Читать книгу Enneagram For Dummies - Jeanette van Stijn - Страница 44

The Enneagram offers a method of development; it’s a transformation model. Transformation is a word used in spiritual circles, and it concerns the transformation from the Lower Self to the Higher Self. (In psychological terms, that would mean moving from functioning at the ego level to functioning as a free person. It’s where the ego no longer has control over you.)

But what is spiritual? It’s such a broad concept and also quite personal, with many different views or interpretations. Many see spirituality as equivalent to a religion and believing in a God. For others, including myself, these are matters that are not necessarily connected with each other. One example is Buddhism, where believing in God is not part of the spiritual doctrine. Some nonreligious people lead spiritual lives. Conversely, not everyone who is part of a religious group follows a spiritual way of life.

Spirituality is, in a broad sense, how people experience themselves as part of a greater whole, when they feel a connection and unity with everything or seek to realize it within themselves. I also see it as when people welcome the Higher Self into themselves. This Higher Self may be God or Allah or even the Higher Self that is present within you. This can be the desire to live following your true self, your essence, and it’s based on higher values or virtues. An example of the latter is when people choose to live out of love. Love is the highest value on which they base their lives, and they strive for it above all else. The goal that people pursue — especially the ways in which they articulate that goal — differs from person to person. People who believe in God may formulate their aspirations in this life in order to feel closer to God. People who don't believe in God articulate it as something akin to becoming free. How one pursues this goal may make little difference at its core because if the goal is to feel closer to God, then the question is, “What stands between you and God?” If the goal is to become free as a person, then the question is “What stands between you and being free?” The answer is the same: You alone stand in the way: your ego.