[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Piya Tan]

Richard,

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 2:21 AM, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 2009-01-05 at 12:16 +0800, Piya Tan wrote:
>
> About fifteen years ago a student introduced me to Helen Palmer's book
> on the enneagram, and I then identified myself as a type one (also
> driven by anger and rage). In subsequent work I've come to see that a
> much more accurate fit is type nine (still very much anger-driven) with
> a strong one wing. I still mostly do mettā-bhāvanā, but have lately been
> wondering whether other practices might complement that and help to
> break down, or at least reduce the effect of, a few other barriers that
> get in my way from time to time.
>
> Something that a lot of people I have come across have noticed is that
> most people have a tendency to gravitate to spiritual practices that are
> least likely to transform them and most likely to keep them stuck in
> unhealthy patterns (and thus fail to be spiritual practices at all). For
> example, people with a strong tendency to withdraw from problems rather
> than face them head on tend to become dhyāna addicts. Dhyāna practice
> can be a kind of narcosis. (I've certainly done a hell of a lot of that
> particular form of escaping into narcotic samādhi during my life, and it
> has probably done me very little good at all, and it has surely caused a
> lot of problems for the people who have had to live with me.)
>

Sorry to backtrack, but this last para sounds familiar, and reminds me
of some FWBO people like that in the 80s when I was living with them
for some months. Having tried Sangharakshita's methods (are you
speaking of them?) I don't think he knows dhyana at all. Let me just
say that and not open old woundst.

I have met monks (esp followers of Ajahn Chah's tradition) who, as a
rule, I see as naturally smiling and happily engaged when you are with
them. One quality I notice in such monks who do dhyana, is that they
are full of peaceful enthusiasm. I only met Ajahn Sumedho only once as
a monk in Bangkok in my early years as a monk. I remember sitting with
him for two hours (just the two of us) listening to him speaking on
the "joy: of the monk's Vinaya. This was one of the joyful moments of
my life I never forget. Talk of personal transmission.

When I first met Ajahn Brahm when I was a layman again in 2001, his
first words this time were that he gratefully remembers me fo being
his translator during his ordination year in Bangkok, before returning
to Ajahn Chah's centre in NE Thailand. Interestingly, Ajahn Chah, a
forest monk, felt that this well known Pali monastery in Bangkok (Wat
Sraket) should keep connected with the forest meditation tradition.
This was around the same time I met Ajahn Sumedho (as mentioned).

It was after this that I meandered away from Theravada, and
experimented with Sangharakshita's teachings in the UK. The 1980s was
a time when the WBO was gatheirng strength but suspicious of "other"
Buddhisms (eg Theravada-bashing). So I was told to "unlearn" what I
was taught as a Theravada monk, and almost did. Somehow I only
remained as a Mitra and never got to the stage of Dharmacari despite
my enthusiasm. One setback for me was that I appear to know too much
of Theravada.

Failing to fit in with the FWBO I spent about a decade in a
Buddhismless limbo running a US comic book store (something easy, I
thought, to support the family I have started). My ex-students from
Singapore knew I had no business mind, Things picked up again when I
was invited to move to Singapore to start teaching Buddhism again,
something I did most reluctantly at first, but did anyway.

What wasinitially healing for me then was the enthusiasm for Sutta
study shown by some members of the NUS Buddhist Society, and things
came to a head when I found myself fully involved in Sutta translation
(I learned Pali in the Bangkok monastic years and brushed it up again
at the Buddhist Library courses) again. So here I am back again doing
something I started off in my religious life: translating and teaching
Pali Suttas. It is is kind of big circle I took, but happy that the
ends have now closed.

Another important stimulus to my renewed engagement with Buddhism is
meeting with Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Sujato and Ajahn Chah's teachings.
These monks often speak of dhyana, and it is definitely not the
addictive kind I saw in the FWBO or the Burmese methods. They are
truly happy monks.

I learned Ajahn Chah's meditation methods along with the Vipassana
that I learned from Mahasi Sayadaw himsef. Both systems work fine for
me, and the students that I teach. Lovingkindness is especially
healing, for many of them found closure with painful past events.

You are right about dhyana addiction, which was rampant in Malaysia
when I was a monk there, and Ajahn Brahm spoke about in the same tone
as yourself of the Malaysian situation, which I have happily left
behind.

I have practically lost touch with the FWBO, but suspect that there
are still a number of good meditators whose meditative lives have
matured, and are in touch with early Buddhist teachings (incl
"Theravada" of the forest monks).

I enjoy meeting happy people, and in my teachings, I try to tell
people to be engaged with life without being drowned and dragged by
the past and worldliness. I used to have a lot of anger and critical
mind (one of the reasons I thought being with FWBO would help). Much
of the anger at the stupidityof the local Buddhists and SInhala
missionaries is gone, although the critical awareness is more keen
now.

Instead of writing memoirs, I now try to see my own sufferings in the
context of the early Suttas and laugh at myself. Not-self is a great
and healing teaching.

The point of this is that knowing monks who really know dhyana and are
happy people is not only healing but also energizing in the kind of
work and life I am living now: as a full time lay teacher with a
family and supported by dana from the Buddhist community.

BTW, I do occasion crtiicize some of the teachings and writings of
these forest monks, where I know the Sutta would support my case, but
such incidents are minor, and in now way dilute the happy inflience
that I see in them.

I think we should meet more happy meditating monks and find out why
they have chosen such a life.

With metta for this new year and beyond,

Piya Tan