Spirituality
Personality,
Essence and Spirituality
"Naturally,
it takes years of work on oneself to get to know anything real about
ourselves; we may think we are finding out a great deal, through
self-observation and by applying the other teachings and techniques of The
Work [Gurdjieff's teaching]....What we think we have discovered about
ourselves is very superficial at first, so that real self-knowledge only
comes after years of patient effort. But such effort is immensely worth
while in every particular, because it not only transforms us, it transforms
our whole life for us; because as our level of being changes, so does our
life change, too. We become different people inside, and this is reflected
by the way life treats us outside.
"This
is an esoteric law...and explains why it is only ourselves who can make
anything really worthwhile of our lives. It is no good looking to external
factors or agencies to do this for us. Such things cannot change our level
of being, and so life remains just as it was before, despite whatever we may
be doing or thinking. It is only when we begin to really work on ourselves,
and change our habitual ways of thinking and feeling, that anything real or
permanent can happen to us. For self-change is the basic pre-requisite for
external change. And self-change can only come about as a result of
self-knowledge and work on oneself." (Benjamin, Basic
Self-Knowledge, 63-64)
Providing accurate knowledge of
ourselves was the purpose of Personality
Types, just as it is the purpose of the Enneagram itself.
The lesson that had to be learned was the wastefulness of ego inflation. As
valuable as this lesson was, there was much more to be said: the Enneagram
can also guide us to spiritual dimensions by helping us move beyond
personality. We have already alluded to the fact that genuine fulfillment
(which is to be found primarily within a spiritual context) lies in the
ability to discover our true essential nature.
"We
must be willing and able to go beyond ego to reach out to something more, to
experience the parts of ourselves that have nothing to do with the agendas
of our personalities. At the same time, we must also be willing to
experience the limitation and pain that our ego's habits are causing us.
"Self-transcendence
is difficult and fearful because it entails going into unknown territory,
feeling, thinking, and acting in ways foreign to our personality, contrary
to our past habits, at odds with our old attitudes and identity, and free of
the old wounds and defenses of our childhood. In a sense, self-transcendence
is a rebirth, a true transformation, the coming into being of a new person
who is learning to leave the old ways behind and strike out into a new
world....
"In
the last analysis, learning how to transcend the ego involves nothing less
than learning how to be open to love. Only love has the power to save us
from ourselves. Until we learn to truly love ourselves and others—and to
accept the love of others—there can be no hope of lasting happiness or
peace or redemption. It is because we do not love ourselves properly that we
lose ourselves so easily in the many illusions ego sets before us."
(Personality
Types, 460-61)
Cataloguing the illusions that
"ego sets before us" was the very stuff of the descriptions in Personality
Types and on this website. It is now time to turn our
attention to that other path—toward higher states that open out to us once
we have seen through the veils and illusions of the ego, to that upward
spiral by which we awaken to essence.
Describing "living in
Essence" is much more difficult than describing Personality Types, for
one fundamental reason. Most of the ego states described in Personality
Types are unfree; they involve degrees of compulsion, of
losing ourselves in illusions and mechanical responses. Since they are
relatively fixed states ("fixations"), they are also relatively
easy to describe, once you know what to look for. However, essence results
in states that are marked by freedom,
and as such they are dynamic and ever-evolving—not only as an expression
of life but, in a true sense, as life-giving states themselves. If we can
analyze the qualities of a truly free person, of someone living in a state
of liberation, we will learn more about "living in essence."
"The
unfolding of essence becomes the process of living. Life is no longer a
string of disconnected experiences of pleasure and pain, but a flow, a
stream of aliveness. One aspect manifests after another, one dimension after
another, one capacity after another. There is a constant flow of
understanding, insight, knowledge, and states of being." (Almaas, Essence,
178)
As we become healthier by
overcoming our characteristic fears and by acting on our right desires, our
ego becomes more flexible and transparent as we gradually move up the Levels
of Development. To attain Level 1, the Level of Liberation, is to come into
contact with our Essence, our essential self, our true nature in all of its
magnificence.
The astonishing thing is that
we actually get our Basic Desire when we move to the Level of Liberation (Level
1). We learn to do this by
recognizing where what we seek can truly be found. We understand that our
ego, try as it might, cannot fulfil our Basic Desire. For this, we must turn
to our Essence—the ground of our being. Although most of us have had some
profound experiences of the deep satisfactions of our Essential nature, it
usually takes many such experiences to convince the ego of the ultimate
bankruptcy of its project. Part of the problem is that, once we have
identified with our ego-consciousness, it is difficult for us to imagine any
alternative, even though it brings no relief and causes us to behave in ways
that hurt ourselves and others.
Seeing the truth of this is and
letting go of our ego agendas is not done once and for all, however, as if
we could be liberated from the human condition. We move up and down on the
Levels while gradually opening to the type in our Direction of Integration,
to our Missing Piece, and to the potentials found there. Thus our liberation
is gradual, although with the new state comes the awakening of new
capacities. As Almaas says, "One aspect manifests after another, one
dimension after another, one capacity after another." We do not move
beyond human nature but beyond our delusions about ourselves and about
reality. Living in Essence becomes a matter of seeing through our ego and,
in so doing, of discovering and maturing our truest self. The search for
Essence is not an escape from life but the reverse: a commitment on our most
profound level of consciousness to participate in our own creation.
Still, if the idea of
"living in Essence" sounds overly esoteric, the Enneagram can help
take some of the obscurity out of it. For modern sensibilities, the goal of
living in Essence may be strange and off-putting. But if we keep the
Enneagram as our frame of reference, we will be less mystified if we think
of living in Essence as the same as becoming a fully functioning, integrated
person. The goal is not to
strengthen our ego but to transcend its limitations and in so doing not only
do we become increasingly healthy but we increasingly "live in
Essence."
What capacities will we discover
in ourselves if we work on ourselves and begin the process of "living
in Essence"—whether we call it that or not?
The fact is, that the healthiest
characteristics of our personalities become accessible to us as we work on
ourselves. The more aware we are and the more we avail ourselves of
presence, the more Essence supports the healthy manifestations of our
personalities. As we become more integrated as human beings, more and more
of these qualities become available, not just those of our own type.
Some of the most important
healthy traits of each type are displayed on the following Enneagram. These
are only some of the strengths we can learn from each other; they are
particular to each type although universally accessible. Always keep in mind
that many additional healthy traits exist that you will discover as you move
in your own unique way beyond your ego identity.
The Enneagram of
Healthy Personality
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