[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Timothy Smith]

I agree Leigh.  These are the roots of our current enneatype system as  
used by professional therapists
and trainers.  Naranjo's work is seminal to many modern practitioners  
and thinkers.  The Arica Institute, which Ichazo founded
was the place where many early participants began their work with the  
enneagram, and Naranjo is a product of
that early training as well, though he broke with Ichazo and turned  
more toward modern psychotherapy with
his process.

Timothy Smith
Wheelwright Associates

www.wheelwrightassoc.com



On Jan 4, 2009, at 12:50 PM, Leigh Goldstein wrote:

> According to my understanding, the popular theory of personality  
> types based on the enneagram (type 1 through type 9) is not of Sufi  
> or Gurdjieffian derivation but was originated by Oscar Ichazo who  
> founded Arica, and given some professional credibility by Dr.  
> Claudio Naranjo, a psychiatrist and spiritual teacher. Naranjo  
> studied with Ichazo (briefly) as well as Fritz Perls, and has  
> related the enneatypes to DSM IV in his books.
>
> There are various origina myths / rumors about how Ichaza came up  
> with the enneagram. Gurdjieffian use of the enneagram seems, to me,  
> to be quite different; it is usually used to describe patterns in  
> processes, such as cooking a meal or spiritual practice.
>
> I did a workshop with Naranjo and then used his books for his  
> recommended self-analysis for spiritual seekers. It did appear to  
> give me a break-through insight into my own character and behavior  
> and appropriate therapeutic/spiritual practices.
>
> Naranjo also has studied Nyingma Buddhism himself, and eduSAT, or  
> SAT, (his organization for teaching the enneatypes) includes  
> teaching Buddhist meditation (Vipassana, Zazen and Tibetan according  
> to their literature).
>
>  ----