Enneagram type 9: all things Nine

[silke]

i'm feeling bored of the instinct threads, starting a new series on enneagram types.





Nine Qualities of the 'Enlightened' Being: Type Nine Chapter

The enlightened quality associated with the Nine (who is also known as 'the Mediator') is a capacity for reconciliation of opposites, synthesis, integration . It is symbolized by male and female deities in yab-yum position (what Jung calls the 'Mysterium Coniunctionis'), and by the Yin/Yang Diagram (which depicts the yin half of the diagram arising out of a yang core, and the yang half of the circle coming from a yin essence at its center). There is an interpenetrating nature to opposites which is recognized by the Nine in her wisdom.

The capacity for reconciliation originates in the appreciation, at the core of one's humanity, of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls 'interbeing', our essential interconnectedness with other human beings and with the rest of the universe.

It is difficult to find English or French words which convey the same meaning as tiep hien . There is a term from the Avatamsaka Sutra, 'interbeing', which conveys the spirit, so we have translated tiep hien as interbeing. In the sutra it is a compound term which means 'mutual' and 'to be'. Interbeing is a new word in English, and I hope it will be accepted. We have talked about the many in the one, and the one containing the many. In one sheet of paper, we see everything else, the cloud, the forest, the logger. I am, therefore you are. You are, therefore I am. That is the meaning of the word 'interbeing'. We inter-are. (Page 87, Being Peace)

According to Von Franz,

We are still probably aeons away from realizing such a state of free mutual interrelatedness among all human beings. A profound respect for the real 'otherness' of the other being or ethical group is needed as well as the intimacy of a feeling of identity. But even this is not yet the ultimate stage of possible development....There exists another stage..... which I would like to call a personal connection of fate through the self with selected people . ...It is a relationship with the Self in the other person, with her or his totatily and oneness of opposites. Only love and not mind can understand the other person in this way. This form of love, Jung writes, 'is not transference and it is more primitive, more primeval and more spiritual, than anything we can describe. That upper floor is no more you or I, it means many, including yourself and anybody whose heart you touch. There is no distance, but immediate presence. It is an eternal secret - how shall I ever explain it? (page 32, Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution)

Thich Nhat Hanh has in mind this 'mysterious something that makes any deep real encounter of two human beings possible' when he reminds us:

When you meditate, it is not just for yourself, you do it for the whole society. You seek solutions to your problems not only for yourself, but for all of us. (page 47, Being Peace).

The fact that, at some profound level, we 'inter-are' accounts for how it is possible, according to Von Franz, to mediate conflicts occuring between external parties through an internal reconciliation of opposites. By being able to maintain opposites in a state of dynamic synthesis within oneself, the outside world is brought into harmony.

This capacity for facilitation that seems to come naturally to the Nine can, however, degenerate into compromise and collaborationism . Instead of peace and harmony we have static states in which standoff, indolence and indecisiveness prevail, preventing positive change and creative movement. Let us call the D-quality associated with reconciliation and harmony 'stagnation, compromise and indolence'.