(18) The threefold division of intellect and firmness according to qualities, about to be taught fully and distinctively (by Me), hear thou, O Dhananjaya.

(35) Timaeus: And when with the aid of Being He had mixed them, and had made of them one out of three, straightway He began to distribute the whole thereof into so many portions as was meet; and each portion was a mixture of the Same, of the Other, and of Being. And He began making the division thus: First He took one portion from the whole; then He took a portion double of this; then a third portion, half as much again as the second portion, that is, three times as much as the first; he fourth portion He took was twice as much as the second; the fifth three times as much as the third;

(28) The Mind of the Father said that all things should be cut into Three, whose Will assented, and immediately all things were so divided.

(1) He divided himself (atmanam) threefold: [fire (agni) one third], the sun (aditya) one third, wind (vayii) one third. He also is Life (prdna) divided threefold. The eastern direction is his head. Yonder one and yonder one are the foie quarters. Likewise the western direction is his tail. Yonder one and yonder one 5 are the hind quarters. South and north are the flanks. The sky is the back. The atmosphere is the belly. This [earth] is the chest. He stands firm in the waters. He who knows this, stands firm wherever he goes.

(13) But thou art to know this Mystery, that in the Center or Midst of these three Kingdoms is generated the Splendor or Son of God. [This needs Explanation: "Read the Second and Third Part of these Writings, where it is described more fundamentally: For nothing that is divisible, measurable, or circumscribible, is here meant or understood, only it was in Simplicity and Plainness set down so at the first, because of the slow and dull Apprehension."] [The Threefold Life.] [The Three Principles.]

(35) Timaeus: and in the fashion which I shall now describe. Midway between the Being which is indivisible and remains always the same and the Being which is transient and divisible in bodies, He blended a third form of Being compounded out of the twain, that is to say, out of the Same and the Other; and in like manner He compounded it midway between that one of them which is indivisible and that one which is divisible in bodies. And He took the three of them, and blent them all together into one form, by forcing the Other into union with the Same, in spite of its being naturally difficult to mix.

(8) This is the explanation of Plato's Triplicity, in the passage where he names as the Primals the Beings gathered about the King of All, and establishes a Secondary containing the Secondaries, and a Third containing the Tertiaries.

He teaches, also, that there is an author of the Cause, that is of the Intellectual-Principle, which to him is the Creator who made the Soul, as he tells us, in the famous mixing bowl. This author of the causing principle, of the divine mind, is to him the Good, that which transcends the Intellectual-Principle and transcends Being: often too he uses the term "The Idea" to indicate Being and the Divine Mind. Thus Plato knows the order of generation- from the Good, the Intellectual-Principle; from the Intellectual-Principle, the Soul. These teachings are, therefore, no novelties, no inventions of today, but long since stated, if not stressed; our doctrine here is the explanation of an earlier and can show the antiquity of these opinions on the testimony of Plato himself.

Earlier, Parmenides made some approach to the doctrine in identifying Being with Intellectual-Principle while separating Real Being from the realm of sense.

"Knowing and Being are one thing he says, and this unity is to him motionless in spite of the intellection he attributes to it: to preserve its unchanging identity he excludes all bodily movement from it; and he compares it to a huge sphere in that it holds and envelops all existence and that its intellection is not an outgoing act but internal. Still, with all his affirmation of unity, his own writings lay him open to the reproach that his unity turns out to be a multiplicity.

The Platonic Parmenides is more exact; the distinction is made between the Primal One, a strictly pure Unity, and a secondary One which is a One-Many and a third which is a One-and-many; thus he too is in accordance with our thesis of the Three Kinds.

(5) These three mothers did he create, form, and design, and combine with the three mothers in the world, and in the year, and in Man, both male and female.

(17) The Blessed Lord said:

Threefold is that faith born of the individual nature of the embodied, — Sâttvic, Râjasic, and Tâmasic. Do thou hear of it.

(3) Then they say: ' Since he who purifies is just like one,, how then is he one and a half? ' ' Because in him this whole world did prosper (adhyardhnoi)* Therefore he is one and a half (adhyardhd)? ' Which is the one god? ' Eight different Persons and their corresponding divinities

(50) But now in Man’s Body, in the Government or Dominion of the Birth or Geniture, there are three several Things, each of them being distinct, and yet are not divided asunder one from another; but all three together are one only Man, after the Kind and Manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the divine Being.

(45) But that there are so many Formings, Figurings, or Framings in him, is caused by his eternal Birth or Geniture, which first is threefold, and out of or from that Trinity, or Ternary, it generates itself infinitely, or immensely, inconceivably.

(1) * Three he made for himself Mind, speech, breath — these he made for himself. People say: ' My mind was elsewhere; I did not see. My rnind was elsewhere; I did not hear. It is with the mind, truly, that one sees. It is with the mind that one hears. Desire, imagination, doubt, faith, lack of faith, steadfastness, lack of steadfastness, shame, meditation, fear — all this is truly mind. Therefore even if one is touched on his back, he discerns it with the mind. Whatever sound there is, it is just speech. Verily, it comes to an end [as human speech]; verily, it does not [as the heavenly voice]. The in-breath, the out-breath, the diffused breath, the up-breath, the middle-breath — all this is just breath. Verily, the self (dtman) consists of speech, mind, and breath.

(2) He is in his own Essence and Substance a twofold Man. For his Soul (in its own Substance) is out of the first Principle, which from Eternity has no Ground nor Beginning; and in the Time of the Creation of Man in Paradise, or the Kingdom of Heaven, the Soul was truly corporized by the Fiat in a spiritual Manner; but with the first Virtue [or Power] which is from Eternity, in its own first Virtue or Power it has remained inseparably in its first Root, and was illustrated [or made shining bright] by the second Principle, viz. by the Heart of God; and therewith standing in Paradise, was there, by the moving Spirit of God, breathed into the Matrix of the third Principle, into the starry and elementary Man. And now therefore he may understand the Ground of Heaven, as also of the Elements and of Hell, as far as the Light of God shines in him; for if that Light be in him, he is born in all the three Principles; but yet he is only a Spark risen from thence, and not the great Source, or Fountain, which is God himself.

(91) And in the Seeds there are three distinct Things, whereof the one cannot fathom the other, and yet are in that one only Seed, and qualify, mix, or unite one with another, as one Being, and is also one Being, and yet also three distinct Things, according to the Kind and Manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the Deity.

(5) Now the Creator intended, according to his Ternary, to create three Armies, Bands, or Companies., not one from another, but one by another, as in a Circle or Sphere. [Armies, Bands, or Companies.]

(83) Thou must know, that I do not suck it out from the dead or mortal Reason, but my Spirit qualifies, mixes, or unites with God, and proves or searches the Deity, how it is in all its Births or Genitures in its Taste and Smell: And I find, that the Deity is a very simple, pure, meek, loving and quiet Being; and that the Birth of the Ternary of God generates itself very meekly, friendly, lovingly, and unanimously, and the Sharpness of the innermost Birth can never elevate, or swell itself into the Meekness of the Ternary, but remains hidden in the Deep.

(3) ' Which are the three gods? ' 'They, verily, are the three worlds, for in them all these gods exist.' s Which are the two gods? J

(13) And as this Place was now twofold, and P with the eternal Originality threefold, viz. [having] the first Principle in the great Anxiety, and the second Principle in the divine Habitation in Paradise, and then the third Principle in the Light of the Sun, in the Quality of the Stars and Elements, so must Man also be created out of all three, if he must be an Angel in this Place, and receive all Knowledge and Understanding, whereby he might have eternal Joy also with [or in] the Figures and Images, which stand not in the eternal Spirit, but in the eternal Figure, as all Things in this World are [to do.]

(31) But their essences in each of these three grades Are distinguished, as in those states, so eternally. Their form turns to dust, but their essence not; If one says it does, tell him it does not. In the world of spirits all three await judgment, Sometimes wearing their earthly forms, sometimes not. One day a student asked a preacher, Saying, "O most orthodox ornament of the pulpit, I have a question to ask, O lord of learning; A bird sat on the top of a wall;