23

In Chinese culture, it is often said that if a man's nose produces a small flow of blood, this signifies that he is experiencing sexual desire. This concept can be seen in Chinese and Hong Kong films and in Japanese anime and manga. Male characters will often be shown with a nose bleed if they have just seen a nude or scantily-clad female, or if they have had an erotic thought or fantasy.

The "red thread of passion" is an expression used in Zen to describe the deep emotions that all human beings experience and deal with. Shakyamuni Buddha had to deal with them. All the ancestors had to deal with them. Why is it called a "red thread?" I don't know.

But passion can be defined as "intense feelings, such as grief, rage, love or eager desire." When that passion manifests itself in the lower two chakras, it is called "lust." When it is manifested in the fourth chakra, the heart, it is called "love." But in any event, the red thread runs through us all, it is part of our lives and who we are, and if Zen is to accommodate all of life, it must accommodate the red thread as well.

Human sex cells have 23 chromosomes, and the number 23 is auspicious. 23 is the number of people (16 females, 7 males) that Neo would have had to select in order to re-found Zion in The Matrix Trilogy. Michael Jordan's jersey number was 23. The number of letters in "George Herbert Walker Bush" and "William Jefferson Clinton" is 23. This is the 23rd-to-last posting in Water Dissolves Water.

Robert Anton Wilson, interviewed by David A Banton on April 23, 1988, said, "Well, 23 is a part of the cosmic code. It's connected with so many synchronicities and weird coincidences that it must mean something, I just haven't figured out yet what it means!. . . [April 23] is the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, April 23, 1556 and his death, April 23, 1616. Also April 23, 1616, the same time Shakespeare died in England, Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, died in Spain. April 23, 1014 is when Brian Boru died, he was the first high king of Ireland to be a political as well as religious leader. He unified all Ireland and drove the Danes out, and on April 23, 1014 he was killed by one of the Danes after the battle of Clontarf, where he defeated the Danes for the final time, and liberated Ireland from foreign rule. August 23, 1170 is when the Normans came in, and Ireland has been under foreign rule again, in whole or in part, ever since. On Aug. 23, 1920 James Joyce was discussing coincidences with a friend in a Paris bar when he suddenly saw a giant black rat and fainted dead away. So that ties Joyce together with the invasion of Ireland, and Shakespeare, and Brian Boru. All of this is in (James Joyce's) Finnigan's Wake, by the way."

Shakespeare was born on an April 23 and died on an April 23. Two 23's equal 46. Many contend that Shakespeare wrote the Book of Psalms in the King James version of the Bible, and the 46th word of the 46th Psalm is "shake" and the 46th word from the end is "spear." Coincidence? Perhaps. Synchronicity? Could be.

But meaningful? Not to me, but you might have your own set of meanings that differ from mine.