Enneagram Articles

Enneagram vs Myers-Briggs: Which Serves Therapists Better?

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Enneagram of Awakening symbol

Both the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs (MBTI) are valuable tools for therapists, but they serve different purposes. The Enneagram focuses on understanding why people behave as they do, diving into core motivations, fears, and emotional patterns. The MBTI, on the other hand, explains how people interact with the world, emphasizing behavior, preferences, and decision-making styles. Quick Overview: Enneagram: Best for deep … Read more

The Enneagram and Beyond

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For TaKeTiNa – The Power of Rhythm PodcastBy Reinhard Flatischler In this podcast, Eli meets an old friend and uses the metaphor of rhythm and vibration to transmit the possibility of waking up from suffering. Addressing the essential question of “what do you want” and “what to do” in the face of our crumbling world … Read more

Journey to the Land Down Under

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”] Article by Carol WienerPublished in “Enneagram Monthly”, 1995 When I arrived at Eli Jaxon-Bear’s three week retreat in Sedona, Arizona, I didn’t have a lot of expectations. Instead I had a very subtle, dare I say, cockiness … Read more

Eights: The Outlaw Mentality

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]Essay, 1995 The Eight fixation is wrapped around Two at the core. The Eight often flaunts the pride that the Two can so skillfully mask. The Eight is either proud of being the best or the worst. The flaunting … Read more

The Three Drives and the Enneagram

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]An essay by Eli Jaxon-Bear (Exemplified with the Point Six Fixation) Every animal is run by three primary instinctual drives. These are the drives for survival of the species. The species survives through survival of the individual unit, sexual … Read more

The Enneagram and the Silent Tradition

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Essay, 1995

The Realization of Truth

“The Way does not require cultivation – just don’t pollute it. What is pollution? As long as you have a fluctuating mind fabricating artificialities and contrivances, all of this is pollution. If you want to realize the Way directly – the natural Mind is the Way. What I mean by the natural mind is the mind without artificiality, without subjective judgments, without grasping or rejection”
– Chan Master Mazu –

Who could deny the obvious truth expressed by Mazu? The question has always been how to achieve this exalted state.

The great gift of the Enneagram is that it gives us a reflective surface for the artifices of mind to be displayed. Pollution, or the fluctuating mind, is revealed to be generated by character fixation. Grasping, rejecting, subjective judgments and artificiality are the hallmarks of fixation. Character fixation is a crystallization in mind-stuff of aeons of desire waves, or fluctuations. This crystallization is experienced as, “me and my past.” The waves are thoughts of, “me and what I want.”

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The Enneagram of Character Fixation

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Stanford University, August 1994
Keynote speech by Eli Jaxon-Bear

“When you can recognize who you are not, then there is a possibility to wake up and discover who you really are!”

I have never met anyone who doesn’t want to be happy. The desire for happiness is the bottom line for the human species and maybe for all species. Everyone wants to be happy. The question is: how is it possible that this desire for happiness is threatening to destroy our species and Mother Earth. How is it possible? This is really a burning question that I have had. And I know that many of us have had this question: How is it possible that the desire for happiness creates suffering? What I have discovered is that it is possible to end suffering.

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Introduction to From Fixation to Freedom

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]When I wrote my first Enneagram book in 1987, there was only one other available on the subject. It was written from a Jesuit perspective and described the Enneagram in terms of Jesus. I wrote mine in an attempt to make the Enneagram accessible and to point to its use for transcending the fixation. At the time, my own spiritual search had not ended so my book could only go as far as I had gone. In the intervening decade two major events have precipitated the writing of this book.

First and most importantly. I met a true teacher who showed me how to end the indulgence in fixation. Before meeting this teacher, all my work to end the fixation met with only limited success.

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