Az enneagram buddhista értékelése

Several Buddhist teachers in the West are using the enneagram as a part of their work. Here is a short introduction from one of them. A BUDDHIST APPRECIATION OF THE ENNEAGRAM A BUDDHIST APPRECIATION OF THE ENNEAGRAM by Santikaro Bhikkhu Santikaro Bhikkhu is a native Chicagoan living in southern Thailand. He is involved in facilitating a small community of forest monks, translating the work of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, teaching meditation, and networking among other activist monks and nuns. He is working on social concerns such as education reform, community renewal and liberation from consumerism. He intends to return to the USA within a few years if he can get out of Siam alive. In writing this, I do not claim to speak for all Buddhists. I am sure some, like my Abbot, will criticize me for wasting time on something that isn't 'Buddhism,' so they think, or of going astray. However, my own teacher and training has no qualms about exploring anything that can help end suffering. This is also aimed towards those Buddhists who avail themselves of psychotherapy yet have had difficulty integrating or reconciling it with their Buddhist practice. I will base my comments on the Suttas of the Pali Canon, the collection of ancient Buddhist texts attributed largely to the historical Buddha that eventually made their way to Sri Lanka and were written down a few centuries after the Buddha's death. They make up the scriptures of Southern or Theravada Buddhism and are generally accepted, even among non-Theravadins, to be the oldest corpus of Buddhist teachings and those having the best chance of a close link to the actual oral teachings of the historical Buddha. The Suttas are the recorded Discourses of the Buddha himself and contain the explicit teachings and implicit seeds of all further developments in Buddhism. Most importantly, they contain the core teachings that are found in almost every school, branch, and lineage of Buddhism, despite the incredibly rich diversity spanning all of Asia and now expanding worldwide. I hope my readers will be interested in some of the ways that Buddhist teachings overlap with, illuminate, and can be enhanced by the Enneagram of Personality. Here are a few of the more fundamental commonalties. The Four Noble Truths of the Enneagram In the past, as well as now, I only teach about dukkha and the utter quenching of dukkha. (Buddha) Buddhist and Enneagram perspectives agree that there is dukkha, or suffering, in human life, in fact, far too much suffering. Both have something significant to point out about how and why we suffer; both can help us get out of the bind. The end of suffering is the explicit purpose of Buddhism. And while I have yet to see a definitive statement of the Enneagram's purpose, I doubt that any of its leading teachers would object to reducing, if not eliminating, suffering. In the classic presentation of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha discussed craving as the origin of dukkha. Elsewhere, however, he fleshes this out with other details, such as the basic ignorance that underlies craving, the clinging and self-identity that grows out of it, and the self-centered emotions in which it ends up. Buddhism provides a powerful analysis of the process through which this happens while the Enneagram illuminates the nine styles that the process of personality construction takes. Put the two together and we find nine flavors of ignorance (the basic propositions) and the nine defense mechanisms that underlie the process of mental concocting. Arising from that murky foundation, consciousness works selectively, in nine ways, it seems, paying particular attention to some aspects of reality and filtering out much of the rest. Then the mind-heart concocts nine versions of craving, clinging, self-identity, and ego-birth (passion). There also seems to be agreement that dukkha can be ended or quenched. Buddha-Dhamma stresses that dukkha quenches with the quenching of craving, clinging, and self. Enneagram stresses the softening of Type through the strengthening of observational skills, enabling the gradual letting go of Type until we are no longer trapped in it. There is probably little difference between the two. Nibbana is the name Buddhists give to the absence of suffering. I'm not sure if Enneagram has a special term for this, perhaps 'wholeness' or 'return to Essence' or 'unbounded life within Essence.' In both cases, we realize and remain 'the we that isn't really we' or 'the Type that isn't really who I am.' Finally, Buddha-Dhamma teaches that there is a Middle Way, usually explained as the Noble Eightfold Path, that brings us to the end of dukkha. This path can be summarized as a training in morality (living with others peacefully and non-oppressively), meditation (cultivating and strengthening mental-emotional virtues), and wisdom (profound understanding of life and its truth). This training culminates in being able to live in this world without turning it into a playground for 'me' and 'mine.' And when we no longer seek to manipulate and control ourselves, others, and the world for the sake of our desires, there is no more problem or dukkha. It is not clear to me that Enneagram has a clearly worked out path to liberation. Perhaps something is to be found in the Gurdjieff literature, but I am not yet well acquainted with it. Helen Palmer seems to believe that the Path-Way and its practices are to be found in the various spiritual or sacred traditions of humanity, as well as the saner aspects of modern psychology. The Enneagram Science of Type is then a tool for each aspirant to recognize one's particular core issue, misunderstanding of life, and style of selfishness and suffering. This knowledge then can guide one to the appropriate meditations and practices. Unless there are special Enneagram practices hiding somewhere, it will serve as a powerful guide to finding one’s Way-Path rather than being the Way itself. Again, there is no reason that Buddhism and Enneagram cannot work together. A Dose of 'Not-Self' An essential aspect of the Buddha's teaching is that everything is not-self. This means that everything making up ones 'being' is under the influence of causes and conditions, impermanent, subject to change, unstable, and undependable. No independent essence or 'self' can be found. The 'owner' or 'controller' of our actions is an illusion. There is activity and its consequences, but no 'actor' can be found in the flow of change and causality. In short, nothing is worth clinging to as 'me' or 'mine.' While both traditions agree that awareness or mindfulness and letting go are central, I feel that the Buddhist terminology is more precise. Because of our emphasis on 'not-self,' we find the notion of an 'observer' misleading. We prefer to speak of the activity of observing, watching, or mindfulness. Calling it 'the observer' may lead people to assume that it is somebody or 'me' who is watching, when it is just a natural function of mind. To identify with 'the observer' is an obstacle to deeper understanding and often creates complacency. Similarly, the term 'attention' seems to be used rather unclearly in Enneagram circles. Awareness or mindfulness is more than attention. It might help to point out that we often pay attention to things without mindfulness, that is, when we are lost in Type. When there is mindfulness with attention, we begin to observe Type. When mindfulness develops into wisdom, it allows us to let go of the attention fixations and transcend Type, although it is still latently present. Lastly, the distinction between 'false self' and 'true self' seems misleading to this Buddhist. Enneagram teachers stress that Type, the 'false self,' is necessary and has served our survival needs well. Yet they agree with Buddhism that it is not what we really are, that is, Essence or Buddha-Nature. For this reason, I suggest the term 'conventional self' as a more useful description of what Type is about than 'false self.' Type appears to be a self, a real lasting person, and we speak about it in ordinary social life as if it really were a lasting self. Our conventional language is full of words about this appearance of self. Nonetheless, on closer scrutiny it turns out to be unstable, concocted, impermanent, and imbedded with suffering. Buddhist techniques of mindfulness training and observation can support the use of Enneagram and, I think, deepen it. This is especially true of the not-self perspective, a radical critique of how and what we observe. Centers and Foundations As just mentioned, Buddha-Dhamma places mindfulness at the center of our practice, both in formal meditation and in everyday life. The standard framework for mindfulness in practice is the four foundations of mindfulness, namely, body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma. The correspondence of the first three foundations with the three centers - body/gut, feeling/heart, and mind/head - is not accidental. The teachings of Buddha-Dhamma and Enneagram aim to focus our attention on fundamental aspects of our inner experience. The correspondence between Dhamma and Essence is not as clear, largely because Essence is not as well explored in the Enneagram literature as Dhamma is in Buddhism; nonetheless, I suspect that the convergence is striking and important. Each tradition addresses these centers from different angles that nonetheless complement each other. The correspondence is far from exact, yet the practicing Buddhist can benefit from the ‘Enneagram Centers’ teaching. I hope that the reverse also appeals to Enneagram students. Body & Gut In mindfulness with breathing in and out, the most widespread form of Buddhist meditation, we learn to calm the body and mind through quiet observation of inhalations and exhalations. We discover that the breath is the secret to the well-being and vitality of the body, and learn to regulate it so that the body is a calm, stable platform for more subtle explorations of what makes us tick. I was delighted to find that Helen Palmer and David Daniels share our respect for the breathing. Throughout the workshop, they reminded us all, regardless of Type, to return to the breathing in the belly as a way to center, ground, and stabilize stirred-up thoughts and emotions. This deepened my already strong appreciation for the use of breathing in all areas of life. Buddhism has various other practices for observing the body, but I fear that their use can bog down in trivial observation for its own sake that doesn't really lead to the 'insight' these methods are supposed to foster. Here, Enneagram can help to direct each person's practice to the aspects of body that are most problematic. For example, Ones hold themselves rigid and tight, a direct expression of reaction-formation that is seen clearly in the breathing, posture, face and jaw, arm tension, etc. Eights probably need to explore the ways they use their physical strength and find that these aren't always so innocent and harmless. The Head Types might start to realize how much they live outside their bodies, due to withdrawal, projection, and rationalization. Heart Types might need to learn that the physical is more than just an expression of the emotional and not to be escaped by repression, identification, and introjection. There is much depth to explore here, as we have habituated our bodies to these defense mechanisms and Types for so long. Knowing what clues to look for, we may save ourselves from some dead ends in practicing mindfulness of the body. On the more positive side, Ones may choose ‘breath focus’ as a means to reconnect to their often suppressed or unacknowledged but powerful and accurate 'gut instincts.' Twos might choose to seek out techniques to strengthen their connection with and awareness of their own physical needs. Fours may seek to strengthen awareness of balance and the beauty of the present, often ordinary, moment by staying grounded in physical realities. Sixes might seek out methods of increasing an inner connection and fostering trust, which will support surety and security, through acceptance of their physical reality before projecting danger onto it. Eights might explore how to express their bountiful physical energy in sustainable, non-intimidating ways. Feeling & Heart The meaning of the term 'feeling' is rather ambiguous in Buddhist texts. It can refer to physical feelings like hunger, to emotional feelings like love and anger, and to the more subtle feeling qualities of pleasure and pain. The latter is the most common use of the term, such as in the second foundation of mindfulness. 'Feeling,' here, points to the fact that every sensual experience - all the senses, including mental - carries a feeling quality of pleasantness or painfulness, and sometimes a neutral, neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. For example, some food has a delicious quality while other tastes foul. A freshly blossomed rose is beautiful for most of us (unless a cruel florist tormented us in our childhood), while maggot-ridden road kill is ugly to both sight and smell. The sidewalks leading out from our homes may feel neither pleasant nor unpleasant due to an ambiguous significance that nonetheless subtly tugs at the mind-heart's attention. The Enneagram use of the word 'feeling' is closer to 'emotion,' in my understanding, and doesn't exactly correlate to the Buddhist meaning just given. However, the clear connection of the heart center to emotion forced me to ponder this more carefully. For certain One-ish and male reasons, I have shied away from emotions in my Buddhist practice and tended to downplay their significance. However, in recent years many experiences have challenged this over-easy attitude, mostly recently my Enneagram studies. When we experience feelings (in the Buddhist sense) mindlessly, emotions are stirred up. Some Buddhist teachers, and it seems the Enneagram tradition, thus point our attention to the stirred-up aspect of feeling. The more subtle painful-pleasant aspect remains present, but is much harder to notice underneath the much more powerful emotions. So we observe the emotional aspect of feeling and delve deeper to find the more subtle pain-pleasure aspect that triggers the emotions. In practice, it doesn't matter so much which aspect of feeling we begin with, so long as we get to both. (Anyway, in a few paragraphs we will see that emotion is also connected with the third foundation of mindfulness.) After all, it isn't necessary that there is an exact correspondence between Buddhist and Enneagram terms. What matters is that they continually bring our attention to the same issues. Again, Enneagram study can help Buddhists to understand their particular reactions to feelings. Some of us - e.g. Ones and Threes - need to start by accepting our feelings. Others - Twos and Fours - need to see that there is more to life than feelings. All of us need to understand our particular passions and the kinds of painful, pleasant, and neutral experiences that trigger them. Without the refinement provided by Enneagram, Buddhists might waste their time investigating passions of lesser importance than the one that is typical. A Five might rest comfortable in a somewhat ascetic attitude toward sensual pleasures and overlook the fundamental greediness of his Type, while the One controls his feeling so habitually that he actually believes they have 'been fixed.' Threes should benefit from being mindful of the pleasant feelings that they seek from their successes, while Sevens need to observe the discomforts and pains from which they habitually seek escape. Further, Enneagram can direct us to Type-specific practices appropriate to both this foundation and our particular personality. Threes might wish to pursue techniques that reconnect them to their emotions and help them to slow down the inner task-master. Fives may choose heart-centered work and interactive techniques as a means of gradually beginning to allow emotions to surface in relationships and the presence of others. Sevens may look to breathing and emotional techniques to lessen the distractions and the racing monkey mind. Eights might wish to learn about the heart center as a path for allowing vulnerability to surface. Nines may learn to hold a focus, especially when the issue is their own priorities or agenda. Finally, I should note that Buddhism has a classic term corresponding to Enneagram's 'passions.' The term is 'kilesa,' variously translated as defilement, afflictive emotions, and mental pollution. The early Buddhist conception of liberation was to be free of these defiled passions - classically greed, hatred, and delusion - through the uprooting of the egoism that underlies them. Does Enneagram theory harbor a similar ideal? Mind & Head The heart or feeling center seems also to correspond with the third foundation of mindfulness, the mind or heart. In Buddhism, we usually do not discriminate between mind and heart; both are legitimate translations of citta, the seat of both passions and thinking. However, in Enneagram studies the heart and head center are clearly distinguished in important ways. The truth of the Enneagram perspective is that there is an important qualitative difference between thought and emotion. The energy is different. They even seem to be centered in different parts of the body (different aspects of the chakra system). The truth of the Buddhist perspective is that thought and emotion are inseparable in real life. Thoughts can stir up and direct our emotions. Emotions color and influence our thoughts. We get emotional about our ideas. We all think about our emotions a great deal. Opinions and beliefs are generally a mix of the two, although intellectuals like to pretend that their reasoned opinions are truly just that. However, since I have already dealt with emotions above, I will focus here on thinking and states of mind. In the teaching of dependent co-origination briefly mentioned above, we learn that various kinds of thinking are crucially involved in the concocting of the self-idea, and subsequent passions and selfishness. The most important are craving, clinging, and identification. The direction that craving takes is conditioned by the feeling of a sense experience. We cling to this craving as having an 'owner,' an 'I,' behind it. We then identify this 'I' with various aspects of the experience and form various kinds of self-labels and identities, such as, 'I am good,' 'I am weak,' and 'I am in danger.' The passions, emotions, and defilements arise out of this confused and selective thinking. Buddhist practice focuses on insight into this process so that we realize how the 'I' has no inherent existence, being merely constructed out of sense experience, feeling, thought, and ignorance. The fixations of the nine Types closely correspond to clinging. The characteristic self-images of the nine Types described by some Enneagram writers correspond well with identification (bhava, literally 'being' or 'having'). Thus, the specificity of Enneagram can help Buddhists to home in on the habitual patterns of thinking that are most central in their ego-formation. The ignorant mind - that is, the mind we live through most of the time - and the personality structure work to obscure our core desires and attachments. We more easily notice and acknowledge the tertiary and secondary ones. That helps, but never gets us to the real issues of our lives, the heart of our suffering. For this we must uncover the core desires, attachments, and identities of our particular ego-structures. So far, I have found no better way of doing so than a healthy combination of Buddhist and Enneagram teachings, meditation, and mindfulness practices. Similarly, the Enneagram can help each Type to look at how particular meditation techniques tend to reinforce their fixation rather than to foster release from it. In this way, the Enneagram can help us find the meditation practices that truly work for us. For example: Ones might be cautious in working with a highly structured and regimented technique where their focus on correctness and perfection can easily subvert the benefits otherwise available. Twos should use care in group-work where their tendency to focus on another's needs and potentials crowds out awareness of their own. Threes would do well to be cautious whenever a goal or task flavor appeared in their spiritual work. Fours should use caution when elaborate or dramatic actions are part of the picture. Fives and Sixes might want to be wary of strictly mental techniques where their awareness of their other centers is easily overwhelmed by mental prowess and imagination. Sevens should watch out for techniques where their talent for planning and strategizing leads them further into the fixation rather than away from it. Eights might wish to be careful of issues of power, control, and any emphasis on strength, endurance, and toughness in a practice. Nines might want to build awareness of the difference between spacing out and truly going 'in,' between merger and oneness. Higher Centers The Enneagram distinction between the high and low sides of each Type has something to offer Buddhists. Roughly, they correspond to the distinction between kusala (wholesome, skilful, healthy) and akusala (unwholesome, unskillful, unhealthy). Buddhist practice aims to generate, preserve, and further develop everything that is wholesome and healthy, while striving to prevent, diminish, and eliminate everything that is unwholesome and unhealthy. Some of this can be done in an organized, systematic way; many practices have been collected towards that purpose. Nonetheless, the deeper aspects of spiritual practice - seeing through personality and discovering Essence - don't lend themselves as well to systems and other products of thought and plan. Mindfulness, insight, and compassion, which cannot be planned (despite what some teachers claim), are required as we progress. Eventually we must acknowledge what Krishnamurti so powerfully insisted: 'Liberation is a pathless land.' There is also a Buddhist teaching that corresponds to the higher centers. We describe the Buddha as having three primary virtues: wisdom, compassion, and purity. It is not a stretch to see these as the higher mental center, higher emotional center, and liberated instincts. When the inherent potential of each center is purified and realized, the Head is nothing but pure intuitive wisdom, the Heart is simply wide-open compassion, and the Gut is pure instinct. Thus, both traditions have something similar to say about the liberated and full awakened being, that is, human wholeness. Dhamma & Essence I must attempt a few comments on the relationship between Dhamma and Essence, although it is largely beyond the scope of this article as well as my capabilities. For now, let Dhamma be the natural facts of our existence that become clear when the mind drops out of its habits of desire, clinging, and personality construction. Experiencing these facts clearly and directly is called 'insight.' The most basic facts or characteristics of existence are classically described as the impermanence of all conditioned things, the instability and lack of satisfaction in all impermanent things, and the lack of any inherent, independent self-entity in everything. The results of such realization is also Dhamma, in its aspect as the fruits of practice. These fruits are what Essence seems to be about. Some of the many Buddhist descriptions of this are the Arahant (Worthy One) beyond all greed, anger, and delusion; the luminous mind that is bright, clear, and pure; the one whose personal duty is complete, who has lived the holy life, and for whom there is no more (egoistic) returning; the life that is calm, cool, and of no danger to anyone (both oneself and others); and, of course, Buddha, The Awakened One. In Buddhist tradition, the inherent nature of human beings is said to be 'Buddha-Nature' . Some of the descriptions just mentioned point to the same inner reality. A significant point here is that Buddha-Nature is timeless, has no beginning or end. It is ever-present. In fact, Zen teachers assert that it is in everything, there is no real difference between the true nature of our existences and the reality that permeates the Cosmos. Everything is the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. The essential point, I think, is that Essence - like Buddha-Nature - already exists within us. Thus, it isn't something to develop, create, or transform. It is always here ready to be realized and lived fully. (Unfortunately, there appear to be some Enneagram writings that miss this point.) However, as a 'good Buddhist,' I can't help but stress that any essence that is real, and not just a concept, will turn out to be not-self. If this close resemblance between Buddha-Nature and Essence is correct, and the higher centers are part of Essence (as Naranjo and others assert), then ideas about developing, practicing, or 'going to' Holy Virtue and Holy Idea are misguided. Rather, they are already here to be discovered, enjoyed, worshipped, and lived in. (The 'high side' of each Type is another, lower matter). Story Telling The framework of the Enneagram is an ever-present container. Yet, primacy is given to real people using the Enneagram to make sense of their lives, their pain, hopes, quirks, and talents, and their possibilities for liberation. All Enneagram theories must be verified by the experiences and reports of individual representatives of the Types themselves. At Vallombrosa, sharing and re-sharing our stories through the Enneagram framework helped us develop a practice of friendship, psychological inquiry, and spiritual growth. Openness and trust are a requisite for the depth of sharing that took place; thus, friendships were forged quickly. People were ready for it, despite the risks. It was fascinating to follow up the comments and revelations of others - asking for more and invariably getting it. Others reciprocated, challenging me to explore aspects of Oneness as if peeling back infinite layers of onion. The fine example of these new friends inspired me to let go of this and that newly uncovered aspect of One-self. Correspondence and encounters since have furthered this wonderful process, which I am trying to continue with friends here in Siam. Since the early 90s, I have collaborated with a group of spiritually inclined social activists that now go by the name 'Asian Rainbow.' Through our experiments in integrating the 'outer work' of social transformation with the 'inner work' of letting go of selfishness, we have increasingly relied on story-telling as a powerful tool for discovery and recovery. Oppressed communities tell their stories together and in so doing begin to take back the meaning and direction of their lives. Burned out activists tell their stories and thus rejuvenate themselves into a more balanced, psychologically grounded change agent. Progressive religious tell their stories of being marginalized and attacked within religious institutions and find solidarity with sisters and brothers scattered throughout other religious and social change groups. All the great religious traditions began orally. Even the Q'uran wasn't written down until after the Prophet's Death. The stories told by this magnificent group of new friends was fully incarnated in voice, body language, banter among panelists, tears, glowing eyes, gestures, and energy given off (or withheld). This is a powerful way to learn about Type while recognizing the uniqueness and responsibility of individual experience. Community Sangha or Community is the third aspect of Refuge in Buddhism. I relearned many times during this training that each Type puts out a certain energy or feel into the world that brings back just what we fear the most. Even when I keep my mouth shut, the rigid, controlled, reaction-formation posture and energy of the One impacts others in ways that surround me with the tense, critical, judgmental stuff I hate and incompetently avoid. Further, the One filter attends to that stuff more than other things going on around me. This is karma (action) and with it I create a world that is painful (dukkha) to me. Other Types pull the same sort of trips in their own peculiar ways. Survival mechanisms perhaps, but not the happiest way to survive. With the openness, kindness, and compassion engendered through the story telling and meditations, I was able to express or be a more genuine version of myself, at least a deeper and more compelling aspect of Type. The same happened with others. Simultaneously, people were responding to me in ways that didn't fit with my self-image. They weren't criticizing me, they were complimenting. They didn't report anger coming from me, instead kindness. What was going on? You mean I'm not so bad? Not such a slime-ball jerk? These new friends reinforced a different story about myself; not the 'bad boy unworthy of love' schtick, rather somebody who was worthy of love, kindness, and friendship just like everybody else. Felt, and continues to feel, pretty nice. For me, this is further proof that ‘The Work’ is not done in isolation. While we practice as individuals, we also practice with others. Whether we speak of relationships, community, or networks, we cannot escape our social nature (nor our solitary nature). Joining this intense temporary Enneagram community was a joy and ongoing participation in the larger Oral Tradition community is, I'm happy to say, already happening. Undeserved and cherished richness! Conclusion Focusing on a few areas that are of special interest to me, I have sketched out some of the congruencies and complementary aspects that I have found between Buddhism and Enneagram. As the former has been central in my life for more than a decade and the latter is also earning a central role, out of necessity I will continue to explore the relationships between them. The way these two teachings and traditions support each other keep leaping forth. Y This article from: http://www.enneagramcentral.com/buddhist.htm Works by Cited Author Helen Palmer Palmer, Helen. The Enneagram. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. Palmer, Helen. The Ennegram in Love & Work, New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995 Back to Chris' Enneagram Page