[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Sun, 2009-01-11 at 17:06 +0800, Piya Tan wrote:

> 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).

That was an unfortunate period in their (or perhaps I should say our)
history. I had no contact with the FWBO during that phase. When I did
begin going to FWBO events I was quite outspoken in voicing my
disapproval of Sangharakshita's Theravada-bashing and his
Christianity-bashing. Any kind of bashing strikes me as
counterproductive (except, of course, Republican-bashing). Gradually,
over time, I think some people in the FWBO have become less prone to
following Sangharakshita's prejudices.

> I learned Ajahn Chah's meditation methods along with the Vipassana
> that I learned from Mahasi Sayadaw himsef. 

In the 1990's I had a meditation group in Montreal. One of our regulars
was a Canadian who had spent seven years training with Ajahn Chah. We
all learned a lot from him. 

> 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).

Yes, there are quite a few such people.

> I enjoy meeting happy people

So do I. They are relatively rare, especially in philosophy departments.
The academic world in general is filled with bitter dried up old prunes
with large but terribly fragile egos. But I suspect that is true of most
organizations where there is a culture of success and competition.

> 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.

I could not agree more. The name of the enneagram conference I attended
at the beginning of this year was Laughing and Weeping. A leitmotif of
the conference was that psychological heeling takes place when one looks
at one's own life and weeps at all the dukkha one has caused others
through one's own incompetence, and then laughs at one's own folly. The
people who were talking about the enneagram (mostly Russ Hudson and
Richard Rohr) were showing how it can be used as a tool to dig into a
deeper awareness of a lifelong of folly.

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

There is nothing special about monks, but I agree that most of benefit
by  meeting more happy people who have a daily contemplative practice of
some sort. Such people exist when one looks for them and can be found in
every walk of life and in every religious tradition. 

-- 
Richard Hayes (Dayāmati Dharmachari)