Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 15 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos to the abolition of the false self, or the way of the mysterious reintegration of our ‘personality’ in the celestial Prototype” (Schuon 1990, 67). There cannot be an effective Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) without taking the relative and absolute criteria of human identity into consideration. That is why the DSM – now in its fifth edition (published by the American Psychiatric Association) – remains a caricature of itself. The same could be said for the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) published by the World Health Organization. The psychological interpretation of the Enneagram, like the DSM, is a categorical classification that divides personality characteristics into types consisting of defining features. As what is higher than the human psyche can alone ensure integral individuality, it may not be surprising that the DSM concerns itself with human pathology alone, which is apparent in the following definition: “Personality traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts. Only when personality traits are inflexible and maladaptive and cause significant functional impairment or subjective distress do they constitute personality disorders” (American Psychiatric Association 2022, 735). Analogously, the Enneagram has come to occupy a function similar to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) created by Katharine Cook Briggs (1875–1968) and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers (1897–1980). Carl Jung was the key catalyst in the promotion of MBTI, as Katharine Cook Briggs came across Jung’s book Psychological Types in 1923, when it was first published in English. She subsequently commenced a correspondence with Jung and met him personally during his visit to the United States. Those who use the MBTI forget that Jung’s contribution to psychology, while appearing to be more inclusive than his onetime master Sigmund Freud, with whom he parted ways, took the reductionistic trajectory of Freud to new heights by psychologizing religion itself. 9 Zero as the Supreme Identity Throughout diverse cultures and epochs, traditional peoples have held to two presiding ideas: that of Center and Origin. The first connects everything to a sacred presence at the heart of reality – where Spirit touches the earth – and the second brings all things back to their divine origin; the timeless moment when the numinous was perceived as being nearer and all-pervasive. According to the Tao Te Ching: “All things come into being, and… thereby… return” (1963, 128). By truly apprehending this Center and Origin, a “science of the soul” can be found whereby “[e]verything in the behavior of ancient and traditional peoples can be explained, directly or indirectly, by reference to these two ideas” (Schuon 1984, 7). When situated in the Absolute, personality in its full plenitude is a theophany. Attributing a particular “ennea-type” to someone is to focus on their conditioned personality which is not the same as our true identity. Regardless of how we are characterized on the nine-pointed Enneagram, none of the points on its circumference represent who we are in essence. This is the center point of the Enneagram – or “the Zero” – that is both transcendent and immanent. What is most important is that it radiates out to the periphery, making each of the nine points what they are. The purpose of the Enneagram is to become – from a strictly human point of view – a metaphysical cipher, which occurs when the empirical ego dissolves into the Supreme Identity, known as our True Self. The Zero point of the Enneagram circle is an abode of light, unity, and oneness. The circumference is the realm of darkness, multiplicity, and nescience. The wayfarer on the path must make their way from the periphery to the sacred center. Again, we must not forget that “the ego is error: it is a principle of illusion” (Schuon 2007, 196). It is only through a spiritual practice, grounded in a divinely revealed tradition, that the Enneagram can be liberated from the throes of psychological reductionism. The higher includes the lower, and this is why only that which transcends the human psyche can situate the latter in its rightful place. This Zero can therefore be seen as encompassing both Being and Non-Being. Rūmī (1207–1273) affirms: “Return from existence to nonexistence! You are seeking the Lord and you belong to Him!” (1983, 177). As anyone can move through any of the points of the Enneagram numerous times in any given moment, to fixate on one’s “ennea-type” is problematic for it reduces a sacred psychology to a one-dimensional level devoid of transcendence. Indeed, Gurdjieff himself cautioned against becoming fixed in a single personality type: “A motionless enneagram is a dead symbol; the living symbol is in motion” (quoted in Ouspensky 1949, 294). To return to the heart of the Enneagram is to reclaim our innermost identity, our sacred center. Plotinus (c. 205–270) explains a centre “is an independent unity; everything within the circle has its term at the centre; and to the centre the radii bring each their own. Within our nature is such a centre
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