The number three is quite important in the spiritual life.

The number three is quite important in the spiritual life.  Things cannot be known with having their opposite present as well.  Emptiness and form, union and non-union, enlightenment and ignorance, longing and fulfilment, question and answer, ego and the Greater Whole, masculine and feminine, thesis and antithesis.  But with a third term, we find surprise and sudden joy in discovering that opposites can shapeshift into one another.  Emptiness suddenly manifests as form, non-union as union, longing as fulfilment.  The question becomes its own answer; the burning of ego gives forth the fire of enlightenment.  LGBT people teach us that gender shapeshifts as well.  And this ability of all things to become one another IS the third term, the synthesis.  In the West, this synthesis is traditionally viewed as a personal presence - the "Holy Spirit" - to show that the third term is not just an idea; it is alive.  How amazing is this spiritual journey we are all on!

Photo: Three Mountain Buttercups; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; May 10, 2013