[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Curt Steinmetz]

I don't have any first hand experience (or even second hand knowledge) 
about the uses of the Enneagram, but I have long been fascinated by 
Gurdjieff and his teachings.

And, by a strange coincidence I have just recently started researching 
the work of the 12th century scholar/mystic Raymond Lull. Supposedly 
Ouspensky and Gurdjieff studied Lull's work intently when they first met 
(1914). Ouspenksy, by the way, had just returned from India where he met 
Sri Aurobindo and Annie Besant.

According to David Allen Hulse two keys to unlocking Gurdjieff's 
Enneagram are (1) the nine pointed star at the center of Lull's system, 
which represented Cabalistic correspondences, and (2) the Georgian 
alphabet, which is isosephic (each letter is also a numeral). See "The 
Eastern Mysteries" by David Allen Hulse p. 208-221:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sWHjIxkvXYEC&pg=PA215&lpg=PA215&dq=gurdjieff+raymond+lull&source=web&ots=H8I4jYA0vq&sig=RKTnfXcKujgzqv3WSl7IDR1BNSU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPR15,M1

If the above link gets broken do a google book search on "The Eastern 
Mysteries", the entire section on Gurdjieff and the Enneagram can be 
read online.

Curt Steinmetz

Richard Hayes wrote:
> Dear denizens,
>
> I just finished attending a four-day conference/retreat on the enneagram
> sponsored by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque
> (http://cacradicalgrace.com/). The main speaker was Russ Hudson,
> co-author with Don Riso of The Wisdom of the Enneagram. Hudson, by the
> way, is one of the most engaging speakers I have heard on any topic. If
> you get a chance to hear him someday, don't pass it up. He and Riso have
> a good website, too: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/
>
> The Center for Action and Contemplation is a Catholic center, so most of
> the discussion of the enneagram at this conference was focused on how it
> could support Christian practices. While I have no aversion to Christian
> beliefs and practices, Christianity is not the framework in which I am
> most at home expressing my own experiences. As the conference unfolded I
> couldn't help thinking of the enneagram as a tool that could support
> Buddhist practices. Years ago I had a student who was both a practicing
> Sufi and a Nyingma Buddhist. He used the enneagram extensively and gave
> some interesting talks on the topic.
>
> What I'm wondering is whether any of you BUDDHA-howLers have made use of
> the enneagram as a tool in helping you choose the most effective
> Buddhist practices for your temperament and personality type. If so, I'd
> be interested in hearing from you off-line. Please contact me at
> rhayes at unm.edu.
>
>