In October 2004 I received the following email from Roger:
Do you have any info on the 3 swirls symbol similar to yin yang but with 3 instead of 2? (often found in reference to old Okinawa flag circa 1876)? Seems to have obviously come from yin yang symbol as they are very similar.

Following the granting of his permission to do so; I published my reply in MonkeyMind - one of the blogs that I was at that time experimenting with at wheels.net for taichido.com.

My reply (published earlier in MonkeyMind) begins: The swastika and the crucifix are similar but only in as much as they are each constructed using intersecting horizontal and vertical lines - but symbolically they 'mean' very different things - and really the only thing they have in common is their shape. I think that the same is so as far as the two symbols that you mention is concerned. Following this sure fire attention grabber, I continue:

The yin yang symbol is an icon of Taoist or Chinese origin. An important facet of this symbol is that each of the 'swirls' has a "seed" of the opposite colour in its centre; put there to represent that "all is not black and all is not white". This element is not included and not a consideration in the three swirl symbol. The most important or overriding difference between the two is that the latter is Japanese - and that Japan has never in his history 'taken' to Taoism in any manner. Their ancient alternative to this 'natural world spirituality' is Shinto.

So, Shinto is the aboriginal form of spirituality in Japan, and this has about as much in common with Taoism as Christianity has with Paganism.

China has 'moved on' from Taoism to Communism (with all sorts in between). Japan 'moved' on to Buddhism. A form of Buddhism called "Chan" was in China before it was know in Japan. What was called "Chan" in China is now called "Zen" in Japan (they simply could not say "Chan" so they pronounced it - "Zen").

Whist the practice of Chan died out in China - Zen flourished in Japan - and central to the philosophy of Zen is the concept of "Emptiness". I quote below from "The Buddha appears through the individual" by Rev. Prof. K.T. Sato, Head Priest of the Three Wheels Shin Buddhist Temple in London, U.K.:

"Roughly speaking Emptiness can be explained in the following three ways: 1) Nothing has any intrinsic existence, 2) Subject and object originate [or disappear] interdependently and 3) All the phenomena of this world are interdependently related."

1) Nothing has any intrinsic existence and everything is made up of different elements. What is called the self, for instance, is not an eternal entity but a composition of the five aggregates (skandhah in Sanskrit): form, perception, mental conceptions, volition and consciousness. Not only the self but also the five aggregates that compose it are without substance. The self is empty of substance or intrinsic existence. There is no eternal entity like atman or soul. What we call the self is only a lable.

2) Concerning the eye-consciousness that there is a rose, for example, this consciousness is a result of the interrelation between a sense-organ (the eye) and a sense-object (the rose). If either of these were missing there would be no such consciousness. So it is said that because there is A (the eye) there is B (the rose) or because there is B there is A and at the same time because there is not A there is not B or because there is not B there is not A. Emptiness is the realization of this truth. Emptiness is the Vacuum where all the phenomena of the world originate and disappear interdependently.

3) Based on the philosophy of Emptiness, the philosophy of perfect interpenetration was developed, as seen in the Avatamsaka Sutra: in an interdependent and interpenetrating relationship each phenomenon bears a dynamic relation to all other phenomena and each experience contains within itself all other experiences. For instance there is a formula: All is in all, all is in one, one is in all and one is in one. It should be understood that this dynamic interpenetration all takes place simultaneously.

So that (in an nutshell!) is the Concept of Emptiness and it is this that is represented by the Buddhist "3 swirl" image - and really it has nothing to do with Taoism - which is what the yin yang symbol represents.

The number 3 has significance in many religions or philosophical concepts (the Holy Trinity etc.). Likewise this number has many significance's in Buddhism. In this there is the highly significant "Three Treasures" or "Triple Gem" of taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma (his teachings) and the Sangha (the community). And then there is the "Three Fires" of "Greed, Anger and Ignorance". And then there is "Body, Mouth and Thought" ... and so on. There happens to be these three - but this does not mean that they are all based upon the same concepts of other Three's - such as the Holy Trinity.

Within the concepts of Buddhism my personal favorite interpretation of what you call (I don't blame you and no criticism intended, the word you use describes the shape well enough) the three "swirls" symbol is - The Three Wheels of the Giver, the Gift and the Recipient. The existence (or concept) of one depends upon the existence of the other and the existence of next depends entirely upon the last. This is very similar to the Taoist concept of "Wu Wei" or "mutual arising" or "no victor no vanquished", but the translation of the Buddhist concept of this principle is "Dependent Origination". This is the root of the concept of Karma which we westerners might understand best as "cause and effect" or contemporarily and colloquially "what goes around comes around".

Prior to the provision of bolgs in various formats @wheelswithinwheels.net (for taichido.com) I enjoyed receiving many stimulating emails on all kinds of subjects - and I likewise enjoyed researching and writing personal replies. These otherwise unseen emails regarding specific details on tai chi practice or philosophy were usually more interesting than this newsletter, so in the Sept 04 issue of this newsletter I declared that henceforth I would use these journals to share these otherwise person to person correspondences and, with the corresponders permission, publish them in an appropriate blog. For whatever reasons - perhaps I offered too many choices (i.e. too many bloats) or perhaps it was the prospect of emails to me being published (notwithstanding the fact that I would always ask for permission to published) - whatever .. the net result of the launching of the blogs in September last year seems to be that emails to me have since come to a complete halt and the one from Roger (above) was the last I received!

Just as I was able to manipulate reports to read like news, so too was I able to make make sure that my reports contained only good news! The sad fact is the blogs did not come up to expectation and, given that my expectation was that they would encourage debate and raise issues that might be discussed and shared here in this newsletter, they have failed.

In more recent times I have used this newsletter to bring you "reports" on various aspects and the areas of involvement or development of taichido.com. Fortunately, if taichido has got anything to do with it, then (e.g.. the DVD) its got to have something to do with tai chi and therefore I consider it quite in order to publish such observations and comments here as 'news'. But aside from this (the DVD and other distance learning products) we do not create 'news' here at taichido; quite on the contrary. All we do is tai chi - and this is notoriously difficult to 'talk about'.

Now that our annual social is over and now that the DVD has moved on from a 'project' to a 'product' - I fear that I will sooner or later run out of news - therefore I end this newsletter with a plea that you contact me here at wheels.net or Mark at taichido.com to raise issues that we might be able to discuss in future issues of this newsletter.

Earlier responses to this newsletter suggest that the issues that you enjoyed the most (or at least those you commented most upon) were those that contained no news at all - and the most provocative of all was the one in which I relate a couple of verses from the Tao Teh Ching to characters of Groucho and Harpo Marks! "Where did that come from?" I was asked. My only reply could be ... "something someone said"! So, I am ending this newsletter by asking YOU to say something ... anything ... and then let's (together) take it from there!

I therefor sincerely invite you to send us any comments that you have on this newsletter or tai chi practice in general to me [gary@wheelswithinwheels.net] or Mark @taichido.com - and look forward to sharing at least another 40 issues with you!

And so ... as soon as I had finished my part of work on the DVD (a fraction of Marks 'part of work'!) I turned my attention to updating and adding several feature pages to wheels.net - including the renovation of the blogs! Please do visit wheelswithinwheels.net for easy access to all blogs including the soon to be deleted MonkeyMind (another reason for republishing the email to Roger as above) and the NEW FEATURE: "thearea". thearea will be updated frequently. Please do just visit to see why! The rest of "wheels" is now nicely settled and I do not envisage tinkering with it again in any substantial way for some time - apart perhaps from adding more stuff to the new 'clear out corner' (bottom left of thearea homepage).

And so ... now that Mark and I have finished work on the DVD (now categorized as a 'product' as opposed to a 'project') we are turning our attention to updating the 'main' taichido.com website.

And so ... right now is the best time to let us know what sub topics of "doing tai chi" you would like to see debated or analyzed at taichido.com. There really is no need for me to ask you to visit (taichido or wheels) because clearly you already do - so thanks! We do appreciate that - but we also appreciate feedback - so next time you do it (tai chi or visit), please follow it up with an email and simply tell us what you think. And if you do, while your at it ... ... ... please tell me what you think a tai chi newsletter should be about! My first question is: is it a newsletter about tai chi - or is it a newsletter about taichido ... and if its the latter ... what's that?