As a path-of-transformation tool in the Buddhist tradition the mandala is a map onto which personality traits, functions of consciousness, and enlightened qualities are all plotted in a complex manner that begins to give some idea of the complex relationships pertaining between the mundane qualities that characterize our everyday lives and personalities, and the enlightened qualities - the 'wisdoms' - that blossom when the appropriate methods of transformation are applied. But does this as yet constitute a full-fledged 'path of realization' approach to the mandala?

Not quite. For the approach does not yet help us to appreciate HOW the qualities that we seek are already present within us - albeit in an obscured or hidden way. In a 'path of realization' approach, we must begin to appreciate how the emergence of the qualities are not the product of an ACQUISITION, an attempt to grasp that which is other, alien, distant. It is a RELAXING INTO that which we are already, at some level at least, in possession of. This may be a very subtle difference, but one that makes all the difference in the world. At some point on the spiritual path it actually becomes necessary to let go of the subtlest level of grasping, and the subtlest form of object-to-be-grasped.

Instead of automatically clutching, seizing what is missing, one begins to develop a habit of ALLOWING what exists to emerge in its full richness. One recognizes that there is nothing else, nothing other, that one really needs. Everything is complete, intrinsically perfect, just as it is. There is no need to elevate one's self in contrast to someone or something else, it is no longer really necessary to try to stand apart from the others, or establish a unique personal 'identity'. One is already established, is already everything one needs to be. There is nothing really to succeed at, all has already been successfully accomplished. Neither is there a need to escape the onslaught of detail that is part of everyday life - there are no accidents, no interruptions, no distractions. Nothing to detach oneself from, no need to hold back. Nothing to comprehend. Nothing to be apprehensive about. No need to see through what is going on, as one is never without insight. There is no need to chase down adventures - as this moment is already a special event in its own right, a peak experience. There is no question about having to control things, as everything was always really under control from the very beginning. And no need to pacify, as peace has never been interrupted.

In this way we traverse all nine enneagram 'points' - seeing them, however, as if for the very first time. For we view them now from a 'path of realization' vantage point.

Section Two - Pancakes and Prophecies

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How does the wheel, as symbol, manifest in its third turning, on the 'path of realization'? This is the question to which we will turn our attention in this section.

The Cakravartin's Wheel

In the following passage, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes the Ninth, most advanced, level of the spiritual path in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

The ninth yana, maha ati or ati yoga [equivalent to 'Dzogchen' and 'Mahamudra', in other schools of Tibetan Buddhism], is the final stage of the path. It is both the beginning and the end of the journey. It is not final in the sense that we have finished making a statement and we have nothing more to say, but final in the sense that we feel we have said enough. At this level, if there are any further words, they are the creations of space rather than idle remarks. ... From [the ati] point of view, our achievement is not regarded as final but as a re-appreciation of what we have already gone through. In fact, we would like to retake the journey we have been through. So maha ati is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. Ati teachings talk of enormous space. In this case, it is not space as opposed to a boundary, but a sense of total openness. ... From the perspective of ati, the rest of the yanas are trying to comfort us: 'If you feel separate, don't worry. There is nonduality as your saving grace. Try to rest your mind in it. Everything is going to be okay. Don't cry.' In contrast, the approach of ati is a blunt and vast attitude of total flop, as if the sky had turned into a gigantic pancake and suddenly descended onto our head, which ironically creates enormous space. That is the ati approach, that larger way of thinking, that larger view.

... There is a children's story about the sky falling, but we do not actually believe that such a thing could happen. The sky turns into a blue pancake and drops on our head - nobody believes that. But in maha ati experience, it actually does happen. There is a new dimension of shock, a new dimension of logic. It is as though we were furiously calculating a mathematical problem in our notebook, and suddenly a new approach altogether dawned on us, stopping us in our tracks. Our perspective becomes completely different.

... If you are trying to catch what I am saying, quite possibly you cannot capture the idea. In fact, it is quite possible that you do not understand a word of it. You cannot imagine it in even the slightest, faintest way. But it is possible that there are situations that exist beyond your logic, beyond your system of thinking. That is not an impossibility. In fact it is highly possible.

The earlier yanas [the eight earlier paths] talk about the rug being pulled out from under your feet, wich is quite understandable. If our landlord kicks us out of our apartment, the rug is pulled out from under our feet, obviously. That is quite workable, and we find that we can still relate with our world. But in ati we are talking about the sky collapsing onto us. NOBODY thinks of that possibility. It is an entirely different approach. No one can imagine a landlady or a landlord who could pull that trick on us.

In maha ati we are not talking about gaining ground or losing ground, or how we settle down and find our way around. Instead we are talking about how we can develop headroom. Headroom, or the space above us, is the important thing. We are interested in how space could provide us with a relationship to reality, to the world. (Chogyam Trungpa, Journey Without Goal - The Tantric Wisdom of the Buddha, 1981, Shambhala, pages 137-138)

In her book on Shambhala LePage also mentions the Chinese nine-storied jewelled palace of Hsi Wang Hu, which is described as standing 'on the summit of a jade mountain in the Kunluns that legend identifies with Meru'. She surmises that the mythical Mt. Sumeru might, in reality, be Mt. Kailas, 'long-revered by the Tibetan Bonpos as the sacred 'nine-storied mountain'. ²

It is said by all accounts to be so high that it pierces the firmament, while its roots descend into the abyss beneath the earth where chaos reigns. It has seven levels, believed by some races to be nine, and these correspond to the seven or nine inner worlds and also to the ascending stations of consciousness traversed by the initiate on his purgatorial pilgrimage to heaven'.(LePage, page 62).

In this classic Sufi tale the birds of the world set out in search of their king, the Simorgh, who lives far away and can only be reached by a long and arduous journey. At first, when told of the existence of this king by one of the birds, the 'hoopoe', they are enthusiastic about the adventure. But when it comes time to actually embark on the trip they come forward one by one to offer excuses for why they must decline to join the others in the excursion. Each identifies a weakness that he finds in himself, a mundane character flaw which, he believes, will preclude his successful participation in the journey. The finch is afraid, the hawk is self-satisfied, the nightingale is too attached to his beloved, and so on. In this portion of the tale it is the 'outer mandala', the mandala of 'personality fixations', that is being described.

All of the excuses the birds put forward are successfully countered by arguments and anecdotes offered by the hoopoe. In the course of his presentation, he gives the following explanation, which helps to convince his reluctant companions to join the quest. It alludes to 'path of realization' truths that build a sense of inner confidence in the birds, permitting them to successfully complete the 'path of renunciation' leg of their spiritual journey by turning away from their psychological 'homes', the previous behaviors and life styles to which they had accustomed themselves.

When long ago the Simorgh first appeared - His face like sunlight when the clouds have cleared - He cast unnumbered shadows on the earth, On each he fixed his eyes, and each gave birth. Thus we were born; the birds of every land are still his shadows - think, and understand. If you had known this secret you would see The link between yourselves and Majesty. (Farid Ud-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds, Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis, 1984, Penguin Books, page 52, lines 1069-88)

The Hoopoe is chosen as the group's leader, and the journey is about to begin - but not before the birds get a chance to ask a long series of questions about 'the Way', the path on which they are ready to embark. The last question, about the length of the journey, inspires the hoopoe to tell a tale about 'The Seven Valleys of the Way', which Trimingham interprets as follows -

.... the seven valleys traversed by the birds of the quest are: Search, Love, Mystic Apprehension, Detachment/Independence, Unity, Bewilderment, and Fulfilment in Annihilation... The purpose of the discipline ... is to achieve purification. The aspirant has: to purify his NAFS, i.e. his personality-self, from its inclination to SHAHAWAT, that is, the thoughts and desires of the natural man, and substitute these with love (MAHABBA); then he must be cast into the flames of passion (SISHQ) to emerge in the state of union (WUSLA) with transmutation of self (FANA) through the gifts of dazzlement and wonder (HAIRA) to everlastingness (BAQA). (In The Conference of Birds, page 15)

The journey finally brings the birds to the court of the Simorgh. There they come to a profound 'path of realization' discovery - that the Simorgh whom they seek is really themselves, the thirty (si) birds (morgh) that are left at the end of the Journey.

All three paths are integrated into the journey, as is summarized beautifully in one short line of the poem itself -

For ONLY then will the rebirth that is the final goal of the 'path of realization' occur, the coming-into-being of what is sometimes referred to as the 'vajra body' in Buddhism, the spiritual body associated with the 'enlightened' being.

In the words of the Simorgh, who explains it all at the end -

But the story does not end here - in 'emptiness'.

This third-phase return to a 'bodily' form, and to something resembling the 'ego', entails the attainment of what are referred to as 'divine attributes of perfection' in Sufism and (enlightened) 'qualities' in Buddhism, as we shall see below.

Ka'abah

To the left is a 16 century schematic of the Ka'abah, a building of gray stone in the middle of the great mosque in Mecca, at the geographical center of Islam. Like the representation of the kingdom of Shambhala, and the enneagram 'process' diagram to which we have compared it, the illustration is a seven-pointed figure with an opening at the bottom. In accord with tradition, pilgrims circumabulate it seven times. When Ibn 'Arabi, the great twelfth century Sufi mystic performed this ritual, according to Henry Corbin, the visionary's personal 'Holy Spirit' was invoked in a mystical vision, a 'theophany of the divine Alter Ego' ⁵. Out of this revelation the book that was to become known as the 'Bible of esoterism in Islam' ⁶, Ibn Arabi's FUTUHAT, emerged.

Ibn 'Arabi described his experience of the Mystic Youth that appeared to him in this way - 'I entered at once in his company, and suddenly he laid his hand on my chest and said to me: I am of the seventh degree in my capacity to embrace the mysteries of becoming, of the individual hexeity, and of the WHERE; the Divine Being existentiated me as a fragment of the Light of Eve in the pure state.' Corbin comments -

... the visionary is no longer the solitary self, reduced to his mere earthly dimension in the face of the inaccessible Godhead, for in encountering the being in whom the Gohead IS his companion he knows that he himself is the secret of the Godhead, and it is their 'syzygia', their twoness which accomplishes the circular processional: SEVEN times, the SEVEN divine attributes of perfection in which the mystic is successively invested. (Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, 1969, Princeton University Press, page 280)

Although Corbin mentions SEVEN 'divine attributes' (in addition to two participants - which are roughly equivalent to Ego and Self), in Buddhist texts the number of 'enlightened qualities' varies in relation to the teaching-context. Although it is not of paramount importance that they always number nine (or, for that matter, that the paths of transformation number nine either), there is at least one Buddhist text, the MAHAYANA UTTARATANTRA SASTRA, that does identify nine qualities of the enlightened being. It is a text that is celebrated for its exemplary path-of-realization approach.

So, along with the six (or nine) realms of existence (which, as we have seen, can be interpreted as psychological 'types'), and the nine levels (yanas) of the transformation process, we now also have Nine Examples of the 'changeless essence', the 'Buddha-qualities' inherent in the individual. In the text these nine are offered to explain nine different aspects of the the manner in which Buddha-nature can be present in all beings but obscured by temporary/accidental impurities. All depict situations in which a treasured object is hidden within another, less desirable, object -

1) a buddha in a decaying lotus, 2) honey amidst bees, 3) grains inside their husk, 4) gold in filth, 5) a treasure in the ground, 6) shoots and so on piercing through their fruits, 7) a buddha-statue inside tattered rags, 8) a future monarch in a poor and ugly woman's womb, 9) and an image of precious metal inside a clay mould. ⁷

The entire text, with accompanying commentaries, is a detailed exegesis on the meaning of these highly esoteric metaphors. The 'Nine Examples', furthermore, are correlated to 'Nine Types of Impurity'. Each is also associated with stages of the spiritual path, defined in various ways, and also to 'Nine Examples of Buddha Essence' (from which 'there is nothing whatsoever to remove, nor the slightest thing to add'). ⁸ It would take us too far afield to go into this material in detail here. In any case, we will be returning to this subject - the relationship between the Types, the Paths, and the Qualities - in the next paper in this series, and we need to turn our attention now to how these Buddhist and/or Sufi teachings could have been imported into Gurdjieff's understanding of the Enneagram.

The resemblence between the Sufi and Buddhist systems would strike us as nothing less than uncanny if it weren't for the geographical proximity of their roots in Central Asia. LePage, also struck by the similarities, cites the views of one of Ouspensky's students on this matter. As she explains in her book on the legend of Shambhala, 'The British philosopher and mathematician J.G. Bennett says that in Xianjiang, the heart of Inner Asia, Muslim Sufis have lived for centuries in harmony with the lamas, sharing many of their doctrines and deeper tantric techniques...' ⁹. In addition, as it turns out, Gurdjieff was apparently quite successful in gaining admission into the inner circle in BOTH communities. For, according to LePage,

Afghans assert that the celebrated Armenian magus and spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff was the only outsider permitted to penetrate the outer ring of Sufi centers, where he was trained by Bahuddin Nakshband, one of the outer masters; but that as for the initiates in the central strongholds, 'no one will tell an outsider anything more', says King, 'than that their monasteries exist'. They are called by Afghans the People of the Tradition and are supposed to be in touch with extraterrestrial intelligences and to be the custodians of the secret traditions that are the basis of all religions and all human development. J.G.Bennett, who was closely associated with Sufism, believed they formed an inner circle of humanity and coined for them the name of the Hidden Directorate.

In Peter King's account [of Sufi monasteries, in Nuristan, that are laid out in concentric circles comprising an outer and inner, less accessible, rings] we are clearly being presented with something very like a great mandala in three dimensions expressive of the Sufi hierarchy, reminding us of the three-dimensional mandala that was built by the first King of Shambala in a park to the south of the mythical city of Kapala [the capitol of Shambhala]. That mandala too embodied the essence of the most spiritual teachings known to humanity, and it too converged on a transcendental center inhabited by deities. The Sufi hierarchy, which is headed by the Qutub or Axis and his two assistants, has many features in common with those of Shambhala and may be similar in its structure to other ethno-religious orders in Inner Asia, as the Sufi author Ernest Scott suggests. (LePage, Shambhala - the Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth of Shangri-lapages 52-53)

Not only did Gurdjieff succeed in gaining admission to inner Sufi circles, he was also apparently no stranger in Tibet. Klaus Vollmar reports that 'Gurdjieff visited Tibet as an agent of the Russian Czar in 1897, where he undoubtedly saw Mandalas'. And Bernbaum, in his book on Shambhala, mentions that around the same time, near the turn of the century, 'a Siberian lama named Dorjieff became an influential tutor of the [13th] Dalai Lama and persuaded him and other high Tibetan officials that since Russia nd Shambhala both lay to the north, they must be the same country. As a result, the Dalai Lama made a friendly overtures to the Czar and exchanged gifts with him, all the while snubbing the British in India'. ¹⁰

Whether or not Gurdjieff and this 'Dorjieff' may in fact be one and the same individual, it is clear that there were indeed favorable relations between Russia and Tibet during the years of Gurdjieff's visit to Tibet, as well as shared interest in the Shambhala teachings, heightened by the international politics of the time. It is likely, then, that Gurdjieff, whose interest in spiritual matters was not superficial or naive, would have had some familiarity not only with many of the aspects of the symbolism associated with the legend of Shambhala, as we've presented it here, but probably also with the Kalacakra teachings and the 'path of realization' approach that it embodies.

We have no way of knowing how much Gurdjieff may have learned and/or borrowed directly from the Tibetans regarding these matters - or from the Sufis, for that matter - or the extent to which the influence of either may have permeated his Enneagram teachings. But it is probably safe to conclude that, at the very least, he would have had some knowledge of the 3-fold approach to spiritual path, as well as an appreciation for the indispensable nature of the 3rd 'turning' of wheel of teachings and the elegant manner in which these three levels/phases of the teaching are integrated in other systems. Given this premise, it is hard to believe that he would have opted for omitting from his Enneagrammic system a 'path of realization' level of teaching.