The Three

From Heidegger’s “Modern Science, Metaphysics, and Mathematics,” in “Basic Writings.”

"It is the number in the natural serious of numbers that stands in third place. In ‘third’? It is only the third number because it is the three. And ‘place’ - where do places come from? ‘Three’ is not the third number, but the first number. ‘One’ isn’t really the first number. For instance, we have before us a loaf of bread and one knife, this one and, in addition, another one. When we take both together we say, ‘both of these,’ the one and the other, but we do not say, ‘these two,’ or 1+1. Only when we add a cup to the bread and the knife do we say ‘all.’ Now we take them as a sum, i.e., as a whole and so and so many things. Only when we perceive it from the third is the former the first one, the former other the second, so that one and two arise, and ‘and’ becomes ‘plus,’ and there arises the possibility of places and of a series."

(Thanks to SomethingCompletelyDifferent for the quote)

I think this is very interesting.

The number 3 has always been a special number, in many traditions.

The holly trinity in Christianity; The three Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) in Buddhism; The 3 Gunas of Hinduism and 3 Doshas of Ayurveda and so on.

It usually represents a wholeness.

Thus, indeed it is the first position, while at the same time it needs both the “one” and “the other”, in order to be itself.

This brings to mind certain aspects of Hinduism. For example - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Although Brahma is the creator, Vishnu- one that sustains and Shiva- one that destroys, they are all three aspects of the one- Brahman.
Shiva is often the most popular of the three.
Shiva is the one that destroys life. Destruction which within it contains the seeds of creation. Thus, he simultaneously creates life, In what appears to be an endless dance of birth and death.