On the Number 9

The 5th odd number = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

The 4th composite number = 4, 6, 8, 9

The 3rd square number = 1², 2², 3² = 1, 4, 9

The 2nd octagonal pyramidal number = 1, 9
(sum of 1st two octagonal numbers = 1+ 8 = 9)

The 4th lucky number = 1, 3, 7, 9

Sum of the first two cube numbers = 1³ + 2³ = 1 + 8 = 9

Sum of the 2nd odd & 3rd even numbers = 3 + 6 = 9
Sum of the 2nd odd & 1st perfect number = 3 + 6 = 9

Sum of the 2nd even & 3rd odd numbers = 4 + 5 = 9

Sum of the first three odd numbers = 1 + 3 + 5 = 9

10)

Sum of the 2nd through 4th numbers = 2 + 3 + 4 = 9

11)

Sum of the first three factorials = 1 + 2 + 6 = 9

12)

The highest single digit number = 9
(9 is the end-limit of the numerical series before returning to unity)

13)

Factorial 9 = 9! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9
= 362,880 ( sequence of factorials)

14)

Billion = 10⁹ = 1 followed by 9 zeros
In the British system, billion = 10¹²

15)

The 5th digit of pi, π = 9

16)

Sum of the first 9 digits of pi including 3 (3.14159265) = 36 = 3 + 6 = 9

17)

The 7th digit of phi, φ = 9

18)

The Roman numeral for 9 is IX.

19)

The binary number for 9 is 1001.

20)

Nonagon is a polygon with 9 angles and 9 sides.

21)

9 in different languages:
Dutch: negen, French: neuf, German: neun, Hungarian: kilenc,
Italian: nove, Spanish: nueve, Swahili: tisa, Swedish: nio

22)

9 in Oriental languages:
Chinese: jiu, Japanese: kokonotsu, Sino-Japanese: ku,
Sanskrit: nava, Tibetan: gu, Vietnamese: chin

23)

Jiu is the Chinese ideograph for 9.

24)

is the Babylonian number for 9.

25)

is the Egyptian Hieroglyphics number for 9.

26)

is the Mayan number for 9.

27)

is the Mongolian number for 9.

28)

is the Thai number for 9.

29)

Gu is the Tibetan number for 9.

30)

The 9th letter of the English alphabet is I,
(also a personal pronoun referring to oneself).

31)

The 9th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
is Teth meaning "serpent"

32)

Iota (Ι ι) is the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet,
meaning a tiny amount, with numeric value of 10

33)

Thall (Zall) is the 9th letter
of the Arabic alphabet.

34)

Atomic Number of Fluorine (F) = 9 (9 protons & 9 electrons)

35)

Atomic Weight of Beryllium (Be) = 9 (9.012182)

36)

Oxytocin is 9 amino acid polypeptide released by the pituary gland.
Its functions include lactating mothers, uterine contraction, as well as inducing
maternal behavior and pair bonding in people. Its amino acid sequence is:

 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9
Cys-Tyr-Ile-Gln-Asn-Cys-Pro-Leu-Gly
 |                   |
 S-------------------S

with a disulfide bond connecting Cysteine residues 1 & 6.

37)

Vasopressin is 9 amino acid polypeptide released by the pituary gland.
It is also called ADH (antidiuretic hormone) and controls the resorption of water
by the distal tubules of the kidneys and regulates the osmotic content of blood.
Its amino acid sequence is similar to oxytocin with the exception of Phenylalanine
instead of Isoleucine at position 3 and Arginine instead of Leucine at position 8:

 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9
Cys-Tyr-Phe-Gln-Asn-Cys-Pro-Arg-Gly
 |                   |
 S-------------------S

38)

Number of planets in our solar system = 9

39)

The 9th planet in our solar system is Pluto,
discovered in 1930. Its satellite Charon was found in 1978.
Pluto is 3,673,537,000 miles (5,913,520,000 km) from the Sun.

40)

U Velocity is the component of a star's motion away from the Galactic center.
If a star moves away from the Galactic center, the star's U velocity is positive;
if a star moves toward the Galactic center, the U velocity is negative;
and if the star moves neither toward nor away from the Galactic center,
the U velocity is zero. The Sun has a U velocity of -9 kilometers per second,
so the Sun is moving toward the Galactic center at 9 kilometers per second.

41)

Beaufort scale of 9 describes a strong gale with 47-54 mph wind.

42)

Maximum life span of a tornado to run its course = 9 hours.

43)

Number of months for a human baby to be born = 9

44)

Number of orifices in the human body = 9

45)

A dog's estrus cycle (period in heat) = 9 days.

46)

The gestation period (pregnacy) of the cat,
guinea pigs, otter, and wolf are 9 weeks.

47)

The period of octopus eggs to hatch after fertilization = 9 weeks.

48)

The gestation period (pregnacy) of the buffalo = 9 months.

49)

The time to age homemade apple cider = 9 months.

50)

The 9th day of the year = January 9.
(Joseph B. Strauss (1870-1938) was born on this day.
He was an American civil engineer who designed
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.)

51)

The 9th month of the year is September,
best remembered by the Mother Goose rhyme:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting leap year, that's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine.

52)

Traditional gift for 9th wedding anniversary is pottery or china.

53)

Number of players in a baseball team = 9

54)

Position #9 is assigned to the right fielder in baseball.
( Baseball fielding positions)

55)

Number of innings in a regular baseball game = 9

56)

Number of holes in a half round of golf = 9

57)

In the game of squash, the winner is the first to score 9 points

58)

Ninepins was a European bowling game in the Middle Ages with 9 pins.
In Poor Robin's Almanack (1695) we find:
Ladies for pleasure now resort
Unto Hide Park and Totnam Court;
People to Moorfields flock in sholes,
At nine-pins and at pigeon-holes,
The country lasses pastime make
At stool-ball and at barley-break;
And young men they pass time away
At wrestling and at foot-ball play.
And every one, in their own way,
As merry are as birds in May.
But in the Almanac for 1707 the game
is introduced under the name of Skittles.
W. C. Hazlitt, Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore,
Reeves & Turner, London (1905), p. 440

59)

Nine Men's Morris was sometimes called the Nine Men's Merrils,
from merelles or mereaux, an ancient French word for jettons,
or counters, with which it was played. The other term, morris,
is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which,
in the progress of the game, the counters performed. In the
French merelles each party had three counters only, which were
to be placed in a line in order to win the game. Shakespeare
mentions it in A Midsummer's Night Dream, II.2:
"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud."
W. C. Hazlitt, Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore,
Reeves & Turner, London (1905), p. 439 (Ancient Egypt)

60)

Martina Navratilova has won a record number of 9 Wimbledon singles titles
spanning three decades (1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990)
( Martina wins Wimbledon match at age 47, New York Times, June 22, 2004)

61)

Smarty Jones was No. 9 and a 3-10 favorite to win the nine-horse field
at the 136th Belmont Stakes (June 5, 2004),
to become the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown.
But he lost by a length to Birdstone whose odds was 36-1.

62)

Horse Racing's 9th Triple Crown Winner was Secretariat
who on June 9, 1973 won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths,
setting an all-time record, running the 1-1/2 miles in 2:24.

77)

Baseball's 9th All-Star Game was played at Briggs Stadium, Detroit
on July 8, 1941. The Nationals' Arky Vaughn's two homers set an
All-Star record. But the American League won 7-5 in the bottom of
the 9th inning on a three-run homer by Ted Williams.
Total Baseball, 4th Ed., Viking, NY (1995), p. 258

78)

Baseball's 9th World Series (1912): Boston Red Sox defeats New York Giants 4-3; tie 1
The 2nd game was ended in a tie 6-6 after 11 innings because of darkness.
Boston's Smoky Joe Wood won three games but the best pitching was turned in by
Giants' Rube Marquard and Boston's Hugh Bedient who both had 0.50 ERA in 18 innings. Total Baseball, 4th Ed., Viking, NY (1995), p. 304

63)

Baseball's 9th Triple Crown Champion was Jimmy Foxx
of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1933 with 48 homers, 163 RBI, and .356 batting average.
(Baseball's 16 Triple Crown Winners)

64)

Baseball's 9th perfect game was pitched by Jim "Catfish" Hunter
on May 8, 1968 in Oakland, CA as Oakland A's beats Minnesota Twins 4-0.
(Baseball's 17 Perfect Games)

64A)

Nolan Ryan is the only pitcher to strike out the side on 9 pitched balls
in both the National League (April 19, 1968) and the American League (July 9, 1972).

65)

Nine Numbers for Number 9 is an article by David Sabino published in
Sports Illustrated (July 15, 2002) highlighting Ted Williams's remarkable career.

66)

Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Famer, wore uniform #9
while playing with the Boston Red Sox.
His 1939 Home Jersey is shown below.

Ted Williams Tribute,
Fenway Park, Boston
July 22, 2002

67)

Bill Mazeroski,
1968 Topps Baseball Card #390

Retired #9 Uniforms in Baseball:

Ted Williams,
Boston Red Sox (1939-1960)
(uniform retired 1960)
Roger Maris,
New York Yankees (1960-1966)
(uniform retired 1984)
Minnie Minoso,
Chicago White Sox
(1951-57, 1960-61,
1964, 1976, 1980)
(retired 1983)
Bill Mazeroski,
Pittsburgh Pirates (1956-1972)
(uniform retired 1987)
Enos Slaughter,
St. Louis Cardinals (1938-1953)
(uniform retired 1996)

Roger Maris

Yankee Stadium

64)

Number of muses in ancient Greece = 9
(Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene,
Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, & Urania)

65)

Hercules killed the 9-headed serpent monster Hydra
(see Hydra Constellation) in his second of twelve labors.

66)

The 9th Labor of Hercules was to obtain
the girdle of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons.

67)

In folklore a cat has 9 lives. Quote from Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, 3.1.78: "of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives"

68)

To be in a state of euphoria is to be on cloud 9.

69)

The Yeibichai is a healing ceremony whereby the Navajo Indians
impersonate the gods for 9 days and nights.

71)

9 Choirs of Angels according to Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite (500 A.D.)

First Order: closest to God
1	Seraphim	"the fiery spirits" usually shown with 6 wings and flames; they constantly sing God's praise and regulate heaven; led by Uriel
2	Cherubim	depicted with multi-eyed peacock's feathers to symbolize their all-knowing character; led by Jophiel
3	Thrones	"the many eyed ones" represented as wheels of fire to symbolize divine majesty; led by Japhkiel
Second Order: composed of the priest-princes of the heavenly court
4	Dominions	carry scepteer and sword to symbolize the divine power over all creation; led by Zadkiel
5	Virtues	the "brilliant" or "shining ones" are associated with acts of heroism; led by Haniel
6	Powers	prevent the fallen angels from taking over the world and keep the universe in balance; led by Raphael
Third Order: constituted by the ministering angels
7	Principalities	represent the protectors of princes; guardian angels of cities, nations, and rulers; led by Camael
8	Archangels	carry God's messages to humans and command God's armies of angels in the constant battle with the "Sons of Darkness"; led by Michael
9	Angels	celestial beings closest to humans, they are the intermediaries between God and mortals

Source: James R. Lewis & Evelyn Dorothy Oliver, Angels A to Z,
Visible Ink Press, Detroit, 1996, p. 205

70)

9 Worthies: According to Medieval tradition, the nine worthies
were composed of three Biblical heroes: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus;
three classical heroes: Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar, and
three Christian heroes: Charlemagne, Arthur, and Godfrey of Bouillon.
These nine wre evoked as epitomes of bravery and virtue and became
enshrined in popular imagination only slightly below the saints themselves.
John & Caitlin Matthews, British and Irish Mythology
Diamond Books, London, 1995, p. 126

70)

Sacred Groups of 9: Sacred women or female spirits in groups of nine occur
everywhere in folklore and myth. There wre the Muses of classical Greece,
the 9 Morgans of the Celtic paradise, the 9 Korrigen on their
sacred isle, the 9 moon maidens who created Scandinavian gods, and so on.
Medieval superstition sometimes called them mares or maers, who
dwelt in wild woodlands and might behave like succubae, settling on top of bodies
of sleeping men, choking off their breath, and taking away their power of speech:
hence the night-mare. This was a patriarchal reversal of the original power of
the Muses, who gave inspiration (breathing-in) of the powres of speech & poetry.
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects
HarperSanFrancisco, 1988, p. 75

70)

The Star of the Muses is a triple trinity, shown as three interlaced triangles,
forming a 9-pointed star. The archaic Muses themselves were at first only
three aspects of the Goddess Mnemosyne (Memory), later multiplied again by three.
They became the divine nymphs guarding the spring of inspiration on Mount Helicon.
Classical writers named them Thalia, Clio, Calliope, Terpsichore, Melpomenne, Erato,
Enterpe, Polyhymnia, and Urania— the last meaning "Celestial One". Christian
symbolists appropriated this star of the nine Goddess-forms; so now it is
soemtimes declared a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects
HarperSanFrancisco, 1988, p. 76

70)

Ninefold Goddess: Like the Star of the Muses, that of the Ninefold Goddess
recalls many sacred female nonads in mythology and folklore, and becomes
a magical sign by invocation of them. But while the Star of the Muses
consists of three interlocked triangles, the sign of the Ninefold Goddess
is composed of a single unbroken line, covering all sections of the figure
in the accepted tradition of continuous enclosures representing spiritual
protection. This design is created by drawing every line from each point
to the fourth next point around the star's circumference. By contrast,
the Star of the Muses is created by drawing every line from each point
to the third next point. Despite their appearance of complexity, both
designs are easily executed on a circle divided into 40^o degree arcs
(9 x 40 = 360). Such designs represent 9-way world divisions, like the
Nine Worlds of Norse myth: Muspellheim, Asaheim, Ljosalfaheim, Vanaheim,
Manaheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfaheim, Helhiem, and Niflheim, the worlds of
fire, the gods, the light elves, the sea, earth dwellers, giants, dark elves,
the dead, and the mists.
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects
HarperSanFrancisco, 1988, p. 71

70)

The 9th Tarot card is The Hermit—
representing the universal principle of completion,
contemplation, and introspection. This is the archetype
of the sage. The Hermit's lamp symbolizes the insights
that come from meditation to inspire creativity.
Montaigne in his essay Of Solitude says:
"The finest thing in the world is knowing how to
belong to oneself." Knowing thyself, the sage can
enlighten others to experience cosmic consciousness.

— Angeles Arrien, The Tarot Handbook
Arcus Publishing, Sonoma, CA (1987), p. 59

71)

The #9 Cards in the Tarot's Minor Arcana
Inner strength, spiritual power, boldness, health	Emotional fulfillment, concord, contentment happiness, harmony	Disappointment, despair, illness, suffering, cruelty	Physical profit, material gain, security, success
— Angeles Arrien, The Tarot Handbook Arcus Publishing, Sonoma, CA (1987), p. 59

71)

Nones is the 9th hour of canonical prayers.

72)

9th President of the United States
is William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
who served only a month before
dying of pneumonia (April 4, 1841).
William Harrison was on the 9¢ stamp
issued on August 18, 1938
in the Presidential Series.

73)

9¢ stamps of the United States:
Benjamin Franklin (issued Oct. 6, 1914)	Thomas Jefferson (issued Jan. 15, 1923)	George Washington (issued Jan. 1, 1932)	Delta-wing jet (issued May 15, 1971)

74)

The 9¢ stamp in the National Parks Issue
depicts Glacier National Park. This park in
northwestern Montana adjoins Waterton Lakes
National Park in Canada to form the
International Pace Park. Shown is
Mt. Rockwell and Two Medicine Lake.
The stamp was issued 8/27/1934.

Pictorial Treasury of U.S. Stamps (1974)

75)

The $9 Newspaper & Periodal stamp
depicts Minerva (Athena),
the Goddess of Wisdom.
It was issued on January 1, 1875.
In 1875, newspaper & periodical stamps
were used to prepay all bulk shipments
by publishers and news agents,
including those mailed at post offices.

Elena Marzulla (Ed.),
Pictorial Treasury of U.S. Stamps
Collectors Institute, Ltd.,
Omaha, Nebraska, 1974, p. 204

76)

9th State to enter the Union is New Hampshire (June 21, 1788)

77)

The New Hampshire quarter was the 9th coin
released under the 50 State Quarters Program.
It honors the state's most unique natural attractions,
"The Old Man of the Mountain." The state motto,
"Live free or die" and 9 stars, signifying the fact
that New Hampshire was the 9th state
to ratify the Constitution, complete the design.

Iconic Rock Face Succumbs to Age and Gravity
(New York Times, May 4, 2003)

81)

Tokyo, Japan is 9 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, London.

82)

Cities located at 9^o longitude:
Hannover, Germany: 9^o 40' E longitude & 52^o 24' N latitude
Shannon, Ireland: 8^o 55' W longitude & 52^o 41' N latitude
Lisbon, Portugal: 9^o 8' W longitude & 38^o 43' N latitude
Cities located at 9^o latitude:
Panama City, Panama: 8^o 58' N latitude & 79^o 33' W longitude
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: 9^o 29' S latitude & 147^o 9' E longitude

83)

Interstate 9 mostly resolves traffic
between Los Angeles and the Mammoth Lakes resort area, as well as traffic from
inland Oregon to the Willamette Valley.

84)

The 9th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:
Article IX: Reserved rights of people. The enumeration in the Constitution,
of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendments I to X inclusive, known as the Bill of Rights
were proposed by the First Congress and ratified on Dec. 15, 1791:

85)

Number of Supreme Court Justices in the United States = 9

86)

9th Street is a BMT 4th Avenue subway station
in Brooklyn, New York City. It is south of Union Street
and north of Prospect Avenue station. Accent station color
is golden yellow, and a numeral "9" mosaic is present
in the mezzanine and platform area.

87)

Rainer Maria Rilke's Nine Plays (translated by Klaus Phillips & John Locke, Ungar, NY, 1979)—
Murillo, "Now and in the Hour of Our Death...", Early Frost, Air at High Altitude, Vigils, Not Present, Everyday Life, Orphans, The White Princess.

87A)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's novel My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past (2004)
is a collection of stories about cultural dislocation. (NY Times Book Review, 7-18-2004)

87B)

Engine, Engine # 9 is a song by Roger Miller.
Engine, engine number nine,
Comin?down the railroad line,
How much farther back did she get off?
Old brown suitcase that she carried,
I've looked for it everywhere, it
Just ain't here among the rest, and
I'm a little upset, yes, tell me...

Engine, engine number nine,
Comin?down the railroad line,
I know she got on in Baltimore.
A hundred and ten miles ain't much distance,
But it sure do make a difference—
I don't think she loves me anymore.
(Lyrics & Midi)

88)

9 in Film Titles
Nine Bachelors— written & directed by Sacha Guitry, Dome Films (1940)
Nine Days a Queen— directed by Robert Stevenson, Gaumont British Pictures (1936)
Nine Girls— adapted from play by Winfrid Henry Pettitt, Columbia Pictures (1944)
Nine Hours to Rama— from book by Stanley A. Walpert, 20th Century Fox (1962)
Nine Lives— from book by David Howarth, De Rochemont (Norwegian, 1959)
Nine Lives Are Not Enough— from book by Jerome Odium, Warner Brothers (1941)
Nine Till Six—from play by Aimee & Philip Stuart, Associated Talking Pictures (1932)
Ninety Nine River Street— from story by George Zukerman, World Films (1953)
(Richard Bertrand Dimmitt, A Title Guide to the Talkies,
Scarecrow Press, NY, 1965, pp. 1198-1199)

89)

Nine to Five— 110-minute comedy film, IPC (1980) starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Dabney Coleman, Sterling Hayden. The title song received an Oscar nomination. Based on a story by Patricia Resnick. Written & directed by Colin Higgins; produced by Bruce Gilbert.
(James Monaco, The Movie Guide, Perigee Books, NY, 1992, p. 633)

90)

9 in Science Fiction Titles
Nine Tomorrows (1959) is a collection of nine
short stories by the sciece fiction writer Isaac Asimov (USA).
Nine by Laumer (1967) is a collection of nine
fast-moving tales by science fiction writer Keith Laumer (USA).
Nine Billion Names of God (1967) is a collection of
the best short stories by the writer Arthur C. Clarke (UK).
Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970) is a collection of
blackly humorous short stories by the writer R. A. Lafferty.
(David Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, 2nd Ed.,
Scolar Press, Aldershot, UK, 1990, p. 257)

91)

Sagittarius is the 9th sun sign of the Zodiac
(November 23 - December 22). Medieval Manuscripts.
Famous Sagittarians: Milton (12-19-1608), Spinoza (12-4-1632), William Blake (11-28-1757), Beethoven (12-16-1770), Emily Dickinson (12-10-1830), Mark Twain (11-30-1835), Joseph Conrad (12-3-1857), Churchill (11-30-1874), Rainer Maria Rilke (12-3-1875), Paul Klee (12-18-1879)

92)

The 9th House in Astrology is connected with mentors and teachers.
Higher education, philosophy and spiritual pursuits are related to the 9th house.

93)

Sabian symbol of Sagittarius 9^o:
A mother leads her small child step by step up the stairs
This pictures a situation where someone needs to assist those
less experienced or indeed, less evolved, to overcome difficulties
and rise up to learn to cope, to learn or to understand. You may
find yourself in this situation as either the experienced or the
inexperienced or possibly finding the mother within you guiding
your own inner child. The inner child. If negative—
future vision and hope obscured. Exhausted by parental
obligation. Not getting, or giving, the help that one needs.

94)

The monkey is the 9th sign of the Chinese Animal Zodiac based on the lunar year. Monkey-year people are charming, curious, and confident. The current monkey year is from Jan. 22, 2004 to Feb. 8, 2005. The previous monkey year was 1992 to 1993. People born in the monkey year include Aristotle (384 BC), Leonardo da Vinci (1452), Descartes (1596), Milton (1608), Spinoza & Vermeer (1632), Robert Browning (1812), and Harry S Truman (1884).

95)

9th Station of the Cross: Jesus Falls for the Third Time
(14 Stations of the Cross, Via Dolorosa)

96)

In the song The Twelve Days of Christmas: "On the ninth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me nine ladies dancing..."

97)

The yang moving solid line (—) in the I Ching hexagram is called 9.

98)

9th Hexagram of the I Ching: Hsiao Ch'u / The Taming Power of the Small

THE JUDGMENT:
THE TAMING POWER OF THE SMALL
Has success.
Dense clouds, no rain
from our western region.

THE IMAGE:
The wind drives across heaven:
The image of TAMING POWER OF THE SMALL.
Thus the superior man
Refines the outward aspect of his nature.

99)

Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Tao Te Ching, Verse 9:

Instead of pouring in more
better stop while you can
make it sharper
won't help it last longer
houses full of treasure
can never be safe
the vanity of success
invites its own failure
retire when your work is done
this is the Way of Heaven

(translated by Red Pine, Taoteching,
Mercury House, San Francisco, 1996, p. 18)

46)

Lao Tzu (604-517 BC), Hua Hu Ching, Verse 9:
He who desires the admiration of the world will do well to amass a great fortune and then give it away. The world will respond with admiration in proportion to the size of his treasure. Of course, this is meaningless. Stop striving after admiration. Place your esteem on the Tao. Live in accord with it, share with others the teachings that lead to it, and you will be immersed in the blessings that flow from it.�
(translated by Brian Walker,
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu,
Harper SanFrancisco 1992)

47)

Verse 9 of Pythagoras's Golden Verses:
Know these things; accustom thyself
to be the master of thy Passions
Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.), Golden Verses, Verse 9
(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. 53

48)

Chapter 9 of Symbols of Pythagoras:
In annulo, imaginem Dei, ne circufferto.
Wear not the image of God upon a ring. — Dacier
We ought not to profane the name of God we adore
by speaking of Him at every turn, and before
unsympathetic persons. It was, of old, deemed
an offence to wear a ring, or bear a coin
of the ruling monarch, when on an illegal
errand, or in an unseemly place.
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. 65

100)

9th Verse in Chapter 1 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "A scholar, whose mind is set on truth, and who is
ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with."
9th Verse in Chapter 6 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui! With a single bamboo
dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and living in his mean narrow lane,
while others could not have endured the distress, he did not allow his joy
to be affected by it. Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui!
9th Verse in Chapter 11 of Analects of Confucius:
When Yen Yuan died, Confucius bewailed him exceedingly, and the disciples
who were with him said, "Master, your grief is excessive!" Confucius said,
"Is it excessive? If I am not to mourn bitterly for him, for whom should I mourn?"
9th Verse in Chapter 17 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "My children, why do you not study the Book of Poetry?
The Odes serve to stimulate the mind. They may be used for purposes
of self-contemplation. They teach the art of sociability. They show how
to regulate the feelings of resentment. From them you learn the duty
of serving one's father, and of serving one's prince. From them
we become acquainted with the names of birds, beasts, and plants.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.),
Analects, 1.9, 6.9, 11.9, 17.9,

81)

Section 9 of Works of Mencius:
Mencius said, "Honor virtue and delight in righteousness,
and so you may always be perfectly satisfied. Therefore,
a scholar, though poor, does not let go his righteousness;
though prosperous, he does not leave his own path." (VII.i.9)
Mencius said, "If a man himself do not walk in the right path,
it will not be walked in even by his wife and children.
If he do not order men according to the right way, he will
not be able to get the obedience of even his wife and children." (VII.ii.9)
Mencius (371-289 B.C.), Works of Mencius, (circa 300 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893, pp. 304-305, 331

82)

Verse 9 of Genesis I
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
be gathered together unto one place, and let
the dry land appear: and it was so.

83)

Leaves of White Oak
(Quercus alba)
have smooth margins
with 9 lobes.

84)

The Magnolia Grandiflora and Magnolia Heptapeta has 9 petals in 3 layers.

85)

The Gambir flower from Bali has 9 petals
which have an oval shape with a pointed tip.

86)

Beethoven's 9th Symphony was his last and composed when he was deaf (performed May 7, 1824). It's called The Choral Symphony because it was the first symphony with a human voice.

87)

There are 9 panels in Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling paintings (1512)
showing "The Drunkedness of Noah"
to "God Separating Light from Darkness".

88)

Dante's 9th Heaven is the Primum Mobile or Crystalline Sphere (Paradiso 28-29).

89)

Dante met Beatrice when he was 9 years old in Florence (1274) as described in his Vita Nuova I.2.

90)

Dante does not use the number 9 (nove) in the Inferno or Purgatorio.
He uses it only in the Paradiso— three times to symbolize the Trinity.
Also Dante associates the 9 with Beatrice, having met her in his 9th year.
"and the nine Muses show to me the Bears" (Paradiso, 2.9)
"within nine essences, as in a mirror" (Paradiso, 13.59)
"he is a boy— for nine years and no more" (Paradiso, 17.80)

91)

The 3x3 Magic Square of Saturn has 9 squares
(side sum = 15, total sum = 45).

8	1	6
3	5	7
4	9	2

Michelangelo's
Cumaean Sibyl

92)

The Cumaean Sibyl offered King Tarquin of Rome (534-510 B.C.)
9 Sibylline Books for sale.

93)

Jesus gave 9 beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount described in Matthew V.3-11.
Adding the verses 3 to 11: = 3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11 = 63 = 6 + 3 = 9

94)

The ennead is a group of 9.
Plotinus's The Enneads has 6 parts of 9 chapters each = 54 chapters = 5 + 4 = 9

95)

The 9th Tractate of Plotinus's Sixth Ennead is titled "On the Good, or The One":
In this choiring, the soul looks upon the wellspring of Life, wellspring also of Intellect, beginning of Being, fount of Good, root of Soul. It is not that these are poured out from the Supreme lessening it as if it were a thing of mass. At that the emanants would be perishable; but they are eternal; they spring from an eternal principle, which produces them not by its fragmentation but in virtue of its intact identity: therefore they too hold firm; so long as the sun shines, so long there will be light... This is the purport of that rule of our Mysteries: Nothing Divulged to the Uninitiate: the Supreme is not to be made a common story, the holy things may not be uncovered to the stranger, to any that has not himself attained to see. There were not two; beholder was one with beheld; it was not a vision compassed but a unity apprehended... This is the life of gods and of the godlike and blessed among men, liberation from the alien that besets us here, a life taking no pleasure in the things of earth, the passing of the alone to the Alone.
Plotinus (204-270 AD), The Enneads, VI.9.9, VI.9.11
(translated by Stephen MacKenna,
4th Ed., Faber & Faber, London, 1969, pp. 624-625)

99)

Hymn 9 in Book 9 of the Rig Veda is an invocation to Soma Pavamana:
1 The Sage of Heaven whose heart is wise, when laid between both hands and pressed,
Sends us delightful powers of life.
2 On, onward to a glorious home; dear to the people void of guile,
With excellent enjoyment, flow.
3 He, the bright Son, when born illumed his Parents who had sprung to life,
Great Son great Strengtheners of Law.
4 Urged by the seven devotions he hath stirred the guileless rivers which
Have magnified the Single Eye.
5 These helped to might theYouthful One, high over all, invincible,
Even Indu, Indra! in thy law.
6 The immortal Courser, good to draw, looks down upon the Seven: the fount
Hath satisfied the Goddesses
7 Aid us in holy rites, O Man: O Pavamana, drive away
Dark shades that must be met in fight.
8 Make the paths ready for a hymn newer and newer evermore:
Make the lights shine as erst they shone.
9 Give, Pavamana, high renown, give kine and steeds and hero sons:
Win for us wisdom, win the light.
Rig Veda Book 9, 9.1-9 (circa 1500 B.C.)
(translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896)

100)

Chapter 9 in The Papyrus of Ani,
Egyptian Book of the Dead is a Hymn for going out
into the day after opening the tomb:
O you Soul, greatly majestic, behold,
I have come that I may see you; I open
the Duat that I may see my father Osiris
and drive away darkness, for I am beloved of him...
I have opened up every path which is in the sky
and on earth, for I am the well-beloved son
of my father Osiris. I am noble, I am a spirit,
I am equipped; O all you gods and all you spirits,
prepare a path for me.
Egyptian Book of the Dead: Book of Going Forth by Day
Complete Papyrus of Ani, Chapter 9, Plate 18 (circa 1250 B.C.)
(translated by Raymond Faulkner),
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994

101)

Book 9 of Homer's Odyssey (circa 800 B.C.)
tells about Odysseus's adventure with the Cyclops Polyphemus:
Nine days of bad winds blew us across
The teeming seas. On the tenth day we came
To the land of the Lotus-Eaters...
Nine goats for each of the twelve ships,
Except for my ship, which got ten.
I ordered part of my crew to stay with the ship
And counted off the twelve best to go with me...
He [Maron] lived in a grove of Phoebus Apollo
And gave me splendid gifts: seven bars of gold,
A solid-silver bowl, and twelve jars of wine,
Sweet and pure, a drink for the gods...
Two sturdy wagons— twenty sturdy wagons—
Couldn't pry it from the ground— that's how big
The stone was he set in the doorway...
The Odyssey, Book 9, 9.84-86, 9.153-154, 9.186-187, 9.192-195, 9.235-237
(translated by Stanley Lombardo),
Hackett, Indianapolis, IN, 2000, pp. 125-140)

102)

The word nine occurs 28 times in the Bible.
The word ninth occurs 32 times in the Bible.
The Complete Concordance to the Bible (New King James Version)
Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN (1983), pp. 686-687

103)

In Chapter 9, Verse 9 of the Book of Job,
Job acknowledges God's creation of the constellations:
Which makes Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
and the chambers of the south.
Job 9.9 (1520 BC)

104)

In the 9th Psalm, God crushes the wicked and saves the humble:
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart;
I will show forth all thy marvellous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in thee:
I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.
When mine enemies are turned back,
they shall fall and perish at thy presence.
For thou hast maintained my right and my cause;
thou satest in the throne judging right.
Psalms 9.1-4 (1017 BC)

105)

Book 9 of Proverbs:
Wisdom has built herself a house,
she has erected her seven pillars:
She has killed her beasts, prepared her wine;
she has laid her table.
She has despatched her maidservants
and proclaimed from the city's heights:
'Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.'
To the fool she says, 'Come and eat of my bread,
drink the wine I have prepared!
Leave your folly and you will live,
walk in the ways of understanding.
Proverbs 9.1-6 (700 BC)
(Above translation: The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday, NY, 1968, p. 822)

66)

Number of chapters in Amos = 9
It is he that builds his stories in the heaven,
and has founded his troop on earth; he that calls
for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon
the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
— Amos, 9.6 (787 BC)

106)

Chapter 9 of Book of Wisdom: A prayer for Wisdom—
'God of our ancestors, Lord of mercy,
who by your word have made all things.
and in your wisdom have fitted man
to rule the creatures that have come from you,
to govern the world in holiness and justice
and in honesty of soul to wield authority,
grant me Wisdom, consort of your throne,
and do not reject me from the number of your children.
Book of Wisdom 9.1-4 (100 BC)
(Above translation: The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday, NY, 1968, p. 885)

107)

Chapter 9 of Virgil's The Aeneid:
Fortunate pair! If there is any power in my poetry,
no day shall ever steal you from the memory of time,
so long as sons of Aneneas dwell by the Capitol's
immovable stone, and a Roman Father holds dominion yet...
But already Aurora was leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus
and her first gleam was sprinkling a fresh light over
the world. Therefore, now that the sun streamed down
and daylight had revealed the land
Virgil (70-19 BC), The Aeneid IX.447-450 (19 BC)
(Above translation: W. F. Jackson Knight,
Penguin Books, Baltimore, MD, 1956, p. 239)

108)

Chapter 9 of St. John the Divine's Book of Revelation
describes the soundings of the 5th and 6th Angels:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall
from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given
the key of the bottomless pit...
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from
the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.
Book of Revelation, 9.1, 9.13 (96 AD),

109)

9th Chapter of Lu Chi's Wen Fu:
The mind weaves elaborate tapestries with elegant, many-coloured foliage.
The composition must move the heart like music from an instrument
with many strings.
There are no new ideas, only those which rhyme wih certain classics.
The shuttle has worked in my heart as it worked in the hearts
of those who came before me.
As a matter of honour, I must surrender the fruits of this labour.
Lu Chi (261-303 AD), Wen Fu: The Art of Writing,
Chapter IX: On Originality
(translated by Sam Hamill, Breitenbush Books, Portland, OR, 1987, p. 20)

110)

9th Verse in Chapter 18 of Astavakra Gita
(Sage Astavakra's dialogue with King Janaka):
"This is That", "I am That", and "I am not That",
such thoughts are extinguished for the yogi who has
become silent and who knows for sure that all is the Self.
Astavakra Gita Chapter 18, Verse 9 (circa 400 B.C.)
(translated by Radhakamal Mukerjee, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1971, p. 136)

110A)

Chapter 9 of Buddha's Diamond Sutra:
The Buddha said, "Tell me Subhuti. Do those who are free from rebirth think,
'I have attained freedom from rebirth'?" Subhuti replied, "No indeed. Those who
are free from rebirth do not think, 'I have attained freedom from rebirth.'
And why not? there is no such dharma as 'freedom from rebirth.' Thus are they
said to be 'free from rebirth.' If those who are free from rebirth should think,
'I have attained freedom from rebirth,' they would be attached to a self,
they would be attached to a being, a life, and a soul.
Buddha, Diamond Sutra Verse 11 (400 B.C.)
(translated by Red Pine, Counterpoint, Washington DC, 2001, p. 156)
(translated by A. F. Price, 1947)

111)

9th Verse of Buddha's Dhammapada: Pairs
He is not worthy of the yellow robe
who takes it while still not free from impurity,
and lacking in self-restraint and truth.
Buddha, Dhammapada Verse 9 (240 B.C.)
(translated by Sangharakshita, Dhammapada: The Way of Truth, 2001, p. 15)

112)

Chapter 9 of Chuang Tzu is titled "Horses' Hoofs"
where he argues for the superiority of the natural over the artificial:
Were the natural integrity of things left unharmed, who could make
sacrificial vessels? Were white jade left unbroken, who could make
the regalia of courts? Were Tao not abandoned, who could introduce
charity and duty to one's neighbour? Were man's natural instincts
his guide, what need would there be for music and ceremonies?
Were the five colours not confused, who would practise decoration?
Were the five notes not confused, who would adopt the six pitch-pipes?
Destruction of the natural integrity of things, in order to produce
articles of varius kinds,— this is the fault of the artisan.
Annihilation of Tao in order to practise charity and duty to
one's neighbour,— this is the error of the Sage.
Chuang Tzu (369 BC-286 BC)
Chuang Tzu: Taoist Philosopher and Chinese Mystic,
Chapter IX: Horses' Hoofs, p. 98
Translated by Herbert A. Giles (2nd Edition, 1926)
George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1961

113)

Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita
(Krishna's lecture to Arjuna on the purity of Spirit):
All this visible universe comes from my invisible Being.
All beings have their rest in me, but I have not my rest in them.
At the end of the night of time all things return to my nature;
and when the new day of time begins I bring them again into light.
He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf, or a flower,
or a fruit, or even a little water, this I accept from that
yearning soul, because with a pure heart it was offered with love.
Bhagavad Gita 9.4, 9.7, 9.26 (circa 400 BC)
(translated by Juan Mascaró, Penguin, 1962, pp. 80-83)

114)

9th Book of Enoch Archangels looking down on earth:
And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven
and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness
being wrought upon the earth... And they said to the Lord of the ages:
'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, and God of the ages,
the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the
ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages!
Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou:
and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest
all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee.
— Book of Enoch IX.1-2, 4-5 (circa 105 B.C.-64 B.C.)
translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1917, p. 36

115)

9th Saying of Gospel of Thomas (circa 150 A.D.):
Jesus said, "Look, the sower went out, took a handful of seeds,
and scattered them. Some fell on the road, and the birds came and
gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root
in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell
on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them.
And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop:
it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure."
Gospel of Thomas, 9 (114 sayings of Jesus)
(translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer, 1992)

116)

Chapter 9 of Pistis Sophia (circa 150 A.D.):
It happened now when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples,
he continued again with the discourses, and he said to them: "Behold
I have put on my garment and all authority is given to me through
the First Mystery. Yet a little time, and I will tell you the mystery
of the All and the pleroma of the All... I will tell you all
the mysteries from the outermost of the outer to the innermost of
the inner. Hear, nevertheless, and I will tell you everything
which has happened to me.
Pistis Sophia Ch. 9
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, IX: Pistis Sophia, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, pp. 31-33)

117)

Chapter 9 of Books of Jeu (circa 200 A.D.):
And there are twelve heads in the place of the treasury of his ranks; that is,
these names which are in each place; and there are twelve in each rank and this name
is that of the twelve, except for those which will be in them, when they sing praises
to my Father, so that he gives light-power to them. These are they which ... '
emanated when the power radiated within him. He emanated twelve emanations,
there being twelve heads in each emanation, and this name is the twelve,
according to each one of the ranks. And these are one outside the other
endlessly, except for their watchers. The names of the three watchers are...
Books of Jeu Ch. 9
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, XIII: The Books of Jeu, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, p. 55)

120)

9th Tetragram of the T'ai Hsüan Ching: Shu / Branching Out
January 27 - January 31 (a.m.):

Correlates with Heaven's Mystery:
Yang; the phase Metal; and the Yi Ching Hexagram 19,
Approach; the sun enters the Roof constellation, 7th degree.
Head: Yang ch'i is strong within, but weak without.
All things, branching out, advance to greatness.
Like the first tentative branching and leafing out
of vegetation in early spring, the myriad things
under the beneficient influence of yang ch'i
spread out to cover the face of the earth.
Yang Hsiung (53 BC-18 AD),
Canon of Supreme Mystery ( T'ai Hsüan Ching)
(translated by Michael Nylan, 1993, p. 135)

121)

9th Trigraph of the Ling Ch'i Ching: Te Chih / Realizing Ambition
The image of self-sufficiency
Pure yang suffuses all the positions
Ch'ien (Heaven) * Northwest
Oracle:
Conspicuously realizing one's ambitions,
according with the time,
material wealth comes and is ample for use.
No lack of minions.
Verse:
When fate and time cohere,
Cloud dragons and wind tigers will follow
Selflessly undertaking the responsibilities of official rank,
One's fame will reach the palaces of emperors and kings
Tung-fang Shuo,
Ling Ch'i Ching (circa 222-419)
(trans. Ralph D. Sawyer & Mei-Chün Lee Sawyer, 1995, p. 45)

122)

Section 9 of Chapter 2 in Lankavatara Sutra:
Then the Blessed One again speaking to Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva said this: The reasons whereby the eye-consciousness arises are four. They are: (1) The clinging to an external world, not knowing that it is of Mind itself; (2) The attaching to form and habit-energy accumulated since beginningless time by false reasoning and erroneous views; (3) The self-nature inherent in the Vijnana [discerning faculty]; (4) The eagerness for multiple forms and appearances. By these four reasons, Mahamati, the waves of the evolving Vijnanas are stirred on the Alayavijnana [Storehouse consciousness] which resembles the waters of a flood.
The Lankavatara Sutra (before 443 AD)
(translated from the Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki, 1932, p. 40)

123)

Han-shan's 9th Poem of Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:
wanted to go to the eastern cliff
for so many years till today
finally grabbed a vine and climbed
met mist and wind halfway
the path was narrow clothes hardly passed
the moss was slick shoes wouldn't advance
stopped beneath this cinnamon tree
and slept with clouds for a pillow
Han-shan (fl. 627-649), Collected Songs of Cold Mountain,
Poem 9 (translated by Red Pine, 1990)
( Robert G. Henricks translation, 1990; Burton Watson translation, 1962)

124A)

Chapter 9 of Mohammed's Holy Koran is titled "The Immunity"
They have taken a small price for the communications of Allah,
so they turn away from His way; surely evil is it that they do.
And remove the rage of their hearts; and Allah turns (mercifully)
to whom He pleases, and Allah is Knowing, Wise.
surely good deeds take away evil deeds this is a reminder to the mindful.
Abiding therein for ever; surely Allah has a Mighty reward with Him.
Then Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His Apostle and upon the
believers, and sent down hosts which you did not see, and chastised
those who disbelieved, and that is the reward of the unbelievers.
Allah has promised to the believing men and the believing women gardens,
beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them, and goodly dwellings
in gardens of perpetual abode; and best of all is Allah's
goodly pleasure; that is the grand achievement.
Do they not know that Allah knows their hidden thoughts and their secret
counsels, and that Allah is the great Knower of the unseen things?
Mohammed (570-632), Holy Koran, 9.9, 9.15, 9.22, 9.26, 9.72, 9.78 (7th century AD)
(translated by M. H. Shakir, Holy Koran, 1983)

125)

Section 9 of Hui-Neng's Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (714 A.D.)
At midnight the Fifth Patriarch called me into the hall and expounded
the Diamond Sutra to me. Hearing it but once, I was immediately awakened,
and that night I received the Dharma. None of the others knew anything about it.
Then he transmitted to me the Dharma of Sudden Enlightenment and the robe, saying:
"I make you the Sixth Patriarch. The robe is the proof and is to be handed down
from generation to generation. My Dharma must be transmitted from mind to mind.
You must make people awaken to themselves." The Fifth Patriarch told me:
"From ancient times the transmission of the Dharma has been as tenuous as
a dangling thread. If you stay here there are people who will harm you.
You must leave at once."
Hui-Neng (638-713), Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Section 9
(translated by Philip B. Yampolsky,
Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, p. 133)

126)

9th Verse of Chapter 3 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
May I be an imperishable treasury for needy beings.
May I stand in their presence in order to do what
is beneficial in every possible way.
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
III.9 (Grasping the Thought of Enlightenment) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 154)

127)

9th Verse of Chapter 6 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
My joy will not be disturbed, even by the occurrence of the most
frustrating event, because even in unhappiness, there is nothing
which can adversely affect a virtue which one truly desires.
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
VI.9 (Grasping the Thought of Enlightenment) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 174)

128)

9th Discourse of Valmiki's Yoga Vasishtha:
Sage Mandavya teaches Chief Surghu on the summit of the Himalayas:
"Great minds avoid concern over outward things so that they may behold
the pure light of the supreme Spirit shining within them. Until you are
freed from your concern over particular trifles, you can have no vision
of the universal Spirit. It is only after the disappearance of all worldly
interests that the universality of the transcendental Spirit is known.

Valmiki (c. 750 AD), Yoga Vasishtha, IX.10
The World Within the Mind (4th edition)
(translated by Hari Prasad Shastri, Shanti Sadan, London, 1969, p. 56)

129)

Section 9 of Hui Hai's Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination:
Q: What does right perception mean?
A: It means perceiving that there is nothing to perceive.
Q: And what does that mean?
A: it means beholding all sorts of forms, but without being stained
by them, as no thoughts of love or aversion arise in the mind.
Reaching this state is called 'obtaining the Buddha-eye',
which really means just that and nothing else. Whereas,
if the spectacle of various forms produces love or aversion
in you, that is called 'perceiving them as though they had
objective existence', which implies having the eye of an
ordinary person, for indeed ordinary people have no other sort
of eye. It is the same with all the other organs of perception.
Hui Hai (circa 788 A.D.), Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination, Section 9
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1962, p. 51)

130)

Section 9 of Huang Po's Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind:
This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all
with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world
do not awake to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feels and
knows as mind. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing,
they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance.
If they would noly eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that
source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through
the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or
bounds... Above, below and around you, all is spontaneously existing,
for there is nowhere which is outside the Buddha-Mind.
Huang Po (died 850 A.D.),
Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind,
The Wan Ling Record, Section 9
(translated by John Blofeld,
Rider & Co., London, 1958, pp. 36-37)

131)

Section 9 of Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds":
Someone asked, "What did the Patriarch intend in coming from the West?"
Master Yunmen replied, "That's as clear as day!"
Master Yun-Men (864-949),
Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds"
translated by Urs App, Kodansha International, NY & Tokyo, 1994, pp. 90

131A)

9th Teaching of Teachings of Quetzalcoatl
contrasts the false Toltec from the true Toltec:
8: The true Toltec gets everything from his heart;
he acts with pleasure taking his time to make things;
he is careful. As an artist, he is a skillful composer.
He creates, fixes whatever is broken, an gathers
whatever has been dispersed, making things match.
9: On the contrary, the false Toltec acts haphazardly
and is a disappointment to the people. He darkens
everything; he steps on the face of things. He is careless;
he does not create. He is an imitator, a fraud, and a thief. Quetzalcoatl Ce Acatl (b. 947 A.D.),
Gospel of the Toltecs: The Life & Teachings of Quetzalcoatl
by Frank Díaz, Bear & Company, Rochester, VT, 2002, p. 143

132)

Case 9 of Hekiganroku: Joshu's Four Gates
Main Subject: A monk asked Joshu, "What is Joshu?" (Chinese: Chao Chou)
Joshu said, "East Gate, West Gate, North Gate, South Gate." Setcho's Verse:
Its intention concealed, the question came;
The Diamond King's eye was as clear as a jewel.
There stood the gates, north, south, east, and west,
But the heaviest hammer blow could not open them.
Setcho (980-1052), Hekiganroku, 9 (Blue Cliff Records)
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, p. 172)

133)

Chou Tun-Yi (1017-1073), Penetrating Book of Changes,
Chapter 9: Thought
“Thought should be penetrating and profound... Such thinking leads to sageliness.
Having no thought is the foundation, and thinking penetratively is its function...
having no thought and yet penetrating all— thus is one a sage.”
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 469)

134)

Shao Yung (1011-1077), Supreme Principles Governing the World, Section 9:
The numbers of Heaven are five (1, 3, 5, 7, 9). The numbers of Earth are also five (2, 4, 6, 8, 10). Together they form the ten numbers in all. Heaven differentiates from 1 (Great Ultimate) to 4 (the Four Forms of greater and lesser yin and yang). Earth also differentiates fro 1 to 4 (the Four Forms of greater and lesser strength and weakness). The four are physical but the one is not. This is the ultimate distinction of being and non-being. The substance of Heaven numbers 4 (Four Forms), but its function numbers only 3 (minus greater yin). The same is true of Earth (minus greater strength).
— Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 488)

135)

Chapter 9: The Gray Rock Vajra Enclosure
from Mila Grubum or The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa:
Milarepa sang to the Tantric yogi at Gu Tang:
A wise man knows how to practice
The space-like meditation.
In all he does by day
He attaches himself to nothing.
With a liberated spirit,
He desires no wealth nor beauty.

One should see that all appearance
Is like mist and fog;
Though one has vowed to liberate all,
He should know that all manifestations
Are like reflections of the moon in water.

In the beginning, nothing comes;
In the middle, nothing stays;
At the end, nothing goes.
Of the mind— no arising & extinction!
Every moment one is in the past-present-future.

Milarepa (1040-1123), The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Ch. 9
(translated by Garma C. C. Chang, Shambhala, Boston, 1999, pp. 97-105)

136)

Verse 9 of Rubáiyát, of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
And this first Summer month that brings the Rose
Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.
(translated by Edward Fitzgerald, London, 1st edition 1859, 2nd edition 1868)

137)

Chapter 9 of St. Bernard's On Loving God: "love purify our souls"
'No longer do we love God because of our necessity, but because we have tasted
and seen how gracious the Lord is'. Our temporal wants have a speech of their
own, proclaiming the benefits they have received from God's favor. Once this
is recognized it will not be hard to fulfill the commandment touching love
to our neighbors; for whosoever loves God aright loves all God's creatures.
Such love is pure, and finds no burden in the precept bidding us purify our souls,
in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), On Loving God
Chapter IX: Of the second and third degrees of love, IX.7-12
(Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God
with Analytical Commentary by Emero Stiegman,
Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1995)

138)

Section 9 of Chu Hsi's Chin-ssu lu:
One's accumulation becomes great through learning. It depends on
knowing much about the words and deeds of former sages and worthies.
One must inquire into their deeds to see their application and examine
their words to find out what was in their minds. One must understand these
things and get their meaningin order to accumulate and perfect his virtue.
Chu Hsi (1130-1200), Reflections on Things at Hand (Chin-ssu lu)
translated by Wing-Tsit Chan
Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, p. 45

139)

Chapter 9 of Saint Francis of Assisi's The Little Flowers:
How St. Francis taught Brother Leo how to answer matins, and how
Brother Leo always said the opposite of what St. Francis taught him.

Brother Leo replied with humility and reverence: "God knows, my father,
that each time I resolved in my heart to answer as you directed me,
but God makes me speak as it pleases Him." And St. Francis, weeping,
said: "O little, wretched Brother Francis, do you think that God
has mercy on you?" Brother Leo answered: "Glorious graces, will you
receive from God, and you will be glorified and exalted in eternity,
or he who humbles himself will be exalted; and I can say no other
thing, since God speaks through me." And so in that humble argument,
with many tears and with great spiritual consolation, they passed
the night in prayeruntil the dawn.
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226),
The Little Flowers of St. Francis Ch. IX
(translated by Serge Hughes,
Mentor-Omega Book, New York, 1964, pp. 64-65)

140)

Chapter 9 of William of Auvergne's The Trinity, or the First Principle:
everything that belongs to the first and highest is first and greatest, both
primarily and to the highest degree. This is its nobility and ultimate excellence...
Power, then, and knowledge and will belong to him in the ultimate degree of nobility
and in the highest degree of perfection. Imagine his potency as an unlimited source
that is inexhaustible and pouring forth magnificent and marvellous works, which are
without number. In the same way also imagine his wisdom as an unlimited source of
light, of the sciences, of the arts and of the other spiritual illuminations.
Likewise, imagine the goodness or will or love, by which he loves all good things,
as a vast furnace of spiritual fire, which is love. Along these paths seek for
yourself ways to imagine from bodily likenesses his magnificence and wondrousnsess
and how he has the ultimate nobility in all its modes and primacy and greatness
and abundant richness in every way... This wisdom is brilliant light, beyond which
there is no light. Hence, it is the light of all lights, since every other light
is but illumined light, not giving light through its essence... This, then, is
the reason why this wisdom is called true light and essential light, giving light
and illumination by its essence. For this reason it is called the book of life.
William of Auvergne (1180-1249), The Trinity, or the First Principle, Ch. IX
(translated by Roland J. Teske & Francis C. Wade,
Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1989, pp. 104-105)

141)

Chapter 9 of Dogen's Shobogenzo (1243)
is titled Daigo: "Great Enlightenment":
Right transmission of the Great Way is handed down through the experience
and practice of enlightenment; it passes from Patriarch to Patriarch without
alteration and through them Great Enlightenment manifests itself and never ceases.
But do not become attached to the idea of Great Enlightenment; if you do,
your practice will stagnate— never seek or crave it... To become a Buddha
is to have the enlightenment of Buddha: dynamic, living enlightenment. This
enlightenment exists innately; it is the original enlightenment that covers
the three worlds, the hundred grasses, the four elements, the Buddhas and the
Patriarchs, koans. It is constantly growing and manifesting itself. So we can
see that right now is the time for our own Great Enlightenment... Thousands
of years exist in the present and our life, in the present, is the focal point
of our study. Understanding must be attained through the body and mind and not
based on others' interpretation. We must reflect upon the fact that all things
are contained in our original self. We must search for this principle with
a clear mind... We possess in the present enlightenment the enlightenment of
yesterday— enlightenment does not begin with the moment of perception.
Consequently, everything, right now, in the eternal present is Great Enlightenment.
That is Great Enlightenment, this is Great Enlightenment.
Dogen (1200-1253) delivered to the monks
at Kannondori, Koshohorinji, on January 20, 1243
Shobogenzo (The Eye and Treasury of the True Law),
Vol. 1, translated by Kosen Nishiyama & John Stevens
Daihokkaikaku, Sendai, Japan, 1975, pp. 34-38

142)

Verse 9 of Dogen (1200-1253)
is titled Kyoge betsuden (Special transmission outside the teaching):
The Dharma, like an oyster
Washed atop a high cliff:
Even waves crashing against
The reefy coast, like words,
May reach but cannot wash it away.
(translated by Steven Heine, Zen Poetry of Dogen,
Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1997, pp. 100-101)

143)

Verse 9 of Rumi Daylight:
There are true promises that make the heart grateful;
there are false promises, fraught with disquiet.
The promise of the noble is sterling;
the promise of the unworthy breeds anguish of the soul.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Mathnawi, I.180-1
Rumi Daylight, Verse 9
(Edited by Camille & Kabir Helminski, 1994, p. 21)

144)

Discourse 9 of Rumi's Signs of the Unseen:
All desires, affections, loves, and fondnesses people have for all sorts of things, such as fathers, mothers, friends, the heavens and earth, gardens, pavilions, works, knowledge, food, and drink— one should realize tha every desire is a desire for food, and such things are all "veils". When one passes beyond this world and sees that King without these "veils", then one will realize that all those things were "veils" and "coverings" and that what they were seeking was in reality that one thing. All problems will then be solved. All the heart's questions and difficulties will be answered, and everything will become clear. God's reply is not such that He must answer each and every problem individually. With one answer all problems are solved. In winter everyone bundles himself up and huddles ina warm place to escape the cold. All plants and trees drop their leaves and fruit because of the biting cold, and they conceal their raiment within themselves lest they suffer from the chill. When spring "answers" them by manifesting itself, all their different "questions" with regards to living, growing things and dead things are answered at one blow: the secondary causes disappear. Everything sticks its head out and knows what has caused that calamity.
If God showed his beauty without a veil, we would not be able to bear it or benefit from it because we are benefitted and strengthened indirectly. You see the sun? In its light we come and go; we see, and we are able to distinguish good from bad. In it we warm ourselves. Because of it, trees and gardens bear fruit. In its heat, bitter and sour unripe fruit becomes ripe and sweet. Under its influence, mines of gold, silver, ruby, and sapphire come to be. If this same sun, which is so beneficial indirectly, were to come closer, not only would it give no benefit but it would cause the whole world and everything in it to burn up and perish. When God manifests himself through a veil to a mountain, the mountain becomes full of trees and flowers, bedecked with greenery. But if He were to manifest himself without a veil, the mountain would be crushed and crumble to dust... A man who can resist God and not strive with all his might to comprehend Him is not a man. A god one can comprehend is not God. "Man" then is that which is never free of striving; he is that which hovers restlessly around the "light" of God's Awesomeness. "God" is that which "burns" man and renders him nought but which no intellect can comprehend.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Signs of the Unseen
Discourse 9 (Translated by W. M. Thackston, Jr.
Threshold Books, Putney, VT, 1994, pp. 36-38)

145)

Chapter 9 of Attar's The Conference of the Birds
is titled "The Hawk Makes an Excuse"
Next came the Hawk, with head erect, and the bearing of a soldier.
He said: 'I who delight in the company of kings pay no regard to other
creatures... Why should I see the Simurgh, even in a dream?... I have
no other wish than to pass my life joyfully in this fashion—
either waiting for the king or hunting at his pleasure.'
The Hoopoe said: 'O you who are attached o the outward form of things
and have no care for essential values, the Simurgh is a being whose
royalty becomes him, because he is unique in power... Though a wordly king
may often be just, he can also be guilty of injustice... Since a king is
compared to a fire, keep away! O you who have lived near kings, take care!
Farid al-Din Attar (c. 1230), The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-tayr)
(translated by C. S. Nott, Shambhala, Boston, 1993, pp. 23-24)

146)

Verse 9 of Yunus Emre's Lyric Poems:
Let the deaf� listen to the mute.
A soul is needed to understand them both.

Without listening we understood.
Without understanding we carried it out.

On this Way, the seeker's wealth is poverty.

We loved, we became lovers.
We were loved,. we became the beloved.
When all is perishing moment by moment
Who has time to be bored?

God divided His people into Seventy-two languages
and borders arose.

But poor Yunus fills the earth and sky,
and under every stone hides a Moses.
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. 26)

147)

Chapter 9 of Dante's Vita Nuova (1294):
Riding the other day aloong a road,
musing upon the journey that I disliked,
I met Love in the middle of the way
in the meager dress of a pilgrim.
In his aspect he seemed to me poor,
as if he had lost his lordship;
and sighing he came pensively,
head down in order not to see the people.
When he saw me, he called me by name,
and said: "I come from distant parts,
where your heart was through my will;
and I bring it to serve a new delight."
Then I took of him so great a part
that he disappeared, and I knew not how.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Vita Nuova, IX.9-12
translated by Dino S. Cervigni & Edward Vasta
University of Notre Dame Press, 1995, pp. 59-61
(another translation: Mark Musa,
Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 16)

148)

Verse 9 of Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden:
Within this garden sweet it is to play,
And sweeter still now that our host in May,
No more than this can any man desire!—
But, Saki, come! Why does our wine delay?
Hafiz (1320-1389), Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden, Verse 9
adaptation by Clarence K. Streit, Viking Press, NY, 1928
(Streit on Time magazine cover, March 27, 1950)

148A)

Verse 9 of The Divan of Hafez:
The garden is in its splendor of youth again.
The news of the rose reaches the sweet-singing nightingale.

Be the friend of the men of God. For in Noah's ark,
There is a land which will not heed the storm at all.
Hafiz (1320-1389), The Divan of Hafez, Verse 9
translated from the Persian by Reza Saberi,
University Press of American, Lanham, MD, 2002, p. 10

149)

Sermon 9 of Meister Eckhart: Waking Up to the Nearness of God's Kingdom"
God is always ready but we are very unready.
God is near to us but we are very far from him.
God is within but we are outside. God is at home
in us but we are abroad. The prophet says:
"God leads the righteous through the narrow
way into the broad path" (Wisdom 10:10).
This is so that they come to the fullest life.
God helps us that we all follow him so that he can
bring us to the point where we truly know him.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1329), Sermon 9 Section 11
Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality
(Translated by Matthew Fox, Doubleday, NY, 1980, p.141)

150)

Canto 9 of Inferno: Dante & Virgil at the Gate of Dis (Circle 6):

Quell'è 'l più basso loco e 'l più oscuro,
e 'l più lontan dal ciel che tutto gira:
ben so 'l cammin; però ti fa sicuro.

That is the deepest and the darkest place,
the farthest from the heaven that girds all:
so rest assured, I know the pathway well.

Inferno 9.28-30 ( Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1980)

151)

Canto 9 of Purgatorio: St. Lucia helps Dante's ascent on Mt. Purgatory:

venne una donna, e disse: "I' son Lucia;
lasciatemi pigliar costui che dorme;
sì l'agevoler� per la sua via".

a lady came; she said: 'I am Lucia;
let me take hold of him who is asleep,
that I may help to speed him on his way.'

Purgatorio 9.55-57 ( Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1982)

152)

Canto 9 of Paradiso: Dante in the Sphere of Venus (3rd Heaven):

Qui si rimira ne l'arte ch'addorna
cotanto affetto, e discernesi 'l bene
per che 'l mondo di sù quel di giù torna.

For here we contemplate the art adorned
by such great love, and we discern the good
through which the world above forms that below.

Paradiso 9.106-108 ( Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1984)

153)

Verse 9 of Drg-Drsya-Viveka ("Seer-Seen Discernment")
by Bharati Tirtha (c. 1328-1380):
The mutual identification of the ego and the reflection of Consciousness,
which is natural, does not cease so long as they re taken to be real.
The other two identifications disappear after the wearing out of the result
of Karma and the attainment of the knowledge of the highest Reality respectively.
(translated by Swami Nikhilananda,
Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore, 1964, p. 12)

154)

Line 9 from the Pearl Poet's Pearl: "Alas! I lost her in a garden"

Allas! I leste hyr in on erbere;
Thurgh gresse to grounde hit fro me yot.
I dewyne, fordolked of luf-daungere
Of that pryuy perle withouten spot

Alas! I lost her in a garden
where through grass she fell to earthen plot
I pine away, wounded by the power of love
for that pearl of mine without spot.

Pearl (c. 1370-1400) Lines 9-12
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 54)
(This Pearl translation: by Bill Stanton, another by Vernon Eller)

123)

Line 9 from the Pearl Poet's Purity or Cleanness:

Thay teen unto his temmple and temen to hymselven;
Reken with reverence thay rychen his auter;
Thay hondel ther his aune body, and usen hit bothe
If thay in clannes be clos, thay ckecge gret mede;

They go to His temple and attach themselves to Him.
There they handle His own body and use it well.
If they are full of cleanness, they obtain great reward.

Cleanness (c. 1370-1400) Lines 9-12
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 111,
above translation by J. J. Anderson, 1996, p. 47)

124)

Line 9 from the Pearl Poet's Patience

I herde onb a halyday, at a hyghe masse,
How Mathew melede that his mayster his meyny con teche;
Aght happes He hem hyght, and ucheon a mede
Sunderlupes for hit dissert, upon a ser wyse.

I heard on a holy day, at a high mass
How Matthew said his master taught his followers
Eight beatitudes He decreed to them
and a reward for each in turn according to its merit.

Patience (c. 1370-1400) Lines 9-12
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 185,
above translation by J. J. Anderson, 1996, p. 139)

157)

Verse 9 of Kabir's Raga Gauri:
Light's creation—
creation's light,
on which blossom fruits
of glass or pearl.

Which house is really safe
where you can dwell without fear?

You cannot have inner peace
by bathing on holy river banks;
even there people are busy
with good deeds and bad.

Good and bad deeds
are both the same—
the philosopher's stone is in your very house:
Forget all other merits.

Kabir, forget not the name
of the Formless One;
stay absorbed
in this pastime.

Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 46

159)

Section 9 of Wang Yang Ming's Instructions for Practical Living:
The Teacher said: “When principles become manifested and can be seen,
we call them patters (wen, also meaning literature) and when patterns
are hidden and abstruse and cannot be seen, we call them li (principle).
They are the same thing. Restraining oneself with rules of propriety means
that this mind must become completely identified with the Principle of Nature.
In order to become completely identified with the Principle of Nature,
one must direct one's effort to wherever principle is manifested.
For example, if principle is manifested in the serving of one's parents,
one should learn to preserve it in the very act of serving one's parents...
And one should do the same whether working or resting, speaking or silent.
No matter where principle may be manifested, one should learn right then
and there to preserve it. This is what is meant by the extensive study
of literature. This is the work of restraining oneself with the rules
of propriety. To study literature extensively means to be refined
in one's mind and to restrain oneself with the rules of propriety
means to have singleness in one's mind.”
Wang Yang Ming (1472-1529),
Instructions for Practical Living or Ch'uan-hsi lu (1518), I.9
(translated by Wing-tsit Chan, Columbia University Press, NY, 1963, p. 16)

160)

Section 9 of Lo Ch'in-shun's Knowledge Painfully Acquired:
Principle is truly extremely easy and extremely simple, and yet grasping
the principles of the world in what is easy and simple is a matter of
perfecting one's ability. The tasks of the student are broad learning,
careful inquiry, sober reflection, clear discernment, and earnest practice.
Not one of these can be dispensed with. By proceeding on the basis of these
five one may arrive at what is easy and simple... Fondness for the sublime
and the desire for speed are among the common failings of scholars.
Lo Ch'in-shun (1465-1547), Knowledge Painfully Acquired or K'un-chih chi
translated by Irene Bloom, Columbia University Press, NY, 1987, p. 57

161)

Plate 9 of Splendor Solis
The Fifth Phase—
The Hermaphrodite

on the cover of
Godwin's translation
of Splendor Solis (1991)

Plate 9 of Salomon Trismosin's Splendor Solis:
The philosphers attribute two bodies to this Art, namely Sun and Moon,
which are the Earth and the Water. They are also called Man and Woman,
and they bring forth four children: two boys who are Hot and Cold, and
two girls who are Moist and Dry. These are the four elements. And they
make the fifth essence: the white Magnesia, which is no falsity. Senior
concludes the same, saying "When these five are assembled, they will become
a single thing out of which the Natural Stone is made." Avicenna says:
"If we can attain the Fifth, then in my opinion the end is come."
To show this in a parable, the philosophers describe an egg in which
four things are conjoined. The first, outermost one is the shell—
the earth— and the white is water. But the skin between the water
and the shell is air, and it divides the earth from the water. The yolk
is fire; it has around it a subtle membrane which is the subtle air.
That which is in the innermost part is the subtlest, for it is nearer
the fire, and separates fire and water. In the middle of the yolk is the
fifth essence, out of which the young chick comes forth and grows. Thus
an egg contains all the forces together with the material out of which
the perfect nature is created. And it must also be so in this noble Art.
Salomon Trismosin (1465-1547), Splendor Solis
translated by Joscelyn Godwin,
Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 1991, pp. 38-39

162)

Chapter 9 of Cervantes' Don Quixote—
The Terrific Battle Between the Gallant Biscayan and the Valiant Manchegan:
It appeared to me to be a thing impossible and contrary to all precedent that so good a knight should have been without some sage to undertake the task of writing his marvellous achievements... This reflection kept me perplexed and longing to truly the whole life and wondrous deeds of our famous Spaniard, Don Quixote of La Mancha, light and mirror of Manchegan chivalry, and the first that in our age and in these so evil days devoted himself to the labour and exercise of the arms of knight-errantry, righting wrongs, succouring widows, and protecting damsels... I say, then, that in these and other respects our gallant Don Quixote is worthy of everlasting and notable praise... it was such that Don Quixote again raised himself in his stirrups, and, grasping his sword more firmly with both hands, he came down on the Biscayan with such fury, smiting him full over the cushion and over the head, that— even so good a shield proving useless— as if a mountain had fallen on him... Don Quixote stood looking on very calmly, and, when he saw him fall, leaped from his horse and with great briskness ran to him, and, presenting the point of his sword to his eyes, bade him surrender, or he would cut his head off.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote Part I, Ch. IX (1605)
(translated by John Ormsby)

163)

Nine occurs 56 times in the works of William Shakespeare (8 samples):
I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder (As You Like It, 3.2.174)
and three times thrice is nine (Love's Labour Lost, 5.2.488)
by jove, I always took three threes for nine (Love's Labour Lost, 5.2.495)
of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives (Romeo and Juliet, 3.1.78)
I have studied eight or nine wise words to speak (Much Ado About Nothing, 3.2.72)
the nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud (A Midsummer's Night Dream, 2.1.98)
exceeding the nine sibyls of old rome (King Henry VI, Part I, 1.2.56)
I will buy nine sparrows for a penny (Troilus & Cressida, 2.1.71)
Ninth occurs 7 times in the works of William Shakespeare (3 samples):
'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn. (Cymbeline, 4.2)
Soothsayer: About the ninth hour, lady. (Julius Caesar, 2.4)
to Ajax: he will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror, (Love's Labour Lost, 5.2)
Ninescore occurs 2 times in the works of William Shakespeare:
old ginger, ninescore and seventeen pounds (Measure for Measure, 4.3.6)
I have found'red ninescore and odd posts (King Henry IV, Part 2, 4.3.36)
Nine-fold occurs 1 time in the works of William Shakespeare:
he met the night-mare and her ninefold (King Lear, 3.4.121)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616),
Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973, p. 887

164)

Giordano Bruno's 9th Seal: The farmer—
I want a farmer to be over any field;
Around him tools, for manifold uses, form a palisade.
Thus a weaver's duties are many and his tools many,
Many are the craftsmen's duties and tools, the tailor's many.
Therefore, let a house be divided for three or four servants
Of the same or various sorts, where anything whatsoever may
Completely renew one form. Let one and twenty tools
Signify what I called the same number of consonants,
And let them report by five-fold lot each fifth vowel,
Also let the same amount of material be added to the forms.
Finally you may see what is going on,
In what ways this verse is about
All things in a state of mutual relationship.
For a spirit seizes all things of this kind, and
Leads forward whatever you ask for again for convenience's sake;
It changes all that rush forward, it puts forth all
It holds within, since it is considered a two-fold microcosm.
The framer of the universe and whatever is formable by him,
Whether he is active or passive or middle,
Trismegistos has called this process a great miracle.
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), On the Composition of Images, Signs & Ideas (1591)
Book Three, which is about the images of the Thirty Seals, 3.10
(translated by Charles Doria, Willis, Locker & Owens, NY, 1991, p. 259)

165)

Urging a young man to marry in 9th Sonnet of William Shakespeare:
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnets IX, Commentary

166)

Emblem 9 of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617):
Emblem 9:
Lock the tree with the old man in a bedewed house,
and by eating of its fruit he will become young.

Epigram 9:
In Wisdom's garden frows an apple tree
With fruits of gold. Take it and our old man,
Enclose them in a glass house, wet with dew,
And let them stay there many days conjoin'd
When he has eat his fill of fruit, behold!
The former old man is a youth again.

Michael Maier (1566-1622),
Atalanta Fugiens, 9
(translated by Joscelyn Godwin,
Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 1989, p. 123)

167)

Hymn 9 of Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629):
When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger strook,
Divinely warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blissful rapture took:
The air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heav'nly close.
John Milton (1608-1674), On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, Hymn IX

168)

9th Haiku of Basho's Haiku (1678):
A rabbit-ear iris,
How exactly it resembles:
Its image in the water!
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Basho's Haiku, Vol. 2, Haiku 9
(translated by Toshiharu Oseko, Maruzen, Tokyo, 1996, p. 10)

169)

9th Section of Swedenborg's Worlds in Space (1758):
The whole heaven is in the form of a single human being, who is therefore
called the Grand Man. Every detail, both outward and inward, in the human being
answers to that Grand Man, that is, to heaven. This is a secret so far unknown
in the world, but I have shown the truth of it at great length. But those who
reach heaven from our world are not enough to make up that Grand Man, being
relatively few, so there will need to be people from many other worlds.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), The Worlds in Space, 9
(translated from Latin by John Chadwick,
Swedenborg Society, London, 1997, p. 7)

170)

9th Walk of Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker:
Happiness is a lasting state which does not seem to be made for man in this world. Everything here on earth is in a continual flux which allows nothing to assume any constant form. All things change round about us, we ourselves change, and no one can be sure of loving tomorrow what he loves today. All our plans of happiness in this life are therefore empty dreams. Let us make the most of peace of mind when it comes to us, taking care to do nothing to drive it away, but not making plans to hold it fast, since such plans are sheer folly. I have seen few if any happy people, but I have seen many who were contented, and of all the sights that have come my way this is the one that has left me most contented myself... Everything has its compensations; if my pleasures are brief and few in number, it is also true that when they come they give me an intenser enjoyment than if I were more used to them. I ruminate on them so to speak, turning them over frequently in my memory, and few as they are, if they were pure and unmixed, they would perhaps make me happier than in my days of prosperity.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778),
Reveries of the Solitary Walker (1776), Ninth Walk
(translated by Peter France, Penguin Books, New York, 1979, pp. 137, 143)

171)

Blissful vision in Line 9 of Goethe's Faust:
Of joyous days you bring the blissful vision;
The dear, familiar phantoms rise again,
And, like an old and half-extinct tradition,
First Love returns, with Friendship in his train.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832),
Faust, Lines 9-12 of Dedication
(translated by Bayard Taylor, 1870
Modern Library, Random House, NY, 1950)

172)

9th Haiku of Issa's Haiku:
Short night—
scarlet flower
at vine's tip.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827),
The Dumpling Field: Poems of Issa, Haiku 9
(translated by Lucien Stryk, Swallow Press, Athens, Ohio, 1991, p. 7)

173)

9th Section of Sage Ninomiya's Evening Talks:
All Living Things are Gods and Buddhas:
Gods and Buddhas are different in names only, but are the same in reality.
The names differ, because the countries differ. It is with this idea
that I have composed two short poems as follows:
Even plants and trees are gods:
Know then the whereabouts of
life after death.

Even plants and trees are living Buddhas:
Know then the whereabouts of
life after death.
Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856),
Sage Ninomiya's Evening Talks, Section 9
translated by Isoh Yamagata from Ninomiya-Ô Yawa,
Tokuno Kyokai, Tokyo, 1937, pp. 31-33)

174)

Chapter 9 of Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart
is titled The Price of Willing One Thing: The Exposure of Evasions:
The one who truly wills the Good, therefore, makes use of cleverness against
evasions. But by this does he not achieve something great in the world?
Perhaps so, perhaps not. But one thing definitely he does become: he becomes
a friend, a lover of memory... Above all, the one, who in truth wills the Good
must not be "busy". In quiet patience he must leave it to the Good itself,
what reward he shall have, and what he shall accomplish... He is not like
a candle-stub, whose tiny flame goes out before a wind. No, he is like a
great fire; a storm cannot quench it! And the flame in his fire is like
that one in Greece: water cannot put it out!... what he accomplishes,
and what he does not accomplish, in the sense of the moment, that is
not his concern. He always accomplishes this— that he becomes
the friend and lover of memory. He accomplishes this whether he is
remembered in the world or not. For this world's memory is like the
moment: a series of moments. Eternity's memory, that he is certain of.
When he leaves this world, he leaves nothing behind him, he takes all
with him, he loses nothing, he gains all— for "God is all to him".
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855),
Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, Chapter 9
(translated by Douglas V. Steere, Harper & Brothers, NY, 1948, pp. 140-147)

175)

Chapter 9 of Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854):
A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature.
It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures
the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore
are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills
and cliffs around are its overhanging brows...
Why, here is Walden, the same woodland lake that I discovered so
many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another
is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever; the same thought is
welling up to its surface that was then; it is the same liquid joy
and happiness to itself and its Maker, ay, and it may be to me.
It is the work of a brave man surely, in whom there was no guile!
He rounded this water with his hand, deepened and clarified it
in his thought, and in his will bequeathed it to Concord.
I see by its face that it is visited by the same reflection;
and I can almost say, Walden, is it you?
It is no dream of mine,
To ornament a line;
I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven
Than I live to Walden even.
I am its stony shore,
And the breeze that passes o'er;
In the hollow of my hand
Are its water and its sand,
And its deepest resort
Lies high in my thought.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden Chapter 9: The Ponds

176)

Chapter 9 of Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851):
Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered the scattered
people to condense... He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows, folded his
large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so
deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea. This ended,
in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is
foundering at sea in a fog- in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn;
but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing
exultation and joy... Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above
the howling of the storm. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned over the
leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon the proper page, said:
"Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah— 'And God
had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.'" "Shipmates, this book, containing only
four chapters— four yarns— is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the
Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul Jonah's deep sealine sound! what a pregnant
lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish's belly!
How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the floods surging over us, we sound with
him to the kelpy bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us!
Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick or The Whale, Chapter 9: The Sermon

177)

9th Poem of Emily Dickinson:

Through lane it lay— through bramble—
Through clearing and through wood—
Banditti often passed us
Upon the lonely road.

The wolf came peering curious—
The owl looked puzzled down—
The serpent's satin figure
Glid stealthily along—

The tempests touched our garments—
The lightning's poinards gleamed—
Fierce from the Crag above us
The hungry Vulture screamed—

The satyr's fingers beckoned—
The valley murmured "Come"—
These were the mates—
This was the road
Those children fluttered home.—

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

178)

9th New Poem of Emily Dickinson:
Home is so far from Home,
since my Father died.
Emily Dickinson (Letter 441)
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by William H. Shurr, University of North Carolin Press, 1993, p. 9)

179)

"The Past!" in Line 9 of Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1871):
Singing my days,
� Singing the great achievements of the present,
Singing the strong, light works of engineers,
Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,)
In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann�d,
The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires,
� I sound, to commence, the cry, with thee, O soul,
The Past! the Past! the Past!
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Passage to India Section 1, Lines 1-9
A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, Vol. III, Poems, 1870-1891
(Edited by Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett, Arthur Golden, William White
New York University Press, 1980, p. 568)

180)

9th Verse in Tagore's Gitanjali:
O Fool, try to carry thyself upon thy own shoulders!
O beggar, to come beg at thy own door!

Leave all thy burdens on his hands who can bear all,
and never look behind in regret.

Thy desire at once puts out the light
from the lamp it touches with its breath.
It is unholy— take not thy gifts
through its unclean hands. Accept only
what is offered by sacred love.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), Verse 9

180)

Chapter 9 in A.E.'s Song and its Fountains:
I think all true poetry was conceived on the Mount of Transfiguration
and there is revelation in it and the mingling of heaven and earth.
The Mount is a symbol for that peak of soul when, gone inward into itself,
it draws nigh to its own divine root, and memory and imagination are shot
through and through with the radiance of another nature... Truth for us
cannot be in statements of ultimates but in an uplifting of our being,
in which we are raised above ourselves and know that we are knocking
at the door of the Household of Light. The poets and the great masters
of music are those who have the expectation of inspiration.
A. E. (1867-1935)
Song and its Fountains (1932), Chapter 9
New Edition: Larson Publications, Burdett, NY, 1991, pp. 74-79

181)

Sonnet 9 of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus: Part 2

Nur wer die Leier schon hob
auch unter Schatten,
darf das unendliche Lob
ahnend erstatten.

Nur wer mit Toten von Mohn
ass, von dem ihren,
wird nicht den leisesten Ton
wieder verlieren.

Mag auch die Spieglung im Teich
oft uns verschwimmen:
Wisse das Bild.

Erst in dem Doppelbereich
werden die Stimmen
ewig und mild.

Only one who raised
the lyre among shades,
may wisely repay
the endless praise.

Only one who ate
poppies with the dead,
will the faintest note
never forget.

Though the reflection in the pond
may often waver:
Know it still.

Once in the dual land
all voices will
be hushed forever.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Sonnets to Orpheus (1921), II.9
translated by Howard A. Landman; another translation: Robert Hunter)

182)

Letter 9 of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet:
My dear Mr. Kappus,
... just the wish that you may find in yourself enough patience to endure and enough simplicity to have faith; that you may gain more and more confidence in what is difficult and in your solitude among other people. And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right always. And about feelings: All feelings that concentrate you and lift you up are pure; only that feeling is impure which grasps just one side of your being and thus distorts you. Everything you can think of as you face your childhood, is good. Everything that makes more of you than you have ever been, even in your best hours, is right. Every intensificaiton is good, if it is in your entire blood, if it isn't intoxication or muddiness, but joy which you can see into, clear to the bottom. Do you understand what I mean? And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrassed, perhaps also protesting. But don't give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers— perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Letters to a Young Poet
to Franz Kappus (1883-1966), Furuborg, Jonsered, in Sweden, November 4, 1904
translated by Stephen Mitchell, Random House, NY, 1984

183)

Section 9 in Wallace Stevens, The Man with the Blue Guitar:
And the color, the overcast blue
Of the air, in which the blue guitar

Is a form, described but difficult,
And I am merely a shadow hunched

Above the arrowy, still strings,
The maker of a thing yet to be made;

The color like a thought that grows
Out of a mood, the tragic robe

Of the actor, half his gesture, half
His speech, the dress of his meaning, silk

Sodden with his melancholy words,
The weather of his stage, himself.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),
The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Section IX
Collected Poetry and Prose, Library of America, NY, 1997, pp. 138-139
Reader's Guide

184)

Section 9 in William Carlos Williams, Spring and All:

What about all this writing?

O "Kiki"
O Miss Margaret Jarvis
The backhandspring

I : clean
clean
clean : yes.. New-York

Wrigley's, appendecitis, John Marin :
skyscraper soup —

Either that or a bullet !

Once
anything might have happened
You lay relaxed on my knees —
the starry night
spread out warm and blind
above the hospital —...

Everything
—windows, chairs
obscenely drunk, spinning—
white, blue, orange
—hot with our passion

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Spring and All, IX.1-16, 37-41
Contact Publishing Co., Dijon (1923), pp. 38-39

185)

9th Page lines in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, (9 samples):
red lines cross the shortfront of me Belchum. Yaw, yaw, yaw! (9.4)
the one Willingdone. And the Willingdone git the band up. This (9.9)
is bode Belchum, bonnet to busby, breaking his secred word with a (9.10)
his twelvemile cowchooks, weet, tweet and stampforth foremost, (9.16)
Futter with the popynose. After his hundred days' indulgence. (9.20)
This is the blessed. Tarra's widdars! This is jinnies in the bonny (9.21)
lists dowan a bunkersheels. With a nip nippy nip and a trip trip- (9.29)
py trip so airy. For their heart's right there. Tip. This is me Bel- (9.30)
chum's tinkyou tankyou silvoor plate for citchin the crapes in (9.31)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Finnegans Wake, (1939)

186)

Chapter 9 of Ezra Pound's Cantos (selections):
One year floods rose,
One year they fought in the snows,
One year hail fell, braking the trees and walls.
Down here in the marsh they trapped him in one year.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), The Cantos (I-XVI), (1925);
The Cantos (1-95), New Directions, NY, 1956, p. 34
Commentary on Canto IX

187)

Sonnet 9 in Edna St. Vincent Millay's
"Epitaph for the Race of Man" (1934)

He woke in terror to a sky more bright
Than middle day; he heard the sick earth groan,
And ran to see the lazy-smoking cone
Of the fire-mountain, friendly to his sight
As his wife's hand, gone strange and full of fright;
Over his fleeing shoulder it was shown
Rolling its pitchy lake of scalding stone
Upon his house that had no feet for flight.
Where did he weep? Where did he sit him down
And sorrow, with his head between his knees?
Where said the Race of Man, "Here let me drown"?
"Here let me die of hunger"?— "let me freeze"?
By nightfall he has built another town:
This boiling pot, this clearing in the trees.
Sonnet IX from "Epitaph for the Race of Man"
Wine from These Grapes (1934)
Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Harper & Row, NY, 1988, p. 172

Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892-1950)

188)

Poem 9 in H.D.'s The Flowering of the Rod (1944):

No poetic fantasy
but a biological reality,

a fact: I am an entity
like bird, insect, planet

or sea-planet cell;
I live; I am alive;

take care, do not know me,
deny me, do not recognise me,

shun me; for this reality
is infectious— ecstasy.

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)
Trilogy: The Flowering of the Rod, Poem 9
Oxford University Press (1944)
Carcanet Press, Cheshire, UK (1973), p. 125

189)

Poem 9 in e.e. cummings' Xaipe (1950)

nine birds(rising

through a gold moment)climb:
ing i
-nto
wintry
twi-
light
(all together a
manying
one
-ness)nine
souls
only alive with a single mys-

tery (liftingly)
caught upon falling)silent!

ly living the daying of glory

e. e. cummings (1894-1962),
Xaipe (1950), "Poem 9"
Liveright, New York (1979), p. 29

e. e. cummings
(1894-1962)

190)

Poem 9 in George Oppen's Of Being Numerous:

'Whether, as the intensity of seeing increases, one's distance
from Them, the people, does not also increase'
I know, of course I know, I can enter no other place

Yet I am one of those who from nothing but man's say of thought
and one of his dialects and what has happened to me
Have made poetry

To dream of that beach
For the sake of an instant in the eyes,

The absolute singular

The unearthly bonds
Of the singular

Which is the bright light of shipwreck
George Oppen (1908-1984),
Of Being Numerous (1968), Poem 9
New Directions, NY, 1968, p. 14
Review of Oppen's New Collected Poems

191)

Aphorism 9 of Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Consciousness Without an Object (1973):

Consciousness of objects is the Universe.

Commentaries: This aphorism may be viewed as a definition of what is meant by the term "Universe" It is that domain of consciousness wherein a self is aware of objects, the latter standing as opposed to, or in contradistinction to, the self that is aware of them. In this sense the Universe is much more than that which is connoted by the term "physical universe", since it includes as its field, in addition to waking physical consciousness, the fields of all dream objects, "hallucinations" or hypnogogic visions, and of any other objects that may be experienced during objective life or after death that there may be. In this sense, the psychical states in which phantasies, so called, are experienced are classed as part of the universe.
[Aphorism 9: Consciousness of objects is the Universe.]

Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985),
Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object
(Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness)
(Julian Press, NY, 1973, p. 103, pp. 197-198)

192)

Chapter 9 in Franklin Merell-Wolff's Pathways through to Space (1936):
As the lower cannot command the Higher, the individual ego is not lord over
the Universal SELF. Hence, from the individual standpoint, the Realization
is spontaneous and thus is often called an act of Grace. The SELF, which
it must be remembered is Identical with Divinity, does not stand within
the causal sequence. Consequently, strictly considered, Realization of
the SELF is never an effect of causes set up by the individual man acting
in space and time. The latter through his effort prepares the candle,
as it were, but the Flame is lighted through a spontaneous act of Spirit.
But here is where Love enters in the highest sense, and Love is not
constrained by the causal law which governs with space and time.
Yet Love never fails the beloved. This Love excludes none, for—
I, Spirit, deny none of My children.
Such i not My Nature.
Ever waiting, above forgiveness,
I pour Myself in through the opened doors.
Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985)
Pathways through to Space IX.1-16
"Concerning the Spontaneity of the Self" (8-27-1936)
(2nd Edition, Julian Press, NY, 1973, p. 23)

193)

Sonnet 9: in Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1960)

There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
the clear light bursts and enacts its rose,
and the sea-circle shrinks to a cluster of buds,
to one drop of blue salt, falling.

O bright magnolia bursting in the foam,
magnetic transient whose death blooms
and vanishes— being, nothingness— forever:
broken salt, dazzling lurch of the sea.

You and I, Love, together we ratify the silence,
while the sea destroys its perpetual statues,
collapses its towers of wild speed and whiteness:

because in the weavings of those invisible fabrics,
galloping water, incessant sand,
we make the only permanent tenderness.

Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)

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

194)

Robert Lax's Poem 9 of 33 Poems (1988):

the port was longing the port was longing not for this ship not for that ship not for this ship not for that ship	the port was longing the port was longing not for this sea not for that sea not for this sea not for that sea	the port was longing the port was longing not for this & not for that not for this & not for that	the port was longing the port was longing not for this & not for that.	Robert LAX (1915-2000)
Robert Lax (1915-2000), 33 Poems, Poem 9 (edited by Thomas Kellein, New Directions, NY, 1988, pp. 54-55)

195)

Chapter 9 of Wei Wu Wei's Ask the Awakened (1963) is titled "The Readjustment":
Awakening is a readjustment. The state is always present, is our normal, permanent, real nature— as the Masters of all the doctrines never tire of telling us— but the conscious experience of it is denied us by a deviation of subjectivity on to a concept that, as such, is unreal, an object in consciousness appearing as its own subject. Until this phantom is exorcised by being exposed, subjectivity appears to be bound, and we cannot experience it as it is in reality. When this anomalous situation is understood, we need to start putting this understanding into practice, that is not just thinking about it, but experiencing it... However it is important to understand that there is nothing to acquire, but only error to be exposed, because acquiring necessarily involves using, and so strengthening that spurious 'I' whose dissolution we require. For this merely a readjustment is needed, such readjustment being the abandonment of identification with an inexistent individual self, an abandonment which leaves us unblinfold and awake in our eternal nature. To seek to persuade ourselves that we do not exist as individual entities is, however, to ask an eye to believe that what it is looking at is not there. But it is not we alone who have no existence as entities: there are not any anywhere in the reality of the cosmos, never have been, and never could be. Only whole-mind can reveal this knowledge as direct cognition which, once realised, is obvious. That is the total readjustment. And only 'I' remains.
Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986),
Ask the Awakened (1963), pp. 19-20

196)

Rafael Alberti's Poem 9 of Between the Carnation and the Sword:
... And I'll give her, if I return, a grapefruit
and a glazed earthenware jar,
one that looks just like her breasts
when they swing from one tree to another

But instead of the soldier,
there came only a terrified cry
that turned the memory of the poplars gray.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999), Poem 9 of Entre El Clavel Y La Espada
Between the Carnation and the Sword (1939-1940 included in
The Other Shore: 100 Poems, (edited by Kosrof Chantikian,
translated by José A. Elgorriaga & Martin Paul, 1981, p. 147)

197)

Verse 9 in Jack Kerouac's Sutra,
Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960):

The Realizer. Entertain no imaginations whatever,
for the thing is a no-thing.
Knowing this then is Human Godhood.

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

198)

Volume 9 of Paul Brunton's Notebooks
is titled "Human Experience & The Arts in Culture":
What matters is not only the quality of a man's consciousness but also
the quality of his day-to day living, not only the rare special mystical
ecstasies that may grace his experience but also his relationship with
the contemporary world and his attitude toward it. It is not enough to be
a mystic: he cannot avoid the common road which all men must travel. (I.2.9)

Any creative art which opens up an entrancing world of beauty to us,
if it refines and uplifts us, opens up a spiritual path at the same time. (II.1.9)
Those who write, paint, draw, compose, and sculpt should bring their
creations from spheres of inspiration which are radiant with light.
Yet too many do the very opposite and present us with misshappen
figures, patterns, poems, and musical pieces which nullify hope,
meaning, and order and enshroud gloom. (II.2.9)
Paul Brunton (1898-1981), Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
Volume 9: Human Experience & The Arts in Culture
Larson Publications, Burdett, NY, 1987, pp. I.60 II.4, II.34

199)

Paul Brunton (1898-1981),
Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
XV, Paras #9
from various chapters
Volume 15:
Advanced Contemplation
& The Peace Within You,
Larson Publications,
Burdett, NY, 1988,
Part I: pp. 4, 67, 170, 215;
Part II: pp. 4, 80
(Excerpts)

Para #9 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "Advanced Contemplation"—
The man on the Short Path moves forward directly to fulfill his objective. Instead of working by slow degrees toward the control of thoughts, he seeks to recollect the fact that the sacred Overself is present in his mind at this very moment, that It lives within him right now, and not only as a goal to be attained in some distant future. The more he understands this fact and holds attention to it, himself able to feel the great calm which the more he finds follows its realization, the more his thoughts automatically become still in consequence. (1.9)
Nature cannot be hastened. The bloom of a flower opens in its own proper time. If the Short Path yields immediate or quick results to some aspirants, it is only because they are persons of superior development. They have served their apprenticeship on the Long Path already, either in this life or previous lives. (4.9)
There is a single basic principle which runs like a thread through all these higher contemplation exercises. It is this: if we can desert the thoughts of particular things, the images of particular objects raised by the senses in the field of consciousness, and if we can do this with complete and intelligent understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it, then such desertion will be followed by the appearance of its own accord of the element of pure undifferentiated Thought itself; the latter will be identified as our innermost self. (7.9)
When he attains the state of the void, all thoughts cease for then pure Thought thinks itself alone. (8.9)
Para #9 from Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's
Notebooks: "The Peace Within You"—
A happiness that is continuous and unbroken, we find nowhere among men: the circumstances of their lives simply do not permit it to exist, as Buddha saw. (1.9)
This glorious interlude of blissful peace, when thoughts come to rest and speech is silenced, ought to be valued at its proper worth. (4.9)

200)

"Everything is Within You"
is Lesson 9 of Subramuniyaswami's
Merging with Siva (1999):

The Self God is within all of this. It is beyond all bodies. It is beyond all form. It is beyond all intellect, beyond time, beyond space. That is the big realization on this planet, the thing that should be yearned for, sought for; all desires should be pointed in that direction. And then, once realized, you live out the life of the physical body and do what you can do in service to fellow man who is also coming along the same path that you have walked on before. All knowing also is right within you. This body of light of the soul is the body of the superconscious mind. It is all-knowing... It's a beautiful thing to think about, that all knowing is within man. Everything that has been brought throught— all books, all systems, all religions, all philosophies— have come through man, but not always through the intellectual man or the instinctive man, but through the man whose body of his soul and his physical body have merged as one.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)
Merging with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Metaphysics
Himalayan Academy, Kapaa, Hawaii, 1999, pp. 20-21

201)

Section 9 of Mary Oliver's's poem "Riprap":
Now, in the dark, the white heron
strokes the air over the salt marsh, then she

� dangles the forks of her feet and her long legs and comes
floating down to the rocks.� She shakes herself, just once,
so that her body for an instant is a white fire—
and herself but the perfection of self,
a white fire.
If I look carefully I can see it.

Then the yellow eye moves, she arches forward slightly
and stares into the moving water,

Section 9 of Mary Oliver's's poem "Gravel":
I look up
into the faces of the stars,
into their deep silence.
Mary Oliver (born 1935), The Leaf and the Cloud
Da Capo Press, 2000, pp. 30-31, 44

202)

Koan 9 of Zen Master Seung Sahn:
Past Mind, Present Mind, Future Mind Cannot Get Enlightenment:
The great Sutra Master Dok Sahn was famous in China for his knowledge of the Diamond Sutra. On his way to a temple in the South, he stopped by a small tea house. The owner, an old woman, was honored to have such a great monk stop at her tea house. She asked him, "Now the Diamond Sutra says, 'Past mind cannot get enlightenment, present mind cannot get enlightenment, and future mind cannot get enlightenment'. So I ask you, with what kind of mind will you eat lunch?" Dok Sahn's jaw dropped. He stammered but could not answer and his face turned red. He was completely stuck. The old woman said, "You've studied the great Diamond Sutra for ten years! If you cannot answer this question, how will you teach the sleeping monks of the South?"
COMMENTARY: Silence is better than holiness, so one action is better than all the sutras. If you are attached to words and speech, you won't understand a melon's taste; you will only understand its outside form. If you want to understand a melon's taste, then cut a piece and put it in your mouth. A melon grows and ripens by itself; it never explains to human beings its situation and condition. If you are attached to the sutras, you only understand Buddha's speech. If you want to attain Buddha's mind, then from moment to moment put down your opinion, condition and situation. Only help all beings. Then Buddha appears in front of you. This is enlightenment and freedom from life and death.
Seung Sahn (born 1927), The Whole World Is A Single Flower:
365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life, Tuttle, Boston, 1992, pp. 7-8

203)

Poem 9 of Zen Master Seung Sahn's Bone of Space:
One mind perceives infinite time. One's all,
Everything's one. To let go when hanging
Over a cliff is the act of a great man. Winter
Proceeds north, spring enters from the south.
Seung Sahn (born 1927), Bone of Space
Primary Point Press, Cumberland, RI, 1992, p. 7

204)

Chapter 9 of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
is titled "The Writing on the Wall": and begins with
"What's going on here? What's going on?"
We learn that Argus Filch's cat Mrs. Norris has been petrified.
"A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but
hasn't got any magical powers." At the Hogwarts School for
Witchcraft and Wizardry, students are puzzled by the writing
on the wall: "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened".
Hermione asks the ghost Professor Binns who teaches the class
History of Magic about the Chamber of Secrets, but he reveals
little only to say that legends has it that some sort of monster
resides within. If Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin has the secret,
Hermione, Ron, and Harry plan to get some Polyjuice Potion that
will transform them into somebody else and pry away the secret.
J. K. Rowling (born 7-31-1965), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Scholastic Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 140-160

205)

At Age 9:
Titian (1487-1594) arrives in Venice (1497), and is soon
apprenticed in the studio of Giovanni Bellini (1435-1516).
Mozart (1756-1791) resides in London (1764-65) and publishes
six clavier sonatas and dedicates them to Queen Charlotte,
who gives Mozart's father 50 guineas. He also composes his 1st Symphony.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) gives his first public performance (1818).
Everyday he is made to start practicing at 5:00 am.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) starts the Hyde Park Gate News (1891),
named after the street where her family live.
Julie Andrews (born 10/1/1935)— while singing during an air-raid (1944),
her family discovers that her voice has a range of over three octaves.
Tatum O'Neal (born 11/5/1963) stars with her father
Ryan O'Neal (b. 4/20/1941) in the film Paper Moon (1973). She wins an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Jack Nicklaus (born 1/21/1940) starts playing golf (1949). He accompanies
his father (age 36) who has been told to do a lot of walking as therapy
to recover from an ankle operation. Nicklaus wins the U.S. Open (1962)
at age 22 and becomes the leading PGA Tour money-winner seven times.
[Sources: World Almanac Book of Who (1980);
Jeremy Baker, Tolstoy's Bicycle (1982), pp. 50-51]

206)

Numerology: words whose letters add up to 9

BREATH: 2 + 9 + 5 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 27 = 2 + 7 = 9

DANCE: 4 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 5 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

DIVINE: 4 + 9 + 4 + 9 + 5 + 5 = 36 = 3 + 6 = 9

ELEVEN: 5 + 3 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 27 = 2 + 7 = 9

GEOMETRY: 7 + 5 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 2 + 9 + 7 = 45 = 4 + 5 = 9

JUPITER: 1 + 3 + 7 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 36 = 3 + 6 = 9

LOVE: 3 + 6 + 4 + 5 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

PAINTING: 7 + 1 + 9 + 5 + 2 + 9 + 5 + 7 = 45 = 4 + 5 = 9

POETRY: 7 + 6 + 5 + 2 + 9 + 7 = 36 = 3 + 6 = 9

SUN: 1 + 3 + 5 = 9

TAO: 2 + 1 + 6 = 9

THIRTEEN: 2 + 8 + 9 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 45 = 4 + 5 = 9

VENUS: 4 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

WORLD: 5 + 6 + 9 + 3 + 4 = 27 = 2 + 7 = 9

ZEN: 8 + 5 + 5 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

© Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com
P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039
email: peter@wisdomportal.com (4-11-2002, updated 6-11-2004)