You aren't that...or that either
Cultivating Mindfulness for the Personality Typology Lover
Part of the human experience is living with a paradoxical identity structure. On the one hand, humans are meant to develop a solid ego to thrive in the external world. At least in this current iteration of human existence, we need our egos (at least some of the time) to navigate life. A healthy, strong ego gives us a sense of human power and imbues us with an intuitive awareness that we exist as individual human identities. We can accomplish a great deal by applying our ego defenses' gifts, strengths, and even deficits. However, we can also undermine ourselves or others when we feel inferior or inadequate compared to another ego. The human ego can push us to strive for more remarkable accomplishments or orchestrate our demise.
Those who have found systems like the Enneagram or other typologies often enjoy these systems because they help define the ego’s structure in a way that demystifies their own or others’ behavior. Being able to map one’s motivations, defenses, and behaviors can have a psychological benefit if such mapping is aimed at creating greater compassion and understanding for ourselves and others.
However, typologies (and quite honestly, any identification system) can dissociate us from the other more critical component of human existence: presence (aka, life force, soul, etc). This formless realm of the human experience is the underlying truth behind the content of the ego-made mind and is what gives rise to consciousness itself. Consciousness is primary, and ego is secondary. However, the ego, comprised of mental-emotional mind “stuff,” resides firmly in the world of form (or phenomena as the Greek philosophers called it), which is ultimately transient and, by definition, subject to dissolution.
Identifying, classifying, and understanding phenomena are human nature and help us make sense of our worlds. Over-identification with any system, form, label, or identity ultimately leads to greater confusion and increasing disconnection from our own and others’ “essence” or pure consciousness, thus creating an obstacle to genuine connection.
When we find pieces of ourselves in our type descriptions, Trifix, instinctual type, Myers Briggs type, human design profile, or astrological sign, we may be charting maps that can point us to who we are. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the spiritual urge to transcend these forms), we will ultimately always fall short of telling the whole story through the various arbitrary labels we’ve found. This is because these systems, while potentially transformative, are inherently limited because they are mind-made. Sure, they can lead to endless fascination, exploration, and complex analysis, and as such, they are what we often refer to as “mind candy.” But just like that bag of M&Ms, overeating can make you sick.
It’s vital to keep systems like the Enneagram in perspective. Giving them too much importance and explaining the universe through these mediums will eventually lead to greater identification with form. The more we rest our sense of identity in forms and systems, the more confused or distressed we become when those systems fail, or those forms dissolve. However, even within that over-identification, there is the potential for spiritual transcendence because the more we identify with what is not true, the more we suffer, and still, at this point in human evolution, suffering is often our most effective teacher.
The Enneagram is a valuable tool for explaining human motivation and behavior, but, as the Zen masters warned, the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon. You are not your enneagram type, Trifix, instinctual stacking, astrological sign, Human Design profile, gender, sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, or even species. These provide insight into our experience at any given moment and, at their best, put our experiences into contexts that can provide a way back toward peace when we’re lost. But they are not us.