Since I still seem to be writing these articles, I thought I would address who (or is it what?) is writing. I’ll be brief.
After studying the Enneagram in among other things, including Integral, for around seven years, in 2021 I unexpectedly found myself becoming a member of a spiritual school, Ridhwan, which teaches a path, the Diamond Approach (‘DA’). Here, I am finally finding the answers to my many questions. I have also found a practice, Inquiry, that actually helps me to unlock the Enneagram’s utility.
This has had implications for my coaching approach, which has moved away from strict adherence to the Integral Methodology to one that looks a lot like Inquiry. Because I am not an Ordained Minister with the DA (the name for the Private Teachers), I do not do exactly what my own Private Teacher does. As a Coach, there is still a bit more direction/steering than you would get from a Private Teacher. But it’s as close as I can get it. I draw on the wisdom of Integral and the Enneagram as needed.
Many of my fellow Ridhwan students don’t have or use the wisdom of the Enneagram, which I feel is a shame. Likewise, many Enneagram students lack the perspective that a spiritual developmental path can provide.
My main curiosity in these posts is to do with the intersection between the DA path and the Enneagram body of knowledge, and I am writing about the subjects that I myself want a more complete clarity around.
It is a little difficult when you are immersed in a teaching not to sound like a carbon copy of it. Hopefully, it doesn’t feel like that to the reader. If there is anything that Integral taught me, it is that a view is just a view. Then again, the DA is an Integral Spirituality… if you don’t believe me, read Runaway Realization.
Onto the teaching on Space and the Enneagram.
What is Inner Space and why would we want it?
Space brings about expansion in the qualities of our senses, our sensations, and our mental capacities. It deepens our intuition, expands our awareness into new dimensions of ourselves, some we would have never conceived could exist, and it brings new capacities for perception and experience. The Void
Ever felt internally uncluttered, expanded, and like there is room to breathe? That’s Inner Space. Space is its own Essential Aspect. It impacts the heart and body (two of the Centers of Intelligence), but it is primarily a dimension of mind (the third center). When Inner Space is influencing the head center, there is a spacious mind, characterized by absence of boundaries.
Inner Space is important for our development. From the perspective of spiritual development, that is because Space, as well as being a pleasurable quality of its own, is the precursor to Essential Qualities, the true potential of a human being.
There are a few things between us and Inner Space. Something primary is representations, and in particular, self-representations. These are called Self-Images. Our Self-Images are who we take ourselves to be; we live our lives according to and from them. There are those we are conscious of and ones we are unaware of.
What is the Self-Image?
The development of the Self-Image simply represents a gradual building and structurization of boundaries in the mind space. The Void.
Working on Self-Images happens naturally when we pursue any kind of personal development work. In therapy, for instance, a lot of what happens is making an unconscious Self-Image (I’m unlovable’) conscious, and replacing it with a better Self-Image. We know that we have freed ourselves from a Self-Image when we start thinking in new ways and taking different actions.
To wait until a Self-Image has become seriously problematic, wreaking havoc in our lives, before we want to investigate and explore it is a limited approach. Also, the vast majority of our Self-Images don’t operate like that. Mostly, they go unquestioned.
We usually think of a positive or negative Self-Image. Indeed, some boundaries can be seen as “good”, as healthy or useful; others are more obviously limiting and false. But they remain boundaries, whether we call them good or bad. Some boundaries allow more freedom than others, but every individual has specific boundaries which limit his particular experience and action. The Void.
From the Diamond Approach perspective, there are no better Self-Images. All Self-Images obscure and occlude the aspect of Space. Therefore, the endeavour is to investigate and explore each and every one of them until our primary identification is not with any one of them, but with the aspect of Space itself.
Formation of the Self-Image
I will address the matters posed by the next two headings with a few choice quotes from the book on Space, The Void, which you’ll have already noticed I am quoting from a lot.
…the sense of entity and identity (self-boundaries) is established gradually in the first three years of life, and that is a process of fusion of many separate Self-Images into an overall Self-Image. This Self-Image is not the external image that most people think of as ‘Self-Image’; it is more of an inner, comprehensive, mostly unconscious image of oneself, of which the external image (basically the social façade) is just one part. The entire worldview of a person, the structure of his world, so to speak, consists of this overall Self-Image plus the total constellation of object images, in relation to each other.
…the Self-Image not only gives the individual his sense of personal identity, but determines more than anything else his subsequent experience of himself, his life, and his environment. It determines his sense of being, his inner experience, and everything else about him. The Self-Image is constituted, as Mahler says, of self-boundaries: not only special boundaries, but all the boundaries that determine the range of the individual’s experience, perception and actions… Self-boundaries determine what one is able to think.
The relationship between the Self-Image and Space
As some of the boundaries imposed on the individual by [the] Self-Image are dissolved, [a person] gains greater freedom of perception and action. For instance, as the “weak” person understands his “weakness”, as he sees its genesis and understands its psychodynamics, this boundary of “weakness” is challenged and gradually dissolves. As the person stops thinking of himself as “weak”, his actions in the world change. In fact, he starts acting in ways that he never thought he could, taking actions that only “strong” people could take, or even doing things that he had never thought anyone can do.
As a result, especially when this change of Self-Image is accepted, he feels his body and mind are more comfortable, bigger, roomier, more expanded. In the dissolution of a self-boundary there usually involves, sooner or later, a sense of expansion, of experiencing oneself as more spacious.
The body feels roomier and the mind less cluttered and more open.
In the experience of spaciousness and openness, one experiences the absence of emotional heaviness and a release of the sense of burden. There is mental clarity and a lucidity of perception. All the senses become sharper, as if cleansed and rejuvenated. The body feels light, relaxed, agile, and buoyant.
The different types of Self-Image
In the Diamond Approach, the distinction is made between four types of Self-Image:
The external Self-Image, to do with being a separate self in the world, deals with our roles. It marks the boundaries between us and others.
The internal Self-Image, to do with identity. These images deal with inner boundaries.
The external Body-Image, to do with the images we hold of how others see our bodies. Again, this is in the terrain of boundary between self and the world.
The internal Body-Image, the set of sensations that defines us to us. Again, the image here creates inner boundaries.
These can be divided into entity-based images (the first and third) and identity-based ones (the second and fourth). In practicality, they all add up to a sense of identity, a sense of self.
Each category of image is connected to a dimension of Inner Space, but this is not really relevant until deeper stages of spiritual work.
What we are most focused on here is the second type, the internal-Self-Image. This is the one that the Enneagram can help illuminate.
…the Body Image actually forms the core of the Self-Image. The Self-Image forms as self-representations are gradually built around the experience of the Body Image. The Void.
A timeline of the Self-Image
Initially as we begin to turn our attentions to our Self-Images, it can seem as though we have many disparate ones. And we do. As we are constantly creating Self-Images, we get new ones in response to our life situations.
Our external Self and Body-Images (categories 1 and 3 above) in particular have this changeable quality. This is to do with what I said above about our external Self-Images and Body-Images being to do with our boundaries with the environment. This is clearest when we think of changes to our family roles. The Self-Image of being a Loving Daughter can recede as the Self-Image of Loving Mother becomes foreground. Not everyone identifies with their roles heavily, but most of us do.
As you undertake this work, you can see how the latterly formed Self-Images are relatively easy to dissolve. You can start to get a timeline for them…one was generated at my first job…one in the process of buying a flat… a newer body one when I lost weight… The later ones are easier to dissolve once they are conscious. You hold the unconscious Self-Image with the conscious one and Space is experienced (more on technique below).
Our internal Self-Images, which to me are more interesting, are more stable. These early senses of self, who we take ourselves to be, are very determinative on how we experience life and other people. We live our lives in homage to these. We will talk about these more when we look at the Enneagram.
Technique
A crucial aspect of our technique is holding both images – the conscious Self-Image and the newly arising unconscious Self-Image – simultaneously in one’s attention for the Space to appear and for the effects to become conscious.
More now on the process of working on our Self-Images.
It all starts with Inquiry. We discriminate our Self-Images by Inquiring into them curiously, with boldness, steadfastness, openness and stillness (the Subtle Qualities, our most helpful resources). It is a practice. In the beginning, it is helpful to have a teacher or friend to inquire into potential Self-Images together. Eventually, they can and do just pop. You will identify yourself identifying quickly and easily.
In the process of seeing through the Self-Images, we see their fundamental emptiness and they stop being determinative of our perception.
Self-Images give way to more Self-Images…until they don’t
When issues around a given Self-Image are worked through, the next object relation unit usually surfaces, with its own specific Self-Image… the Work continues by understanding this object relation and dissolving its image, allowing the next object relation to emerge. This continues, going deeper into the person’s identifications. The Void.
As one Self-Image dissolves, we discover a deeper (or earlier) Self-Image and that takes the foreground. For instance, the Self-Image of being weak might been seen through only for the person to discover an identity of being an angry rebellious child. This identity might determine the experience for a while.
In order to truly understand the mind’s need for Self-Images, we need to know about Object Relations and Instincts too. These are the next two posts.
For now, I will say that Self-Images are one of a three part unit in the mind, which also has an Image of Other (Object Image) and a feeling tone (Affect) connecting the two.
In terms of the Instincts, there is a relationship between how they function and the Self-Images. Our Self-Images are how our ego thinks we survive. Therefore they have the energy of the Instincts, which get channelled (distorted) to continue that endeavour. We can weaken a Self-Image but it will quickly resurface whenever survival of the ego is at stake.
How the Enneagram is useful in discriminating Self-Images and freeing up Inner Space
Enneagram teacher Don Riso’s book, Personality Types, actually identifies the Internal Self-Images for each type. These are pretty good. Riso was one of the first Enneagram teachers, as well as a student of the Diamond Approach. We can trust that he was in the ballpark.
Core Self-Image for each type from Riso’s Personality Types
Eight – I must be in control of my environment
Nine – My participation in the world isn’t important
One – I am in the position to judge objectively
Two – I’m not allowed to take care of myself and my own needs
Three – My value is dependent on other people’s good regard
Four – I’m inherently more flawed than others – missing something that others have
Five – I’m separate from the environment (an outside observer)
Six – I must rely on something or someone for my security
Seven – I require specific objects and experiences in order to be fulfilled
Upon initially reading, these may not seem irrelevant. They are not close to awareness. Recall that the ones closer to conscious awareness are the external Self-Images.
The Enneagram shows us how all of our Self and Body-Images interconnect around that core one. It shows us the cohesive whole, the overriding pattern to our Self-Images.
What follows are my more personal theories/observations, and I haven’t vetted them with either a Diamond Approach teacher or an Enneagram teacher.
Self-Images related to the Connected types
I seem to have strong Self-Images that are in the territory of the connected types more so than the other types on the Enneagram. They are so strong that I actually feel like those two types. To make things very plain, I have a Twosih Self-Image around being what others want and need, and a Oneish Self-Image around being responsible (they’re related, these two). They pop in my experience a lot more than my image of being flawed and missing something essential, which I am sure is also there, but is not so close to awareness.
If you know the Enneagram quite well, you will be able to isolate which Self-Images seem like they come from other types. If not, read type descriptions (there are some on this site).
Self-Images related to instincts patterning
I have observed in myself and others Self-Images locked into place as a result of our patterning of the Instincts. This stands to reason: our Instincts are responsible for how we function in the world, how we actually live. Our patterning with them creates problems – weaknesses, incapacities, over-compensations, inadequacies, patchy development. Our minds form Self-Images, probably especially from the most problematic Instinct (usually either the dominant or repressed). Off the top of my head, some potential Self-Images connected with distortions in each drive:
Self-preservation – I’m impractical, incapable, don’t have what it takes to survive
Sexual – I’m unattractive, uncreative, not interesting, uncompelling
Social – I’m misunderstood, irrelevant
A good way to grok the Self-Images that happen as a result of distortions in the Instincts is to read the profiles of instinct distortions for each type (these are detailed on this site for each type).
Self-Images related to the Passions
The Passions mark the emotional/feeling territory of each type, although they penetrate the other Centers too, affecting our thoughts and our actions. I find it useful to think of the Passions as addictions. I have discovered Self-Images connected to the running of my type’s Passion. Here are some I can envisage for each type:
Lust – I’m too much
Sloth – I’m incapable
Anger – I’m right
Pride – They need me
Deceit – I’m above the rules
Envy – I’m superior /inferior
Avarice – I am easily overwhelmed
Fear – I am scared
Gluttony – I am deprived
As I said, these are just my insights and observations. Riso’s work is the main thing to take into your personal Inquiries.
Outcomes of this line of work
The insights that we get from attention on our Self-Images, although powerful, will not necessarily immediately translate into freer functioning. Living our realizations is a whole other line of work, entailing work on the Instincts. A Self-Image can dissolve and liberate our thinking and action-taking, only to reappear when the Instinct perceives a threat.
That said, having Inner Space is a lot!
Perhaps an obvious thing to mention is that many of our Self-Images house true capacities. If you have been taking yourself to be a desirable object, for instance, then you probably have a great many enviable capacities! Likewise, the more negative Self-Images tend to create silos of incapacity, where there has been neglect and ill-attention. It is good to try to be neutral about this situation. The positive news is that discriminating the Self-Image – along with the ever-present, our buddy the Inner Critic/ SuperEgo – tends to generate the lifeforce needed to tackle the problematic life area.
Looking at our Self-Images will surface anxiety, fear, frustration, maybe even aggression/hatred. Anxiety and fear because our Self-Images provide support for our sense of self, and frustration/hatred because we can be quite powerless against them. We need a stable inner container to be able to hold these powerful emotions. Meditation practices support this.
Summary
- Inner Space is not only desirable in and of itself, it is necessary for spiritual development. Without Space, we are too crowded for other Essential Aspects to arise.
- Among the primary things between us and Inner Space are our Self-Images and Body-Images.
- Turning towards our Self-Images through Inquiring into our experience generates Inner Space. When we can hold an unconscious Self-Image against a conscious one, Space naturally arises.
- The Enneagram supports this process by clarifying the internal Self-Image which is really difficult to see, and drives a lot of the other Self-Images. It can give us a discrimination advantage over our fellow spiritual students.
- Our primary identifications are changeable. It may be that we are currently most identified with a Self-Image that seems to be in the territory of one of the connected types. It is best to be guided by the immediate experience, the presenting difficulty or challenge.