An Introduction to the “Enneagram as a Tool for Spiritual Transformation”

Instructor: Rev. Dr. George Gordon

 

In Brief

The Enneagram is a comprehensive psycho-spiritual typology that has its roots in several ancient wisdom traditions as well as in the findings of modern psychology. Most of us originally discover the Enneagram as a typology: It draws meaningful distinctions about the nine different ways that people approach their lives and relationships. But more profoundly, the Enneagram is a map of wholeness, a way of recognizing and investigating different aspects and dimensions of our inner experience.

From The Enneagram in Business

More than a personality typology, the Enneagram is actually a profound map that illuminates the nine different architectures of the human personality. It is also the most powerful and practical system available for increasing emotional intelligence, with insights that can be used for personal and professional development.

Emotional intelligence is a combination of two factors: intrapersonal intelligence, which is the ability to understand, accept, and manage oneself, and interpersonal intelligence, the capacity to work effectively with a wide variety of other people.

Dr Gordon’s Explanation of Enneagram as Tool for Spiritual Transformation

The most attractive aspect of the Enneagram  is that it is an effective bridge between spirituality and psychology.  The basic premise behind it is that we each doubt God in one of nine ways.  The way in which we doubt God is the primary factor that shapes the structure of our personality.  An inner “Wow!” went off in me when I discovered the validity of this concept.   I have found this to be true personally, and the more I study the Enneagram, the more clearly I have been enabled to see the nature of the obstacles in my personality to growth in my relationships with God, with others, and with myself.  It has also helped me grow tremendously in my relationship with Jesus Christ.

I want to share with you two concepts that help in putting the value of the Enneagram in perspective for not only our emotional growth, but also our spiritual growth.  For years, it has been my understanding that spiritual growth was a two-step process:  Step 1 was “Death to the old self”; Step 2 was “Being born anew in Christ.”

However, according to my more recent studies including the Enneagram, I have come to believe that it is a three-step process.  The actual first step is “Awakening to the old self.”

Most of us are only aware of the symptoms of the old self and not of its basic nature.  We cannot significantly die to our old self unless we have some grasp of its nature.

Charles Wesley made almost this exact point in a sermon entitled, “Awake, Thou That Sleepeth” delivered on April 4, 1742 at Oxford University.  The Enneagram is a tool that helps us awaken to or to perceive more accurately the true nature of the old self or the false self as some schools refer to it.  I prefer to call it the operant self.  It is old in the sense that it is different from the new self in Christ.  It is false in that it is not the self that God wishes for us to incarnate.  I prefer the term operant self, because it is operating within us whether we realize it or not.

Many personal and spiritual growth programs have discovered that persons can make good progress in their intended growth until they reach a certain point, and then mysteriously, they seem to hit an obstacle which will not allow further growth.  That obstacle is the operant self or personality type.  According to Enneagram theory, there are nine different operant selves and each of us is dominated or obstructed by one of them.

Embedded within each of the operant selves is a “chief feature” which orchestrates the whole personality.  This chief feature has also been referred to as the spiritual pre-occupation or the emotional passion.  The apostle Paul was probably referring to this concept in Romans as sin with a capital “S.”

There is much discussion about the source of the operant self or personality type and its embedded chief feature.   Many authorities lean toward heredity as the source (nature) while others emphasize the role of early childhood environment (nurture).  The influence of nurture can be divided into two sub-categories referring to whether the person adopted a certain stance toward life as a method of coping with their circumstances or they learned it from someone else.

The Enneagram, then, is a diagnostic tool for discerning and identifying the characteristics of the old self or operant self.  It is metaphorically an “MRI of the soul.”  It helps us “awaken” to the old self—step 1 of the spiritual transformation process.

Cost is $5 per session, $2/session for students                        Total of 12 sessions

Location TBD - Overland Park likely

Schedule:

Sat., Oct 6th 8:30 - Noon
Thurs., Oct. 11th and 25th 7:00 to 9:00
Thurs., Nov. 8th and 15th " "
Thurs., Jan. 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st " "
Thurs., Feb. 7th, 14th, and 21st (maybe trade Valentine's Day for the 28th)

If interested, Contact: ptbeatty@aol.com

 

Rev. Dr. George Gordon has a Th.D. in Pastoral Care and the Psychology of Religion. Served as the Minister of Congregational Care and Pastoral Counselor for Country Club Christian Church for 33 years. Certification as a teacher in the Association of Enneagram Teachers in the Narrative Tradition (AETNT http://www.aetnt.com ).

Listening to Rocks

"Only after I stop collecting evidence do the stones begin to speak." Mark Nepo

To this day I remember the first time I attended a local Christian writing group. The introductory message and announcements were given by a small, middle aged woman, perfectly coiffed in tidy attire. She mentioned that a guest speaker would be presenting on the sacredness of nature at the local libraries. She said the presentation emphasized the holiness of rocks and at that she laughed cynically and added, "The cost is $15....to hear that rocks are holy." A certain number of people in the room seemed to agree with her. They laughed too. I thought, "What am I doing here?" My heart still sinks to think that it would be folly to hold rocks in reverence or to listen to their wisdom. After all, they are so much older than we are.

Thomas Merton wrote a beautiful poem on the sacred, silent utterances of Rock.
An excerpt from In Silence by Thomas Merton

Be still.


Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your
Name.

Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who

Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not

Think of what you are
Still less of

What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be

The unthinkable one
You do not know.

-Thomas Merton

There is wisdom in rock. There is wisdom in silence. Both will only be heard when the mind is quiet and the soul sinks into the everlasting. May the sacred peace of the everlasting be with you~ Peggy     Art: Crystal palace of reedflute cave, China

The Veil is Torn - Oneness Through Prayer

Praying within the heart, we stand at the doorway between the two worlds, waiting for our Beloved to help us. The One who is our innermost essence is always there, eternally watching, listening, waiting for us to come. We think God is separate from us, because we stand outside the door, caught in the world of duality. But when we pray with feeling, pray with the intensity of the heart, then the door opens. Actually, this door is never closed; the ego only drew its veil across the threshold.

The intensity of our feeling takes us beyond the ego. The stronger our need and the greater our longing, the more the heart cries out. Veils create the illusion of separation, distracting us from our oneness with God. Need turns us inward, towards Source, the oneness that is the root of our desire.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Prayer of the Heart

The veil in scripture is a symbol of the [perceived] separation of God and man, Spiritual and physical, formless and form. The veil is a perception difference. We perceive in a physical context (narrative- facts) and we can also perceive in a spiritual context (poetry - metaphor). Whenever Christ (Spiritual Love) is observed, pay attention! There will be a comment about how the veil is broken, torn, or rent. The veil is present when scripture (for eg. Torah) is taken literally, rather than spiritually, when the old covenant is observed rather than the new. For eg: But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ (Spiritual Love) it passes away. (2 Cor 3:14). When Jesus (Physical Love) was dying on the cross the "veil of the temple (the location of Gods revelation) was torn in 2 from top to bottom" (Matt 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). Spiritual Love (Christ) and Physical Love were reconciled/united with Source Love.

Paul teaches: God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature. 1Cor 2:10. the Spirit resides in our desire for Love and Love's desire for us. The Spirit integrates the mind and body to become One with Source, through Love, in Love.

May the teaching of the Spirit search your minds and hearts, tearing the veil, the illusion of separation from God, and unite your mind-body-Spirit in Love. Peggy

Art: lyndafinchart.com The veil is torn

The Power of Prayer

Prayer gains its greatest power when the lips become silent so the heart may listen wide open.

The Hebrew word for obedience is “shama,” which really means “to listen.” The English word for “obey” comes from the Latin “oboe - dire” which ...also means “to listen.”

When we are are listening with our hearts open in prayer, when we have hearts "oboe dire," the Word of God may fill us with truth. "Be still! And know..."

Powerful truth!

When were are attentive to one another, the same Spirit of Truth is allowed to inform our conversations. It is this Spirit to which we yield in love and humility for reconciliation.

Listen! God, who is absolute Truth, speaks to your open heart through your silent mind and reconciles the world.

Peace be with you, Peggy

Sunrise by Mary Oliver

 

You can
die for it--
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India

and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

Today, as the sunrises under your lashes and you breathe the full, fragrant breath of life, may your heart be gladdened with wonder, serenity, opportunity, oneness. And may a spirit of gratitude steep deep and slow in your bones. Have a lovely day! Peggy

Music: Intermezzo from Cavalaria Rusticana, Mascagni

The Importance of NOW

"Great love has the potential to open the heart space and then the mind space. Great suffering has the potential to open the mind space and then the heart space." Richard Rohr, The Naked Now

The moment these two converge - Love and suffering; heart and mind - is Now.

There are a multitude of perspectives on the symbolism of the cross, all of which are true and beautiful. One that I find particularly expansive is the cross as a symbol of the intersect of space, the vertical (the spiritual) and time the horizontal (the physical). At the intersect of these 2 realities hangs a human, suffering at the hands of other humans, most of whom do not understand themselves as spiritual beings, but who operate primarily from their physical identity.


In order to understand the spiritual nature of human identity, one must spend time at the intersect, time in that place where physical and spiritual meet. In the physical, this intersect can be experienced as suffering. In the spiritual, it is eternal peace in union with Christ/God/Spirit. Both lead to the intersect, the point of reconciliation, and  from there, a new way of seeing, a new way of being. We call this resurrection. Love is at the intersect of both realities. Love in the form of a fleshy human. Love in the Divine essence. Love reconciles the two, love suffers and love transcends suffering. Love is our human potential and our spiritual responsibility.

In time (which is a physical construct) this intersect is any Present moment. This moment, NOW. Time is made of these moments. One does not have to be suffering or ecstatic to be in the moment. One can spend time there simply by being mindful, present, through prayer and silence.

Adoration is about identifying our human experience, both our suffering and loving, with Jesus, who overcomes the pain and suffering of the physical reality because he draws his Spiritual identity from God, the Eternal Divine. He fully embraces his spiritual identity. He is annointed, Christ. This is our example, of a fleshy human and of a spirit embodied. We too, can draw our spiritual identity into our greater awareness and into our lives through mindfulness, through quiet prayerful presence. We too, can  Love in the way of Jesus the fleshy human, and be resurrected in Love. In Christ. Every Now moment.
 
May you take the time to be fully prayerfully present in these moments of Holy Week, of suffering and loving, remembering Jesus, who shows us the Way to resurrection.
 
Peggy

I did the artwork on retreat once. If you look carefully, you will see the word, NOW written across the intersect of physical and spiritual. This is the point at which the eternal light of the Divine breaks into physical reality. And on the crucifix, the body and soul of a human, Jesus, hangs in just that very place.

Spirit of Chaos & Order

"These were no longer two things, but two states or two aspects of one and the same cosmic Stuff, according to whether it was looked (Matter) at or carried further in the direction in which it is becoming itself or in the direction in which it is disintegrating (Spirit). Matter is the Matrix of Spirit. Spirit is the higher state of Matter. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Life is energy. Energy is Spirit. The Spirit gives life. Within the soul lies a fire (eros), the energy that drives us. But there is more...The Spirit is the adhesive that holds us together, the principle of integration and individuation within us. The Spirit integrates the mind and the body and all their thoughts and cellular processes into a whole being. The Spirit not only enlivens us individually, but it makes us one with all of creation within which the Spirit lives.

There is a principle of order and chaos within the Spirit - a tendency to come together and also to dissipate (birth and death). The human soul is the same. The energy within us - our desire (eros), our longing for completion is constantly in creative tension with our incompletion. Chaos and order. Fire and water. We live in a constant flux of psychic unity and disorder and social unity and disorder, and global unity and disorder and cosmic unity and disorder. This is the nature of energy and matter and Spirit in flux.

Spirituality is about what we do with that incurable desire, the eros/passion unitive energy of the Spirit within us, who wants to move us to order, but whose intensity is constantly displaced by our (ego) choices to channel it outside of ourselves rather than learn to harness its unitive power within. It is this latter ability that truly raises our consciousness in Christ who IS the unitive Spirit of Life.

Love is the method. Love is the vehicle. Humans can be unconditionally loving - first loving themselves (for this is to Love God or the Spirit of Life within you) and secondly to love your neighbors as yourself (which is every other human creature on the planet). Each of us has the potential to Love unconditionally. It is work. It requires a great deal of humility and patience. But this is how the Spirit brings order to chaos. This is how humanity is united in Christ, who is ONLY LOVE.
 
As we enter into this beautiful time of renewal, this springtime of earthen Matter, take time to reflect on what revives the sleeping winter world. What is it that greens the grass and fattens the buds on trees? What pushes crocus and daffodils from their dark bed of soil toward the warm sunlight? What urges the birds to procreate and migrate? You are part of this.

If you are Christian, you are celebrating this in your Lenten journey. As you move through the chaos of darkness with Jesus in these last days, open yourself to the Spirit of order that is calling you forward, the Light of your higher consciousness - Christ - that cannot be extinguished. Let this Spirit, that is You, speak to you and unite you with the Spirit of God/Christ that is bringing into unity all that lives.
 
Namaste, Peggy

The beginnings of this blog are inspired by a book by Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, "The Holy Longing, the Search for a Christian Spirituality."

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man.


Below is a selection of scriptures that speak to our identity (our psychological being) in the Spirit. The creation story in Genesis would be a good place to find a poetic discussion of Spirit's uniting of energy and matter.
 
1 Corinthians 2:10....The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
 
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.


1 Corinthians 3:16, 21.
¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.