Discriminating Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Work with the Diamond Approach Enneagram Work

Where are you in your spiritual journey? Have you used the Enneagram to understand your personality but want to go deeper? The Enneagram can be a powerful tool for inquiring beneath the surface of your identity. Yet its transformative potential comes alive when integrated into a larger spiritual work. The Diamond Approach offers a holistic path that utilizes the Enneagram to transition from psychological to spiritual understanding. If you feel drawn to dig deeper and move beyond personality typing, exploring the Diamond Approach Enneagram work may open new doors of self-realization. Its experiential practices can catalyze your journey from ego to essence.

How the Diamond Approach Uses the Enneagram

The Diamond Approach, developed by A.H. Almaas, utilizes the Enneagram as part of a larger spiritual teaching. In contrast to using the Enneagram solely as a personality typing system, the Diamond Approach sees the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual inquiry and growth.

Stages of Using the Enneagram

In the Diamond Approach, the Enneagram is introduced in stages:

• After establishing practices like meditation and self-observation, the Enneagram of Fixations is presented, usually after three months. This helps orient students to their basic personality tendencies.
• The first step in exploring the spiritual connection to the Enneagram is working with the Keys to the Enneagram. The key refers to an essential aspect or quality that reveals the inner logic of each fixation.
• After 5-6 years of spiritual work, the Enneagrams of Passions and Virtues are introduced as a purification process. Students have enough self-knowledge to see their attachments and impurities.
• At later stages, the Enneagram of Holy Ideas helps transition perception from individual to universal. The Holy Ideas reveal reality’s true spiritual patterns.

Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives

The Diamond Approach synthesizes psychological and spiritual perspectives. Psychological understanding helps move into spiritual experience. Key practices involve:

• Inquiry into direct experience through questioning
• Recognizing mental positions and challenging them
• Opening up fixed perceptions to reveal spiritual truths

Working with Fixations

To become free of fixations, the Diamond Approach maps a path:

• Observe fixation patterns
• Recognize emotional reactions
• Contact suppressed difficulties from childhood
• See the delusions behind reactions
• Connect to the Holy Idea
• Embody the Holy Idea through spiritual practices

Complete Human Maturation

The ultimate aim is spiritual liberation and complete human fulfillment. This requires connecting to essence beyond ego fixations. The Enneagram supports this by revealing the Holy Ideas innate to each type.

The Diamond Approach does not treat the Enneagram merely as a typology system. It views the Enneagram as a gateway into spiritual development as part of a larger spiritual work.

Embarking on a journey with the Enneagram and the Diamond Approach Enneagram work is akin to setting sail into the uncharted waters of your inner world. It’s not just about identifying your type or understanding your personality; it’s about diving deep into the layers of your psyche, navigating through emotional currents, and discovering hidden treasures of spiritual wisdom. As you integrate the Enneagram into the holistic framework of the Diamond Approach, you’ll find that the map you’re using expands, offering new routes to self-realization and spiritual liberation. It’s an adventure that promises not just self-knowledge but a transformative experience that shifts your very understanding of who you are. So, hoist your sails and prepare to explore the vast ocean of your inner self—because the ultimate treasure lies in the journey itself.

Diamond Approach Enneagram On-demand Courses

In this 11-module course, Sandra Maitri and Russ Hudson will synthesize decades of Enneagram knowledge and teaching experience with a lifetime of Diamond Approach spiritual development and methodology to help us reconnect to our essential being through the Enneagram. Click Here for Access

This course explores how the particular ‘take’ on reality at the core of each of the nine types begins and the resulting belief structures, emotional patterns, and behaviors. Click Here for Access