Thread by @LeslieHersh

Last night, someone tagged me in a blog written about best books for each #Enneagram type. I liked it better than I thought I would. It was good Enneagram entertainment.

And I've not seen so many mistypings in my 20 years of working with the #Enneagram and it has something to do with the entertainment piece and people typing people based on outside-in Enneagram. Don't go to entertainment for good Enneagram info. Go to it for entertainment.

There's good Enneagram info out there. This is good as there was little out there when I started. I'm a big fan of solid lineage. I chose Helen Palmer as my teacher as she's grounded in lineage & emphasized psycho-spiritual integration. The @enneaworld is grounded in lineage

The Enneagram was always (and originally taught) as a tool for psycho-spiritual integration. Enneagram INFORMATION is focused on the psychological structure of your type. If you learn it well, it's a stellar starting point. (And it's still just a starting point).

#Enneagram transformation takes a lifetime. The more you're working with transformation, the less you're focusing on the Enneagram. The greater focus is cultivating RECEPTIVE spiritual presence. Spirituality isn't about religion (although good religion can be supportive).

Spiritual presence is connecting to shared ultimate values relating to meaning. Compassion. Inner knowing. Shared vulnerability of being human. Surrender to something more expansive than our small self. Your type is your obstacle to the spiritual values. But it's not all of you.

The surprising moment of spiritual connection can't be forced...it's a sort of happy accident. Spiritual PRACTICE makes you accident prone.

And after the ecstasy of spiritual connection, it WILL go away. It's that elusive. Life will hit you. But you'll remember it. (Helen used to say the moment she'd come out of a spiritual experience, she'd sometimes doubt it like a good 6. You'll always have your type.

I look at it this way...my type is my humbler. It'swhat gets my ass in my chair to do spiritual practice. After all these years, it's still there. But my spiritual practice is too. The memory of spiritual experience doesn't go away. It lives in me & is there when I work w/clients

When you sit in spiritual practice, trust me...if you're a 4, your attention WILL go to what's missing. It will make you anxious to sit. Keep practicing. Your longing will be your portal of entry into the spiritual experience of equanimity.

My attention always goes to my mental habit of planning. When I notice it, it's my meditation bell back to spiritual presence & the spiritual experience of constancy and Holy Work. It's how it works. Your Enneagram vice IS the energetic contraction that also carries your virtue.