[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Timothy Smith]

You may want examine a tradition in the enneagram that uses a  
questionnaire merely
as a starting place.  The true work is done in  groups where  
skillfully led panels of self-identified
types discuss their experience.  Individuals come to see themselves as  
a certain
type because they've come to know that about themselves through the  
process of listening and
identifying.  As a skilled dharma teacher might, enneagram teachers  
are capable of helping
individuals appreciate where they may be not seeing clearly and assist  
them to clarify the
self-identification process.

As others have said.  You can jack around with any instrument, and on  
any given day,
you're more or less likely to have a different view of yourself.   
Enneagram awareness
is built over time, not garnered quickly at the tip of a  
pencil....much as most dharma
practitioners don't find their seat for some period of practice.s

Dr. David Daniels of Stanford at http://www.enneagramworldwide.com/  
has done some
of the work I think scholars here may appreciate.

Again, I see over and over in this extended thread, the idea that  
'typing' is a parlor game.
Only if thats what you want it to be.  Its a useful tool if you have a  
use for it.  If not,
leave it in the bag until you're ready.


Timothy Smith
Wheelwright Associates

www.wheelwrightassoc.com



>
>
> Vicente is right--the practice of dharma doesn't need personality
> typing. While some people find it to be useful in helping them
> toward insight, it might also be misguiding. And, one can fiddle
> around with the questionnaire. Has any psychoanalyst or
> psychiatrist written a critique of the enneagram system?
>
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