On the Number 15

The 8th odd number = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15

The 8th composite number = 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15

The 5th triangular number = 1, 3, 6, 10, 15

The 3rd hexagonal number n(2n-1): 1, 6, 15, 28, 45

The 4th Mersenne number (2ⁿ - 1): 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, 255

The 4th Bell number: 1, 2, 5, 15, 52, 203, 877, 4140, 21147, 115975,

The 6th lucky number: 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21, 25, 31, 33

The 15th lucky number is 63.

Sum of the 3rd odd & 5th even numbers = 5 + 10 = 15

10)

Sum of the 4th odd & 4th even numbers = 7 + 8 = 15

11)

Sum of the 3rd triangular number & 3rd square numbers = 6 + 9 = 15

12)

Sum of the 1st, 3rd, and 5 odd numbers = 1 + 5 + 9 = 15

13)

Sum of the 1st & 6th prime numbers = 2 + 13 = 15

14)

Sum of the 1st composite number and 5th prime number = 4 + 11 = 15

15)

Sum of the 5th prime number and the 2nd square number = 11 + 4 = 15

16)

Difference between the 4th and the 1st square number = 16 - 1 = 15

17)

Sum of the 3rd & 7th Fibonacci numbers = 2 + 13 = 15
( Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, 1170-1250)

18)

Sum of the 3rd, 5th, and 6th Fibonacci numbers = 2 + 5 + 8 = 15

19)

The product of the 2nd, and 3rd prime numbers = 3 x 5 = 15

20)

The product of the 2nd, and 3rd odd numbers = 3 x 5 = 15

21)

The sum of the 1st five numbers = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15
Also known as the Kabbalistic mystic number of the 5th path— Geburah

22)

Factorial 15 = 15! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 x 12 x 13 x 14 x 15
= 1,307,674,368,000 ( sequence of factorials)

23)

Quadrillion = 10¹⁵ = 1 followed by 15 zeros
In the British system, quadrillion = 10²⁴

24)

The 3rd & 4th digits of pi, π = 15 (3.1415926535)

25)

The 366th & 367th digits of phi, φ = 15

26)

The Roman numeral for 15 is XV.

27)

The binary number for 15 is 1111.

28)

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1

The 7th row of the
Pascal's Triangle
has the number 15
at the 3rd and 5th positions
in the sequence of 7 numbers.

29)

The earth rotates 15^o counterclockwise every hour. (360^o/24 hrs = 15^o/hr)

30)

Shi Wu is the Chinese ideograph for 15.

31)

15 in different languages:
Dutch: vijftien, French: quinze, German: fünfzehn, Italian: quindici,
Portugese: quinze, Spanish: quince, Swedish: femton, Swahili: kumi na tano

32)

Crystal wedding anniversary celebrates 15 years of marriage.

33)

The 15 day of the year = January 15
[January 15 Birthdays: Moliere (1622-1673), Arturi Virtanen (1895-1973),
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), Margaret O'Brien (born 1-15-1937)]

34)

The full moon falls on the 15th day of each month in the Lunar Calendar—
time between the New Moon and the Full Moon is always 15 days long.
Holidays in the Chinese lunar calendar:
Lantern Festival (15th day of the 1st month),
Ghost Festival (15th day of the 7th month),
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (15th day of the 8th month).

35)

8	1	6
3	5	7
4	9	2

The 3x3 Magic Square
of Saturn adds up to 15
vertically, horizontally,
in each row & column
as well as diagonally.

36)

The Lo Shu Square or River Lo Diagram
was discovered on the back of a giant tortoise
by Emperor Fu Hsi (2852-2738 B.C.)
This 3x3 magic square adds up to 15
in each row, column, as well as diagonally.
The trigrams became the basis of the I Ching
This is equal to the 15 days in each
of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year.

37)

O is the 15th letter of the English alphabet .

38)

Samekh is the 15th letter
of the Hebrew alphabet,
and means "support", with a numeric value of 60.

39)

Omicron (Ο, ο) is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, with numeric value of 70.

40)

Daad is the 15th letter
of the Arabic alphabet.

41)

A pattern
made from
15 squares
shows three
6-pointed stars.

from Richard Phillips,
Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction
Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 23

42)

Atomic Number of Phosphorus (P) = 15 (15 protons & 15 electrons).
Phosphorus is an essential component of living systems and is found in nervous tissue,
bones and cell protoplasm. Phosphorus exists in several allotropic forms including
white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). White phosphorus has two modifications
Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid. When pure, it is colourless and transparent.
It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulphide. It catches fire spontaneously
in air, burning to P₄O₁₀. When exposed to sunlight, or when heated
in its own vapour to 250^oC, it is converted to the red variety. This form does not ignite
spontaneously and it is a little less dangerous than white phosphorus. The red modification
is fairly stable and sublimes with a vapour pressure of 1 atmosphere at 417^oC.

43)

Atomic Weight of a methyl group (CH₃) = 12 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 15

44)

The 15th amino acid in the 141-residue alpha-chain of Human Hemoglobin is Glycine (G)
The 15th amino acid in the 146-residue beta-chain of Human Hemoglobin is Tryptophan (W)
Single-Letter Amino Acid Code
Alpha-chain sequence of human hemoglobin:
VLSPADKTNVKAAWGKVGAHAGEYGAEALERMFLSFPTTKTYFPHFDLSH
GSAQVKGHGKKVADALTNAVAHVDDMPNALSALSDLHAHKLRVDPVNFKL
LSHCLLVTLAAHLPAEFTPAVHASLDKFLASVSTVLTSKYR
Beta-chain sequence of human hemoglobin:
VHLTPEEKSAVTALWGKVNVDEVGGEALGRLLVVYPWTQRFFESFGDLST
PDAVMGNPKVKAHGKKVLGAFSDGLAHLDNLKGTFATLSELHCDKLHVDP
ENFRLLGNVLVCVLAHHFGKEFTPPVQAAYQKVVAGVANALAHKYH

45)

Lover's Blossom is a medium-sized flower with petals that change color with the barometric pressure,
varying from light blue to yellow to red. Heat seems to have a similar effect; for example, when worn
close to the skin, the petals are often pink or red, and one worn on top of clothing it is often
yellow or blue. Roughly fifteen petals are arrayed in a spiral, protecting a soft center bulb
which contains a thin, clear liquid with a sweet taste. The plant's seeds grow around this bulb,
and are covered in thin hairs which stick to cloth or fur. The Lover's Blossom typically grows
in temperate climates, on the edge of woodlands.

46)

City of York Rose
"Direktor Benschop" (1945)
Bred during WW II in Germany
by Rose-Tantau (1939)
Prof. Gnau x Dorothy Perkins
Large flowered climber/rambler
White blossoms with yellow center
15 petals in massive clusters
Sweet wild rose fragrance
Vigorous long arching, pliable
canes can grow 10 feet at one time.
Blooms early June through July

47)

15th President of the United States is
James Buchanan (1791-1868),
who served (1909-1913). Buchanan was the
only bachelor President of the United States.
Buchanan was on the 15¢ stamp
issued on October 13, 1938
in the Presidential Series.

48)

15¢ postage stamps of the United States:
Statue of Liberty, Scott #566 (issued Nov. 11, 1922)

4-2-1869: "Landing of Columbus" by John Vanderlyn
2-22-1890: Henry Clay after daguerrotype by Marcus Root
1-2-1893: "Columbus Announcing Discovery" by R. Baloca
11-30-1898: Henry Clay (1777-1852), U.S. Senator
12-12-1958: John Jay (1745-1829), 1st Chief Justice
3-8-1968: Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935), Associate Justice
7-28-1972: Mt. McKinley, Alaska, highest North America peak (20,320 ft)
7-10-1973: Progress in Electronics: early microphone to TV camera tube
— Elena Marzulla (Ed.), Pictorial Treasury of U.S. Stamps (1974)

49)

15¢ airmail stamps of the United States:
Mail Planes & U.S. Map Scott #C8 (9-18-1926)
8-19-1941: Twin-motored transport plane
8-20-1947: New York Harbor & Skyline
10-7-1949: UPU: World encircled by doves
1-31-1961: Statue of Liberty
6-6-1955: showing mailman
4-11-1925: Special Delivery: mailman & motorcycle (#E13)

50)

15th State to enter the Union is Kentucky (June 1, 1792)

51)

Fort McHenry Flag was the flag that inspired
Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner in 1814.
This U.S. flag (1795-1818) has 15 stars and 15 stripes. It flew
above the fort during a British attack which threatened
Baltimore. It now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington D.C. This flag appeared in the
3¢ Francis Scott Key issue (August 9, 1948)
and in the 6¢ Historical Flag Issue (July 4, 1968)
1814 Banner Is Now Too Fragile to Wave (NY Times, June 15, 2001)

52)

Each player has 15 checkers of his own color in Backgammon,
a board game for two players consisting of 24 narrow triangles called points.

53)

The first point scored by a side in a game of tennis is called 15.

54)

A rugby team is made up of 15 players. There are 8 forwards, who concentrate on winning possession,
and 7 backs, whose job it is to advance the ball. All players, though, get involved in offense & defense.

55)

15 Squares is a sliding puzzle game whereby 15 plastic or wooden squares
numbered 1-15 are moved in a 4x4 square one-at-a-time to an empty space
until the numbers are arranged in the order 1-15 or 15-1. (Online version)

56)

In ancient Rome, 15 select men called the quindecimviri
were allowed to look at and interpret the sacred Sibylline Books.

57)

The Old Testament counts the generations of Israel between Abraham and Solomon as 15,
and from Solomon to Zedekiah again as 15. Here, the reflection of an old lunar myth
cannot be excluded, since Solomon would then correspond to the full moon in all its glory
and Zedekiah, who was blinded, to the dark moon.
(Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers,
Oxford University Press, NY, 1993, pp. 214-215)

58)

Interstate 15 is 1435 miles highway
running from California to Montana.
Southern End: San Diego, CA just south of I-8
Northern End: Sweetgrass, Montana at Canadian border.

59)

The 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
was ratified on Feb. 3, 1870: The right of U.S. citizens
to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.

60)

15 Minutes is a two-hour film (2001)
directed and written by John Herzfeld.
Stars include Robert De Niro and Charlize Theron.
The plot involves a NYC detective and a young
fire department arson investigator tracking
down a series of grisly murders.
Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie & Video Guide,
Signet Book, NY, 2001, p. 448

60A)

15 Maiden Lane, 20th Century Fox film (1936)
Produced by Sol M. Wurtzel; Photoplay derived from
an original screen story by Paul Burger.
Starring Claire Trevor & Cesar Romero.
Richard Bertrand Dimmitt, A Title Guide to the Talkies, 1927-1963,
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1965, p. 504

60B)

Fifteen Wives, Invincible Pictures Corp. (1934)
A 68-minutes mystery film adapted from a screenplay.
Directed by Frank Strayer, Produced by Maury M. Cohen.
Starring Conway Tearle, Natalie Moorhead, Raymond Hatton
Richard Bertrand Dimmitt, A Title Guide to the Talkies, 1927-1963,
Scarecrow Press, New York, 1965, p. 504

61)

15 From Rome (I mostri) is a two-hour Italian film (1963)
Directed by Dino Risi; Screenplay by Agenore Incrocci & Furio Scarpelli,
Elio Petri, Ettore Scola, Ruggero Maccari, & Dino Risi.
Stars include Sophia Loren & Marcello Mastroianni
Andrew a. Aros, A Title Guide to the Talkies, 1964-1974,
Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1977, p. 82

62)

Fifteen Miles From Birmingham is a song by Alton & Rabon Delmore
I'm fifteen miles from Birmingham,
I'm looking up, I'm looking down.
Aint got a dime, just killing time
Can't go to Birmingham,
Can't go to Birmingham...

Just fifteen miles from Birmingham,
Up on a mountain looking down.
My heavy heart is sinking down,
For I can't go to town,
For I can't go to town.
from Hard Hitting Songs, Guthrie et. al.
Recorded by the Delmore Brothers on Bluebird B-8301-A

63)

Fifteen Ships on Georges' Banks is a song by Henry Bunker (1924)
No tongue can e'er describe the sea,
The sky was thick with snow;
Fifteen sails did founder there,
And down to bottom go.
from Minstrelsy of Maine, page 281
Collected by Fannie H Eckstorm & Mary W. Smyth (1927)

64)

The Ishtar Gate from Babylon was built by Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 B.C.).
The glazed relief tiles contain 3 vertical rows of 5 sacred animals
each symbolizing Ishtar's sacred number 15.
Ishtar Gate at Pergamon Museum in Berlin
(Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers,
Oxford University Press, NY, 1993, p. 214)

65)

15th Street-Prospect Park is an one island platform with two tracks
subway station in New York City on the IND Crosstown line.

66)

Cities located at 15^o longitude:
Brazzaville, Congo: 15^o 15' E longitude & 4^o 15' S latitude
Kinshasa (Leopoldville), Zaire: 15^o 18' E longitude & 4^o 20' S latitude
Kisangani (Stanleyville), Zaire: 15^o 14' E longitude & 0^o 26' S latitude
Cities located at 15^o latitude:
Guatemala City, Guatemala: 14^o 37' N latitude & 90^o 31' W longitude
Fort De France, Martinique: 14^o 37' N latitude & 61^o 5' W longitude
Dakar, Senegal: 14^o 42' N latitude & 17^o 29' W longitude
Khartoum, Sudan: 15^o 37' N latitude & 32^o 33' W longitude

67)

Kevin Millar
right fielder of
the Boston Red Sox
wears uniform #15
Millar also wore
uniform #15
when he played with
the Florida Marlins.

68)

The Sephiroth Path: Tiphareth (Beauty), Geburah (Severity), Binah (Understanding)
and Kether (Crown), has a numerical sum: 6 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 15

69)

In the Jewish tradition 15 is the number of the sacred name of Jehovah: Yah.
This name is composed of the letter Yôd, the numerical value of which is 10,
and the letter H, the numerical value of which is 5.
G. H. Mees, The Revelation in the Wilderness,
Book II, The Book of Battles, N. Kluwer, Deventer, 1953, p. 95

70)

The Ides of March fell on March 15 in the Roman calendar.
Julius Caesar was assasinated on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.

71)

An old schoolboy's Latin-class mnemonic:
In March, July, October, May,
The Ides are on the fifteenth day,
The Nones the seventh; all the other months besides
Have two days less for Nones and Ides.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), p. 96

72)

Confucius said:
At 15, I had my mind bent on learning.
At 30, I stood firm.
At 40, I had no doubts.
At 50, I knew the decrees of Heaven.
At 60, my ear was an obedient organ
for the reception of truth.
At 70, I could follow what my heart desired,
without transgressing what was right.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.), Analects, II.4.1-6

73)

Old age will come; disease may come before;
Fifteen is full as mortal as threescore.
Edward Young (1683-1765), "Love of Fame", Satire, VI.170
Burton Stevenson (Ed.), Home Book of Quotations (10th Ed.), 1967, p. 1349

74)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the age 15:
On voit à quinze ans le bonheur d'un homme sage,
comme à trente la gloire du paradis.
At fifteen we become aware of the happiness of a good man,
as at thirty we become aware of the glory of Paradise.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Emile, Book III
(French edition, p. 209; English edition, p. 146)

75)

Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here's to the widow of fifty;
Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean,
And here's to the housewife that's thrifty!
Let the toast pass;
Drink to the lass;
I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), pp. 381-382

76)

Cold in the earth— and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills have melted into spring:
Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and sufering!
Emily Brontë (1818-1848), Remembrance, Stanza 3 (1846)
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), p. 592

77)

Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Treasure Island (1883),
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), pp. 749-750

78)

'Twas one of her practical drives, she thought I'd understand.
But I'll never break sod again, till I get the lay of the land.
But one thing's settled with me: To appreciate Heaven well,
'Tis good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell!
Will Carleton (1845-1912), Gone with a Handsomer Man, Stanza 20 & Last Stanza
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), p. 731

79)

"Fifteen-two and a pair"—
Look at them! Granny and Gramp',
Playing so peacefully there—
And what of the wild young scamp
Who fashioned this quiet game
For numberless Darbies and Joans?
Gone with the wind like a flame;
Peace to his mouldering bones!
Thomas Augustine Daly (1871-1948), The Game of Cribbage
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 13th Ed., (1955), p. 853

80)

Hymn 15 in Book 3 of the Rig Veda is an invocation to the Fire God Agni:
Resplendent with thy wide-extending lustre, dispel the terrors of the fiends who hate us
May lofty Agni be my guide and shelter, the easily-invoked, the good Protector.
Be thou To us, while now the morn is breaking, be thou a guardian when the Sun hath mounted.
Accept, as men accept a true-born infant, my laud, O Agni nobly born in body.
Bull, who beholdest men, through many mornings, among the dark ones shine forth red, O Agni.
Lead us, good Lord, and bear us over trouble: Help us who long, Most Youthful God, to riches.
Shine forth, a Bull invincible, O Agni, winning by conquest all the forts and treasures,
Thou Jatavedas who art skilled in guiding, the chief high saving sacrifice's Leader.
Lighting Gods hither, Agni, wisest Singer, bring thou to us many and flawless shelters.
Bring vigour, like a car that gathers booty: bring us, O Agni, beauteous.Rarth and Heaven.
Swell, O thou Bull and give those powers an impulse, e'en Earth and Heaven who yield their milk in plenty,
Shining, O God, with Gods in clear effulgence. Let not a mortal's evil will obstruct us.
Agni, as holy food to thine invoker, give wealth in cattle, lasting, rich in marvels.
To us be born a son and spreading ofrspring. Agni, be this thy gracious will to us-ward.
Rig Veda Book 3, 15.1-7 (circa 1500 B.C.)
(translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896)

81)

Chapter 15 in The Papyrus of Ani,
Egyptian Book of the Dead is a Hymn to the Sun:
Worship of Re when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky,
when those who are in his following are joyful.
O Sun-disk, Lord of the sunbeams,
who shines forth from the horizon every day:
may you shine in the face of Ani,
for he worships you in the morning,
he propitiates you in the evening.
May the soul of Ani go up with you to the sky,
may he travel in the Day-bark,
may he moor in the Night-bark, may he
mix with the Unwearying Stars in the sky.
Egyptian Book of the Dead: Book of Going Forth by Day
Complete Papyrus of Ani, Chapter 15, Plate 20 (circa 1250 B.C.)
(translated by Raymond Faulkner),
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994

82)

Book 15 of Homer's Odyssey (circa 800 B.C.)
Telemachus, son of Odysseus, heading home for Ithaca:
[Pallas Athena:] "Telemachus, you've been away too long.
Think of the wealth you left behind at home
and all those insolent men ready to devour it...
As he [Telemachus] spoke a bird flew by on the right,
A hawk, swift herald of Apollo, clutching
A dove in his talons, plucking her as he flew
And shedding her feathers down to the ground
Between the ship and Telemachus himself.
Theoclymenus called him aside
And, clasping his hand, said to him:
"Telemachus, that bird did not fly by on our right
Without a god sending it. I knew when I saw it
That it was a bird of omen. Your lineage
Is Ithaca's most royal. You will rule forever."
The Odyssey, Book 15, 15.9-11 , 15.573-583
(translated by Stanley Lombardo), Hackett, Indianapolis, IN, 2000, pp. 222-239

83)

The word fifteen occurs 19 times in the Bible.
The word fifteenth occurs 18 times in the Bible.
The Complete Concordance to the Bible (New King James Version)
Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN (1983), p. 300

84)

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail;
and the mountains were covered. ( Genesis 7.20)

85)

15th word of the King James Version of the Bible's Old Testament Genesis = without
1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
— Genesis I.1-2 (1611)

86)

The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits:
their pillars three, and their sockets three.
And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits:
their pillars three, and their sockets three.
( Exodus 27.14-15; 38.14-15) (1491 B.C.)

87)

Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
( II. Samuel 9.10) (1040 B.C.)

88)

And it [Solomon's house] was covered with cedar above upon the beams,
that lay on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row.
( I. Kings 7.3) (1005 B.C.)

89)

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver,
and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.
( Hosea 3.2) (785 B.C.)

90)

Go, and say to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord, the God of David your father,
I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold,
I will add unto your days fifteen years.
( Isaiah 38.5) (1040 B.C.)

91)

On the fifteenth day of the first month is the feast of unleavened bread
unto the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
( Leviticus 23.6) (1490 B.C.)

92)

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly
and do no servile work. Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days.
( Numbers 29.12) (1452 B.C.)

93)

In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month,
the word of the Lord came to me.
( Ezekiel 32.17) (587 B.C.)

94)

In the 15th Psalm, David describes a citizen of Zion:
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness,
and speaks the truth in his heart.
Psalms 15.1-2(1017 BC)

95)

Book 15 of Proverbs:
A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
Proverbs 15.1-2, 15.4, 15.13 (1000 BC)

96)

15th Hexagram of the I Ching: Ch'ien / Modesty

THE JUDGMENT:

MODESTY creates success.
The superior man carries
things through.

THE IMAGE:
Within the earth, a mountain:
The image of MODESTY.
Thus the superior man reduces that which is too much,
And augments that which is too little.
He weighs things and makes them equal.

97)

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 15:
The ancient masters of the Way
aimed at the indiscernible
and penetrated the dark
you would never know them
and because you wouldn't know them
I describe them with reluctance
they were careful as if crossing a river in winter
cautious as if worried about neighbors
reserved like guests
ephemeral like melting ice
simple like uncarved wood
open like valleys
and murky like puddles
but a puddle becomes clear when it's still
and stillness becomes alive when it's roused
those who treasure this Way
don't try to be full
not trying to be full
they can hide and stay hidden
(translated by Red Pine, Taoteching,
Mercury House, San Francisco, 1996, p. 30)

98)

15th Verse in Chapter 1 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "Learning without thought is labor lost:
thought without learning is perilous."
15th Verse in Chapter 5 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said of Tsze-ch'an that he had four of the characteristics of a sage—
in his conduct of himself, he was humble; in serving his superior, he was respectful;
in nourishing the people, he was kind; in ordering the people, he was just.
15th Verse in Chapter 7 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for
a pillow— I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors
acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud."
15th Verse in Chapter 15 of Analects of Confucius:
Confucius said, "When a man is not in the habit of saying— 'What shall
I think of this? What shall I think of this?' I can indeed do nothing with him!"
Confucius (551-479 B.C.),
Analects, 1.15, 5.15, 7.15, 15.15,

99)

Tzu-ssu, Doctrine of the Mean or Chung Yun, Verse 15:
The way of the sage may be compared to what takes place in traveling,
when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near,
and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.
Tzu-ssu (492-431 B.C.), Doctrine of the Mean, 15.1,
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893

100)

Section 15 of Works of Mencius:
Mencius said, "Flowing passion nature is produced by the accumulation of righteous deeds;
it is not to be obtained by incidental acts of righteousness. If the mind does not feel
complacency in the conduct, the nature becomes starved. I therefore said, 'Kaou has never
understood righteousness, because he makes it something external." (II.ii.15)
Mencius said, "In learning extensively and discussing minutely what is learned,
the object of the sage is that he may be able to go back and set forth
in brief what is essential." (IV.ii.15)

Mencius said, "These— the senses and the mind— are what Heaven has given to us.
Let a man first stand fast in the supremacy of the nobler part will not be able to take
it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man." (VI.i.15)
Mencius said, "Filial affection for parents is the working of benevolence.
Respect for elders is the working of righteousness. There is no other reason
for those feelings— they belong to all under heaven." (VII.ii.15)
Mencius (371-289 B.C.), Works of Mencius, (circa 300 B.C.),
Translated by James Legge, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1893

101)

15th Verse in Chapter 18 of Astavakra Gita
(Sage Astavakra's dialogue with King Janaka):
One who sees the universe endeavors to obliterate it.
What would the desireless one do,
who beholds not though he sees with his eyes.
Astavakra Gita Chapter 18, Verse 15 (circa 400 B.C.)
(translated by Radhakamal Mukerjee, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1971, p. 138)

102)

15th Verse of Buddha's Diamond Sutra:
Subhuti, if on one hand, a good man or a good woman performs in the morning as many
charitable acts of self-denial as the sand-grains of the Ganges, and performs as many
again in the noonday and as many again in the evening, and continues so doing throughout
numberless ages, and, on the other hand, anyone listens to this Discourse with heart
of faith and without contention, the latter would be the more blessed. But how can any
comparison be made with one who writes it down, receives it, retains it, and explains
it to others!... Subhuti, in every place where this Discourse is to be found the whole
realms of Gods, Men and Titans should offer worship; for you must know that such a place
is sanctified like a shrine, and should properly be venerated by all with ceremonial
obeisance and circumambulation and with offerings of flowers and incense.
Buddha, Diamond Sutra, Verse 15 (400 B.C.), translated by A. F. Price (1947)

103)

15th Verse of Buddha's Dhammapada: Pairs
The evildoer grieves in both worlds;
he grieves 'here' and he grieves 'there'.
He suffers and torments himself
seeing his own foul deeds.
Buddha, Dhammapada, Verse 15 (240 B.C.)
(translated by Sangharakshita, Dhammapada: The Way of Truth, 2001, p. 16)

104)

Chapter 15 of Chuang Tzu is titled "Self-Conceit":
Such is the Tao of the universe, such is the virtue of the Sage.
Wherefore it has been said, 'In tranquillity, in stillness, in the unconditioned,
in inaction, we find the levels of the universe, the very constitution of Tao...
Being passive, the Sage is in a state of repose. And where passivity and repose are,
there sorrow and anxiety do not enter, and foul influences do not collect. And his
virtue is complete and his spirituality unimpaired... In repose, he shares the passivity
of Yin; in action, the energy of Yang. He will have nothing to do with happiness, and
so has nothing to do with misfortune... His sleep is dreamless, his awaking without pain.
His spirituality is pure, and his soul vigorous. Thus unconditioned and in repose, he is
a partaker of the virtue of God.' Thus, the pure is that in which there is nothing mixed;
the simple is that which implies no injury to the spirituality. And he who can keep the pure
and simple within himself— he is a divine man.
Chuang Tzu (369 BC-286 BC)
Chuang Tzu: Taoist Philosopher and Chinese Mystic,
Chapter XV: Self-Conceit, pp. 152-155
Translated by Herbert A. Giles (2nd Edition, 1926)
George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1961.

105)

15th Book of Enoch describes the dream vision of Enoch:
I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness:
approach hither and hear my voice... you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life,
and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives
for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.
And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called
evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.'
— Book of Enoch XV.1, 6-8 (circa 105 B.C.-64 B.C.)
translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1917, pp. 42-43

106)

15th Saying of Gospel of Thomas (circa 150 A.D.):
Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman,
fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
Gospel of Thomas 15 (114 sayings of Jesus)
(translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer, 1992)

107)

Chapter 15 of Pistis Sophia (circa 150 A.D.):
[Jesus said:] "Now it happened when all those that were in the twelve aeons
saw the great light which I had, they were all agitated against one another,
and they ran from side to side in the aeons. And all the aeons and all the heavens
and their whole order moved against one another, because of the great fear which
they had because they did not know the mystery which had happened...
However, through the command of the First Mystery, Jeu the Overseer of the
Light had placed them so that they were looking to the left at all times,
as they completed their (periods of) influence and their actions.
Pistis Sophia Ch. 15
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, IX: Pistis Sophia, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, pp. 24-25)

108)

Chapter 15 of Books of Jeu (circa 200 A.D.):
And there are twelve heads in each place, that is his ranks,
that is the names which are in the places. And there are twelve in
each rank, and this name is that of the twelve, except for those
that will be in them, when they sing praises to my Father, so that he gives
light-power to them. These are they which ... emanated forth when
the power of my Father radiated within him. He emanated twelve emanations.
And there are twelve heads in each emanation, and this name is that of the twelve;
and there are twelve according to each one of the ranks, and one surrounds
the other endlessly, these being their names, except for their watchers.
The three watchers...
Books of Jeu Ch. 15
(Translated by Violet MacDermott, Edited by Carl Schmidt,
Nag Hammadi Studies, XIII: The Books of Jeu, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978, p. 61)

109)

15th Tetragram of the T'ai Hsüan Ching: Ta / Reach
February 23 - February 27 (a.m.):

Correlates with Heaven's Mystery:
Yang; the phase Water; and the Yi Ching Hexagram 11,
Greatness; the sun enters the Wall constellation.
Head: Yang ch'i emerges, limb to branch to twig.
There is nothing that does not reach its full extension.
Yang Hsiung (53 BC-18 AD),
Canon of Supreme Mystery ( T'ai Hsüan Ching)
(translated by Michael Nylan, 1993)

110)

Stanza 15 of Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness:
Vaibhasika: If you assert that phenomena don't exist inherently
then you are asserting that they don't exist at all. So how can you
make distinctions like inferior, middling and superior or that there
are different beings in the six realms of existence? How then can you
assert the manifestation of a result which arises from causes?
Nagarjuna (circa 150-250 A.D.),
Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness
(translated by David Ross Komito, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, 1987, p. 82)

111)

15th Trigraph of the Ling Ch'i Ching: Hsing Ling / Implementing Orders
The image of destroying brigands
Yin dwells in the middle position
Li (Fire) * True south
Oracle:
The ruler commands the army's officers,
to extirpate brigands, the wicked, and the evil.
Bringing forth their weapons and brandishing halberds,
many are those who follow.
Verse:
Shooting deer is a moment's joy,
But awaits reliance on the masses to be achieved.
Heavenly peaches have already ripened,
Looking up, one begins to enjoy their splendor.
The deer runs off, a host races after him,
Achievement and fame lie in the moment.
The wicked and valiant now already known,
Peace and harmony pervade the Four Seas.
Tung-fang Shuo,
Ling Ch'i Ching (circa 222-419)
(trans. Ralph D. Sawyer & Mei-Chün Lee Sawyer, 1995, p. 57)

112)

15th Verse of Chapter 2 in Lankavatara Sutra:
Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva's Questions to the Buddha:
What is that which is born of causation? What is effect?
What is cause or that whichworks?
Whence the doctrine of duality?
Whence does it arise?
The Lankavatara Sutra (before 443 AD)
(translated from the Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki, 1932, p. 23)

113)

Han-shan's 15th Poem of Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:
Chuangtzu spoke of his funeral
Heaven and Earth are my coffins
whenever I come to that
all I'll need is a shroud
dead I'll feed green flies
won't bother white cranes to mourn
starve on Shou Yang Mountain
living hones dying's fine too
Han-shan (fl. 627-649), Collected Songs of Cold Mountain,
Poem 15 (translated by Red Pine, 1990)
( Robert G. Henricks translation, 1990; Burton Watson translation, 1962)

114)

Chapter 15 in the Bhagavad Gita
Krishna unveils to Arjuna the Tree of Transmigration:
There is a tree of Transmigration, the Asvattha tree everlasting.
Its roots are above in the Highest, and its branches are here below.
Its leaves are sacred songs, and he who knows them knows the Vedas...
There are two spirits in this universe, the perishable and imperishable.
The perishable is all things in creation. The imperishable is that which moves not.
But the highest spirit is another: it is called the Spirit Supreme.
He is the God of Eternity who pervading all sustains all.
Because I am beyond the perishable, and even beyond the imperishable,
in this world and in the Vedas I am known as the Spirit Supreme.
He who with a clear vision sees me as the Spirit Supreme, he knows
all there is to be known, and he adores me with all his soul.
Bhagavad Gita XV.1, 16-19 (circa 400 BC)
(translated by Juan Mascaró, Penguin, 1962, pp. 106-108)

115)

Chapter 15 of Mohammed's Holy Koran is titled "The Rock"
And surely your Lord will gather them together; surely He is Wise, Knowing.
And certainly We created man of clay that gives forth sound, of black mud fashioned in shape.
And the dwellers of the Rock certainly rejected the messengers;
And We gave the Our communications, but they turned aside from them;
And they hewed houses in the mountains in security.
So the rumbling overtook them in the morning;
Surely your Lord is the Creator of all thiings, the Knowing.
Mohammed (570-632), Holy Koran 15.25-26, 15.80-83, 15.86 (7th century AD)
(translated by M. H. Shakir, Holy Koran, 1983)

116)

Section 15 of Hui-Neng's Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (714)
Good friends, how then are meditation and wisdom alike? They are like the lamp
and the light it gives forth. If there is a lamp there is light; if there is no lamp
there is no light. The lamp is the substance of light; the light is the function
of the lamp. Thus, although they have two names, in substance they are not two.
Meditation and wisdom are also like this.
Hui-Neng (638-713), Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Section 15
(translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, p. 137)

117)

15th Verse of Chapter 1 in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara:
This Thought of Enlightenment is to be understood as twofold.
Briefly, it is the idea of dedication to Enlightenment (bodhipranidhicitta)
and then the actual pilgrimage towards it (bodhiprasthana).
Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Entering the Path of Enlightenment
I.15 (Praising the Thought of Enlightenment) (circa 700 AD)
(translated by Marion L. Matics, Macmillan, London, 1970, p. 145)

118)

Section 15 of Hui Hai's Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination:
Q: The sutras speak not only of samyak-sambodhi (full enlightenment), but also
of a marvellous enlightenment lying even beyond that. Please explain these terms.
A: Samyak-sambodhi is the realization of the identity of form and voidness.
Marvellous enlightenment is the realization of the absence of opposites, or
we can say that it means the state of neither enlightenment nor nonen-lightenment.
Q: Do these two sorts of enlightenment really differ or not?
A: Their names are expediently used for the sake of temporary convenience,
but in substance they are one, being neither dual nor different.
This oneness and sameness characterize all phenomena of whatever kind.
Hui Hai (circa 788 A.D.), Zen Teaching on Sudden Illumination, Section 15
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1962)

119)

Section 15 of Huang Po's Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind:
Q: At this very moment, all sorts of erroneous thoughts are constantly
flowing through our minds. How can you speak of our having none?
A: Error has no substance; it is entirely the product of your own thinking.
If you know that Mind is the Buddha and that Mind is fundamentally without error,
whenever thoughts arise, you will be fully convinced that THEY are responsible
for errors. If you could prevent all conceptual movements of thought and still
your thinking-processes, naturally there would be no error left in you.
Therefore is it said: 'When thoughts arise, then do all things arise.
When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.'
Huang Po (died 850 A.D.), Zen Teaching on the Transmission of Mind,
The Wan Ling Record, Section 15
(translated by John Blofeld, Rider & Co., London, 1958, p. 80)

120)

Section 15 of Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds":
Someone asked: "What does 'Sitting correctly and contemplating true reality' mean?"
The Master said, "A coin lost in the river is found in the river."
Master Yun-Men (864-949),
Record of the Chan Master "Gate of the Clouds"
translated by Urs App, Kodansha International, NY & Tokyo, 1994, p. 92

121)

Case 15 of Hekiganroku: Ummon's "No Preaching on Oneness"
Main Subject:
A monk asked Ummon, "What is it when no thought is stirring
and nothing presents itself?" Ummon said, "No preaching on oneness."
Setcho's Verse:
No oneness! Each holds one tally.
He lives and dies with you, all the same.
The eighty-four thousand did not respond quickly;
The thirty-three entered the tiger's cave.
Remarkable: see how turbulent—
The moon reflected on the waves.
Setcho (980-1052), Hekiganroku, 15 (Blue Cliff Records)
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, p. 186)

122)

Chou Tun-Yi (1017-1073), Penetrating Book of Changes,
Ch. 15: Love and Reverence:
"Suppose I do not measure up to the goodness of others. What shall I do?"
"If you do not measure up to it, learn to do so."
"What if others do evil?"
"If they do evil, tell them that it is evil and, furthermore, exhort them,
saying, 'Suppose you change your ways. You will then be a superior man.'
If one person does good and two do evil, learn from the one and exhort the two.
If someone should say, 'So-and-so does evil but it is not a great wrong,'
you should say, 'Who does not make mistakes? How do we know that they
cannot be corrected? If one corrects his mistakes, he will be a superior man.
If he does not correct them, that will be wrong, and Heaven dislikes the wrong.
Does he not fear Heave? How do we know he cannot correct his mistakes?'"
Therefore the superior man possesses all virtues and is loved and revered by all.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 471)

123)

Shao Yung (1011-1077), Supreme Principles Governing the World, Section 15:
In the human being, ch'ien constitutes
the male element while k'un constitutes the female element.
On the infra-human, ch'ien constitutes yin while k'un constitutes yang.
(Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 1963, p. 490)

124)

Chapter 15: The Song at the Inn
from Mila Grubum or The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa:
The Three Precious Ones, supporting all
In the realm of Non-doing Awareness—
I realize them all!
Why then should I pray to them?
Happy is the practice of Yoga
Without Mantra and muttering!

The bestower of the two Siddhis
is the protecting Buddha.
In the realm of Great Illumination,
I have completely realized the Buddha
of Non-existence,
And so I need not practice the Arising Yoga!
Happy is the experience
Of identifying the Self-body with the Buddha!

The Dakinis sweep all obstacles away
and destroy misfortunes;
In the realm of Self-essence, the plane of origin,
I have completely realized them.
And so I have no need to make the ritual offering!
Happy is the Yoga
In which the six sense-organs relax at ease!

Apprehensions are the source of hindrances.
In the realm of Dharma Essence,
I identify demon-seeing with the Perfection;
Therefore, I need do no exorcising.
Happy is the Yoga
In which I identify the Dharmakaya with apprehensions!

The words and writing, the dogmas
And the logic I absorb
In the Realm of Illuminating Consciousness.
For me, there is no need of learning.
Happy is the experience of Yoga,
The source of all the Sutras.
Milarepa (1040-1123), The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Ch. 15
(translated by Garma C. C. Chang, Shambhala, Boston, 1999, pp. 153-154)

125)

Verse 15 of Rubáiyát, of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122):
And those who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.
(translated by Edward Fitzgerald, London, 1st edition 1859, 2nd edition 1868)

126)

Section 15 of St. Bernard's On Loving God: discusses our debt to God's gifts:
"He spoke and they were made." [Psalms 148.5] But he who made me by a single word,
in remaking me had to speak many words, work miracles, suffer hardships, and not only
hardships but even unjust treatment. "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he
has given me?" [Psalms 115.12] In his first work he gave me myself; in his second
work he gave me himself; when he gave me himself, he gave me back myself.
Given, and regiven, I owe myself twice over. What can I give God in return for himself?
Even if I could give him myself a thousand times, what am I to God?
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), On Loving God
Chapter V.15: What shall I render to the Lord for all these gifts
(Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God with Analytical Commentary by Emero Stiegman,
Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1995, pp. 17-18, pp. 79-80)

127)

Chapter 15 of Saint Francis of Assisi's The Little Flowers: St. Clare & St. Francis—
And when mealtime came, Saint Francis and Saint Clare sat down together,
and first one of the companions of St. Francis with the companion of St. Clare,
then all of the other brothers, humbly gathered around the table. As they began
to eat, St. Francis began to speak of God so gently and profoundly and marvelously
that divine grace descended upon them in such abundance that they were all lifted
up to God. And they remained enraptured, with their eyes and hands raised up to God.
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), The Little Flowers of St. Francis, Ch. XV
(translated by Serge Hughes, Mentor-Omega Book, New York, 1964, pp. 74-75)

128)

Section 15 of Chu Hsi's Chin-ssu lu:
The Way of the sage is as level as a highway. The trouble with students is that
they do not know how to enter it. If they know, they will reach it no matter how
far away it is. Are not the Classics the way by which to enter it? Today many
people study the Classics, but every one is as stupid as the person who bought the
box but returned the pearls in it. The Classics are vehicles of moral principles.
Merely to read their sentences and to understand the meanings of their words without
getting down to their moral principles is to accumulate useless dregs. I hope you
will search for moral principles through the Classics. If you make more and more
effort, some day you will see the Way lofty before you. You will be as happy as
if you were dancing with your hands and feet without knowing it. Then even
without further effort you cannot help but keep going.
Chu Hsi (1130-1200), Reflections on Things at Hand (Chin-ssu lu)
translated by Wing-Tsit Chan
Columbia University Press, NY, 1967, pp. 47-48

129)

Chapter 15 of William of Auvergne's The Trinity, or the First Principle:
to be love is to be a gift, to love will necessarily be to give a gift...
Hence, the first generative intellect is not pregnant with will, nor is will
its offspring. Thus its offspring is wisdom, and this is what Ecclesiasticus says:
"Wisdom was created first of all, and understanding of prudence from all eternity"
[Si 14.4]... I want you to understand that teaching is a seed that is cast into
the womb of the intellect through the ears and eyes... Of itself alone and through
itself alone it will generate and give birth to wisdom, and not piece by piece,
nor in parts nor at different times, but the whole of it at once... Hence the first
generation is eternal, and the first son is coeternal with the eternal Father...
Hence, they are both equal in power... For nothing flows out from what is full
except that which is in it and that of which it is the fullness... For what does
the brilliance of God mean but that the Father himself is so luminous that he is
pregnant with light? I mean that he is luminous with wisdom, for this is his
brilliance and it is so abundant in itself that he emanates and pours forth
a light equal to himself in all respects with no lessening or loss. In the same
way he is called the "splendor of the eternal light" [Wisdom 7.26],
that is the most pure splendor radiating and darting forth and flashing out
from the original light... Also, he is "the mirror without blemish of the
divine majesty", because in him there is reflected most purely and fully
the majesty or greatness of God the Father. For in him one can see the Father,
as he himself says: "Who sees me, sees also the Father" [John 14.9],
not merely through a likeness, because he is the image and likeness of the Father,
but also according to essece, since his essence is the same as the Father's.
He is then the mirror of the paternal majesty because he is of the same majesty
as the Father and of the same greatness in every respect.
William of Auvergne (1180-1249), The Trinity, or the First Principle, Ch. XV
(translated by Roland J. Teske & Francis C. Wade,
Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1989, pp. 127-132)

130)

Case 15 of Mumonkan: Tozan's Sixty Blows
Tozan came to study with Ummon. Ummon asked, "Where are you from?"
"From Sato," Tozan replied. "Where were you during the summer?"
"Well, I was at themonastery of Hozu, south of the lake."
"When did you leave there?" Ummon asked. "On August 25" was Tozan's reply.
"I spare you sixty blows," Ummon said.
The next day Tozan came to Ummon and said,
"Yesterday you said you spared me sixty blows.
I beg to ask you, where was I at fault?"
"Oh, you rice bag!" shouted Ummon.
"What makes you wander about, now west of the river, now south of the lake?"
Tozan thereupon came to a mighty enlightenment experience.
Mumon's Comment:
If Ummon had given Tozan the true food of Zen and encouraged him to develop
an active Zen spirit, his school would not have declined as it did. Tozan had
an agonizing struggle through the whole night, lost in the sea of right and wrong.
He reached a complete impasse. After waiting for the dawn, he again went to Ummon,
and Ummon again made him a picture book of Zen. Even though he was directly enlightened,
Tozan could not be called brilliant. Now I want to ask you, should Tozan have been given
sixty blows or not? If you say yes, you admit that all the universe should be beaten.
If you say no, then you accuse Ummon of telling a lie. If you really understand
the secret, you will be able to breathe out Zen spirit with the very mouth of Tozan.
Mumon's Verse:
The lion had a secret to puzzle his cub;
The cub crouched, leaped, and dashed forward.
The second time, a casual move led to checkmate.
The first arrow was light, but the second went deep.
Mumon Ekai (1183-1260), Mumonkan, 15
(translated by Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, 1977, pp. 61-62)

131)

Verse 15: "You Must Awaken the Non-Abiding Mind" of Dogen (1200-1253):
The comings and goings
Of the waterfowl
Leave no trace,
Yet the paths it follows
Are never forgotten.
(translated by Steven Heine, Zen Poetry of Dogen,
Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1997, p. 102)

132)

Verse 15 of Rumi's Rubaiyat Quatrains:
come my love
you're that precious sun
without you
living colors
in leaves and gardens
are gone
without you it's all
dust and dark
come my love
my party has no spark
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Rubaiyat Quatrains XV
Rumi Dancing the Flame, from 10th Persian Edition of Furuzanfar, Quatrain #15
(translated by Nader Khalili, 2001, pp. 35, 245)

133)

Chapter 15 of Rumi's Discourses (Fihi ma fihi):
That which God has decreed from all eternity, ill for ill and good for good, can never
change because God is the decreer. Who would say to do evil in order to have good?
Does anyone ever plant wheat and reap barley, or plant barley and reap wheat?
It is not possible. All the saints and prophets have said that the recompense
for good is good and the retribution for evil, evil. And whoever shall have
wrought good of the weight of an ant, shall behold the same [99:7-8]...
A babbler asked, "How is it that we sometimes see mean men happy and good men wretched?"
The mean person either did or contemplated doing good to be happy, and the good man
who became wretched either did or contemplated doing evil to become so. It is like
Iblis when he objected to Adam and said, "Thou hast created me of fire, and hast
created him of clay" [7:12]. After having been chief among the angels, he was eternally
accursed and exiled from God's presence. We too say that the reward for good is good
and the reward for evil is evil.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)
Signs of the Unseen: Discourses of Rumi, Chapter 15
(Translated by W. M. Thackston, Jr., Threshold Books, Putney, VT, 1994, p. 70)

134)

Verse 15 of Yunus Emre's Lyric Poems:
Leave appearances. Come to essence and meaning.
Don't dwell in images or you'll never mature.
The Way is amazing but don't be deceived.
Let it be a wonder to see the Friend's face.
Dress yourself in love. Set out on the Way to the Friend.
Persevere and you'll have so much to see.
The city of Reality has seven doors, and over a gate the words:
"Come in and know the power of your Lord."
At the first door sits someone with a moon-like glow,
secure, without blemish, who knows what it is to be poor.
At the second door are two lions who've scared many away.
At the third door are three dragons— but don't turn back.
At the fourth door are four great saints.
You carry this word as a sign and evidence for admission.
At the fifth door are five monks
with much to sell, but you are to buy nothing.
At the sixth door sits a virgin,
radiant as the moon, but don't go to her,
because if you go to her and take her
and satisfy yourself, you'll fall short of your goal.
At the seventh door, seven great men of God
will say to you: You're safe,
come inside and meet the Friend.
These words I've spoken are not outside the body.
If you meditate you'll find them too.
Yunus speaks every word from the One Word.
If it is this ore you seek, you'll find it in humbleness.
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, pp. 35-36)

135)

Chapter 15 of Dante's Vita Nuova (1294):
After this strange transfiguration an intense thought came to me,
one which seldom left me but rather continually oppressed me and spoke
to me in this way: 'Assume that she were to ask you this, and that all
your faculties were free to answer her, what would your answer be?'
And to this another humble thought replied, saying: 'If I did not lose
my powers and were free enough to be able to answer her, I would tell her
that no sooner do I call to mind the astonishing image of her beauty than
the desire to see her overtakes me, and this desire is so powerful that
it slays and destroys in my memory anything that might rise to restrain it;
therefore, past sufferings do not hold me back from trying to behold her.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Vita Nuova
( translated by Mark Musa,
Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 28)

136)

Fifteen occurred once in Dante's Commedia:
Paradiso, 13.4: (Fourth Heaven, Sphere of the Sun)

quindici stella che 'n diverse plage

in heaven's different parts, those fifteen stars

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Paradiso, 13.4
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

137)

Canto 15 of Dante's Inferno:
(Circle 7, Bolgia 3: The Violent Against Nature—
Band of Sodomites. Dante meets his teacher Bruno Latino:

Ed elli a me: "Se tu segui tua stella,
non puoi fallire a glorioso porto,
se ben m'accorsi ne la vita bella"

And he: "Follow your star, for if in all
of the sweet life I saw one truth shine clearly
you cannot miss your glorious arrival.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Inferno XV.55-57
(translated by John Ciardi, Divine Comedy, Norton, NY, 1970, p. 77)
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

138)

Canto 15 of Dante's Purgatorio:
(From the 2nd to the 3rd Terrace— the Envious to the Wrathful;
Virgil on sharing of heavenly goods; Dante sees in ecstatic vision):

E i raggi ne ferien per mezzo 'l naso,
perché per noi girato era sì� 'l monte,
che già dritti andavamo inver' l'occaso,

quand'io senti' a me gravar la fronte
a lo splendore assai più che di prima,
e stupor m'eran le cose non conte;

When sunlight struck directly at our faces,
for we had circled so much of the mountain
that now we headed straight into the west,

then I could feel my vision overcome
by radiance greater than I'd sensed before,
and unaccounted things left me amazed;

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Purgatorio 15.7-12
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

139)

Canto 15 of Dante's Paradiso:
(5th Heaven, Sphere of Mars, Dante meets great great-grandfather Cacciaguida):

"O sanguis meus, o superinfusa
gratia Dei, sicut tibi cui
bis unquam celi ianua reclusa".
Così quel lume: ond'io m'attesi a lui;
poscia rivolsi a la mia donna il viso,
e quinci e quindi stupefatto fui;
ché dentro a li occhi suoi ardeva un riso
tal, ch'io pensai co' miei toccar lo fondo
de la mia gloria e del mio paradiso.

"O fronda mia in che io compiacemmi
pur aspettando, io fui la tua radice":
cotal principio, rispondendo, femmi.
Poscia mi disse: "Quel da cui si dice
tua cognazione e che cent'anni e piùe
girato ha 'l monte in la prima cornice,
mio figlio fu e tuo bisavol fue:
ben si convien che la lunga fatica
tu li raccorci con l'opere tue."

"O blood of mine— o the celestial grace
bestowed beyond all measure-unto whom
as unto you was Heaven's gate twice opened?"
That light said this; at which, I stared at him.
Then, looking back to see my lady, I,
on this side and on that, was stupefied;
for in the smile that glowed within her eyes,
I thought that I-with mine-had touched the height
of both my blessedness and paradise.

"O you, my branch in whom I took delight
even awaiting you, I am your root,"
so he, in his reply to me, began,
then said: "The man who gave your family
its name, who for a century and more
has circled the first ledge of Purgatory,
was son to me and was your great-grandfather;
it is indeed appropriate for you
to shorten his long toil with your good works."

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Paradiso, 15.28-36, 15.88-96
( Allen Mandelbaum translation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984)

140)

Verse 15 of Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden:
When we detect in Holy Men the tone
Of truth, we can but follow: I will own
Hafiz has never left the tavern since—
He can not leave the Friend of God alone.
Hafiz (1320-1389), Hafiz: The Tongue of the Hidden, Verse 15
adaptation by Clarence K. Streit, Viking Press, NY, 1928
(Streit on Time magazine cover, March 27, 1950)

141)

Verse 15 of Drg-Drsya-Viveka ("Seer-Seen Discernment") by Bharati Tirtha (c. 1328-1380):
The other power of Maya conceals the distinction between the perceiver
and the perceived objects which are cognized within the body as well as
the distinction between Brahman and the phenomenal universe which is perceived
outside one's own body. This power is the cause of the phenomenal universe.
(translated by Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore, 1964, p. 20)

142)

Line 15 from the Pearl Poet's Pearl: "that once could drive away my sorrow"

Sythen in that spote hit fro me sprange,
Ofte haf I wayted, wyschande that wele,
That wont watz whyle deuoyde my wrange,
And heven my happe and al my hele—

Since from that spot it fled that day
I waited often, longing for the precious thing
that once could drive away my sorrow
and increase my joy and my well-being.

Pearl (c. 1370-1400), Lines 13-16
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 54)
(This Pearl translation: by Bill Stanton, another by Vernon Eller)

143)

Line 15 from the Pearl Poet's Purity or Cleanness:

the hathel clene of his hert hapenez ful fayre,

"The man clean of heart gains good fortune."

Cleanness (c. 1370-1400), Line 15
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 112,
above translation by J.J. Anderson, 1996, p. 46)

144)

Line 15 from the Pearl Poet's Patience

Thay ar happen also that haunte mekenesse

Blessed are those who are meek.

Patience (c. 1370-1400) Line 15
(Ed. Malcolm Andrew & Ronald Waldron, 1987, p. 185,

145)

Verse 15 of Kabir's Raga Asa:
Kabir says,
"Listen, O saints,
you cannot take food
or wealth with you.
When the call comes from Gopal Rai
you have to go, leaving wealth and home.
Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 135
[note: Gopal = Krishna; Rai = God]

146)

15 lunar days in Kabir's Sloka of Raga Gauri:
Fifteen lunar days; seven weekdays.
Kabir says, "They have neither a bank on this side,
nor a bank on that side."
Sages and saints learn the secret:
The Creator, Deva, is everywhere.
Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 117

147)

Verse 15 of Kabir's Raga Bhairo:
He has seven thousand angels,
a hundred thousand prophets,
eighty-eight million sheikhs,
and fifty-six million legions.

Who will listen to poor me?
His court is far away.
How will I find
His palace? (Rest)

He has thirty-three million house-servants;
eighty-four thousand wander like nomads.
He looked with favor on Father Adam—
but even Adam enjoyed paradise only for a while.

Those who abandon the scriptures and do satanic deeds,
have turmoil in their hearts, and their faces
are pale. They blame the world and fume against everyone:
They reap what they sow.

You are the Giver, and I, forever a beggar.
If I say no to You, I sin.
The slave Kabir asks for Your protection:
Keep me close to You, O Rahman.

Kabir (c. 1398-1518)
Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth (translated by Nirmal Dass)
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 236
[note: Rahman = "the Compassionate"]

148)

Letter 15 of The Letters of Marsilio Ficino:
Consolation to Gismondo della Stuffa: If each of us, is that which is greatest within us,
which always remains the same and by which we understand ourselves, then certainly
the soul is the man himself and the body but his shadow. Whatever wretch is so deluded
as to think that the shadow of man is man, like Narcissus is dissolved in tears.
You will only cease to weep, Gismondo, when you cease looking for your Albiera
degli Albizzi in her dark shadow and begin to follow her by her own clear light.
For the further she is from that misshapen shadow the more beautiful will you
find her, past all you have ever known. Withdraw into your soul, I beg you,
where you will possess her soul which is so beautiful and dear to you; or rather,
from your soul withdraw to God. There you contemplate the beautiful idea through
which Creator fashioned your Albiera; and as she is far more lovely in her
Creator's form than in her own, so you will embrace her there with far more joy.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Letter to Gismondo della Stuffa (Florence, 1st August, 1473)
The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, Vol. I, Shepheard-Walwyn, London, 1975, pp. 54-55

149)

Section 15 of Wang Yang Ming's Instructions for Practical Living:
I asked, "With reference to the effort of concentrating on one thing,
suppose in reading books one's mind is concentrated on reading books,
and in entertaining guests one's mind is concentrated on entertaining them.
Can these be regarded as concentrating on one thing?"
The Teacher said, "Suppose in loving sex one's mind is concentrated on
loving sex and in loving money one's mind is concentrated on loving money.
Can these be regarded as concentrating on one thing? These are not concentrating
on one thing; they are chasing after material things. Concentrating on one thing
means the absolute concentration of the mind on the Principle of Nature."
Wang Yang Ming (1472-1529),
Instructions for Practical Living or Ch'uan-hsi lu (1518), I.15
(translated by Wing-tsit Chan, Columbia University Press, NY, 1963, p. 25)

150)

Section 15 of Lo Ch'in-shun's Knowledge Painfully Acquired:
"What Heaven has endowed is called the nature", refers to the oneness
of principle. "Following one's nature is called the Way", refers to the
diversity of particularizations. Master Chu Hsi was most fearful that
people might regard the physical being and the endowment of Heaven as two
things, and so he said that the physical nature is "the total substance
of the Great Ultimate descended into the physical being." But once he used
the word "descended", li and ch'i were inevitably sundered.
Only in "principle is one; its particularizations are diverse"
is everything encompassed, nothing left uncomprehended.
Isn't this the true meaning of the statement, "In the universe
there is no single thing that lies beyond the nature"?
Lo Ch'in-shun (1465-1547), Knowledge Painfully Acquired or K'un-chih chi
translated by Irene Bloom, Columbia University Press, NY, 1987, pp. 65-67

151)

Chapter 15 of Cervantes' Don Quixote
In which is related the unfortunate adventure that Don Quixote
fell in with when he fell out with certain heartless Yanguesans:
"Know, friend Sancho," answered Don Quixote, "that the life of
knights-errant is subject to a thousand dangers and reverses,
andneither more nor less is it within immediate possibility for
knights-errant to become kings and emperors, as experience has shown
in the case of many different knights with whose histories I am
thoroughly acquainted; and I could tell thee now, if the pain would
let me, of some who simply by might of arm have risen to the high
stations I have mentioned; and those same, both before and after,
experienced divers misfortunes and miseries... "Fortune always leaves
a door open in adversity in order to bring relief to it," said Don Quixote.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote Part I, Ch. XV (1605)
(translated by John Ormsby)

152)

Fifteen occurs 17 times in the works of William Shakespeare:
(1 occurrence of fifteens & 1 occurrence of fifteenth)
hadst thou not fifteen pence? (Merry Wives of Windsor, II.2.14)
alas, fifteen wives is nothing! (Merchant of Venice, II.2.161
these fifteen years you have been in a dream, (Taming of the Shrew, II.79)
these fifteen years! (Taming of the Shrew, II.81)
and slept above some fifteen years or more (Taming of the Shrew, II.113)
my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand pole (All's Well That Ends Well, IV.3.167)
it is fifteen years since I saw my country; (Winter's Tale, IV.2.4)
full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights (King Henry the Fifth, I.I.13)
sir, march is wasted fifteen days. (Julius Caesar, II.1.59)
driven to | when fifteen once has founders! (The Two Noble Kinsmen, II.4.7)
he that made us pay one and twenty fifteens and (2nd Part of King Henry the Sixth, IV.7.22)
that suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth (2nd Part of King Henry the Sixth, I.1.133)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973, p. 411

153)

"Thing that grow are doomed by time" in 15th Sonnet of William Shakespeare:
When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnets XV, Commentary

154)

Emblema 15 of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617):
Emblema XV: Let the work of the potter,
consisting of dry & wet, teach you.
Epigramma XV:
Look how the potter forms his vessels on the swift wheel,
Whilst with his foot he mixes the clay with the water;
He always relies on two things,
So that by his dexterity the liquid
quenches the thirst of the dry substances.
Act in the same way, now wiser by this example,
That the water may not dominate the earth,
but neither be dominated by it.
— Michael Maier (1566-1622), Atalanta Fugiens, 15
(translated by H.M.E. de Jong, Gardening:
Maitreya Three, Shambala, Berkeley, 1972, p. 67)

155)

Hymn 15 of Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629):
Yea, Truth and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,
Mercy will sit between,
Thron'd in celestial sheen,
With radiant feet the tissu'd clouds down steering;
And Heav'n, as at some festival,
Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.
John Milton (1608-1674), On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, Hymn XV

156)

11th Section of Swedenborg's Worlds in Space (1758):
When the spirits of Mercury visit other communities, they investigate the extent
of their knowledge, and having done so depart. There exists among spirits,
especially among angels, a means of communication which ensures that, if they are
in a community where they are accepted and loved, everything they know is shared.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), The Worlds in Space, 15
(translated from Latin by John Chadwick, Swedenborg Society, London, 1997, p. 14)

157)

Chapter 15 of Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854):
When the ponds were firmly frozen, they afforded not only new and shorter routes to
|many points, but new views from their surfaces of the familiar landscape around them...
For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious
note of ahooting owl... Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo, sounded sonorously, and the first
three syllables accented somewhat like how der do; or sometimes hoo hoo only.
One night in the beginning of winter, before the pond froze over, about nine o'clock,
I was startled by the loud honking of a goose, and, stepping to the door, heard the
sound of their wings like a tempest in the woods as they flew low over my house...
Sometimes I heard the foxes as they ranged over the snow crust, in moonlight nights,
in search of a partridge... I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment
while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that
circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden, Chapter 15: Winter Animals

158)

Chapter 15 of Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851):
However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless
prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully
explained. Oh! sweet friends, hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely
bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuits, and salted pork cut up into
little flakes! the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper
and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular,
Queequeg seeing his favourite fishing food before him, and the chowder being
surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition:
Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick or The Whale, Chapter 15: Chowder

159)

15th Poem of Emily Dickinson:
The Guest is gold and crimson—
An Opal guest and gray—
Of Ermine is his doublet—
His Capuchin gay—

He reaches town at nightfall—
He stops at every door—
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too— explore
The Lark's pure territory—
Or the Lapwing's shore!

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

160)

15th New Poem of Emily Dickinson:
There is no first, or last, in Forever—
It is Centre, there, all the time—
Emily Dickinson (Letter 203)
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
(edited by William H. Shurr, University of North Carolin Press, 1993, p. 20)

161)

"present impell'd by the past" in Line 15 of Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1871):
For what is the present, after all, but a growth out of the past?
(As a projectile, form'd, impell'd, passing a certain line, still keeps on,
So the present, utterly form'd, impell'd by the past.)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Passage to India Section 2, Lines 13-15
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)

162)

15th Verse in Tagore's Gitanjali:
I am here to sing thee songs.
In this hall of thine I have a corner seat.
In thy world I have no work to do; my useless life
can only break out in tunes without a purpose.
When the hour strikes for thy silent worship
at the dark temple of midnight, command me,
my master, to stand before thee to sing.
When in the morning air the golden harp is tuned,
honour me, commanding my presence.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), Verse 15

163)

Chapter 15 of Black Elk Speaks
Then, after he had offered the pipe, I had to purify myself in a sweat lodge,
which we made with willow boughs set in the ground and bent down to make a round top.
Over this we tied a bison robe. In the middle we put hot stones, and when I was in there,
Few Tails poured water on the stones. I sang to the spirits while I was in there being
purified. Then the old man rubbed me all over with the sacred sage... Standing in the
center of the sacred place and facing the sunset, I began to cry, and while crying
I had to say: "O Great Spirit, accept my offerings! O make me understand!" As I was
crying, and saying this, there soared a spotted eagle from the west and whistled shrill
and sat upon a pine tree east of me. I walked backwards to the center, and from there
apprached the north, crying and saying, "O Great Spirit, accept my offerings and make me
understand!" Then a chicken hawk came hovering and stopped upon a bush towards the south.
I walked backwards to the center once again and from there approached the east, crying and
asking the Great Spirit to help me understand, and there came a black swallow flying all
around me, singing, and stopped upon a bush not far away... And while I was crying,
something was coming from the south. It looked like dust far off, but when it came closer,
I saw it was a cloud of beautiful butterflies of all colors. They swarmed around me so thick
that I could see nothing else. I walked backwards to the flowering stick again, and the
spotted eagle on the pine tree spoke and said: "Behold these! They are your people.
They are in great difficulty and you shall help them."
Black Elk (1863-1950), Chapter XV: The Dog Vision,
John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (1932),
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NB, 1961, pp. 181-191

164)

Sonnet 15 of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus: Part 1

Wartet..., das schmeckt... Schon ists auf der Fluch
... Wenig Musik nur, ein Stampfen, ein Summen—
Mädchen, ihr warmen, Mädchen, ihr stummen,
tanzt den Geschmack der erfahrten Frucht!

Tanzt die Orange. Wer kann sie vergessen,
wer sie, entrinkend in sich, sich wehrt
wider ihr Süßsein. Ihr habt sie besessen.
Sie hat sich köstlich zu euch bekehrt.

Tanzt die Orange. Die wärmere Landschaft,
werft sie aus euch, daß die reife erstrahle
in Lüften der Heimat! Erglühte, enthüllt

Düfte um düfte! Schafft die Verwandtschaft
mit der reinen, sich weigernden Schale,
mit dem Saft, der die glückliche füllt!

Wait... that tastes good... it's already leaving
... Just a little music, a tapping, a hum—
Girls, you girls who are silent and warm,
dance the taste of the fruit you've been tasting.

Dance the orange. Who can forget it,
how, drowning in itself, it refuses
its own sweetness. You've possessed it.
Exquisite, it's been transmuted into you.

Dance the orange. Discharge the warmer
landscape out of you so the ripe will glisten
in their native breezes! Glowing, strip

perfume from perfume. Become sisters
with the pure, resistant rind,
the juice that fills the happy fruit!

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Sonnets to Orpheus (1921), I.15
(translated by A. Poulin, Jr., Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1977, p. 113)
(cf. translations by Howard A. Landman and Robert Hunter)

165)

Section 15 in Wallace Stevens, The Man with the Blue Guitar:
Is this picture of Picasso's, this "hoard
Of destructions", a picture of ourselves,

Now, an image of our society?
Do I sit, deformed, a naked egg,

Catching at Good-bye, harvest moon,
Without seeing the harvest or the moon?

Things as they are have been destroyed.
Have I? Am I a man that is dead

At a table on which the food is cold?
Is my thought a memory, not alive?

Is the spot on the floor, there, wine or blood
And whichever it may be, is it mine?
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),
The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Section XV
Collected Poetry and Prose, Library of America, NY, 1997, pp. 141-142

166)

Section 15 in William Carlos Williams, Spring and All:

The decay of cathedrals
is efflorescent
through the phenomenal
growth of movie houses

whose catholicity is
progress since
destruction and creation
are simultaneous

without sacrifice
of even the smallest
detail even to the
volcanic organ whose

woe is translatable
to joy if light becomes
darkness and darkness
light, as it will—

But schism which seems
adamant is diverted
from the perpendicular
by simply rotating the object

cleaving away the root of
disaster which it
seemed to foster. Thus
the movies are a moral force

Nightly the crowds
with the closeness and
universality of sand
witness the selfspittle

which used to be drowned
in incense and intoned
over by the supple-jointed
imagination of inoffensiveness

backed by biblical
rigidity made into passion plays
upon the altar to
attract the dynamic mob

whose female relative
sweeping grass Tolstoi
saw injected into
the Russian nobility

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

167)

15th Page lines in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, (13 samples):
the duskrose has choosed out Goatstown's hedges, twolips have (15.1)
pressed togatherthem by sweet Rush, townland of twinedlights, (15.2)
the whitethorn and the redthorn have fairygeyed the mayvalleys (15.3)
of Knockmaroon, and, though for rings round them, during a (15.4)
Year! And laughtears!), these paxsealing buttonholes have quad- (15.9)
rilled across the centuries and whiff now whafft to us, fresh and (15.10)
still nowanights and by nights of yore do all bold floras of the (15.20)
field to their shyfaun lovers say only: Cull me ere I wilt to thee!: (15.21)
Flippety! Fleapow! (15.27)
Hop! (15.28)
shins, and, Obeold that's pectoral, his mammamuscles most (15.32)
mousterious. It is slaking nuncheon out of some thing's brain (15.33)
pan. Me seemeth a dragon man. He is almonthst on the kiep (15.34)
James Joyce (1882-1941), Finnegans Wake, (1939)

168)

Chapter 15 of Ezra Pound's Cantos (selections):
"Whether in Naishapur or Babylon"
I heard in the dream.
Plotinus gone,
And the shield tied under me, woke;
The gate swung on its hinges;
Panting like a sick dog, staggered,
Bathed in alkali, and in acid.
'HéΛιov Τ' 'HéΛιov; [the sun, the sun]
blind with the sunlight,
Swollen-eyed, rested,
lids sinking, darkness unconscious.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972),
The Cantos (I-XVI), (1925);
The Cantos (1-95), New Directions, NY, 1956, pp. 66-67

169)

Poem 15 in H.D.'s The Walls Do Not Fall (1944):

Too old to be useful
(whether in years or experience,

we are the same lot)
not old enough to be dead,

we are the keepers of the secret,
the carriers, the spinners

of the rare intangible thread
that binds all humanity

to ancient wisdom,
to antiquity;

our joy is unique to us,
grape, knife, cup, wheat

are symbols in eternity,
and every concrete object

has abstract value, is timeless
in the dream parallel

whose relative sigil has not changed
since Nineveh and Babel.

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)
Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall, Poem 15
Oxford University Press (1944),
New Directions Paperbook (1998),
Introduction & Notes by Aliki Barnstone

170)

Sonnet 15 in Edna St. Vincent Millay's
Epitaph for the Race of Man (1934)

Now sets his foot upon the eastern sill
Aldebaran, swiftly rising, mounting high,
And tracks the Pleiads down the crowded sky,
And drives his wedge into the western hill;
Now for the void sets forth, and further still,
The questioning mind of Man . . . that by and by
From the void's rim returns with swooning eye,
Having seen himself into the maelstrom spill.
0 race of Adam, blench not lest you find
In the sun's bubbling bowl anonymous death,
Or lost in whistling space without a mind
To monstrous Nothing yield your little breath:
You shall achieve destruction where you stand,
In intimate conflict, at your brother's hand.

from Wine from These Grapes (1934) in
Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Harper & Brothers, NY, 1941, p. 178

Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892-1950)

171)

Poem 15 in e.e. cummings' 95 Poems (1958)

on littlest this
the of twig three
souls sit
round with cold

three(huddling a-
gainst one immense
deep hell
-o of keen

moon)dream unthings
silent three like'your my
life and our

e. e. cummings (1894-1962),
95 Poems (1958), "Poem 15"

e. e. cummings
(1894-1962)

172)

Poem 15 in George Oppen's Of Being Numerous:

Chorus (androgynous): 'Find me
So that I will exist, find my navel
So that it will exist, find my nipples
So that they will exist, find every hair
Of my belly, I am good (or I am bad),
Find me.'

George Oppen (1908-1984),
Of Being Numerous (1968), Poem 15
New Directions, NY, 1968, p. 20
Review of Oppen's New Collected Poems

173)

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
The Scripture of the
Golden Eternity
Totem/Corinth Book,
NY, 1970, pp. 26-27

Verse 15 in Jack Kerouac's Sutra,
Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960):

The lesson was taught long ago in the other world systems
that have naturally changed into the empty and awake, and
are here now smiling in our smile and scowling in our scowl.
It is only like the golden eternity pretending to be smiling
and scowling to itself; like a ripple on the smooth ocean of
knowing. The fate of humanity is to vanish into the golden
eternity, return pouring into its hands which are not hands.
The navel shall receive, invert, and take back what'd issued
forth; the ring of flesh shall close; the personalities of
long dead heroes are blank dirt.

174)

Aphorism 15 of Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Consciousness Without an Object (1973):

To realize Timelessness is to attain Nirvana.

Commentaries: [Aphorism 15: To realize Timelessness is to attain Nirvana.]
The realization of Timelessness should not be confused with the concept
of timeliness that frequently occurs in philosophy, nor with the notion
of simultaneity that is employed in classical theoretical mechanics...
When genuine realization has been attained, the self is found identical
with Timelessness. The difference here is of crucial importance, though
one that is difficult to convey adequately with ideas. Not only is it not
merely "knowledge about", but it is an even more intimate state than
"knowledge through acquaintance, such as that which comes through
immediate experience. It is, rather, a state of "knowledge through Identity."
This consciousness has a peculiar quality that is quite ineffable, but it may
be suggested in the following way: If we may regard all concepts and
percepts as being a sort of "thin" consciousness of surfaces only, then
the state of realization would be like a "thick"—substantial— consciousness
extending into the "depth" dimension... To realize Timelessness is to transcend
the tragic drama of Time. Time is tragic because it destroys the beloved object,
and because it is constantly annulling the unused possibilities. In the Timeless
State there is none of this tragedy; hence it is a State of Bliss without alloy.
But Bliss without alloy is simply another name for Nirvana.
Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985),
Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object
(Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness)
(Julian Press, NY, 1973, p. 105, pp. 211-212)

175)

Rafael Alberti's Poem 15 of Bull in the Sea:
The soldier, that dark soldier
from the interior, dreamed: "If we win,
I will bring her to see the orange trees,
to touch the sea she's never seen,
and feast her heart on sailing ships."

But peace came. And he was an olive tree
of blood flooding the fields.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999),
Poem 15 of Toro En El Mar (Bull in the Sea) included in
The Other Shore: 100 Poems, (edited by Kosrof Chantikian,
translated by José A. Elgorriaga & Martin Paul, 1981, p. 159)

176)

Chapter 15 of Wei Wu Wei's Open Secret is titled "Tathata":

'Subjectivity', not having any objective existence, can never die—
for therein is no thing to suffer extinction, nor can 'it' be born—
for therein is no thing to come into being. Therefore 'it' must be eternal
(aeternitas, that is beyond the concept of 'time').
Only objects can be born and can die, only objects can be perceived,
only objects can be thought of or conceived, only objects can appear to exist.
And all that 'exists' is appearance (phenomena) only.

About what is indicated by the word 'subjectivity' nothing whatever can be
cognised, not because 'it' is some thing that is not cognizable, but
because by definition 'it' is not any 'thing' at all. And yet, and inevitably,
'it' must necessarily be all that is and all that we are.

What, then is it? No sort of 'what'. Just sheer phenomenal absence,
whose absence is us (THIS which we are).

Wei Wu Wei (1895-1986), Open Secret,
Hong Kong University Press, 1965, p. 27

177)

Volume 15 of Paul Brunton's Notebooks
is titled "Advanced Contemplation" & "The Peace Within You":
This transparent light-world is the source of creation, the cosmic birthplace,
the home of dazzling primal energy. Galaxies, universes, suns, and planets come
forth from here. The revelatory, blissful vision of God's Form may happen only
once in a lifetime. Beyond it all is God without Form— the still void.
Paul Brunton (1898-1981),
Notebooks of Paul Brunton, XV.7.315
Volume 15: Advanced Contemplation & The Peace Within You,
Larson Publications, Burdett, NY, 1988, p. 209 (Excerpts)

178)

Sonnet 15: "Morning" in Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (1960)

The earth has known you for a long time now:
you are as firm as bread, or wood;
you are a body, a cluster of absolute substances;
you have an acacia's gravity, the weight of a golden vegetable.

I know you exist, not only because your eyes fly open
and shed their light on things, like an open window—
but also because you were molded in clay, you were fired
in Chillán, in an astounded adobe oven.

Beings: they dissolve like the air, or water, or the cold.
And they are vague, they vanish when time touches them,
as if before death they crumbled into dust.

But you will fall with me like a rock into the grave:
thanks to our love, which will never waste away,
the earth will continue to live.

Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)

Love Sonnet XV, 100 Love Sonnets: Cien Sonetos de Amor
Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1960, p. 35
(trans. Stephen Tapscott, 1986)

179)

Robert Lax's Poem 15 of A Thing That Is (1997):

do you know why i think he left me all that money? precisely so i could worry myself to death not about the money: about life itself i think he left me in charge of all that leisure so i could think & think & think & i think he knew it would someday drive me mad	Robert Lax (1915-2000)
Robert Lax (1915-2000), A Thing That Is, Poem 15 (edited by Paul J. Spaeth, Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY, 1997, p. 35)

180)

Koan 15 of Zen Master Seung Sahn: Bring This Sound Here:
Many students visited Zen Master Kyong Bong at the Absolute Bliss Zen Center in Tong Do Sah Temple. After they bowed to the Zen Master, he would always ask, "How are you?" One student responded, "Fine. And you?"
Kyong Bong said, "Give me your hand."
Then he held the student's hand, palm up, slapped it
and said, "Catch this sound and bring it to me."
1. If you were the student, how could you catch this sound
and bring it to the Zen Master?
2. The Hua Yen Sutra says, "All things are created by mind
alone." Then is this sound created by mind as well?
COMMENTARY:
The spring wind brings flowers, summer wind brings rain,
autumn wind brings fruit, and winter wind brings snow. If you want
the sound to become yours, then speech and words cannot help you.
If you are attached to speech and words, that's already a big mistake.
Seung Sahn (born 1927), The Whole World Is A Single Flower
365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Boston, 1992, p. 13

181)

Poem 15 of Zen Master Seung Sahn's Bone of Space:
The mountain sinks into the sea
And from the sea land emerges.
The sea contains all,
But depends upon Earth.

Earth possesses all
But is without weight
Direction or time,
And depends upon Emptiness.

Emptiness is all, all
Is empty. Who made Emptiness?
You, I, thinking.
Discard this. Then what?

The seed is at play with the tree.
The sky is at play with the stars.

Seung Sahn (born 1927), Bone of Space, Poem 15
Primary Point Press, Cumberland, RI, 1992, p. 10

182)

At Age 15:
Clovis I (466-511) is crowned King of the Salic Franks at Tournai (481 A.D.)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) publishes his first book of motets (1582).
Judy Garland (1922-1969) as Betty Clayton sings in the film
Broadway Memory of 1938 (1937) and becomes a star.
Ernest Lough (1922-2000) is the soloist for a recording of Felix Mendelssohn's
"Hear my prayer," which includes the treble solo passage,
"O for the wings of a dove" in the Temple Church, London (1938).
This recording went on to sell two million copies.
Deanna Durbin (born 12-4-1921), stars opposite Leopold Stokowski
in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
Pelé (born 10-23-1940) scores four soccer goals for the Santos second team (1955)
Paul Anka (born 7-30-1941) composes and sings the hit song Diana (1957).
Bobby Fischer (born 3-9-1943) becomes the youngest-ever International Grandmaster in chess (1958)
Sue Lyons (born 1947) stars in Stanley Kubrick's film Lolita (1962)
based on Vladimir Nabokov's notorious 1953 novel.
Nadia Comaneci (born 11-12-1961) wins three gold medals in 1976 Olympics
gymnastics, where she earned seven perfect scores of 10
[Sources: World Almanac Book of Who (1980); Jeremy Baker, Tolstoy's Bicycle (1982), pp. 58-60]

183)

Numerology: words whose letters add up to 15

IF: 9 + 6 = 15

EAR: 5 + 1 + 9 = 15

NEW: 5 + 5 + 5 = 15

WAR: 5 + 1 + 9 = 15

AIMS: 1 + 9 + 4 + 1 = 15

MARS: 4 + 1 + 9 + 1 = 15

PAUL: 7 + 1 + 3 + 4 = 15

SELF: 1 + 5 + 3 + 6 = 15

TUNE: 2 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 15