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Enneagram Type 5 Board Archive Howdy Dave...Posted by Robin on August 09, 2000 at 16:21:28: In Reply to: void and pseudo-void posted by Dave on August 09, 2000 at 13:10:08: I'm perfectly willing to just "agree to disagree." I'm open to the notion that Enneagram Theory can be a coherent system, independent of the Perennial Philosophy, and not requiring reconcilability with the Perennial Philosophy. However, if you'd like some food for thought, I'll list some counterpoints: In her article, Judith Searle uses a number of analogies to describe the Gap between points 4 and 5. She calls the Gap: "silence," "absolute stillness," "the still point of the turning world," "emptiness." Students of the Perennial Philosophy will recognize that mystics throughout the ages have used each one of these expressions in reference to God or to the Ultimate Reality. To them, the Gap and Ultimate Reality would be one and the same. Meditators from various religious traditions seek silence and absolute stillness to attain union with God. And yogis assert that "Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodha" -- i.e., Yoga (Union) entails the restraint of thoughts in the field of Consciousness. Deepak Chopra states it succinctly: Consciousness is in "the space between thoughts." The "gap" between thoughts is where Consciousness is to be found. Thoughts themselves are merely interruptions of Consciousness. "The still point of the turning world" may evoke images of Shiva (Absolute Reality) sitting perfectly still while Maya (Illusion) dances for Shiva's delight. And "emptiness" would be the Dalai Lama's word for the Ground of Being. In the relative phenomenal world, Bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment) is expressed as compassion. On the absolute plane, Bodhicitta is emptiness. Silence, stillness, emptiness, and the Gap... all used interchangeably by Searle... and to the mystics throughout the ages, all interchangeable expressions for Ultimate Reality -- Primordial Essence. We individuals of the nine EnneaTypes are things of the phenomenal world... "tikkun," as you say. According to the Kabballah, the creation of the phenomenal world is considered a Cosmic Disaster. Hence, our duty as individuals is to effect "tikkun olam" -- the repair of the world. Yet the mystics also tell us that it is not actually the world that needs to be repaired, but that it is our own skewed outlook on the world that needs to be repaired. All nine EnneaTypes are using their ennea-strategies to remain in their sleepwalking state and avoid waking up to Primordial Essence. Judith Searle agrees with the mystics on this: "Each of the points One through Eight has a skewed view of reality (as if seeing reality illuminated by light of a particular color, so that it is not possible for any of these points to view reality in its true aspect). Directly opposite the absolute darkness of the gap is the Nine's white light, which combines all the colors of the other eight points. The Nine, seeing with "equal eye," is so dazzled that the image of reality dissolves in light and cannot be focused on clearly. So Nine's vision of the truth is ultimately just as distorted as that of the other eight types."
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