The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul

When we are fully awake and alive to the present moment, we don't need a personality. Sandra documents the fall into uncounsciousness most of us took between the ages of 3 and 6 where we built a personality. A personality is our way to fake it when we are not fully connected. She documents a way to see the personality as having 9 types. Each of these types hides an aspect of truth that we fail to experience. Each type is a way to fake being connected. Each Enneatype is therefore a way to spin reality, to make it look like we are not broken and lost. This work is so powerful it might cause you to break down and cry, because it will nail your way to avoid life. After you cry you will feel 'born again' with a fresh new look on life. I have read this book three times and sent 4 copies to my friends. Our local UU church here in Alabama has a 17 member study group meeting once a week, working through this wonderful book. The release of this book will be marked in history as a major event leading the Western Culture to the exploration of Enlightenment and the end of all sorrow. May you find Enlightenment as a personal experience.. Bill Savoie Update: 1/26/14 This book can be read more than three times. Yes, it is not an easy read, but the subject information is hard, so keep at it. Reread, like I do, a paragraph several times. The earth will shift in this way. The efforts you place in this book will not be wasted. At some point, it all makes so much sense, you just swim in an ongoing non-conceptual bliss. You can really let go of your personality and even better, not need to fix anyone who chooses to keep theirs. The value of that is priceless.

Maitri was one of the first group of students to whom the Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo presented the enneagram system in the United States. If you are already familiar with the nine personality types of the enneagram, this book will deepen your understanding. It is fun and fascinating to note how human beings fall into nine ways of relating to reality. It can also be useful in our encounters with ourselves and others to realize that we are not all motivated in the same ways. Maitri illuminates these aspects of personality and then goes on to show how each of us can move beyond an intellectual understanding of personality and beyond identification with our personality to a seeing of what our personality blinds us to, an ability to be onto oneself. A beginning point for everyone is bringing awareness to the body. Maitri says: "By bringing consciousness to our bodies, experiencing and fully allowing whatever sensations, emotions, and thoughts that arise within our consciousness, we move deeper into ourselves and start feeling more in contact with ourselves. This shift of focus from outer directedness to inner exploration in and of itself begins to take some of the wind out of the personality's sails. As we begin exploring the terrain within us, one of the first things that we typically encounter is our inner `shoulds' that come from our internal critic, the superego. This voice inside of us, which is the internalization of composite authority figures from childhood, was the final layer of the personality to develop, and so it is the first that we encounter. . . . One of the first orders of business on our inner journey, then, is learning to defend against the superego." Maitri continues to describe the process which leads to a shift in identity from our personality to our essential nature. This very interesting and wise book is worth many readings.

Having read 7-8 books on the E already, I have been sort of tired of it for a while. Some of the criticisms of this book scared me off at first. After some time I became interested in the E again, trying to see the types as more like archetypes of the different sides to a person, than types. I found more of that here than other E books. Although each chapter deals with a Type. The chapters were sort of boring at times. But there were several things I enjoyed. She spoke more about the implicit phenomenological experience of each type than any other E book. Others tend to focus on behaviors much more. I loved the description of the inner triangle. And took away many insights about the nature of the Human Condition. And in a more dyanmic, three dimensional way than any other spiritual philosophy I have seen. East or West. I also loved the descriptions of the idealized aspect at the end of book. I've been looking for a way of making more sense of the essential aspects. I like Almaas' works, but his 5ness tends to show, and the essential aspects are all over the place. With this book, I was able to draw out my own E of the essential aspects. Finally, I thought the soulchild thing sounded cheezy. But when reading about it, it made perfect sense. So, to sum up, from originally rejecting this book, I found it to be one of the top E books I've come across.

Enjoyed reading it, good addition to basic readings,

A great compliment to all Enneagram books but this one really digs deep and brings you in touch with personal aspects of yourself that you know about but haven't told anyone else.

Still reading, read about 40% of it. Once you have awareness, understanding of your enneagram type, this book provides the next step. I like especially how each type is prone to deterioration because of unconscious limiting beliefs which gets solidify over a period of time as we grow.

Perfect

Excelente libro sobre el Eneagrama, que aporta una visión más allá del Ego y sus máscaras. Maitri explica cómo el Ego se construye en base a la creencia de que tienes que alcanzar justo aquello que Eres en Esencia. A great book for anyone interested in the Enneagram and especially if you want to understand and connect with what you are beyond your Ego. Maitri explains that your Enneagram has to do with your Holy gift.