I don’t know what enlightenment is, but I know what "endarkenment" is… a way to get endarkened really well is to be narrow, to only see things one way (Charles Tart, Enneagram Monthly, March, 1999).
So many people I talk to describe
their own transformation process in terms of shifts in awareness, a sense of stepping
outside a frame of reference they'd always held. And it does feel like moving from
the dark into the light.
"The most profound
moments in my life," said an
Enneagram style Eight, "were actual events where I came
out on the other side." She's strong,
responsible and had tended to avoid signs of weakness or
feelings of vulnerability. So you know the enormity
of the shift when she said, "It scared the f------ shit out
of me!"
Completely transforming one's awareness is a scary place, and it helps to know where the process is
leading:
At the first level (of development) people simply realize… how much of the time they spend on automatic pilot.
The second level of insights are… psychodynamic or personality revelations. People begin to see more clearly patterns to their motivations and behavior…
There can arise a clear vision of the dissolution of self from moment to moment, and this often leads to a realm of fear and terror…
Later there arises… a spontaneous process of letting go of personal motivation, and… a vision of the true connection between all of us...
~ Jack Kornfield, "The Seven Factors of Enlightenment", pp. 56-59 in Paths Beyond Ego
Understanding your Enneagram
style
can be enormously helpful as a road map for your patterns of motivation and behavior. One
psychological pattern I discovered in myself as an Enneagram style
Nine,
for example, was how I'd made myself passive-aggressive by setting myself up to feel
discounted. This usually happened when I’d failed to state my needs clearly. Then, when someone failed to
read my mind and act on my needs, I became passive-aggressive and the other person
felt I'd set up a trap. And of course, I had.
So I know what endarkenment is. You know, too, when you see how you set up and feed into the stories that reinforce old, narrow views.
