Some of the Many Gifts from These Experiences
When a Point One has "healed," moved into the Larger Consciousness, become "enlightened," or God-realized, or however you want to describe the Awakening process, certain valuable qualities become the unique gifts of the "One." These involve reclaiming One’s identity as Divine Will, and allowing Divine Will to be one’s reality or universe as well. You could say that the aspect of the illusion of Separateness which the One has most intimately been exploring is the illusion of a separate Will.
It is important to realize the preciseness of the terminology here: these are gifts from the experiences, not cures for it. In other words, trying to achieve these states can be interesting and useful, but does not cause the healing, the awakening. Healing and awakening are effects of the cause, which is simply a choice by the Spirit to harvest the wisdom from, or realize the gifts in, the experience of an unhealed One. After that choice is made, changes occur, and the apparent causes in the material plane could be any of a variety of “self-healing” techniques.
It is important for me to have you realize that I am not writing this paper to tell you The Right Way to “get healed.” I am not saying if you do these “affirmations” and cultivate these qualities you will be healed. That would put you at cause. I am simply describing what happens during the transition back to the Truth of nonduality and Divine Will, so you can notice and appreciate where you are now, and what might happen to you as you proceed. I am describing in this paper thoughts and feelings you might observe, not things you ought to do. The difference is very important for me to realize.
Some of unique gifts include:
1. Vision: The ability to always see how anything could be “improved” or “better”—by some standard which is specified and which is relevant and appropriate and desired by all concerned.
2. A nose for anything out of place, out of harmony, out of synch in a pattern, in a situation, in anything.
3. Ability to play “the game:” to function within any particular set of rules in any context.
4. The ability to see “the downside” of any plan, proposal, or situation, to see potential risks.
5. Excellent task-orientation, ability to concentrate and focus on a task til done.
6. Interest in and talent for finding the most efficient way to accomplish a desired end.
7. Compassion, teamwork, respect for others, acceptance of self and others just as they are.
8. A sense of the past, of history, and its relevance to, and possible contribution to, the present.
9. Knowing a lot about a lot (from having learned “the right way” in a lot of areas and situations of life,) so can serve as a resource for those who have a desired outcome or goal. Want to know the best, most efficient, most effective way to do ANYTHING? Ask a One!!! :) Have something you want improved? Ask a One!!! :)
10. Consciously-cultivated and hard-won gratitude at the way things are; can see how anything could be for the best. A sense of the “rightness” of the way things are, and a deep peacefulness around that--these are not incompatible with a passionate vision and desire that things be, in my opinion, better, but knowing that it’s just my opinion.
After realizing that there is no Separation, so nothing is amiss, the chronic dissatisfaction of the unhealed One is replaced by a profound relaxation of previous chronic physical and mental tension states, by contentment/acceptance, and by full multi-dimensional awareness and understanding about "what is" and why it is the way it is. Awareness and understanding, contentment/acceptance and relaxation, make appreciation and enjoyment possible. Life become easier and more joyful.
11. Can happily and easily create procedures manuals and other precise, detailed, rule-oriented, “right/best-way-to-do-it”-oriented materials.
12. A sense of fairness, knowing when someone is not playing by agreed-upon rules.
13. Ability to “go with the flow,” to be without expectations. Ability to be “out of control.”
14. Ability to see all sides, aspects, or angles, so refraining from judgment about what is “right.” This includes Humility, in the thoughts “Actually I don’t have enough information about this infinitely complex situation to say what would be an improvement, except from my own perspective. Infinite Mind, which created this to be this way and not any other possible way right now, knows infinitely more about the situation than I do, and also has reasons and purposes I have no clue about, so who am I to tell God how to do this 'better?'"
15. An inspiration to others as an example of having the guiding question of life be “How would this proposed activity bring me joy, or express my Life Purpose, or help create my Vision of my Ideal World?” rather than “How would this proposed activity help me or others achieve Perfection in this matter?” In other words, “Does this bring me joy?” becomes the Guiding Question in life, rather than “Is this right?” You cannot imagine what a radical shift in moment-to-moment feeling-tone of life this change in Guiding Question brings, and what a relief!
16. Unusually high standards, especially for competence, but tempered with fairness, reasonableness, being realistic, and knowing when something is “good enough” for the purpose at hand.
17. Ability to stand by with compassion and let others “make their own mistakes” without needing to correct, heal, educate, or otherwise interfere in any way. This comes from knowingness that whatever a person is experiencing, it is their soul's choice to have that experience; my attempt to help might or might not be part of the script. I learned to distinguish what I COULD do from what I am CALLED to do in a given situation in which help seems needed--no matter what the situation is, even if it is life-threatening.
18. Humility and Courage rather than Pride and Certainty. The willingness to go by Guidance or Divine Will rather than what I believe or think that I know. The willingness to entertain the possibility that things might just be some way other than what I KNOW they ARE. Wow. Becoming non-attached to what I thought I knew about everything in every moment was the most profound, most “difficult” aspect of healing my One Self. That seemed the most foolhardy, most dangerous, most insane thing for me to do: to give up my hard-won knowledge of what the dangers were and how to prevent or cope with them, hard-won through many many lifetimes!!
The unhealed Enneagram One could not exist without the thoughts “I know I am doing this wrong or imperfectly. I know I did that wrong or imperfectly. I know that what I am seeing right now is wrong or could and should be improved. I know this needs to be better.”
This is healing-change is different from giving up. It is “Hmm, I can see how this could be improved, could be better, and there is nothing at stake for the eternal 'me' in whether that is accomplished or not. It has no ultimate significance for me whether that is done or not. It doesn’t mean anything about me. It means nothing for or against my life and wellbeing, whether this situation or person gets improved according to my vision. Whatever I choose to do about my Vision for this particular situation or person is coming from Divine Will, from Divine Guidance, and feels like a preference, a joy, rather than something that needs to be done or ought to be done.”
One might say that the Enneagram Point One is based on judgment, the essence of judgment, and this giving up of KNOWING (which is entirely different from knowingness, which comes from our whole multidimensional consciousness and is not particularly mental) means and implies and is based on the giving up of judgment, of judging. How can you judge if you don’t think you know that what you are judging could or should be other than what it is?
Possibly the One is most deeply attached to KNOWING, more than anything else. Giving up knowing would be the One’s deepest fear. For myself, what I most deeply believe as an unhealed One is that "If I were God, I would not have created this this way, so I am not God," and perhaps even "God has goofed here."
19. There seem to be stages in letting go of my need to do things the right way, and relaxing into humility. First I got into a totally hopeless depressed panic: "I am convinced that I will never be ABLE to do everything the right way. It is an impossible, overwhelming task"—which it indeed is! Then I knew my EGO was giving up, and that was a good thing. Then, later, arrives the conviction: "Well, that doesn't matter because I don't NEED to do everything the right way."
And in between those two stages, of course, I knew intellectually that the second thought was REALLY the RIGHT WAY, and that the first thought is not the right way, so I got down on myself about that. Sigh.
20. I did not find it possible to let go of what I KNOW is the way things SHOULD BE without moving from the core belief that I live in a dangerous universe into the core belief that I live in a benevolent universe. There is no need for any should’s or ought’s, in a forgiving, loving, supportive, nourishing, nurturing, tolerant, compassionate, healing Universe which always offers a fresh start in every moment, always offers a second and third chance at anything, and in which nothing prevents anything from happening or being manifested. The malevolent-universe premise is necessary to support the Enneagram One illusion. In a benevolent universe it is not possible to believe “I goofed and that is why I am now separate from All That Is, why I am now in pain and suffering, and why others are in pain and suffering because of me.”
21. After realizing there is no Separation, so nothing is amiss, the One experiences a deep sense of relief at not having to always search for the right way, at not always having to adapt to some standard outside the self, a relief at being OK with whatever are the feelings and thoughts of the moment. There is a sense of personal authenticity and personal empowerment which were missing before, because personal feelings, thoughts, and desires were always suppressed in favor of whatever was supposed to be the right way to think, feel, and act.
When I am inauthentic, I am disconnected from my source of personal power, because I am disconnected from my full multi-dimensional Creator GodSelf and I have no deep connection with the rest of What Is. Authenticity makes possible peace, clarity, spontaneity, and a deep connection with What Is.
22. “If there is no Right Way, then I am a helpless victim.” In healing, the One discovers how to get outside of that false alternative, how to get outside that box. The Third Alternative way of living, not by The Right Way and not as a helpless victim, is as a Divine Vehicle and Miracle Worker: to experience a desire, intention, or want, to know that this is the leading edge of its manifestation process, and to allow the rest of the process to proceed by simply being in intuitive Knowingness of what to do and when to do it, and how to do it, so the desire or intention manifests in experience. Sometimes action is involved and sometimes it manifests like a Miracle, through Divine Grace.
Having to do things The Right Way is unbalanced masculine energy. Being a helpless victim is unbalanced female energy. Being a Divine Vehicle and Miracle Worker is being a co-creator, or acknowledging one’s creatorship on every level of the Self, from embodiment to the All-pervading Consciousness some call God. This third alternative is balanced masculine and feminine ways of going about life.
1111111111111111
A few examples of Healing Affirmations for a One
Remember that trying to believe these will not cause the healing. But wanting to affirm them is evidence that the Spirit of the One has decided to have the experience of being a “healed” One, though being an unhealed One is a deliberate choice, not an error, not an indication of anything being wrong. So “healing” is really not the best term. It is just a change, just another choice.
These are not thoughts that cause healing. They are thoughts that, if you resonate with them, indicate that healing is already underway. If you don’t resonate with them, but feel like affirming them, then healing is also already underway. If you don’t resonate with them and forget this section, then healing is not yet that far underway with you that these would be relevant for you. That’s all they mean.
There cannot ever even exist such a thing as The Right Way because everything is in every moment just a choice.
Nothing matters
Nothing needs to be done
Not anything should be done
Not anything must be done
Not anything has to be done
Not anything (nothing) needs to be any particular way
It is OK to be relaxed about getting things done
Nothing to prove, nothing at stake
What if everything is fine just as it is,
even if I don't know how that could be true ?
I am on vacation
I accept.
I allow.
I choose now my Life Vision
I Will now my Life Vision
I have all the time in the world.
I want to do these things.
I prefer to do these things.
I choose to do these things.
I choose whatever has the Energetic Signature of Spirit right now.
What if things are not the way I KNOW they ARE?
What if I live in a benevolent universe right now?
I know that I know not!
I can do no wrong.
I never did anything wrong.
I really don’t know enough to know how this should be improved, even though I have my opinion!
I have a strong opinion on this matter, but there is a Big Picture operating which it is impossible for me to know completely, so I really can’t KNOW that my opinion is correct or for the best.
Short version: One Will.
Long version: There has never been and there cannot be any such thing as a will separate or apart from, against or contrary to, or outside of, the Divine Will, the Creator’s Will, God’s Will, the Will of the aggregate Consciousness which is All That Is. My personal will and the will of every Being is not and never has been and cannot be separate or apart from, against or contrary to, or outside of, the Divine Will, the Creator’s Will, God’s Will, the Will of All That Is. Therefore everything is the way it "ought" to be and nothing needs to be any other way.
My Larger Consciousness has access to facts which my human mind does not have access to. So I am happy to let my mind, with its opinions of how things ought to be, defer to the Authority who has more facts.
This person is perfect. This person doesn’t need fixing by me.
All experiences are equally valuable to the Creator. All are just part of the Creator's Self-Discovery, Self-Exploration, Self-Appreciation. That's the purpose of all experiences.
Nothing that is, is the way it is, due to an oversight or goof or powerlessness or ignorance or evil or laziness or forgetfulness on the part of the Creator. Everything is just a choice.
I choose to be humble, here.
I really don't know how things should be, here.
I am not privy to the Infinite Mind here. Only the Infinite Mind knows.
I have the courage to allow things to flow organically, rather than imposing my own ideas.
I choose contentment. I choose acceptance. I choose to be relaxed. I choose to be authentic. I choose peace.
Even though I might believe I am doing something early or late, in fact everything happens in Diving Timing which is coordinated and synchronized in the Cosmic Web for the optimal manifestation of my GodSelf’s Highest Vision of Heaven on Earth.
1111111111111111
Closing Comments
I hope any Enneagram Ones reading this paper will generate their own Healing Affirmations based on whatever thoughts in the text above they resonate with. But I am not attached to that happening. I don’t need that to happen. : > )
I invite feedback from all readers which might be helpful to me or future readers of this paper.
I want to reiterate that I have not done much reading about Enneagram Ones. This paper is based mostly on my own experiences.
I would be thrilled if other Enneagram Points got inspired by this paper to write their own parallel papers, so I could learn more about them.
111111111111111111
Suggested Further Reading
BEST BOOK OF ALL: The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram by Sandra Maitri.
One of the most useful and important spiritual books ever written, in my opinion. Just reading it is a profoundly healing experience. This paper was written before I read it, and has not been fully integrated with it.
The Enneagram by Helen Palmer
The Pocket Enneagram by Helen Palmer—great place to begin
The Enneagram in Love and Work by Helen Palmer
The Enneagram Made Easy by Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele—good second book
Are You My Type? Am I Yours? by Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele
Enneagram Summary by Michael J. Lincoln, Ph.D. Available through me.
The Spiritual Side of the Enneagram by Michael J. Lincoln, Ph.D. Available through me.
I find The Work of Byron Katie healing, as a One, because in her seminars and writings and tapes, she always issues the challenge to any feeling, thought, belief: "Is it true? Can you really know it's true?" As an unhealed One, I was absolutely convinced I knew what was Right and True. It's great to challenge this at the deepest level. Byron Katie's website is www.thework.org . Phone 877-5-TheWork.
111111111111111111111
A few further thoughts
The Enneagram has nothing to do, as far as I can tell, with Myers-Briggs or any other descendant of the original Jungian typology. What you are in one system isn't related to what you are in another system.
Also, even though it is usually presented as a "personality" typology, the Enneagram is actually a soul typology. If you study it at the personality level, it doesn't seem to make much sense, hang together, or be easy to learn and remember. The cohering point (no pun intended) is on the soul level, and is not to be found in the plethora of complex personality details.
The most common answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about the Enneagram are: No, you are only one "point" but you have "wings" which flavor you from the points on either side of you in the Enneagram circle. And your Enneagram point is not a "choice" of your human self and it does not change during your lifetime. In fact, it does not change over many lifetimes; it is your focus of exploration for an entire "transmigration."
And you cannot at all assess someone's Point from their behavior. The motive is more important. The motive of the motive is even more telling!
Example: A bunch of us at an Enneagram workshop sitting around at lunch, someone says they want to be a midwife BECAUSE they are a Point Such and Such. We all started to compare notes. Of the 5 different types we were, there were 5 different motivations we'd have for becoming a midwife. Mine was – guess what – that a midwifed natural childbirth is the RIGHT/CORRECT/OPTIMAL (= natural, in this case) way to do it!!! Nothing to do for me with being nurturing, or whatever!!! That was a revealing conversation!!!!
This article is not presented or intended as a conceptual summary. It is presented and intended as taking someone through the experience with me. As such, all the words and the details are meant to add up to the reading itself being therapeutic for folks. In other words, I am not after “conveying an essence.” My purpose is different from that.
Besides which, I originally wrote this for myself, so it's my words, the way I think. Now that I am sharing it, the purpose of an experiential therapeutic reading takes over. My purpose is not “presentation of thoughts.” It's kinda like the purpose of a trilogy, or a guided imagery session, or a sensory-immersion piece of writing. Kinda hypnotic, one might say. Or at least, aimed at far more than the left-brain…….
If other One's don't recognize themselves in my paper, it's either because the description needs honing OR perhaps because they are a different subtype, such as the social subtype or the other one I forget what it's called. It would be most fascinating if someone wrote a book about the joys and frustrations of the interactions between healed and unhealed version of each pair of types! I think actually perhaps some books approach that, the ones on relationships….. I can see that a 9 would be a handy dandy little resource for a 1 to have around when the 1 gets too steam-rollerish and righteous!!! LOL !!!
The following thoughts emerged in conversation with a friend:
As described in Part One of this paper, Enneagram Points arise when the soul needs to explain to itself why its experience has changed so radically from the unity and bliss it remembers, to the present state of suffering. Its explanation ("I made a mistake" -- for the One) gives rise to an inferred solution: "Search for x, find x, be x way, and you'll be back to your unity with God." (I must correct my mistake and be perfect.) Something is missing, something has to be searched for, the self has to change in some way.
But in truth, the "problem" doesn't even exist, and in positing a solution, one ensures the problem will never be solved. What's "missing" is not the solution, but the realization that there never was a problem to begin with.
In other words, "healing" is not achieving the "solution" (such as becoming perfectly correct.) Healing is understanding that the perception of separation from God was an illusion; as such, it dissolves upon knowing the truth. One does not have to heal a dream in order to wake up from it.
The key word in realizing the truth is "unconditional." As in unconditional Love, which is inherent in one's Beingness, not requiring anything except to be. Unconditionalness is a far more radical notion than most people realize. "Unconditional" means there are no barriers to unity, and nothing to achieve. It is always already the case.
The following thoughts emerged in conversation with a friend:
As described in Part One of this paper, Enneagram Points arise when the soul needs to explain to itself why its experience has changed so radically from the unity and bliss it remembers, to the present state of suffering. Its explanation ("I made a mistake" -- for the One) gives rise to an inferred solution: "Search for x, find x, be x way, and you'll be back to your unity with God." (I must correct my mistake and be perfect.) Something is missing, something has to be searched for, the self has to change in some way.
But in truth, the "problem" doesn't even exist, and in positing a solution, one ensures the problem will never be solved. What's "missing" is not the solution, but the realization that there never was a problem to begin with.
In other words, "healing" is not achieving the "solution" (such as becoming perfectly correct.) Healing is understanding that the perception of separation from God was an illusion; as such, it dissolves upon knowing the truth. One does not have to heal a dream in order to wake up from it.
The key word in realizing the truth is "unconditional." As in unconditional Love, which is inherent in one's Beingness, not requiring anything except to be. Unconditionalness is a far more radical notion than most people realize. "Unconditional" means there are no barriers to unity, and nothing to achieve. It is always already the case.
Or the key word might be "unity." The need for perfection, the issue of perfection, only comes up in the context of the belief in "separation" from God. When that separation is seen as an illusion, poof goes the need for perfection, or correctness, or anything else designed as a strategy to re-attain unity.
Or the key word might be "choice" -- the realization that the time spent in the illusion of separation was a choice made by God, and thus by the Spirit of that soul. As a choice, the illusion was not a problem requiring a solution. It merely disappears upon the making of a different choice, to no longer be in the illusion of separation.
If the unity is always already and still the case, no problem exists, no strategy is needed to solve it.
Rev. Alia Zara Aurami-Sou, Ph.D., Head Minister, "Amplifying Divine Light in All" Church
This blog entry, its contents and its presentation, are an essential and central practice of our religion.
All rights reserved under the Common Law, which means please respect our Creatorship.
No comments:
Post a Comment