The Enneagram of the Virtues with Russ Hudson

One of the great themes of Eastern and Western spirituality, is the challenge of dealing with human suffering. In Buddhism, the First Noble Truth addresses suffering as the reason for the Buddhist path, also major theme of of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In its original presentation, the Enneagram was not primarily a system of type — more precisely, it did not say that type was a person’s identity.

Rather, the type aspect of the Enneagram teachings came from the Desert Fathers of Egypt — the first Christian contemplatives — as a means to look at the forms of suffering that distracted monks from their prayer and meditation.

These teachings were a study of how we lose sight of the Divine. Yet, they also look at how human suffering is transformed by presence and grace into what came to be called the Virtues — the qualities of the awakened heart.

In this first module, you’ll discover:

• The specific relationship between the heart’s suffering, and qualities of presence and grace
• How working with each Enneagram point is a study of a particular state of “heart presence”
• The alchemy of restored presence as the process that begins to turn the heart towards its true source — its “Beloved”
• Each of the nine points as a specific journey of the heart
• The “alchemical gold” of inner work — the results of cultivating our true inner life
• How the Virtues reflect the qualities of a real teacher — the signs of someone who has actually been on the authentic journey of awakening
• The 9 Virtues as doorways to another kind of human community — the alternative to fear as an organizing principle

In this module, we’ll look at Type Eight, not just as a kind of person, but as an overall principle of life and a quality of presence. Those whose psyches are organized most around these Type Eight issues and gifts will have this teaching as a main path in their lives.

Here we look at how it is natural for human beings to feel fully alive, and to experience this in the heart as an exquisite sensitivity.

The ego seeks to have the aliveness without the sensitivity and thus creates suffering as a struggle to feel real and alive. As we presence this struggle, we’re touched by Innocence — a profound open-heartedness.

In the second module, you’ll discover:

• The natural state of aliveness and authenticity — a basic element of grounded presence
• How to recognize and experience the qualities of Innocence and Mercy in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of “lust”
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working with lust
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of lust
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Eight

In this module, Type Nine will teach us about the nature of Being, and what our heart is like when we have come home to the here and now. We’ll see the suffering that arises as we lose our direct experience of Being.

Those whose psyches are organized most around these Type Nine issues and gifts will have this teaching as a main path in their lives. It’s an extraordinary thing when a person truly feels at home in herself — grounded, confident and part of the vibrant world.

When we lose presence, we tend to feel adrift, and estranged from our own lives. The ego, not wanting to fully feel how distant we have become from our own direct heart experience, seeks to calm us by creating “our own little world” — a way to disengage from the full impact of missed possibilities.

As we presence this struggle, however, we begin to be touched by greater and greater engagement — a total commitment and love of exactly where we are and who we are. We will deeply contemplate and explore the experience of the Engaged Heart.

In the third module, you’ll discover:

• The natural state of harmonious, grounded presence — the sense of wholeness and flow with life
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities of full engagement in our daily lives
• The real meaning of the passion of “Sloth,” which is not “laziness” but rather a habitual state of withdrawn attention
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working with Sloth
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Sloth
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Nine

Type One directly addresses the reactivity in the heart which is the basis of much of our suffering. We want to be a force of good in the world, and to live a life of integrity and truth as much as possible. Yet, without presence, it is nearly impossible to not react to the seemingly endless array of injustices, distortions, untruths, and outright suffering we see. How do we support real solutions AND remain serene within?

In this module, we will see how awareness of our reactions helps us see the goodness within and around us — the source of true wisdom and integrity.

Serenity is not a given, but a quality of grace that grows in us as we learn to hold our reactivity and steadiness and kindness. Here, we’ll see how our outrage can be transmuted into compassionate action. We’ll contemplate and explore the experience of Serenity.

In the fourth module, you’ll discover:

• The natural state of goodness and integrity — whenever we open our hearts to present experience
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities of Serenity in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of “Angry Resentment”
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working with Resentment and Frustration
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Angry Resentment
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type One

Most spiritual paths emphasize the value of humility, yet often, our attempts to “be humble” result in a great deal of self-consciousness, and an attempt to rise above our needy human condition. We may associate humility with having few needs, and yet this is exactly the suffering of pride.

Type Two shows us beautifully that when we are present in the heart, we naturally feel connected with anyone we are with, we feel a deep-rootedness in our own heart, and we experience the joy of giving and receiving freely — part of the vast generosity of reality. When we are not present, we do not feel connected on a heart level, and so think it is our job to connect others or with others, to be the source of generosity, and to need as little as possible from others.

Underlying all of this is the deep ego conviction of our unworthiness and unlovability. Yet, when we are able to presence our lonely, isolated hearts, we find an infinite kindness toward our own and others’ suffering.

We stop rejecting our needs and longings and begin to understand what it might actually mean to care for our soul, for our hearts. In this way, true humility arises. We’ll explore humility as a compassionate relatedness with our humanness — to love the messy edges of our lives, and to realize that the most direct path to the divine is in the holding of all of our raw, beautiful humanity. We’ll contemplate and explore the experience of humility, and see its action in our lives and loves.

In the fifth module, you’ll discover:

• The tender aspects of presence — the sense of loving kindness natural to the heart
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the quality of humility in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of Pride, which is often misunderstood, is a major challenge for those in helping professions
• The tremendous pressure we put on ourselves to “be there” for others while neglecting our own souls, and explore the deeper states of our hearts when we notice that we’re doing this
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working with Pride
• How our spiritual paths can support this pattern
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Pride
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Two

One of the main causes of our suffering is mistaking ourselves to be the ego self. The problem is not that we have an ego, but that we think we are the ego. When we’re not present, we spend most of our time, energy, and imagination, involved in ways to enhance our ego self.

Since this isn’t actually the our “true self,” even when we succeed, we’re left feeling empty. So we throw ourselves into the next round of work to compensate. Thus, Vanity here means the suffering created by trying to make the ego be something it cannot be.

When we bring tenderness and patience to this part of ourselves, and as we start to recognize something of the nature of our true selves, we begin to develop the virtue of Authenticity; our words and our actions flow from the heart.

Increasingly, all that we do is an expression of love and service to the people in our lives. We enjoy what we are doing and it find great fulfilment in all of our activities, and meet people with a genuine open-heartedness which is unmistakable. We’ll contemplate and explore the experience of authenticity, and see its action in our lives and loves.

In the sixth module, you’ll discover:

• The felt sense of “being ourselves,” and simply being the truth of this moment
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities of Vanity in your daily life
• The narcissism of daily life and the real meaning of the passion of Vanity, which is the ego’s striving to be the “real me”
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working with Vanity and Self Deception
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Vanity
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Three

When we lose the sense of presence — an apparently inevitable consequence of ego development, our heart experiences the loss of contact as a feeling of loss and abandonment.

What we have lost is the direct experience of ourselves, and of our true identity. This is an enormous loss and produces great suffering. Our ego identities arises to try to compensate, but are constructs mainly of our interpretations of our history and a collection of familiar emotional states and moods. Our true identities however are mysterious — deep, profound and beautiful — and nearly impossible to “pin down.”

When we bring compassionate presence and some experience of the depth of our true identities to our suffering ego, we begin to release old and outmoded attachments. Our hearts seems to expand and to take on an oceanic quality.

The virtue of Equanimity develops as the ability to be with the full range of human emotions in ourselves and others without getting stuck in them. It’s a spaciousness of heart and one of the marks of a truly developed person.

In the seventh module, you’ll discover:

• The mystery of identity and how it affects our experience of ourselves and the world
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities of Equanimity in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of “Envy,” generally expressed as chronic disappointment and dissatisfaction with our lives
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working Envy and disappointment
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Envy
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Four

All human beings struggle with the awareness of our own and others’ mortality. When we’re not present, this awareness can be so difficult and overwhelming that we spend our lives distracting ourselves, or retreating from life’s apparent futility.

This can lead to the passion of Avarice, a radical withholding of ourselves and particularly a withholding of our hearts. We recoil from life and from contact. The world seems insane and pointless.

As we bring compassionate presence to this reaction, we begin to feel an implicit intelligence in everything that draws us back into deeper contact with the world. As this healing occurs, we develop the virtue of Non-attachment. We’re still aware of the fragility of life but this same knowing now produces great kindness and helpfulness — and we’re in service to alleviating suffering wherever we can. Our minds and hearts now work seamlessly together.

In the eighth module, you’ll discover:

• The quality of discovery and illumination of experience and how “direct knowing” operates in our lives
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities and benefits of Non-attachment in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of Avarice, which is generally not the withholding of knowledge as is often supposed
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working our Avarice
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Avarice
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Five

Many spiritual teachings point to fear as one of the primary drivers of ego activity. The Course in Miracles, for example, describes fear as the main energy that takes us away from love and presence. Here at Type Six, we encounter the question, what is this fear? What is causing it? And what is life like when we go through it and beyond it?

We begin to see that our lives run with an underlying layer of constant anxiety — a causeless and often nameless dread. As we bring compassionate presence and awareness to this fear, we begin to experience the virtue of Courage.

Courage here does not require danger, nor is it necessarily a response to danger. Rather, we’re concerned here with the courage of being ourselves all the way, of living our truths and seeing through the fears that turn us back from what we love the most. It’s a fullness of heart that supports us in showing up fully in our lives.

In the ninth module, you’ll discover:

• The miracle of our awakeness — the fact that we can be awake and aware of anything in our experience, inner or outer, and that this awakeness helps us navigate our lives more confidently and effortlessly
• How to recognize and experience more deeply the qualities and benefits of Courage in our daily lives
• The real meaning of the passion of “Fear” or “Angst,” which is more generally a chronic disappointment and dissatisfaction with our lives
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working our Angst and Anxiety. We will particularly look at how these states cause us to disregard our own inner wisdom, and to turn back from what really calls our heart
• The core suffering of the heart that is at the root of the passion of Angst
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Six

Sobriety might sound a bit austere when we first hear of it, but actually it is a quality of deep satisfaction and fulfilment that arises when we are truly at peace with ourselves and in touch with our inner nature. We might recall moments like this, and they tend to remain powerful memories even if they are of simple events.

Yet, much of life we are desperately looking for something to “fill us up.” We seek something to complete us, yet we’re not sure what it is. When we lose the direct experience of our presence, as happens for all human beings, we feel an inner emptiness that leaves us raw and restless.

We seldom experience this emptiness directly because our ego structures are constantly trying to protect us from the fear and sorrow that it brings.

Yet, when we bring compassionate awareness to this desperate part of us, we begin to experience a sustained and causeless positivity, or Sobriety. We’re not grasping after anything, and the richness of our lives brings a lasting feeling of completeness and freedom.

In the tenth module, you’ll discover:

• The miracle of our awakeness — the fact that we can be awake and aware of anything in our experience and navigate our lives with confidence and ease
• How to recognize and experience more the qualities and benefits of Sobriety in your daily life
• The real meaning of the passion of “Gluttony,” which is a hunger for experiences and not merely an interest in food and drink
• The various psychological and practical challenges to working our Gluttony.
• The core suffering at the root of the passion of Gluttony
• The resolution of the primary inner conflict in Type Seven