[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Timothy Smith]

You may be right, Erik, however this says nothing about the 'wisdom'  
you so easily disparage.  Should  you decide to investigate
the current thinking on the enneagram rather than relying solely on  
your antipathy towards 'metaphysics', you'll likely not find
a whole lot of esoterica involved.  Jung's system was 16 types,  
relying on a 4x4 matrix.  The enneagram need not be seen
as an esoteric system based on the mystical significance of the number  
nine any more than Jung's ideas that led to the MBTI
are esoteric in their reliance on the 'cross' separating the functions.



"The way through the world is more difficult than the way beyond it"

Wallace Stevens
"Reply to Papini"




On Jan 10, 2009, at 11:29 AM, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> Perhaps the writers you mention give some decent advice between the
> lines, but an enneagram is a graph, a figure with nine points. It  
> relies
> on a metaphysics of the number nine. Apart from this metaphysics  
> there's
> no reason why there shouldn't be 143 different character types or  
> 31. If
> you like Socrates or Stoa read them, it doesn't become any better
> because of the number nine.