The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues: Finding the Way Home

by Sandra Maitri

The popular author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram elucidates the most intractable pitfalls of our psyches and shows how our understanding of them can lead us to our highest virtues.

The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues illuminates human experience beyond the functions of personality. Using the spiritual psychology of the enneagram, Sandra Maitri highlights two core aspects of human the passions and the virtues. The passions are the ego-driven emotional states that come to dominate our lives, such as anger, pride, and fear. Discovering and understanding the passions in an experiential way can lead us to what lies beyond the personality itself. As we do, the virtues-which include serenity, humility, and courage-naturally arise to support our unfoldment. This giving way from the passions to the virtues is one of the hallmarks of inner development.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Philosophy

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2005

Reviews

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

On one hand, I love the approach she takes in this book, because it gives me a deeper, more holistic understanding of the enneagram and all the types. However, this book gave me a jarring reminder that all teachings are limited by their authors' views. I found the author's willful ignorance about colonialism, racism, classism, bodies and oppression quite disheartening. I try to "take what I like and leave the rest," but I issue a caution to anyone reading this that she's propagating some harmful new age ideas. I like my spirituality and psychology to include some wisdom and understanding about the social contexts of our lived existence.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently taken a class on psychology and spirituality, in which the Enneagram was featured prominently, I was excited by the content and approach Maitri took in revealing the spiritual and psychological potential of working with the Enneagram. Initially, I treated this book as I have any other Enneagram book, simply reading the introductory material and then skipping directly to my type.

Turns out, this is not a typical introductory Enneagram book. Instead of each chapter being a repetitive profile of the individual personality types, Maitri uses the "passions" and "virtues" associated with each type as a way of exploring the spiritual growth of every type. "Passion" here alludes more to the Greek connotation, in terms of an uncontrollable, maladaptive fixation on one way of being. Those familiar with the seven deadly sins will recognize the qualities associated with each type: lust for Eight, avarice for Five, envy for Four, and so forth. Reading only about one's particular passion associated with type, however, will miss the wealth of insight available in the book. Every human is possessed of every passion in some capacity or another, as Maitri reveals with acuity.

The passions themselves are not simply bad habits or negative traits, but patterns of being that keep us locked in our unhealthy patterns and attachments, impeding spiritual and personal growth. Maitri pairs this spiritual insight with an intriguing use of psychoanalytic theory to discuss how the personality becomes locked into place, and how Westerners may use our personalities as a pathway toward spiritual growth. Instead of trying to transcend our habitual thoughts and feelings, our typological fixations, the power of the Enneagram is to bring us more fully into those passions. By inhabiting these passions and finding the emptiness at the core, we can progress toward realization of the virtues.

[Caroline Donahue · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am a big fan of the enneagram. particularly maitri's take on it, which i think goes deeper and further than other authors who write about it. she combines her approach with the diamond approach of almaas's ridhwan school and the idea that we are all connected and disconnected in specific ways from our original essence and develop coping patterns in order to deal with this loss. i feel she is articulate, concise and deeply insightful about her subject. probably not a first enneagram book, but her other book would do very well as an intro and could be followed by this one.

you will certainly get something out of this which will help you see yourself differently...

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than just discovering your point and blocking out the negative passion associated with it, Maitri succinctly explains how all the ennaetypes are related to early childhood trauma that have lasting impact on each of us, just some more focused in a particular corner. From Freud’s tripartite map of the ego structure to the Sutra of the Third Zen Patriarch calling for no-self, there is much sage advice that directly applies to the inner working of the enneagram, the heart points more than those on the wings. As awe-inspiring as it was to discover more about the motives based upon each passion and how they can sublimate into virtues, the best lesson from reading this book cover to cover is that we are not solely defined by one enneatype but must seek to overcome them all, to transcend the Holy Ideas stuck in our heads and move towards the virtues that sit at the centre of our souls. And then, as the Afterword indicates, be prepared for this to be a lifelong journey into knowing thyself better rather than a quick-fix solution that only comes up at dinner parties, whenever those start happening again.

[Riley M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read many different books on the Enneagram, this is one of my least favourites. There’s a lot of Freudian mumbo jumbo about fear of castration, penis envy, our infant relationship to our mother's breast and it's effects on our ego, etc, and a hard to pinpoint generic spirituality that combines aspects of Christianity and Eastern Philosophy, and occasionally things like sufism, together. It can get quite repetitive, possibly because it is focusing on the 'passions and virtues' of each type, but then in comparison it is short on actual advice or techniques to help grow.

There are a lot of quotes from Almaas, it seems the author is using a lot of material relating to the Diamond Approach (I don't know much about it myself) so perhaps if you are a part of that group you may get more out of it than I did.

I also have to agree that there were little offhand remarks that show a biased cultural view on the world that I found offputting.

[Danielle Shroyer]

This is a good overview of the passions and virtues and offers a lot of deep wisdom. My primary complaint is that so much of her reflections center on Freudian psychology, which I find to be misguided and narrow. It really limited my appreciation for the book.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most spiritually mature perspective of the enneagram I’ve read.

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book once you know the enneagram basics

[Maggie Obermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really like her writing an explanations. Very helpful when examining Passions and Virtues, but even wider elements of the Enneagram as well.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I
This is a follow up to Maitri's first book "The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram". That was an excellent book. This is excellent as well. Maitri's understanding of psychology informs this book and informs it very well. There are many ways to understand human beings. There is no one correct way but there are some that are more helpful than others. The enneagram is pretty helpful because it contains within it solid psychological and spiritual ideas. Maitri takes what is pretty dry stuff and makes it compelling and therefore understandable. This book can be used by an individual who wants to become a more whole and healthy human being or by a professional who wants to help others in the endeavor of becoming more whole and healthy. I recommend it.

[Dona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful

For those of us interested in how the Enneagram can help us understand ourselves more fully and thus live more fully, this book is a must-read. The author sometimes gets bogged down in the presentation of Freud's theories, but the book is a helpful tool on the journey of self- understanding.

[Brooke Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second-best ennegram book, after Spiritual Dimensions. By the same author. Read the other one first.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maitri strikes again with clear, wonderfully explicated additions to her first enneagram book. This is a MUST READ for those who go beyond the popular understanding of this spiritual tool.