Revisiting The Relationship Between The MBTI and The Enneagram

3/29/2014 Revisiting the Relationship Between the MBTI and the Enneagram
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This figure, which
appears on the cover
of Maurice Nicoll's
book, is taken by
Ouspensky to be a
symbol of 'the
absolute'
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The Enneagram as Classic 'Double
Mandala' -
Part II - Shri Yantra, Kabbalah, and Inner Alchemy
John Fudjack and Patricia Dinkelaker - April, 1999
Abstract
In 'The Enneagram as Mandala' we
sought to show that mandalas may be conceived as
having a special kind of non-linear
ORGANIZATIONAL FORM that we
call 'liminocentric', in which the
center of the structure wraps back
around on the structure's periphery -
so that its innermost and outermost
reaches are identical in their
'undifferentiated' vastness, while
intermediary levels are discrete and
distinguishable. The two
incommensurable orders of
existence are thereby reconciled,
and the mandala succeeds in representing what Jung
called the 'Self'. We suggested that a special diagram
that is closely associated with the Enneagram (pictured
to the left) suggests that it has a liminocentric structure.
And then, in Part I of 'Enneagram as Double Mandala',
we noticed that the Enneagram was also intended to
represent PROCESS. Like other double-mandalas, it is
comprised of two figures which, in combination, depict
special kinds of 'movement' that are, in general,
conceived as paradoxical - impossible, yet nevertheless
somehow in fact achieved.
In certain mandalas that are amongst the most profound
and spiritually meaningful, both characteristics of the
mandala - non-linear structure and paradoxical
movement - are inextricably interwoven. In the Shri
Yantra, which we will be exploring in this paper,
liminocentric structuring is combined with a very special
kind of paradoxical 'movement', a primordial
sistolic/diastolic MOVEMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS, in
which awareness alternately (and ultimately
simultaneously) contracts inwardly toward the center of
the diagram and back outward toward the periphery, in
a manner that is most aptly modeled by a three-
dimensional 'spiral' made to wrap back around on itself
in a donut-shaped figure that is called a 'torus' by
mathematicians. Mastery of this kind of mental
movement is, as we shall see, the primary subject of the
early 'Yoga Sutras', which act as the theoretical
foundation for the meditational systems out of which the
mandala, as a profound spiritual practice and
visualization, originally emerged.
In the Yoga Sutras nine stages of 'samadhi' are
discerned.
1
They parallel the nine tiers of 'spiritual
evolution' that are represented by the Shri Yantra when,
according to authorities on the subject, the two-
dimensional diagram is conceived as a three-
dimensional object. 'Samadhi' is the special meditational
state that an individual can enter into when she becomes
capable of 'holding the object of meditation without any
distractions' and it thus becomes possible for her 'to
know the object much more intimately than in ordinary
thinking'. After the mind is 'pacified' in the requisite
manner, there are less distractions. With fewer simple
DEFLECTIONS of attention from one object to another
occur, the mind can be 'concentrated' at length on one
object, and the SCOPE of attention can be widened or
narrowed at will. The result is not only access to special
types of non-ordinary 'knowledge' about the object of
meditation, but also access to significant discoveries
that the individual can make about the nature of the mind
itself. This most fundamental kind of movement of mind,
which the individual becomes capable of 'in samadhi', is
what is simulated by the Shri Yantra, and reflected in its
nine-tiered structure.
When the 'mandala offering' that we described earlier
(associated with a specific meditation
practice in Tibetan Buddhism that is
simply called 'mandala practice') is
constructed as a three-dimensional
object, the nine-tiered structure in the
middle of the plate is visualized as
representing 'Mount Meru', at the central axis of a
ritualized cosmological scheme that describes the
fundamental ontological STRUCTURE of reality. But it is
also interpreted as representing the central column
('shushumna' in Sanskrit, and 'uma' in Tibetan) in a
complex network of channels ('nadis' in Sanskrit) that
permeate the individual's body. Different energies or
'winds' ('prana' in Sanskrit) flow through these channels,
which intersect in seven wheel-like knots or 'plexuses'
('chakras', in Sanskrit) that block the central channel.
The chakras are visualized as mandalas constructed
around undifferentiated center-points or 'seeds' ('bindu',
in Sanskrit). The network, in its entirety, is often
alternately represented as a 'torus' or donut-shaped
arrangement, with the central channel depicted as the
tube in the middle of the torus (the 'hole' in the donut).
2
In these systems that are devoted to 'inner alchemy' it is
CONSCIOUSNESS - as structure and process - that is
ultimately being symbolized. Profound personal
transformation is triggered when awareness is turned in
on itself - ie 'introverted' in a radical manner that is
depicted as a resorption or withdrawal of energies into
the central channel, through its opening at the bottom. In
Indian texts this is visualized as the unfurling of a
serpent (called 'Kundalini'), which previously blocked the
entrance at the bottom of the channel by coiled itself 3
1/2 times, in a spiral, at the base of the central channel.
As it unwinds and straightens out, it travels up the
central column, piercing each of the chakras in
sequence, in a movement that is CONTRARY to habit -
as the individual travels a path that reverses the order
originally traversed as spirit initially embodied itself in
form during the individual's physical birth, and
undifferentiated awarness differentiated itself.
In much the same way in which Jung sought to better
understand the obscure elements in an individual's
dream by drawing on the symbols that are their
counterparts in mythology (a practice he called
'amplification'), in these papers we attempt to shed light
on the Enneagram by comparing it to various other
mandala figures about which more is known. To this end
we explore the Shri Yantra and the Tibetan 'mandala
practice'. But as the insights that are embodied in these
systems seem not to be exclusively the product of
Eastern minds and may in fact be universal, we will also
turn our attention in this paper, albeit only for a brief
moment, to another mystical system that seeks to
describe the manner in which spirit 'emanates' into
matter - the Kabbalah. It also has apparently been
skip to
footnotes
diagrammed as a three-dimensional 'torus'.
Section One - The Shri Yantra
"There is no psychic wholeness without imperfection"
(Jung, in Spiritual Disciplines, p. 394)
The Shri Yantra, an ancient Indian figure that was
designed for use as an object of meditation, has been
so thoroughly discussed in the West that it has
developed a literature all its own. The advantage of
comparing this figure to the Enneagram lies in the fact
that the yogic practices with which it and similar figures
are associated, have been passed down in a reliable
and accurate fashion from teacher to student through
unbroken spiritual lineages that continue to flourish to
date. More thoroughly documented and clearly
articulated than the spiritual practices that are
connected to the Enneagram, the yogic practices may
prove to be an invaluable resource in understanding the
original SPIRITUAL intent of the Enneagram.
One might think of yantras as mandalas in which the
'form' aspect of the figure, as geometrically
represented, is emphasized. Both the mandala and the
yantra, according to Mookerjee and Khanna, 'exemplify
dynamic relationships concretized in the rhythmic order
elaborated out of the multiplicity of form'. But in
constructing yantras, as they explain, 'trantrikas
dispensed with conventional ideas of the dynamics of
form, and concentrated instead on another aspect. They
had recourse to the explanation of primordial forces and
vibrations in order to understand the hidden logic behind
phenomena, so that in tantric abstraction, form is seen
in the context of origin and genesis, in terms of the basic
impulse which shaped it.'
3
Unlike the mandala, the yantra is a 'pure geometric
configuration without any iconographic representation'.
'Whereas a yantra', Mookerjee and Khanna observe, is
a directly accessible visual form, 'a mandala, especially
of the classical Tibetan tradition, is a composition of
complex patterns and diverse iconographic images.'
4
This may account for why the double nature of most
mandala figures is not VISUALLY apparent, in the way
that it is, as we shall see, in the Shri Yantra. In order to
apprehend how the two 'orders' in a mandala are
combined, one usually needs to have some additional
information about the meaning of the iconographic
symbols.
5
In comparison, although the double-nature of the Shri
Yantra is subtle and elusive and can at first glance go
un-noticed, it is nontheless an 'open secret' - one that is,
as we shall see, readily accessible to any viewer who is
prepared to actually LOOK at the diagram, even if he or
she has little or no knowledge of iconography.
Meditating on the Shri Yantra
'The yantras are not only based on mathematical form but
also on a mathematical method. The artist must look beyond
appearance and penetrate to structure and essence...' -
Mookerjee
Closely consider the Shri Yantra as it is displayed in the
line-drawing below. You have probably seen it before,
on the cover of a book or in a photograph. There are
960 yantras, according to the Tantraraja Tantra.
Distinguishing itself from these others, the Shri Yantra is
the most celebrated, according to Mookerjee and
Khanna.
'The Shri Yantra, in its formal content, is a visual
masterpiece of abstraction', they say, 'and must have
been created through revelation rather than by human
ingenuity and craft'.
6
This is high praise indeed, and
might seem, at first, like an exaggeration. But it is not.
Although the figure is subtle, its profound meaning can
be discerned without having to know anything more
about the diagram than what is physically manifest in the
lines which comprise it. So take a moment to carefully
study it visually. Please don't assume that because you
are familiar with it, you have actually SEEN it.
Shri Yantra
What is unique about this figure? Treat it as a visual
riddle or 'koan', if you can. Can you see the puzzle that
is embedded in the very design of the figure? There IS
one, a puzzle that is subtly presented in a completely
visual form, without words. Please take your time.
Here is how one long-time zen practitioner described the
initial EFFECT that the diagram had on him when we
presented it without any further explanation and asked
him to visually meditate on it -
The visual effect of looking at the array of
triangles is of a shifting field of larger and
smaller triangles, giving almost a perception of
depth, as one triangle shifts to one either
larger and seemingly closer, or smaller and
seemingly farther away. The triangles forming
the array (i.e., not the smaller triangles the
main triangles form) are either equal sided, or
their bottom side is shorter than the two
vertical sides. The smaller triangles are
generally not uniform, although they are mostly
nearly (or exactly) equalsided.
This is a precise and accurate phenomenological
description of what may happen when one looks at the
diagram, but not yet an insight into its most essential
nature. Here's a hint that might be helpful in taking you
further into the diagram - What is 'wrong' with the
picture? Can you find the visual anomaly that is
embedded in it?
Not yet? Need another hint? Try SKETCHING the figure.
Its not easy to draw the figure. But why not? Put your
finger horizontally across the center of the figure. What
can you say about the remaining portion of the figure?
Now remove your finger. What do you see in the
horizontal center strip, recently covered by your finger?
Still puzzled? Take a look at the following two diagrams.
Which figure is the central figure in the Shri Yantra?
How do they differ?
The figure to the right is the central figure in the Shri
Yantra. The figure to the left was constructed by
removing the horizontal strip from the middle ....
Double Mandala
(Shri Yantra)
=
symmetric fringe
plus
asymmetric center
.... and replacing it with the SYMMETRICAL center that the remainder of the
design visually IMPLIES and therefore causes one to expect.
By now it may have begun to dawn on you that the Shri Yantra is actually a
cleverly drawn visual sleight-of-hand! It is an ancient
illusion that is a precursor to similar 20th century
perceptual illusions, in the same class of figures as
those produced by the gestalt psychologists. Like the
famous 'duck-rabbit' diagram, or the portrait of the
'young-woman/old-woman' (left), it demonstrates that
we can be tricked by perception when the figure-ground
relationship in a picture is reversed or otherwise
tampered with.
As in these other cases, the illusion that is deliberately built into the Shri
Yantra makes it very difficult to draw it freehand, as you no doubt came to
realize if, in fact, you did try to sketch it. In order to achieve the intended
effect one must keep in mind two goals that pull in different directions, just
as in trying to draw the portrait of the young woman/old woman, you would
have to keep in mind that every line you make is a line in two completely
different portraits!
But the Shri Yantra is no MERE illusion, meant simply to delight or entertain.
Nor is it just an object lesson in the psychology of perception. It has a
profound meaning, one which reveals itself only when the effects of the
diagram are studied in relationship to how consciousness becomes capable
of 'moving' in certain states that one can enter into in meditation. In their
(1975) analysis of the figure, Evans and Fudjack remark,
.... how can we conceive of the [Shri Yantra] as an object for
meditation? How is one to fixate attention on the diagram? Well,
at first glance the diagram appears to be a symmetrical
geometrical design and we know how to fixate attention on such
a design by staring at the point of symmetry at its center.
However, the Shri Yantra does not have a point around which
the design is symmetrically fixed. Zimmer alludes to this by
mentioning its 'elusive' center. So in focusing attention inward
toward the center we wind up at a point, line, or configuration
none of which is a satisfactory center of symmetry. We find
ourselves compensating the small center triangle, for instance,
by widening our scope of attention to it and some counterpart
that promises symmetry. But we pass to this wider symmetry-
suggestive area by a quantum leap, so to speak - we lose
ourselves and find ourselves staring again at the entire
configuration which suggests that the diagram is, after all,
symmetrically composed. So we focus in toward the center
again in search of that elusive point. We either become
dissatisfied or distracted by some other activity or we discover
the joke, the trick. The diagram is designed to appear
symmetrical when we take it, in its entirety, as an object of
attention, but is also cleverly designed to have no point of
symmetry. It is an illustration of paradox. Not so much the
paradox of time and eternity as the paradox of a symmetrical
object without a point of symmetry - a logical contradiction.
(C.O. Evans and J. Fudjack, CONSCIOUSNESS,
1976.)
Representing Systolic/Diastolic Movement Graphically
If you were asked to draw what is being described in the above passage -
the alternating narrowing and widening of the scope of attention that is
induced by the Shri Yantra - how might you do that? Without using words,
what simple geometrical figure or motion might you use to capture the
essence of this kind of movement? We submit that the simple spiral would
be the most apt and elegant solution. For the spiral naturally induces this
kind of mental movement, and has thus characteristically been used to
communicate or represent it. If, having drawn a spiral, we mechanically
rotate it in one direction it draws our attention into the center of the figure,
into a seemingly endless tunnel - an effect that has been used to induce
hypnotic trance. If we rotate the spiral in an opposite direction, it leads us
away from the center, towards the figure's periphery.
The Fraser Spiral (low resolution)
Like the Shri Yantra, this figure
draws our attention toward the
figure's center. Because of the
spiral? Look again - there is no
spiral! These are cleverly drawn
concentric circles, creating the
illusion of a spiral. See for
yourself by using your mouse
arrow to trace one of the circles.
We can think of the Shri Yantra as
a precursor to this diagram and, in
general, to 'gestalt' perceptual
illusions of this sort.
(The Task of Gestalt Psychology
by Wolfgang Kohler, 1969
Princeton University Press, p.43)
The spiral might even be conceived as a 'circle in which the center also IS
the periphery' - as paradoxical as this might seem at first. It is thus a figure
that BEGINS to suggest the kind of structure that we have called
'liminocentric', in which the outermost levels of the
organizational heirarchy (the circle, in this instance)
might be conceived as identical to the innermost level
(the point) - a structural fact that can lead to a
phenomenological 'vicious circle' like the one
experienced in the Shri Yantra, as we bounce back and
forth between center and periphery in endless
'systolic/diastolic' widening and narrowing of attention.
In one respect, however, the figure of the spiral fails in the end to adequately
represent liminocentricity. For if we follow the line inward, when we reach
the center we must turn around and head back if we are interested in
returning to the periphery. We can easily imagine extending the figure by
adding a short straight line that would directly connect the center of the spiral
its outer edge. The resulting diagram could be thought of as illustrating what
would happen were we to 'take a short cut' THROUGH the center, directly to
the periphery, instead of bouncing back, along the same line, in the opposite
direction. But such a line would make the figure look, at best, somewhat
artificial.
How, then, might one better represent movement THROUGH a liminocentric
structure? We might take a hint from composer Stephen Nachmanovitch,
who provides a wonderfully apt way of describing what it is like to move
through a piece of music that is liminocentrically structured. As he describes
it, in such a situation ...
We have a sense of Chinese boxes opening into one another,
until inevitably the final box opens up and contains - the first.
(Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play - the Power of
Improvisation in the Life and the Arts page 107
As Nachmanovitch implies, movement through a limincentrically organized
structure might best be represented THREE DIMENSIONALLY. And the
particular three dimensional figure that seems to best express a feeling for
what Nachmanovitch is talking about it, while
also maintaining the systolic/diastolic
movement motif that the 'spiral' so
adequately captured, is the 'torus' - a donut-
shaped three-dimensional spiral. When, by
using the torus, we move into the realm of
three-dimensional figures, we find a more
elegant solution than was available in our two
dimensional spiral diagram, as the center appears no longer as a mere inner
'end point', but as an extended channel through which one can pass directly
to the 'other side' of the figure.
When the donut's central hole is reduced to a very small channel, or even
one that is only as wide as a mathematical
point, and the figure is viewed from above,
what one sees might be alternatively described
as
1. a simple circle with a point as its center, such
as the one we discussed in Enneagram as
Mandala, Part I,
2. a spiral, or
3. a figure (like the one to the left) that is
suggestive of a 'vortex'.
A vortex, of course, is a cyclone-like funnel that is similar in shape to the
central part of the upper half of a torus. The nine-spoked vortex to the left
appears at the center of a mandala representing the old testament vision of
Ezekiel, found in Edinger's The Creation of Consciousness on page seventy
three.
In older theories of the universe, a presumed vortical movement of cosmic
matter accounted for the origin of the material world. In contemporary
physics a torus is utilized to illustrate something similar - a 'singularity' in the
space-time continuum which, on one side, is a 'black hole' into which matter
disappears, and, on the other side, a 'white hole' out of which matter
emerges or is created. Again, it is in the central column of the torus that is
thereby created that an 'objectless' state of affairs pertains, just as the
'undifferentiated' state of consciousness is experienced by the individual
when awareness is withdrawn in meditation INTO the 'sushumna', the
central column of her personal energy-field.
The mudra that is demonstrated in the photograph to the left represents the
offering that is made in the Tibetan 'mandala offering practice' and is the
equivalent of the nine-tiered structure that
appears on the mandala-offering-plate in the first
photograph in this article. The ring-fingers that
extend upward in the middle of the configuration
thus represent not only the nine-tiered 'Mt Meru'
that forms the axis around which the mystical
cosmology that is being offered is constructed,
but also the central channel ('shushumna') in the
energy system that permeates the body of the
individual. The complex arrangement of all of the
fingers in this mudra brings the two hands into a
bowl shaped arrangement that approximates the shape of the lower half of a
torus. And the manner in which the thumbs of each hand wrap around to
connect with the little finger of the opposing hand, instead of thumb to thumb
and little-finger to little-finger, is reminscent of a mobius-like 'figure eight',
suggesting that the three-dimensional figure that is being represented here
must have a non-linear surface, one that folds in on itself. The figure-eight
path is also reminiscent of the the movements (corresponding to the 1-4-2-
8-5-7 shape in the Enneagram) that we discussed in The Enneagram as
Double-Mandala, Part I. This suggests that the mandala-offering mudra is a
three-dimensional double-mandala reconciling two incommensurable orders
of awareness - the undifferentiated (represented by the center column,
composed of the two ring fingers) and the differentiated (represented by the
other digits).
But how does the structural advantage that we gain when we move from a
two-dimensional representation of systolic/diastolic movement (as spiral), to
a three-dimensional model (as torus), help us to understand the nature of
the profound spiritual TRANSFORMATION that the Shri Yantra, and these
other 'mystical body' systems promise? To answer this question let us first
turn to the Kabbalah, in order to refresh our memories about the overall
purpose of these spiritual systems.
The Kabbalah
Jill Purce diagrams the Ten Sepiroth that
comprise the 'Tree of Life' in the mystical
Kabbalah as a torus (left). Each of the
Sephirah, Dion Fortune explains, 'is a
phase of evolution', which, 'in the language
of the Rabbis ... are called the Ten Holy
Emanations'. At the center of the central
channel is the 'essential self'. The Ninth
Sephirah is 'Yesod', which interfaces the
material and spiritual worlds. It appears at
the bottom of the central channel, at the
point in the process where the spirit will
take form as body. 'The study of the
symbolism of Yesod', it has been said, 'reveals two apparently incongruous
sets of symbols', which 'partake of the nature of both mind and matter'.
Yesod is 'the all-important sphere for any magic which is designed to take
effect in the physical world'.
7
Again, undifferentiated awareness is mapped
onto the center of the torus, which is still and quiet, like the eye of a
hurricane.
Z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi describes the general purpose of the system - to
induce a personality transformation of the most profound sort -
The transformation of the ego is the first major step in
Kabbalistic work, because while a person may study the subject
assiduously, until he begins to actually change, it remains
merely an academic operation, no matter how much he may
work at theory and practice. To change means growth, and this
requires the death of the old personality and its useless
patterns. Because there are few who are prepared to do this,
Kabbalah is only for those who are willing to sacrifice and risk...
... Here, the interior and exterior events of a person's life are
dealt with in [different ways]. Depending on temperament, one
of the processes will dominate so that one person will be
considered a thinker, another a feeler.
... In Kabbalah one of the first psychological exercises is to
recognise one's own psycho-body type and to cultivate the
[others] in order to balance the ego. This is done by work on
theory and practice. For example, the thinker may be given
practical problems to solve, while the doer is made to write
poetry, and the feeler learns some intellectual skills. This
process also teaches the ego to become obedient and discard
many of its habitual patters. Often the process is long, and
sometimes the student will continually retreat from a real
commitment to Kabbalistic work. This crisis is often brought to
a head by the phenomenon that the person begins to undergo
change, so that sometimes he, and particularly his old cronies,
no longer recognize his personality. (Z'ev Ben Shimon
Halevi, "Order: A Kabbalistic Approach", in Order -
Maitreya 6, 1977, Shambhala Press, pages 36-37)
The author goes on to explain that this transformation of the ego is only the
FIRST step in the Kabbalistic work. 'To change means growth', he says,
'and this requires the death of the old personality and its useless patterns'.
Further achievements along the path entail 'the ability to operate not from the
ego, but from the self'.
So we are talking here about precisely the same kind of profound
transformation, which, in the introduction to this series, we identified as the
subject proper of our investigations - the shift from an Ego-centered
personality arrangement to a Self-centered arrangement. And here,
interestingly, we again see the torus used as the figure on which such a
transformation can be most easily mapped. Why? Because with the torus
we can begin to illustrate how 'undifferentiated consciousness' is
'differentiated consciousness' turned 'inside out' as it were, and vice versa.
And this gives us a glimpse of how the 'unconscious' (undifferentiated
awareness) is, and always was, integrated into 'consciousness'
(differentiated awareness). All we need do is adopt a perspective that is wide
enough to experientially acknowledge this truth in a manner similar to the to
how the torus 'represents' this achievement graphically.
Stepping Out of the Double Bind
Citing Evans and Fudjack's analysis of the Shri Yantra, contemporary
philosopher of science John Schumacher (1989) describes how the
diagram succeeds in '... opening attention, as it were, to the periphery of the
visual field', that part of the field that is normally relegated to the background
of consciousness. 'Consider the Shri Yantra', he says,
... an apparently symmetrical figure that actually has no center
of symmetry - staring at such a figure turns into a constant
shifting of the focus of attention from the whole to the center and
back again, and again, until ultimately we resist the shift to the
center, opening attention as well. (John Schumacher,
Human Posture,State University of New York Press,
1989, page 162)
When Schumacher speaks of the 'opening' of attention, he has in mind a
special state of consciousness that is relatively uncommon and is
tantamount to 'dropping through' the center of the diagram, as opposed to
merely bouncing back and forth between center and periphery. This state is
sometimes referred to by the yogic term 'samadhi', as Evans and Fudjack
originally pointed out. As they mentioned, the Shri Yantra is actually a visual
DOUBLE-BIND that pits the tacit 'assumption of symmetry' (subtly
suggested by the whole drawing) against the actual fact of the ABSENCE of
a point of symmetry in the diagram. For the viewer, the only way 'out' of this
visual double bind is to consciously RECOGNIZE the built-in contradiction,
and then ...
... the realization that the diagram is a trick approximates
'enlightenment' insofar as this realization is concommitant with
dropping the assumption that the diagram is symmetrical...
(Evans and Fudjack, CONSCIOUSNESS, 1976,
page 78)
This realization is commensurate, they explain, with the third stage of Yoga
as described in the Yoga Sutras, according to Taimni - in which one is
'purged of assumptions or attitudes in respect of the object of meditation',
and there is a 'reduction of the subjective role of the mind to the utmost limit'.
In Taimni's The Science of Yoga this 'third stage' is described as 'a new kind
of movement or transformation of the mind in which consciousness begins
to move IN DEPTH, as it were', instead of merely deflecting restlessly from
one object to another. As a result of meditation practice the individual
increases her capacity to hold the same object of attention firmly in attention,
while simultaneously concentrating or diffusing awareness at will, and the
object '... is denuded of its coverings or non-essential elements' and can
actually be psychically entered INTO in a way that it not normally possible in
everyday consciousness. Evans and Fudjack suggest that the 'denuding'
process that Taimni describes is tantamount to removing the object from its
contextual underpinnings, resulting in a radical re-orientation of the individual
toward it. A dropping off of the individual's habitual 'implicit attitudes toward
the object' are the result, and the object is seen in a totally new light, as it
were. The individual passes into or through the empty 'center' or ESSENCE
of the object. This special movement of mind, which breaks through the
objectness of the object, may be construed as producing an altered or
transcendent state of consciousness in which, in the words of Eliade, there
is 'recovery, through Samadhi, of the ORIGINAL NON-DUALITY'. In his work,
Following the path
described by a spiral
Taimni lists a total of nine 'stages of samprajnata and asamprahnata
samadhi',
8
which the meditator works her way through in progressing
toward 'full enlightenment'.
In the following passage, Atum O'Kane describes the role that samadhi
plays in the seven-stage inner 'alchemical' process taught by Sufi Pir Vilayat,
in which the individual's personality is 'dissolved' and 're-created' in a
manner that he connects with Ouspensky's work. It is in the 3rd stage of
Vilayat's process that the 'whole personality has dissolved', and the
'movement of consciousness' from the personal to the transpersonal
dimensions is completed. O'Kane explains -
This is experienced in meditations that promote SAMADHI,
dissolving one's sense of individuality and returning to a state
beyond all forms as in a deep sleep. The purpose in descending
from SAMADHI back into individuality is that personality can be
re-created. The last [four] stages are concerned with this
reintegration of the personality. (Atum O'Kane, 'The Art of
Spiritual Guidance', in Sufism, Islam, and Jungian
Psychology, 1991, ed. J. Marvin Spiefelman, New
Falcon Publications, Scottsdale Arizona, page 68)
So, turning our attention back to the Shri Yantra, we can conclude that the
anomalous asymmetry that has been cleverly designed into the center of the
Shri Yantra not only generates the attentional 'vicious circle' ('samsara' in
Sanskrit) that causes the viewer to repeatedly expand and contract her
scope of attention in a never-ending search for the elusive center of
symmetry. It also demonstrates that this kind of systolic/diastolic movement
of mind, when permitted to be taken to its ultimate conclusion, provides its
own antidote and is capable of transcending 'cyclic' consciousness
altogether. The 'trick' is to move THROUGH the center, through the
undifferentiated state AT the center, and back out again, but in such a way
that everyday consciousness has been turned 'inside out'. In the case of the
Shri Yantra this is simulated when the individual becomes conscious of the
anomaly that is central to the design. One must become aware of it AS
anomaly, and of the central role of that anomaly as generative 'mystery'. If,
after being acknowledged, it remains the focus of attention, the lens
THROUGH WHICH we see the myriad forms in the 'differentiated' world,
consciousness has been, in effect, turned 'inside out', and its liminocentric
nature is subject to continuous conscious appreciation.
The Self as Central 'Anomaly'
'The idea of the Self', Jolande Jacobi tells
us, 'is solely a limiting concept comparable
to Kant's 'thing in itself' [and] is thus
essentially a trancendental postulate...'.
9
This 'center' that is the 'Self', is, in other
words, not itself available as an 'object of
attention' and is thus MOST aptly
represented by ANOMALY or ASSYMETRY,
such as the one present at the center of the
Shri Yantra. It therefore cannot be
we approach the
center, but only
indirectly, in a 'round
about' fashion
A two-dimensional
rendering of a torus,
with the central 'hole'
reduced to the size of a
point.
approached 'directly', but only tangentially, in
a circumambulatory way, which, according
to Jung, can be represented by the
geometrical figure of the 'spiral'.
'The conscious mind is forced to
stand the tension [between conscious
and unconscious] by means of
CIRCUMAMBULATIO. The magic
circle thus traced will also prevent the
unconscious from breaking out again,
for such an irruption would be
equivalent to psychosis'. (Jung, in
Spiritual Disciplines, page 386).
Speaking of the Shri Yantra, Jill Purce says -
From the marriage between the
central point (the original non-manifest
seed Bindu), which is the pure
consciousness of Siva, and his own
first manifestation as the initial
involuntary and creative vortex of the
female Sakti (the downward triangle [at the center]), comes the
differentiation of the entire manifest world. Jill Purce, The
Mystic Spiral- Journey of the Soul,1974, The Hearst
Corporation, footnote 61)
But both the vortex and the entire differentiated world to which it gives birth
owe their existence to the 'anomaly' at the center. Like Emerson's 'wounded
oyster', who 'mends his shell with perl', the flaw at the center of the Shri
Yantra gives birth to an additional figure at the innermost reaches of the
yantra, the superfluous NINTH triangle about which we spoke in an earlier
paper. Whereas the pseudo-shri-yantra in the diagram above needs only
eight triangles (four upward and four downward) to complete the figure in a
pleasing fashion that has both horizontal and vertical symmetry, the anomaly
at the center of the actual Shri Yantra brings into existence this remarkable
ninth triangle, the curious 'black sheep' of the arrangment.
But like 'the stone which the builder refused' in the Psalm of David (118:22),
the piece that eventually 'comes to be the cornerstone' of the building, the
ninth triangle winds up as the manifest centerpiece of the arrangment.
'Sometimes the very sin of omission or commision for which we've been
kicking ourselves', composer Stephen Nachmonovitch tells us, in a passage
that is curiously reminiscent of the miraculous appearance - the veritable
virgin birth - of the ninth triangle in the Shri Yantra, 'may be the seed of our
best work'. This principle, a basic one in the TANTRIC psychology out of
which the mandala emerged, is the theoretical basis on which the 9 'sins' or
'drawbacks' that are manifested respectively in the 9 Enneatypes can be
correlated to 9 'enlightened qualities'. Nachmanovitch might as as well be
speaking about these characterological pitfalls associated with the
Enneagram types when he says ...
For a web site
that provides an
in-depth
description of
these nine
mandalas, click
here
The power of mistakes enables us to reframe creative blocks
and turn them around. ... (In Christianity they speak of this
realization as FELIX CULPA, the fortunate fall.) The
troublesome parts of our work, the parts that are most baffling
and frustrating, are in fact the growing edges. We see these
opportunities the instant we drop our preconceptions and our
self-importance. Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play -
the Power of Improvisation in the Life and the Arts,
page 92
As we have seen in earlier parts of this series, the eruption of the sacred into
the mundane is a central motif in the mandala. But now, in the Shri Yantra,
we see for the first time precisely how this eruption occurs - in the form of
the 'superflous ninth' that is conjured into existence as a result of honoring
anomaly. When the fortunate 'mistake' (in the form of a 'gap', or acausal
event, or incongruous element) is recognized as anomaly, and that anomaly
is honored as the centerpiece of the arrangement, as 'mystery', then that
which is marginal, fringe, 'liminal', is made central. And out of that creative
matrix that resides at the center comes a different KIND of 'object' - an
object with a somewhat different status, as 'unborn' yet 'manifest'.
Nine-Tiers, Nine Strata
We have thus come to a point in our analysis at which we can begin to view
the nine tiers along the inner column of the torus not merely as discrete
'stages' of development of consciousness, but also as 'strata' - everpresent
layers of the structure which can be (and are) brought into relief by the
systolic/diastolic focusing of selective attention in the manner perscribed in
the Yoga Sutras.
As Mookerjee and Khanna remind us, the Shri Yantra is sometimes called
the 'Nava Chakra', since it is composed of 'nine
circuits, counting from the outer plane to the bindu
[center]'. When the Shri Yantra is sculpted in
three-dimensional form, this results in a nine-
tiered central structure (literally nine STEPS),
which is often understood as the superimposition
of 9 mandalas, stacked one on top of the other,
like the chakras in the central channel in the
individual.
According to Mookerjee and Khanna,
Through contemplation on the Sri Yantra, the adept can
rediscover his primordial sources. The nine circuits symbolically
indicate the successive phases in the process of becoming.
...The nine circuits within the Shri Yantra move from the gross
and tangible to the sublime and subtle realms. (Mookerjee,
page 59)
For Heinrich Zimmer, the Shri Yantra was 'a kind of chart or schedule for the
gradual evolution of a vision while identifying the Self with its slowly varying
contents, that is to say, with the divinity in all its phases of transformation'.
10

The
Number
Nine,
As Spiral
'The nine [triangles]', he explains, 'signify the primitive revelation of the
Absolute as it differentiates into graduated polarities, the creative activity of
the cosmic male and female energies on successive stages of evolution'.
11
Here, as in the enneagram, the number nine is associated with successive
phases in the process of spiritual growth, and in the mundane processes of
birth and death, 'becoming' and 'deconstruction'. And the 'nine
steps' are also steps in the 'evolution of consciousness' - nine
phases, increasingly subtle, in the conscious integration of
'differentiated' and 'undifferientiated' consciousness, nine
stages in the reconciliation of 'emptiness' and 'form'.
But even more importantly, the nine constitute 'strata' - layers
superimposed, one on top of the other. Like nine steps, each
built on the previous step, or a nine-storied building, with each
level presupposing the previous level, there remain some trace
of previous layers in the present one. Like 9 Chinese boxes, one within
another, arranged in a liminocentric fashion, so that the innermost box
opens on the outermost - each hold an ambiguous place in its relationship to
the other. It can be construed as either container/context for another box
(indeed, for the entire series of boxes), or as a content WITHIN the others.
The difference is only a matter of perspective. Likewise, whether
consciousness is experienced as 'differentiated' or 'undifferentiated' at any
given moment is really a matter of perspective - a matter of how wide (and
inclusive) or narrow (and exclusive) the SCOPE of the focal part of our
awareness - our ATTENTION - is at the moment in question.
As we will see in the next paper, this fact about the nature of consciousness
impacts in a most important way on how we choose to view the Enneagram
as a personality typology. For only from our deepest faults can we extract
the most unfathomable treasure. And this process - whereby ignorance is
alchemically transformed into wisdom - requires us to intimately know the
channels in which consciousness runs.
Footnotes
1. I.K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga, 1961, Theosophical
Publishing House; Madras, India; page 38.
back to text
2. See, for example, the figure on page 174, in Lama
Govinda's Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, 1960, Samuel
Weiser Inc, New York.
back to text
3. A. Mookerjee and J. Khanna, The Tantric Way, 1977,
Boston, The Graphic Society, pages 49 and 51
back to text
Beginning of This Paper
Back to Front Page
Boston, The Graphic Society, pages 50 and 62.
back to text
5. This may be why Jung, who was not himself part of a living
lineage, missed the fact that all traditional Mandalas, due to
the meaning that they carry by virtue of the iconographic
meaning of various aspects, are 'double-mandalas' in the
sense in which Von Franz uses this term.
back to text
Boston, The Graphic Society, pages 56 and 62.
back to text
7. Fortune, The Mystic Qabalah, 1935, Ibis Books, New York,
pages 252-4.
back to text
8. I.K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga, 1961, Theosophical
Publishing House; Madras, India; page 38.
back to text
9. Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G.Jung, Yale
University Press, 1962, pages 127-9.
back to text
10. Heinrich Zimmer, in Mookerjee and Khanna, The Tantric
Way, New York Graphic Society, 1977, page 50. Mookerjee
remarks that the nine circuits mentioned by Zimmer are
associated with nine classes of yoginis (female yogis).
back to text
11. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and
Civilization, edited by J. Campbell, 1946, New York:Pantheon
books, page 140
back to text

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