There is nothing in the world bigger than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount T'ai is little. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and P'eng-tsu died young. Heaven and earth were born at the same time I was, and the ten thousand things are one with me.
We have already become one, so how can I say anything? But I have just said that we are one, so how can I not be saying something? The one and what I said about it make two, and two and the original one make three. If we can go on this way, then even the cleverest mathematician can't tell where we'll end, much less an ordinary man. If by moving from nonbeing to being we get to three, how far will we get if we move from being to being? Better not to move, but to let things be!
- Chuang Tz
When I identify with the body, I am Thy servant;
When I identify with the soul, I am part of Thee;
But when I identify with the ultimate Self, truly, I am Thee.
All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the gunas of Prakrti, and the deluded man thinks that he is the doer of the actions. But the man who knows the relation between the gunas of Prakrti and the actions understands that actions are only gunas acting upon other gunas, and that he is not their slave.
- Bhagavad Gita 3: 27-28
The Tao gives birth to One.
All things have their backs to the female
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.
and stand facing the male.
When male and female combine,
all things achieve harmony.
- The Book of the Way
If we pursue the process of self-mainfestation farther, we shall see that each of these aspects or powers reposes in its first action on a triad or trinity; for Knowledge inevitably takes its stand in a trinity of the Knower, the Known and Knowledge; Love finds itself in a trinity of the Lover, the Beloved and Love; Will is self-fulfilled in a trinity of the Lord of the Will, the object of the Will and the executive force; Joy has its original and utter gladness in a trinity of the Enjoyer, the Enjoyed and the Delight that unites them; Self as inevitably appears and founds its manifestation in a trinity of Self as subject, Self as object and self-awareness holding together Self as subject-object. These and other primal powers and aspects assume thir status among the fundamental spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite...
Christianity began with a jump from One to Three. According to theologian Paul Tillich,
...As revealed by recent feminist scholarship, a large part of the human population of the planet once shared a goddess religion. Apparently this religion was trinitarian, and early planetary society was a Three culture.
The Stone Age trinity comprises three goddesses in one, called TriVia, the triple-headed goddess. In Catal Huyuk, around 6000 B.C., the triple goddess appeared as the first holy trinity of Madien, Mother, and Crone.
This early trinity may be a combination of vegetable, sky, and chaos (dragon) goddesses in one figure. It may also be derived from the phases of the moon - waxing, full, and waning - interpreted in connection with the menstrual cycle. The Latin name, TriVia, meaning the crossing of the three roads, derives from the placement of goddess figures at crossroads (and perhaps from the outline of the crotch). The Greek letter upsilon, our Y, was an important sign for the Pythagoreans, signifying the moral and immoral paths that might be chosen at maturity. The Pythagorean Y was a classic survival of the Paleolithic TrivVia (three roads meeting).
...In sum, there is the One (Brahman), and it is Three (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva). The sacred syllable, AUM, represents the One, and also the Three, as "A" is Brahma the creator, "U" is Vishnu the preserver, and "M" is Shiva the destroyer. Altogether, AUM, or Brahman, signifies the hermeneutic circle, the creative cycle of evolution, the eternal pattern of growth and life. Here again we recognize a concordance with TriVia as Maid, Mother, and Crone. As Mary Daly says, "Since we are by now familiar with innumerable myths of the triple goddess, many of which originated in the Middle East, the thought that in a religion of reversals the triple goddess would be presented disguised as these wise kings is indeed a Nagging thought."
Trinitarian monotheism is not a matter of the number three. It is a qualitative and not a quantitative characterization of God. It is an attempt to speak of the living God, the God in whom the ultimate and the concrete are united...The trinitarian problem is the problem of the unity between ultimacy and concreteness in the living God. Trinitarian monotheism is concrete monotheism, the affirmation of the living God. The trinitarian problem is a perennial feature of the history of religion.
Archeologically, Three cultures seem to be more numerous and long-lived than Ones, Twos, or Fours...This constitutes experiential evidence for some evolutionary advantage, or stability, of Three.
Foster: I'm still a bit hazy about the Trinity, sir.
Schoolmaster: Three in one, one in three, perfectly straightforward. Any doubts about that, see your maths master.
Schoolmaster: Now you're sure you've got the Catechism all buttoned up, Foster?