16 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 by which we grasp and are linked and held; and those of us are firmly in the Supreme whose being is concentrated There” (1991, 360). The following is taken from a conversation between Bakhtiar and a revered representative of the Naqshbandī Sufi order: “One day Shaykh Hisham said that he would tell me a secret about the Sufi Enneagram: The zero point in the center symbolizes the egoless person” (Laleh Bakhtiar, private correspondence with author, July 22, 2013). This insight reveals that the traditional Enneagram works on a transpersonal level, and is not confined to the cul-du-sac of the empirical ego. For this reason, we require a traditional vision of ultimate reality that is fully integrated, not the pseudo-metaphysics of modernity that we find in Jung (1976, 143): “‘Metaphysical’ has for us the psychological connotation ‘unconscious’.” This is not a perspective informed by gnosis considered as a transcendent knowledge of the deeper implications of Zero: “[P]rimordial unity is nothing other than Zero affirmed” (Guénon 2001a, 32) or “Non-Being is metaphysical Zero” (Guénon 2001a, 90). In other words, a properly human quest seeks to restore our “primordial nature” (Ar. fiṭrah), the “image of God” (Lat. imago Dei), “Buddha-nature” (Sa. Buddha-dhātu) or the “Self” (Sa. Ātmā); that is, our true identity in divinis. This ontological correspondence is also to be found in Taoism: “Reveal thy simple self, / Embrace thy original nature” (Lao Tzu 1948, 119–20). The Zero at the center of the Enneagram reconciles all polarities: “At the central point, all oppositions inherent in more external points of view are transcended; all oppositions have disappeared and are resolved in a perfect equilibrium” (Guénon 2004b, 45). This is why none of the personality types located on the nine-pointed symbol possess any enduring reality; neither can they awaken us to our true identity. It is only through abiding in the sacred Center – the Zero of the Enneagram – that we can find true rest, in which our spiritual travails finally come to an end. 10 The Enneagram and Spiritual Practice A way of overcoming our lower impulses has been known to traditional peoples since time immemorial: namely, spiritual combat against the ego and a life sanctified by prayer and remembrance of the Divine. Ultimately, we are faced with a real conflict that is waged in the human heart and symbolized in the battlefield of terrestrial existence. For example, the Buddha himself confirms the following in the Dhammapada (8:103–106): “If a man should conquer in battle a thousand and a thousand more, and another man should conquer himself, his would be the greater victory, because the greatest of victories is the victory over oneself.” In Christianity, this notion is conveyed by St. Paul in his famous verse (Ephesians 6:12): “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad refers to both a “lesser holy war” (Ar. al-jihād al-asghar) – which seeks to protect the lovers of God through social or military efforts – and a second “greater holy war” (Ar. al-jihād al-akbar), considered as the highest form of spiritual warfare – one that takes place in ourselves. To adopt the Enneagram in a traditional context requires “moral goodness” (Ar. muruwwa), which naturally leads to a “spiritual chivalry” (Ar. futuwwa; Per. jawānmardī) that battles our pernicious identification with the false self. The following illustrates the mystical dimension of this combat in successfully traversing a spiritual path (Lings 1983, 327–28): During the return march to Medina after the victories of Mecca and Hunayn the Prophet said to some of his Companions: ‘We have returned from the Lesser Holy War to the Greater Holy War.’ And when one of them asked: ‘What is the Greater Holy War, O Messenger of God?’ he answered: ‘The war against the soul.’ The soul of fallen man is divided against itself. Of its lowest aspect the Koran says: Verily the soul commandeth unto evil. The better part of it, that is the conscience, is named the ever-upbraiding soul; and it is this which wages the Greater Holy War, with the help of the Spirit, against the lower soul. The notion of spiritual warfare has also been used in the Shamanic or primordial religion of the First Peoples. Medicine man and Sun Dance chief Thomas Yellowtail (1903– 1993) explained that (quoted in Fitzgerald 1994, 139–40): The sun dancer and the Sun Dance itself will bless all of the tribe and all creation through the inner, spiritual warfare… The warrior fights an enemy who is on the outside; the sun dancer wages a war on an enemy within himself. Each of us must fight a continuing battle to keep to the spiritual values that represent our traditional heritage. If we fail to be continually alert in our prayers and our attitudes and to use good sense in all that we do, then we will fail in our interior war. In olden days, this interior warfare had the support of the whole tribe, and our life itself helped to guide us in our personal struggle. Nowadays,
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