Discovery 1:
Your Essential Nature
Interestingly, the basis of this Conscious approach to our relationships is in recognizing the pure nature of consciousness, both as the pure essential nature within our self and as the essential nature of others. In fact, what fundamentally distinguishes the nine Enneagram types that provide us with this self-awareness is the different and unique pure quality of consciousness that is expressed in each Enneagram type.
Actually we all readily recognize that special essential quality in each person. Each of us is born with certain natural gifts and talents that stand out in our personality. And it is those specific gifts that are accurately delineated as the essential nature of the different types of the Enneagram. For example, Bill Gates’ essential gifts in his clarity of pure intelligence as a Five in the Enneagram are different than Mr. Rogers, the children’s television personality who so brilliantly expressed his compassionate essential nature of the Two. Everyone sees this fundamental difference.
It is the admirable qualities that are what is so striking about each person. People notice those natural gifts and talents in the person right away. They stand out for they express what is special about the person in his or her personality.
As you will see, in a Conscious orientation it becomes fundamentally important to recognize that those special natural qualities and gifts of one’s pure consciousness do not originate from the personality itself. Nor were those specific extraordinary qualities of each person learned growing up. Siblings brought up in the same family system will have intrinsically different gifts expressed in their different personalities. Just look at your brothers and sisters in how different they each are!
These inner gifts are more fundamental to who we are than that. They reflect the purity of consciousness that lives at the core of our being, beyond the persona. This is our essential nature. And for each of us, the purer the conscious experience in our individual personality, the more connected we are to our noble, virtuous, and gifted pure Self in our personality.
So then what is the essential nature of Pure Consciousness? Of course, in its essence Pure Consciousness is naturally Peaceful. The purer our consciousness, the more peaceful and at ease we feel inside. And at its source, in its purest state, the experience becomes the ‘peace that passeth all understanding.’ Unbounded Peace is the nature of Pure Consciousness.
Pure Consciousness in its essential nature is also unconditional Love and Compassion. The purer our consciousness, the more loving we are. And the nature of consciousness is pure Intelligence, Bliss Consciousness, and complete inner fulfillment. This is why the purer our personality, the more fully these natural essential qualities are expressed in our personality.
Each of the Enneagram types is a specific extraordinary quality of Pure Consciousness. That is why your core type, strong wings and lines express the distinct pure quality of those types in their personality.
We see these distinctions in the ancient Vedic wisdom tradition where lineages of revered enlightened Rishis (Seers) cognized these truths as recorded in the Vedic Upanishads from 800 to 400 BCE. The theme through these generations of Seers is this fundamental distinction between Pure Consciousness as our true Self and our personality, which is in reality just a reflection of one’s essential nature.
“Within the personality is another Self, whose nature is Bliss.
By this the personality is filled delight and joy.”
Taittiriya Upanishad, II.5.2 (7th century BC)
“When with a pure mind one remains in the Self, one enjoys inexhaustible Bliss.”
Maitreya Upanishad, 1.9. (4th century BC)
“My Higher Self is Quiescence, which is why I am equanimous.”
Maitreya Upanishad, 3.24 (4th century BC)
“The Higher Self the true Knowledge (Wisdom).”
Maitreya Upanishad, 3.3 (4th century BC)
Called our true Self, our Higher Self, this is the transcendental essence of a human being. It is the pure “spiritual nature” at the core of each person. This universal experience is why this inherently unbounded spirit within each of us is acknowledged in spiritual and wisdom traditions in every culture around the world.
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the pure Spirit”
King James Bible, Romans, 8:9
“You consist of Spirit (‘Pneuma’), personhood (‘psyche’), and body (‘somatic’).”
Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians, 5:23
Popular Western philosophers and mystics throughout history have also made this fundamental distinction between our Higher Self and the lower self of the human personality. Examples include Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Saint Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Hildegard, Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso, Saint Teresa of Avila, and so many more. In current times there is Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant perceived the transcendental Self which he calls “pure original unchangeable consciousness” that precedes all experience and makes experience itself possible.
“Our spiritual nature is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness.”
Galatians, New Testament, 5:22-25 (GTW Version)
“One’s Spiritual Self is the Divine essence which has no body, no form, which
is imponderable, invisible and indivisible, that which does not exist and yet Is.”
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of The Theosophy Society, 1889
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience;
we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin
However, this fundamental inner distinction is particularly seen in the wisdom traditions of the East where this pure inner nature that transcends the personality is seen as our true Self.
“That which is superior to the lower self is the pure, the eternal, the ever-vigilant, free from the nature of distortion and delusions, the true,the transcendent, the all-pervading, the one without a second, the ocean of bliss, that I Am, the innermost essence (of all). There is no doubt about it.“
Maitreya Upanishad, 1.15 (4th century BC)
“When a man attunes to that which is Invisible, Incorporeal,
Indefinable – his true Self, he has then obtained fearlessness.
Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.7.1 (7th century BC)
In understanding pure consciousness, it is important to note that this intuitive recognition and knowingness of our inner essential nature is not a notion about God, or even about the existence or non-existence of God. “Spirit” here simply refers to our natural experience of the innate virtuous goodness of our essential nature, pure consciousness.
This is why it is important for couples to gain the awareness and skills that will enable them to stay fully open and conscious together. So they sustain their innocent connection within themselves and with each other.
The Pure Consciousness of Our “Higher Self” Is Our Very Awareness Itself
Note that it is this transcendent Higher Self at the core of our being that illuminates our conscious experiences in our persona. The Higher Self’s very nature is pure Illumination. It is the essential Light of consciousness, the solitary source that illuminates and generates our personal Awareness.
“The personality is illumined by the Higher Self’s radiance.”
Mundaka Upanishad, 2.2.10 (6th-5th century BC)
“The personality is not self-illuminating. The source of the illuminating power
of consciousness is the Higher Self. The Seer here is Pure Consciousness
alone, even though the mind appears to cognize the experience.”
Yoga Sutras IV. Sutras, 19 & 20 (around 5th century BC)
The pure nature of our true Self forms the backdrop of all our experiences in our ego. It never changes in its unbounded nature. It has no form, no movement. After all, the experience of perfect Peace is perfect non-changing stillness and infinite Silence at the core of our being. The same is true of pure unconditional Love, which is unbounded and constant at its source. So is cosmic Intelligence.
“I teach you indeed but you do not understand; the Higher Self is pure Silence.”
Brahma Sutras, Shankaracharya, 3.2.17
So the source of our Awareness is not an intellectual thought or an emotional feeling. It is our pure Awareness that illuminates thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings like all cognitions constantly change. The Higher Self is the constant illuminating background of pure Awareness.
This is Awareness Itself. This pure illumined Awareness from the Higher Self is what gives each of us the cognition of every thought, feeling, and sensation, as well as all of our exterior experiences.
Being “conscious” of anything requires one’s Awareness to illuminate it. So it is pure consciousness of the Higher Self that is the real “perceiver,” not the ego. The ego or persona is simply a reflection of our pure consciousness. As the Kabbalah states, the ego itself is the “non-luminous mirror.”
Also, this pure essential nature within each of us is not touched or stained by the actions of the ego or physical self in the world. The journey of life in essence is cultivating our ability to perceive our essence in restoring our union with our true Self, pure consciousness.
But if the Higher Self is our essential nature that generates our personal Awareness, how is it that its nature can seem to elude us? After all, how many people do you know who recognize or identify with this transcendental Self as their true Self? What then tends to overshadow our intimate, clear knowingness of our pure Self as distinct from our persona?
What Overshadows the Awareness of Pure Consciousness
Most people identify their self solely within the confines of their personality, technically referred to as the “ego.” What people feel and think, and how they react becomes who they are. When they are tired they say “I’m tired.” When they feel threatened, “I’m afraid.” When they become angry, “I am angry!” “I am this,” “I am that.” That is how closely people tend to identify and lose their sense of Self with their experiences. Whatever they think, feel, need, or believe becomes who they are. That is their identity, their “I”.
Notice, however, that people tend not to identify their “self” as their body. They tend to say, “My arm hurts.” Instead of “I [as my arm] hurt.” It is usually only when the pain becomes so strong that it so overshadows their pure Awareness that they say “I hurt.”
This is because what universally overshadows our pure Awareness is inner stressful or painful turbulence and tension. And the greater the grip of our consciousness of stress or turmoil inside, the more overshadowed our pure true Self becomes. The tensions can become so great that they take us over and we lose our Selves.
This is everyone’s experience. The more intense the inner turbulence, the more we lose our Presence. The turmoil overshadows our natural inner Peace. It distorts our Wisdom as we are less able to think clearly and tend to become irrational in our thinking. And we tend to lose our inherent Goodness, the nature of our pure Heart when we become angry or afraid.
Others may just shut down, so then there is little of no pure Awareness and natural aliveness to experience. The inner Self can become so blocked inside, there is just numbness trying to encapsulate their pain. After all, that is what depression is.
But for most people, even when they are not upset, they do not always feel fully at peace or feel completely at home, happy, loving or free inside their selves. People do not tend to realize that they are sitting on unresolved emotional insecurities and sensitivities deep inside which generate the constant churning inside of their brain.
So no wonder people can feel restless or bored, or don’t feel they can really relax. When they feel a little anxious or they are not in such a good mood, there is something going on inside that is reverberating. And it is always these underlying human inner pressures that are what overshadow and distort their connection to their pure Higher Self.
As an analogy, the underlying pressures in our persona are just like how clouds and atmospheric turbulence on earth diminish and block out the natural and essential Life-giving SunLight from the Sun. Like the Higher Self, it is this far-away Sun that solely illuminates the earth. The earth does not originate Light. And like the Higher Self, this Light leaving the Sun is constant and always pure at its source. And, too, it is the earth, just like the separate personality, that determines how much pure SunLight we receive and personally experience.
The only reason people are not fully living in their pure essential nature is due to the inner turbulence in their human personality. Like our experience with the pure SunLight, the only thing that blocks or distorts the life-giving Light is the interference of clouds and atmospheric turbulence generated from the earth.
In fact, just like in the personality, when the turbulent clouds become fierce storms, it not only greatly diminishes our Light, but can create havoc and destruction in our personal lives on the earth below. But none of this comes from the purity of the Higher Self, which is constant.
“The Higher Self indeed is our essential nature — free from desires and ego
needs, free from distortions and evils, free from fear and insecurity.”
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.21 (8th century BC)
“This Self is That which has been described as ‘Not this, Not That.’ It is imperceptible, for It is not perceived; undecaying, for It never decays; unattached, for It is never attached; unfettered, for It never feels pain and never suffers injury.”
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.22
So as you will see it is natural as part of our human condition to have unresolved insecurities and sensitivities in our personality that can overshadow and distort our pure Selves. So the fundamental question arises, how do we resolve and purify those pressures within our persona so our Light shines freely?
The Healing of Our Consciousness
Fortunately, healing is natural. The brain is wired to normalize and heal obstructions and imbalances in our personhood. Just as it is in responding to illnesses and imbalances in our body. With regard to our inner insecurities and sensitivities, purifying consciousness and restoring our natural true Self is naturally wired in us as well.
Pure Consciousness is what heals. And keeping our unresolved inner stressors and imbalances unconscious, out of our consciousness, is why they continue unimpeded. After all, we all know that long-forgotten distressful and traumatic experiences from as far back in childhood can still affect us to this day. They continue to generate inner churning and produce the imbalances in our personality and behaviors that continue to unconsciously control us.
Learning how to facilitate this natural healing process is the basis of this Conscious orientation. After all, that is why we are all here, to evolve our consciousness. The key is to stay conscious, connected to our Self in the face of rising tensions or imbalances that show up. So then we are able to consciously process through and resolve any imbalances that emerge. And quickly be able restore our Self.
“When the personality is purified, then the Higher Self shines out of itself.”
Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.9
“When with a pure mind one remains in the Self, one enjoys inexhaustible bliss.”
Maitreya Upanishad, 1.9
Each person can naturally do this because their pure Awareness is separate from their persona. That is why you can step out of your ego and recognize whenever inner turbulence starts to arise. It is why you can recognize if you start to get in a bad mood, or are becoming stressed or emotionally triggered inside.
When I naturally maintain my Presence then this inherently pure and noble Self-Awareness now can guide me forward in more effectively resolving the imbalances or healing the true source of those tensions, anger, anxiety, or emotional pain. So I can restore my pure nature.
However, when I don’t recognize whenever I am not being my true Self, then those inner pressures have eclipsed my Wise Self and take Me over. The more turbulent those emotions, the more they will apt to do the talking or reacting. That is not coming from my Wise Self. So as a result, I will tend to act out those tensions unconscious sly, freely, and usually self-righteously.
So it’s no wonder that is when I blame others, as I am unconscious that it is my own inner sensitivities and insecurities in my personality that have been triggered and enflamed. Without my pure Awareness, there is no longer the real Me.
What couples found that fortified their Presence when tensions increased was having the self-awareness of the specific stressful forces in their personality that was provided by the Inner Enneagram. Knowing each other’s Enneagram personality core type, strong wings and lines made clear the specific pattern of imbalances and the sources of those tensions that drive them. This is what enabled them to each to recognize right then that what was really happening was inside of each of them, instead of focusing those tensions outside of themselves.
When inner tensions rise or when people become emotionally triggered, they typically have no clue what are their underlying core gripping ego needs, insecurities, and imbalances that are driving their inner turbulence. After all, they have a life-time of adapting to all of those inner forces so they become part of their identify. Their ego needs, sensitivities, stressful reactions and imbalances in their persona have become “who they are.” “That’s me!” That is why they tend to take them for granted, as if those are etched in stone. And it is why they will fight for them when those needs and sensitivities conflict with yours. But what a trap that is – for them self and for the relationship!
In this orientation, it is important to realize that the problem that keeps us stuck and makes it all so difficult is not those unresolved imprinted insecurities from our past. Everyone has those. Even Saints. It is human. The problem arises when we lose our Self in the midst of those pressures, tensions and upset feelings. That is when they take us over, and we become stuck “in our stuff.” That is the trap as it makes the relationship over time even more difficult, if not impossible, together.
In this Conscious orientation, we learn how to stay centered in our Awareness whenever we feel we are slipping, becoming stressed, in a bad mood, emotionally triggered or upset. What enables us to do so is the self-awareness of what is really happening within our selves so we can more easily recognize it as soon as they emerge. And resolve it. Otherwise . . .
“I am a series of moods and sensations. I play a thousand roles…
My real Self is unknown.”
Anaïs Nin
These understandings and safe frameworks make all the difference. They are what is coming in the following chapters as your read on.
Simple Tool for Living From Your Higher Self –When You Recognize Person A, Person B, & Person C
In working with partners a simple system emerged that they found readily enabled them to recognize whenever they were not being their pure and noble Higher Self. It enabled them to be able to catch it in order to restore their inner balance. With this tool, over time they also found that they were increasingly staying connected to and living from their true Self.
This is simple because people can tell when they are feeling good inside, free of internal agitation and stress. They are happy, alive, positive, caring and in balance. This we refer to as Person A — when they have their “A Game,” and their full Awareness free of any tension.
With their Awareness people can also recognize when any inner tensions emerge that begin to contract or overshadow their inner natural flow. Those tensions are what moves them to stressed Person B. Maybe they are in a bad mood, or tired, or feeling critical or complaining. Or they are pulling back or shutting down. Or they are acting out of balance. Of course this is part of the human condition as we all can experience rising inner stress, pressures, and tensions.
We all can move to being Person C whenever the tensions, needs, or upset emotions become so gripping that they completely overshadow our pure true Selves. This is when we become frustrated or angry and the anger takes us over. Or our anxiety rises, or we feel hurt inside, and it takes us over. And some will just shut down inside or become depressed. This is when there is no Self. That is how gripping those intense feelings can become.
Becoming Person B and Person C can, and will, happen to anyone. As we have seen, the key is not to lose our Self in this very human process. When we stay anchored in our Self, our Wisdom and natural Goodness will guide us and enable us to resolve those tensions effectively. Where nobody is blamed. Nobody is self-righteous. Nobody is stuck in their stuff. And as you will see, in this orientation of self-awareness and safe frameworks, the process naturally moves us through what was triggered within us to be healed.
In not losing our true Self, we take the High Road. It makes all the difference for us as we go through the process smoothly in restoring our balance and resolving what needs to be resolved, so we grow from it all.
But this is all based on our ability to make this fundamental distinction within our Higher Self and our stressed persona. We need to be able to internally recognize whenever we are not being our Self. So whenever we start to move towards stressed Person B or becoming upset as Person C, we can recognize it and catch it.
Just being able to do that, in itself, means that we are not overshadowed. Keeping my Presence is the foundation for resolving what needs to be resolved and healed.
If you lack this fundamental reference point within your self, then whatever you are feeling in any moment is justified. For in that moment that becomes “who I am.” But it is not who you are when there is no inner reference point. You have lost touch with the natural Goodness and inherent stability of who you really are.
Each of us knows that even amidst those tensions, the “I,” the Goodness of my pure Self would never talk or react that way. And this is key — those reactions are not who I am. And those reactions are not the person you married!
Distortions and imbalances in my personality all come from my insecurities that I have been saddled with, as you will discover have been compounded over and over again in my life. So there is some wounds down there that will need to be consciously healed. But in order to do so “I” will need to be able to realize that whenever it is happening.
Without these understandings and personal Awareness, most people never make this inner distinction within themselves as tensions arise and take them over. Even still, moving to stressed out Person B or upset Person C readily stands out to everyone else! And too, And whenever someone does sustain their Higher Self in those situations and take the “High Road” – that really stands out too!
This is the spiritual path. And of course it takes being Conscious to be able to naturally follow it.
The Self is not to be sought through the senses.
The senses were made to go to the world outside,
and therefore one looks outward and not within one’s Self.
But the Wise, with eyes turned inward, seeking life eternal, found the Self.
Katha Upanishad, 2.1.1.
The chapters that follow will lay out the inner dynamics of the personality that couples discovered and revealed in detail. You will personally relate to them as they represent first-hand accounts that were universally experienced. This includes the nature of your core ego needs, your underlying insecurities and the wounds that generate them, and the imbalances that result from these inner pressures in your personality. There also will be exercises in each chapter that enable you to personalize these dynamics for yourself and your partner.
The final Section of this volume is on this new orientation for resolving differences, tensions, and conflicts that emerge. It presents the new frameworks that couples found enabled them to naturally resolve conflicts, and for healing the sources of the underlying insecurities that drive those conflicts.
Then in completing this volume, the next to last chapter frames all of these very dynamics from the Spiritual Enneagram perspective. And as you will see, what a surprise for me to discover after surfacing these discoveries with couples over years that each of these dynamics was specifically cognized, verified, and validated by generations of ancient enlightened Seers in the Vedic texts and the world’s wisdom traditions.
Lastly, for those who are further interested, Appendix II provides a fuller and more detailed account of the nature and structure of the Higher Self and its generation of the personality as laid out in the various spiritual traditions.
Enlivening & Developing Our Natural Gifts In Each Other
As we have a dual nature, that of Higher Self and the lower self, when our personality is inspired, lifted, and elevated towards higher things, spiritual things, abstract things, intellectual things, things of goodness, purity, love, compassion, and beauty, we are then functioning closer to the Higher Self. That is the real source of those personal experiences.
One of the ways that we strengthen our connection to our true Selves is enlivening in each other our personal sense of Self. This is why in our growth as humans it is important that we nurture and appreciate in each other these inherent Gifts at our core. It makes all the difference to be in a relationship where we are appreciated, valued, and encouraged to be our Selves, to grow in our Selves. Expressing those gifts of our essential nature is what is most enlivening to us. And it is what people appreciate about us the most.
We certainly know how important it is to enliven children’s essential gifts as they grow up. The innocent child comes alive when we foster those wonderful gifts in his or her personality. This is what develops and deepens their connection to their inner Selves. We call that fostering their self-esteem.
Yet stimulating and expressing our inner nature enlivens us all. That is our human nature. The creative artist Four is enlivened by creating art. The pure Intelligence of the Five is enlivened most by exploring and gaining knowledge. The Blissful Seven energy is most alive with the expansion of happiness in all of the adventures life takes them on. The Compassionate Two is fulfilled in expression their love and caring for others. We all blossom in relationships that enliven, foster, unfold, and strengthen our connection to those divine qualities within our Selves.
So our relationship becomes a primary way to enliven and strengthen in each other this inner connection to our pure Self. In our relationship, the more we focus on and stimulate what is natural and good inside each other, the more we develop and solidify those essential qualities in each other’s personality. Our relationship now becomes an invaluable way each of us can grow inside our Self, as well as grow closer together.
This is the central importance in being able to clarify each other’s core gifts. However, I imagine that most people have never really thought about this: what are the specific qualities that make up their partner’s essential nature? After all, the partner’s Enneagram type and inner world is so different, it can feel foreign, to you.
But they sure are drawn to those very qualities in each other from when they first meet. But over the years as those underlying pressures, needs, and sensitivities emerge in the face of all the new and additional demands going on in their lives, couples can lose sight of what they appreciate and love about each other. Or they could start to take them for granted.
Even though partners still sense those special qualities in each other, and even appreciate them, but it all can tend to move into the background of their awareness. No wonder couples tend to miss the importance of nurturing those qualities in each other. Or make a conscious, sustained effort to foster their growth in the relationship.
Nourishing each other’s sense of Self is natural in pure consciousness. When our consciousness is pure, our hearts are open and we celebrate our love and caring for each other. The experience is like reveling in the slight breeze on a warm day. This is liveliness. Aliveness. The expression, stimulation, and enlivenment of our inner being is the purpose of Life.
The Spiritual Essential Nature of Each of the Nine Types
The Spiritual Enneagram provides a blueprint to precisely identify each other’s true nature. You need to have that clarity of awareness not only in your marriage but also with each of your children, your family, and the people you care about.
In the Spiritual Enneagram, each of the nine personality types is a expression of specific and eternal quality of Pure Consciousness. Your personality’s core type, strong wings and lines are streams of specific life forces. Together they form a blend of dominant spiritual qualities that combined together reflect who you are in your essential nature.
These nine different natural gifts of Pure Consciousness that make up the essential nature of each of the nine Enneagram types are:
The Essence and Gift of…
1 – PERFECTION – IDEALISM The natural Intuitive Attunement of Perfection in every moment in the Evolution of Life
2 – LOVING COMPASSION The Oneness of Connection with every Living Being in Loving Selfless Service
3 – EXPANSION OF BEAUTY The expansive Force that generates Excellence
& Beauty in Life
4 – DIVINE EMOTIONAL DEPTH The Origin & Depth of Love, Devotion &
Creativity every moment
5 – COSMIC INTELLIGENCE The Observer – Perceiving, Knowing,
Understanding Life’s Processes
6 – COSMIC ORDER The Cosmic Engineer – an Intuitive Knowing that
makes it all work together in the Evolution of Life
7 – BLISS – OPTIMISM The innocent immense omnipresent Joy of Living
in the Expansion of Life
8 – COSMIC WILL – POWER The inherent Power & Omnipotence in the
evolutionary Will of Life
9 – PERFECT PEACE – HARMONY The Peace that Passeth Understanding as their very Nature that Harmonizes Life
These essences and gifts are easy to recognize in people’s core Enneagram personality type, wings and lines.
Let’s summarize each of the Enneagram type’s natural gifts as an expression of their pure essential nature. As you read you and your partner’s specific types, wings and lines, see which of those specific qualities of being show up in your personalities. And remember, the statement of each is the natural experience when their consciousness is completely pure.
ONES
“The ideal is my nature. I innocently live from the ideal.
It is my pure spiritual nature to be perfect, to live perfectly,
and to create perfection around me in every moment.”
Everyone knows this about Ones. If you have ever lived with or worked with a One, or someone who has a strong wing or line to One, then you know this is their gift they naturally possess. They have this incredible intuitive “knowing” in every moment, that from their framework, what is the Ideal in every situation – what would make it perfect.
This archetype of perfect coherence of the Ideal is their very essence in Pure Consciousness. This is why inside of Ones, every incoming stimuli, every detail, is immediately cognized and automatically evaluated according to this innate ability. It is gift that they have. It is instinctual, which is their triad nature. They always know what needs to happen for something to be perfect.
The One energy will naturally do everything perfectly, moment by moment. Everything is in order, precisely so. Nothing is out of place. Their gift is that they miss nothing — every detail, however small, stands out to them. Their nature expresses high standards and moral principles in life, which are completely natural to them. How they dress, how they sit, their work, and the environment they live and work in, all express this natural, perfect way of being.
When One’s consciousness is pure, they do this simply, unassumingly, modestly. Their efforts are natural to them and quietly blend into the background. They do so as a celebration of perfect life unfolding. Their innocence is appealing. And their outer world reflects it.
However, as you will see, in their personality it can become distorted into thinking that there is a “right” way and a wrong way. And that they always know the right way.
TWOS
“My pure nature is Caring and Selfless Service. I feel a Oneness
with all people and with every living thing. So if someone feels
pain or feels wonderful, I can feel it too at the core of my being.
No wonder I naturally I care. Giving selflessly is my spiritual gift.”
Everyone knows Twos for their innate kindness and caring nature. The Two is centered in the heart triad and their spiritual gift is Love and Compassion. They are innocence personified. They have an innate sensitivity to people and their feelings and needs. Their loving nature propels them to selflessly support and care about others. Everyone appreciates and likes Twos.
For Enlightened Twos, their giving and selfless nature is unconditional. They are wonderfully gifted caregivers, nurturing parents, caring school teachers who selflessly nurture and empower others. They particularly respond to the needs of those who are underprivileged, who are suffering, or who have less. The idea of a saint fits these purest of Twos. “The more I give in life, the more I express who I am.”
THREES
“My nature is effectiveness in creating the expansion of pure Excellence and Beauty.
I bring a lovely aesthetic to perfection that impressively stands out.”
Three’s essential nature is creating pure symmetry of beauty in life. Actually, the masculine energy tends to frame it as creating Excellence in what they do and try to achieve. Whereas the feminine energy is drawn to exhibit and create Beauty.
Nowadays, with our awareness of the fluidity of gender within each person, men and women Threes naturally generate beauty and excellence in everything they do. Both are an expression of the highest form of refinement, exquisiteness, charm, symmetry, style and elegance. These are essential alluring qualities that stand out to everyone.
Everything the Three achieves is an expression of sophistication and beauty. Each completed project, the order and beauty of their home, the impressive car they drive, their personal appearance, their excellent children, and their entire life. In doing so, they exude charisma, charm, magnetism, leadership, and extraordinary vision. For never ending expansion and achieving it is their very nature.
Their nature is the powerful, innate force to generate excellence into everything that they do. It is who they are. This force propels expansion, achievement in all of life. The Three energy is a natural leader. They are always thinking outside the box, how they can take this to the next level, expand it, refine it, make it better and more effective. “The more expansion, the more results that I can generate, the more I can express who I am.”
Even as the most effective of doers, Threes are an expression of the Heart triad. This is what adds the aesthetic dimension to what they achieve and create. This is their natural charisma. And this creates the beauty and the elegance in how they look, in what they impeccably produce, in the lovely environments they live and work in, in what they appreciate and find meaning in, and how they inspire others.
They are easily noticed for these innate qualities. Their ambition and motivation together with their suave nature and excellent results in any pursuit are striking.
Enlightened Threes express and achieve excellence innocently, without attachment or the need for attention or rewards. Expansion is the celebration of their very nature.
FOURS
“My nature is the deepest emotional and creative impulses of divine love and its unique artistic expression. My natural sensitivity gives me privileged access to the very depths of life, the inherent richness of passion and feelings, and the devotional expression and knowingness of Love itself.”
We all know Fours because of their natural originality. The Fours’ essential nature is the Creative Intelligence of the Universe, channeled through the lens of the Heart Triad. Fours creative nature is based on their emotional depth – they are the most emotionally sensitive of all. They are highly sensitive feelers who experience life deeply and richly and passionately. Full out.
Out of this sensitive attunement and oneness with life’s most creative impulses comes the intense feelings expressed in poetry, music, dance, writing, painting, performing, acting. It also is expressed in Fours’ natural emotional intensity, depth, passion, and spiritual engagement in life. No wonder Fours feel different and original at the core of their being. This is why Fours tend to stand out.
As enlightened beings, Fours express the purity of their emotional depth and originality as a natural celebration of Life. Their sensitivity is now centered and securely anchored in their ground of their being. They are at peace, perceptive, fulfilled in union with the beloved within themselves. They feel complete. And that becomes their innocent expression into the world.
FIVES
“My nature is pure Intelligence & Knowingness. I am the Silence of
life, the non-attached Observer, the essence of Cosmic Intelligence from
which all of the underlying Laws that govern Nature emerge.
The Five’s essential absolute nature is Omniscience – pure Intelligence. That is easy to see that right away in their personality. Their natural gift is their minds and their intellect. As an expression of the Mental triad they are the most “mental” of all. They have a natural thirst for knowledge, to understand and expand with knowledge.
As natural, silent Observers, Fives very being is objective, rational, and wise. Their depths of their pure minds are easily able to make sense of abstractions and patterns. Everyone appreciates their clarity and brilliance.
This Observer, this Knowingness, comes from the depths of Silence at the core of their being, free of emotion or emotional attachment.
SIXES
“My essential nature is Cosmic Order which is the sustaining force of life and its natural evolution. I intuitively grasp the natural laws that make every thing work. It is my natural responsibility to do so.”
Sixes represent the force in the Universe that regulates and sustains Life. All of the laws of nature work harmoniously together underlying the complexity in Life. Sixes express that structural Intelligence as their inner nature.
They are like Cosmic Engineers. They have a knowingness in every situation of what needs to happen to make everything work more effectively and problem-free. In doing so, they are naturally drawn to protect the well-being of everyone. All of the trains run on time with Sixes. Such is their Gift./p>
Enlightened Sixes are fully united with the cosmic evolution of Life. There is no sense of separation or mistrust of Life. This oneness within creates a fundamental intuitive understanding and certainty of the currents directing all of Life as it naturally evolves. Those currents are their very being, so no wonder they delight in participating in its unfoldment, as the engineers that they are. /p>
SEVENS
“My essential nature is the inner Bliss and the ebullient
expression of wonderment, happiness, and creativity into Life.”
Sevens nature is the very essence of happiness, adventure, and joy, and is unbounded Bliss. This is who they are. You can readily tell when you are with a Seven. They are optimistic, generous, fun-loving, innocent, curious, and adventuresome. And they laugh a lot. They represent the natural force of goodness, generosity, and joy inherent in Life.
The Sevens nature is also the creative expansion of pure happiness. They are naturally find creative outlets, especially story telling, writing, music, design, and the richness of color.
EIGHTS
“My essential nature is the fundamental Omnipotence of Life.
I am the pure expression of Will.”
Eight’s inner nature is Power. This primary force throughout nature is indestructible, and so are Eights. The Will to Live is embedded in life — to thrive, to survive, to evolve. That indomitable fundamental force of Will is Eight’s essential nature. As a result, they are strong, confident, powerful, and forceful. Don’t mess with Eights.
However, Enlightened Eights are the indomitable force, but is for the good in nature and for the good of others. Eights are the natural warriors, the unconquerable Will of the universe that protects Righteousness, the disenfranchised, and those who are most vulnerable.
NINES
“My essential nature is Peace. And Harmony. I am One
with all of Nature and its natural flow. It is my nature
to unify all differences into wholeness and harmony.”
The Nine’s essential nature is pure Peace. This is why Nines are relaxed and so easy-going. And it is why everyone likes and gets along with Nines. With Peace as their core, it is their nature to harmonize with everyone and every thing. When anchored in the Peace of their inner essence, nothing bothers Nines. They go with the flow effortlessly, and are surprised if you don’t. “Don’t sweat the small stuff” (And it is all small stuff).
This is also why Nines are by nature the peacemakers in life. They easily merge everyone’s point of view within their being, and can readily find what unifies rather than divides. You see this energy in Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and President Barack Obama who have this pure Nine gift in their personalities.
Enlightened Nines sustain this natural innocent Peacefulness all of the time, even amidst all of their activities. They are alive and quietly vibrant, responsive and responsible according to the natural rhythms and needs of life.
Recognizing People’s Inner Gifts –
Seeing & Enlivening the Best in People
As you become familiar with each of the nine Spiritual Enneagram types, the different facets of Self, you will soon be able to intuitively recognize the incredible qualities and Gifts in every person you encounter. So you see the Goodness in everyone. This is that place inside of people that is pure. Here you will see and appreciate their particular Enneagram spiritual gifts that are expressed in their personality. For that is who they are!
This will change how you perceive and evaluate people. Before these understandings and awarenesses, people tend to only see other’s personality, and not their true Self – who they really Are. Particularly they notice the specific imbalances that stand out. And that is how they are judged.
Knowing their Spiritual and Inner Enneagram types, we too can readily recognize the imbalances that show up consistent to their Enneagram types. However, knowing the Big Picture of who “they really are” in their true Self, we can see everything in perspective. It is like noticing that a person has a bum knee that they are favoring. It is an imbalance, but we don’t dwell on it for it is “not who they Are.”
Nor do we make the person wrong. Everyone has pressures in their persona. When we understand those patterns from the Inner Enneagram, it enables us to empathize with what deep inside that person is face with in their lives. For it just shows what that person is confronting on their path in their evolutionary growth.
Even though we don’t judge it, our understanding of each person’s patterns of imbalances from the Inner Enneagram can help us become aware of what we can graciously do to protect our sensitivities. It enables us to enjoy what we connect together on and be wise in our interactions together in what we may wish to avoid if those imbalances emerge.
After all, you too have imbalances and distortions that others may readily pick up on. But you want people to like you. You want to feel appreciated and loved, even if your personality is less than perfect. We all do. So we don’t want to fall into the trap of judging others. Instead we engage with and appreciate their wonderful qualities.
So now with these awarenesses, you can focus on and more fully appreciate the gifts. And also have compassion for their sensitivities, fears and imbalances. After all, their spirit is the person’s pure nature. This is who they are, and not the insecurity-laden ego.
“I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.”
Rudyard Kipling
It becomes fascinating when you meet someone to discern all of the different essentially divine qualities of their personality type, strong wings, lines, and primary subtype. It is like a painter who readily sees and appreciates the precise unique blend of primary colors in every work of art. As you gain more sophistication, those essential spiritual energies will stand out to you, as blended as they may be in the person’s personality.
Like a connoisseur, you will find this heightens your appreciation and intimacy of the unique goodness and beauty in every person. In doing so, you foster other’s self-esteem by attuning to, acknowledging and enlivening their strengths and talents. This is how people come alive and grow. This is affirming of our Lives.
Not having this wisdom and insight, people can get stuck on the insecurities of another. If that becomes their singular focus, they are missing who the person really is. In keeping the big picture in mind, and understanding the insecurities that drive those imbalances, this changes everything. I certainly want them to see it that understanding way when they are with in me!
This is the orientation of the Spiritual Enneagram provides. It is the Self-awareness that enables us to attune to the security and wisdom within our inner Self. So we maintain our Presence and naturally respond nobly and wisely in the face of someone’s emotional and physical insecurities that might show up.
Being in a relationship where each of you freely acknowledges and honors each other’s natural gifts develops the best in your personal Self. Your relationship now fosters and nourishes those natural qualities within you.
Without these affirming experiences of appreciation, caring, and love, people can become irrationally hard on themselves. When undernourished in a relationship, this can generate unconscious insecurities that might keep the person small. So they can become stuck in the self-doubt of Person B or the depression of Person C. Both can grip one’s consciousness and overshadow their nature inner esteem and happiness.
Putting This All Together So We Can Learn
to Cultivate Living From Our Pure Self
Now you may wish to sit down with your partner and compare notes of what you wrote down in the exercises above. Remember, this sense of the Higher Self is by nature abstract. After all, this innermost Self lies beyond the ego.
That is why most people lack a vocabulary for this intuitive knowing. This is also why the Enneagram profiles in Volume II can help clarify for your selves what natural gifts each of you express in your core type, strong wings and lines. The more awareness you gain, the more understanding and awareness you will have of each other. Having this shared understanding together will also help enable you to freely acknowledge and nourish the best in each other.
But Then, What About the Ego?
It is one thing to have this pure dimension of who you are in your essential nature as your true Self, but what about the ego? After all, it is your ego, your persona, which engages with the world and in your relationship with your partner and others. And it is your ego that harbors the insecurities that overshadow and distort your pure essential nature.
Like pure Light entering a glass of water — the purer the water in the glass, the purer the reflection coming out from the glass of water as our natural experience. However, the more impure the water is, the more overshadowed and distorted the reflection of Pure Light becomes.
This is why we want to now explore the nature of the personality and source of the imbalances that make up the human condition. As well as understand the natural process in the brain for purifying consciousness of those imbalances. This is the domain of the Inner Enneagram, which now follows.
Continue to:
Discovery 2:
Your Ego – Understanding the Fall From Grace
