The language of intuition: the Enneagram

Since the earliest ages Man has come to practically the same conclusions with no more instruments than his thought and intuition. With them he discovers the Enneagram, symbol of the total Man and every integrated process.

Gurdjieff, who introduced the Enneagram in the West and a tireless researcher of the profound causes of human behaviour and the ways to transcend it, focuses his efforts in the practical Work on oneself on who’s psychological and self-transformation is based. In his extensive teachings we can read the following:

“According to an old teaching which imprints can be found in many old and new systems, a man that reached the highest possible development, a man in the true sense of the word, is comprised of four bodies.

The four bodies are composed of increasingly finer substances that interpret each other mutually and form four independent organisms, in defined relationships with each other but capable of independent action”.

These four bodies are the Physical Body, the Emotional Body, the Mental Body and the I, Consciousness or Will.

One of the most interesting ideas found in this system of teaching is that Man has different minds and that intellect is one of the minds he possesses. Man has three different centres and each of these centres is a “mind”. Each one of them represents a different type of mind (Dr. Maurice Nicol, Psychological Comments on the Teachings of Gurdieff and Ouspensky ).

He also makes continuous reference to the “mechanic” or “dormant” Man and the conscious Man.

The “mechanic” Man is the one that lives in only one centre and the results are incomprehension, confusion, the violent and destructive Man. The conscious Man is capable of using the three Centres simultaneously and this capability is the starting point of an evolution towards superior levels of consciousness that are characterised by mutual understanding or the absence of violence.

His three Centres are developed and hi uses them simultaneously: What he wills, hi knows it and acts accordingly.

The Platonic Philosophy, just to cite one of so many schools of thought, makes reference to the same when it classifies Man in three types depending upon the predominant centre: appetite, purpose or comprehension.

Oscar Ichazo names then centres conservation instinct, relation instinct and adaptation instinct.

The concept of centres as “functions” comprising the human behaviour could be considered universal as it has been present throughout the history of Thought. This fact affirms that the idea of the three centres is as old as Man himself and that he has had access to it only through observation and intuition. Cartesian Science confirms it today.

In the theory of the Enneagram, Man is perceived as a self-developing organism composed of Personality and Essence. The three centres mentioned above make up the Personality or Ego that conforms around the characteristic feature (pattern of basic intelligence): Essence is innate and is endowed with superior capabilities that facilitate intuitive knowledge . It is the source of human potential for development. In order to access its capabilities it is necessary to previously integrate the three centres of personality, in other words, to have free access to their functions . This state is characteristic of the mature person in whom Essence and Personality are united in a whole where qualities of essence are expressed and transformed into human action. Without having met this precondition, Man will not be able to escape mechanisation and his superior capabilities will remain inactive in prejudice of evolutive progress.