[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 01:40 +0800, Piya Tan wrote:

> Interestingly I get a lot of non-Buddhists coming for my classes, too, esp
> the meditation.

For years I used to have an interesting assortment of people showing up
for meditation. There were some orthodox Jews, a Sunni Muslim from Saudi
Arabia, a variety of Christians, some Tibetan-oriented Buddhists, a
former Theravāda monk, and a couple of Zen practitioners. (I've never
been entirely sure what I was, except a superficial dabbler unable to
commit myself to anything that requires real work.) 

One thing that always fascinated me was what an apparently deep feeling
of love was palpable in the room at the end of our meditation sessions.
It was perhaps more apparent than real, since it often degenerated into
discussions once tea was served and people started remembering that they
had built their egos around being Jewish or Catholic or Sunni or Gelug.
People would start bickering about politics and religious doctrines in
pretty short order, pretty much as they do on buddha-l. It was a gentle
reminder of how impermanent everything, including peace of mind,
is---especially when people cling to their personal and social
identities. Sigh. It helps one be aware of how nice the world might be
if an epidemic of arhanthood would break out.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico