Nine Qualities of the 'Enlightened Being', Part 4 (unpublished draft)
Grouping the Types
This figure diagrams what I will call the Latent Structure of the Enneagram, as opposed to the Manifest Structure depicted in the more familiar diagram:
Is it possible that the key to understanding the Enneagram is in the (invisible)latent structure? The symmetry of this invisible pattern implies an underlying harmony and reconiliation of types, as opposed to the assymetry of the manifest structure, which seems to connote dynamism and constant change.
Let us give names to the three goups of three:
Let us consider the 'object' group (7-1-4) first. Whereas the Four is intrigued with 'emptiness', the presence in consciousness of 'unborn awareness', this emptiness is just as easily described as a 'fullness', the 'completeness' with which the One is fascinated. In its aspect of 'fullness', It is the 'plenum' (or the 'holomovement' about which Bohm speaks). When this emptiness is experienced 'within' form, within specific objects, we have the peak-experience which attracts the interest of the Seven. The Four, One, and Seven thus comprise a family of types - there is a certain 'family resemblence' between them. As the Four's insight into 'emptiness' degenerates into nihilism a move toward One is in order (an appreciation of the 'fullness' quality of objectless awareness is the antidote to nihilism). Or as the Four falls into the 'deep pit of liberation' that is an unhealthy immersion into objectless awareness, a move toward Seven is called for (as in Seven there is an appreciation of 'emptiness', but as it occurs within form).
Likewise the Seven, who is characteristically liable to fall into gluttony, needs (as a remedy) an enhanced appreciation of the 'emptiness' quality (associated with Type One) of the objects which he has become so desirous of. Similarly, the Type One who becomes trapped in a degenerate form of 'perfectionism' (and thereby is giving undo attention to the 'form' aspects of the experience - ie, to detail ) may likewise seek an antidote in a renewed appreciation of emptiness (associated with the Four). All of the types in this first group share their primary fixation on the 'object' of experience - hence the name of the group.
If we take the second group of Types (the 'subject' oriented group, 5-8-2) we see a similar family resemblence. But whereas the Ones, Fours, and Sevens are predominantly interested in the 'objects' of their experience, the Fives, Eights, and Twos focus on the 'subjective' side of experience. Twos dive to the core of ego, where they find its essential emptiness and make the discovery of 'egolessness'. Eights find that that inner place is not only empty, but also a place of immense power . The Five, in equanimity, transcends the 'conflicting emotions' that would inspire a merging with the object of desire, either through blending with (or 'attachment to') the object(ie, 'lust') or through the annihilation of the object (via 'rejection' and anger). In doing so, the five (not unlike the seven) delicately straddles the fence between non-existence of the ego and complete 'inflation' of the self - between being 'egoless' and being an embodiment of the divine, the 'Self'.
So, as an antidote to the 'ontological insecurity' that may occur in the Two, a move toward the Eight is in order (ie, an appreciation of the 'divinity within'), or toward the 'Equanimous Witnessing' stance of the Five. The inflation that the Eight is susceptible to (in identifying with the divine, the whole, the 'Self') calls for a compensatory 'deflation', a move toward the 'egolessness' of the Two, or the dispassionate observing of the Five.
In the third group of Types (which I have called the 'co-emergence' group, 9-3-6), again there is a family resemblence. All three of these types seem to be dealing with the emergence of a kind of 'everyday' consciousness that is based on the subject-object split (what we can call 'bifurcated' consciousness). The Type Three 'creates' the world anew, the master of the 'illusion' which is everyday consciousness. The Six sees through that illusion, to the empty core of the created reality, the paradoxical black whole at the center of that reality's structure. The Nine mediates these fundamental opposites, the opposites of 'creation' and 'destruction' of one's world.
For the Six who degenerates into extreme doubt and fear, the antidote is a move toward Three, in which emphasis is put on the beauty of the illusion (as opposed to its empty center). Likewise, for the Three who is too attached to his creations a move toward Sixness and an enhanced capacity for doubt and penetrative insight into the illusion is called for . When he begins to feel as if all of his creations are empty and he is a fraud, a move toward Nine is in order, as it is the quality of reconciliation of the fundamental opposites (of creation and disillusionment, hope and doubt) that is called for.
Likewise, the Nine who stagnates in a static state (as opposed to being in dynamic harmony) is renewed by moving toward the creativity of Threeness, or the skepticism and penetrating insight of the Six (which can bring the unproductive stalemate to an end by pulling the rug out from under.
In each of these three groups or families of types there is a 'form point', a 'formless point' and a point which attempts to reconcile form and formlessness . The 'formless' points are Four (which focuses on emptiness of the object), Two (with its focus on egolessness, or emptiness of the subject), and Six (which dis-integrates subject-object frameworks, dissolving them into formlessness). The form points are One (with its emphasis on fullness, form, detail), Three (with its focus on creation of product, through spontaneous action), and Eight (with its emphasis on the power within the self). The three points that attempt to reconcile form and formlessness are the Seven (through seeking peak or 'unitive' experiences, which involves an experience of sacred formlessness experienced within the secular form), the Five (that transcends the duality of attraction and revulsion through 'witnessing'), and the Nine (who mediates by synthesizing the opposites of 'construction' and 'deconstruction').
One can imagine the 'enlightened' being appreciating not only the remedial capacities inherent in each type, but also the need to identify with all three 'families' in order to maintain a threefold balance in perspective - toward the objects in the world, one's own subject(or self), and the subtle relationship between the two . In Buddhist psychology form and formlessness (in objects), power and egolessness (of the self), and harmony and chaos (in the 'illusion' that is the world) are delicately balanced. The enneagram appears to symbolize this intricate balance of apparent opposites which is at the core of enlightened being.
Footnotes/References
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