Enneagram Articles

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

The Desire for Happiness

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“Your true nature is happiness and bliss” – Ramana Maharshi   Everyone wants to be happy. This is a universal component of the human condition, and may seem so self-evident that it does not bear noting. Even those who intensely hate themselves or do violence to others can trace the drive back to the deepest … Read more

The Soul of the Six

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Essay, 1995 This essay is in response to an earlier essay about the Six fixation presented at the International Enneagram Conference. In the first essay the author used a metaphor of all the different fixations approaching the crossing of a log over a rushing stream. The author referred to the Six fear and doubt, and … Read more

Eights: The Outlaw Mentality

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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 of the pride is the defense against the deep hurt of worthlessness and sensing that, “I … Read more

The Three Drives and the Enneagram

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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 reproduction of the individual unit and hierarchy and role of the individual unit in the herd. … Read more

The Enneagram and the Silent Tradition

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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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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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