Saturday, March 26, 2011

ADVAITA, PERSONALITY, AND THE ENNEAGRAM, Part Two

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An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers father along the "path." During his last years, he said of I AM THAT: "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line."

F.: It was noted yesterday that much can be revealed by understanding the history of the way that the Advaita teachings became necessary and the way that the Enneagram has been used by Advaitin teachers to expose the effects of personality as well as the personality trance in which the masses live.

That which is real has been forever; all that is not real but is taken to be so has not been forever but has come about at various times as a result of distortion and ignorance. Such is the case with personality / personalities, assumed roles, ego-states, personas, false identities ... call them what you will.

The earliest humans or human-like beings, as with modern persons, faced plenty of challenges during the relative existence, but one challenge they did not have to deal with was the nonsense of personality.

Did they desire? Yes, but were the desires natural rather than unnatural or supposedly "supernatural"? Also, yes. Were they afraid at times? Yes, but were the fears natural rather than unnatural or supposedly "supernatural"? Yes, and that did not change until humans began dreaming up supernatural concepts based in magical, nonsensical thinking; in distortion; in ignorance; and in myths and non-facts:

"Why did the hurricane devastate that city, O Holy One?"

"Because of the negative karma of all of the people there, my child."

As humans began forming communities, some of the more observant began to notice "individual differences" in the ways that people behaved and reacted alongside patterns of behavior that were common among the members of certain sub-groups in the community.

It was seen that some parents interacted in one way with their offspring, some in other ways that were quite different. It was also seen that children used different coping mechanisms to try to adapt to a variety of family situations, and it was seen that during stressful events, a group of, say, five people all reacted the same way but that another group of five all reacted the same way but in a way that differed from the people in the first group.

The observant began to see that all of the members of the tribe or community consistently revealed certain traits without exception, the prideful always prideful, no matter what, the lazy always lazy, no matter what.

The most observant began to see that

(a) those with a similar family situation behaved the same way and that

(b) when stressful situations arose, those who shared in common a dominate trait all showed the same opposite trait as well when strained.

For example, those who lost a father early on were seen to be the seemingly-kind helper types. Though they seemed to be the friendly ones in the community, when they became stressed or were challenged, they showed the same traits as those in the village who were usually the angry, controlling, domineering, power-hungry, lustful types.

[Today, if one understands the Enneagram, she / he will know that what happened in the scenario described above is that a Personality Type Two Helper became stressed and was driven by arrogance to disintegrate to the Personality Type Eight Controller / Boss / "Parent" and to become for awhile an angry, controlling, domineering, power-hungry, lustful type person.]

An understanding among the observant of the fact that stress leads to psychic deterioration (and to totally-predictable behaviors among the mentally and emotionally unhealthy) came into being.

It was also seen by the most observant that people in the community were all being driven by one of nine dominate traits or "passions," that is, by whatever it was that they were seen to be "most passionate about," whether that was about reforming everyone; or about creating or maintaining a phony image; or about trying to dominate everyone else; or about allowing others to dominate them in order to gain something they wanted, etc.

Moreover, it was seen that their behaviors were "textbook" in the way that those behaviors manifested so consistently and unwaveringly and in how unsurprisingly foreseeable their thoughts and words and deeds were going to be in any given situation, some being passionate about gaining power and leadership roles; some being passionately angry most of the time; some being passionate about performing in ways that generated admiration from the entire community, etc.;

thus, "distinctions" and "dualities" were born with personality. "Differences" and "personal characteristics" were noted, and the attention to one's relativistic, personal passion soon began to displace any former concern for the community as a whole.

That gave rise to "self"-ishness which, in turn, blocked the original sense of Self and sense of Oneness and displaced the earlier all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude with a passion for fulfilling one's own desires and avoiding one's own fears. Conflict driven by self-absorption became the "norm."

It was Evagrius who discussed the early Greeks' version of the nine passions (or the nine obsessions or nine dominant personality traits). That list included anger, pride, vainglory, envy, greed, incontinence, gluttony, lust and acedia (i.e., boredom; listlessness; apathy; a lack of care or interest; indifference; and laziness).

Because he showed how those passions (i.e., dominant personality traits) distorted human perception and limited the human search for the essence and the Self to the trivial and clichéd and ordinary - especially after religion limited the search to the confines of their buildings and texts only - then Evagrius came under attack from the churches of Rome and Constantinople.

People were dissuaded by their religious leaders from seeking answers scientifically or objectively and told to accept unquestioningly the answers that were provided via dogma and "holy texts" only. New, "good" selves or personas or identities were generated, further eliminating any opportunity among the mostly-religious masses to know the essence and the True Self.

With the few remaining seekers who used the non-duality teachings to uncover the root of all disharmony and emotional instability and chaos, early teachers discussed the way that everyone developed a primary "point of view" from the list of nine possibilities.

It was seen by some that it is those "views" or "passions" or "primary personality traits" that mark and mar the human condition. The patterns of thoughts and words and behaviors associated with the passions now align with the nine personality types of the Enneagram.

What might be called - for the sake of discussion only - "human character" (as exhibited among the Realized) will spring forth from conscious-awareness of the essence and the Real Self and Love, so the Realized will behave in what most might call "the way of love" without having even a single belief about "love vs. hate."

In fact, the Realized are behaving in the non-dualistic, no-concept manner of True Love that manifests alongside the understanding of the unicity.

In contrast to that "human character" that springs forth during the AM-ness from conscious-awareness of the essence and the Real Self and Love, those "separated from Self" who are blindly driven by their dominate and secondary personality types will be ruled by unconscious habitual responses and the hidden agendas of their personality / personalities.

Those, in turn, will be driven by the passions or personality traits of either wrath and resentment and anger; or pride; or deceit; or melancholia and jealousy and envy; or greed and avarice; or panic and cowardice; or conceit and gluttony; or lust; or indifference and laziness.

Moreover, each of those passions aligns with one of the nine personality types identifiable via the Enneagram method of personality identification and analysis. For the dedicated Advaitin seeker that is attempting to

1. understand the extreme (and extremely-adverse) effects that personality has played as it has controlled all thoughts, all words, and all deeds and to

b. understand the degree to which an assortment of the nine personality types has bastardized the relative existence and to

c. understand why personality must be transitioned and to

d. understand how to accomplish that transcendence,

then it must be seen exactly which of the passions (or personality traits) have been driving the seeker; it must be seen exactly to what degree that has happened; and it must be seen exactly how to be free of personality identifications and their effects.

So here is what is revealed when the Enneagram and the Advaita enlightenments regarding personality come together and uncover which passions or traits align with which types:

Personality Type Ones are especially driven by wrath and resentment and anger;

Personality Type Twos are especially driven by pride;

Personality Type Threes are especially driven by deceit;

Personality Type Fours are especially driven by melancholia and jealousy and envy;

Personality Type Fives are especially driven by greed and avarice;

Personality Type Sixes are especially driven by fear or panic or cowardice (and occasionally reckless courage when they shift to a counter-phobic phase);

Personality Type Sevens are especially driven by conceit and gluttony;

Personality Type Eights are especially driven by lust (their primary lust being for power and control and their secondary lust being sexual ... but even their sexual drive is about power and control and dominance); and

Personality Type Nines are especially driven by indifference or inertia or laziness.

Most persons that have lost contact with the essence and the True Self will be driven by a combination of at least four of those types. Some are driven by even more;

furthermore, without their concrete personality test results before them in black-and-white, most will move through the entire manifestation without a clue about the personality-based motivators that drive them to think what they think, to think how they think, to feel or emote the way that they feel or emote, to talk how they talk, and to behave the way they behave.

Which of those types have been driving you? To what degree? In what order should they be focused on to remove the most "detrimental obstacles to seeing Truth" first? Which specific desire and fear of each type is most adversely impacting your relative existence and contributing to your misery and suffering?

Most will never know. You can.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Received 19 August 2010 from one that just completed the entire course:

I would like to extend deepest appreciation towards you for these teachings that you have offered. It has been most valuable towards what may not have been revealed throughout this manifestation labeled "anthony." Understanding Truth and finding words for gratitude are one as is all. Thank you again for pointing "me" to THAT and the understanding that came as well. Hopeful for future "contact"! Sincerely, Anthony M. W.

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Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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