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About the Enneagram and Rumi |
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a book of recipes and insights For those who work the land,
Integrating the personal and public dimensions of our lives in service of greater justice and beauty |
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About the Enneagram There is much to say about this ancient, powerful and complex system known as the Enneagram. If the Enneagram is new to you, I encour-age you to explore it. Though this cookbook offers some valuable introductory material and information, there is much more depth to the system than is offered in this book. If the spiritual journey is about becoming self aware, seeing our whole selves by bringing into awareness that which is unconscious, then the Enneagram is a powerful guide in that process. Used in the West as a personality system, the Enneagram (“ennea” in Greek means nine) offers us a map of nine different personality types, nine unique filters and habits of attention. Though we all share to some degree all nine perspectives, we first rely on and operate from the filter of one of these personality types. No type is better than another. Though we remain the same Enneagram type throughout our lives, we shift and transform within the space of our type in ways that enable us to live more mindfully. Knowing our Enneagram type allows us to see how we limit ourselves and how we can expand our vision to see a greater reality. It focuses on the motivation behind the behavior, not behavior alone. The Enneagram shows us the path from the compulsions of our personality to a more compassionate life. Each of the Enneagram types has a particular issue that is compulsively resisted. Not to resist would seem like death. I find the following story (author unknown) helpful in undestanding this issue of resistance. Once upon a time, on a small island, there lived a woman known for her extraordinary gardening abilities. She loved the land where she was skilled at growing food and flowers. She was always seen in her garden, rain or shine. Even in her more mature years, this woman spent each day in her gardens. One day, as she was weeding her garden, death came to claim her. As the woman fell dying she grabbed a handful of soil from her beloved island, and died with a clump of soil in her hand. Moments later she arrives at the gates of heaven and St. Peter greets her. “Hi, we’ve been waiting on you. Welcome! Let me escort you into heaven.” As St. Peter reaches for her hand he discovers she’s holding something. “What do you have there?” She replies, “This is my beloved island. I loved to garden.” “Well,” says Peter, “all who enter heaven must be empty handed. It’s time to let that go.” “I’ll never let go of my beloved island.” responds the woman. So Peter shows her to a bench just outside heaven’s gate. The woman sits down with her handful of soil and makes herself comfortable. Every now and then an angel appears to ask if she’s ready to enter heaven. But the woman simply clutches her hand tighter. After many decades go by, the woman begins to physically weaken. Unbeknownst to the woman, her hand could no longer make a tight fist and the soil of her beloved island had sifted through her fingers. Knowing this, St. Peter comes to the woman, takes her now-empty hand and leads her into heaven. And, the first thing the woman sees in heaven is her beloved island.
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About Rumi Jelaluddin Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet who, in his early adult years, was a religious scholar. When he met a wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz, Rumi’s life changed dramatically. Through the depth of their friendship, Rumi became a mystic and artist and was known to whirl for hours in a state of esctasy for and with the Beloved (a name Rumi often uses for God). Poetry is the language best understood by the heart. Rumi’s poems offer wisdom that speaks to all of us about union with the Divine and connecting with our essential selves. The poem paired with each of the nine Enneagram types seems to offer a particular kernel of wisdom that speaks most profoundly to that type. Thanks to Coleman Barks for allowing the use of his translations of Rumi’s poetry that appear in The Essential Rumi (translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, 1995). |
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What we most resist is that which gives us what we yearn for. We receive our heart’s desire when we relax into our own resistance. The Enneagram shows us what we most resist and how we block ourselves from our hearts and from the Divine. Knowing more about our own inner workings allows us to see ourselves more clearly, enabling us to live from a place of choice and compassion. In our Essential selves we manifest the Divine presence within us and respond to life from a place of love rather than from fear.|
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