A publication of the International Enneagram Association

bringing news and more to the global Enneagram Community

September 2009

Shame, Envy, Panic, Feelings, Hysteria, or Sadness?:

Locating the Core Emotion of the Heart Types
By Beatrice Chestnut

For some time now I have been thinking about the fact that while most in the
What’s Inside Enneagram community seem to agree that and represent the core
emotions associated with the body types and the head types, respectively,
there appears to be a lack of consensus about the core emotion connected to
the heart types.

In what follows, I hope to lay out some of the different conceptions of the heart types’ core
emotion with the intention of starting a dialogue about this issue that can lead to some clarity
about this question that is so central to an understanding of the Enneagram system.

I believe that too often in the Enneagram community individual theorists and authors come up
with a particular definition of some aspect of Enneagram theory and just move ahead as if their
definition were true, without accounting for differences between theories. This leads to a
confusing situation in which we have several different definitions or perceptions of one thing.
How do we promote the Enneagram as a solid growth tool when its strongest adherents can’t
agree about its basic definitions?

As a former academic, this lack of a communicating community of learners among Enneagram

theorists has always seemed strange to me, as in academic pursuits the main task is to build on
the accumulated and accepted knowledge that has gone before by summarizing that
information and adding to it in specific ways. For this to happen however, we in the
Enneagram community need to open ourselves up to thoughtful and sincere dialogue,
receiving and responding constructively to constructive criticism, and potentially being wrong in
the eyes of others.

In posing the following questions then about one such situation – the lack of a common
understanding of the core emotional issue of the heart types – I hope to begin a respectful
dialogue that can evolve into a shared view of this important aspect of Enneagram theory.

And I want to be clear: although I include my own theory about the core emotion of the heart
types, I am not arguing for the truth of my point of view; my intention is to frame the theoretical
problem and start a discussion.
1

IEA •4010 Executive Park Drive, Suite 100, • Cincinnati, OH USA 513-232-5054 • www.internationalenneagram.org

Sao Paulo, Brazil
San Francisco, CA, USA
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Brisbane, Australia
Boulder, CO, USA
Birmingham, AL, USA
- (1987) he does not attach core emotions to the three triads, but instead
Brisbane, Australia
Baden-Baden, Germany
Cincinnati, OH, USA
(5)
Napa Valley, CA, USA
Los Condes, Santiago, Chile
Madrid, Spain
) highlights the fact that Evagrius saw envy as a primary emotional experience rather
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Shame, Envy, Panic, Feelings, Hysteria, or Sadness?:
Looking for the Core Emotion of the Heart Types continued
Toward that end, I will summarize various
authors’ perspectives and pose two
questions: “Why do we have these differing
accounts of the heart types’ key emotion?”
and “Which of the different theorized
emotions makes the most sense within the
system?”
My first Enneagram book was Helen
Palmer’s (1988)
. In this, her first book, Palmer
identifies the “core emotional issues” of the
body triad located around the Nine point as
being “anger” and the “core emotional
issue” of the head types located around the
Six point as being “fear.” At the Three
point in her diagram of the core emotional
issues (p. 38) she labels the core emotional
issue as being “what am I feeling?” While
this book remains one of my favorite
Enneagram references, I noted early on
that the question “what am I feeling” didn’t
seem to be directly analogous to anger and fear.
In an early edition of Don Riso’s
labels the body-based points as “the relating triad,” saying that the three types have
“common problems with and ” (pp. 33-34). He describes the
head-based points as “the doing triad,” having “common problems with and
” (pp. 31-32), and he calls the heart-based types “the feeling triad,” having
“common problems with and with ” (pp. 30-31).
In 1999, in , Don Riso and Russ Hudson describe the
“major themes” of the three triads (p. 51). In characterizing Types Eight, Nine, and
One (The Instinctive Triad) they write that “underneath their ego defenses they carry a
great deal of ” (p. 51). They explain that the types within the Thinking Triad carry
a great deal of under their ego defenses, and that the three types associated with
the Feeling Triad carry a great deal of underlying .
Eli Jaxon-Bear presents yet another interpretation of what he terms “The Three Basic
Fixations” early on in his book,
(2001). Here he posits the central fixation of the heart types as “hysteria and
neediness” (p. 35). In describing the three basic fixations associated with the nine
Enneagram types, he explains that “there is anger over who controls the body, fear
about the body’s survival, and identification with the body’s emotional needs” (p. 35).
David Burke introduces yet another perspective on the heart types’ core emotional
issue in his article in the 2008 edition of , “The Enneagram of
Evagrius of Pontus.” As Burke details the passions according to Evagrius, one of the
earliest known sources of fully articulated definitions of the Enneagram’s passions, he
than a passion on the level of the others:
continued page 20
2

The 2009 IEA Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA was
an incredible event! Just over 300 IEA members from 20
countries were registered for the conference. The global
community came together again, this time in the hot desert
with temperatures over 100 degrees everyday and we all
remained cool, calm, and collected.
This conference featured: the very
first General Assembly of
Affiliates (GA); a
day with Helen Palmer, David
Daniels, Terry Saracino and Pete
O’Hanrahan; a magnificent
Keynote address on the
delivered by Dr.
Robert Holden and an endnote
talk by David Burke that brought
the whole thing together.
The Conference Committee made
up of me (Deborah Ooten), Gayle Scott, Bea Chestnut and
Sandy Hatmaker worked with great diligence to bring the
conference budget down to meet the demands of the times
and we were very successful! The conference realized a
profit and we made a number of changes that will keep the
numbers down for years to come. This was only possible
because so many of you showed up from far and near to
make this a conference filled with spirit and heart…many
thanks to us all!
Even as I am writing this, I am aware that we are already
planning for another spectacular event in 2010. We will be
holding this conference at the Palace Hotel in downtown
San Francisco, California, USA! Please be sure to start
making plans for
I will look forward to any and all feedback that you might
have about the 2009 conference. As a new green initiative
we did not give out paper evaluation forms at the
conference, so we encourage you to send in the electronic
evaluations all attendees received via email from the IEA.
Your feedback will help us ensure another great success for
next year!
-Deborah Ooten
President-Elect/Conference 2009 Chair
3
IEA
The International Enneagram Association is working
towards making the world a smaller place, through the use
of the internet. At this very moment, there are technology
changes happening that will give you increased access to
more information about the IEA and its affiliates. During
the recent annual conference in Las Vegas, additional
information was added to the website - affiliate website
addresses were added in some cases, a new iTunes link was
posted to the top of the IEA website, and other content
creation was started. We are also actively working towards
digitizing the available audio content of past conferences,
so you can reminisce about past events - or, if you were not
there, you can participate after the fact!
More technology
changes are
coming, too. If
you're familiar
with Social
Networking, we
are making
greater use of our
Facebook profile,
as well as
working towards
promoting the IEA on LinkedIn (a professionally-oriented
social networking website) for our professional members.
We're also looking to promote diversity. While English is the
official language of the IEA, we are dedicated to promoting
the Enneagram in all of its earthly language
manifestations. We are now working on translation efforts
to promote some of our material in multiple languages, so
that those for whom English is not their primary language
will be able to participate in their native tongue. We have a
lot of content, however, so translation into multiple alternate
languages will take time.
Last, and absolutely not least..
If you have an idea about how technology can further the
IEA's mission, please contact me at:
Darryl.Hadfield@InternationalEnneagram.org .
-Darryl Hadfield
IT Director
International Enneagram Association
 IEA

Finally, the first IEA China Conference is going to take place

in September 2009, and it is sure to generate excitement
The 2009 IEA Conference in Las throughout the region.
Vegas was a big success. The event
attracted 300 participants, enough to Cheers to the growing awareness and prominence of the
make it profitable despite a global Enneagram across the globe!
financial crisis. In addition, the vast -Uranio Paes
majority of the feedback we heard IEA President
from participants during and after the
event were extremely positive.
However, something else happened
during our gathering in Las Vegas
that was very meaningful: the successful kick-off meeting of
the IEA General Assembly of Affiliates (GAA). No longer merely an
“American” organization
The GAA is, so to say, the new “IEA parliament”: a with branches in different
“chamber” where the countrywide Enneagram associations countries, the IEA has
affiliated to the IEA meet, discuss their concerns, and made great strides in the
influence the IEA Global organization. This first meeting was past year toward become
attended in person by representatives of 11 of the 13 a truly international
countries in which the official affiliates have already been organization. This
formed. Several important discussions took place and at the evolution has been a
end of the session Maria Jose Munita of Chile was elected response to the growing
by the affiliates’ representatives to join the IEA Global enthusiasm for the
Board. This new governance process is a significant step Enneagram from across
towards the globalization of our association. the globe, as well as
increasing support for the
The importance of all this goes beyond the increase of the vision of the IEA, and it
international participation in the IEA: it shows a willingness has led to the formation of an affiliate in the USA.
to create a new representation and governance of our
association, based on the recognition that high-quality IEA-USA began forming in late 2008 and became an
Enneagram work and relevant expansion of the Enneagram incorporated not-for-profit organization in June. The IEA
movement is happening all around the world. board of directors gave its official endorsement of the IEA-
USA affiliate at the July, and the IEA-USA is busy creating a
The members of the IEA Board of Directors are all very plan for supporting the mission of the IEA: to provide a
proud to see this accomplishment as a symbol of our vision worldwide hub for the sharing of all developments in the
being taken into action. In addition, we are all very proud theory and ethical application of the Enneagram.
and happy with all the projects that IEA Affiliates throughout
the world are bringing to reality: wonderful local IEA The new structure of the IEA led to the formation of the
conferences, the implementation of the IEA accreditation General Assembly of Affiliates, a body comprising up to two
plan, social actions during and after the World Enneagram delegates from each affiliate. Delegates had the opportunity
Day, high-quality local publications and more. to represent the unique needs and interests of their region
as the IEA explored ways to grow in its ability to serve the
Several new affiliates are being formed as a consequence needs of its members. The IEA-USA was represented at the
of the energy generated by these successes, especially in General Assembly by Samantha Schoenfeld and Suzanne
Latin America. Chile and Mexico are the newest affiliates Dion.
and affiliates in both Canada and Peru are now in the
process of taking shape. We invite everyone from all For additional information about the IEA-USA affiliate,
countries to join our movement! please contact affiliate president Deborah Ooten at
deborah.ooten@fuse.net.

4
 Ask Dr. J.
Q words that request humbly vs.
Dear Bemused Two. Your closing line “Lost in
translation” reminded me of a book by Gary Chap-
A
man: . (Chicago: North-
field Publishing, 2004). At an IEA Conference
someone asked me if I thought Enneagram types
speak different love languages. I said I wasn’t familiar with
the languages. Then one of my clients said she found
Chapman’s ideas helpful in understanding the love lan-
guage of her partner. Since it is not good for Fives to be
unfamiliar with anything, I thought it best to read the book.
Chapman has catalogued five primary love languages. He
says it’s seldom that we have the same love language as
our significant other. When we speak our love language,
we become confused when our partner doesn’t understand
what we’re talking about because, to them, we’re speaking
a foreign language. He goes on to say we can’t rely on our
native tongue if the other person doesn’t understand it. So
if we want our friend to feel the love we are trying to com-
municate, we need to express it in his or her primary love
language.
Some people express their love and take it as a sign that
they are loved through These might
be kind words, compliments, words of appreciation, words
of encouragement, words that build up. They are words
that are expressed gently and softly, not harshly. They are
5
demand imperiously. Chap-
man points out that even within
a particular love language
there are different dialects but
what they all have in common is a need for
and the expression of their love through words of affirma-
tion.
Other people express their love and want to be shown love
though . This means giving the other person
your full undivided attention.
Sharing means doing something whole-
heartedly with your partner that he or she enjoys doing. A
central ingredient of quality time is , not to be
confused with proximity. It’s time together focused on the
other, not necessarily on the activity we are doing with the
other. focuses on what we are hearing
whereas words of affirmation focus on what we are saying.
This kind of conversation involves listening, not giving ad-
vice. It also involves self-revelation, sharing both our
thoughts and our feelings.
A third love language involves . Gift giving
seems to be an expression of love found in all cultures. It
signifies the other person is thinking of us and remembers
us. A thoughtful gift is as important as an expensive gift.
Gifts are visual symbols of love. Gifts may be purchased,
found, or made. The gift of oneself and one’s presence is
also a powerful expression of love – particularly in times of
crisis.
are yet another way of expressing and experi-
encing love. This means doing things you know the other
would like you to do. You express your love by doing things
for your significant other. It might mean helping the other
with their project or doing very domestic activities like vacu-
uming, cooking, keeping the car operational, etc. Whatever
love language we speak, we expect the other to talk back in
the same language. But we might need to be explicit about
what kind of actions we like. Some might like help with the
children or the laundry or the lawn, etc.
The final love language is . This is one of the
earliest ways of expressing and experiencing emotional love.
We learn hugs and holding as little babies and still like it as
big adults. One dialect is sexual contact but we also have
tactile receptors all over our body. We all experience stimu-
lus or sensation hunger. Love touches might be explicit and
more intentional as in giving a massage or making love; or
touches might be more incidental and implicit as in sitting
 Ask Dr. J.
next to each other or brushing the other’s shoulder as you
walk past. If this is your love language, you may need to
tell your partner how and where you like to be touched.
Chapman points out that often we can learn the other’s love
language by paying attention to what they criticize us for
not doing. “You never compliment me.” “You hardly ever
spend time with me.” “You never bring me gifts.” “You
don’t help me out.” “You seldom touch me.” Love is a
choice. We can learn to speak the other’s love language as
well as teach them our own.
Since I never pass up an opportunity to deliver a treatise, let
me now return to your actual question. Perhaps your
friend’s love language is , since he likes to
cook for you and ferry you around. You say you think he
knows how you feel about him. Are you certain you’re
speaking his love language? As an empathic Two, you’ve
probably picked up his wave length. But you might check it
out just to make sure you’re broadcasting on the right chan-
nel and speaking the right language.
I’m still not confident that particular Enneagram types speak
the same language. My guess is you can be any of the nine
continued
Enneagram styles and speak any of the five languages. My
hypothesis would be we have a temperamental preference
for some languages over others but there is probably also a
very strong environmental influence on our preferences.
We learn these languages through experiencing them ex-
pressed to us by our parents and by observing how our par-
ents showed love to each other. We then carry these
templates with us into our latter significant relationships and
expect our partners to fit the familial and familiar mold.
When they don’t, we question their love for us. Fortunately
we are learning creatures and our brains are plastic
(malleable, not brittle) and adaptable and we can, occa-
sionally, teach an old dog new tricks – or languages, as the
case may be.
Happy conversing.
Dr. J.
is the author of the
; the
(WEPSS); and
.
Jerry has been researching and teaching the Enneagram for
over 30 years.

The second edition of the IEA's new Enneagram Journal is

out! Professional member's should have received a copy by
mail (or at the IEA Conference in Las Vegas). Participating
members can purchase a copy at a members-only reduced
price. Click Here for the order form, or call the IEA office to
order your copy!
This year's Enneagram Journal continues the high-quality
dialogue in an academic-like format. Get your copy to read
fascinating Enneagram-related articles on diverse topics
including the neurobiology of the Enneagram, psychological
development in light of the Enneagram, the origins of the
Enneagram, the transformation a law firm with the
Enneagram, and chronic pain and problem-solving and the
Enneagram. Also included are book reviews and a movie
review. Don't miss this exciting and educational collection of
in-depth pieces of Enneagram research and commentary all
under one cover.

6
An IEA Conference Retrospective:
The First and the Latest
By Bob Tallon
It had been 15 years since my last IEA Conference. Yes, I
attended the first one at Stanford in 1994, and it wasn’t
called “the IEA” Conference then. There was no such
organization. If I remember correctly, it was called the First
International Enneagram Conference and was attended by
over 1,000 people. Richard Rohr delivered both the keynote
and endnote speech and he was perfect for the occasion.
All the big Enneagram teachers were there and the
atmosphere was electric with anticipation of seeing and
hearing the big names in action.
There were great presentations on a wide variety of topics,
and the hallways, coffee shops, and restaurants were abuzz
with the feeling of being in on the ground floor of
something profoundly meaningful. I presented a workshop
called “The Transformational Manager,” and was also on a
panel of business people. After that panel a man told me
with passion and conviction that the Enneagram would
change the world. The Stanford campus was gorgeous, the
weather was great, people were excited, and I was 15 years
younger. Who could ask for more?
Fast forward 15 years to Las Vegas— some things had
changed: the enthusiasm for the Enneagram, the belief that
this powerful system was beginning to take hold and that it
really change things—perhaps not the world, but the
hearts and minds of those who learned and used it.
Some things changed; there were fewer people, some
older and “grayer” people, fewer big names, hotter
weather, a lot more slot machines, and a whole lot more
international attendees. This was the most striking
difference for me: the presence of so many people from
South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Mexico, and all
around the globe. This really felt like an international
gathering. The presentations seemed more about the
“using” part than the first conference, where presenters
gave more overviews and foundational talks and
workshops. In the ensuing years since 1994 practitioners
had learned a lot and some presenters where making
creative applications in fields such as spirituality, therapy,
art, medicine, and business.
Whereas the first conference had the enthusiasm of youth
and felt like , this conference felt like
the . And yes, there
was the inevitable growing pains, mostly around what the
IEA could become, what it should emphasize, and how it
can grow into a healthy, well-led, influential, global,
organization.
7
I attended as many presentations as I could, focusing on
business and therapy. I was struck at how many ways there
are to both interpret and make use of the nine types, the
instincts, and the transforming power of the Enneagram in
a variety of settings. Some talks made me scratch my head,
others made me think of possibilities, and others made me
delight to be part of a movement that teaches people to be
more compassionate, understanding, and effective at
everything they do. Jerry Wagner’s presentation, “The
Enneagram and the Individual
Psychology of Alfred Adler”
explored (among other things)
the connection between birth
order, earliest childhood
memories, and Enneagram
type. As many of you know,
Jerry has missed his calling:
Jerry Seinfeld’s got nothing on
him—FYI, neither does Oscar
Peterson, the late, great jazz
pianist.
Another workshop I particularly enjoyed was by Mario
Sikora entitled “Power is the Great Motivator.” Yes, I confess
to my extreme bias here; Mario is my business partner, co-
author, and great friend, but I have always admired his
intellect, scholarship, and rigor. His presentation, as well as
Jerry’s, exemplified the direction I hope the Enneagram
takes (regardless of whether the focus is on spirituality,
therapy, business, etc.)—demonstrating how the
Enneagram can greatly enhance other disciplines. For
example, in cognitive therapy: accurately indicating the
dominant cognitive errors of each of the types; in emotional
intelligence: describing how each of the types tends to deal
with anger, sadness, empathy, etc., as well as what their
strengths and weaknesses are in emotional intelligence
competencies; in spirituality: suggesting the best meditative
practices; and in somatic studies: indicating what body-
based practices are most beneficial for each type.
It was a great conference, and it felt great to be back. I
wondered why I felt so supported by the attendees at the
IEA Conference—this group of mostly strangers. Then I
realized they weren’t strangers at all, that instead, they—
—were kindred spirits, part of a worldwide group of
people who, through the Enneagram, have had a common
experience of powerful proportions: profound self-
knowledge, a deep understanding of oneself and others,
practices that can transform relationships on all levels, and
a commitment to grow as human beings and citizens of the
world. Viva the Enneagram indeed. And Viva the IEA and
the great work it is doing all around the world.
 By Katrina Stevens M.Ed.
Australian Institute for Enneagram
Studies
My particular area of interest in the
Enneagram for some years now has
been the diagram. If the
Enneagram is simply a
psychological framework – what’s with the fancy logo?
A series of simple but logical questions arise when one
considers the diagram in the context of a personality
typology. For example: Why are there nine, not four or five
or sixteen personality types? Why aren’t the types presented
for ease of reference in a list, or a grid, say, 3 x 3? Why is
the framework presented as a circle, not a square or a
nonagon? Why do the lines connecting the
types have arrows on them? Why are
there numbers circumscribed around the
circle, not labels? Why are the numbers
laid out the way they are? For example,
why isn’t the 1 at the top of the circle –
because no matter where you put the 1,
you can still connect the types in the
prescribed way (go on – try it!).
The Enneagram diagram is more than a
just a logo. It is a diagram with a rich and multidisciplinary
heritage. The Western world however, has concentrated so
heavily on the psychology of the Enneagram that it has
seldom focused its attention on interpreting the symbol in
which it is embedded.
The diagram as we know it was first introduced to the West
by Georgio Gurdjieff in his earliest Moscow and St
Petersburg groups in 19141 and to Europe in 1922 when
Gurdjieff established the Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Man in Paris2.
There is no real consensus as to specifically where Gurdjieff
learned the Enneagram, though he readily acknowledged
that it had been preserved in secret for a very long time.
There is a general agreement that he seems to have come
across it as a “Seeker of Truth” in the East (Asia, The
Mediterranean, Egypt, India, and Tibet).
Interestingly, Gurdjieff never taught the Enneagram as a
way to understand personality types. Neither did he present
the model as the static diagram we know it to be today.
Rather he presented it as a for
understanding and synthesizing universal laws.
He called the 9-pointed diagram the “fundamental
8
hieroglyph of a universal language”3. Mathematics, as the
most abstract language known to humankind, is that
universal language, and using it to interpret the glyph can
lead us to some important insights about the nature of the
framework.
It is impossible to look at the Enneagram diagram without
noticing its mathematical elements. It consists of two
separate geometric shapes: a circle and triangle; and is
surrounded by the digits 1 to 9 linked in particular
sequences by a series of chords.
David Burke’s exhaustive research into the origins of the
Enneagram gives us a time and place in history to begin an
historical investigation into the mathematics of the diagram.
He has conclusively traced the history of the Enneagram to
the Christian contemplatives living in
the Nile Delta in the period between
the 3rd and 8th centuries CE and
particularly to the written accounts of
the nine passions by Evagrius of
Pontus (346-399)4.
Evagrius makes no reference to a
diagram that elucidates the
psychology of the framework he was
documenting but his writings show
evidence of what has come to be called the Theology of
Arithmetic or a strand of mathematics which
pursued mathematics for its philosophical and religious
connotations as much as for its scientific revelations and
commercial applications.
Among the Greeks, Arithmology enjoyed a long history.
Esoteric and religious in its heritage, the tradition was first
documented by the Pythagoreans in the 5th century BCE and
lasted for at least a thousand years5.
This mystical approach to mathematics was also evident in
Geometry. Whereas the Egyptians used geometry so they
could restore the boundary markers on land parcels around
the Nile Delta after the annual flooding7, the Greeks
embraced practical Egyptian mathematics and extrapolated
the abstract and philosophical from the concrete to base a
theology upon it8. For example, the circle was regarded as
the single most powerful geometric symbol of all. It
represented the universal creating process which began
from a dimensionless centre and expanded to include an
infinite number of points around the circumference. The
implication being that all matter emanates from the same
unnamed source, is connected in some way and yearns to
return to its place of origin9.
This tradition continued in Neo-platonic writings as well: A
favorite analogy of Plotinus (204-270CE), the “Father” of
Neo-Platonism, was to describe , or
as the centre of a circle, containing potentially all the circles
that can emanate from it10.
Philosophers of the Enneagram refer to this notion as the
and the circle its symbolic representation.
The triangle which connects 9-6-3, quite obviously,
represents the number three and an archetypal principal
that transcends culture and time. There were Three Wise
Men; Three Little Pigs; Three Musketeers; and three days
before the resurrection. Cerberus was a three-headed dog
guarding the entrance to Hades; you have three strikes then
you’re out11! The most famous threefold symbol of course, is
the Holy Trinity.
Three is best understood by considering its None
of the triangle’s parts are individually extraordinary but
when they come together, they form the strongest, most
stable of all the polygons.
Gurdjieff calls this effect the which, he says, is
the basis of all phenomena: a force advancing, a force
resisting the advance and a force reconciling and fulfilling
the interaction of the first two. The three forces together
form a trinity that creatively produces a new phenomenon12.
In the 17th century Isaac Newton formalized this principle
with his third law of motion13.
The remaining six numbers that circumscribe the circle of the
Enneagram diagram are connected in a repeating cycle:
1-4-2-8-5-7. This internal connection of numbers
represents what Gurdjieff referred to as the
The he said, “describes every transformative
process in the universe, from the life of a cell to the life of a
solar system unfolding in…seven successive steps14.”
The reiterates the basic premise of the Greek
Pre-Sophists who reasoned that the only constant in the
universe was change and Heraclitus (c.540 BCE) in
particular, who argued that all things are subject to an
endless process of becoming: “No one can step twice into
the same river15.” This is a belief that is echoed in the
Buddhist . mathematicians during the Golden Age of Islam (8th – 13th
Seven abounds in mythology, mysticism, and superstition.
There are seven ages of man, seven wonders of the ancient
world, seven liberal arts of medieval education, seven
dwarfs, seven days in the week, seven perambulations to be
made around the Kaaba at Mecca16. Jesus entreated his
disciples to forgive 70 x 7 times17. At the casino, seven is
considered lucky. In Looking-Glass Land there were seven
maids with seven mops and on television there were seven
brides for seven brothers!
In ancient mathematics, the number seven was considered
to be sacred and was always a symbol of transformation.
,
Unlike the regular six-sided hexagons we see in snowflakes
or the practical tessellations of honeycomb, nature has no
use for seven as a structure. Instead we see seven appear
as independent aspects of a whole18. For example, the
rainbow reveals itself as seven bands of visible light; there
are seven geometric classifications to which all crystals
belong, though there are no crystal formations that are
seven-sided19. The diatonic musical scale (the piano’s white
keys) consists of seven notes, the eighth note being the
same as the first, one octave higher. Similarly, Mitosis, the
process by which cells divide, progresses through seven
stages before it divides to become two separate cells.
Change, it would seem, though axiomatic, is not random
or chaotic, it is cyclic.
Since a regular seven-sided polygon cannot be constructed
using only the three tools of the geometer (compass, pencil,
and straightedge) the shape or more accurately, the
sequence denoted by linking 1-4-2-8-5-7, is unlikely to be
associated with geometry. Understanding the sequence
requires an investigation into a mathematical and
philosophical tradition that embraces number theory rather
than geometry - and for that we must travel further East to
India.
Although Alexander the Great’s empire stretched as far as
India in the 4th century BC, Indian mathematics borrowed
little geometry or philosophy from the Greeks.
The great contribution of the Indians to mathematics was
undoubtedly their ability to play with numbers. By the 5th
century, like the Greeks and the Egyptians before them, the
Indians were using a base-10 number system that
incorporated place-value notation. Their system of
numbering from which the modern notation is derived was
however, much less cumbersome and allowed them to use
“fancy tricks” to add, subtract, multiply, and divide without
an abacus – something the Greeks could not do.
This was the beginning of what is now called a
strand of mathematics which was later refined by Arab
centuries).
It is interesting that the refers to a cycle of
change that repeats and the number 142,857 itself is a
number.
By cyclic, I mean that there is an invariance of the digits
obtained in the multiplication of 142,857 by any number
below the magic number 720. Note that in each of the
answers below, though the initial digit varies, the digits and
9
the order in which they appear are constant. They have a
“carousel-like” property like luggage circling at baggage
claim in the airport arrivals hall21.
142,857 x 1 = 142,857
142,857 x 2 = 285,714
142,857 x 3 = 428,571
142,857 x 4 = 571,428
142,857 x 5 = 714,285
142,857 x 6 = 857,142
This is significant, in terms of understanding the philosophy
of the Enneagram. Though the digits carousel, each
successive answer is greater than the one before. That is,
though the cycle repeats, it does so at a higher level each
time, much like a spiral staircase.
David Burke calls this movement from each point to the
next, 1-4-2-8-5-7 and 7 back to 1, beginning the cycle
again at a higher level than the previous cycle, the
22
He argues, like Gurdjieff, that if the is a
universal law, then it must apply not only to observable
phenomena but also on a cosmic scale as well, in the
unfolding of the universe. The flow of the
following the arrows around the
Enneagram diagram - is akin to described in the
seminal text of Chinese Taoism, the 23
The
exercise of the personality in this context then, is simply an
attempt to avoid participation in this great unfolding. That
is, the exertion of over . only thing that can lie beyond the finite is the infinite.
By way of analogy, in Hinduism, this continual evolution
through phases of consciousness which continues after
death, is described as reincarnation. The goal of
reincarnation is not for the endless transmigration of the
soul from being to being, rather it is to free the soul entirely
from the cycle of death and rebirth to achieve completion.
How many must one participate in
before attaining “completion?” The answer is simple. The
metaphorical number of transformation is, as discussed
above, seven.
142,857 x 7 = 999,999
This introduces us to another number pertinent to the
Enneagram: Nine.
Surprisingly, nine is a number easily missed in discussions
relating to the Enneagram diagram. It is the number of
described by the framework. It is also the
number of digits that circumscribe the circle.
In the base-10 system, nine is the final number that has a
specific identity. The ancient mathematical philosopher’s,
such as Iamblichus called nine “the horizon” or “the
finishing post”.24 Schneider eloquently describes nine as,
10
“lying at the edge of the shore before a boundless ocean of
numbers that repeat in endless cycles the principles of the
first nine digits”.25 Nothing lies beyond the principles of
nine, which the Greeks called the .
Nearly every tradition from Northern Europe and Africa to
shamanic Siberia, Asia, and the Americas, uses the number
nine to express an ultimate extent, journey, or duration.26
In ancient Egypt, it was said that the initial act of creation
produced a group of nine gods and goddesses, known now
by their Greek designation: . According to
Homer, the city of Troy was besieged for nine years.
Odysseus (Ulysses) wandered for nine more years before he
finally returned home. In Christian symbolism, there are
nine orders of angels in nine spheres of heaven; Novenas,
said for special intentions, are repeated over a period of
nine consecutive days; and at the ninth hour, Jesus yielded
up his spirit and died.27
Nine represents the boundary between the mundane and
the transcendental infinite.
It is readily accepted that the psychology of the Enneagram
describes in intricate detail the full extent of human
behavior, grouping them into nine classifications. The
philosophical implication of there being nine, not four, or
five, or sixteen personality types, is the notion that
something must lie beyond the observable, repetitive, finite,
and habitual patterns of human behavior. By definition, the
Mathematically, infinity and zero are inexorably linked.
One cannot exist without the other. Though the Babylonian
base-60 counting system incorporated the concept of zero
as a placeholder around 300 BCE, zero’s rise to pre-
eminence did not occur until after Alexander the Great
marched with his Persian troops from Babylon to India in
the 4th century BCE.
When the Greeks came across zero in Babylonia, they
rejected it. They feared the void and they feared zero. It
did not conform to rational, logical Aristotelian philosophy.
To complicate matters, they had a mathematical tradition
that was irreversibly wed to the spatial aspects of
mathematics – numbers and shapes were considered to be
one and the same. What shape could represent zero?
Rejecting the validity of zero had the effect of stunting the
growth of Western mathematics for the next 700 years28.
Eastern philosophies in contrast, embraced both the void
and the infinite. In Hinduism, nothingness is where the
universe is considered to have proceeded from and to
achieve nothingness the ultimate goal of humankind.
Similarly, the describes as, “like a
bellows...It appears to be empty yet is inexhaustible”29.
 Recovering the Enneagram’s mystical purpose requires that
Recall also our treatment of the circle, above, which began we liberate the Enneagram from its psychological
from a dimensionless centre yet expanded to include an constraints. A comprehensive understanding of the
infinite number of points upon its circumference. Enneagram demands that Enneagram teachers are able to
interpret the Enneagram diagram and are willing to
By the 9th century (an interesting coincidence), Indian discover what lies beyond simply observing and describing
mathematicians had reincarnated zero, assigned a each of the Types.
mathematical value to it and given it a place on the number
line. This seemingly simple act made zero the single most
useful “discovery” of all time30. Islam eventually learned 1Ginsburg, Seymour. B. (2005). . www.lighthouse-
editions.com
zero from India and at the beginning of the 13th century the 2Webb, James. (1980). . New York: GPPutnam’s Sons.
West eventually learned it from Islam. 3 Ouspensky, P.D. (1949). . Florida: Harcourt.
4 Burke, David. (2008). The Enneagram
Journal. Vol.1. No.1.
Evagrius’ Ascetical Theology31, proposes that the passions 5 Waterfield, Robin. (trans). (1988). . Grand Rapids:
that drive the desire to act contrary to the Phanes Press.
6 Seife, Charles. (2000). Zero: . London:
enter our consciousness involuntarily and
Souvenir Press.
that unless we learn to both observe and manage them, we 7 Ibid.

may never find ourselves in a position to transcend the 8 Schneider, Michael. (1994). .
limited, habitual, and alienating experience of the New York: Harper Perennial.
9 David Burke. Unpublished.
personality32. 10 Louth, Andrew. (1981). . New
York: Oxford University Press.
11 Schneider, Michael. (1994). .
Readiness for transformation -- the ability to move past the
New York: Harper Perennial.
horizon to achieve union with the infinite -- is in fact 12 Shirley, John. (2004). . New
signaled by the of the passions and the presence of York: Penguin.
13 Newton, Isaac. (1687). .
33
(described variously as an unshakeable calm or 14 William Segal in Shirley, John. (2004).
the absence of suffering). This concept sums up the . New York: Penguin.
brilliance of the Enneagram framework. 15 Russell, Bertrand. (1946).

16 Schneider, Michael. (1994). .

Simply studying the Enneagram framework will not lead to New York: Harper Perennial.
personal, spiritual or communal transformation. It will 17 Matthew 18:22
18 Schneider, Michael. (1994). .
however, isolate in devastatingly accurate detail, the
New York: Harper Perennial.
habitual desires and aversions that are impeding and 19 Skinner, Stephen. (2006). : . New
sabotaging spiritual growth. York: Sterling Publishing Co.
20 Ecker, Michael. W. (1983). . The Two-
year College Mathematics Journal, Vol.14, No.2 (Mar 1983). pp 105-109:
This common misconception was predicted by Gurdjieff. Mathematical Association of America. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3026586
While he considered the Enneagram to be “the 21 Hodges, Andrew. (2007). . London:
philosopher’s stone of the alchemists34,” he asserted that Short Books.
22 Burke, David. Unpublished.
without instruction from “one who knows,” it would remain 23 Burke, David. (2004). . Salisbury: Boolarong Press.
incomplete, theoretical in form and impossible to make any 24 Waterfield, Robin. (trans). (1988). . Grand Rapids:
practical use of35. Phanes Press.
25 Schneider, Michael. (1994). .
New York: Harper Perennial.
In Ouspensky’s book, 36 26 Balmond, Cecil. (2008). . London: Prestel Publishing Ltd.
27 (Mark 15:25-39).
Gurdjieff is quoted as having given this sharply worded 28 Seife, Charles. (2000). Zero: . London:
warning on the diagram’s metaphysical symbolism: “in the Souvenir Press.
hands of the incompetent and the ignorant, however full of 29 Burke, David. (2004). . Salisbury: Boolarong Press.
30 Seife, Charles. (2000). Zero: . London:
good intentions, the symbol becomes an instrument of
Souvenir Press.
delusion.” John Shirley, believes that this is true of the 31 Harmless, William. (2004).

Enneagram. . New York: Oxford University Press.

32 Burke, David. (2008). The Ennea-
gram Journal. Vol.1. No.1.
33 Burke, David. Unpublished.
34 Ouspensky in, Shirley, John. (2004).

37 . New York: Penguin.

35 Shirley, John. (2004). . New
The Enneagram of the 21st Century is but a fragment of a York: Penguin.
36 Ouspensky, P.D. (1949). . Florida: Harcourt.
once brilliant and comprehensive ancient philosophy that 37 Shirley, John. (2004). . New
has informed the spiritual development of human beings for York: Penguin.
more than two millennia.
11

By Mario Sikora
Standing amidst the crowd mingling between sessions
toward the end of the IEA conference in Las Vegas, I was
struck by the variety of people gathered: people to my right
speaking excitedly in Spanish, an Australian accent rising
above the din of the crowd to my left; some people deep in
reflection, others giddy with newfound knowledge.
I was acutely aware of a feeling of general well-being,
conscious of how the positive emotions in the lobby were
washing over me and creating a feeling of deep
satisfaction. I thought about the phenomenon of emotional
resonance, the brain’s tendency to mirror the emotional
states of others, and from there my mind drifted to the
central idea from the African philosophy of :
* It was impossible to escape the fact that
the reason for my feeling was in large part due to the
people around me.
I was first introduced to a few years ago by some
friends from South Africa, Lee Kingma and Barry Coltham.
has many facets: generosity, compassion, and
humility; but at its heart is an acknowledgment of the
interconnectedness of humanity, the idea that we can’t live
in isolation and that we are profoundly shaped by those
around us, and that we play a part in shaping others. It was
Archbishop Desmond Tutu who summarized the concept as
“I am because we are.”
This idea appeals to me because there is nothing mystical
or supernatural about it; it is the simple acknowledgement
that we are part of a community and that that community is
as rooted in us as we are in it. From neuroscience we know
that the mind is the epiphenomenon created by our innate
wiring as it is influenced by the things around us. As a
social species, one whose very survival as individuals and
as a collective depends on the efficacy of our relationships,
the biggest influence on who we are is those by whom we
are surrounded.
Unfortunately, we are blind to much of this subtle influence.
We are buffeted about with each encounter, unconsciously
shaped and molded by the after-effects of our interactions.
We take with us a little bit of each person we meet: John’s
sorrow saddens us, Mary’s compassion lifts us up, Joe’s
anger causes a little part of us to shrink and cower.
also reminds us that we must take responsibility for
12
our contribution to the whole because in
the same way that you shape me, I shape
you. My anger causes you harm; my
compassion helps to heal. Healing you
heals me.
The Enneagram is a very useful tool for moving this
phenomenon from the passive and non-conscious to the
proactive and conscious. It helps us to be aware of the
patterns in others that lead to behaviors that serve to
diminish us; and it helps us to gain some perspective on
those behaviors so they do us less harm. We see that the
behavior is rooted in the other person’s dysfunctional
patterns, we don’t take it personally, we move away from it
if possible, and we are able to lessen its sting.
“There goes John into his Four-ish downward spiral; maybe
I can help instead of just letting it bring me down as well.” If
you can’t help, at least you can decide to consciously
respond to John’s mood in a way that leaves you less
affected by it.
Of course the flip-side is that teaches us that we are
responsible for the affect we have on others; that our
dysfunction and negativity has consequences that extend to
everyone we meet and everyone they meet and everyone
they meet….
We are all inextricably linked in Indra’s net.**
The Enneagram helps us to become the pearls at each
vertex of that net. An objective model, showing us the reality
of our patterns that play out behind the illusions we hold of
ourselves, the Enneagram paired with hard work can help
to free us from the trap of our subjectivity. It can help us to
see the ways in which our habitual patterns can serve to
diminish the group and, fortunately, it points the way to our
higher possibilities, giving us a map of what we can aspire
to so we make the whole better.
The actions we can take do not need to be detailed here;
you know them already. A good start, however, is to work
on letting go of the fixation of your Ennea-type and
embrace the corresponding virtue. The point of this article is
not the “what;” it is the “why”: Rather than see being merely
a way to relieve our individual suffering, teaches us
that the Enneagram is a tool for becoming conscious of
what we contribute to the greater whole. Our work on self,
our application of the Enneagram to our own lives, can thus
be a small step to relieving the suffering of the whole world.
*Madonna (yes, Madonna) wrote and produced a heart-wrenching
documentary of the same name that is well-worth watching.
**The story of Indra’s net is a great Buddhist metaphor for humanity’s
interdependence. You can find out more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra%27s_net.
13
Time with Helen in Brussels
By CJ Fitzsimons
Spending a few days with Helen Palmer is an invitation to let
Type recede for a while, and see what else life has to offer;
a chance to reconnect with that which we are that lies
beyond Type. We had such an opportunity from 27 to 30
June in , a
Franciscan study centre surrounded by beautiful parkland,
in Brussels, Belgium at Helen Palmer’s European Spiritual
Enneagram Retreat, titled
Last year’s retreat, in Assisi, revolved around “Be still, and
know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). This year’s verse
came from Rumi:
“I had you once, beloved
Where did you go?”
With Helen as our guide, we explored spiritual experience –
and what it brings – through the lens of each Type. (The
structure of an ego type is a cognitive and emotional unit
that determines how each type’s thinking is organized,
rather than the content of what we actually think about.) She
defined spiritual experience as a reflection of objective
reality, reality as it is without the filters of the categories of
Type. It’s what happens in the pause between subjective
thought, feeling and sensation.
Since Ego would like to forget our passions, it’s usually
easier to detect the thoughts and how they’re organized.
This is the task of the (Inner) Witness, which illuminates the
hidden landscape in the absence of ego. (Helen will be
exploring the contours of this inner landscape in some
depth in her forthcoming book.) Hence the spiritual journey
describes a love affair between the active Ego and reflective
Witness. An affair whose oxygen is trust.
The key to developing this trust is to relax directly into the
emotion, since Ego has to know that relaxing instead of
contracting brings good things. If nothing else, this practice
of relaxation brings relief from suffering. But there is
something else: it also strengthens Witness. And the
stronger Witness is, the stronger the bond of trust between
Witness and Ego. Over time, at the point of suffering,
Witness whispers, “you’ve been here before … maybe, you
could relax into your breath … and bring your attention to
the present moment.” Over time, Ego hears the whisper.
Helen illustrated aspects of the spiritual journey for each of
the Types through three extensive center-based panels
during the retreat. In each, she explored with the panelists
experiences in their lives when they relaxed through the
emotional passion and experienced the life force that
delivers well-being.
A common thread for the Nine panelists was learning to
recognize the signals their bodies give them when they’re in
14
self-forgetting (for one panelist, a sharp contraction in the
chest; for the other, numbness). By sensing inner signals,
they can choose to focus attention on their breathing and
be present to their own wants and not-wants. For the Eights,
it is a case of turning down the volume and learning that
showing weakness doesn’t lead to immediate death. The
One panelists described the trap of attempting to reach the
perfect prayer or meditation practice. Nowadays, a
comfortable body – being able to live in the space of the
whole body – is a sign the Judge is off-duty. These gentle
spiritual experiences carry and hold them in time and bring
the reassurance that everything will get done and the right
thing will show up.
In the Head panel, Helen explored how mental Types
contract against reality. For the Sixes, this takes the form of
constantly looking for answers, and they never come from
within. They’re found on the web, in friends, in books. Their
transformative act of courage is to look inside for help and
for authority – not outside. The challenge is that well-being
does not present itself as a good thing, since defenses don’t
work there. It needs to be approached by degrees. For the
Five panelists, the challenge is to get in touch with their
emotions. So, a path of growth is to allow in feelings and
sensations about others (nobody needs to know you’re
doing this!). For the Sevens, the contraction against reality
takes the form of a mental carousel of people, ideas,
experiences. Spiritual practice demands a focus on one
thing only.
To help better understand the territory of the Heart, Helen
explored relationships. For the Threes, the pressure of
needing to succeed in the eyes of others numbs the
emotional center, turning relationship into a task to be
accomplished. If the task fails to deliver approval, there is a
scattering of attention to find a new success: suddenly,
#40 on the To-Do list is the most important. Part of growth
is to see this differently, to go to a place of well-being
instead of the to-do list. Witness knows the difference. For
the Four panelists, the path learns involves learning to
move beyond the constant (unfavorable) activity of
comparing oneself to others. When they step outside and
observe, a calmness comes and something greater takes
over – a conversion of suffering to bliss. One panelist
compared it to the sound of snow melting. To which Helen
suggested bringing more attention to the sunlight that
triggers the melting. The Two panelists summarized their
challenge in relationships as, “the world needs me; I need
nothing … just don’t leave!” By relaxing into well-being,
humility emerges and with it, the desire that the other
person be independent. Helen left them with an exercise:
engage the eyes of someone you like and be in yourself,
not in “their lap.”
After a final meditation, Helen announced that this was her
last large retreat in Europe, and then she welcomed us back
into the marvelous world of Type!
By Katherine Rawls
While knowing the Enneagram helps us to stay objective
about other people’s behavior and our own behavior, we
are all human. Sometimes our emotions get in the way and
block us from reaching a more objective state of
Enneagram awareness.
Tonglen is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice. In
Tibetan, the word “tonglen” means “giving and receiving.”
In tonglen practice, we take in the negative emotions of
others and we give them our positive emotions.1 People
practice tonglen because they want people everywhere to be
free of suffering.
In this article, I will introduce you to the practice of
Enneagram Tonglen, an integration of enneagram and
tonglen practice. As a long-time tonglen and Enneagram
practitioner, I have found combining these practices to be
highly rewarding.
Enneagram Tonglen helps us to get past negative
emotional reactions towards other people. Enneagram
Tonglen also helps us to not react to a situation too fast
based on our personality type. It slows us down and helps
us to deal with our own emotional reaction before
responding to a negative situation.
In life, our personality is often much louder than our instinct
towards compassion. When you practice Enneagram
Tonglen, your compassionate instinct gets louder than your
personality.
Enneagram Tonglen stops our negative emotions from
escalating. Practicing tonglen, we learn to recognize
negative emotional states as they develop and to relax with
them and immediately breathe them in. In this way, tonglen
can stop our negative emotions from escalating.
1Don’t be concerned that tonglen will have a negative effect on you; it won’t. When we practice tonglen, we don’t actually end up suffering
as a result of taking in other people’s suffering. Instead, we are only offering our commitment to do so. Similarly, when we breathe out our
positive emotions to others, we don’t actually lose any in the process.
15
Enneagram
Tonglen also helps
to keep us
emotionally open.
Typically, we resist
negative emotions and
crave good emotions.
When we do tonglen, we
reverse this trend. We
breathe in negative emotions for others, and breathe out
our peace and compassion and relief to others. By doing
this, we stay open to other people, situations, and passing
emotions. Practicing tonglen, we learn to not close down
into isolated ego suffering whenever a negative emotion
presents itself to us.
In Enneagram Tonglen practice, anytime you experience a
negative emotion, you first practice tonglen. You breathe
in the negative emotional reaction (whether it is yours or
someone else’s) and in exchange for this negative
emotion, you breathe out love, peace, or whatever positive
emotion you wish to replace it with.
After you practice tonglen for a few moments (or longer,
depending upon how difficult the situation is), you can
loosen the hold of your negative emotions and thoughts
and then start to understand what is going on in the
situation from an Enneagram perspective.
Once you are level-headed enough to see the situation
from an Enneagram perspective, you are much more likely
to reach a compassionate state of Enneagram-based
awareness.
Practicing tonglen pulls us closer to others at a time when
we instinctively close off from others (when we are
unhappy with their behavior). Enneagram awareness
alone often doesn’t do this. When we practice tonglen, we
experience our shared humanity with others. We realize that
all emotions are both personal and universal at the same
time.

Personality Type Eight is the Top Dog.

Emotionally-insensitive Top Dogs often
cross social norm boundaries, including
Enneagram Tonglen isn’t only for serious emotional upsets. being overly sexual and crass at times.
It’s for all negative emotional triggers, no matter how large Their combative stance is fueled by their
or small. For instance, tonglen practitioners often practice fear of personal vulnerability, which they
tonglen while driving. seek to mask through their intimidating,
blunt demeanor.
Here is a hypothetical example: A Type Eight friend is
driving you to a movie and time is short. He wants to merge The strengths of Type Eights are that they
into a turn lane, but a driver in a car already in the turn are:
lane won’t let him in. Your friend starts to yell and honk at
the other driver. He also makes rude hand gestures. self-reliant energetic
decisive assertive
You start to get mad at your friend for, in your view, intense passionate
overreacting to the other driver. Your emotional reaction confident magnanimous
blocks your Enneagram understanding that your friend is commanding powerful
being an Eight and that you need not take his behavior
tenacious just
personally or get upset about it.
strong pragmatic
From an Enneagram perspective, a good response to the
situation would be to have compassion for your friend who
is stuck in an unhealthy Eight pattern. But when an
emotional trigger gets in the way, we get mad and the
emotional reaction takes precedence over what Enneagram
awareness would tell us. Tonglen helps us to stay open and connected to other
people instead of closing down to them and going into
To better handle this situation, as an Enneagram Tonglen suffering and isolation.
practitioner, when you start to feel anger rising in reaction
to your friend’s boorish behavior, breathe in his negative Practicing Tonglen is not a substitute for discussing how
behavior and breathe out peace to him before you let the you are feeling with people. But that discussion, if
anger take hold of you. Breathe in his frustration and important, can occur at a later time, when everyone is
hostility again, and breathe out compassion to him. In a calmer.
matter of a minute or two, you will become more level-
headed and less emotionally triggered.

At this point of emotional balance, you will be more able to

use your Enneagram awareness to realize that your Type
Eight friend is at the moment acting out the negative side of
his personality type. You understand the situation from an
Enneagram perspective and are able to let the whole thing
go. Coupling Enneagram awareness with tonglen practice is a
very helpful thing to do. Practicing tonglen followed by
In this example, Enneagram Tonglen helps you to get past looking for the Enneagram pattern to the interpersonal
your initial emotional reaction and move to a position of interaction strengthens your objectivity about people’s
Enneagram awareness quickly. Taking in your friend’s behavior, and makes you more likely to respond to future
emotion also served to connect you to him, rather than
distance you from him.

16
events from a position of Enneagram awareness rather than you to stay connected to other people even when your ego
from a position of emotional reactivity. wants to separate.
If after practicing tonglen, you don’t see what the
underlying Enneagram pattern to the situation is, that’s
okay. You can just stay with the tonglen practice for a little
longer if you still have any negative reaction to clear. Often
you will have an idea about the Enneagram pattern in the
situation, especially as your Enneagram practice deepens.

Here is another Enneagram Tonglen example in which the Now ask yourself if you can detect the Enneagram pattern
emotional trigger is stronger than in the previous example. to her behavior. You might consider the possibility that your
A Type Six friend tells you that you are stupid to feel a friend, as a Loyal Skeptic, doesn’t think that you are being
certain way. Instead of saying something negative back to sufficiently self-protective with your emotions and she
her, you can instead practice Enneagram Tonglen. You can actually is concerned for you, despite her harsh language.
breathe in her “you are stupid” and breathe out peace to Having this Enneagram awareness helps you to not be
her. Then you can breathe in her feeling of anger, and angry with your friend.
breathe out happiness to her.
Enneagram Tonglen can also help you to get past any
negative emotions you may have that are not caused by
others. The Enneagram Tonglen technique is the same that
you do for others. In this case, you breathe in your own
Personality Type Six is the Loyal Skeptic. negative emotion and in exchange breathe out love or any
positive emotion of your choosing to yourself.
Sixes lack confidence in their own
thinking. They rely on the thoughts of
Here is a situation where you might practice Enneagram
others and are loyal to those they seek Tonglen for yourself. Pretend you are a Personality Type
guidance from. Sixes take a cautious Four and your spouse wants to redecorate their home office
approach to life. They are very careful in a way that you don’t like. Your spouse’s decorating plans
about who they trust. threaten your strong Type Four need to live in a beautiful,
aesthetic environment.
The strengths of Type Sixes are that they
are:
loyal personable
responsible reliable
practical sensible
skeptical trustworthy Personality Type Four is the Tragic
committed helpful Romantic. Tragic Romantics focus on
modest endearing feelings, and almost always find something
cooperative diligent tragically wrong with whatever they have
self-revealing restrained feelings about.

The strengths of Type Fours are that they

are:
original creative
Continue to breathe in your friend’s anger and continue to artistic indealistic
breathe out loving-kindness or whatever positive emotion expressive romantic
you want to give to her in exchange until you no longer feel introspective sensitive
emotionally reactive to her statement to you. compassionate empathic
self-aware intense
Practicing tonglen stops you from immediately taking your self-revealing authentic
own position in a situation and rejecting the other person’s
position as external and foreign. In this way, tonglen helps
17
A melancholy mood takes you over because your sense of
self-identity is strongly threatened by your spouse’s
decorating plans. Start to breathe in your own melancholy
and breathe out love to yourself. Continue to breathe in
your own melancholy and breathe out peace to yourself.
Continue to do this tonglen practice until you feel a bit
better.
Then ask yourself what Enneagram pattern underlies your
emotion, as there is no such thing as a view from nowhere.
You may realize that you are acting out the negative side of
Type Four by being hypersensitive and overly self-absorbed.
With this awareness, you decide to take a more proactive
approach to the situation and ask your spouse if
compromise is a possibility. Your spouse agrees and you
avoid what was almost a long afternoon spent feeling
melodramatic over the future decor in one room of your
house.
From these examples of doing Enneagram Tonglen for
yourself and others, you can see the benefits of the practice.
While knowing the Enneagram helps us to stay objective
about other people’s behavior and our own behavior, we
are all human. Sometimes our emotions get in the way and
block us from reaching the objective state of Enneagram
awareness. This is the reason to practice Enneagram
Tonglen. Enneagram Tonglen helps you to get past your
negative emotional reactions so that you can more quickly
be aware of the enneagram patterns underlying any
situation.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out compassion.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out love.
Tonglen brings you into your heart more and more.
Removing the walls around your heart, breathe in the
emotion, breathe out love.
Now, look to see if you can find the Enneagram pattern to
this emotional situation.
Breathe in the emotion completely, breathe out relief.
Breathe in the emotion completely, breathe out compassion.
Tonglen enables our feelings to become the path of
compassion for all of us.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out love.
Removing the walls around your heart, breathe in the
emotion for all, breathe out love to all.
18
Now, look to see if you can find the Enneagram pattern to
this emotional situation.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out relief.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out connectedness.
With tonglen, our emotions become our link with all
humanity.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out peace.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out the feeling of sisterhood
and brotherhood.
Now, look to see if you can find the Enneagram pattern to
this emotional situation.
Breathe in the emotion, breathe out healing.
Breathe in the shared emotion, breathe out compassion.
Removing the walls around your heart, breathe in the
emotion for all, breathe out peace to all.
Breathe in the emotion for all, breathe out love to all.
Now, look to see if you can find the Enneagram pattern to
this emotional situation.
For more information on tonglen, the author recommends
reading Pema’s Chodron’s book, “Tonglen: The Path of
Transformation”. For more information on Enneagram
Tonglen, contact Katherine Rawls.
Katherine Rawls is an Enneagram teacher. She teaches an
email class on Enneagram Tonglen. Her website is
www.EnneagramNine.com. She would love to hear from
you at Katherine@EnneagramNine.com.
Katherine would like to thank the following
people for their assistance with this article:
Margaret Rutherford, Norma Davenport,
and Steven Gutstein.
IEA Conference 2009
Recordings Now Available!
If you missed the IEA Conference
2009 you can purchase audio
recordings of the sessions!
Click Here to view the list of
recordings available.
 Conor John “CJ” Fitzsimons was born
and raised in Dublin, Ireland. He devel-
oped a taste for living and working with
other cultures early in life, as his parents
founded Ireland’s first international sum-
mer school in the early 1960s. After
earning a doctorate in Mathematics in
Trinity College Dublin, CJ stayed on as
Technical Director of the Institute. During this first exposure
to a leadership position, he noticed how interpersonal chal-
lenges could derail a project involving even the brightest
minds. That’s when he decided to make developing his own
leadership skills into his own personal research project.
About eleven years ago, after a career that had taken him
on to Oxford and Zurich, it became clear to him that being
an international manager was not what he wanted to do for
his life’s work, but rather he wanted to help others develop
their leadership abilities. Shortly afterwards, he moved to
Baden-Baden, on the edge of the Black Forest in Germany,
where he still lives.
Today, he continues to refine his Leadership Sculptor
approach, which relies heavily on the Enneagram, while
coaching and conducting workshops internationally. He is
co-editor and co-author of International Project
Management — Working Together Interculturally (dtv, in
German). CJ believes that everyone has leadership qualities
to some degree. His passion is helping people to let these
qualities emerge.
CJ enjoys spending time in the Black Forest, hiking or
jogging. He is an avid reader and enjoys a recreational
game of chess. He also finds time for traditional folk
dancing. It is not unusual for him to discuss how to put the
world to rights deep into the night with friends.
The guiding threads in CJ’s approach to personal
development are insatiable curiosity, coupled with the
questions, What helps? What hinders? His first exposure to
the Enneagram, in 1988, was unfortunate. After a break of
ten years, it came on the radar again and the first book he
read was O’Leary, Nogosek and Beesing – which helped
him realize instantly that he is a Nine. This time, it was
something that could help. In 2002, he completed the
Enneagram Professional Training in the Narrative Tradition
in Germany. Active in the Enneagram community in Europe,
CJ has presented at the last two European conferences, in
Assisi and Elsinore. He is looking forward to getting to know
the North American community at the San Francisco
Conference, next Summer. A member of the IEA for the past
few years, CJ is attracted by its big tent philosophy that he
first experienced at the Assisi Conference in 2006. He is
looking forward to helping strengthen the “I” in the IEA.
19
Maria-José was born in Santiago, the
capital city of Chile in October 16th,
1974, and she has lived there most of
her life. Her parents are still in this world
and she has only one younger brother,
who also lives in Santiago.
As a child she attended a British school,
something she will always be thankful
for, because speaking English has opened many doors in
her personal and professional life.
After school Maria-José went to the Catholic University in
Chile and studied “Commercial Engineering,” which is a
5-year program that combines Economics and Business
administration. She enjoyed studying as well as participating
in all kinds of student activities, such as being the president
of the Student council for one period.
Maria-José‘s first job was with Shell, where she worked in
Financial Planning for 2 years and then moved to Network
Planning. After that, she had the opportunity to work
overseas as part of a program to accelerate the learning of
young people, and she got a job in South Africa. She
moved with her husband and lived in Cape Town for 2
years (great honeymoon!), while working in Marketing.
Before moving to South Africa, Maria-Jose got married to
Aureliano Cano in 2000, who also used to work for Shell.
When she and her husband came back to Chile, she
continued to work in Marketing, this time in Fuels.
In 2005 Maria-José had her daughter, Trinidad, and she
decided it was time for a work change. So she moved to a
Chilean bank and worked as Marketing manager for 3
years, until she realized that “my thing” had to do with
people, not advertising, pricing, etc. Therefore, she went on
to study Coaching (Ontológico) at Newfield Network.
The Enneagram was
part of her family
experience since she
was at school, but it
didn’t “capture” her
until she went to a
workshop with her
husband. When
Maria-José left her
job to start studying
coaching, she
decided to take the
Enneagram seriously,
as part of what she wanted to do with her life, and she took
the Professional training program at the Enneagram Institute
with Don, Russ, and Gayle. After that she took a couple of
other workshops with them (including a Higher Aspects
Retreat and the Master Class for workshop teaching) and
she is currently preparing her essays to get certified.
At the moment, Maria-José uses the Enneagram as a tool
for self development, at both psychological and spiritual
levels. She also conducts Enneagram workshops and uses it
in her coaching practice. In her work as Business
Consultant, she sometimes teaches the Enneagram, and she
hopes to be doing a lot more of that as she have just
completed the Train-the-Trainers Enneagram in Business
program with Ginger Lapid-Bogda.
Shame, Envy, Panic, Feelings, Hysteria, or Sadness?:
Looking for the Core Emotion of the Heart Types continued
In the same way as fear, Evagrius does not consider
envy to be a passion. However, the comparison that
envy involves is an experience that all human beings
can attest to—leading to the passions of pride, vain
glory, and melancholy or jealousy. Evagrius believes
that envy preceded jealousy, the passion, and that envy
directly affects the formation of the soul when he writes,
“envy causes the soul to languish and jealousy destroys
it.” Here Evagrius sees envy as paving the way for
jealousy by interfering with the [the daily
practice of self-discipline] and meditation needed to
build continence and a healthy soul. Envy is more
general and universal than the specific passion of
jealousy. (p. 89)
In conversations with David, he has made the argument to
me that envy has an evolutionary element in that it may
stimulate competition for resources in light of the need to
survive.
Yet another theory about the core emotion of the heart
types is presented in Jack Killen’s article, “Toward the
Neurobiology of the Enneagram,” which appeared in
in 2009. Drawing on extensive
research about emotion and the mammalian brain, Killen
posits that is the most likely candidate for the heart
types’ core emotion in that the panic system “serves first
and foremost to assure protective and nurturing connection
between the relatively helpless mammalian infant or child
and its caregivers” (p. 46).
20
Being part of the IEA, first locally and now globally, has to
do with her desire to collaborate with the expansion of the
Enneagram knowledge and use, and also with wanting to
learn more about and integrate the different approaches
that exist today.
Maria-José ’s passion or mission in life (as a good One) is
to raise the Awareness in the world (around her). The
Enneagram and Coaching are the tools that she’s using.
She loves to teach the Enneagram to people who really
want to learn and use it, but also feels that teaching it in the
corporate world can make a huge difference in many
people’s lives. So, with her corporate background, she
believes that she can be like a “bridge.”
And in my own article of 2008,
“Understanding the Development of Personality Type:
Integrating Object Relations Theory and the Enneagram
System,” I identify the core emotion of the heart types as
sadness or grief at loss, based on my reading of the
developmental object relations literature. In addition, I
participated in two of Oscar Ichazo’s Arica School
trainings, and the three main emotions they work with are
anger, fear, and sadness. This confirmed my sense that
sadness was the emotion associated with the heart types’
deeper experience of self.
In closing, I apologize to any theorist or author whose
theory I haven’t included here – my intention was not to
provide an exhaustive list, but a meaningful sampling of
some of the key ideas about the topic – both to
demonstrate the lack of consensus among leading
Enneagram thinkers and show the need for work in this
area. Further, I don’t intend this as an argument – as a
statement that my view is aligned with the truth, but rather
I would like to pose two questions. First (if indeed we can
discern this): “Which of the varied theories is the correct or
most helpful approach to understanding the underlying
experience of the heart types?” And second: “Why are
there so many theories about the core emotion of the heart
types, when there seems to be a consensus on the core
emotional issues of the other two triads?”
I hope that others will join the discussion about what I
believe is an important topic and one that needs to be
usefully clarified for us all to achieve a deeper
understanding of the Enneagram system.