The Wisdom of the Enneagram

by Don Richard Riso

We dedicate this book to the Ground of all Being, the One from Whom we have come, and to Whom we shall return, the Font of wisdom and Light of lights, the Maker, Renewer, and Keeper of all things. May this book which comes from our hearts, speak to the hearts of all who read it.

We believe that if we acquire that perfect relationship or job or new “toy,” the restlessness will go away, and we will feel satisfied and complete. But experience teaches us that the new car makes us feel better for only a short time. The new relationship may be wonderful, but it never quite fulfills us in the way we thought it would. So what are we really looking for? If we reflect for a moment, we may realize that what our hearts yearn for is to know who we are and why we are here.

“There’s a part of every living thing that wants to become itself, the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one. That is spirituality.” ELLEN BASS

best definition of spirituality

“Whatever your age, your upbringing, or your education, what you are made of is mostly unused potential.” GEORGE LEONARD

“Spiritually speaking, everything that one wants, aspires to, and needs is ever-present, accessible here and now—for those with eyes to see.” SURYA DAS

THE ENNEAGRAM (pronounced “ANY-a-gram”) is a geometric figure that maps out the nine fundamental personality types of human nature and their complex interrelationships. It is a development of modern psychology that has roots in spiritual wisdom from many different ancient traditions. The word Enneagram comes from the Greek for “nine”—ennea—and “figure”—grammos; thus, it is a “nine-pointed figure.”

The heart of the Enneagram is the universal insight that human beings are spiritual presences incarnated in the material world and yet mysteriously embodying the same life and Spirit as the Creator. Beneath surface differences and appearances, behind the veils of illusion, the light of Divinity shines in ever individual. Various forces obscure that light, however, and each spiritual tradition has myths and doctrines to explain how mankind has lost its connection with the Divine.

Presence (awareness, mindfulness), the practice of self-observation (gained from self-knowledge), and understanding what one’s experiences mean (an accurate interpretation provided by a larger context such as a community or spiritual system) are the three basic elements needed for transformational work. Being supplies the first, you supply the second, and the Enneagram supplies the third. When these three come together, things can happen quickly.

“If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them.” PASCAL

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.” Herman Hesse

“He who knows others is learned. He who knows himself is wise.” LAO TZU

But by helping us see how trapped we are in our trances and how estranged we are from our Essential nature, the Enneagram invites us to look deeply into the mystery of our true identity. It is meant to initiate a process of inquiry that can lead us to a more profound truth about ourselves and our place in the world. If, however, we use the Enneagram simply to arrive at a better self-image, we will stop the process of uncovering (or, actually, recovering) our true nature. While knowing our type gives us important information, that information is merely an embarkation point for a much greater journey. In short, knowing our type is not the final destination. The aim of this Work is to stop the automatic reactions of the personality by bringing awareness to it. Only by bringing insight and clarity to the mechanisms of personality can we awaken—which is why we have written this book. The more we see the mechanical reactions of our personality, the less identified with them we become and the more freedom we have. That is what the Enneagram is all about.

“Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West—and then seek.” GURDJIEFF

Quite strikingly almost all of the major world religions teach that the universe is a manifestation not of duality, as much of Western logic teaches, but of trinity. Our usual way of looking at reality is based on pairs of opposites such as good and bad, black and white, male and female, introvert and extrovert, and so forth. The ancient traditions, however, do not see man and woman, but man, woman, and child. Things are not black or white, but black, white, and gray.

When we put these three elements together (the circle, the triangle, and the hexad), we get the Enneagram. It is a symbol that shows the wholeness of a thing (the circle), how its identity is the result of the interaction of three forces (the triangle), and how it evolves or changes over time (the hexad).

THE CORE TRUTH that the Enneagram conveys to us is that we are much more than our personality. Our personalities are no more than the familiar, conditioned parts of a much wider range of potentials that we all possess. Beyond the limitations of our personalities, each of us exists as a vast, largely unrecognized quality of Being or Presence—what is called our Essence. In spiritual language we could say that within each person is an individual spark of the Divine, although we have forgotten this fundamental truth because we have fallen asleep to our true nature. We do not experience our own Divine nature; nor do we experience others as manifestations of the Divine. Instead, we often become hard, even cynical, treating others as objects to be defended against or used for our own gratification.

When we talk about Essence, we mean it in the literal sense of the word—what we fundamentally are, our Essential self, the ground of Being in us. (Spirit is another appropriate word.)

One of the profound lessons of the Enneagram is that psychological integration and spiritual realization are not separate processes. Without spirituality, psychology cannot really free us or lead us to the deepest truths about ourselves, and without psychology, spirituality can lead to grandiosity, delusion, and an attempt to escape from reality. The Enneagram is neither dry psychology nor fuzzy mysticism but a tool for transformation that uses the clarity and insight of psychology as a point of entry into a profound and universal spirituality. Thus, in a literal sense, the Enneagram is “the bridge between psychology and spirituality.™”

“The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.” DOSTOYEVSKY

Thus one of the most transformational insights that the

Enneagram can provide is the realization that we are not our personality. To begin to grasp this is to undergo a transformation of our sense of self. When we begin to understand that we are not our personality, we also begin to realize that we are spiritual beings who have a personality and who are manifesting themselves through that personality. When we stop identifying with our personality and stop defending it, a miracle happens: our Essential nature spontaneously arises and transforms us.

As we become less identified with our personality, it becomes a smaller part of the totality of who we are. The

personality still exists, but there is a more active intelligence, a sensitivity, and a Presence underlying it that uses the personality as a vehicle rather than being driven by it. As we identify more with our Essence, we see that we do not lose our identity—we actually find it.

It would be misleading, however, to suggest that one experience of awakening, or even a few of them, will free us from identification with our personality. While each moment of self-realization transforms us to some degree, it usually takes many such experiences before we can live and function with an expanded awareness. But as these experiences accumulate, our identity gradually opens up to include more and more of our Essential nature. A capacity for deeper experiences is created and the vessel expands to become a more constant carrier of the Divine. Our inner light becomes brighter and shines more warmly into the world.

As long as we believe that “My

personality is me,” we will stay identified with our personality. One of the main reasons that we resist changing is that the movement back to our Essence always entails feeling the pain of our self-abandonment.

“We are all serving a life-sentence in the dungeon of self.” CYRIL CONNOLLY

Essence Cannot Be Lost or Harmed No matter what our past, we can take heart that even the most traumatic childhood experiences cannot damage or destroy our Essence. Our Essence is still pure and untarnished, although it is constricted and obscured by the structures of our personality.

Sacred traditions from around the world are united in stressing the importance of our being witnesses to our transformation. We are called on to be vigilant, to observe ourselves, and to bring mindfulness to ourselves and our activities. If we want to benefit from this map of the soul, we must cultivate the art of awareness, learning to be more awake to our lives in each moment without judgment and without excuse. We must learn to “catch ourselves in the act” of behaving according to the dictates of our personality, seeing how we are manifesting mechanically and unfreely from moment to moment. When we are able to notice what we are doing now, to experience our current state completely and without judgment, the old patterns will begin to fall away.

Awareness is vitally important in the work of transformation because the habits of our personality let go most completely when we see them as they are occurring. Analyzing past behavior is helpful, but it is not as powerful as observing ourselves as we are in the present moment. For example, it is certainly worthwhile to understand why we had a terrible argument with our spouse, or were irritable with an associate or a child. But if, while we are having an argument or are being irritable, we suddenly “catch ourselves in the act,” something extraordinary can occur. In that moment of awareness, we may realize that we do not really want to do the questionable behavior that only seconds before we were so invested in. We may also see a deeper truth about our situation—for instance, that the “important point” we were so eager to make was really only an attempt to justify ourselves, or worse, a covert attempt to

get back at someone. Or that the “witty remarks” we were having such fun with were really an attempt t...

This something is who we actually are. It is the “I” beyond name, without personality—our true nature.

It is a major breakthrough when we fully appreciate the extent to which we entrust our lives to the mechanisms of our personalities and what peril we are in when we do so. Many times it is as if a three-year-old were making many crucial life decisions for us. Once we understand the nature of our personality’s mechanisms, we begin to have a choice about identifying with them or not. If we are not aware of them, clearly no choice is possible. As we see our Fiveness, or our Twoness, or our Eightness, however, the opportunity to “not do” our type appears.

“The Bible says that a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there a reference to his waking up.” A Course in Miracles

Even the most active, focused thinking is not the same thing as awareness. For example, we might be thinking intensely about what to write in this chapter, and we can also simultaneously be aware of our thinking processes. At another time we might notice that we are thinking about an upcoming business meeting—or rehearsing a possible conversation with someone in our head—while we are taking a walk. Usually our awareness is so completely taken up with our inner talk that we do not experience ourselves as separate from it. With more awareness, however, we are able to step back from our imaginary conversation and observe it. In the same way we can become more aware of our feelings. We may catch ourselves getting caught up in irritation, or boredom, or loneliness. When we are less aware, we are identified with a feeling—I am frustrated, I am depressed—and we do not see its temporary nature: we believe it is how we are. After the storm has passed, we realize that the feeling actually was temporary, even though when we were in the middle of it, it was our whole reality. By contrast, when we are aware of our feelings, we clearly observe their arising, their impact on us, and their passing away.

Unlike what our ego may believe, it is not our role to repair or transform ourselves. Indeed, one of the major obstacles to transformation is the idea that we can “fix” ourselves. This notion, of course, raises some interesting questions. What in us do we believe needs fixing, and what part of us is claiming the authority to be able to fix another part? What parts are the judge, the jury, and the defendant in the dock? What are the tools of punishment or rehabilitation, and what parts of us will wield them on what other parts?

“We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.” JACK KORNFIEID

The idea that we simply need to discover and accept who we actually are is contrary to almost everything we have been taught.

“Through our senses the world appears. Through our reactions we create delusions. Without reactions the world becomes clear.” BUDDHA

Always remember that it is your birthright and natural state to be wise and noble, loving and generous, to esteem yourself and others, to be creative and constantly renewing yourself to be engaged in the world in awe and in depth, to have courage and to rely on yourself to be joyous and effortlessly accomplished, to be strong and effective, to enjoy peace of mind and to be present to the unfolding mystery of your life.

“Identification . . . is a form of escape from the self.” KRISHNAMURTI

The personality can identify with just about anything—an idea, our body, an itch, a sunset, a child, or a song. That is, at any moment in which we are not fully awake in the present moment, our sense of identity comes from whatever we are paying attention to.

“Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time.” JONATHAN SWIFT

Awareness expands and contracts like a balloon, but identification always causes it to become smaller. We might notice that when we are identified with something, our awareness of our immediate surroundings is greatly diminished. We are less aware of other people, of our environment, and of our own inner state. Simply put, the more identified we are, the more contracted our awareness is—and the more out of touch with reality we are.

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” RUMI

What is remarkable is that Presence always reveals what in us is blocking us from becoming more present. The more we become present, the more we become aware of the parts of our selves that are not relaxed, the parts that we have not fully occupied. The more we are able to relax, the more we become aware of the subtle movement of Presence filling us and surrounding us. It may be helpful just to stay with that impression without labeling it or thinking about it too much. In time, what was subtle and vague will become clearer and more distinct as new layers of Being reveal themselves to us.

We are always looking for a formula, a rule, or a prayer that will turn the trick for us. But there is no substitute for Presence. Without Presence, none of the prayers, meditations, teachers, and techniques in the world can transform us. This is why we can spend many years observing the practices of our religion and still not be able to consistently embody the beliefs that we hold. We can have extraordinary experiences and moments of being free from the shackles of our personality, but sooner or later—and usually much sooner than we would like—we return to our old ways. This is because we do not understand the vital importance of Presence: it is not, and cannot be, part of our personality or its agenda.

The Triads are important for transformational work because they specify where our chief imbalance lies. The Triads represent the three main clusters of issues and defenses of the ego self, and they reveal the principal ways in which we contract our awareness and limit ourselves. This first grouping of the types refers to the three basic components of the human psyche: instinct, feeling, and thinking. According to Enneagram theory, these three functions are related to subtle “Centers” in the human body, and the personality fixation is associated primarily in one of these Centers. Types Eight, Nine, and One comprise the Instinctive Triad; types Two, Three, and Four make up the Feeling Triad; and types Five, Six, and Seven are the Thinking Triad. It is worth noting that modern medicine also divides the human brain into three basic components: the root brain, or instinctual brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the cerebral cortex, or the thinking part of the brain. Some teachers of the Enneagram also refer to the three Centers as the head, heart, and gut, or as the thinking, feeling, and doing Centers respectively.

The body plays a crucial role in all forms of genuine spiritual work, because bringing awareness back to the body anchors the quality of Presence. The reason is fairly obvious: while our minds and feelings can wander to the past or the future, our body can only exist here and now, in the present moment. This is one of the fundamental reasons why virtually all meaningful spiritual work begins with coming back to the body and becoming more grounded in it.

Type Nine, the central type in the Triad (the type positioned on the equilateral triangle), tries to hold their ego boundaries in both areas, internal and external. In the internal realm, Nines do not want certain feelings and states to disturb their equilibrium. They put up a wall against parts of themselves just as Ones do, suppressing powerful instinctive drives and emotions. At the same time, Nines maintain a strong ego boundary against the outside world so that they will not be hurt, like Eights. They often engage in passive-aggressive behaviors and turn a blind eye to whatever threatens their peace. It is no wonder that Nines report that they often feel fatigued, because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to resist reality on both “fronts.” If Nines use most of their vitality to maintain these boundaries, it is not available for living and engaging more fully in the world.