Sunday, May 9, 2010

Updated: Finding "the pearl" (within and without) and understanding motives better Part One



Updating on The Enneagram as one of many tools for self-discovery - Here are a few sources which may help with background if you have the time (remember if you are new that lots of short dips over much time work pretty well for most people with whom I've spoken. Keep in mind there are many variants within this system: here and here

Find here some nuggests to help three types with more yet coming....

Here is a little reflection about finding the pearl within ourselves and our cultures once in awhile as we go about making personal decisions:

To help us out - here are three sources for starters among our inherited wisdom - tried and true over many generations from many places. Two of these "wisdom threads" are certainly Rumi and the Enneagram and a third "thread" might be the vast body of our treasured literature as well as what is archived from our print media.

Jeanine Siler Jones, a teacher of the Enneagram, has put the first two together in a lovely manner and then there are a few items from literature and the printed page for a third type of "mirror". These are selected and placed here without planning or intentions yet as perhaps some small places to go and from which to depart.



This source is new to me and I am trying to find the exact link so I will try to give that or offer the little sampler of "solutions" for the other five "types in Part Two. While this source is new, I am hardly new to the Enneagram system and find it fun and revealing as a family pastime. You may have or find "translations" of both this system and of Rumi you like better. If so, please share these.

(Two) There is a force within that gives you life - seek that. In your body there lies A PRICELESS JEWEL - seek that. Oh, wandering Sufi, if you are in search of the greatest treasure, don't look outside, look within, and SEE That.

(Six) Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through distances. That's not for human beings. Move within, but DON'T MOVE the way FEAR MAKES YOU MOVE.

(Nine) The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you...DON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doors where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.

(Eight) Be helpless, BE DUMBFOUNDED, unable to say yes or no - then a stretcher will come from grace and gather us up.

The remaining NINE coming in one or several more parts soon...

Perhaps these few samples from hundreds if not thousands of Rumi and Enneagram sources today might cause Rumi and his scholars to writhe in agony? Yet for our purposes these may suffice as conversation starters with each ourselves and with one another? And do keep the conversation going...

The nine Enneagram personality types are divided into three centers of knowing: heart, head, and body. Every type resources all three centers but tends to rely on one of the centers more than the other two. For instance, if your Enneagram type is 2, 3, or 4, the heart center, you will rely more on your emotional intelligence, processing reality through this lens more often than through mental faculties used most by types 5, 6, and 7, or the body’s instinctual knowing relied upon most by types 8, 9, and 1. Developing all three centers gives us greater resources to broaden our perspectives and allows us to have more equilibrium when that is what may be needed - at least as a respite.



A few items perhaps "evocative" of memories or "wishes" to some with which to wrestle when there is plenty of space, comfort and equilibrium to be had...and then to say hello to your dark shadows (perhaps over much time) and see them slip away little by little (at least those certain ones?) Oh the healing to recognize the unhealed places and address them before the shadows grow...A tortured soul - perhaps the soul of many women worldwide? What could she have one differently or might there have been no other way? What could society have done differently? How might our passions be directed, redirected, transformed and when fully embraced to our betterment and that of the whole world's - not to forget the priceless children of us all? here

New York Times - Early 1900's here

And here are a few remarks about The Pearl by John Steinbeck (for me this is a favorite little story and an admired author for many years). This is a small tale with a universal impact and seems to fit well with this little reflection:

Patrick Shepherd:
Most people born and raised in America cannot even imagine the depths of poverty that most of the rest of the world are forced to live with. This story illuminates this fact, as we enter the world of Kino, a pearl diver and occasional fisherman, his wife Juana, and their baby son, Coyotito...

But Kino and his family, far from being depressed or unhappy (about their poverty) have a great treasure, the love they have for each other and their satisfaction with life as it is, with few disturbing dreams of greater things. But their quiet, routine life is turned upside down the day that Kino finds a Great Pearl..

...As a parable...the characters are exquisitely drawn...it is very hard not to get drawn into their lives, where their dreams and their pains very readily become your own.



From another top reviewer called "Taking Rest":
"...often when you feel something good is about to happen, a positive change for his characters that have struggled, and fought to survive, he slams you face down on bedrock's reality.

This book is very brief, but it communicates as much as a novel 10 times its length. The ending is brilliant, tragic, and redemptive. It is a story that few could write, and even fewer could make work. The emotional scenes he brings the reader to are at times almost violent...And then with a turn of phrase he can change the mood time and time again.

A wonderful novella from an Author known for sweeping sagas

End two reviews..

Let me add...this work has most universal implications like so much of John Steinbeck's writings...I read him all the way through high school and into married/family life...films made of us work are stellar even when stylized like -East of Eden- try to dip in a little bit...The Pearl is a great place to start and you will find many ways to do so for free Online...

Please keep the Conversation going here and with one another and thanx for this community of Peace and Kindness!

10 comments:

  1. http://www.bookrags.com/notes/pea/

    If you want to see the summary of The Pearl and there are many many others on line even videos

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  2. hmmm....quite surprizing....though I couldn't get it by first reading the post and still I am trying to understand what I read....

    But this is very intriguing and I will sure come back to read it again when I find myself on best in reading and understanding.....

    Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Yes Enneagrams helps to in growth of personality types and is an entertaining way to deal with a serious issue. Knowing one’s personality type and then attaining its perfections and avoiding and doing away with its pitfalls is a lively way of Enneagrams.

    THE PEARL is a real class, a story as you said can be written by few and then handled in a way John Steinbeck did is phenomenal. The Pearl deals with the most sensitive human sensibilities and gives a message that the most valuable and most endearing human quality is the human bond it is more valuable to man than a pearl even in the most abject and destitute conditions.
    A beautiful post my friend that is so welcomed on your pages and we look forward to next parts.

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  4. You are on the right track, Thinking, to see this piece as a bit of mystery...I imagine there is just a beginning here of pulling something together of the hidden little self which varies among us each and the hidden larger Self which has the same goals, longing, passions great and not so great...

    And then the pearl as metaphor both of beauty and of anti-beauty...

    I want to have several parts to this mystery as a way to find beauty and wholeness within and without even in the starkest realities...even within oneself and even within one's broken place in time...

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  5. Thank you, Dar Sahib, for helping bring light on topics here...

    You probably know the Enneagram better than most others here, including me and can help illuminate and create enjoyement as well out of this discussion which I hope to come back to several more times.

    The Pearl also seems to fit although this may be hard to see with this Part One as a way to bring each our unique parts to bear upon the dilemma of the boat of life, each our own poverty, each our own search and the dynamics between us each and all.

    I am so pleased you came by! :)

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  6. Enjoyed reading your post- I love the idea of the connections you made between the Enneagram teachings and "The Pearl". I am a tiny bit (ok, a lot) obsessed with the Enneagram... I look forward to readin your further posts on this subject.
    I wonder- what is your Enneagram type? Just curious... :-)

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  7. Rena,

    So glad to see your comment! This encourages me to hurry and do part Two.

    I'm gonna hold out for revealing my type but I just found a description I love more than any other.

    Let's keep this conversation going...I can do Enneagram for hours as well and find it a comfortable format for most small groups and often fun.

    Understanding this system and ourselves better through hit probably saved the marriage and has helped with understanding among all of us in the family...how about you?

    And how did you find this post? I look forward to reading your's as well.

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  8. Hello,

    I may have to miss some of the posting I really want to do regarding the Enneagram and The Pearl (but will try) due to a soon coming trip.

    Meantime, do take a good look at Rena's website and blog (she's the beautiful lady who just commented here) It's full of such interesting matters related to this and other discussions here.

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  9. So glad you liked my site! Didn't mean to pry on the type question- the only reason I asked is that I list my blog links by the author's Enneagram Type.

    I found your post through a Google alert I have set up on the word "Enneagram" on blogs. It has helped me network with some other bloggers- like you. :)

    I first got introduced to personality typing in my teens when someone showed me a copy of "Please Understand Me" which is all about the Myers Briggs types. I was immediately fascinated. I looked into various other systems off and on through the years, until in my late 20's one of my friends showed me "Personality Types" by Riso/Husdon. I was hooked! I had always felt that the MBTI wasn't deep enough- it didn't tell me the things I really wanted to know... the Enneagram was tremendously helpful to me in growing to be a more well rounded person.

    As a Three I easily get too caught up in projecting an image that's not completely authentic. It helped me get past being 'fake' and to learn to tap into the deeper parts of myself.

    I also love using it with my husband- who is an Eight and a really fascinating person- but so different from me- but in a good way! I feel like I better understand the way he sees the world.

    Starting and growing a blog has been a learning experience- but it's my little hobby that I do just for me and the satisfaction I get out of it- not for money, or other people, etc... It's been good for me.

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  10. Hello Rena,

    See my Part Two by same title for later in May here...

    Let me know if you can't find.

    I will soon let out the mystery with a few teasers as to my # on Enneagram and will try also to read more of your site.

    Thanx for coming by.

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