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December 20, 2019 - March 10, 2020
When it comes to recognizing the truth of our own identities, most of us experience a symbolic version of blindness that keeps us from seeing ourselves for who we really are.
“Identity answers the question ‘Who am I?’, while dignity answers the question, ‘What am I worth?’”
My own consistent struggle is to recognize my addictive tendency to validate my worth (dignity) by curating an unrealistic and unattainable projection of who I think I need to be (identity).
“Every unrealistic expectation is a resentment waiting to happen.”
Type Seven strives for imaginative freedom for inspirational independence.
As the most devout believers of any faith tradition mature, they find themselves quietly and undramatically allowing the fruit of their lives to speak for itself more than relying on conversionist tactics.
The English word personality is derived from the Latin word for “mask.” Simply put, our personality is the mask we wear. Taking off that mask, trying to get behind the mask, is the work of the spiritual journey.
this is what the nineteenth-century American philosopher Elbert Hubbard was suggesting when he wrote, “We are punished by our sins not for them.”
Many of us don’t know how to hear from God in the present, so we make the mistake of believing God is somehow waiting for us in the future. This requires that we figure out what’s next or how we’ll get to where we want to go. But God is here now, closer than our very breath,
the centers explain something about each of the nine Enneagram types by helping identify a person’s most accessible emotional response or reaction: anxiety or distress for the Head Center, fear or shame for the Heart Center, and frustration or anger for the Body Center.
The three Anchor Points (Three, Six, Nine) have perhaps the most archetypal Holy Ideas (the fruit of each type’s mental clarity when the mind is connected with the True Self): faith for type Six, hope for type Three, and love for type Nine.
Naranjo suggests that type Three is “a polarity of sadness [Four] and happiness [Two] . . . [that Six is] a polarity of aloofness [Five] and expressiveness [Seven] . . . [and Nine] one of amoral or anti-moral [Eight] and over-moral [One].”
each person’s Basic Desire is the unique way they want to get “home.” It is the ego’s yearning to return to its essence. It is the soul’s desire to reconnect with its original righteousness.
Fundamentally these three types are constantly frustrated by their own idealism. Growing in awareness helps them recognize their desperate need to rest in God, discovering wholeness through prayer.
In silence, I’m forced to face myself, allowing all my fears, shame, guilt, regrets, disappointments, doubts, and resentments to come to the surface.
As an extrovert, I somehow find silence easier to engage when I’m surrounded by others.
The opportunity to meditate in a supportive community is worth the journey.
Frequently you will find a very traditional Catholic priest sitting across from an Episcopal bishop, or perhaps it’s a conservative preacher from the Southern Baptist suburban megachurch seated beside a progressive theologian from the nearby Jesuit university. Those who normally would be divided by doctrine and belief come together in unity. Through their words they would find plenty about which to disagree, but silence brings them into a new kind of communion, forming a new kind of community.
The Enneagram forces us to wake up out of our illusion-of-self and break free from the shackles of our personality. Once we awaken, we can no longer continue to live in the dreamlike states of the deceptions that we have convinced ourselves are more real and more dramatic than the best of who we can become when freed from the prisons of our Fixations and Passions.
Life best lived is lived as a series of losses, a series of deaths. Death is not meant to be a one-time event at the end of life but, rather, a daily experience by which we learn to continually embrace the unknown, step into mystery, and release the need to control.
“True happiness is found in seemingly unremarkable things. But to be aware of little, quiet things, you need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required. Be still. Look. Listen. Be present.”
“By abandoning ourselves regularly to God through prayer in the form of solitude, silence and stillness, we experience more freedom from compulsions and heavy-laden expectations and more liberty in our [T]rue [S]elf with all of our unique gifts to offer the world.”
She took consistent sacred pauses to nurture an inner solitude, silence, and stillness.
Solitude, intentional withdrawal, teaches us to be present—present to ourselves, present to God, and present with others.
The Scriptures tell us, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but most of us never really learn to love ourselves, thinking we can make up for this deficit if we practice loving others. We have to practice what love is by making room for who we are—the good and the bad.
Today I know that Sabbath is for rest, retreats are for reflection, vacations are for recreation, and sabbatical is for renewal.
God is love, and therefore God can be trusted. In silence, God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So why are we afraid? Just be.
Gut people who are obsessed with control, heart people who are obsessed with connections, and head people who are obsessed with competence all need to find freedom from the ways they deal with their inner dread.
Can the Seven dial down their anxious addiction to adventure and opportunity to hear that everything they need is already present?
Silence helps us learn how to listen to the voice of God in our lives, a voice we may have been unable to recognize before. Silence helps us listen to the people in our lives who speak loving words of truth or affirmation over us. And silence helps us to listen to ourselves—our desires and fears.
consider someone dominant in type Seven who overidentifies with her zeal. Her enthusiasm is so contagious that everyone loves to be around her, yet she can hardly stand being alone with herself, afraid she will suffocate from her personal pain. While she tries to take in as many positive experiences as life may offer, she doesn’t let the good of those experiences penetrate deeply enough to heal her personal wounds.
Jesus does not ask us to do through contemplative practice what he has not done himself.
When Sevens rest in silence, they find the greatest adventures already lie within their own souls. Sevens don’t need to run off to what’s next when they learn to listen to what’s within.
For type Seven, resting in silence helps muffle the ever-persistent, future-forward mental activity that frustrates their ability to remain content in the present moment.
Their resistance to silence is the first invitation for Sevens to face their own unconscious pain, the very thing they are running from in their efforts to create activity all around themselves.
When the intensity of the body sensation or emotion begins to subside, let go by repeating the following sentences: “I let go of the desire for security/affection/control.” “I let go of the desire to change this feeling/sensation.” As you pray, recognize that God is with you.
