“ Now place the same two before a creek in a woodland. The creek flows by with its liquid sound and a third voice enters the exchange. This voice is unlike theirs. It has neither word nor opinion, and flows with the deepest imaginable neutrality. There is nothing red or blue, left or right about its passage. Whatever arguments our two antagonists can throw at it, it’ll flow the same. It’s not merely nonpartisan, but pre-partisan, sub-partisan, unable to be part-isan because it is of the whole. It is the same with the willow, alder and maple around them, and the sound of bird-calls in their branches, wind through the many shapes of leaves.”
.
All the things in the cosmos are together in one place.
Each thing is moved by nature’s pattern.
Signals give direction.
The whole divides in to parts. 🧬
The parts move around and in and out of each other.
Like water flowing in rivers 💦 and oceans 🌊 and changing into vapor 💨 and snow ⛄️❄️and ice 🧊.
The water flows in and out of creatures 🐿️ and plants 🌱.
Every part is circulating. 💫☄️🪐⛈️🦠🧬🌪️
Everything in the UNIverse fits 🧩 because each part belongs to ONE whole cosmic song 🎶 and dance 🕺🏻 💃🏻
So many significant images of three and what a clear way to amend the binary. Thank you for your thoughtful and mythopoetic voice. Have you read Hospicing Modernity? Imagine you may feel a kinship. 🙏🏼🌎🌲
Rob, this post really stuck with me. The way you break down the power of three – not just as folklore but as a kind of universal principle – got me thinking about how deep this runs, even beyond the cultural and psychological. I think you’re touching on something woven into the very blueprint of existence, and it’s fascinating how this same concept echoes through physics, the human soul, and divine reality.
Let me build on what you laid out, but let’s stretch it across a few domains – from soul, to nature, to mathematics.
---
The Geometry of the Self – Ruh, Nafs, Nafs al-Lawwama
In the Quranic view, man himself is structured in threes:
Ruh (soul): The divine breath – untouchable, pure, and still.
Nafs (ego/self): The force of desire, ambition, and survival – pulling toward the material world.
Nafs al-Lawwama (the blaming self): The reflective, mediating force – shifting between the ruh and the nafs, never fully settled but always striving.
Think of it like this – without nafs al-lawwama, we exist as pairs locked in opposition.
The ruh pulls us toward transcendence. The nafs pulls us toward the earth. But the third element – the nafs al-lawwama – is the binding force that stabilizes, creating balance where contrast alone would tear us apart.
In essence, man is a walking triangle.
---
Physics and Flow – The Universal Language of Threes
Now, this isn’t just about the self. The same pattern shows up in the hard sciences.
In physics, one of the simplest but most powerful equations is:
F = ma (Force = mass × acceleration).
Mass (m) is the body – it sits inert, holding potential but unmoving.
Acceleration (a) is the shift – the disturbance, the cause of movement.
Force (F) is the result – the consequence of their interaction.
The force doesn’t just exist on its own. It arises from the interplay between mass and acceleration. Without all three elements, the equation collapses.
In the same way, pairs create potential, but the third brings movement – the bridge between stillness and action.
---
Flow Between High and Low – Nature’s Triangle
Here’s another one: flow. Whether it’s water, electricity, or even heat, movement always happens between two potentials – high and low.
High potential (positive pole) – A source of energy, full of possibility.
Low potential (negative pole) – A sink or grounding point.
Flow – The third thing that connects them, creating motion, transfer, and ultimately, equilibrium.
Take away the third, and you don’t get balance. You get stagnation.
It’s the same as having a man and woman without the binding force of love or shared purpose – the connection collapses.
---
Surah Al-Mujadila (The Divine Triangle)
This all made me think about Surah Al-Mujadila (58:7):
“Never is there any whispering among three, but He is their fourth.”
It’s as if the Quran is laying out a divine form of this third principle. Whenever there’s a pair (or even three people), there’s always an unseen force – God – binding the space between them.
Even in secrecy or plotting, a fourth silently completes the triangle.
It’s not just a metaphor. It feels like an underlying rule of existence – the same principle holding up physics, the soul, and human relationships.
---
Bringing It All Together – Cause and Effect
What struck me most about your post was how this idea of the third – whether it’s the job site, the child, or the shared goal – always acts as the stabilizer. But I think it’s bigger than that. It’s a kind of cosmic architecture that keeps everything from physics to metaphysics in balance.
Pairs create tension – light and dark, high and low, mass and acceleration – but the third completes the cycle, allowing for movement, flow, and balance.
Man and woman exist as opposites – but the child binds them into a family.
Heaven and earth remain apart – but rain flows between them, binding the cycle of life.
Life and death are contrasts – but the ruh (soul) carries us between them.
---
So when you talk about triangles as the most stable shape in the universe, I think you’re hitting on something far deeper. It’s not just about construction or relationships – it’s about the very way God designed reality to operate.
And maybe that’s why three feels so natural.
Because at the core of it, it mirrors the divine flow – the bridge that binds every pair and pulls everything toward unity.
Hi Ali: I'm glad this hit you in such a deep way. I like your observation regarding flow, that between two states--one providing, the other receiving--there is the third thing, which is the flow. I am thinking now of breath. It is a two-fold event, breath coming in, breath going out, and yet this third thing, the result, Life. And yes, there does seem to be something divine in the structure, how it repeats itself everywhere, and by doing so things happen rather than just exist. There is movement, story. The third thing is also a verb.
“ Now place the same two before a creek in a woodland. The creek flows by with its liquid sound and a third voice enters the exchange. This voice is unlike theirs. It has neither word nor opinion, and flows with the deepest imaginable neutrality. There is nothing red or blue, left or right about its passage. Whatever arguments our two antagonists can throw at it, it’ll flow the same. It’s not merely nonpartisan, but pre-partisan, sub-partisan, unable to be part-isan because it is of the whole. It is the same with the willow, alder and maple around them, and the sound of bird-calls in their branches, wind through the many shapes of leaves.”
.
All the things in the cosmos are together in one place.
Each thing is moved by nature’s pattern.
Signals give direction.
The whole divides in to parts. 🧬
The parts move around and in and out of each other.
Like water flowing in rivers 💦 and oceans 🌊 and changing into vapor 💨 and snow ⛄️❄️and ice 🧊.
The water flows in and out of creatures 🐿️ and plants 🌱.
Every part is circulating. 💫☄️🪐⛈️🦠🧬🌪️
Everything in the UNIverse fits 🧩 because each part belongs to ONE whole cosmic song 🎶 and dance 🕺🏻 💃🏻
Oh, Rob, this is beautiful!❤️I love your essay on the number 3. Thank you and wishing you the best always!~Kathy
A great piece of writing!
Rob, brilliant, thank you. Love this.
Beautifull Rob Thanks!
A reading to let sink in deeply.
So many significant images of three and what a clear way to amend the binary. Thank you for your thoughtful and mythopoetic voice. Have you read Hospicing Modernity? Imagine you may feel a kinship. 🙏🏼🌎🌲
It is on my list, and just moved further up! Thanks for the reminder.
Three, trinities, triangles: a lovely view of what we may yet do to save this wonderful old planet.
Rob, this post really stuck with me. The way you break down the power of three – not just as folklore but as a kind of universal principle – got me thinking about how deep this runs, even beyond the cultural and psychological. I think you’re touching on something woven into the very blueprint of existence, and it’s fascinating how this same concept echoes through physics, the human soul, and divine reality.
Let me build on what you laid out, but let’s stretch it across a few domains – from soul, to nature, to mathematics.
---
The Geometry of the Self – Ruh, Nafs, Nafs al-Lawwama
In the Quranic view, man himself is structured in threes:
Ruh (soul): The divine breath – untouchable, pure, and still.
Nafs (ego/self): The force of desire, ambition, and survival – pulling toward the material world.
Nafs al-Lawwama (the blaming self): The reflective, mediating force – shifting between the ruh and the nafs, never fully settled but always striving.
Think of it like this – without nafs al-lawwama, we exist as pairs locked in opposition.
The ruh pulls us toward transcendence. The nafs pulls us toward the earth. But the third element – the nafs al-lawwama – is the binding force that stabilizes, creating balance where contrast alone would tear us apart.
In essence, man is a walking triangle.
---
Physics and Flow – The Universal Language of Threes
Now, this isn’t just about the self. The same pattern shows up in the hard sciences.
In physics, one of the simplest but most powerful equations is:
F = ma (Force = mass × acceleration).
Mass (m) is the body – it sits inert, holding potential but unmoving.
Acceleration (a) is the shift – the disturbance, the cause of movement.
Force (F) is the result – the consequence of their interaction.
The force doesn’t just exist on its own. It arises from the interplay between mass and acceleration. Without all three elements, the equation collapses.
In the same way, pairs create potential, but the third brings movement – the bridge between stillness and action.
---
Flow Between High and Low – Nature’s Triangle
Here’s another one: flow. Whether it’s water, electricity, or even heat, movement always happens between two potentials – high and low.
High potential (positive pole) – A source of energy, full of possibility.
Low potential (negative pole) – A sink or grounding point.
Flow – The third thing that connects them, creating motion, transfer, and ultimately, equilibrium.
Take away the third, and you don’t get balance. You get stagnation.
It’s the same as having a man and woman without the binding force of love or shared purpose – the connection collapses.
---
Surah Al-Mujadila (The Divine Triangle)
This all made me think about Surah Al-Mujadila (58:7):
“Never is there any whispering among three, but He is their fourth.”
It’s as if the Quran is laying out a divine form of this third principle. Whenever there’s a pair (or even three people), there’s always an unseen force – God – binding the space between them.
Even in secrecy or plotting, a fourth silently completes the triangle.
It’s not just a metaphor. It feels like an underlying rule of existence – the same principle holding up physics, the soul, and human relationships.
---
Bringing It All Together – Cause and Effect
What struck me most about your post was how this idea of the third – whether it’s the job site, the child, or the shared goal – always acts as the stabilizer. But I think it’s bigger than that. It’s a kind of cosmic architecture that keeps everything from physics to metaphysics in balance.
Pairs create tension – light and dark, high and low, mass and acceleration – but the third completes the cycle, allowing for movement, flow, and balance.
Man and woman exist as opposites – but the child binds them into a family.
Heaven and earth remain apart – but rain flows between them, binding the cycle of life.
Life and death are contrasts – but the ruh (soul) carries us between them.
---
So when you talk about triangles as the most stable shape in the universe, I think you’re hitting on something far deeper. It’s not just about construction or relationships – it’s about the very way God designed reality to operate.
And maybe that’s why three feels so natural.
Because at the core of it, it mirrors the divine flow – the bridge that binds every pair and pulls everything toward unity.
Hi Ali: I'm glad this hit you in such a deep way. I like your observation regarding flow, that between two states--one providing, the other receiving--there is the third thing, which is the flow. I am thinking now of breath. It is a two-fold event, breath coming in, breath going out, and yet this third thing, the result, Life. And yes, there does seem to be something divine in the structure, how it repeats itself everywhere, and by doing so things happen rather than just exist. There is movement, story. The third thing is also a verb.
Beautifully put - A verb!