Did you know that you are not your personality? Beneath your outer layers of self is an authentic, beautiful being exactly as it came from heaven. Discover this wonderful, real you and draw from its miraculous power in
Becoming Conscious. Learn from clinical psychologist and spiritual teacher Dr. Joseph Howell how to:
Find the root causes of your suffering and unhappiness.
Free yourself of the traps that seduce your ego.
Be renewed with a sense of inner knowing, childlike joy, and wonder.
Stop being driven by what others expect of you.
Increase your tolerance and understanding of friends, spouse, children, and coworkers.
Relate to others on deep, meaningful levels.
Grow in consciousness of your specific divine purpose and your connection to the planet.
Understand your repeated, selfdefeating patterns and learn clear ways to stop them.
Become consciously present.
Reach your full potential as Dr. Howell explains the powerful and deeply spiritual Enneagram and relates it to your life. Whatever your beliefs may be,
Becoming Conscious is a lifechanging journey.
Becoming Conscious
The Enneagram's Forgotten PassagewayBy Joseph Benton HowellBalboa Press
Copyright © 2012 Joseph Benton Howell, Ph.D.
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4525-5715-1Contents
Preface..............................................................................................ixIntroduction.........................................................................................xviiChapter One The Enneagram of Personality – A Passageway to Consciousness......................1Chapter Two The Types...............................................................................14Chapter Three Self Assessment.......................................................................33Chapter Four The Ego, Its Fixations and Suffering...................................................60Chapter Five The Three Levels of Functioning and Consciousness within Each Type.....................83Chapter Six The Secret Passageways of the Arrows....................................................98Chapter Seven The Wings of Each Enneagram Type......................................................117Chapter Eight The Instinctual Subtypes of the Enneagram.............................................122Chapter Nine The Ennea-Types in Cinema..............................................................148Chapter Ten The Emergence of Consciousness..........................................................163Chapter Eleven Christ, Children and Consciousness...................................................170Chapter Twelve The Soul Child.......................................................................178Chapter Thirteen The Enneagram of Holy Ideas........................................................197Chapter Fourteen Prayers of Spiritual Transformation for Each Enneagram Type........................224Chapter Fifteen The Return to Essence...............................................................245Chapter Sixteen The New Eyes and Ears of the Kingdom of God.........................................260Chapter Seventeen The Beatitudes of Jesus and the Enneagram.........................................269Chapter Eighteen The Flowering of Consciousness.....................................................281Appendix.............................................................................................299Spiritual Positioning System.........................................................................299Enneagram Worksheet..................................................................................301List of Figures......................................................................................304Notes................................................................................................305
Chapter One
The Enneagram of Personality – A Passageway to Consciousness
A passageway to becoming conscious is nearer than we can imagine. We can follow this passageway only by knowing the deeper aspects of ourselves as revealed by powerful spiritual truths. A profound reflection of these truths, the Enneagram, reveals to us our true self which miraculously opens the passageway to the land of conscious being.
In opening the gate of this transformational passageway we become familiar with our personality type as depicted on the Enneagram. By seeing far more deeply into our own being, we discover on the Enneagram of Personality the particular obstacles that block our type's ability to become conscious. These obstacles can be removed only through faith and spiritual transformation. Like lightening and thunder awakening us to a greater alertness, the Enneagram's wisdom sheds light upon what a dark night would have hidden. Revealed in a flash are our personality, its inherent imprisonments, and amazingly we also see our pathways to freedom! Let us now discuss this phenomenonal process.
In our new awakening, we discover that our personality includes "traps" of compulsive thoughts and behaviors, which repeatedly delude us into making the same mistakes which bring on much suffering. This unconscious repetition of the same thoughts and actions seemed to bring hope and satisfaction. Now, however, it is evident to the greatly suffering person, that these patterns bring overwhelming pain, instead of fulfillment. John Sanford spoke to this when he said "... the outer shells of the personalities of many people conceal a hollowness, an emptiness longing to be filled, with an accompanying agony of the soul". The personality driven by the ego can not be healed by ego alone. The Enneagram points out that we have identified with the ego who has fixated upon certain behaviors and thoughts that dominate and trap the person in unconsciousness. To turn and enter consciousness, the ego fixation must be replaced by something more powerful.
The Enneagram's wisdom blows away the shrouding smoke of unconsciousness by revealing the startling truth that our personality is not really our truest self! Personality is but a mask, a "social vehicle" in which we move among other masked personages. It and its ego can even mask one's true nature from oneself. Just imagine, the suffering we have born simply because we have lived as a personality that is not who we actually are! When this false self is unmasked, we are free to reclaim something that is holy, beautiful, and powerful: our deepest nature, our soul's essence. Living out of this real self, the suffering caused by unconscious living vanishes. Ego suffering is irrelevant now, because the world is seen through new eyes and heard with new ears of consciousness. Jesus spoke to the eyes and ears of spirit as they are used in perceiving reality. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mark 4:9) and "the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. (Matthew 6:22). These new senses of consciousness enable the person to perceive life not as a self among a conglomeration of separate selves, but as a living pulsating part of a greater unity of humans who all have this true deeper nature. To live as one's true nature (or essence), instead of as a personality of ego, completely reframes the reason for living and puts suffering in a new light.
When living unconsciously, life is seen primarily through the lens of ego. This lens views the world as a subsidiary of self. People are seen as extensions of self or as oppositions to self. Examples of the unconscious self include viewing oneself as a role, status, material worth, external appearance, and as a self-created story. In short, when living unconsciously, the self is seen as separate from the whole, and as the product of its' own story. This perception of life ultimately leads to great suffering in that the self, the extensions of self and the story of self, could never really heal loss, illusion, and the suffering they bring.
From Self to Consciousness
Knowing one's personality type can light the way out of this needless suffering. How is this possible? By way of answering this question, let us presume that the false personality is like a piece of masking tape. This sticky tape covers a luminous crystal which symbolizes consciousness. If one can unmask (untape) the crystal, the brilliant clarity of consciousness will shine.
We can begin the unmasking process by peeling back one small corner of the tape. In scraping our fingernail across an edge of the tape, a tiny corner is loosened and is now free; we can feel it between our fingers. Pulling this tab of tape away from the crystal, begins the removal of the rest of the tape in its entirety. One corner of the tape was the starting point for a total unmasking. This corner of the tape represents the discovery of our personality type and the type's ego fixation. Lifting away the first block to consciousness is the beginning of becoming conscious. It is the beginning of letting the light in and out.
There is a seamless yet fine line of spiritual reasoning that leads us through the passageway to consciousness. The following shows the sequence of challenge and transformation which link by link, forms a chain of consciousness.
The Chain of Consciousness
In knowing ourselves, we can know
our false self.
In being conscious of our false self,
we can see our ego.
In seeing our ego, we can know its
compulsions, traps, and illusions.
In knowing our ego's compulsions,
traps, and illusions, we can see the
cause of our suffering.
In seeing the cause of our suffering,
we can shed our ego and false self.
In shedding our ego and false self,
we can know our true self, our
essence.
In conscious awareness of our
essence, we can be that essence, free
from the old sufferings.
In being our essence free from the old
sufferings, we can perceive others'
true natures.
In perceiving others' true natures,
we can know we are from the same
source.
In consciousness that we all have a
common source, we can be aware
that the source is divine love.
In knowing we are from divine love,
we can embrace the sanctity and
interdependence of all life.
In being aware of this sanctity and
interdependence, we can see the
common shared needs for sustenance,
healing, and illumination.
In being conscious of humanity's
shared needs for sustenance,
healing, and illumination, we can
have compassion.
In having compassion, our fears of
"others" can be diminished.
In diminished fearfulness, we can
abandon violence to sustain, heal,
and illuminate our fellow humans.
In sustaining, healing, and
illuminating our brothers and
sisters, we can love them and
understand the connection of all
life to its planet home.
In loving others and understanding
the connection of all life to our
planet home, we can become
conscious of our planet's need for
restoration and preservation.
In being conscious of our planet's need
for restoration and preservation, we
can experience its divine essence.
In experiencing our earth's divine
essence, we can be truly thankful
and become more conscious of its
Creator.
In being thankful and becoming
more conscious of the Creator,
we can understand our specific
purpose.
In understanding our specific
purpose, we can live consciously.
In living consciously, we can flower
in consciousness.
This chain of reasoning takes us to consciousness, link by link. Helping us make a giant leap, the chain's first link is to know ourselves. Our having been "fascinated" by learning our personality type leads us to our true identity with its cosmic implications. In exploring our personality we can predict that more descriptions, nuances, and characteristics could be added to self, but instead, we are led to shed this self. We discover that the personality of self is really not the real us at all. We find that there is a truer self far more essential and deep than our superficial personality and its ego. It is the removal of, not the adding to, the false self that exposed the true self. In living in our true nature we are aware of and connected to all life. We see the limited centricity, short-sightedness, and futility of being driven by the ego, and identification with it. "Self" is redefined in a new and inestimable way. Living out of this "new self" carries vast implications for all life. It means being conscious. Consciousness brings life to its fullness. Without consciousness life on this planet will end.
What is True Consciousness?
What does true consciousness look like, and how do we know we have reached it? Consciousness, as we have seen, is an awareness that our vibrations, the energy we emit, our thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behavior profoundly affect ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors, the world, the collective consciousness, the collective unconscious, and the cosmos.
As this awareness grows, it increases its sensitivity to the reality that we are more than physical beings. In fact we become more and more aware that we are filled with an emanating life force that is far more `us' than is our body. We are aware that this life force is invisible, immeasurable, and within everything on the planet, including animals, plants, the planet itself and beyond.
True consciousness is awareness that all life and material substance share this same life force, and that there is a super intelligence within that energy that sustains it, protects it, brings it to its fullness, holds within it the blueprints of its design, and enables that life force to transform into new life or into another form.
True consciousness is also the awareness that all human life manifests from this Divine Intelligent Life Force. This force is love and is good. Though each human life is unique, a common alikeness in all humans is that their life force comes from the same Source of All Being. Consciousness naturally acknowledges that there is an inter-connectedness of all life which requires cooperation and interdependence between all life, and an interdependence of all life with its planet home.
True conscious living accepts and understands that agendas for self promotion and gain for our life as a separate entity, without consideration of the whole, is egocentricity. This comes from a narrow, unconscious and ultimately destructive view of self and others. Conscious persons are aware that such self promotion, at the expense of other life, is a product of the unchecked ego and its fixations. Consciousness is awareness that this is true of any collective ego as well, such as that of groups or nations.
It is known and understood by those who are truly conscious that the ego persists in trying to satisfy its wants and to defend itself against those it fears. It is known that all persons are susceptible to such inclinations as part of the experience of being human. It is through the process of becoming conscious that human self-centeredness and fear of others can be transcended. There are those who know this and those who do not. Those who do not know this will act from ego. Those who do know this will be compelled to live in true consciousness.
True consciousness knows and understands that the unconscious ego ultimately blocks the dominion, superiority, intentions and intervention of divine intelligence in the human experience. True consciousness knows that this intelligence is perfect, that it exists in our bodies, and that it intrinsically propels and governs the body as well as the earth and the cosmos. Those who are aware of this understand that unconscious ego demands want absolute authority over the body, mind, soul and psyche. Ego strivings want nature to go along with ego's overarching purposes. For the people of the unconscious, the ego is supreme. Others, nature, and God have tertiary and subordinate roles, although they may be "exalted" as all important.
True consciousness is aware that there are those who are aligned with divine intelligence and there are those whose primary alignment is with their own ego. Those who are blinded by their ego and its supposed needs cannot see how alignment with, and subordination to, divine intelligence could satisfy them. True consciousness assents to the fact that the blindness of the individual ego is the same with collective egos of families, groups, and nations.
True consciousness is also open to the fact that reality is a mystery to which we must surrender. To oppose the mystery is to assert ego's will. To align with the mystery enables one to join the divine plan and to use its force to better the person and the world. No one human or collective of humans can fathom the expanse of creation. Divinely conscious persons are aware that this mystery is unfolding, and that it is the real story. Those who are unconscious let their egos make up their own stories about life and the life of the world. Divinely conscious people know that the ego story is temporary and cannot offer transcendence or ultimate meaning.
True consciousness understands that awareness of the unconscious ego will be the starting point for finding another way to live. This new way to live invites harmony with the planet instead of conflict inside of self, inside of families, between groups, and between nations. Truly conscious persons know that any positive changes that are brought about are changes in consciousness first. True consciousness is knowing that a critical mass of people who recognize our common source, our common alikeness and the common sanctity of all life, will bring about a global shift in consciousness. This global shift could mean a mindset of peace on this planet.
True consciousness is the awareness that when we are able to shed our egos and live out of our essence, the basic selfishness and short-sightedness that affect humans will be diminished. Truly conscious persons know that the cycle of violence is born of ego's will. True consciousness knows that to stop the cycle of violence, we must place more energy into finding our true essence and living out of it, rather than putting energy into self and ego agendas.
True consciousness does not divide the world into dualities. For the conscious person there is no "we", versus "they", "black" versus "white", or "good" versus "bad". True consciousness knows that all is truly one and that there is light within darkness as well as darkness within light.
True consciousness is aware of the global escalation of violence among collective egos. True consciousness is aware that this is the first time in the history of the planet that its human inhabitants have the capacity to destroy the planet and all life upon it. This fact among truly conscious persons sensitizes them to the need for the unconscious egos of individuals and collectives to be brought to consciousness. They know this can best be done by raising the consciousness of people one by one. They know this must be done for life to continue.
True consciousness is aware that appearances are not necessarily what is real, and that life built on illusion will inevitably crumble. True consciousness includes the understanding that one must look past the egos and false selves of others to communicate with their essences (their true selves) even if these others are unaware of their own essence. True consciousness does not use gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnic group, or any other label to define a person's soul. True consciousness knows that true essence and spirit are channeled through being fully present to the moment. Conscious persons know that the past and future cannot be experienced except in the present moment. Only in this instant can we live.
True consciousness knows that the only permanent thing is the transcendent life force within us. True consciousness knows that the life force is spirit from the One Source of All Being, and that it is the underlying word or logos of all things seen and unseen.
True consciousness is not trapped in a static dogma, but reflects the movement, adaptability, and constant change of the body, the planet, and the cosmos. Therefore true consciousness is open to the unseen, to its divine mystery, and to the unforeseen ways that divine intelligence may continue to manifest its message and its will. Being open includes receptivity to all holy methods of discerning the divine message. Such methods include dream interpretation, natural spirituality, prayer, meditation, worship, various other religious and spiritual experiences, the arts and physical portals such as yoga, Ti Chi, fasting, etc.
True consciousness is living in totally receptive awareness of each instant, each breath, each blink of the eye, each distant and nearby song of the birds, each caress of wind upon one's cheek, each holy being in one's midst, including one's holy self, and the expression of God.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Becoming Consciousby Joseph Benton Howell Copyright © 2012 by Joseph Benton Howell, Ph.D.. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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