Background of Historical Insights:
 
 
 
"The Tao begot One. One begot Two. Two begot Three.  And Three begot the ten thousand things.  The ten thousand things carry Yin and embrace Yang.  They achieve harmony by combining these forces."  

--Tao Te Ching, XLII,1.
 
 

 
 
"In the boundless panorama of the existing and visible universe, whatever shapes appear, whatever sounds vibrate, whatever radiances illuminate, or whatever consciousnesses cognize, all are the play or manifestation of the Tri-Kaya, the three-fold principle of the Cause of All Causes, the Primordial Trinity.  Impenetrating All, is the All-Pervading Essence of Spirit, which is Mind.  It is uncreated, impersonal, self-existing, immaterial, and indestructible,"

 --Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
 
 
 

 
 
"All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of Nature; but the man lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor."  3:27
 
"But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature works upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave."  3;28
 
"There is nothing on earth or in heaven which is free from these three powers of Nature."  18:40
 
"SATTVA, RAGAS , TAMAS -- light, fire, and darkness -- are the three constituents of nature.  They appear to limit in finite bodies the liberty of their infinite Spirit."  14:5

-- Bhagavad Gita
 
 

 
 
 
The Gunas in Interaction

 
"All three gunas depend on each other, and help each other in the process of evolution, and in the process of self-development as the gross evolves back towards the subtle.
In the process of bringing each other out, one guna serves as the stepping stone for another.  A thing which is stable and tamas--dominated is provided motivation and activity by rajas that motion and activity helps in the process of realization, as the thing moves to attain its true and essential nature --which is its light, its sattva.  Hidden by tamas, sattva takes the help of rajas to bring itself  into light.
The gunas never become separated from each other, they always exist as one unit and one pair.  When one guna dominates, the other two form a pair which remains recessive.  But they are never completely away or absent.  The gunas are omnipresent.  Sattva makes a pair with rajas.  Tamas makes a pair with rajas.  Only sattva cannot directly join with tamas, for rajas is necessary to convert sattva into tamas, and tamas into sattva.  Tamas has no way to approach sattva without rajas, and sattva has no way to approach tamas without help of rajas.  Thus, rajas is the moderator, for without his help neither sattva nor tamas can act --for rajas is activity.
Sattva then can be seen as tamas transformed by activity into its ghighest frequencies.  Tamas, then, is sattva transformed by activity into its lowest frequencies."

-- Harish Johari, Dhanwantari
 
 

 
 
"In the centre of the Brow Chakra is an inverted triangle containing as its seed-sound (bija mantra) the sign of the word Om.  Om is the principal mantra of all the Hindu religious works.  Suffice it here to say that it announces the presence of the divine.
The triangle (trikona) intimates here, as elsewhere, the triple nature of the one being, which is the summum genus of all classification, reality transcending thought, beyond the classification of something and nothing, beyond the conception of presence and absence, yet three-fold.  The triangle in the Brow Chakra indicaties that this three-foldness appears everywhere, and the mind should always take it into account.  In the supreme reality itself, the Vedantins give the fundamental triplicity as reality (sat), consciousness (chit), and joy (ananda).  The Puranas (ancient legends) present the gods Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma.  Even the philosophy of the known world (the sankhya) gives qualities or attributes (gunas) of inertia, energy, and order (tamas, rajas, and sattwa)."

-- from Yoga by Ernest Wood
 
 

 

 

 
"Before examining these influences, "began Gurdjieff, "and the laws of transformation of Unity into Plurality, we must examine the fundamental law that creates all phenomena in all the diversity or unity of all universes.
"This is the 'Law of Three' or the law of the three principles or the three forces.  It consists of the fact that every phenomenon, on whatever scale and in whatever world it may take place, from molecular to cosmic phenomena, is the result of the combination or the meeting of three different and opposing forces.  Contemporary thought realizes the existence of two forces and the necessity of these two forces for the production of a phenomenon: force and resistance, positive and negative magnetism, positive and negative electricity, male and female cells, and so on.  But it does not observe even these two forces always and everywhere.  No question has ever been raised as to the third, or if it has been raised it has scarcely been heard.
"According to real, exact knowledge, one force, or two forces, can never produce a phenomenon.  The presence of a third force is necessary, for it is only with the help of  athird force that the first two can produce what may be called a phenomenon, no matter in what sphere....
"Returning to the world in which we live we may now say that in the Absolute, as well as in everything else, three forces are active: the active, the passive, and the neutralizing.  But since by its very nature everything in the Absolute constitutes one whole the three forces also constitute one whole.  Moreover in forming one independent whole the three forces possess a full and independent will, full consciousness, full understanding of themselves and of every thing they do.
"The idea of the unity of the three forces in the Absolute forms the basis of many ancient teachings --con-substantial and indivisible Trinity, Trimurti --Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and so on."

-- pgs. 77-79, In Search of the Miraculous by Peter Ouspensky
 
 
 

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