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The transformative role of the Enneagram in my life Eleonora Gilbert
I am going to conclude with a quote by Byron Katie: Personalities don’t love. They want something.
Our journey with the Enneagram Iain and Renate McNay
Sandra Maitri Introduction to the Enneagram Interview by Iain McNay
Claudio did what he calls Trespasso, which is basically a transmission, looking into each person’s eyes and transmitting Being, consciousness. He was just deeply in a state of presence, energetically communicating. That just knocked my socks off. It was unbelievable. I was sold and that was it. I signed up to the group and it was quite an adventure, quite a crazy adventure in many ways.
Sandra: It was a huge part of that journey. [In Claudio’s group] we basically lived and breathed the Enneagram. None of us seemed to be working in those days, and we just spent all of our time processing and talking about our own experience, and really bringing the map to life within our own direct experience.
I was dealing with a hard space within myself and it was actually the space I had been stuck in from the period when I had been meditating. The meditation brought me deeper and deeper into myself and into a great deal of deficiency at the core of my personality structure. Karen said, “Could I work with you for a minute?” And I said, “Okay,” and she just started asking me questions and before I knew it, within five minutes, I had completely gone through the stuck place I had been in for two years and I said, “Oh my god, I have to learn how to do this.”
Sandra: Sure. I would look at it more the other way round. The way that I learned the Enneagram is that our ego structure, or personality structure, develops as a result of loss of contact with spiritual reality, Ground of Being, True Nature, whatever one wants to call it, the Divine. That loss happens in early childhood, usually in the first four years. Each of the nine types develops a core belief about the nature of reality and therefore the nature of oneself as a result of that loss. So each of the types is based on a fundamental distortion, or delusion, about reality, and this creates all sorts of suffering for each of the types, and very particular kinds of suffering.
Briefly, moving around the Enneagram beginning with point Nine which is considered the archetype, this central Ennea-type is like… if it were a white light and the others were refracted through a prism, they would be variations on the same theme. So the personality Type Nine is basically the principle of going to sleep on one’s ultimate nature. So the whole style that develops is based on going to sleep on oneself. Turning away from oneself, getting preoccupied, getting busy with what is going on outside and not paying attention to oneself.
Sandra: A sense of worthlessness. Iain: So personally, they feel worthless. Sandra: That other people are much more interesting, much more special, that other people have characteristics that are important, but that they [themselves] don’t. They tend to be people…
AI Summary
Conversations on the Enneagram by Eleanora Gilbert presents key insights from the Gurdjieff tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.