Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas

by A.H. Almaas

The mystical and transcendental point of this doctrine is that we know the eternal Ideas prenatally and that we can re-discover them only by tracing our mind back to its natural origin, which is unborn and whose supreme quality is its ability to reflect itself in the eternal Ideas or Platonic Forms.

As I said before, Naranjo passed the sevenfold structure as proposed by me to his students, and immediately after working with me, he furthered his own investigations, mainly on the psychology of the system with a perspective of Gestalt Psychology, Depth Psychology, and Cognitive Principles. Naranjo worked mostly with the Enneagram of the Passions which, of course, is the psychological level of the system. Then Naranjo produced excellent psychological insights into the passions and the fixations, and their relationship to the entire psyche.

As Naranjo saw the system from the perspective of psychology, Almaas produces, with the same validity, this book of scholarly inquiry from a perspective of ontology, with an acute eye of not losing the ultimate goal that every Holy Idea is, in fact, a direct and perfect path into the recognition and, most importantly, into the anamnesis that includes the three metaphysical parts of self-remembering, self-discovery, and self-realization.

Most of us believe that spiritual realization is a matter of becoming happier, freer, and more noble, while retaining the basic outlines and categories of experience of our familiar view of reality.

That conviction reflects a lack of understanding that the basic paradigms of our world view, which determine our everyday experience, are an intrinsic part of the web of ignorance that binds us tightly within egoic experience. Until we directly experience spiritual transformation, we do not truly understand that this transformation involves such radical changes in our experience of ourselves and our world that it is not a matter of becoming a transformed individual; we recognize, rather, that the reality that is realized is something that cannot be limited by such notions as “individual” and “world.”

In other words, spiritual liberation is a matter of one’s experience and perception moving to another dimension of existence that has its own perspective, and further, of this dimension becoming the center and foundation of experience. Our sense of self is transformed when it attains its essential nature, the ontological presence that is pure Being. No amount of psychological growth work is sufficient to bring this about, because the psychological realm, as it is known in ordinary experience, is a distorted and incomplete experience of our interiority, since it is out of contact with Being.

Human beings typically live in a state of arrested development in which the psychological domain rules our consciousness. Reaching the fullness of our potential entails resuming our development, which leads beyond the psychological to the realm of Being or spirit.

The body of knowledge in this book is most useful to the student who has done a great deal of self-observation and study, and has experienced many manifestations of Being. In this book, we will address the transitional stage between personal and boundless realization of Being.

This transition, then, is the shifting of the identity from the personal to the universal.

The objective or enlightened view of the cosmos can be elaborated upon using many systems or terminologies, such as the Sufi system of the divine names or the Buddhist system of the Buddha qualities and families. I will elaborate on this view here using the system of the Enneagram, specifically the Enneagram of Holy Ideas.

Enneagram first made a significant appearance in the modern West through the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, an Armenian mystic, around the turn of the century. Gurdjieff appears to have learned it from a secret school in the Middle East, a school steeped in a spiritual tradition that is at least two thousand years old.

According to Naranjo, the idea that the figure of the Enneagram embodies an objective map of reality in its various manifestations and dimensions originated in this ancient school. Using the map of the Enneagram, one can acquire detailed understanding of any dimension of experience. Two categories of Enneagrams refer to inner experience: one pertaining to egoic experience (reflecting fundamental spiritual ignorance), such as the Enneagrams of Fixations and Passions, and the other pertaining to essential experience (reflecting spiritual enlightenment), such as the Enneagrams of the Virtues and the Holy Ideas.

While the Enneagram is very useful as a method of identifying and clarifying psychological functioning, its possibilities are far more powerful than this limited application. Our view on the higher uses of the Enneagram is in accordance with that of Ichazo and Naranjo. In his book, Ennea-type Structures (Naranjo, 1990), Naranjo presents the Enneagram as a means for self-observation and study as part of the larger work of spiritual realization. He elaborates upon how the personality characteristics of the nine ego-types (which Naranjo calls “ennea-types”1) are expressions of the loss of contact with Being,

“Every person develops a style of compensating for the lack, the ontological emptiness which is at the center of the ego. We say there are nine basic styles or points of ego fixation.” (Bleibtreu, 1982, p. 13)

We understand the objectivity of the Enneagram to mean, among other things, that it can be perceived directly by anyone with the necessary capacity, who inquires effectively into the nature of reality. And since it is a true model of reality, one cannot exhaust its knowledge. Knowledge of reality is both unlimited and inexhaustible: Each teaching has a specific way of describing reality and none of these ways exhausts all possible experience.

The Enneagram of Fixations reflects the deluded or egoic view of reality, expressing the loss of the enlightened view, which is represented by the Enneagram of Holy Ideas. The notion that each fixation is the result of the loss of a particular unconditioned perception of Being implies that ultimate freedom from this fixation is possible only through the experiential realization of the corresponding Holy Idea.

Working with the Enneagram only on the psychological level leaves us stuck on the psychological level. Working with the Enneagram as part of a larger spiritual work, however, leads to a much deeper realization of truth and thus, a freedom from personality patterns that is literally unimaginable from the perspective of ego.

“When we turn away from our primal perfection, our completeness, our unity with the world and God, we create the illusion that we need something exterior to ourselves for our completion. This dependency on what is exterior is what makes man’s ego.”

We discuss each of the Holy Ideas in detail and how the loss of each leads to the development of the corresponding fixation. Each loss manifests as the development of a particular delusion, an incorrect view of reality, the center of what Naranjo terms an “implicit cognitive error.” A Holy Idea is a particular unconditioned, and hence objective, experiential understanding of reality.

the archetype represents the authentic element of spirit, but a spirit which is not to be identified with the human intellect, since it is the latter’s spiritus rector. The essential content of all mythologies and all religions and all isms is archetypal.

primordial types, that is, with universal images that have existed since the remotest times. (Jung, 1959b, pp. 4–5) Whether or not we view the fixation cores as complexes and the Holy Ideas as archetypes, the core of each ennea-type functions as its central psychological constellation, forming the nucleus of the fixation.

In the Diamond Approach, we find several dimensions of Being which involve a perception of nonduality. Many seekers who approach or read about the understanding of unity or nonseparateness associate the idea of unity with a kind of homogeneity. For example, on one level of perception the seeker sees directly that all of manifestation is made of one medium. In this perception, the emphasis is on the awareness that everything is made of one something, one substance, and discrimination of different aspects of manifestation is not part of the experience. This is what we call unity. Another level that involves a perception of nonduality is the nonconceptual, that is, direct awareness of reality more fundamental than or prior to conceptual thinking. Here, too, there is a sense that there is “one thing” which constitutes all of reality, and from this perspective it is clear that there are no separate objects. Reality on this level can appear as one solid “block” which cannot be separated even conceptually. Another level of perception which includes awareness of nonduality is what we call oneness. In this perception, the awareness of nonseparateness is clear, but within that whole, unified reality, discrimination is present. One sees the different colors, forms, and movements within manifestation, without those differences appearing as separating boundaries.

Losing touch with unity is losing the sense that one is part of Being, part of the manifestation and flow of the whole of manifestation. In other words, the delusion of separateness from the whole takes nine forms, representing the loss of the nine Holy Ideas.

The understanding of Holy Work is that the ego self does not know what is supposed to happen, and that only by addressing what is true in the present moment can one participate in the Holy Work of the whole.

Inadequacy in the holding environment leads not only to the loss of contact with Being in general, but specifically to the loss of one’s particular Holy Idea. It is part of the transmitted theory of the Enneagram that each person is born with the capacity to recognize all the Holy Ideas, but with one of them particularly sensitive, strong, or dominant. This is the one that is most strongly affected by the inadequacy of early experience.

The inadequacy of the early holding environment leads not only to the loss of contact with Being, as reflected in the loss of a particular Holy Idea, but also to the loss of basic trust, which is an innate, unquestioned, and preverbal confidence in reality. This loss leads to specific distrustful reactions determined not only by the inadequacy of the holding environment, but by the particular delusion that results from the loss of the particular Holy Idea. The specific delusion, the specific reaction of distrust, and the particular way in which the self experiences the inadequacy of the holding environment (the specific difficulty, which is again qualitatively determined by the particular delusion), form the elements of each fixation’s particular core.

The Enneagram of Holy Ideas is most useful at the juncture between personal and cosmic realization of Being, as previously mentioned.

Our orientation is that the nine Holy Ideas are representations of one reality, each highlighting a different facet of its direct perception. The nine delusions are principles inherent in all egoic structures; they underlie the totality of egoic existence. Understanding the delusions inherent in one’s experience is useful not only to penetrate and understand one’s own fixation, but more importantly, it is useful for understanding the principles that form the foundation of egoic experience. Regardless of one’s particular ennea-type, it is important to observe all the nine cores in one’s experience, and to penetrate experientially into all nine delusions which keep one’s egoic experience going. In our experience, this is more important than recognizing one’s particular delusion, because the deeper we penetrate into what determines our experience, the more the universal principles and the barriers to realizing them are recognized in their entirety. At that point, one’s particular ennea-type becomes less significant. All nine delusions make up the obscured or conditioned experience of egoic existence, and all need to be recognized and seen through if one is going to transcend that existence.

While psychological processing is a necessary part of the work, no amount of psychological processing can release the soul from the ego fixation. Ultimately, Essence must emerge and transform the consciousness. For this reason, work on the Enneagrams of the egoic dimensions, like those of the Fixations and Passions, cannot be fully completed except by penetrating to the delusions underlying them, and these delusions cannot be penetrated except by direct experience of the Holy Ideas. Only this direct experience of the dimension of Being, and its integration in such a way as to illuminate the delusions as delusions instead of as incontrovertible truths, can fundamentally free the soul from its fixations. The initial enthusiasm that one experiences through learning the Enneagrams of the Fixations and Passions, and the clarity it adds to one’s experience, must not be allowed to obscure the fact that freedom from the Fixations and Passions is not an easy matter. It is not enough to see one’s psychological patterns for one to be free from them, and, moreover, it is not possible to see oneself completely and accurately without the presence of the experience of Being. Knowing the map of the Enneagram of Fixations, regardless of how deeply and in how much detail, is not sufficient to bring about transformation, let alone liberation.

When this state is present, the development of the soul moves toward Being; when it is relatively absent, the soul develops more toward ego.

By understanding it, we can see why spiritual development seems relatively easy for some people and more difficult for others, as well as why that development seems to happen on its own for a few people but not at all for most people. The amount of presence or absence of this quality does not explain these differences in development entirely, but it is a strong determinant.

The ego is a psychic structure that is based on crystallized beliefs about who we are and what the world is. We experience ourselves and the world through the filter of this structure. Spiritual awakening involves connecting with those dimensions of experience obscured by ego structure.

The first is becoming aware of—actually perceiving and experiencing—the particular belief or identification that constitutes the structure. The second is the dissolution of that facet of the ego structure. The latter is the most difficult one in the process of transformation, since it means letting go of part of one’s identity, and this surrendering can be experienced as a dissolution, a disintegration, a fragmentation, or a sense that you are falling apart. This juncture can be very painful or frightening because the old sense of your identity is crumbling and falling away and you don’t know what—if anything—will take its place.

If this jumping into the abyss is easy, one’s transformation tends to happen easily. But if this letting go of past identities is difficult—very painful or excessively fraught with fear—one will tend to hold on to the old, staying aligned with one’s ego. What makes the difference is the presence of a certain kind of trust that we call basic trust. It is an unspoken, implicit trust that what is optimal will happen, the sense that whatever happens will ultimately be fine.

Basic trust is a nonconceptual confidence in the goodness of the universe, an unquestioned implicit trust that there is something about the universe and human nature and life that is inherently and fundamentally good, loving, and wishing us the best.

trust is deep, it manifests in how you live your life, not necessarily in what you feel or what you think. Basic trust is experienced as an unquestioned sense of safety and security that is intrinsic to the way you act and live. When deeply present, this trust is so much a part of the fabric of your soul that it is not something you think about—it is preconceptual, preverbal, pre-differentiation. Furthermore, it is so basic that events and circumstances in your life cannot disrupt it. For this reason, basic trust is different from our usual psychological sense of trust.

Basic trust, on the other hand, is not a trust in some thing, some person, or some situation, and so is not readily diminished by life circumstances. Instead, it gives you an implicit orientation toward all circumstances that allows you to relax and be with them. You feel in your bones that you are and will be okay, even if the events at the moment are disappointing or painful, or even completely disastrous.

Basic trust is difficult to discuss because doing so makes it explicit, while it is fundamentally implicit. Those who have it never think about it, never question it, never even know that there is such a thing.

In those who have never lost basic trust, there is an innocence. Only when you have lost it and go through consciously developing it again, do you understand what it’s like not to have it.

Knowing that we are all part of one reality means that our true nature is not defined by ego experience or the physical body and cannot be fundamentally hurt or destroyed.

However, to someone who has lost touch with nonseparateness, the first person’s actions will appear trusting in a way that seems unjustifiable.

When the soul’s experience is consciously that of being a separate individual, it can only experience the contact with implicit nonseparateness as the sense of the benevolence of life, as basic trust. Most people do not have a lot of basic trust; they feel that it’s okay to trust in some situations and not in others. Certain conditions have to be met in order for them to trust. This is not an inherent trust in life.

Basic trust gives us the capacity to surrender, the capacity to let go, the capacity to jump into the unknown. With it, you don’t need assurances that things are going to be okay because you implicitly know things are going to be okay. It isn’t a trust in something in particular since it is preconceptual—it is prior to your differentiated ideas about what you trust. So basic trust is even beyond trusting in God, because feeling that you trust in God means that you already have a concept of God. The presence of basic trust indicates that you have the innate sense that life is fundamentally benevolent, and that that benevolence exists independent of you and your actions.

The ego’s perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, on paranoia, on fear, on the conviction that you’re not going to be adequately taken care of and that the universe is not there to hold and take care of you in the ways that you need. This conviction causes you to believe that you have to engage in all kinds of manipulations and games to get your needs met and to make things work out.

presence or absence of basic trust is crucial to the initial step in the process of the transformation of any sector of the ego. This step is only completed by giving up the particular structure we have been holding on to. Basic trust gives you the capacity and the willingness to let go of the images, identifications, structures, beliefs, ideas, and concepts—the remnants of the past that make up the ego. Implicit in this initial step is the second one: If you are able to surrender, then you are willing to be. You are willing to not try to change things, to not manipulate them, to not push and pull at them. You are willing to just be present, which is a sort of realization itself. First, then, is the death of the old; second is the realization of Being.

The third step is to allow things to develop spontaneously and naturally the way they want to develop, without trying to channel them in ways that you think they should go.

And since ego structures and activity are connected with the sense of the lack of trust, the focus of the personality will be on this lack, on fear, on worrying and planning and compensating for the perceived lack of support.

If we lack basic trust, it becomes important for us to develop it. Development here does not mean building up some new experience of self. It means experiencing the factors which brought about the original profound disconnection from reality and, in particular, experiencing repeatedly the fundamental truth of nonseparateness to the point where the soul can again rest in the knowledge of that truth.

In a sense, basic trust is a bedrock for the process of spiritual development, but it also affects the quality of the whole of our lives. It gives us the sense that our lives are evolving naturally, moving and progressing in ways and directions that we may not yet know or understand but that we feel confident will be okay. If basic trust is present, our lives have a sense of freedom. Then the desire to know where things are going arises, not out of wanting to control the unfoldment, but out of simple curiosity.

Basic trust manifests through our actions rather than through our thoughts or feelings, since it is knowledge in the belly and belly knowledge shows through action. So it is a type of knowledge that we don’t usually think of as knowledge.