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Faisal Muqaddam – The Essential Enneagram as a Spiritual Path to Awakening

Interview by Eleonora Gilbert

Eleonora:  Hello, welcome to conscious.tv.  My name is Eleonora Gilbert and today my guest is Faisal Muqaddam.  Faisal is the originator of the Diamond Logos teaching.  He is a psycho-spiritual teacher and has been teaching in the Middle East and the USA for thirty-five years and for the last twenty-five years in Europe, Italy, Germany and Denmark.  Faisal was born in Kuwait and is a trained Reichian and bioenergetics therapist.  He has studied different systems of growth with esteemed teachers such as Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, Doctor Claudio Naranjo, as well as Middle Eastern Sufi teachers, which I thought was really fascinating in the conversation we had last night.  He is currently practising and teaching in California and Europe.

Iain interviewed Faisal last year and I personally was so excited about the conversations that we had afterwards.  On conscious.tv we have a whole series on the Enneagram and Faisal is going to be talking to me today about exploring the Essential Enneagram as a spiritual path to awakening.  Tell us about the Essential Enneagram.

Faisal:  Hello everybody.  Thanks for the opportunity.  There is a dimension of spirituality we call the Essential Domain, relating that title to different aspects of differentiated Being.  We have the Being, undifferentiated, a differentiated self, and myriads of qualities.  Some are major archetypes like love, beauty, clarity, power, will.  Each one of them is an Essential Domain, an essential quality.  We discovered a lot of those major qualities that we integrate in our work.  And the fascinating thing was realizing that these fixations, that we so much looked at from a psychological perspective, mental [perspective], led to huge limitations.  And the teacher who taught it warned us not to use it this way.  But [in] time, It became [a way of] ego-reduction.  As [if] by continually reducing the student to their fixation, they would be able to see it and somehow magically it will break, and there will be awakening.

Eleonora:  And when you talk about fixation, we also say type?

Faisal:  Yes.

Eleonora:  So fixation and type are the same thing? 

Faisal:  Yes, Enneagram type, or Enneagram fixation – yes and the idea by the name is that part of our mind got fixated, unable to move and unable to be resilient and maintaining one job, one quest, [that] is to recreate this archetype.  We didn't look so much into why is that.  We understand a little bit that it was the manoeuvre the child adopted to resolve some of the difficulties in life, in childhood.  And there are so many theories: that we are born in it… you name it, there is so much complexity.  But there was very little saying what this type is preserving.  Is this just a mental construct, a psychological construct or does it come from an origin, and if so what is that origin?  By inquiring into that, through Grace, through inquiry, through revelation, the picture began to be revealed that each type is an imitation, an attempt, and a preservation of one quality of essence, or one dimension of Essence.

So then the picture started to shine, it is not just a psychological, repetitive pattern, it is really an attempt to revive and to connect [to] a certain aspect of our Being, a certain aspect of Essence.  Then little by little, [over] thirteen years, the map unfolded and the dimension [that] each fixation is trying to reach or preserve became more vivid.  And in our work, knowing those essential domains, it was great to weave the Ennea-type with the quality and [with] time it opened deeper and deeper.  That by undoing, or by integrating the Essential Domain from which the fixation has originated, it led to greater freedom, it led to discovery of the essential dimension and that led to liberation.

Eleonora:  Can you give us an example of the various different essential qualities for each type, for each fixation?

Faisal:  Okay. The one that fascinates me the most, and the one that I will come to, was for me the Guidance, the aspect of Essence that has to do with the Guide.  My love for the Guide was so great, because it orchestrated this unfoldment, the psychological domain, the essential domain and wove it in such an unbelievable intricacy, richness and wisdom, that no ego can do.  I loved this aspect.  The Guidance is to me the crown jewel of the Essential teachings.

We call this the Guide, or we call it the objective perception or the Diamond Guidance or objectivity.  This quality is related to an aspect of Essence that has to do with knowing.  The ability to know, the ability to have differentiated wisdom, guidance, all of that and it helps so much in our unfoldment.  Yet this quality is beyond knowledge.  It is related so much for example to the Five on the Enneagram.  The Fives, their obsession, or their drive and their inspiration is to know.  To know or not to know.  To be or not to be, that is the Nine.  To know, or not to know, is the Five.  Fives, at the level of the fixation, are very fascinated with knowing.  They are so knowledgeable and there is no end to that starvation for knowledge.  They accumulate so much knowledge and all of that, and sometimes it is excessive.  And sometimes it is wonderful to know.  In this process, their preoccupation, the underground basis of their longing for knowing and for understanding is a longing for this aspect of Being.  This aspect of Being, one manifestation of it is Knowledge, its essence is the Knower

Eleonora:  Right.

Faisal:  So Type Five on the Enneagram is pursuing this quality but taking the information, the knowledge to be the Knower.  They don't know that the Knower is an aspect of Essence that is made of diamond that has the ability to differentiate the Absolute into knowledge, but also into all kinds of manifestations.  They get fascinated by the knowledge and forget the Knower and confuse knowledge with Knower.

Eleonora:  And the Guidance and the Knower are the same aspect.

Faisal:  So this aspect of Essence is perceived as a diamond and enables the mind to be clear, to be objective.  [It] brings the ability to know, but it is not just about knowing, it is not bound by the realm of knowledge as intellectual knowledge, nor by inquiry – it is the source of inquiry.  If you connect in your inquiry, you reach it, but then you drop inquiry and you hold the Knower and then inquiry turns into insight, into realisation.  This jewel, sometimes called The Angel of Revelation, reveals to you what is in the unconscious, it reveals to you the hidden kingdom, and functions in multidimensionality.  It is not just in the head and knowledge.  It comes in the heart and orchestrates beauty, art, poetry, intuition.  It comes in the belly and orchestrates impeccability, groundedness, the gentle warrior part, but often it gets confused with knowledge.  Also they idealise this quality, take it to the head and use it as a never-ending information of knowledge, which is beautiful but overwhelming you know.  So the inquiry is about what is the Five trying to do?  Realise that they are really trying to reach this quality and when they reach this knowing, this diamond dimension in our Essence, then a great deal of resolution happens in their fixation. 

So, the Five is the attempt to be the Knower.  And when they reach it, they are not obsessed with knowledge anymore, because knowledge has no end. 

Eleonora:  And when it comes to the other types?  I know you are fascinated with Fives, any other types that you could use as an example?

Faisal:  Yes, I can go over the whole map.  It was really fascinating, this discovery, that the [type] One in the Enneagram is obsessed or embodying and conflicted about this quality of appreciative love, unconditional appreciative love.  And this appreciative love is a very sweet, fluffy kind of love.  It is not a powerful kind of love, it is cotton candy, sweet, fluffy and has to do with the quality we call Pink Essence, which is a mixture of Red Essence and Brilliant Essence.  They mix, they create softness, they create fluffiness. And the [type] One in the Enneagram is living all their life trying to maintain this quality, to generate it.  So their fixation is not just an ego pattern.  It is trying to mobilise even the system to affect certain organs, certain attitudes [in order] to keep generating this quality – and they generate a lot of it - but paradoxically they always feel they don't have enough.  So the fixation is in over-work, trying to generate this quality.  And since they, every now and then get angry, they fall from the grace of unconditional acceptance, unconditional love, they constantly feel wounded and the story keeps going on.

Eleonora:  Right, they feel wounded and they seek this Pink love and they keep getting re-wounded and so it is a never-ending story.

Faisal:  Yes, never-ending.  The moment they feel angry, they are not any more Pink Essence.  So they feel they have fallen from their highest ideal.

Eleonora:  And to feel that Pink Essence, what is a [type] One to do?  Because the quality is there, present in all of us, in all the various types.  What is one to do? 

Faisal:  We all have this quality but Ones are like a nuclear fusion of Pink.  They have so much of it, but something within them does not see it, does not allow them to experience it enough; always making them feel hurt and a failure because they haven't healed the world from their attempt to heal it.  This pain, this continuous attempt to heal this ideal quality and to actualise it… and they fall short of it.   It [puts] the ego on an on-going [repetitive] process, like a gerbil in a wheel.  It never ends – generating so much Pink, but doesn’t do it.  In our work, the first step is to be conscious.

Eleonora:  To be conscious of the pattern. 

Faisal:  Of the pattern.  [Of] their fixation – it explains what it does, how it is doing it in terms of their mental pattern, emotional pattern, physical pattern.  Then little by little, [they can] go to the Essential Domain.  And by doing so, we also explore their childhood, what happened, what was needed in the family.  Little by little, we deepen the inquiry.  At the same time, by recognising the pattern around a certain quality, their consciousness begins to differentiate and [becomes aware] when the quality is there and begins to see when it is gone and the anxiety that comes when it is gone.  So they begin to know their specific anxiety and their specific resistance and specific superego.  It becomes more and more in focus, more and more orchestrated.  And we also focus not only on the feeling of this quality, but also on the organ of the body that is ruled by it.

Eleonora:  Okay, I want to stop you there for two things, so we can weave all of this in the other types.  We discussed earlier that there is a family hole that occurs and that is when the soul takes on a particular aspect that it constantly tries to come back to and reach.  In this particular case, type One is this Pink love, but also there is an organ that is related to that particular typology, that particular fixation.  So the family hole and the organ related to Type One – what is it?

Faisal:  The family hole – shall I explain the family hole? The theory is that we as human beings are [like] Swiss cheese, full of holes – something missing – and our parents were like that too.  We wish them to be these glorious Gods and Goddesses but they were humans, and [only] gods and goddesses to a certain extent.  So at one time in the family, let's say the family was going through a conflict - which is normal - and at one time, let's say mum and dad close their heads.  They don't want to understand each other, so there is impairment in the quality that can be generated by the head, [such as] clarity, precision, brilliance, overview [ability to see the big picture].  And another time, the parents, maybe they can understand each other, but they are hurt – they don't open their hearts to each other.

Eleonora:  So in the case of the Five, for instance, the family hole would have been lack of understanding?

Faisal:  Yes, it will be the Diamond Body, which brings understanding [that] was impaired.  They don’t want to understand. 

Eleonora:  And the child develops that desire to...?

Faisal:  To solve it, but I will come to that.  By saying, [in] the belly “What is lost?”  And what was lost is basic sanity, basic groundedness, basic ease – and the family is anxious, insecure, ungrounded.  So the belly centre has to do with groundedness, with relaxation, with ease and that is impaired, is not functioning fully, which means that one quality or another of the belly is blocked, or of the heart, or of the head is blocked.  So a soul comes to incarnate or reincarnate and it gravitates to a certain hole depending on its Karma, let's say.  So this soul, this baby lands in the womb.  And because of the merged quality [merging with primary caretaker], let’s say mum is blocking the quality of her heart and dad is blocking his heart, the baby, [while] his heart is developing prenatally in the womb as a structure, due to merging with the environment, [his heart] gets affected by the absence of this quality.  That to me is what 'born in sin' [means].  We were born in a ‘missing aspect’.  Sin to me is a diagnostic thing, not a judgement.

Eleonora:  Sure.

Faisal:  It is something that is missing.  Sin is a disconnect.  So the soul of the baby, in developing the body and the organs, struggles so much [in this example] around the heart.  And the heart is closed and the heart generates Gold, Golden Essence, sweet love that has so much richness to it.  The baby feels its Golden Essence keeps depleting, [the parents] block it.  Their heart is not open, but the baby is a mighty soul at that time, it is in connection with the Source.  It struggles, it generates Gold and merges and loses it, and then generates it again.  This process makes the Golden Essence the most dominant quality because its survival is happening around it.  So the system generates it more and more and that child becomes so much Gold, but through the attempt at releasing [and generating] it, and losing it, it creates subtle membranes of resistance to that quality, so they generate it more, but feel it less.  When they are born and their ego begins to develop, 1st year, 2nd year, there is a preoccupation with this quality, without knowing what it is.  They feel it as some kind of love and when this love comes, mum is happy, dad is happy, their hearts soften.  They begin to feel this is really the most important quality in existence.  They begin to develop some aspect of ego, let's say half of the ego mechanism is based on “to Gold or not to Gold.'

Little by little, the ego gets more entangled, more difficult, it separates more and more from the Gold; it generates more and more of the Gold.  Then this domain becomes dominant in the Essential level, but also in the ego.  The ego then limits its perception of Reality.  Reality becomes limited and focuses on, “How can I generate this?”  It is so important, and then that leads to an ego development that gets fixated around this quality because it is the survival for the family, the healing of the family and it expands as a cosmic approach.  Our dilemma is solved by love.  But the Five in the Enneagram says “to love or not to love is okay, but if we don't understand, what is the use of love?”  So each [type] is different, this one [fixates] on love, this one on stability.  Each fixation is like a jewelled aspect of Being that got overly developed and the ego is afraid to go and experience other domains.  It is focused as a guardian [of its particular domain].  The fixation, you can think of it as a guardian, the representation of an Essential Domain. 

Eleonora:  So the Golden Domain would be the representation of the type Two, because you talked about the heart?

Faisal:  Yes, yes.  The Two, for example, is so much about sweet precious love.  So a Two will see Pink love and say, “Yes that is sweet, but that is baby love” and [sees] another love which is Pomegranate, ecstatic, passionate love.  [But] that’s not enough, you know, you need most authentic love, it has to be 24 carat gold.  So then the Two is so occupied [with] offering the most precious love and then not only to offer this love, but also how can they manifest it?  So they turn their whole system into a vehicle, an instrument that manifests preciousness and beauty and that is another aspect of Essence.  We call it the Chandelier, the body of jewels, the body of manifestation, expression.  That’s when you go to a Two’s house… chandeliers –  my sister, she has ten chandeliers – she’s a Two – it will bring the festivity, the beauty... 

Eleonora:  So that we don't miss out Type One, we didn't quite finish it.  That was the Pink love.  Were there any other aspects for Type One?

Faisal:  A subtle idea which is that the Essential Domain is made of Dimensions and Vehicles.  The Dimensions are like you make the whole field of awareness as a pink ocean of love.  Within it, there are a variety of qualities.  You can have a sense of an individuated Pink person, “I am really appreciatively loving.”  The other one says, “I not only want to be it, I also want to manifest it”, so they go to Pink Chandelier.  The other one says, “I am not only going to manifest it, but I want to know objectively what it is” so they develop Pink Diamond.  Within the Field, within that Dimension, there are many qualities.  That is why when you look at Ones, they are different.  They are all about the same quality, but this one wants to make it personal, this one impersonal, this wants to make a celebration of it...

Eleonora:  If we move on to the Threes now, since we talked about Twos, what is that?

Faisal:  Threes sense that the family is missing contact and connection with each other.  So they feel they really want to connect with everyone and feel their needs, find what is needed and generate it.  Very close to the Twos.  Type Two feels what is needed through merging.  They melt with the other person and feel it – that’s their affinity, and the Chandelier manifests it.  And the Threes, they have a quality of Essence that can connect with the other person, really tune in and be one with them and feel [what is needed] and then they generate it, whether for a person, or for the family, or the community.  What is needed now is this [you feel what is needed now]… you feel it and then you set the Ferrari and you go.  They are generators like that.  So the quality of contact, and bonding and healthy attachment is a quality of Essence that has a feeling of resiliency.  It’s a conscious substance that senses.  And the Generator is another quality, so the combination of them [the quality of contact and bonding, and the Generator] is a magnificent quality of Essence that optimises the grand vehicle of the human structure in the Essential Domain.  There is a vehicle that is the ultimate vehicle that embodies the personal essence.

Eleonora:  And what is that vehicle, can you name it?

Faisal:  We name it in our work, the Stupa – at least, I name it the Stupa, the Pearly Stupa.  This quality is made of many jewels and each jewel differentiates Being into an energetic field and it is a dynamo.  Those who don't have it, don't function in life.  They can be couch potatoes, couch mangoes – sweet, but not dynamos, not generators.  That is why it is called the Heart of Enlightenment.  The heart that generates from the field of enlightenment: love, action, contactfulness.  The fixation in the Enneagram of the Three is trying to do it, which is glorious except it is doing it from the personality, which is exhausting.  Their adrenals get wiped out.

Eleonora:  And it is exhausting for everyone around them as well.

Faisal:  [Laughs]  Yes.  Let's go to the park, let's go to the park...

Eleonora:  Okay, moving on to type Four.

Faisal:  Yes, the Four, when they were born, what was missing in the family was an authentic sense of self.  Everybody [in the family] is missing their sense of self and [are engaged] in their own trip.  The mother may be an Eight and she wants to demolish all there is, and the father could be a Five and wants to hide from existence.  Nobody is there in their real self, in a simple way, in a glorious way, in a beautiful way.  So the self was missing in the family.  The personal self, not the impersonal self, this light within we call the Inner Star, or the Point of Light.  So the Four suffers so much because what was missing keeps eradicating their sense of self.  Nobody was looking at them as a person then, everybody was busy with their own trip.  So the baby starts to struggle around maintaining this ‘light’ inside and [in] time, it even tries to offer it to mum and dad.  You offer them the light, you offer them the spirit.  Except that they [say], “Oh, thank you, you made me feel a little bit good,” but they are not interested in your spirit, they are not interested in your light, they are fighting, wanting their own spirit.  And the child feels, “I am failing, even my light is not good enough.”  They feel wounded about their sense of self and the drama never ends and it manifests for the Fours as this drama, this intensity of the drama.  The intensity of the drama of the fixation is an attempt to make a little stone [become] sunshine.  When they see that, they ease their drama, they feel the loss of the self, the self merges within as a Being of Light - exquisite, gracious.  This quality is the central station of what all the Enneagram [types are] seeking.  The Enneagram is seeking to resolve: how to Point, or not to Point.  [All the Ennea-types are attempting to reach the Point of Light (the individuated true or essential self).]

Eleonora:  How to point, or not to point… What do you mean?

Faisal:  How to be the self, or not.  So the Five in the Enneagram says, “If I solve the riddle of existence, I could rest and they could put me on my throne again.”  The Three says, “If I can do all the jobs affectionately, then they will see me” and the One says, “If I can make them appreciate each other… and I appreciate the other.”  All the fixations are an attempt to solve the family hole, then they can be seen and loved and provided for.  Since that trip has no end, we alienate farther and farther.  The Four says, “What is really needed is the self.  Why are you having third World War when all you want is your own little Point of Light?”  So the Four says, “I offer” and the Four is sacrificing all the time, but they cannot sacrifice their Point, they cannot give it away, nor [does] anybody want it.  You know, everybody wants their [own] Point, so it is a failing task [for the Four to try to give theirs to someone else].  But at least, the ultimate purpose, for me is that we are all trying to find our self - back to this self.  But some went the way of, “Where is your ear?”  “It is here.”  [points to his left ear]  And the Four says, “It is here [points to his right ear] but it is just not the right ear.”  Because they take the ego to be the Point.  Their dilemma, they constantly confuse the little ego self with the authentic self and of course, that continually feels shameful.  It is a lie, so they are always hiding and all of those things, until one day they discover that, yes, their ego is fake.  They are not authentic, not genuine, but the fake one is holding the post for the genuine one.  And there is forgiveness for the ego, there is integration of the ego instead of trying to polish it, making it something different.  You appreciate this part of your soul, and then it can resolve. 

Eleonora:  It can relax and resolve. 

Faisal:  Yes, relax and just be yourself, share it.  But each fixation, fascinatingly, is all about the centre of a mandala.  There is another Enneagram [symbol] superimposed on the Enneagram [symbol], three corners to it that reach a pinnacle of twelve, and the top of that pyramid is self, individuated self.  The Enneagram is an attempt to undo the mind and the structures, resolve it in Being, in the Buddha nature, in the enlightened nature, then finding our uniqueness.  So the journey starts.

Eleonora:  Okay.  Let’s move on to Type Six now.  We did Type Five [earlier].

Faisal:  The Six realises that what was missing in the family was the feeling of solidity, of groundedness, safety, perseverance, will and the courage to continue to walk the walk.  They begin to struggle around that quality, which is Brilliancy and what we call the Citadel.  It is a quality of Essence that when it lands, you really feel solid, relaxed.  Your bones, instead of being calcified like rocks by terror, by fear and by trying to maintain the solid quality that you are relying on, your iron will - all of that relaxes and a solid structure lands and you feel, “It can take care of things.  I can have my bones breathe again.  I can have my adrenals rest again.”  So the Six is so much trying to be this impeccable warrior for others, and they can.  They can be so loyal, so devotional, so much there [for the other].  They generate a lot of Brilliancy and Knowing and Solidity, but when it comes to walking their own walk [clicks his fingers], it is gone.  They don't know how to administer this quality to themselves.  Once they discover this quality is being used for others, that's the beginning of recognition and then owning it.  And then they deal with the issues in the way for this quality to land [issues that block this quality] for them to feel safe, secure, grounded and [have] the courage to walk their own walk in life. 

Eleonora:  And to trust. 

Faisal:  And the Basic Trust comes.  Being will provide, the journey continues and the universe is here for us.  While in the depth of their fixation, in Sixes, there is the feeling, “I am all alone and because I am all alone, I will be there for all my people, all my friends,” which is beautiful, but the moment they apply it for themselves - and this applies to all fixations - their personality begins to disintegrate.  The personality structure is based on the struggle around trying to generate it.  Once there is no need for it, it crumbles.  Once it crumbles, it can lead to the Absolute.  Mind free from any fixedness, but it also leads to a terror of losing one’s identity.  What does Descartes say?  “I doubt therefore I am.”

Eleonora:  I think… “I think therefore I am.”

Faisal:  Yes, I think.  So to think, or not to think [for a type Six].   For a Four, to Point or not to Point.  For a Nine, to be or not to be.  The ego identity is based on this concept and once I don't need to think, I am just here.  The last struggle with the ego begins to emerge.  Armageddon starts, and then the dissolution of Armageddon.

Eleonora:  Okay, now Type Seven. 

Faisal:  Sevens, when they were in the womb evolving, what was missing in the family was the Spaciousness and the Openness to look and see all the pieces of the puzzle.  Mum sees only her view.  Dad sees only his view and they only see the family view versus the world view.  There is a tunnel view of a perception of reality and that limitation, of course leads to fear, leads to a lack of trust, leads to not knowing what reality is about.  Reality or the perception of reality becomes limited views and belief systems.  Then the baby loses the ability to see the variety of views about reality, and they are all valid, and that reality is greater than those views so the baby aspires to know the greater plan.  What is the cosmic view, what is the cosmic plan?  Of course they [Seven children] open that ability, and the family restrict it.  You know how dogmas are, one belief and sometimes we even demonise other people: these are bad people, these are good people.  Instead of being open and being fascinated with the richness of this culture, and of that one; with the richness of this neighbourhood and of that.  This ability to be curious, spacious, is what we call the Mind of the Presence, the Grand Mind.  The openness that perceives all the pieces fitting together in the puzzle, and in our work, we call it the Diamond Dome.  For the audience [and those] who are interested in this, there is a mosque in Iran called Shah Cherag and they built a dome inside the mosque of tiny mirrors and between them, they have lines of coloured mirrors: stripes of red, stripes of yellow, stripes of green.  At one time in my travels, I went there with a Sufi and he kept me there the whole day, around the shrine.  People came to receive blessings and we sat there and the sun came through the windows and in the morning, it hit certain combinations and the whole dome became, let’s say brilliant.  Then as [the sun] moved, it hit the red band and the whole dome became red.  It was breath-taking really, a master architectural piece.

Eleonora:  And the Diamond Dome is the essential vehicle, the essential quality of Type Seven?

Faisal:  Yes, and I remember my guide said, “Mind, the Cosmic Mind – not the Absolute – [but] the multi-faceted mind that can see the bigger picture.”  They made it there in Shah Cherag, an actual [structure], beautiful.

Eleonora:  Wonderful.  Type Eight?

Faisal:  Type Eight is the animal soul, inside.  This libidinal force in the baby and the energy for life… there is no force as powerful as the force for life, nothing, really.  Even death is part of it, you know.  It’s such a powerful force – that sometimes you see those little plants coming from rocks in the mountains. “Wow, Hallelujah, how could they even come from rocks?”  This force, this love of life, this ecstatic passionate love of life.  When the Christ gave the bread and the wine, he said “This is my blood, this is my flesh”.  What is he referring to?  Christ, in my dictionary, in my culture, is a roaring lion, full of love of life, Golden Pomegranatey lion that came to show us the glory of life and how we kill it every day by being nailed on the cross.  Our cross is our personality.  So the love of life, this wine of life, the Eight comes with it, which is like a tiger, full of life and power.  The Eight is amazing physically, the ability and richness they have in their body is glorious.  [At times] it is misused, fine, and sometimes it is well-used, fine, but you admire this phenomenon.  So Type Eight is about generating this ecstatic, passionate love, different from Pink Love.  Pink Love is soft and cuddly.  This one is roaring.  You want to dance all night, you want to drink wine to infinity; it is like nothing is in your way.  So the baby was struggling in the womb about the absence of life energy in the household.  Everybody is stuck, dull and sleeping, no aliveness, so the baby roars and because it’s been struggling around it, Eight has so much of this energy, they can go on and on to infinity.  So this quality is a mixture of what we call Black Essence, which erases mind [and] Red Essence which erases fear.  So you have no mind, no fear, you have Zorba.  Dancing, interacting.  Zorba is the archetype of Eights, while Buddha is the archetype of Fives.  This quality, of course, is so luscious because it is instinctual.  Even when it is distorted… still you are amazed at the amount of energy it generates, especially in the body, because it really revives the body, strengthens it and strengthens the heart to have the courage to walk your walk and to love the ultimate product of existence: life. 

Eleonora:  Wonderful and the vehicle of this?

Faisal:  This one is a Dimension, the same as Pink, an ocean of this Pomegranate.  Within it there is a Pearl, there is a Diamond, there is a Stupa, there is a Chandelier.  One person has this quality, one person has that quality…

Eleonora:  Okay and Type Nine?  Also I wonder – since we talked about the organs relating to each type - if we could include that?  Then we will go around the symbol again. 

Faisal:  Yes.  Nine idealises normalcy, they just want to be ordinary.  The ultimate dimension is just ordinariness.  “Why are you fluffing your feathers (if you are a Three or you are a Two), that’s narcissistic.”  The Nine does not want to be narcissistic, so their narcissism is to be ‘not-special.’

Eleonora:  What was the family hole, to develop this “not-special?”

Faisal:  First we define what is normalcy.  The only thing that gives this feeling of normalcy is Being itself.  Everything is special, everything has something about it, the flowers and all that, but when you feel Being, you feel normal; it feels like I am coming from insanity to basic sanity, to ease, to relaxation.  So Type Nine is constantly struggling around maintaining the Absolute - basic nature - and maintaining a quality of Essence we call Water.  The Water Dimension has to do with ordinariness, with ease, with relaxation.  When you hold the baby’s body, it is like water, liquid but mixed with little gold, so it’s golden water, pink water.  Babies are adorable, but their bodies are magical, you touch their skin, their suppleness and all of it is pure Being relaxing through the body.  So for type Nine, the whole field was dull or insane, and they are trying to maintain normalcy.  Normalcy has a sense of balance and ease.  When that is established, then their glory of individuation shines within it.  But they were not allowed to reach that level, they got forced into [believing], “There is nothing special about you, you are just one of the kids, we are just one of the people in the neighbourhood.  So just be normal, be ordinary,” which is true, but [it’s] not enough.

So the Nine struggles about how not to create ripples in the household, how to calm the waters so there is basic sanity.  There are ten kids in the family, mum is overwhelmed, dad is overwhelmed, all of a sudden you want gelato, then it feels like “Who are you?  We can't afford gelato, if you want [it], then the other kid wants this, and the other kid wants [that]”.  So the Nine is asked to delete their uniqueness, to disappear, and just be normal, don't create ripples.  In doing so, they have to control an organ that creates this sense of evenness and ease.  So they control the Pineal gland, which has the sense of calming the disservice in the system, pacifying the conflicting issues and harmonising all the energies.  This happens when the Pineal gland is released and begins to connect you, open the top of your head to the Absolute and the Absolute comes and normalises you.  The Absolute is very normal, enlightenment is so normal nobody wants it.  Then the Nine tries to maintain this state.  Somehow magically they can go to the Pineal gland, do something there, block it and have it, instead of producing serotonin, melatonin, which are the products which open up in the head when the Absolute is there.  These qualities bring pleasure, ease, normalcy, allow all the organs to harmonise without conflicting.  Since they cannot reach it, they have to control their emotions, their instincts, their reactivity, their preferences and they control the Pineal gland.  The Pineal gland blocks and then it produces effects that feel like numbness in the body.  So the Nine feels numb and the numbness is like fake normalcy - nothing is disturbing, it is like calm water.  So that is the speciality of the Nine.

Eleonora:  And Type One?

Faisal:  The medulla, the stem of the brain.  It controls the instincts, the animal impulses and part of the animal impulse is like… you see the little cubs, they struggle, they fight, and all those things, but when it is asked to be perfect, to be good, and “Good kids don't fight.  Don't get angry.  Don't throw a tantrum”.  So they are struggling with their natural impulses.  They really want to pick [up] the cat by its tail and swing it, but then you are not a good girl, or a good boy.  So in order to control and suppress those impulses of the animal soul, they have to go to the controller of the impulse.  Those impulses are in the pelvis, they are in the perineum, the sacrum, the solar plexus - these are the instinctual domain.  In the Essential Enneagram, the instincts are located in the lower centres, the passion in the heart and the concept in the head.  So they apply this organ of the brain that controls the lower centres and shut down the rage, the anger, everything that we call improper.  So they cultivate a lot of neck problems, brain [problems], and the top of the head.

Type Nine, One and Eight, suffer from a ‘shrinking’ of the head: migraines, headaches, dullness, limitation of [inner] spaciousness, limitation [limiting the flow] of the liquid around the sac the brain, because the controlling of the Pineal gland shrinks the brain.  The medulla contracts the stem of the brain, blocking the top of the head. 

Type Two controls the throat and the diaphragm.  [Under] the diaphragm, there is a centre and that centre affects the heart, we call it the Mobius, the centre of infinity.  When it opens, it becomes like a fountain of sweetness, from it runs sweet yellow gold and [it] opens the heart and makes the heart richer.  The throat is the centre of expression, manifestation, the celebration of the Chandelier.

Type Three controls the heart itself and the pericardium, the sac around the heart.  That sac when it is relaxed is filled with amberic gold, sweetness, appreciation, value for life, for each other and because nobody values who they are enough and what they are doing, Threes feel so much pain and they shrink the heart, they shrink their pericardium.  But then they struggle, they release it and their heart is gorgeous, so beautiful.  And again, the same thing, nobody sees, nobody appreciates, so they control this organ.  It is good for them to really be aware of this.

Type Four is the lungs.

Eleonora:  Why the lungs?  That is interesting.

Faisal:  The lungs have to do with aspiration and inspiration.  It relates to the spirit and the spirit is this Point of Light [pointing to the top of the head] and also the radiance of the Absolute.

Eleonora:  Spirit, the breath… is the same.

Faisal:  Yes.

Eleonora:  And then we have type Five.

Faisal:  Fives control the stomach.  The centre of their strength is their head and the centre of their weakness is their stomach.  They have a lot of weakness physically in the stomach.  Many Fives in time, [find that they] can't eat this and can't eat that.  The organ weakens there because their ability to digest and assimilate is blocked.  Their ability to differentiate expands, but they cannot take in [the] more instinctual animalistic aspects so they try to go to knowledge and to their higher centre.  Very powerful in their higher centre, very weak in the stomach.  Also above the stomach is a centre we call the Lunar Plexus.  Above the lunar plexus, the solar plexus.  The lunar has to do with will and the ability to surrender and they cannot surrender, because they think they haven't figured it out.

Eleonora:  Right, when they figure it out, then they can surrender.  Okay, Type Six?

Faisal:  Type Six controls the adrenal glands and the large intestine.  Sometimes they are constipated, sometimes they have diarrhoea and the adrenals get exhausted because they are in a constant fight or flight mechanism.  Their adrenals are so heightened [as in], “When is the attack going to come?  Is it a safe thing?”  So it exhausts them. 

Type Seven is the small intestine, the ability to assimilate - there they are starving, there is so much starvation. 

Eleonora:  Right, the gluttony [associated with this type].

Faisal:  Yes, and instead of strengthening this organ, they think, “If I can find the cosmic breast - the whole global view - then I can drink from it for ever!”  But you can't have the Akashic Records - it doesn’t do it.  You need some milk and some nourishment. 

Eleonora:  And the Eight?

Faisal:  Type Eight is the Pituitary, the master gland that can balance the hormones.  Eight is [about] extremes, they are very’ extremist’ and their extremism is due to this gland.  When open, there is peacefulness and empowerment, you are majestic.  When closed, there is ‘kill’ – the kill.  When the pituitary gland creates imbalance in the hormones, it creates insanity inside.  Eights fear insanity so much, but they are cosmic insanity.  Once they see it, they can balance this organ, relax and allow it to function. 

Eleonora:  Well, I think it is really fascinating to see how as Spirit we come into the world with the idea of healing the hole in the family, we create this fixation [Ennea-type] and we spend our lives trying to understand or fix the fixation.  In addition to that, I also find fascinating the idea that the organs are connected to each particular type.  I have not come across this before.  So in healing the family hole, we also heal the organs. 

Faisal:  Yes, and balance them.  Too much heart is too much heart; too much mind is too much mind.  To reach this level of equanimity, harmony and balance and when you know which organ, you can address it.  Nowadays, we live in an incredible field of riches, with homeopathy, Chinese medicine, food, [we have] so much to strengthen and to balance the organs with. 

Eleonora:  Very briefly, as we have less that one minute, what kind of suggestion can you make to people to embody and be in the Essence that we all intrinsically are and that we have lost sight of?

Faisal:  I think the Essential Enneagram helps define our psychological dilemma and what we are doing.  By having this riddle eased and resolved, something happens, very beautifully.  When I realised that my family hole was about a specific thing, and when I felt it, I could ask myself, “What am I trying to do with my ego?”  And if that is ultimately what my ego is trying to do, I check, “Do I really want that?  That has nothing to do with me!” 

Eleonora:  Yes,and you let go of that.

Faisal:  I let go and it spontaneously started to go and that gave me a deeper connection to “Who am I?  If I am not this, then what am I?”  And that led to a discovery of the self.

Eleonora:  In healing yourself you are healing your family, rather than trying to heal the family [first]. 

Faisal:  Exactly, you heal yourself including letting go of this quality.  When you reach that dimension of Openness, then the quality is balanced [in the system].  You have it because you already have too much of it.  And the greater space of Openness, instead of the mind and the fixation blocking the Absolute, it opens to the Absolute - to the field of richness.  [Freedom from the attachment or obsession to any specific dimension of essence or quality, allows the person to be in the greater space of Openness and Freedom, which is the Absolute.]  In that field, you can interact with the souls of your parents even if they are not here.  You send them blessings.  We all got caught in the absence of Gold [Gold is the most needed state for the baby to attain ease and relaxation and self-regulation, and that need is the root of the deepest attachment to our parents].  And from what I know, no time and space is between us and our loved ones.  [From the place of Being, there is no time or space, so we can directly connect with the souls of our parents and reach true healing and completion.]  In that level, we can function in multi-dimensionality. 

Eleonora:  Wonderful, thank you.  And on that note we have to stop and if you want to find out a little bit more about the basics of the Enneagram, we have a whole series on the Enneagram on our website.  Faisal, thank you so much for coming, it has been a little bit of a marathon, but we made it.  Thank you so much for watching conscious.tv and we will see you very soon.  Goodbye.

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