Enneagram: Week 1
Summary: Sunday, April 24-Friday, April 29, 2016
When used in conjunction with a regular practice of contemplative prayer, the Enneagram can be powerfully transformative. It can open us to deeper and deeper levels of understanding and insight, love and grace. (Sunday)
When we are excessively fixated on our supposed gift it becomes a sin. Maintaining this self-image, this false self, becomes more important than anything else. (Monday)
We need all three centers (head, heart, and belly) to be awake and integrated in order to do our inner work and to truly love ourselves, others, and God in a holistic, non-dual manner. (Tuesday)
Without prayer, love, and nature, ONEs can scarcely imagine cheerful serenity and patience, but remain aggressive idealists and ideologues. (Wednesday)
TWOs are redeemed from themselves the more they experience God as the real lover and realize that their puny love can only consist in sharing in God’s infinite love. (Thursday)
THREEs need endless successes and feedback to reassure themselves against a very honest and realistic insecurity. (Friday)
Practice: Mind + Heart + Body Awareness
It is hard work to open up our entire being—heart, mind, and body—to Love. From childhood, we’re trained to protect ourselves by closing off one or more of these channels. Perhaps this was a necessary coping mechanism. But to develop a mature, holistic faith, we must learn to embrace and listen to each part in the safety of God’s presence. We each depend on certain areas more than others. It will take some “exercise” to develop the neglected muscle of body, heart, or mind. Below are some suggested practices to nurture each area of being.
Heart: loving-kindness meditation, deep listening, community, journaling
Mind: lectio divina (sacred reading), writing, dialectic argument, study
Body: ecstatic dance, yoga, meditative walking, chant, tai chi
Gateway to Silence:
Open me to Presence.
For Further Study:
Russ Hudson and Richard Rohr, The Enneagram and Grace: 9 Journeys to Divine Presence (CD, MP3 download)
Russ Hudson and Richard Rohr, The Enneagram as a Tool for Your Spiritual Journey (CD, DVD, MP3 download)
Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective
Richard Rohr, The Enneagram: The Discernment of Spirits (CD, DVD, MP3 download)
Additional resources, including a free personality test, are available from The Enneagram Institute.
Is the Enneagram new to you? Are you wondering, what is the Enneagram? How can the Enneagram help me? Which number on the Enneagram am I? Does the Enneagram work? This is just one post in a two-week series about the Enneagram. Click here for an introduction to the Enneagram and links to additional reflections and resources on the topic.
