(The Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
Being a moral person is not about being a religious person or a person who says they believe in God. Yet lots of religious minded people want to claim the opposite is true. They want to claim that morality and religion go hand in hand just like they believe God and religion go hand in hand. For me, you don't have to be moral to be religious, or religious to be moral and the God concept is just another pattern-of-three ((G---O---D) that religions want to claim ownership of.
Problems of interpretation arise due to how a person defines God, morality and religion. For some, one's business, cussing, drinking, eating, recreation or sex have nothing to do with religion. For them, simply believing in God is being religious. They don't think you have to attend religious services to believe in God. And many of them don't think every bad thing that happens to them or others is because God is punishing them. Bad luck is just bad luck derived from bad situations that we can't blame God for, but many would blame business, politics or religion. They believe that current business practices, current political practices, and current religious practices make life on Earth a living purgatory or living hell.
Since I have been brought up in a dominant Christian-focused American culture, the poetry I have written reflects this orientation. If I had been brought up in a predominantly focused Bahaist, Buddhist, Hinduist, Islamist, Jainist, Judaist, Shintoist or even Satanist culture, my thoughts and feelings would necessarily reflect this influence, whether you view it good or bad. If I knew nothing about Science in the modern sense, or lived in a culture which oppressed the acquisition of knowledge about other beliefs, I might easily have been trained to see the world through only one lens of appreciation and would claim it is the best, it is without equal, it is THE ONE TRUE WAY and all others are foolish, mislead, or even infidels... when in fact I would be the one with limited knowledge and appreciation.
One of these appreciations is to take into consideration that there does in fact exist numerous types of religions and philosophies, all of which attempt some measure of understanding people, life and the cosmos. Whereas some delve deep into one or more topics, others appear to apprehend only a superficial approximation of knowledge about a given subject. The latter group prefers to perpetuate ideas derived from the perceptions of those held in esteem by their respective leaders, teachers or similarly denoted instructors. The story of Genesis is one of these. To many religious minded people it is considered a classic just as is "The Origin of Species" by Darwin, to many geneticists. Others have their own classics. For me, speaking as a self-proclaimed Threesologist, Alan Dundez' "The Number Three in the American Culture" is mine. Even though it doesn't actually discuss an origin for "Threes" other than being a product of the "Nature of Culture," it has led me to develop my own ideas about the Nature of Threes. For those interested in the Threes Phenomena, it is an important distinction.
For me, the topic of Threes, Morality and God are not about religion, no matter how long, hard and loud some theologians would clamor otherwise. They are distinct species, each trying to survive... Like the notion that DNA is the real survivalist because it has learned how to live in a variety of life forms just as religion attempts to do so. (This is why some prefer to view DNA as a type of organism that is not dependent on any single form of life for perpetuating its existence.) Threes, Morality and God are, like religion and philosophy (just like all human perspectives), just different types of survival mechanisms.
Some ideas endure for ages while others for a single life time. It is a tenet reflected in the concepts in which religions very often encourage people to look to the salvation of their soul in the hereafter instead of their personal survival in the present. Yet those making such claims very often are financially and socially well off enough to persist in such a claim because they have no social or financial worries because they typically are in a position to receive social and financial assistance. In other words, religious hierarchies are pyramid financial schemes where payments are received for made-to-be-believed-in products and services. Talk about an insurance scam! (They sell insurance to keep people from the presumed fires of hell.) Those on the top rungs get the most benefit in succeeding (or decreasing) order and convince those below them that they too can receive (one or more) great rewards so long as they pursue those behaviors which (basically) serve to assist them in their survival. They think it is morally right and justifiable to conduct such a scheme because they have convinced themselves that everybody benefits.
Irrespective of all the negative things one could say about religion, many religious people want to convey a positive message. But this positive message is supported by those who speak of the gloom and doom that awaits an unfaithful humanity such as is represented by the notions of an Apocalypse. (It is a notion that scares many people into not only believing in a religion, but paying an insurance claim against the presumed eventuality, by way of an insurmountable credit premium called tithing. Heaven is a house that many people hope to occupy by making a house payment with a flexible percentage which prevents them not only from any real ownership, but any REAL occupancy. It's all make-believe supplied through a positive message reinforced by a culture which embodies an underlying negative one. Religions would not last long if they could not scare people, on some level, to believe. To dispense with the pervasive culture of fear that religions perpetuate is to dispense with numerous tithing payments.
...To remain positive is an expression of being a believer in that one can achieve one or more of the "promised" rewards. If you're positive you're a believer, if you're negative, you're still a believer but focus on the negative aspects of belief and are therefore less faithful than those with a positive outlook. This too is another flavor of the pyramid scheme seen not only in religion, but businesses and politics as well.
Religion, politics, philosophy, science, art, sports, etc., are like different sized and weighted stones tossed upon a culture. Sometimes the ensuing splashes and waves are small and at other times they are large. Not too uncommon do they crash into one another to produce varying dramas. Each of us, plays a role in one or more of the dramas. Sometimes on a large scale but most often on much smaller scales. You can see the effects of one's culture in one's behavior, whatever criteria you use to interpret or judge the effects of the waves. For myself, with respect to threes and the topic of religion, let me also add a third called poetry. Although I have written poems that include topics found in religion, and thus may be called by some to be religious poetry, they are ideas which just "popped into mind." As such, they were never intended to be read exclusively as a religious topic. Such is the case with the "Three Wise Men" poem. I simply took information from the New Testament (several different printings thereof), and used it to describe the recurrence of "Threes."
Whereas some have claimed me to be a "Witness" to Jesus, it must be understood this was never my intention. Nor am I trying to advocate the Christian or any other religion. The so called "message" to be derived from some poems is that they are merely poems... momentary excursions into fanciful considerations for which one attempts to represent with a particular vocabulary (readily at hand), in a particular way. The meaning of the content can be just as fleeting as the moment in which it was rendered. It has no other meaning no matter whose neurotic obsessions with it say otherwise.
Instead of a pen knife and piece of wood to whittle on, I used a writing instrument and a piece of paper. Different types of knife, different pieces of wood, different times of the day, week, month, year and one's emotional, mental and physical states will ultimately alter the content of that produced. It is an artistic study. Like any student studying a variety of subjects, reading or writing about such doesn't mean they advocate it. Even though others would claim a person has a talent for something doesn't mean the person finds their momentary examination of such as a desirable life-long pursuit. The person simply studies long and hard to make a good grade in a course and when the course is over, they pursue something else for yet another good grade so they can graduate and get a diploma. Some subjects are pursued with intensity for nothing more than getting a good grade because the course is required, or perhaps after choosing and finding the subject not to be as interesting as one thought it might, they nonetheless do the best they can and then move on.
As a product of my culture, the content of the following poems reflects this. But please understand that some of the poems I write and have written are as a practising crafts-person and others came "out of nowhere." I am sometimes "plagued" by an insistent "urgency" (for want of a better description) to write a thought down in the form of a poem. I honestly don't know why or "where" the poems come from (with respect to the religious and love poems). I don't even care to analyze it. I simply keep most of the poems jotted down here and there. I can't tell you how many times I've re-read a poem written years ago and wonder how in the world did I write it? I humourously chalk it up to a form of semi- or unconscious writing that can be likened to sleep walking described as "sleep writing."
Poetry, like anything else is much like cooking. Sometimes one's efforts come out good and surprising and other times they come out bad and also surprising. Whereas on the one hand we may eat with some relish, the other we hurry and throw them away so that no one ever sees our mistake (particularly if one's dog won't eat it either).
Although I mentioned love poetry, I will only present those with a so-called religious theme since this page is about religion.
Footprints in the Sand, along with Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, and the Desiderata prose piece, (it begins with: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste), were three items I frequently encountered in different settings while I was growing up. (See next page for the last two references.)
While it was easy to determine who wrote "The Road Not Taken," the other two items typically did not provide any credit to any author. On one occasion I had even come across a very expensive and elaborately designed plaque with the "Desiderata" piece being attributed to an anonymous discovery in some medieval monastery. However, by this time, I had done some research on the item and found that the author was an Indiana poet with the name of Max Ehrmann.
Having encountered the 'Footprints in the Sand' poem so frequently, I decided to rewrite it in a rhymed verse form that eventually turned out to be the second part of a three-part story:
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One night, a man had such a dream that he and the Lord walked along a beach and across the sky flashed, beyond his reach, -of many a past moment's scene. In each scene was two sets of footprints impressed upon the sand as he continued on one set belonged to the Heavenly Prince, with the other to himself, they belong. When the last scene flashed before him he looked at the footprints in the sand and noticed many times now & then, only one set of footprints were at hand. He also noticed that at these moments for which he could not come to forget -occurred his life's lowest & saddest events, which bothered him to ask the Lord about it. For the Lord had once said before if ever he should be followed true then the entire length of one's life's shore, is the path the Lord would walk along too. But at those times most troublesome there were only two footprints clearly shown so he asked the Lord why this was done, why had he left him all alone. Then the Lord gave him reply: "My son, my precious child please wipe those tears from each eye, for I wouldn't desert you in this wild. During your times of trial and suffering when but one set of footprints you see the best way to console your grieving, was to simply carry thee. And when it comes that you look back but see neither footprints of yours nor mine it's because you'll no longer leave a track, when beyond this life you become divine. Though at first upon the water you may be fearful of falling in remember, i'm a stepping stone to my father, whose arms will embrace your soul unto him." |
However, each time I came upon "Footprints" and read it, I always felt it to be the middle portion of a much larger story. Alas, as has been the case all of my life, i've never been able to find anyone who quite understood what I was envisioning, so I wrote down the 1st and 3rd parts as I saw them. While it may seem weird to some of you for me to say that it's as if I was actually there observing a first-hand account since I don't consider myself to be particularly religious and in fact prefer science over religion, nonetheless, I share with you the museful events: |
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He could be seen near a water's edge atop a cliff facing the horizon of dusk and from his heart came a solemn pledge, which made him shed a tear in sincere trust. Then he thought to himself long and hard that no greater faith is there for the Lord for there were no doubts left to discard, -he had given all that his soul could afford. Now with this finally said and done from upon his knees came a timeless prayer one which humbly asked of the saviour, when will he once again yet come. Though only a suddened breeze came forth he somehow felt his question answered as if having witnessed his angelic escort, and by this alone was his faith reassured. Then his eyes traced the sea from side to side perchancing to view what others may have missed as if many great truths can be denied, if this is what the Lord has wished. But he stood there steadfast and true wanting not which could not be fulfilled waiting with a patience so granted to few somehow knowing it was as the Lord had willed... -That he should step beyond the shore awhile to be further humbled by experiences unknown ...thinking his trail as a predestined aisle, a path where one's self sometimes walks alone. At first he crept slow in his course imagining trails as intended tests encountering each with a reckoned force, as one does towards unwanted guests. Until nearing once again, the vast open wide a beach, the ocean, and deepest blue sky yet slowing now from a wearied stride, against a rock, to shut his eye. —Just for a moment before going on with heart rhythmed by loitering waves that very voice whose melodic song, of betokened sleep, often betrays: |
Part three is as follows: |
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...but Lord, oh gentle guide along life's beach tell it true as you have done so often before why at times were there 3 sets of footprints each, with one leading away from shore. And with its departure did I feel to go as if thinking to pursue thy father's lead not to stray from thee, but to better know, how my own heart might fulfill thy need. For deep within my soul is a breath in flame a voice which whispers with unknown intent having begun its call in childhood's domain, or perhaps much before this, was it meant. -To find thee waiting with arms out-spread in whose eyes did my life then dawn especially upon hearing thy own words said, but finding the third set of footprints gone. Oh my Lord, my Companion, my true Saviour reveal to me why another path is seen- & why my courage has been challenged for its favor, surely tis not a longing exposed in a dream. Then once again, the Lord gave him reply: "You my son, whom are young at heart have learned so quickly that I cannot deny, since the 3rd set of fooprints plays a vital part. Not as a dream are they perceived by you but as a shadow imprinted on all humanity's brow for without such to seek the most honest true, mankind's faith in me would come to disavow. Some say tis the path of evil temptations while others claim it helps knowing truth from afar yet its purpose is to stir contemplations to help each answer the question of who they are. I cannot make you walk life's beach at my side not if you feel i'm but an image of mankind's ...merely a search for perfection before the last tide, especially if your heart sees no one ever finds. Yet if you'll remember one thing beyond this day that no matter when, where, or why you call to me it is then I hope you'll understand enough to see, whereby to a younger heart you'll finally say: there is a third set of footprints named curiosity- which accompanies all, for whom I would not turn away." |
Note: Some people consider Creativity, and even Courage to be synonymous with Curiosity. |
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Winter snows fell cold that night twas sometime ago I remember well as I sat near the fireplace light, half-asleep along a dream-like trail. My heart paced the slumber tidings of yesteryear twitching casual smiles as memories returned occasionally now and then with a would-be tear, sighing with long breaths duly earned. Far in the distance a church bell rang with a meaning not quite understood calling all walks-of-life to a place they sang bringing me joy of the greatest good. But who was I to take a part thus I turned away from them & that while I shivered to keep the cold from my heart, and walked away with the church at my back. Yet a few steps forward in my weathered shoes there before me stood a man in white though at first thought I, it but a ruse, beneath a full moon lustering bright. He took my hand with not a word said so very calm did all my fears become be it was within my heart, or just my head, his eyes glowed with a will to be done. The doors of the church opened before my eyes while all sang of the first Noel and there I was to everyone's surprise, singing louder than the old church bell. I did not hear when the others stopped short each and all were listening to my voice as if I were a king amongst the common of a court, whose prayers were given first choice. My head, eyes, and knees were lowered the same with a whisper that echoed from wall to wall I knew of nothing else but to whisper his name, that was then repeated throughout the hall. Thus I sang as the drummer boy had played giving my heart's worth to the lord of humanity no longer cold, hungry, nor afraid, because he gave his life for me, for all eternity. -Again I awakened looking deep into the flame no doubt seeing the very star on the night he came having found him had helped me find great riches, so from pauper to prince is my wish for your Christmas. HOB |
For the record, let me relate the events which took place prior to this. I was staying in one apartment of a duplex with a yound woman who had had a child from a marriage that she had divorced from. We were next door to her father's house, which was also a duplex but was one stacked on the other whereas the one we were going to stay in that night was a side-by-side layout. While here intent was to have the baby sleep on the floor and I share the bed with her, I had no interest, and prefered the floor as well. In the morning, she was obviously upset, expecting that a desired relationship would have been "consummated" with the approval of her father who had given his assent for us to spend the night together in the same apartment and whom she went to see soon after she got up.
While she was gone, it was at this time that I looked out the front window through the beginning morning light and had the poem gradually flow line by line, almost faster than I could write, as if I were reading a text within my mind. It was like a rhythmic song, but no one was singing except for the pen I was writing with. It was more like a memory of an actual event, though the time and place were obscured and seemed irrelevant, in retrospect.
However, she did secure for me the other apartment next door in which I could stay rent free, which was particulary helpful since I was unemployed at the time, but shortly thereafter secured some level of employment. This was only because her rather small-framed father wanted someone around to help him in the event someone came looking for him after he had had a vehicle accident with them. And in fact, a very large pacific Islander man did come looking for him at the very apartment where I was staying. Her father had previously occupied the same apartment and then moved into one of the apartments in the other duplex, which was not as accessible to knock on the front door without going through a gate. I told him that He didn't believe me when I told him that no one else lived there. When I asked him to come in and check for himself, he refused, obviously afraid I might try to harm him and have justification for killing him within the apartment as an intruder. He did not return after this encounter.
If Islam accepts Democracy is this a slap in Mohammed's face since its roots are in Christianity, a belief from all over the place? Some are views once called pagan beliefs those withstanding the test of like-kind such as murder, rape, and greedy deceits, collateral damage of those self-divined. From holy wars, holi-days, to holey politics religion has traversed the gamut of institution to ensure its survival by numerous tricks, enforcing Democracy or an or-else retribution. Shall Mohammed's face be spat into like some mongrel pup knowing no better is this the beginning's end of Islamic view, and the U.S. Declaration as the holiest letter? Simply because it was written on animal skin does such an antiquated method mean greatness would a human hide represent a lesser sin, and an insect, rock, or plant much less? Let us then write on clouds, our independence and demand for others to accept it or die let us fashion the world in like semblance, since truth is now measured by the lesser lie. The Christian roots of Democracy's campaign is enforced rules by way of many swords or be called terrorist, fanatic, or insane, if you don't march to the beat of the hordes. What makes Democracy so worthy of respect is it the lesser of evils though evil itself nor provide the greatest wisdom to elect, using many persuasive forms till pain is felt? All governments try to conceal its atrocities its greed, corruption, and propaganda techniques under the delusions of grandeur's specialities, creating different types of religious freaks. Oh, America claims itself to be enlightened that two-hundred plus years means righteousness yet, why are so many of its citizens frightened, do their silent murmurings see the true mess? The coffer of political lies is over-flowing varying lids of dissuasions can no longer withhold something better than Democracy is ever-growing, since its truths as stocks have been over-sold. Islam must make a choice for self-survival unless its leaders can't see the winds of change to build the threshold of a needed revival, or fall in the sandpit of something strange. Like the weird logic of American justice to keep alive its murderous criminals to perpetuate poverty and the filthy rich, (emphasis on the filthy, and bloody souls.) Or the illusion of mutual freedom for all as if Of, By, and For the people is real never seeing the vined-over executioner's wall, because fragrant flowers give a narcotic thrill. Nor that Arlington cemetery is another boot mound where the vine's flowers cling to every head stone and the 3-beat taps whistle out a familiar sound, and those who hear it, often sense it alone. The Christian roots of present Democracy indeed, are not flowered vines of sweet repose they are thorns of a questionable divinity, ground-up as spices to seduce an unsuspecting nose. While others would argue by comparison saying this and that of other kinds their ideas also have roots in religion, thus, a better humanity needs other minds.. 05-22-05 Monday, 6:30 AM |
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All the World's known and personal religions describe an on-going mental illness different forms and flavors of a narcotic business, a plague affecting hundreds of millions. An illness making fantasy seem common place a colorful disease like some alluring iris names that change through time and space, like the cancer of some virulent virus. It creates divisions and continuing misery and hybrid beings are worshipped with nonsense like triple-patterned trademarks of propriety, a slaughter house mentality of sustenance. Let us take for example one type of entree called the father/son/holy ghost combo-meal like a hamburger/fries/soft drink served on a tray, false food for thoughts just as unreal. If neurotics build castles in the sky and psychotics live in them then we must all wonder why, it's not madness to believe in Heaven. Perhaps because Democracy forces the view that a majority can make policy whereby truth and reality remain askew, and children are brought up with insanity. Thus, worldly problems won't be solved since peace itself has no common definition as long as religions are artificially evolved, in the mad scientist laboratory called religion. Some say peace means the absence of war yet they never say the absence of poverty nor the absence of pain from a festering sore, or that peace may mean the absence of humanity. 05-20-05 Friday, 5:30 AM |
By examining the attributes of the left and right hemispheres while at the same time acknowledging that the right hemisphere is the origin of the Bicameral mind, the 3 versus 2 developmental distinction appears to have been prophetically anticipated by Jesus, though it is not certain whether or not he had an appreciation of the larger context of the Bicameral "2" relation and a Tricameral "3" emergence that is occurring in a multitude of areas, and appears to be an underlying formula that can distinguish many of the conflicts occurring today. However, most people focus on the representative familial titles such as Father/Mother, Brother/Sister, etc., and not the reference to the 2 versus 3 in its broader context of application outside the realm of religion:
Luke 12:51-
"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law."
| Jesus is the Prince of Division he is not the Prince of Peace Matt. 10:34 takes on a revision, in the minds of those who shouldn't preach. And those that say they're believers perpetuate the lie on and on they have joined the church of deceivers, though many know it is wrong. Mohammed, Buddha and Jesus are clouded windows of a long ago past echoes of spirits that still deceive us; graven images that the followers cast. Like the shadows of voices long dead many claim they hear heaven's call because they nurture such things in their head, refusing to grant a better future for all. The world's religions in this time and place no matter by whom or how they may find it matters not which culture or what race, all are Earth-born views of a Bicameral mind. |
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Jesus image source:
(Imagem de Cristo 1)
http://www.acidigital.com/Banco/jesus.htm
The phrase: three against two, and two against three can be viewed as a representation of the enumerated hemispheric attributes as are displayed in the above brain image. In other words, the phrase is describing conflicts between the left hemisphere "3" and the right hemisphere "2," just as the following image does:
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Roman dicers from a fresco at Pompeii, playing what is thought to be an early version of backgammon. The cartoon like captions above their heads describe a disputed call: the man on the left cries, "I've won!" while the one on the right objects, claiming, "It's not a three, it's a two." Analogously, the two characters can be viewed as the right & left hemispheres of the brain. The right adamantly refuses to acknowledge the left's claim to a 3 and insists that the "3" the left sees is actually a 2. If the overall purpose of the "game" (life) is to achieve a "3" and yet there is a claim from some for a preponderance of "2" (with all its various guises), do we try to change the rules of the "game" or create a teaching methodology which enables the distinctions of "2" and "3" to be made identifiable and useful from all vantage points? (Even if the purpose of the game is defined by Earth-specific environmental circumstances.) The social problems created by an underlying 2 versus 3 contention has been going on for long enough... since Pompeii anyway. Let's not leave a similar picture of us for future historians who find it beneath the rubble of an extinct civilization. |
Some readers may be interested in the following related link:
http://www.symbols.net/articles/bm.htm
Initially created: Thursday, October 17, 2013
First Posted: Friday, March 28, 2014
Updated posting: Friday, April 4, 2014
Your Questions, Comments or Additional Information are welcomed:
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com