compulsiverambler
New member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2009
- Messages
- 446
- Enneagram
- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/so
Some writers and teachers of the Enneagram system encourage its use in conjunction with the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, including Don Riso and Russ Hudson. How has anyone here found the combination to work? Personally, I'm actually thankful to the Enneagram for introducing me to mindfulness, because I think it's been the more revolutionary of the two for me, as much as the Enneagram has provided new helpful insights for self-understanding and relationships.
I think the two complement each other very well: the Enneagram describes particular habits and processes that novices to mindfulness like me might not notice as soon or often otherwise, and points to the changes we should notice in our lives if we're making progress. Mindfulness shines a torch on the phenomena depicted by the Enneagram, in action. Once captured and illuminated, they appear as misguided or out of place to us as they really are.
I'm loving my first experiences of the Quiet Mind. I don't remember ever experiencing it before. Important or worthwhile thoughts and ideas can actually get through to me now when appropriate and be noted and remembered, and the rest of the time I have no sense of inner franticness, or tension between the inside and outside world. I've also stopped snapping on autopilot at sudden intrusions, and people can't make me jump even when they try, now. It usually doesn't take much.
My cravings for isolation and disengagement have also been lessening rapidly, partly as a result of the above, but these are early days yet. No one else seems to have mentioned this so far, yet it's central to Riso and Hudson's view of how the E personality is formed and maintained and what to do about it.
I think the two complement each other very well: the Enneagram describes particular habits and processes that novices to mindfulness like me might not notice as soon or often otherwise, and points to the changes we should notice in our lives if we're making progress. Mindfulness shines a torch on the phenomena depicted by the Enneagram, in action. Once captured and illuminated, they appear as misguided or out of place to us as they really are.
I'm loving my first experiences of the Quiet Mind. I don't remember ever experiencing it before. Important or worthwhile thoughts and ideas can actually get through to me now when appropriate and be noted and remembered, and the rest of the time I have no sense of inner franticness, or tension between the inside and outside world. I've also stopped snapping on autopilot at sudden intrusions, and people can't make me jump even when they try, now. It usually doesn't take much.
My cravings for isolation and disengagement have also been lessening rapidly, partly as a result of the above, but these are early days yet. No one else seems to have mentioned this so far, yet it's central to Riso and Hudson's view of how the E personality is formed and maintained and what to do about it.