Meditation and Enneagram Personality Types
Assets and stumbling blocks
By Eric Lyleson, MA
The Enneagram system of nine personality types can help us understand the resistances to meditation and the obstacles encountered in meditation for our personality type. We also can see the assets they compulsively over-use and what are helpful remedies for each type.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Ones
Once type Ones get the idea that meditation can help them become a better person they can become very committed. However for hardworking Ones
it can seem like a waste of time that could be better used for putting effort into proving they are a good person or making the world a better place. Ones can take to meditation when they recognise the state of mind they are in is just as important or possibly even more important than what they are saying or doing. For example saying, “I love you” when you’re uptight and angry is rather meaningless and not nearly as meaningful as silently being with someone with an open mind and heart.
There is a meditation instruction that suggests your attention to be like the string of a musical instrument––not too tight so the string snap, but not too loose so there is no resonance. Ones tend to hold their attention too tight on their object of attention, which means they are repressing or neglecting much of their sensory and in particular emotional experience. This requires a lot of conscious effort, which means they can deprive themselves the peace and bliss of relaxing into the wholeness of their being. Type Ones may notice their tendency to try to be the perfect meditator and when their mind wanders get angry with themselves. This is a good opportunity for them to practice accepting they can’t control their thoughts and be grateful they became conscious of being lost in thought.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Twos
Type Twos can have difficulty doing anything for themselves and can perceive meditation as something selfish. They can have a hard time
acknowledging their needs and can see it as a weakness to take time out to nurture themselves. If they do take time to meditate as they settle into themselves they quite often encounter their sense of deficient emptiness stemming for they lack of connection to Being and neglecting themselves. If they allow this to evoke self-compassion and patience they can really benefit from meditation. However if caught in the compulsion of their type they conclude that mediation is not for them because it makes them feel needy and throw themselves back into caring for others.
When they start to feel some benefit from meditation, they can get caught up thinking about how they might help others by sharing meditation with them. Twos benefit from bringing their mind back from these compulsive ‘helpful’ thoughts to feel the emptiness or uncomfortable emotions that they fear. They benefit from giving to themselves what they give to others––especially giving their own heartfelt emotions their full attention. They can become motivated to meditate when they realise the more whole they are within themselves, the more they have to give others.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Threes
Type Threes in their compulsion are very goal driven and most of their time is taken up engaging in activities that further their goals. So doing nothing
(meditation) doesn’t fall on their radar. However when they realise that meditation can improve the quality of their state of mind and like a professional athlete who does mental preparation before competing they will begin to include it their day. This is a great motivation to start meditating, but if that is their only motivation they will remain stuck in the compulsive achievement based mindset and never inquire into the deeper aspects of being. It is not uncommon for type Threes to find themselves lost in visualising their goals and talking to themselves about how they will achieve them. When they pull their attention back from this and focus on their breath, body and heart, they will often encounter a sense of unworthiness. This has the tendency to drive them back into goal setting and planning. If they keep returning to their immediate emotional experience they will connect with an inner strength and stability that allows them to stay with themselves in a more compassionate of forgiving way. Threes can confuse the method with the purpose of meditation. Because they can be quite focussed and driven, they might become very proficient at keeping their focus on their breath of mantra or whatever, but then never relax and open to a deeper quality of being which allows everything to come and go and has no need to control anything.
Threes can be impatient. Generally to experience the benefits of meditation one must be patient––patient in each sitting and allow oneself to settle into Being and patient over weeks and months in order to experience the like term benefits (like becoming calmer and more patient).
Meditation and Enneagram Type Fours
Fours are often quite naturally introspective and enjoy solitude. However it is quite easy for them to get lost in ruminations about the past or fantasies
about unfulfilled desires. In the compulsion of their type they can be addicted to intensity and even good at manufacturing intense feelings to make their experience feel meaningful. This preoccupation with internal sentimentality gets in the way of opening to the silent still spaciousness of their being. Because their sense of self is often derived from their emotions they can feel terrified of losing themselves when their mind and emotions begin to settle down. They can find calming their mind by focussing on the breath as boring, which can cause them to give up or simply returning to their familiar emotional touchstones. On the up side fours generally are not afraid of intensity and it can help them face their pain and find out what is inside or beneath the pain and drop into the equanimity that allows the emotion not only to come into consciousness, but also to be released. Fours like to follow their moods and benefit greatly from making a commitment to meditating at the same time and place. Also by not getting drawn into every emotional impulse they can open to the spaciousness that can have emotions, instead of the emotions having them. Some Fours fear that meditation might make them dry and emotionless. They get wrong idea that meditation is detachment rather than nonattachment. With true meditation they will come to realise what they are giving up is self manufactured sentimentality or drama, not their genuine human emotions.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Fives
Fives might very well be the type most likely to be drawn to meditation. They are often good at guarding their space and appreciating solitude. The historic Buddha was likely a Five and many Fives seem to be drawn to Buddhism and meditation. Because of their love of concepts and ideas, they might read more books on meditation than actually meditating. They can get stuck in intellectually understanding something rather experiencing it directly. Like reading books on swimming, but not actually swimming. When meditating they can get caught in a detached observer perspective observing the thoughts in their heads with little or no awareness of their body. Instead of being the space which all sensory phenomena come and go, the try to maintain space between their sense of self and their thoughts and even more so feelings. The problem is when they relax their detached vigilance, the unacknowledged feelings tend to rush back in and overwhelm them.
Fives can spend a lot of their time in meditation thinking about what they have read or theorising about what meditation is, rather than resting in the silent spacious stillness of being. Silently allowing those instructions to point them into an experience can be helpful.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Sixes
Type Sixes can feel too anxious to stop long enough to meditate. They can keep themselves busy with doing, thinking or distracting out of fear that their
anxiety will overwhelm them. They can be highly motivated to meditate once they discover that it can help them to overcome or modulate their anxiety. However when caught in the compulsion they will doubt themselves and think while others can meditate they just aren’t capable. To compensate for this they might become reliant on recorded guided meditations, or being part of a group or an overly dedicated devotee to a guru. Rather than trusting they can be an authority unto themselves and their ability to discern what is useful, truthful and kind. When they turn their tendency to question and doubt themselves on to their fear generating thoughts they can begin to inquire into the silent presence of their Being. When they notice their mind running away with anxious thoughts they can benefit from dropping their attention back into their body and lean into the fear that is driving their worries and worse-case scenarios. Sixes might start meditating because someone, particularly an authority figure has told them to. Doing it because the are supposed to can leave them in an inner battle where they are doing it but feel resentful they have to or not doing it and feeling getting in trouble. All this changes when Sixes realise that meditation is a way of claiming their own authority and how to be an expert on what it takes to be comfortable in their own skin.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Sevens
Type Sevens can be one of the first or the last to come to meditation. Sevens are open to new ideas and experiences and like the idea of activities that
make them feel good. However they can be so busy jumping form one activity to another that they are never home long enough to sit still. They are often more drawn to practices that are oriented towards feeling good. They are naturally good at visualizing positive experiences or goals and that might be as far as they get in meditation. What they aren’t good at is letting their mind rest in silence and really be present with what is happening in their body or in the depths of their being. Sevens caught in their trance can be so afraid of boredom or pain that they can’t even stay with one pleasant scenario for long before they jump to another. This is sometimes referred to as monkey-mind. When Sevens get bored of this running from their essence they can become true explores of inner realms and appreciative of the new ways reality reveals itself moment to moment.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Eights
Type eights can really like the idea of being the masters of their minds and being able to direct their attention where they want. They also like the idea
of not being reliant on anyone else and being self-contained. This can make meditation seem quite attractive. They may avoid meditation because when turn their attention inward they encounter the vulnerable feelings they try to avoid by spending time trying to control their circumstances. When caught in their compulsion they might respond by stopping the meditation or by exercising their personal will and focussing on their body sensations and observing thoughts, but ignoring and numbing out emotion. When they discover that they can surrender into their vulnerability and that is the path to experiencing eternal being they can evolve into true spiritual masters.
Meditation and Enneagram Type Nines
Stuck in their compulsion, type Nines tend to be lazy towards their own growth and awakening. Their tendency is to numb out to themselves and
be unaware of their own aspirations and suffering. To choose to turn their awareness inward to their immediate experience feels foreign and pointless. Nines will start to engage in a meditation practice when they begin to see how the resignation is robbing them of a rich inner and outer life. Nines have trouble starting meditation practice, but once they do they can make it part of their routine. Nines often spend a lot of time relaxing with pleasant distractions like reading novels or watching TV or movies so they don’t see the point. While meditating they can have a tendency to fall asleep or get lost in comfortable daydreaming. They can tend to dissociate from emotion and just focussed on physical sensation. Nines benefit from being able to hold their focus and keep bringing it back when it wanders and remain awake when painful emotions arise. They can be motivated by the idea of how others will benefit from their practice and that it can help them become a more peaceful person.
Click to find out more about Meditation courses
Click for information about the Deeply Mindful Therapist and Coach Workshop
