Triads of Life...
Life is surrounded by the triad - dharma (religion/duty), Kama (pleasure) and artha (power). It is also the triad of many other thigs like,
- Intellect, egoism (the sense of "I") and the subtle elements
- Gods, humans and animals-plants
- Satisfaction, frustration and confusion
- Perception, inferences and authority
Guna and doshas, means virtues and faults are the dichotomy of moralisation. It is the base for hirearchy within the above triads.
Three kinds of bodily action - good, bad an neutral
Three bases of action - the mind-and-heart, speech and the body
Three times - past, present and future
The action that arises in the mind-and-heart, speech and the body bears good and bad fruits.
The four kinds of speech (acts) are verbal abuse, lies, slander (the action of making a false spoken statement damaging one's reputation) of all sorts and unbridled ()uncontrolled) chatter.
Three qualities of self are - lucidity (knowledge), darkness (ignorance) and energy (passion).
Manu law says very nicely about the recognition of the above three qualities of self, " ... When someone who has done, or is doing, or is going to do an act feels ashamed, a learned man should realise that the whole act has the mark of the quality of darkness. When someone hopes to achieve great fame in this world by a certain act, but does not feel sorry if it fails, that should be known as energy. But when he longs with his all to know something and is not ashamed when he does it and his self is satisfied by it, that (act) has the mark of the quality of lucidity. Pleasure is the mark of darkness, profit is said to be the mark of energy, and dharma the mark of lucidity and each is better that the one before it."
Reference: Doniger Wendy, On Hinduism, Aleph Book Company, 2013
