lighter;
morning came— almost at noon.
 Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976),
Poems 1918-1975: The Complete Poems of Charles Reznikoff,
Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara, 1989, p. 77
439) Sonnet 28 in Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1960)
Love, from seed to seed, from planet to planet,
the wind with its net through the darkening nations,
war with its bloody shoes,
or even the day, with a thorny night.

Wherever we went, islands or bridges or flags,
there were the violins of the fleeting autumn, bullet-lace;
happiness echoing at the rim of the wineglass;
sorrow detaining us, with it lesson of tears.

Through all those republics the wind whipped—
its arrogant pavilions, its glacial hair;
It would return the flowers, later, to his work.

But no withering autumn ever touched us.
In our stable place a love sprouted, grew
as rightfully empowered as the dew.
Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)
Love Sonnet XXVIII, 100 Love Sonnets: Cien Sonetos de Amor
Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1960 (trans. Stephen Tapscott, 1986)
440) Poem 28 in Louis Zukofsky's 80 Flowers (1978) is
"28 Forsythia":
Forced yellow spring before crenated
green unfolding fortune eye holly—
ember firethorn winter low stonecrop
thyme bluewinkle lilac forsythia suspense-arched
glance 4-petal goldenbell closer strapped
vine pith stem arch aged
branches root their height steep
smoke breathe olive branch dove
Louis Zukofsky (1904-1978)
80 Flowers, "28 Forsythia"
The Stinehour Press, Lunenburg, Vermont, 1978
[Stanford: PS3549.U47.E36.1978F "facsimile pirated copy"]
441) Section 28 of Kenneth Rexroth's
"The Love Poems of Marichiko" from The Morning Star (1979):
XXVIII
Spring is early this year.
Laurel, plums, peaches,
Almonds, mimosa,
All bloom at once. Under the
Moon, night smells like your body.
Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982)
The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth
Edited by Sam Hamill & Bradford Morrow
Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA, 2003, p. 723
442) Poem 28 in George Oppen's Of Being Numerous:
The light
Of the closed pages, tightly closed, packed against each other
Exposes the new day.

The narrow, frightening light
Before a sunrise.
George Oppen (1908-1984),
Of Being Numerous (1968), Poem 28
New Directions, NY, 1968, p. 30
Review of Oppen's New Collected Poems
443) There are 28 poems in Kathleen Raine's The Year One (1952):
Poem 28 is titled "Message from Home"
Do you remember, when you were first a child,
Nothing in the world seemed strange to you?
You perceived, for the first time, shapes already familiar,
And seeing, you knew that you had always known
The lichen on the rock, fern-leaves, the flowers of thyme,
As if the elements newly met in your body,
Caught up into the momentary vortex of your living
Still kept the knowledge of a former state,
In you retained recollection of cloud and ocean,
The branching tree, the dancing flame.

Of all created things the source is one,
Simple, single as love; remember
The cell and seed of life, the sphere
That is, of child, white bird, and small blue dragon-fly
Green fern, and the gold four-petalled tormentilla
The ultimate memory.
Each latent cell puts out a future,
Unfolds its differing complexity
As a tree puts forth leaves, and spins a fate
Fern-traced, bird feathered, or fish-scaled...

As you leave Eden behind you, remember your home,
For as you remember back into your own being
You will not be alone; the first to greet you
Will be those children playing by the burn,
The otters will swim up to you in the bay,
The wild deer on the moor will run beside you.
Recollect more deeply, and the birds will come,
Fish rise to meet you in their silver shoals,
And darker, stranger, more mysterious lives
Will throng about you at the source
Where the tree's deepest roots drink from the abyss.

Nothing in that abyss is alien to you.
Sleep at the tree's root, where the night is spun
Into the stuff of worlds, listen to the winds,
The tides, and the night's harmonies, and know
All that you knew before you began to forget,
Before you became estranged from your own being,
Before you had too long parted from those other
More simple children, who have stayed at home
In meadow and island and forest, in sea and river.
Earth sends a Mother's love after her exiled son,
Entrusting her message to the light and air,
The wind and waves that carry your ship, the rain that falls,
The birds that call to you, and all the shoals
That swim in the natal waters of the ocean.
 Kathleen Raine (1908-2003), "Message from Home", Stanza 1, 3-5
The Year One, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1952, pp. 62-64
444) Poem 28 in Kathleen Raine's The Presence:
Flies—
But what I see
Flashing under leaves
As morning sunbeams fill the sycamore tree
Is flight
Of minute meteors, rays
In living transmutation of light.
Kathleen Raine (1908-2003),
The Presence (Poems 1984-87), Poem 28
Golgonooza Press, Ipswich, UK, 2000, p. 45
New York Times Obituary, July 10, 2003
445) Poem 28 in Thomas Merton's Thirty Poems (1944)
is titled "St. Agnes: A Responsory", Stanzas 2 & 7
Spending the silver of her little life
To bring her Bridegroom these bright flowers
Of which her arms are full.

Where all towns sing like springtime, with their newborn bells
Pouring her golden name out of their crucibles.
 Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton
New Directions, NY, 1977, pp. 54-55
446) Poem 28 of The Crane's Bill:
Frogs croak in moonlight,
Heaven, earth sliced through— all
One. Yet who understands?
Upon the mountain, Gensha's bleeding foot.
— Layman Chokyusei, 12th century
Zen Poems of China and Japan: The Crane's Bill
(translated by Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto, Anchor Books, NY, 1973, p. 16)
447) Poem 28 in May Sarton's Coming Into Eighty: New Poems (1994)
is titled "Lunch in the Garden":
We sat having lunch
In the garden
Camellias in flower
And pink viburnum
Crocus, daffodils, and anemones
On the ground
Like the border of a tapestry.

And who were we?
She is 95 now
He, her lover long ago, 81
And I the poet
Who adored her, 80.

Fifty-five years ago
He sent me a telegram
"Oh, let my joys have some abiding."
We sat in the spring garden
On a chilly March day
And the joys all around us
In the air
As elusive
As the butterfly who came to rest
For a moment on the table.
Miracles do happen
When you are old.
 May Sarton (1912-1995)
Coming Into Eighty: New Poems
W. W. Norton, New York (1994), p. 58
448) Poem 28 in Muriel Rukeyser's 29 Poems (1972) is titled "Iris":
I
Middle of May, when the iris blows,
blue below blue, the bearded patriarch-
face on the green flute body of a boy
Poseidon     torso of Eros
blue
sky below sea
day over daybreak violet behind twilight
the May iris
midnight on midday
V
Depth of petals, May iris
transparent     infinitely deep they are
petal-thin     with light behind them
and you, death,
and you
behind them
blue under blue.
What I cannot say
in adequate music
something being born
transparency     blue of
light standing on light
this stalk of
(among mortal petals-and-leaves)
light.
Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)
29 Poems, "Iris", Stanzas I & V
Rapp & Whiting Ltd., London (1972), pp. 44-45
449) Poem 28 of Robert Lax's 33 Poems (1988)
is titled "Shepherd's Calendar:
Section 1 of 6 sections below:
move
ment

of
sheep

move
ment

of
rocks
 move
ment

of
sheep

move
ment

of
rocks
 rocks
like

sheep

sheep
like

rocks

 move
ment

of
rocks

move
ment

of
rocks
Robert LAX
(1915-2000)
Robert Lax (1915-2000), 33 Poems, Poem 28
(edited by Thomas Kellein, New Directions, NY, 1988, p.149)
450) Lawrence Ferlinghetti's What is Poetry? (2000) contains 64 images of poetry.
Image 28:
It is the sound of summer in the rain
and of people laughing behind
closed shutters
down an alley at night
 Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. March 24, 1919),
What Is Poetry?
Creative Arts Book Co., Berkeley, CA, 2000, p. 28
451) John Logan's The Poem As Relic (1989) contains 28 poems.
Poem 28 is titled "Saint Anselm's Priory":
Ranged in stalls beside
An altar tapestried and lit
In beige and cherry tones
The monks hunch at prayer
And hang their chants upon

The incensed air like fabric
Looped from a light throat's webbing
And rise and turn to gain
And pass with joys of sure
Tenderness their Bene

Dictine kiss of peace.

 John Logan (1923-1987),
The Poem As Relic
Edited by Michael Basinski
The Poetry/Rare Books Collection
University of Buffalo, NY, 1989, p. 45
452) Allen Ginsberg's HOWL (1956) contains 112 lines.
Line 1:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
Line 28:
who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston
        seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the
        brilliant Spaniard to converse about America
        and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship
        to Africa,
 Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997),
Howl and Other Poems
City Lights Books, 1956, p. 12
453) There are 68 poems in Allen Ginsberg's last book Death & Fame (1999).
Poem 28 is titled "Gone Gone Gone":
GONE, GONE, GONE
                        "The wan moon is sinking under the white wave
                          and time is sinking with me, O!"
                          — Robert Burns
yes it's gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it's gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it's gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it's gone gone gone
it's all gone away
gone gone gone
won't be back today
gone gone gone
just like yesterday
gone gone gone
isn't any more
gone to the other shore
gone gone gone
it wasn't here to stay 		yes it's gone gone gone
all gone out to play
yes it's gone gone gone
until another day
no one here to pray
gone gone gone
yak your life away
no promise to betray
gone gone gone
somebody else will pay
the national debt no way
gone gone gone
your furniture layaway
plan gone astray
gone gone gone
made hay
gone gone gone 		Sunk in Baiae's Bay
yes it's gone gone gone
wallet and all you say
gone gone gone
so you can waive your pay
yes it's gone gone gone
gone last Saturday
yes it's gone gone gone
tomorrow's another day
gone gone gone
bald & old & gay
gone gone gone
turned old and gray
yes it's gone gone gone
whitebeard & cold
yes it's gone gone gone
cashmere scarf & gold 		yes it's gone gone gone
warp & woof & wold
yes it's gone gone gone
gone far far away
to the home of the brave
down into the grave
yes it's gone gone gone
moon beneath the wave
yes it's gone gone gone
so I end this song
yes this song is gone
gone to kick the gong
yes it's gone gone gone
No more right & wrong
yes it's gone gone gone
gone gone away
        November 10, 1996
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997),
Death & Fame, "Gone Gone Gone"
HarperFlamingo, New York, 1999, p. 44-45)
454) There are 40 poems in Denise Levertov's
This Great Unknowing: Last Poems (1999).
Poem 28 is titled "Translucence":

Once I understood (till I forget, at least)
the immediacy of new life, Vita Nuova,
redemption not stuck in linear delays,
I perceived also (for now) the source
of unconscious light in faces
I believe are holy, not quite transparent,
more like the half-opaque whiteness
of Japanese screens or lampshades,
grass or petals imbedded in that paper-thin
substance which is not paper as this is paper,
and which permits the passage of what is luminous
though forms remain unseen behind its protection.
I perceived that in such faces, through
the translucence we see, the light we intuit
is of the already resurrected, each
a Lazarus, but a Lazarus (man or woman)
without the memory of tomb or of any
swaddling bands except perhaps
the comforting ones of their first
infant hours, the warm receiving-blanket...
They know of themselves nothing different
from anyone else. This great unknowing
is part of their holiness. They are always trying
to share out joy as if it were cake or water,
something ordinary, not rare at all.

Denise Levertov (1926-1997),
This Great Unknowing: Last Poems,
New Directions, New York, 1999, p. 48)

455) There are 38 poems in James Merrill's The Inner Room
Poem 28 is titled "Dead Center":
Upon reflection, as I dip my pen
Tonight, forth ripple messages in code.
In Now's black waters burn the stars of Then.

Seen from the embankment, marble men
Sleep upside down, bat-wise, the sleep bestowed
Upon reflection. As I dip my pen

Thinking how others, deeper into Zen,
Blew on immediacy until it glowed,
In Now's black waters burn the stars of Then.

Or else I'm back at Grandmother's. I'm ten,
Dust hides my parents' roadster from the road
Which dips— into reflection, with my pen.

Breath after breath, harsh O's of oxygen—
Never deciphered, what do they forebode?
In Now's black waters burn the stars. Ah then

Leap, Memory, supreme equestrienne,
Through hoops of fire, circuits you overload!
Beyond reflection, as I dip my pen
In Now's black waters burn the stars of Then.
 James Merrill (1926-1995),
The Inner Room, Knopf, New York, 1988, p. 50
456) There are 32 poems in Robert Creeley's Gnomic Verses
Poem 28:
AIR

Lift up so you're
Floating out
Of your skin at
The edge but
Mostly up seeming
Free of the ground.
Robert Creeley (born May 21, 1926),
Gnomic Verses, Zasterle Press, La Laguna, 1991, p. 34
457) There are 32 poems in Galway Kinnell's Mortal Acts, Mortal Words
Poem 28 is titled "There are Things I Tell to No One":
1
There are things I tell to no one.
Those close to me might think
I was sad, and try to comfort me, or become sad themselves.
At such times I go off alone, in silence, as if listening for God.
2
I say "God"; I believe,
rather, in a music of grace
that we hear, sometimes, playing to us
from the other side of happiness.
When we hear it, when it flows
through our bodies, it lets us live
these days lighted by their vanity
worshipping— as the other animals do,
who live and die in the spirit...
5
In this spirit
and from this spirit, I have learned to speak
of these things, which once I brooded on in silence,
these wishes to live
and to die
in gratefulness, if in no other virtue.
 Galway Kinnell (born September 30, 1927),
Mortal Acts, Mortal Words, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1980, pp. 59-62
458) There are 71 poems in W. S. Merwin's The Compass Flower
Poem 28 is titled "The Shuttles":
Remembering glitter on the first river
I begin to imagine the chances against
any fabric ever occurring
threads at last becoming original torn cloth
night numberless with lights
flying apart in galaxies I reach out
to imagine becoming one anything
once
among the chances in the rare
aging fabric happening
all the way for the first time
W. S. Merwin (born September 30, 1927),
The Compass Flower, Atheneum, NY, 1977, p. 37
459) 29 poems in Adrienne Rich's "Contradictions: Tracking Poems"
are numbered #1-29 in Your Native Land, Your Life (1986)
Poem 28
This high summer we love will pour its light
the fields grown rich and ragged in one strong moment
then before we're ready will crash into autumn
with a violence we can't accept
a bounty we can't forgive
Night frost will strike when the noons are warm
the pumpkins wildly glowing     the green tomatoes
straining huge on the vines
queen anne and blackeyed susan will straggle rusty
as the milkweed stakes her claim
she who will stand at last     dark sticks barely rising
up through the snow     her testament of continuation
We'll dream of a longer summer
but this is the one we have:
I lay my sunburnt hand
on your table:     this is the time we have
 Adrienne Rich (born 1929), Poem 28 of "Contradictions"
Your Native Land, Your Life, Norton, NY, 1986, p. 110
460) Poem 28 of Michael McClure's Ghost Tantras:
THY NOOHR! THY OOOGRESHK! THOU PLAID
LITE
THOU THOWW! TOOOM-KREER MAK-EEZE
by thou bleem swarr-ret-nok-thah ooh-ahr snoo wahr
port mak-eeze belshthep shaboth-taktar breen in heer by me.
GRAHH GAHROOOOOR,
GAHROOOOOOOOOOOO.
Greeeer gyreeahhr bemayoth nahhr grahharr hrahhr.
Noh blemish narr but a perfect beauty als neer
graybraeoth pemeter nahhr I theeayow kall
to thy order, me thou leet tabreez nathoon shayboth—
!OH!

Michael McClure (born Oct. 20, 1932),
Ghost Tantras, City Lights Books, 1967, p. 35)
461) There are 40 poems in Mary Oliver's What Do We Know (2002):
Poem 28 is titled "A Settlement"
Look, it's spring. And last year's loose dust has turned
into this soft willingness. The wind-flowers have come
up trembling, slowly the brackens are up-lifting their
curvaceous and pale bodies. The thrushes have come
home, none less than filled with mystery, sorrow,
happiness, music, ambition.

And I am walking out into all of this with nowhere to
go and no task undertaken but to turn the pages of
this beautiful world over and over, in the world of my
mind.

* * *

Therefore, dark past,
I'm about to do it.
I'm about to forgive you

for everything.

Mary Oliver (born 1935), What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems, "A Settlement"
Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, p. 45
462) There are 46 poems in Lucille Clifton's The Book of Light (1993)
Poem 28 is titled "further note to clark"

            do you know how hard this is for me?
            do you know what you're asking?

what i can promise to be is water,
water plain and direct as Niagara.
unsparing of myself, unsparing of
the cliff i batter, but also unsparing
of you, tourist. the question for me is
how long can i cling to this edge?
the question for you is
what have you ever traveled toward
more than your own safety?

Lucille Clifton (born 1936),
The Book of Light, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA, 1993, p. 42)

463) There are 70 poems in Charles Simic's A Wedding in Hell (1994)
Poem 28 is titled "Happiness":
Do not flatter yourself,
It's just the open window,
A bird's singing,
The bright sunlight.

The hundred-year-old woman in a dream
Closed the door ever so softly,
And still you woke with a start
To the trees full of leaves
Not a single one of which was moving.

There was a dead child in her arms.
Over her shoulder a city on fire
As if after an air raid,
A whiff of putrefaction reached your nostrils

In this enchanted place,
With its blue sky,
Trees like a mystery religion,
A lost ant going the wrong way, perhaps,
Under your black shoe?
Charles Simic (born May 9, 1938),
A Wedding in Hell, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, NY, 1994, p. 33)
464) There are 87 aphorisms in Charles Simic's "Assembly Required" (pp. 90-98)
from his Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs (1997):
Aphorism 28:
American academics suffer from cultured insecurity.
The really don't know who they are, but our writers do,
and that's the problem.
Charles Simic (born May 9, 1938),
Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1997, p. 93)
465) There are 70 poems in Joyce Carol Oates' The Time Traveler: Poems (1989)
Poem 28 is titled "Winter Solstice":
The year gone in hillocks of white,
white seas, sandbars, tides
frozen in motion—
that glassy interior.
The storm has died
into the purity of form.

This is the pitiless North we are afraid
we deserve—
the year gone in mouthfuls,
tiny bones,
skeletons.
This, our true finitude:
the soul crying a perfect O.
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938),
The Time Traveler: Poems, E.P. Dutton, NY, 1989, p. 60)
466) There are 54 poems in Louise Glück's The Wild Iris (1992).
Poem 28 is titled "Heaven and Earth":
Where one finishes, the other begins.
On top, a band of blue; underneath,
a band of green and gold, green and deep rose.

John stands at the horizon: he wants
both at once, he wants
everything at once.

The extremes are easy. Only
the middle is a puzzle. Midsummer—
everything is possible.

Meaning: never again will life end.

How can I leave my husband
standing in the garden
dreaming this sort of thing, holding
his rake, triumphantly
preparing to announce this discovery

as the fire of the summer sun
truly does stall
being entirely contained by
the burning maples
at the garden's border.
 Louise Glück (born 1943),
The Wild Iris, "Heaven and Earth"
Ecco Press, Hopewell, NJ, 1992, p. 32)
467) There are 69 poems in Stephen Mitchell's Parables and Portraits (1992).
Poem 28 is titled "The Baal Shem Tov":
All the old metaphors
are speechless, and the old truths
lie on exhibit in the morgue,
each with an oaktag label
on its big toe. Unless I am there,
Gautama is still questioning
under the bodhi tree,
while in bethlehem Mary's womb stays
heavy, the ox and ass
looking on in mute compassion.

In the forest where you grew up
there was a small clearing
you liked to pray in. You would watch
the projects of the ants, or follow
a spider as it strung its web
in the crook of a maple-branch. Birdsong
unwound above you in lucid
confirmation. Whenever
you happened on the bloody remains
of a rabbit or squirrel, you buried them
gently, and recited
the Blessing upon meeting sorrow
face to Face. Prayer was
a quality of attention.
To make so much room
for the given
that it can appear as gift.

Years later they would come to you,
the doubters and the devout,
asking their pathless questions.
You wanted to get down on all fours.
You wanted to moo, or stand there
on tiptoe, flapping your wings.
What could you say, when the Good Name
was everywhere you were, uttered
by nightstorm and cloud and sunlight,
in fervor or grief. The few words
that you did find seemed
tinier than colored pebbles.
You had to pull them up quickly,
quickly, from far away.
 Stephen Mitchell (born 1943),
Parables and Portraits, Harper & Row, NY, pp. 35-36)
468) 9th poem in Norman Fischer's Success (2000) is on the number 28

Saturday, 24 March

A wave or
Regarding Wave
Are titles of books of poets I know,
Great Poets, driving up from San Jose
Freeway like a wave little blinking lights
Of cars, waves dimpling on a stone shore
It is no accident I am writing
Twenty-eight lines a day
According to Peter, Chinese microbiologist,
Who points out 28 days is the moon cycle
And the menstrual cycle
and it is a perfect number
The only one
With two digits
Which means that the total of all its divisors
When you add them up
Equals 28
And not only that: it's the atomic weight
Of the nitrogen molecule
Which makes up over 70% of the atmosphere
We and everything else breathe
Twenty-eight is certainly not an accident
And like everything else in my life
The choice of twenty-eight lines for these poems
Is acutely calculated, deviously well thought through
And incandescently brilliant
It takes years to come up with something this good
A perfect wave

Norman Fischer (born 1946),
Success, Singing Horse Press, Philadelphia, 2000, p. 16
Norman Fischer: "Practioners of Reality: Symposium on Poetry & Buddhism"

469) 28 poets sit in silence is the first line
of Peter Y. Chou's poem Closing My Eyes and Seeing

CLOSING MY EYES AND SEEING
(at Gary Snyder's Poetry Workshop)

Twenty-eight poets sit in silence,
empty shoes and socks an the floor—
my legs in semi-lotus posture
dreaming of another world:

A thousand windows cannot make us see clearer
    than if we were outside our house.
A thousand books cannot teach us better
    than if we let conscience be our guide.
A thousand passions cannot make us happier
    than if we find the love which abides.

Space does not light up with sunrise
    nor darken with sunset.
Water is not born when waves rise
    nor die when they fall.
Mind is not enriched by thoughts
    nor deprived by their absence.

A silent room shines within
  this art deco house, but outside—
    a car vrooms down the street,
      a plane hums overhead,
        and a sparrow chirps
          Whuueew Whuueew Whuueew!

— Peter Y. Chou, San Jose, 3-24-1990
     How to Fold an Origamic Sphere: Poems of 1990
     Above two poems written on the same day

28 in Numerology
470) Numerology: words whose letters add up to 28

BEING: 2 + 5 + 9 + 5 + 7 = 28

CENTAUR: 3 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 9 = 28

COLORS: 3 + 6 + 3 + 6 + 9 + 1 = 28

CROWN: 3 + 9 + 6 + 5 + 5 = 28

DARKNESS: 4 + 1 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 = 28

HEAVEN: 8 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 28

GAWAIN: 7 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 5 = 28

GIRL: 7 + 9 + 9 + 3 = 28

GREY: 7 + 9 + 5 + 7 = 28

HERO: 8 + 5 + 9 + 6 = 28

HORN: 8 + 6 + 9 + 5 = 28

IRIS: 9 + 9 + 9 + 1 = 28

ISOLDE: 9 + 1 + 6 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 28

JUBILEE: 1 + 3 + 2 + 9 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 28

LOVERS: 3 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 9 + 1 = 28

MARIE: 4 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 5 = 28

NUMBER: 5 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 28

OBELISK: 6 + 2 + 5 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 2 = 28

OCTOPUS: 6 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 7 + 3 + 1 = 28

OPERA: 6 + 7 + 5 + 9 + 1 = 28

PETER: 7 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 28

PIANO: 7 + 9 + 1 + 5 + 6 = 28

PIPE: 7 + 9 + 7 + 5 = 28

SAMADHI: 1 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 4 + 8 + 9 = 28

SATORI: 1 + 1 + 2 + 6 + 9 + 9 = 28

SATURDAY: 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 9 + 4 + 1 + 7 = 28

SCREEN: 1 + 3 + 9 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 28

SHANKARA: 1 + 8 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 1 = 28

SOCRATES: 1 + 6 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 2 + 5 + 1 = 28

TURIN: 2 + 3 + 9 + 9 + 5 = 28

TURKEY: 2 + 3 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 7 = 28

UNION: 3 + 5 + 9 + 6 + 5 = 28

WORLDS: 5 + 6 + 9 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 28

YHWH: 7 + 8 + 5 + 8 = 28

BLUE SELF: (2 + 3 + 3 + 5) + (1 + 5 + 3 + 6) = 13 + 15 = 28

CAT MANTRA: (3 + 1 + 2) + (4 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 9 + 1) = 6 + 22 = 28

CAVE SAGES: (3 + 1 + 4 + 5) + (1 + 1 + 7 + 5 + 1) = 13 + 15 = 28

ICE JADE: (9 + 3 + 5) + (1 + 1 + 4 + 5) = 17 + 11 = 28

JUNE- JULY: (1 + 3 + 5 + 5) + (1 + 3 + 3 + 7) = 14 + 14 = 28

KOAN KEY: (2 + 6 + 1 + 5) + (2 + 5 + 7) = 14 + 14 = 28

LOVE OM: (3 + 6 + 4 + 5) + (6 + 4) = 18 + 10 = 28

MY GOD: (4 + 7) + (7 + 6 + 4) = 11 + 17 = 28

ONE-TEN: (6 + 5 + 5) + (2 + 5 + 5) = 16 + 12 = 28

RED SKY: (9 + 5 + 4) + (1 + 2 + 7) = 18 + 10 = 28

STAR FACE: (7 + 6 + 3 + 4) + (1 + 2 + 1 + 9) = 13 + 15 = 28

SUN CLOUD: (1 + 3 + 5) + (3 + 3 + 6 + 3 + 4) = 9 + 19 = 28

SUN MANDALA: (1 + 3 + 5) + (4 + 1 + 5 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 1) = 9 + 19 = 28

SUN QUEST: (1 + 3 + 5) + (8 + 3 + 5 + 1 + 2) = 9 + 19 = 28

SUN STONE: (1 + 3 + 5) + (1 + 2 + 6 + 5 + 5) = 9 + 19 = 28

SWAN SUTRA: (1 + 5 + 1 + 5) + + (1 + 3 + 2 + 9 + 1) = 12 + 16 = 28

ZEN MAN: (8 + 5 + 5) + (4 + 1 + 5) = 18 + 10 = 28

On the Number 28: Part 1— Mathematics, Science, Arts

"On the Number 28" is dedicated to my niece Elisa on her 28th birthday.
Elisa's great love of numbers, literature, and science, inspired this work.

| Top of Page | 28: Part 1 | Poem #28 | Numbers | Dates | A-Z Portals |
| Birthdays | Books | Enlightenment | Poetry | Home |

© Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com
P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039
email: peter@wisdomportal.com (2-27-2005)