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Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Eight

Enneagram Part One:
Body Center

A Tool for Significant Self-Knowledge
Sunday, February 23, 2020

If we consider it difficult for a healthy society to exist without the foundation of healthy individuals, it becomes imperative to recognize the political value of individual transformation. —Claudio Naranjo [1]

For the next three weeks the Daily Meditations will focus on the Enneagram, not merely as a personality typing system but as a powerful tool for the transformation of consciousness. While the popularity of the Enneagram has soared in recent years, the symbol and teaching itself have roots in several wisdom traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Sufism. However, it was not until the late 1960s that Oscar Ichazo began teaching the Enneagram as we know it today. I personally learned about the Enneagram in the early 1970s from a group of Jesuits who had studied under Ichazo and were using it as a tool within spiritual direction. Today it is widely taught as a way of understanding personality, addiction, relationships, and vocation. [2]

People who know the Enneagram in a superficial way think it’s about putting people into boxes, but it actually works to free people from their self-created boxes. While there are tests and quizzes that can help individuals identify their primary Enneagram type, finding our “number” is just the first step. We get to know our “number” so we can begin freeing ourselves from the passions, fixations, and fears to which our ego has become attached.

The Enneagram is not a strict law or code. Its nine categories are not meant to bind or restrict us to a certain way of being and living. Rather, it is a dynamic system that recognizes that humans are far too complex and nuanced to fit easily into simple categories; it supports the evolving, maturing human journey. It helps us develop our inner witness so we can be detached enough to stand back and observe our common behavior patterns.

Although the Enneagram can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and spiritual transformation, it shouldn’t be our only tool. The Enneagram is most helpful when used in conjunction with other practices like study, contemplation, therapy, spiritual direction, and life in community with others.

While self-discovery is important, it is not the Enneagram’s final objective. The Enneagram’s purpose is to help us uncover the traps that keep us from living fully and freely as our True Self in God (See Romans 7:20,22). When we get in touch with our Essential nature, we can use our unique, authentic gifts for the good of others and the world.

If you know the Enneagram already, my hope is that you will learn something new about yourself, someone you care about, or even someone you don’t care for very much. Compassion, empathy, and forgiveness—for the self and the other—are some of the great fruits of this labor. And if you aren’t familiar with the Enneagram at all, know that these meditations are simply pointing in the direction of a much greater wisdom to be explored.

Gateway to Action & Contemplation:
What word or phrase resonates with or challenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to do?

Prayer for Our Community:
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen.

Listen to Fr. Richard read the prayer.

[1] Claudio Naranjo, The Enneagram of Society: Healing the Soul to Heal the World (Gateways Books and Tapes: 1995, 2004), 177.

[2] For more on healing addiction, join the online course Breathing Under Water: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps, March 25–May 19, 2020.

Adapted from Richard Rohr and CAC Staff, “The Enneagram: An Introduction” (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016).

Image credit: Last Supper Study (detail), Andrea del Sarto, 1520-1525, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

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News from the CAC

Turning to the Mystics

A new podcast featuring James Finley, clinical psychologist and Living School faculty member, Turning to the Mystics offers a modern take on the historical contemplative practices of Christian mystics like Thomas Merton, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross.

CONSPIRE 2020

Our 7-year CONSPIRE conference series explores Richard Rohr’s seven themes of the Alternative Orthodoxy. For the final, capstone experience, watch all five of our core faculty—Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, Barbara Holmes, Brian McLaren, and Richard Rohr—teaching together for the first time. Join us online or in person in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 15–17 for CONSPIRE 2020.

Action & Contemplation

2020 Daily Meditations Theme

What does God ask of us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. —Micah 6:8

Franciscan Richard Rohr founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in 1987 because he saw a deep need for the integration of both action and contemplation. If we pray but don’t act justly, our faith won’t bear fruit. And without contemplation, activists burn out and even well-intended actions can cause more harm than good. In today’s religious, environmental, and political climate our compassionate engagement is urgent and vital.

In this year’s Daily Meditations, Father Richard helps us learn the dance of action and contemplation. Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find reflections you may have missed.

Click here to learn about contemplative prayer and other forms of meditation. For frequently asked questions—such as what versions of the Bible Father Richard recommends or how to ensure you receive every meditation—please see our email FAQ. Visit cac.org to explore other ways to connect with the Center for Action and Contemplation.

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Inspiration for this week's banner image: Our Intelligence Centers help us hear and invite us to greater discernment. . . . Discernment is our ability to judge what is good, true, and beautiful. Discernment is also the inner knowledge of how to act on that which we perceive. Our use of discernment relies on the clarity of our centered minds, the objectivity of peace-filled hearts, and the unobstructed impulses or instincts of our bodies. —Chris Heuertz