The essence of our self lies deep at our core. We are made in God’s image and that image is expressed through the nine virtues (similar to the nine fruits of the spirit) in that they express the nature and essence of God. When we connect with these virtues life is full of meaning. The nine virtues seen through the Enneagram system are: 1- Serenity, 2- Humility, 3- Honesty, 4- Equanimity(Balance), 5- Non-attachment, 6- Courage, 7- Sobriety(Constancy), 8- Innocence, 9- Right Action.
Each of the nine personality types is grounded in a virtue that bears the intelligent quality of energy. We live out of that energy. Along the way as our personality develops we run into conditions and problems. To protect ourselves we develop a natural but unconscious response (by way of an emotional energy) generated by the frustration of being deprived of our virtue. Deep within us we desire to return to the virtue. To do so we develop a defense mechanism that manages the emotional passion with a mental projection to explain the passion. For example, for the Type One – the virtue is Serenity. The One’s passion is anger with the defense mechanism being reaction formation (which means feeling one thing but doing the opposite, such as feeling resentful but acting nice). The defense mechanism leads to the mental projection of constantly looking for error. When the One’s perception of the world is disturbed they automatically seek out the perceived error, and on finding it the mind thinks it has accomplished what is needed to reestablish serenity. But in actuality the One has merely settled for a rigid perfectionism instead of the calm, peace of true serenity that contains it’s own perfection. Sensing failure, we try harder by way of working through our passion, because it fuels our energy as we keep our mind on the projection, in the One’s case of looking for error.
In a misguided way, we struggle with ourselves in an unconscious effort to return to the virtue. The way back to the virtue is not through the passion. Each type has a different sticking point that they have to learn to let go of to allow themselves to become receptive to see the world as it is instead of how they imagine it. For example, One’s believe if they can just make everything line up perfectly, then things will BE perfect. The need to be perfect according to a rigid personal set of rules becomes the answer to living a successful life. Focusing on error actually brings forward the need to correct, which quickly crosses over to criticism delivered both internally and externally.
So the One must learn to drop their anger and begin observing themselves, truly seeing that where they see error, someone else may see an opportunity to try something different. Their reaction is only a developed habit, there could be a different way.
The habits that develop our defense mechanisms build a wall around the virtue which separates the person from God and is difficult to pierce. For the One, the defense mechanism keeps the emotional habit (anger) and mental habit (looking for error) in place. Look at is as a visual:
Visualize the Defense Mechanism as managing the passion by the habit of the mental projection. The virtue is imbedded deep within (visualized by being in the belly-but not meant to be a physical location). The Defense mechanism keeps us in a holding pattern as we act out of habit.
People want to live out of the virtue, but as one pays attention through the practice of going in and down – through mind and heart, the habits of a lifetime get in the way. People must learn to drop the mental habit and passion in order to bypass them to reveal the virtue that has been there all the time. Each person has their own unique set of habits they have developed to deal with life.
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You have heard it said that all you need is inside you – you are born with all you need to be you. But our potential lies buried deep inside by all the habits we created to protect our vulnerable selves when we were young. As adults we need to learn ways to uncover these automatic defenses that no longer serve us well. It is like peeling an onion to reveal who we really are. On those occasions when One’s act out of their grounded being, everyone knows it. And that is the time when people truly see God/goodness being lived out in the world.
So the defense mechanism creates a holding pattern through our emotional and mental habits that get in the way of living life through our virtue. To operate from the virtue one must:
- Recognize the energy flowing through you as the passion. Develop your “Inner Witness” through receptive prayer practices. Spotting the projection of the type’s mental habit provides clues this is happening.
- In a reflective practice, such as the “In and Down” practice release the hold the energy of the vice and defense mechanism bring up. Allow that energy to go, to be able to receive the energy of the virtue that is available.
- Going into a receptive mode, a vulnerable state, we are open to seeing the world as it is instead of how we usually perceive it through the lens of our passion.
Each type holds only 1/9th of the wisdom of the world, only 1/9 of the face of God. We need the wisdom of each type to live in wholeness. We see the world as we are and not as the world is. Finding ways to become receptive opens the world to us. Being able to fight your demons comes through prayer and fasting (denying energy to the passion). Each type must find their own way of acting out of their virtue.
Andrea Andress
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