Enneagram 九型性格是與生俱來 Nature 還是後天培養 Nurture 的?
1977年在 New York：Brunner / Mazel出版的一本書“氣質 和 發展” “Temperament and Development” 裡面記載了亞力山大．湯馬斯醫生 Dr. Alexander Thomas 和史黛拉． 翟斯醫生 Dr. Stella Chess 早在60年代開始對初生嬰孩觀察所得的結果。
根據觀察所得，嬰孩由初生兩三個月開始已經可以辨認出 9 種不同的氣質
活躍程度 Activity Level
規律性 Rhythmicity (regularity)
主動性 Approach
適應性 Adaptability
感興趣的範圍 Threshold of responsiveness
反應的強度 Intensity of reaction
心景的素質 Quality of mood
分心程度 Distactibility
專注力範圍/持久性 Attention span / persistence
後來經美國加州士丹福大學醫學院臨床教授大衛ㆍ丹尼爾斯醫生David Daniels, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry of Stanford Medical School 小心配對，發現這9 種不同的氣質可以相應配上九型性格裡面的9 種不同型號：
3號類型 >活躍程度 Activity Level
1號類型 >規律性 Rhythmicity (regularity)
2號類型 >主動性 Approach
7號類型 >適應性 Adaptability
5號類型 >感興趣的範圍 Threshold of responsiveness
8號類型 >反應的強度Intensity of reaction
4號類型 >心景的素質 Quality of mood
9號類型 >分心程度 Distactibility
6號類型 >專注力範圍/持久性 Attention span / persistence
大衛ㆍ丹尼爾斯醫生詳細的配對內容見 “Nature and Nurture：On Acquiring a Type” by David Daniels, M.D.
大家要留意的一點是當在亞力山大．湯馬斯醫生 Dr. Alexander Thomas 和史黛拉．翟斯醫生 Dr. Stella Chess 在60年代開始對初生嬰孩觀察的時候，他們只是獨立憑空的開始觀察和歸納，近代的九型性格學說在當時並未成熟，他們並沒有任何這方面的援助。
性格的形成，先天和後天都有可能影響。亞力山大．湯馬斯醫生 Dr. Alexander Thomas 和史黛拉． 翟斯醫生 Dr. Stella Chess的發現只告訴我們 9 種氣質在初生嬰孩已出現，但還未有數據(筆者尚未接觸到)支持每個人在嬰孩時期出現的氣質直接雙等於他/她成長後的性格.
根據我從我兩名女兒身上的觀察，在初生嬰孩身上發現的氣質對成長後的性格有直接關係.
一組是 => 1 > 4 > 2 > 8 > 5 > 7 > 1 > 4 > 2...
另外一組是 => 3 > 9 > 6 > 3 > 9
另外，從每一種性格的健康程度而言，我想是後天的影響較大。這方面唐理查‧里索 Don Riso / Russ Hudson 在每一類型從不健康到健康狀態的九級地圖說得很清楚。
2007/05/22
Kathy Hurley & Theodorre Donson 回應畢華神父的指控
Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson 就畢華神父 Fr. Mitchell Pacwa S.J. 指九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰出現衝突的回應
Religious Accusations Against the Enneagram Proven False
(Refuting Rev. Mitch Pacwa's erroneous negative views of the Enneagram)
© 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson
The Enneagram is a system of nine personality types that has been growing in popularity since the early 1970s. Each of the types is associated with one of nine core "passions." Sometimes called ego-fixations or compulsions, these nine negative emotional states are anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust, and laziness. This list largely depends on the tradition of "capital sins" in Christianity, although the Enneagram interprets them psychologically, not moralistically.
The Enneagram describes the nine personality types as patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. By revealing these patterns clearly, the Enneagram is used to guide people in overcoming weaknesses and capitalizing on strengths, to understand and develop compassion in relationships of all kinds, and to understand oneself in one’s own personal growth and relationship to God.
Catholic theologian Mitchell Pacwa, S. J. wrote extensively during the early 1990s on his interpretation of the Enneagram and how, like Jungian psychology, he believes it is misleading Christians in their search for spiritual direction. His two main statements are an article on the Internet, "Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram," (copyright 1994, Christian Research Institute) and his book Catholics and the New Age (Servant Publications, 1992). He continues to present his ideas on Catholic conservative radio and TV shows.
In mid-2000, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ committee on doctrine issued a document on the Enneagram based on Pacwa’s ideas. It cautions bishops that "the Enneagram has its origins in a non-Christian world view and remains connected to a complex of philosophical and religious ideas that do not accord with Christian beliefs."
Our Response to Pacwa’s Criticism of the Enneagram
This article is our response to these unfortunate interpretations of the Enneagram. We call these documents "unfortunate" because our own research clearly indicates that the Enneagram has solid roots in the Christian writings of the "desert elders." These men and women, sometimes called the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, lived and wrote in the first five centuries of Christianity. As the first interpreters of the Gospels, they inquired into the inner development of human nature as it progresses toward the experience of God.
Thus, we believe that Pacwa, with the U. S. bishops following him, is placing himself in the strange-but-true situation of encouraging Christians to be suspicious of authentic Christian teaching about the inner life because it appears in a form with which he is unfamiliar and therefore cannot immediately recognize as Christian.
The confusion these documents creates is compounded by the fact that none of them demonstrates an accurate understanding of the Enneagram. Because Pacwa’s article available on the Internet both summarizes his book and is the source document for the bishops’s statement, we will deal with it directly in this response.
False Accusation of Numerology
Pacwa’s document is marred by several erroneous assumptions. For example, it claims that the Enneagram depends on numerology and therefore calls it "divination." However, the Enneagram uses numbers, not numerology. The dictionary defines numerology as "the study of the occult meanings of numbers and their supposed influence on human life." Numerology assigns numbers to the letters of the alphabet and offers guidance to people based on the number equivalence of the letters in their names and their date of birth.
Pacwa also claims that the numerology of the Enneagram is based on the search for the "mystical meanings" of recurring decimal numbers. This statement is misleading in two ways. First, possible mystical meanings of numbers is not the same as numerology. Second, the Enneagram of personality as taught today relies on no such numerical mysticism. It simply uses the numbers one through nine. This is not numerology, just as arithmetic is not numerology.
False Presentation of "Essence" and "Personality"
Pacwa denigrates another teaching basic to the Enneagram, essence and personality, by calling it "pantheistic." The Enneagram claims to describe personality, which perceives reality in an overly subjective manner, and is opposed to essence or a person’s true nature.
In criticizing this idea, Pacwa is apparently oblivious to the Christian origin of the word "essence" in this context. It was first used in the 1330s by Gregory Palamas, a canonized saint in the Orthodox tradition. He explained the nature of God as "essence" and "energies," or the means by which God communicates with humanity. Since humanity is created in God’s image, this teaching evolved to say every human being also has an "essence" or soul and "energies" or personality.
Alleged Occult Basis of the Enneagram
Pacwa says the Enneagram has origins in the occult, which most people associate with magic and human use of spiritual powers not lawful to them. However, the ideas that underlay the Enneagram have esoteric origins, not occult ones.
For most people, the word "esoteric" is equivalent to "occult." In fact, religious traditions use this word in its most basic definition, which is "inner" or "interior." Esoteric principles teach the inner development of humanity as it yearns for the divine. Spiritual growth, contemplative prayer and the writings of mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are all "esoteric."
Alleged Sufi Basis for the Enneagram
Pacwa claims the Enneagram comes from the Sufis (who teach contemplative spirituality in the Islamic world). Many Enneagram teachers (including ourselves) used to present this erroneous idea. But how could the underlying ideas of the Enneagram be Sufi when the Sufis themselves disavow this claim? To be sure, there are Sufi books on the Enneagram (for example, Laleh Bakhtiar’s three volume work, God’s Will Be Done (KAZI Publications, 1993 and 1994)), but the way they both describe and use the Enneagram barely resembles the presentation of the Enneagram Pacwa refers to.
Pacwa states the nine types of the Enneagram fall into three groups of three, associated with the head, the heart, and the gut (often called "the three centers"). Then he claims these three categories of intellectual, emotional and instinctual are borrowed from Sufism.
Yet Plato also taught such a tri-partite analysis of human nature (for example, see his Timaeus). So did the Christian desert elders when they called Christians to three renunciations — in the physical realm (simplicity), emotional realm (virtue rather than the passions), and intellectual realm (relying on divine and not human knowledge to lead a person to God).
Common sense leads to the same conclusion. Each day, when faced with decisions, people ask themselves, "What do I think about it?", "How do I feel about it?", and "What will I do about it?" These are universal categories. They don’t belong to any one religion or philosophy. Further, although they are given different names and appear in many different forms, they are almost universally used by the world’s religions and philosophies.
Because he wrongly believes the idea of the three centers is Sufi, Pacwa takes exception to the idea that imbalance among the three centers is one of humanity’s basic problems and therefore that balancing the centers is important spiritual work for everyone to do. Yet this was also Plato’s idea and the Christian desert elders built upon it, saying that when head, heart and body are balanced, people can more clearly hear God and more authentically fulfill God’s will. It also makes common sense that when we learn to think when thinking is appropriate, feel when feeling is appropriate, and act when action is appropriate, we live more whole, wholesome and holy lives.
The Ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff
Pacwa claims that the Enneagram is unreliable because it comes in part from the teaching of George I. Gurdjieff. However, it’s Pacwa’s tactic here itself that is unreliable: guilt by association. One does not authentically judge an idea as good or bad by its association with people, but on the merits of the idea itself. (Pacwa uses the same false argument regarding Oscar Ichazo’s association with the Enneagram; we will deal with Ichazo in a later section of this article.)
By giving only the kind of information about Gurdjieff that causes alarm but not balanced enough to allow readers to decide for themselves what kind of man Gurdjieff was, Pacwa relies on the dishonorable tactic of ad hominem argument, better known today as character assassination.
For example, Pacwa claims that Gurdjieff "rejected" the Orthodox faith in which he had been brought up to explore the occult. If Gurdjieff rejected his faith as taught to him in the Orthodox church, then why do Gurdjieff’s ideas dovetail with the Orthodox monastic tradition on almost every major point?
Whether you read the writings of contemporary monks and hermits from Mt. Athos (for example, Orthodox Psychotherapy: The Science of the Fathers (Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1994) by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos), modern western interpreters of the tradition like the Englishman Robin Amis (A Different Christianity, Praxis Institute, 1995) or primary sources like Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus, you see that the majority of Gurdjieff’s ideas, images, principles and practices come from the Orthodox monastic tradition. This includes the helplessness of humanity to experience spiritual growth without grace, which Gurdjieff called "higher influence"! Gurdjieff’s main contribution to this tradition was to modernize its language.
Pacwa also says that Gurdjieff eventually settled in Paris, where he taught "esoteric Christianity." However, that phrase doesn’t pique any interest and he moves on to report Gurdjieff’s other sophisticated beliefs out of context. Esoteric Christianity is the Christian teaching about the inner development of humanity toward the divine, and it definitely was Gurdjieff’s topic.
Gurdjieff had his shortcomings as all people do, and Gurdjieff did study all the world’s religions and philosophies as extensively as he could to find principles and practices that promote humanity’s inner development. However, by translating a basically Christian Orthodox theology into terms free from religious pietism, Gurdjieff can be seen as an innovative evangelist, not the purveyor of dangerous non-Christian beliefs as Pacwa states.
A Strange Misunderstanding of Christian Faith
Possibly the most telling statement Pacwa makes is on the nature of Christian faith itself. He says that Gurdjieff taught
faith arose "from understanding" which is "the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all kinds of experiences personally experienced." Only understanding can lead one to God and only experience and information allow one to acquire a soul. This approach to faith places Gurdjieff squarely in the Gnostic camp outside Christianity. For Christians, faith is a gift from God; it is available to the brilliant or retarded, the aged or the child, independent of whether a human understands or not. Instead of human understanding leading to God, it is God who comes to humans, offering to dwell within our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this paragraph, Pacwa demonstrates a misunderstanding of many things. Most important, he does not comprehend what Gurdjieff means by "understanding." Stated in its simplest way, understanding in this context is knowledge that is personally experienced; this is the teaching of the desert elders, who also definitely said understanding is the only road to Christian faith. Contemporary Christianity phrases it differently by delineating a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Knowing about God is theology; knowing God is faith, and knowing God is an experience a person has.
Pacwa seems to be caught in an intellectualized idea of faith — perhaps faith as a set of beliefs, or as assent to certain truths — when he says it is "independent of whether a human understands or not." For Pacwa, understanding is intellectual understanding.
Gurdjieff, on the other hand, is teaching the tradition from the desert elders: faith happens when you personally experience the God you are taught about. Indeed, this is also the very meaning of the formula used by Pacwa himself when he says God offers "to dwell within our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit." What does "through Jesus Christ" and "by the power of the Holy Spirit" mean except that Christians experience God personally in their hearts?
Thus, the real meaning of Pacwa’s statement is that Gurdjieff taught the core meaning of faith as described by the desert elders, but then he confuses the issue by misinterpreting the meaning of the word understanding.
He further diverges from an accurate portrayal of Gurdjieff’s teaching by claiming Gurdjieff taught ". . . only experience and information allow one to acquire a soul." Gurdjieff spoke of understanding as defined by the desert elders above, not information. Further, he didn’t say that we "acquire" a soul but rather that all people are created with a soul "in embryo" which they themselves had to develop. While Gurdjieff’s language may shock us with its originality of phrasing (Is that such a bad thing in itself, or does it make us think in a new way about a familiar truth?), his idea is not dissimilar to traditional Christianity’s goal of "growing in virtue" or "becoming more like Christ" in one’s spiritual life.
Oscar Ichazo’s Influence on the Enneagram
Pacwa deals with Oscar Ichazo in a similar fashion to the way he treats Gurdjieff. A South American seeker, Ichazo’s main contribution to the Enneagram of personality was to accurately lay the nine passions (listed in Christian tradition by the desert father Evagrius Ponticus) around the Enneagram symbol, a nine-pointed star in a circle probably first drawn by Pythagoras. Thus, he created a map for understanding how human beings lose their way to God and find it again.
Ichazo’s particular genius lay in his insight that, of the nine passions described in classical literature (listed above), one is laid as the foundation of the personality. All of them are temptations for everyone, but one creates a veil of illusion that distorts a person’s perception of reality and thus unconsciously misguides his or her thinking, feeling and behaving. Consequently, it misguides a person’s quest for healthy relationships with self, others, the world and God.
However, modern Enneagram books and seminars have little in common with Ichazo’s original work beyond this basic point. Ichazo teaches a complicated set of principles and practices reserved only to the members of his "Arica School"; therefore, these teachings do not affect the modern Enneagram.
Further, if you read Ichazo’s descriptions of the nine personality types themselves and compare them to contemporary Enneagram books, you see very little agreement. That’s because for the past 30 years, the Enneagram has been exposed to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people who have refined and reshaped the description of the types from their own experience. The modern Enneagram of personality owes its inception to Ichazo but has moved beyond him.
Ichazo holds many ideas that would be considered odd or strange by the average person and teaches beliefs contrary to his Christian upbringing. However, none of these ideas or beliefs have anything to do with the Enneagram as it is presented today by most teachers of the system.
Pacwa’s Misunderstanding of Theological Problems and the Enneagram
Pacwa wrongly accuses the Enneagram of presenting errors according to Christian theology. We wish to list these accusations and deal with each as concisely as possible. It should be noted that many of Pacwa’s accusations are "straw man" arguments; the tactic is to misrepresent an idea by weakening it, then to destroy the weakened argument. Jesuit education (which both Mitchell Pacwa and Theodorre Donson received) teaches clearly that guilt by association, straw man and ad hominem arguments are false, misleading and to be avoided.
Pacwa insists the Enneagram has occult origins. Because Gurdjieff and Ichazo have done some things Pacwa disapproves of, he makes the leap that these practices affect their teaching. This assertion has no basis in fact. Further, the Enneagram as taught today was never taught by Gurdjieff; Ichazo created the basic idea but modern teachers are now so far from his teaching he himself complains about it. There is no occultism in the Enneagram teaching of prominent leaders in the field.
Pacwa says "some Enneagram experts claim that original sin begins when small children choose their Enneagram type." Then he launches into how this idea violates Christian doctrine on original sin. First, some Enneagram experts may teach this idea, but not many. Surely, we don’t. It is a speculation for which there can be no proof, so it is not good teaching. Also, few Enneagram presenters teach that people "choose" their type. Again, there is speculation on how we become the type we are, but none of these ideas can be proved.
Pacwa claims it is erroneous to believe that "humans can undo the effects of this so-called original sin of ego fixation by means of . . . spiritual ‘work.’" The core issue of each type is alternatively called a passion, an ego-fixation, a compulsion, and a psychological addiction to a point of view. No Enneagram teacher we are aware of identifies this aspect of the Enneagram with the Christian concept of "original sin." Then Pacwa states that "such ‘work’ (to deal with the passion) can never be the removal of original sin," which is a very different statement than his first statement about undoing the effects of sin. In his own confusion, he confuses the reader. Further, along the way he denigrates the value of spiritual "work," which the desert elders teach is the very heart of Christian spirituality. They say that dealing with the passions (as named by the Enneagram) is humanity’s most important spiritual work because through it people clarify their souls so that they can progress in understanding the communication of God to humans.
Pacwa states, "Another theological error is the claim that Jesus our Lord possesses the virtues of all nine types within Himself." We are aware of only one small book and one chapter in another book that use this idea. It is not an important part of anyone’s teaching on the Enneagram of which we are aware. Making as much of this idea as Pacwa does is the equivalent of throwing a red herring into the discussion.
Pacwa disagrees that there are "nine faces of God" of which each Enneagram type is a distortion. He claims "God does not have nine faces. . . . [T]here are three coequal persons in the one God [and] these three persons are neither multiplying nor subdividing into nine faces." Pacwa apparently does not know that the source of this image of the "nine faces of God" is the mystical Hebrew teaching called the Kabbalah. The Christian perspective of which we are aware both respects its Jewish roots and respects the Jewish faith as a sister faith to Christianity. Also, the word "faces" is a metaphor for "attributes." These terms are used interchangeably in the Kabbalah. Thus, the Enneagram relies on ancient Kabbalistic tradition for saying there are nine faces of God. We will deal with Pacwa’s problem with distorting the face of God in the next point.
Pacwa says that God is sovereign and no one can distort the face of God. However, Christianity teaches that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God. Orthodox Christian theology says that in Adam and Eve’s fall from Eden humanity retained God’s image but the likeness was distorted. This is the teaching to which Pacwa, a Christian theologian, inexplicably objects. In the language of Christian theology, the Enneagram says that every human being is created to live out an attribute of God in the world, but due to the sinfulness of humanity that attribute becomes distorted by egocentricity into a passion or compulsion. The Christian journey is to regain this lost attribute and thus to "share the life of Christ" with the world.
Pacwa objects to saying that the distorted face of God is a demon, as do some Enneagram teachers, and says doing so "moves beyond absurdity to blasphemy"; he also says that "we humans cannot free ourselves from the demons; God delivers us from them." Here Pacwa once again demonstrates his unfamiliarity with the teachings of the desert elders, the first Christian interpreters of the Gospels. Remember, a face of God is the same thing as an attribute of God (explained in point 5 above), which can also be called a virtue. The opposite of virtue is in contemporary language is vice; the desert elders called it a "passion." They regularly referred to the passions as demons and interpreted the Gospel stories of Jesus casting out demons as instructions to Christians on how they should handle the passions when they experience them. Again we find Pacwa disagreeing with ancient Christian teaching because it appears in a form with which he is unfamiliar and which he has not sufficiently researched.
Pacwa claims that the "‘occultic’ Enneagram figure" (a nine-pointed star in a circle) has determined the idea that "only nine basic types exist." He says there is no objective reason for this conclusion. However, in 1993 we the authors of this article wrote a book (My Best Self, Harper San Francisco) that explained why there are nine types. The explanation has to do with the three centers and how we use them to perceive reality and to respond to our perceptions in our daily lives. Groups of three types use one of the three centers as a lens through which to perceive reality. Other groups of three types use two of the three centers to figure out how they will respond to their perceptions. The result is a mathematical conclusion: three ways of perceiving reality times three ways of acting on our perceptions equals nine types. To explore this idea more completely, see our information on our website on Breakthrough Enneagram (r), or see our latest book, Discover Your Soul Potential.
Pacwa objects to practices such as assigning Enneagram types to public figures and using the Enneagram casually to type friends and family members leading to "the trivialization of relationships." Here we are in agreement with Pacwa. People know their Enneagram type through self-awareness; no one can decide for you what type you are. Thus, the practice common to some Enneagram teachers of using public figures as examples of Enneagram types is dubious at best. What one knows about public figures is from a distance, unless they also happen to be personal friends or relatives. People assign them an Enneagram type from the outside, often by looking at only a few salient features they present to the world. Who but they and their personal associates know what they are really like? One might develop a personal opinion about another person’s Enneagram type, but only the person him- or herself knows for sure. People should confine expressing these opinions to their personal circle and not make them part of their public teaching. The case is similar with one’s family members and friends. All too often, people make judgments that so-and-so is this type or that type based on insufficient knowledge. However, just because the Enneagram can be misused in these ways doesn’t invalidate the entire system. Human knowledge will always be misused. For example, Christian theology has been used to justify the Crusades and the Inquisition; those justifications do not invalidate Christian theology. Rather, the people who created the justifications are judged by society and by history to have made a mistake and fallen short of their ideals.
The Enneagram in a Christian Context
Thus, we believe that the Enneagram is not only compatible with Christian beliefs, it actually has evolved from them. Further, it is based on human experience. While it has not been the subject of much strict modern scientific research, it has been exposed to and refined by the experience of thousands if not millions of people. Its authenticity comes from its accurate insight into human nature. This knowledge is helpful in self-understanding, which is the first step on the spiritual path according to many teachers of the spiritual life like Teresa of Avila. Therefore it supports healthy relationship with self, others, the world and God. That’s why spiritual directors and seekers are attracted to it.
The core teaching of the desert elders lies in the nine passions, the three centers, and the role of grace in the process of spiritual growth. An increasing number of Enneagram teachers, including ourselves, concentrate on these principles and eliminate unnecessary complications of the system like the "arrows" (to which Pacwa objects) and "wings." In this format, the modern Enneagram provides a practical access to the earliest Christian teaching about the development of the human soul in its yearning for the divine.
In addition, acknowledging the weakness of desert elders’ severe attitude toward the body, we, along with other Enneagram teachers, have updated this spirituality with respect for the beauty and value of physical reality. In this context, the Enneagram is an accurate mirror and guide on that ultimate of Christian journeys, the journey of the human person to God.
© 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson’s most recent contribution to Enneagram studies is their award-winning book, Discover Your Soul Potential: Using the Enneagram to Awaken Spiritual Vitality (WindWalker Press, 2000), and they are the authors of two other bestselling books published by Harper San Francisco. Reach them at their website, www.hurleydonson.com, and e-mail them at eri@hurleydonson.com.
Other articles:
Diagnosis and Prescription: The Enneagram and The Fourth Way
© 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Enneagram: Key to Opening the Heart © 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
Maurice Nicoll: Spiritual Giant, Gentle Genius © 1996, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
How Do We Keep The Enneagram Alive Within Us? © 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
What Are the Real Origins of the Enneagram?© 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
Religious Accusations Against the Enneagram Proven False
(Refuting Rev. Mitch Pacwa's erroneous negative views of the Enneagram)
© 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson
The Enneagram is a system of nine personality types that has been growing in popularity since the early 1970s. Each of the types is associated with one of nine core "passions." Sometimes called ego-fixations or compulsions, these nine negative emotional states are anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust, and laziness. This list largely depends on the tradition of "capital sins" in Christianity, although the Enneagram interprets them psychologically, not moralistically.
The Enneagram describes the nine personality types as patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. By revealing these patterns clearly, the Enneagram is used to guide people in overcoming weaknesses and capitalizing on strengths, to understand and develop compassion in relationships of all kinds, and to understand oneself in one’s own personal growth and relationship to God.
Catholic theologian Mitchell Pacwa, S. J. wrote extensively during the early 1990s on his interpretation of the Enneagram and how, like Jungian psychology, he believes it is misleading Christians in their search for spiritual direction. His two main statements are an article on the Internet, "Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram," (copyright 1994, Christian Research Institute) and his book Catholics and the New Age (Servant Publications, 1992). He continues to present his ideas on Catholic conservative radio and TV shows.
In mid-2000, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ committee on doctrine issued a document on the Enneagram based on Pacwa’s ideas. It cautions bishops that "the Enneagram has its origins in a non-Christian world view and remains connected to a complex of philosophical and religious ideas that do not accord with Christian beliefs."
Our Response to Pacwa’s Criticism of the Enneagram
This article is our response to these unfortunate interpretations of the Enneagram. We call these documents "unfortunate" because our own research clearly indicates that the Enneagram has solid roots in the Christian writings of the "desert elders." These men and women, sometimes called the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, lived and wrote in the first five centuries of Christianity. As the first interpreters of the Gospels, they inquired into the inner development of human nature as it progresses toward the experience of God.
Thus, we believe that Pacwa, with the U. S. bishops following him, is placing himself in the strange-but-true situation of encouraging Christians to be suspicious of authentic Christian teaching about the inner life because it appears in a form with which he is unfamiliar and therefore cannot immediately recognize as Christian.
The confusion these documents creates is compounded by the fact that none of them demonstrates an accurate understanding of the Enneagram. Because Pacwa’s article available on the Internet both summarizes his book and is the source document for the bishops’s statement, we will deal with it directly in this response.
False Accusation of Numerology
Pacwa’s document is marred by several erroneous assumptions. For example, it claims that the Enneagram depends on numerology and therefore calls it "divination." However, the Enneagram uses numbers, not numerology. The dictionary defines numerology as "the study of the occult meanings of numbers and their supposed influence on human life." Numerology assigns numbers to the letters of the alphabet and offers guidance to people based on the number equivalence of the letters in their names and their date of birth.
Pacwa also claims that the numerology of the Enneagram is based on the search for the "mystical meanings" of recurring decimal numbers. This statement is misleading in two ways. First, possible mystical meanings of numbers is not the same as numerology. Second, the Enneagram of personality as taught today relies on no such numerical mysticism. It simply uses the numbers one through nine. This is not numerology, just as arithmetic is not numerology.
False Presentation of "Essence" and "Personality"
Pacwa denigrates another teaching basic to the Enneagram, essence and personality, by calling it "pantheistic." The Enneagram claims to describe personality, which perceives reality in an overly subjective manner, and is opposed to essence or a person’s true nature.
In criticizing this idea, Pacwa is apparently oblivious to the Christian origin of the word "essence" in this context. It was first used in the 1330s by Gregory Palamas, a canonized saint in the Orthodox tradition. He explained the nature of God as "essence" and "energies," or the means by which God communicates with humanity. Since humanity is created in God’s image, this teaching evolved to say every human being also has an "essence" or soul and "energies" or personality.
Alleged Occult Basis of the Enneagram
Pacwa says the Enneagram has origins in the occult, which most people associate with magic and human use of spiritual powers not lawful to them. However, the ideas that underlay the Enneagram have esoteric origins, not occult ones.
For most people, the word "esoteric" is equivalent to "occult." In fact, religious traditions use this word in its most basic definition, which is "inner" or "interior." Esoteric principles teach the inner development of humanity as it yearns for the divine. Spiritual growth, contemplative prayer and the writings of mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are all "esoteric."
Alleged Sufi Basis for the Enneagram
Pacwa claims the Enneagram comes from the Sufis (who teach contemplative spirituality in the Islamic world). Many Enneagram teachers (including ourselves) used to present this erroneous idea. But how could the underlying ideas of the Enneagram be Sufi when the Sufis themselves disavow this claim? To be sure, there are Sufi books on the Enneagram (for example, Laleh Bakhtiar’s three volume work, God’s Will Be Done (KAZI Publications, 1993 and 1994)), but the way they both describe and use the Enneagram barely resembles the presentation of the Enneagram Pacwa refers to.
Pacwa states the nine types of the Enneagram fall into three groups of three, associated with the head, the heart, and the gut (often called "the three centers"). Then he claims these three categories of intellectual, emotional and instinctual are borrowed from Sufism.
Yet Plato also taught such a tri-partite analysis of human nature (for example, see his Timaeus). So did the Christian desert elders when they called Christians to three renunciations — in the physical realm (simplicity), emotional realm (virtue rather than the passions), and intellectual realm (relying on divine and not human knowledge to lead a person to God).
Common sense leads to the same conclusion. Each day, when faced with decisions, people ask themselves, "What do I think about it?", "How do I feel about it?", and "What will I do about it?" These are universal categories. They don’t belong to any one religion or philosophy. Further, although they are given different names and appear in many different forms, they are almost universally used by the world’s religions and philosophies.
Because he wrongly believes the idea of the three centers is Sufi, Pacwa takes exception to the idea that imbalance among the three centers is one of humanity’s basic problems and therefore that balancing the centers is important spiritual work for everyone to do. Yet this was also Plato’s idea and the Christian desert elders built upon it, saying that when head, heart and body are balanced, people can more clearly hear God and more authentically fulfill God’s will. It also makes common sense that when we learn to think when thinking is appropriate, feel when feeling is appropriate, and act when action is appropriate, we live more whole, wholesome and holy lives.
The Ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff
Pacwa claims that the Enneagram is unreliable because it comes in part from the teaching of George I. Gurdjieff. However, it’s Pacwa’s tactic here itself that is unreliable: guilt by association. One does not authentically judge an idea as good or bad by its association with people, but on the merits of the idea itself. (Pacwa uses the same false argument regarding Oscar Ichazo’s association with the Enneagram; we will deal with Ichazo in a later section of this article.)
By giving only the kind of information about Gurdjieff that causes alarm but not balanced enough to allow readers to decide for themselves what kind of man Gurdjieff was, Pacwa relies on the dishonorable tactic of ad hominem argument, better known today as character assassination.
For example, Pacwa claims that Gurdjieff "rejected" the Orthodox faith in which he had been brought up to explore the occult. If Gurdjieff rejected his faith as taught to him in the Orthodox church, then why do Gurdjieff’s ideas dovetail with the Orthodox monastic tradition on almost every major point?
Whether you read the writings of contemporary monks and hermits from Mt. Athos (for example, Orthodox Psychotherapy: The Science of the Fathers (Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1994) by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos), modern western interpreters of the tradition like the Englishman Robin Amis (A Different Christianity, Praxis Institute, 1995) or primary sources like Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus, you see that the majority of Gurdjieff’s ideas, images, principles and practices come from the Orthodox monastic tradition. This includes the helplessness of humanity to experience spiritual growth without grace, which Gurdjieff called "higher influence"! Gurdjieff’s main contribution to this tradition was to modernize its language.
Pacwa also says that Gurdjieff eventually settled in Paris, where he taught "esoteric Christianity." However, that phrase doesn’t pique any interest and he moves on to report Gurdjieff’s other sophisticated beliefs out of context. Esoteric Christianity is the Christian teaching about the inner development of humanity toward the divine, and it definitely was Gurdjieff’s topic.
Gurdjieff had his shortcomings as all people do, and Gurdjieff did study all the world’s religions and philosophies as extensively as he could to find principles and practices that promote humanity’s inner development. However, by translating a basically Christian Orthodox theology into terms free from religious pietism, Gurdjieff can be seen as an innovative evangelist, not the purveyor of dangerous non-Christian beliefs as Pacwa states.
A Strange Misunderstanding of Christian Faith
Possibly the most telling statement Pacwa makes is on the nature of Christian faith itself. He says that Gurdjieff taught
faith arose "from understanding" which is "the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all kinds of experiences personally experienced." Only understanding can lead one to God and only experience and information allow one to acquire a soul. This approach to faith places Gurdjieff squarely in the Gnostic camp outside Christianity. For Christians, faith is a gift from God; it is available to the brilliant or retarded, the aged or the child, independent of whether a human understands or not. Instead of human understanding leading to God, it is God who comes to humans, offering to dwell within our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this paragraph, Pacwa demonstrates a misunderstanding of many things. Most important, he does not comprehend what Gurdjieff means by "understanding." Stated in its simplest way, understanding in this context is knowledge that is personally experienced; this is the teaching of the desert elders, who also definitely said understanding is the only road to Christian faith. Contemporary Christianity phrases it differently by delineating a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Knowing about God is theology; knowing God is faith, and knowing God is an experience a person has.
Pacwa seems to be caught in an intellectualized idea of faith — perhaps faith as a set of beliefs, or as assent to certain truths — when he says it is "independent of whether a human understands or not." For Pacwa, understanding is intellectual understanding.
Gurdjieff, on the other hand, is teaching the tradition from the desert elders: faith happens when you personally experience the God you are taught about. Indeed, this is also the very meaning of the formula used by Pacwa himself when he says God offers "to dwell within our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit." What does "through Jesus Christ" and "by the power of the Holy Spirit" mean except that Christians experience God personally in their hearts?
Thus, the real meaning of Pacwa’s statement is that Gurdjieff taught the core meaning of faith as described by the desert elders, but then he confuses the issue by misinterpreting the meaning of the word understanding.
He further diverges from an accurate portrayal of Gurdjieff’s teaching by claiming Gurdjieff taught ". . . only experience and information allow one to acquire a soul." Gurdjieff spoke of understanding as defined by the desert elders above, not information. Further, he didn’t say that we "acquire" a soul but rather that all people are created with a soul "in embryo" which they themselves had to develop. While Gurdjieff’s language may shock us with its originality of phrasing (Is that such a bad thing in itself, or does it make us think in a new way about a familiar truth?), his idea is not dissimilar to traditional Christianity’s goal of "growing in virtue" or "becoming more like Christ" in one’s spiritual life.
Oscar Ichazo’s Influence on the Enneagram
Pacwa deals with Oscar Ichazo in a similar fashion to the way he treats Gurdjieff. A South American seeker, Ichazo’s main contribution to the Enneagram of personality was to accurately lay the nine passions (listed in Christian tradition by the desert father Evagrius Ponticus) around the Enneagram symbol, a nine-pointed star in a circle probably first drawn by Pythagoras. Thus, he created a map for understanding how human beings lose their way to God and find it again.
Ichazo’s particular genius lay in his insight that, of the nine passions described in classical literature (listed above), one is laid as the foundation of the personality. All of them are temptations for everyone, but one creates a veil of illusion that distorts a person’s perception of reality and thus unconsciously misguides his or her thinking, feeling and behaving. Consequently, it misguides a person’s quest for healthy relationships with self, others, the world and God.
However, modern Enneagram books and seminars have little in common with Ichazo’s original work beyond this basic point. Ichazo teaches a complicated set of principles and practices reserved only to the members of his "Arica School"; therefore, these teachings do not affect the modern Enneagram.
Further, if you read Ichazo’s descriptions of the nine personality types themselves and compare them to contemporary Enneagram books, you see very little agreement. That’s because for the past 30 years, the Enneagram has been exposed to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people who have refined and reshaped the description of the types from their own experience. The modern Enneagram of personality owes its inception to Ichazo but has moved beyond him.
Ichazo holds many ideas that would be considered odd or strange by the average person and teaches beliefs contrary to his Christian upbringing. However, none of these ideas or beliefs have anything to do with the Enneagram as it is presented today by most teachers of the system.
Pacwa’s Misunderstanding of Theological Problems and the Enneagram
Pacwa wrongly accuses the Enneagram of presenting errors according to Christian theology. We wish to list these accusations and deal with each as concisely as possible. It should be noted that many of Pacwa’s accusations are "straw man" arguments; the tactic is to misrepresent an idea by weakening it, then to destroy the weakened argument. Jesuit education (which both Mitchell Pacwa and Theodorre Donson received) teaches clearly that guilt by association, straw man and ad hominem arguments are false, misleading and to be avoided.
Pacwa insists the Enneagram has occult origins. Because Gurdjieff and Ichazo have done some things Pacwa disapproves of, he makes the leap that these practices affect their teaching. This assertion has no basis in fact. Further, the Enneagram as taught today was never taught by Gurdjieff; Ichazo created the basic idea but modern teachers are now so far from his teaching he himself complains about it. There is no occultism in the Enneagram teaching of prominent leaders in the field.
Pacwa says "some Enneagram experts claim that original sin begins when small children choose their Enneagram type." Then he launches into how this idea violates Christian doctrine on original sin. First, some Enneagram experts may teach this idea, but not many. Surely, we don’t. It is a speculation for which there can be no proof, so it is not good teaching. Also, few Enneagram presenters teach that people "choose" their type. Again, there is speculation on how we become the type we are, but none of these ideas can be proved.
Pacwa claims it is erroneous to believe that "humans can undo the effects of this so-called original sin of ego fixation by means of . . . spiritual ‘work.’" The core issue of each type is alternatively called a passion, an ego-fixation, a compulsion, and a psychological addiction to a point of view. No Enneagram teacher we are aware of identifies this aspect of the Enneagram with the Christian concept of "original sin." Then Pacwa states that "such ‘work’ (to deal with the passion) can never be the removal of original sin," which is a very different statement than his first statement about undoing the effects of sin. In his own confusion, he confuses the reader. Further, along the way he denigrates the value of spiritual "work," which the desert elders teach is the very heart of Christian spirituality. They say that dealing with the passions (as named by the Enneagram) is humanity’s most important spiritual work because through it people clarify their souls so that they can progress in understanding the communication of God to humans.
Pacwa states, "Another theological error is the claim that Jesus our Lord possesses the virtues of all nine types within Himself." We are aware of only one small book and one chapter in another book that use this idea. It is not an important part of anyone’s teaching on the Enneagram of which we are aware. Making as much of this idea as Pacwa does is the equivalent of throwing a red herring into the discussion.
Pacwa disagrees that there are "nine faces of God" of which each Enneagram type is a distortion. He claims "God does not have nine faces. . . . [T]here are three coequal persons in the one God [and] these three persons are neither multiplying nor subdividing into nine faces." Pacwa apparently does not know that the source of this image of the "nine faces of God" is the mystical Hebrew teaching called the Kabbalah. The Christian perspective of which we are aware both respects its Jewish roots and respects the Jewish faith as a sister faith to Christianity. Also, the word "faces" is a metaphor for "attributes." These terms are used interchangeably in the Kabbalah. Thus, the Enneagram relies on ancient Kabbalistic tradition for saying there are nine faces of God. We will deal with Pacwa’s problem with distorting the face of God in the next point.
Pacwa says that God is sovereign and no one can distort the face of God. However, Christianity teaches that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God. Orthodox Christian theology says that in Adam and Eve’s fall from Eden humanity retained God’s image but the likeness was distorted. This is the teaching to which Pacwa, a Christian theologian, inexplicably objects. In the language of Christian theology, the Enneagram says that every human being is created to live out an attribute of God in the world, but due to the sinfulness of humanity that attribute becomes distorted by egocentricity into a passion or compulsion. The Christian journey is to regain this lost attribute and thus to "share the life of Christ" with the world.
Pacwa objects to saying that the distorted face of God is a demon, as do some Enneagram teachers, and says doing so "moves beyond absurdity to blasphemy"; he also says that "we humans cannot free ourselves from the demons; God delivers us from them." Here Pacwa once again demonstrates his unfamiliarity with the teachings of the desert elders, the first Christian interpreters of the Gospels. Remember, a face of God is the same thing as an attribute of God (explained in point 5 above), which can also be called a virtue. The opposite of virtue is in contemporary language is vice; the desert elders called it a "passion." They regularly referred to the passions as demons and interpreted the Gospel stories of Jesus casting out demons as instructions to Christians on how they should handle the passions when they experience them. Again we find Pacwa disagreeing with ancient Christian teaching because it appears in a form with which he is unfamiliar and which he has not sufficiently researched.
Pacwa claims that the "‘occultic’ Enneagram figure" (a nine-pointed star in a circle) has determined the idea that "only nine basic types exist." He says there is no objective reason for this conclusion. However, in 1993 we the authors of this article wrote a book (My Best Self, Harper San Francisco) that explained why there are nine types. The explanation has to do with the three centers and how we use them to perceive reality and to respond to our perceptions in our daily lives. Groups of three types use one of the three centers as a lens through which to perceive reality. Other groups of three types use two of the three centers to figure out how they will respond to their perceptions. The result is a mathematical conclusion: three ways of perceiving reality times three ways of acting on our perceptions equals nine types. To explore this idea more completely, see our information on our website on Breakthrough Enneagram (r), or see our latest book, Discover Your Soul Potential.
Pacwa objects to practices such as assigning Enneagram types to public figures and using the Enneagram casually to type friends and family members leading to "the trivialization of relationships." Here we are in agreement with Pacwa. People know their Enneagram type through self-awareness; no one can decide for you what type you are. Thus, the practice common to some Enneagram teachers of using public figures as examples of Enneagram types is dubious at best. What one knows about public figures is from a distance, unless they also happen to be personal friends or relatives. People assign them an Enneagram type from the outside, often by looking at only a few salient features they present to the world. Who but they and their personal associates know what they are really like? One might develop a personal opinion about another person’s Enneagram type, but only the person him- or herself knows for sure. People should confine expressing these opinions to their personal circle and not make them part of their public teaching. The case is similar with one’s family members and friends. All too often, people make judgments that so-and-so is this type or that type based on insufficient knowledge. However, just because the Enneagram can be misused in these ways doesn’t invalidate the entire system. Human knowledge will always be misused. For example, Christian theology has been used to justify the Crusades and the Inquisition; those justifications do not invalidate Christian theology. Rather, the people who created the justifications are judged by society and by history to have made a mistake and fallen short of their ideals.
The Enneagram in a Christian Context
Thus, we believe that the Enneagram is not only compatible with Christian beliefs, it actually has evolved from them. Further, it is based on human experience. While it has not been the subject of much strict modern scientific research, it has been exposed to and refined by the experience of thousands if not millions of people. Its authenticity comes from its accurate insight into human nature. This knowledge is helpful in self-understanding, which is the first step on the spiritual path according to many teachers of the spiritual life like Teresa of Avila. Therefore it supports healthy relationship with self, others, the world and God. That’s why spiritual directors and seekers are attracted to it.
The core teaching of the desert elders lies in the nine passions, the three centers, and the role of grace in the process of spiritual growth. An increasing number of Enneagram teachers, including ourselves, concentrate on these principles and eliminate unnecessary complications of the system like the "arrows" (to which Pacwa objects) and "wings." In this format, the modern Enneagram provides a practical access to the earliest Christian teaching about the development of the human soul in its yearning for the divine.
In addition, acknowledging the weakness of desert elders’ severe attitude toward the body, we, along with other Enneagram teachers, have updated this spirituality with respect for the beauty and value of physical reality. In this context, the Enneagram is an accurate mirror and guide on that ultimate of Christian journeys, the journey of the human person to God.
© 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson’s most recent contribution to Enneagram studies is their award-winning book, Discover Your Soul Potential: Using the Enneagram to Awaken Spiritual Vitality (WindWalker Press, 2000), and they are the authors of two other bestselling books published by Harper San Francisco. Reach them at their website, www.hurleydonson.com, and e-mail them at eri@hurleydonson.com.
Other articles:
Diagnosis and Prescription: The Enneagram and The Fourth Way
© 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Enneagram: Key to Opening the Heart © 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
Maurice Nicoll: Spiritual Giant, Gentle Genius © 1996, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
How Do We Keep The Enneagram Alive Within Us? © 2001, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
What Are the Real Origins of the Enneagram?© 1998, Enneagram Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
2007/05/17
蘇信超先生以 "Enneagram 與新紀元" 回應徐志忠神父
Enneagram與新紀元
拜讀徐志忠神父一連三期「九型性格的價值」的文章，一方面同意神父所說，「性格」此詞的翻譯比「人格」較佳，亦謝謝神父大方地提出，看過在下的文章「及他在網站提供的詳盡文獻，不禁令人敬佩他對做學問的認真及感激他的服務」。
另一方面，發覺神父所言，似乎沒有面對敝作所指出的Enneagram的大部份問題--包括教廷的研究結論，而祇是用了近半篇幅為「九型性格」重賣一次廣告，並在全文最後幾句含糊地避開問題的重點，實在可惜。
在下亦很詫異：為何身為神父和教友的牧羊人，在明明知道Helen Palmer推舉通靈和沙民巫術是事實之餘，竟仍可強調「我……前後追隨她學習超過三百小時」？
做記者偵探的感受
在我和一些朋友共同追查、整理和表達Enneagram的事實真相的過程中，我們感到自己又像在做記者，又像在做偵探，概括的感受是：「愈見真相，愈覺恐怖」，亦愈來愈明白，為何教宗和教會的兩個宗座委員會，會如此重視Enneagram的問題，在《耶穌基督是帶來生命活水者：天主教對新紀元的反省》教廷文件的正文內容中，四處點名具體指出Enneagram有問題，亦把它等同重知論（自古已與教理相違逆的思想）。
在追查得愈來愈多的真相過程中，我覺得很奇怪：為甚麼推動Enneagram者竟不覺得一些明顯的問題是問題呢？是否他們本身已認同了另一套信仰，像新紀元思想中，耶穌基督祇是眾多神體Divine的其中一種表達方式，創造者與受造物是同等而無分彼此的……所以一切擺在眼前的證據（如Don Riso教導「人神秘地擁有和創造者同等的生命和靈魂」，又把Enneagram跟宇宙星雲（力量、即「神」）和邪異圖騰連上關係，各主要創立人的邪異行徑……）都視而不見？我曾面對面聽教授Enneagram的人，把依查素Ichazo教人「通連宇宙力量」--新紀元的通神方式--說成為他是在教「天文地理」，又替Don Riso在「新紀元」學堂Esalen Institute任教解釋為「祇是因為他沒有其他地方」！
教會的位置
在分辨事物時，歷史發展與師承當然都重要！不然，教會的專家就不會在文件中提到九型性格的歷史和來源了。在下不才，神學教理上的能力和個人位置在在沒有資格判定Enneagram的問題，不過祇是從幾點平常人可以明白得到的地方，去解說一下教廷專家與在聖職上有權為我們下判斷的牧者所下判斷的原因，其實他們才有天主親自賦予的神權和聖寵去專責此事，最後任何爭拗，亦祇有他們能有資格和責任去解釋。
縱觀徐神父全文，論證方法似乎就像：敝作提出證據，包括教廷文件，叫人不要攪同居試婚，而被指正者不單沒有正面解決我的質疑，反倒過來強調兩點：一、教會也會錯，所以不用聽她的；二、請在下先自省，不要評論人家的事。這不是面對教廷的意見和敝作提出的實證的好方法。
我和一批熱切信主的戰友，也有對教會不完全認同的地方，譬如教會（給陌生人）的冷漠感，不認識現代人所面對的挑戰和他們的需要，沒有正視教會自己的毛病和對症下藥，不時浪費資源從新由頭再去發明輪子……我們由是採用一些另類的五項平衡的模式，以主耶穌的方式去滿足現代人的需要，改變人的生命。
但在信理上的事，我們都確信教會是「真理的柱石和基礎」（弟前 3:15），「陰間的門決不能戰勝她」（瑪 16:18）。公教信仰不是超級市場（隨意選取）式的信仰，不是執藥式的信仰。
新紀元者時常會搬出教會犯過的錯誤，來證明無需要重視教會的訓導和判斷--「我信天主，但教會不代表祂」--細心想想，那麼我們要信從甚麼呢？是自己！--這就是新紀元「我們都是自己命運的主宰，我們不必受外界任何權威的擺佈。道德判斷是個人內在的事」的思維信念。
交談抑或交融？
「宗座文化委員會主席普帕爾樞機對梵蒂岡電台談及新紀元問題時，指出該現象…之所以產生，乃是借助人們可怕的無知」（7月4日公教報）。交談溝通是好事，但也應先弄清楚自己在信甚麼，而對方在信和傳授甚麼，不然，就是「借助人們可怕的無知」來混淆信仰。
徐神父強調「交談」，但實情指的可能是「交融」而不是「交談」。一個有婦之夫跟一個怨婦交談可以是健康的，但自己過度投入而演變成婚外情，與對方結合交融，則是嚴重的問題了。新紀元者對建制、架構、傳統、現況不滿，喜歡「另類」（醫療、信仰……），「主張可以抽取新紀元與基督宗教的長處，把兩者調和」（11月14日公教報關於新紀元運動的報導），以交談為名，調和交融改造基督信仰為實。
新紀元企圖以科學之名，嘲諷教會落後封閉，不接受新事物和與另類信仰「交談」（背後他們其實是在期望「交融」）。「鄭博士說：新紀元以科學支持其學說，但部份又不願意與真正的科學對話」（11月14日公教報）。新紀元者經常形容掌相、星座算命占卜、風水等為粗略的統計學、環境學。早在1975年，19位諾貝爾獎得主與173位知名科學家，詳細審閱了由最大的星象占算師組織 The American Federation of Astrologers（AFA）Tempe, Ariz 提供的多份文獻--文獻聲稱星座占算是有科學和統計學根據的。其後這批為數192人的科學家，公開表示這些研究文獻「既令人失望又多疑點」。（參考資料可看《神思》第50期中的《自然抑或黑暗？--以統計學和釋放祈禱分辨星座、掌相、占算與新紀元思想》。
個人內在決定對錯？
徐神父覺得最重要是九型性格「幫得到人」。在下的文章已重點指出：這不是全面分辨的方法。根據「幫得到人就是好事」的思想，香港法例兩個醫生簽名，婦女就可墮胎（過去的數字指出，每年兩萬多個合法墮胎手術，有一萬五千個女士是已婚婦女。墮胎的原因似乎是「避孕」的接續防線），簽名醫生和墮胎女士的看法，亦一定是「幫得到人」。難道這樣就可在信理上歡迎墮胎了嗎？
新紀元者時常用這種個人體驗感受作道德對錯的標準，不接受外界的權威：「道德判斷是個人內在的事--沒有「天堂」和「地獄」，亦沒有「人格化的/外在的神」（或祂的新娘教會）來審判你指正你。你創造你自己的實相--我們都是自己命運的主宰，我們不必受外界任何權威的擺佈。」
冰山一角
「（普帕爾）樞機說，『新紀元』是對人類追求幸福的虛偽回應。他說，今天的人都希望和平、安詳、與自己修好、也與他人和大自然修和，『新紀元』給這種希望提出的回答是一種騙局」（7月4日公教報）。
新紀元者的信仰很「大方得體」：各種宗教都是一樣，創造者與受造物都是一體，所有信仰行徑和崇拜的神祗對象都沒有錯，批評和不接受融合他人者就最錯。舉個常見的例子，你有沒有曾經聽人講過：佛、道、基督宗教等的神其實都是同一個神，祂祇不過是以不同方式臨在世界各地，用適合當地文化的形式展現祂自己而矣！我也曾經信過這套說法--聽下去好像很動聽--世界大同，不用爭拗，個個都是好的。不過，雖然梵二澄清了聖神在基督宗教外也有祂的工作，其他宗教也有其美善和反映基督真光的地方，但這並不是說：所有的神都是一樣！
九型人格祇是冰山一角，在新紀元無孔不入的最近二十年，連曾任教區某委員會主席的教友，也正式以新紀元的身份教人用塔羅牌占算（http://www.newageshop.com.hk/ 點擊 Resident Practitioners ）；徐神父是位真誠勇敢的人物，公開在教會內外鼓吹教授違反天主教要理的掌相、命運、觀世音…，會不會亦已經與新紀元交融（非交談）在一起？
「可愛的諸位，不要凡神就信，但要考驗那些神是否出於天主，因為有許多假先知來到了世界上」（若一 4:1）。「但應當考驗一切，好的，應保持，各種壞的，要遠避」（得前 5:21-22）。
拜讀徐志忠神父一連三期「九型性格的價值」的文章，一方面同意神父所說，「性格」此詞的翻譯比「人格」較佳，亦謝謝神父大方地提出，看過在下的文章「及他在網站提供的詳盡文獻，不禁令人敬佩他對做學問的認真及感激他的服務」。
另一方面，發覺神父所言，似乎沒有面對敝作所指出的Enneagram的大部份問題--包括教廷的研究結論，而祇是用了近半篇幅為「九型性格」重賣一次廣告，並在全文最後幾句含糊地避開問題的重點，實在可惜。
在下亦很詫異：為何身為神父和教友的牧羊人，在明明知道Helen Palmer推舉通靈和沙民巫術是事實之餘，竟仍可強調「我……前後追隨她學習超過三百小時」？
做記者偵探的感受
在我和一些朋友共同追查、整理和表達Enneagram的事實真相的過程中，我們感到自己又像在做記者，又像在做偵探，概括的感受是：「愈見真相，愈覺恐怖」，亦愈來愈明白，為何教宗和教會的兩個宗座委員會，會如此重視Enneagram的問題，在《耶穌基督是帶來生命活水者：天主教對新紀元的反省》教廷文件的正文內容中，四處點名具體指出Enneagram有問題，亦把它等同重知論（自古已與教理相違逆的思想）。
在追查得愈來愈多的真相過程中，我覺得很奇怪：為甚麼推動Enneagram者竟不覺得一些明顯的問題是問題呢？是否他們本身已認同了另一套信仰，像新紀元思想中，耶穌基督祇是眾多神體Divine的其中一種表達方式，創造者與受造物是同等而無分彼此的……所以一切擺在眼前的證據（如Don Riso教導「人神秘地擁有和創造者同等的生命和靈魂」，又把Enneagram跟宇宙星雲（力量、即「神」）和邪異圖騰連上關係，各主要創立人的邪異行徑……）都視而不見？我曾面對面聽教授Enneagram的人，把依查素Ichazo教人「通連宇宙力量」--新紀元的通神方式--說成為他是在教「天文地理」，又替Don Riso在「新紀元」學堂Esalen Institute任教解釋為「祇是因為他沒有其他地方」！
教會的位置
在分辨事物時，歷史發展與師承當然都重要！不然，教會的專家就不會在文件中提到九型性格的歷史和來源了。在下不才，神學教理上的能力和個人位置在在沒有資格判定Enneagram的問題，不過祇是從幾點平常人可以明白得到的地方，去解說一下教廷專家與在聖職上有權為我們下判斷的牧者所下判斷的原因，其實他們才有天主親自賦予的神權和聖寵去專責此事，最後任何爭拗，亦祇有他們能有資格和責任去解釋。
縱觀徐神父全文，論證方法似乎就像：敝作提出證據，包括教廷文件，叫人不要攪同居試婚，而被指正者不單沒有正面解決我的質疑，反倒過來強調兩點：一、教會也會錯，所以不用聽她的；二、請在下先自省，不要評論人家的事。這不是面對教廷的意見和敝作提出的實證的好方法。
我和一批熱切信主的戰友，也有對教會不完全認同的地方，譬如教會（給陌生人）的冷漠感，不認識現代人所面對的挑戰和他們的需要，沒有正視教會自己的毛病和對症下藥，不時浪費資源從新由頭再去發明輪子……我們由是採用一些另類的五項平衡的模式，以主耶穌的方式去滿足現代人的需要，改變人的生命。
但在信理上的事，我們都確信教會是「真理的柱石和基礎」（弟前 3:15），「陰間的門決不能戰勝她」（瑪 16:18）。公教信仰不是超級市場（隨意選取）式的信仰，不是執藥式的信仰。
新紀元者時常會搬出教會犯過的錯誤，來證明無需要重視教會的訓導和判斷--「我信天主，但教會不代表祂」--細心想想，那麼我們要信從甚麼呢？是自己！--這就是新紀元「我們都是自己命運的主宰，我們不必受外界任何權威的擺佈。道德判斷是個人內在的事」的思維信念。
交談抑或交融？
「宗座文化委員會主席普帕爾樞機對梵蒂岡電台談及新紀元問題時，指出該現象…之所以產生，乃是借助人們可怕的無知」（7月4日公教報）。交談溝通是好事，但也應先弄清楚自己在信甚麼，而對方在信和傳授甚麼，不然，就是「借助人們可怕的無知」來混淆信仰。
徐神父強調「交談」，但實情指的可能是「交融」而不是「交談」。一個有婦之夫跟一個怨婦交談可以是健康的，但自己過度投入而演變成婚外情，與對方結合交融，則是嚴重的問題了。新紀元者對建制、架構、傳統、現況不滿，喜歡「另類」（醫療、信仰……），「主張可以抽取新紀元與基督宗教的長處，把兩者調和」（11月14日公教報關於新紀元運動的報導），以交談為名，調和交融改造基督信仰為實。
新紀元企圖以科學之名，嘲諷教會落後封閉，不接受新事物和與另類信仰「交談」（背後他們其實是在期望「交融」）。「鄭博士說：新紀元以科學支持其學說，但部份又不願意與真正的科學對話」（11月14日公教報）。新紀元者經常形容掌相、星座算命占卜、風水等為粗略的統計學、環境學。早在1975年，19位諾貝爾獎得主與173位知名科學家，詳細審閱了由最大的星象占算師組織 The American Federation of Astrologers（AFA）Tempe, Ariz 提供的多份文獻--文獻聲稱星座占算是有科學和統計學根據的。其後這批為數192人的科學家，公開表示這些研究文獻「既令人失望又多疑點」。（參考資料可看《神思》第50期中的《自然抑或黑暗？--以統計學和釋放祈禱分辨星座、掌相、占算與新紀元思想》。
個人內在決定對錯？
徐神父覺得最重要是九型性格「幫得到人」。在下的文章已重點指出：這不是全面分辨的方法。根據「幫得到人就是好事」的思想，香港法例兩個醫生簽名，婦女就可墮胎（過去的數字指出，每年兩萬多個合法墮胎手術，有一萬五千個女士是已婚婦女。墮胎的原因似乎是「避孕」的接續防線），簽名醫生和墮胎女士的看法，亦一定是「幫得到人」。難道這樣就可在信理上歡迎墮胎了嗎？
新紀元者時常用這種個人體驗感受作道德對錯的標準，不接受外界的權威：「道德判斷是個人內在的事--沒有「天堂」和「地獄」，亦沒有「人格化的/外在的神」（或祂的新娘教會）來審判你指正你。你創造你自己的實相--我們都是自己命運的主宰，我們不必受外界任何權威的擺佈。」
冰山一角
「（普帕爾）樞機說，『新紀元』是對人類追求幸福的虛偽回應。他說，今天的人都希望和平、安詳、與自己修好、也與他人和大自然修和，『新紀元』給這種希望提出的回答是一種騙局」（7月4日公教報）。
新紀元者的信仰很「大方得體」：各種宗教都是一樣，創造者與受造物都是一體，所有信仰行徑和崇拜的神祗對象都沒有錯，批評和不接受融合他人者就最錯。舉個常見的例子，你有沒有曾經聽人講過：佛、道、基督宗教等的神其實都是同一個神，祂祇不過是以不同方式臨在世界各地，用適合當地文化的形式展現祂自己而矣！我也曾經信過這套說法--聽下去好像很動聽--世界大同，不用爭拗，個個都是好的。不過，雖然梵二澄清了聖神在基督宗教外也有祂的工作，其他宗教也有其美善和反映基督真光的地方，但這並不是說：所有的神都是一樣！
九型人格祇是冰山一角，在新紀元無孔不入的最近二十年，連曾任教區某委員會主席的教友，也正式以新紀元的身份教人用塔羅牌占算（http://www.newageshop.com.hk/ 點擊 Resident Practitioners ）；徐神父是位真誠勇敢的人物，公開在教會內外鼓吹教授違反天主教要理的掌相、命運、觀世音…，會不會亦已經與新紀元交融（非交談）在一起？
「可愛的諸位，不要凡神就信，但要考驗那些神是否出於天主，因為有許多假先知來到了世界上」（若一 4:1）。「但應當考驗一切，好的，應保持，各種壞的，要遠避」（得前 5:21-22）。
[轉貼] 徐志忠神父「九型性格」的正面價值
這是一篇徐志忠神父回應「聖神內更新團體」 主席 蘇信超先生 Sammy Sou 所寫有關
九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰衝突的文章
「九型性格」 (註一) 的正面價值 徐志忠 http://www.frzee.com/
拜讀了蘇信超先生的「九型人格無問題？」(公教報 3163-4 期) 及他在網站提供的詳盡文獻，不禁令人敬佩他對做學問的認真及感激他的服務。
根據二十年的認識
筆者自從1985年初與數十位神職人員參加了由許夢貞修女邀請由美國來港首次介紹「九型性格」的課程至今，一直對這一門學說保持著濃厚的興趣。曾三次邀請海倫帕瑪Helen Palmer來港教導。前後追隨跟她學習超過三百小時。她是一個非常慬慎而有深度的第六型性格的人。三十多年來，根據深入訪問的實例，不斷的在做研究、對證及發展「九型性格」。雖然在過去十多年已累積了豐富的「九型性格與靈修」的經驗與資料，但一直未敢輕言出新書。感謝修會會長對會士求知的尊重，使我不僅有機會從書本中去學習，還能在數位名師指導中親身體會「九型性格」的發展及正面價值。願在此與大家分享一個與蘇先生不完全苟同的觀感。
「認識自己」
如果對「九型性格」深入了解及運用恰當，它將會是一面寶貴的鏡子。眾所週知：「認識自己」是一切心路歷程成長的起點。「認識他人」亦是與人相處，心理及神修指導必需的條件。
「九型性格」提供了一個比較全面、超越種族、文化，忠於人性的成長地圖。
嬰兒出世已可分辨為九種不同的氣質。
腦科專家 Panksepp基於腦的特性，亦將人們分為七類。
四世紀的沙漠中的教父 Evagrius (345-399)提出的八類「偏情」(passions)，六世紀末額我略教宗修定為「七罪宗」，亦稱「七死罪」，都是根據人性在神修成長過程中所歸納出來的。
「自欺」? 「醒覺」
至於「九型性格」的起源不明，似乎不太重要。更重要的是對證自己的經驗，醒覺到自己是否仍在盲目地依從自己型號的「罪性與偏情」，能否看穿「自欺」的行為。如果不了解自己及他人的「死穴」，怎能有恰當的指導及成長？
第一型的追求完美，強調道德標準，恐怕是受了「超自我」(Superego) 而不是良心的驅使。
第二型的熱心助人，或許是需要他人的肯定。
第三型的多才能幹，可能是在靠成就感來建立自己的價值。
第四型的宗教熱誠或者是彌補空虛。
第五型的人經常默禱及退省，甚至隱修，可能是逃避．．．(註二)
其實每一類型的「提昇」是靠「醒覺」。意識到自己型號的「催迫」時，放鬆自己，回到現在，「活在當下」(註三)，去接受上主的恩寵，無條件的愛與肯定。
「耶穌已變成基督。」
基督徒當然是接受聖三的上主。但是相信耶穌基督，並不表示我們要經常想像身穿著白袍有鬍鬚的猶太人形像的耶穌。「耶穌已變成基督。」基督的容貌不僅是一個猶太男士，而在每一個有真愛的人身上顯示出來，充滿在整個宇宙中，若望一書亦強調「天主是愛，誰生活在愛中，就生活在天主內」。
一個針對「新紀元」的批判可能是因為「九型性格」未必提到耶穌 (註四)。人們未能明顯的肯定耶穌。為基督徒在運用「九型性格」時，應該不會有這個問題。
梁宗溢神父及鄭瑞薇修女主辦了十多年的「九型性格與靈修」課程，從未聽過有人因研讀「九型性格」而離棄基督。相信在世界各地有許多舊生會挺身見證這類課程對他們在信仰及生活上的幫助。
神的恩寵
最近幾年 Helen Palmer 幾乎在每次講座中都提到心靈的成長是神的恩寵(received grace)，我們只可「接受」。她鼓勵人們跟隨聖十字若望(註五)的空虛或黑夜神修 (拉丁名詞 VIA NEGATIVA) 及採用聖依納爵及其他的正面或想像方式 (VIA POSITIVA) 來補充。完全聞不到「重知識論」。(註六)--的味道。
至於方法則見人見智。信仰與神修，不應脫離人性的基礎。了解每人的特點才能因材施教。還記得四十多年前，在初學院，神師規定我只可跟從抽象枯燥的三點推理默想，不接受我要求採用更感性的福音想像祈禱，結果因此偏頭痛了大半年！我只希望所有開始踏上神修路途的人，能接受及運用「九型性格」的培訓，這就可少走冤枉路了。
神修進展的九級地圖
RISO/HUDSON 更詳細的提供了每一類型從不健康到健康狀態的九級地圖。要注意的是神修進展不能單靠自己的意志及目標去成長的。參加他們的課程時,才更清楚的了解:我們只能不斷「醒覺」,別的是恩寵，只能謙虛的等待及接受。
一個靠自己的意志去追求「頓悟」(Enlightenment) 的人未開始已失敗了。同樣的，追求「幸福」的人注定是失望的。「頓悟」、「幸福」僅是「忘我」、「醒覺」及「活在當下」的恩寵。
「九型性格」的鏡子
有了「九型性格」的鏡子，凡事能否先照一照？分辨一下究竟自己所作，是出於未提昇的性格型號的催迫還是上主的使命及自由的選擇？
不健康的第六型充滿怕懼，懷疑的性格，到處只看到危險、異端。
第一型太追求黑白分明，大義滅親，會無情的迫害異見人士。
第八型可能會用權力去控制，保護他人的思維及生活….
謙虛與開放的教會
廿一世紀的多元教會，不能再如歐洲中古世紀的教會，將自己狹窄的信念視作為絕對的真理，迫害異見之士。聖女貞德、「禮儀之爭」、德日進神父…都提醒我們堅持成見的危害。有幸當今教宗已公開承認教會迫害加利略 (Galileo) 的錯誤，繼承了若望教宗的開放大公精神。
經歷了這麼多的教訓，我們要避免帶衣著西方概念唯尊的眼鏡去檢討別的神修，或僅在書本的象牙塔中尋找錯誤思想。
我們應採取聖依納爵在神操開始「原則與基礎」中提出的「人對於取用這些受造物，常該看自己的宗向：它們能夠幫助多少，便取用多少；他們能夠妨礙多少，便捨去多少。」 (平常僅用兩個拉丁文字 Tantum quantum來表達 )。另外再學習聖言空虛自己降生成人的態度，投入不同的宗教、文化領域，真正的尊重及了解到基督的真理不應局限於天主教會。聖葉理諾、聖奧斯定、聖多瑪斯，那一個不是經歷了許多矛盾，終於吸收了外教的思想而發揚了教會的神學。
歸根究底，一切還是回到蘇格拉底所說的：「要認識自己。」每個人都帶著自己性格的有色眼鏡。要多些自我醒覺及尊重，少些批判，接受人有異同之別。這就是「九型性格」的正面價值觀。(註七)
(註一) 梁宗溢神父用了十多年的譯名比較準確。我們在講性格，不是人格。性格源自天生的氣質。人格卻是後天的選擇所造成。
本文包括許多專有名詞，不熟悉「九型性格」及未讀蘇先生大作的讀者，可能看不明白，特在此致歉。
(註二) 在此我必需提醒大家不要輕易的將人定型。「九型性格」是自我醒覺及神修指導的寶鑑。但常常淪為「心理遊戲」或工商界的操縱工具。每一個獨特的人僅簡化成不需進一步認識了解的一個型號！
(註三)「活在當下」是暢銷書The Power of Now的中文譯名。18 世紀的 J. de Caussade, S. J. , 神父己寫了「現刻的聖事」英譯 Sacrament of the Present Moment.
(註四) 將「九型性格」歸入「新紀元」，好像見到綠色物體就歸入樹木類，不是懷尊重的「交談」之道。
(註五) 聖十字若望(1542--1591)曾經受自己的修會拐捉入獄兩次，又多次遭受教廷審查。很多著作，都是在獄中所寫。
(註六) 「重知識論」(Gnosticism)強調人單靠知識，已可與神相通，得到救恩。另外輕視物質。相信歷來有不少人都給冤枉的扣上了這個籠統的大帽子。
(註七) 因為篇幅所限，不便在此逐條的討論蘇先生提供的資料。其中有不少是列舉誤用或出錯的個案 (英文說Arguments of Abuse) …。如有機會，希望公教報能安排一個公開的討論會。
*********************************************************************
有關筆者天主教耶穌會徐志忠神父 Rev Fr. George Zee S.J. 在九型性格方面的一些背景
徐神父於1979年第一次從加州大學查理斯．德博士 Charles T. Tart 的文章接觸到九型性格。同年徐神父參觀了奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素 Oscar Ichazo 在紐約的艾曆卡學院Arica Institute。徐神父早已在1976年修習了Arica calisthenics。徐神父自1990年開始先後四次邀請海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer到香港及星加坡授課，2006年把韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.的課程引入香港。
徐神父先後被海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer和大衛ㆍ丹尼爾斯 David Daniels，韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.，和金潔．拉佩德-伯格達 Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D.認證為合格九型性格學導師。徐神父也用了很長時間跟隨唐理查‧裏索 Don R. Riso深化學習九型性格。直到2006年)，徐神父還幾乎每年都到美國跟隨不同的老師學習，可以算得上是香港研習九型性格學接觸面最廣最深，研習時間最長的一位老師。
海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer是奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素 Oscar Ichazo的第二代傳人。查理斯．德博士 Charles T. Tart、韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.和唐理查‧裏索 Don R. Riso三位都是奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素的第三代傳人。
徐神父亦把國際九型性格學會 International Enneagram Association 引入到香港，成立國際九型性格學會香港分會 International Enneagram Association Hong Kong Affiliate。
九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰衝突的文章
「九型性格」 (註一) 的正面價值 徐志忠 http://www.frzee.com/
拜讀了蘇信超先生的「九型人格無問題？」(公教報 3163-4 期) 及他在網站提供的詳盡文獻，不禁令人敬佩他對做學問的認真及感激他的服務。
根據二十年的認識
筆者自從1985年初與數十位神職人員參加了由許夢貞修女邀請由美國來港首次介紹「九型性格」的課程至今，一直對這一門學說保持著濃厚的興趣。曾三次邀請海倫帕瑪Helen Palmer來港教導。前後追隨跟她學習超過三百小時。她是一個非常慬慎而有深度的第六型性格的人。三十多年來，根據深入訪問的實例，不斷的在做研究、對證及發展「九型性格」。雖然在過去十多年已累積了豐富的「九型性格與靈修」的經驗與資料，但一直未敢輕言出新書。感謝修會會長對會士求知的尊重，使我不僅有機會從書本中去學習，還能在數位名師指導中親身體會「九型性格」的發展及正面價值。願在此與大家分享一個與蘇先生不完全苟同的觀感。
「認識自己」
如果對「九型性格」深入了解及運用恰當，它將會是一面寶貴的鏡子。眾所週知：「認識自己」是一切心路歷程成長的起點。「認識他人」亦是與人相處，心理及神修指導必需的條件。
「九型性格」提供了一個比較全面、超越種族、文化，忠於人性的成長地圖。
嬰兒出世已可分辨為九種不同的氣質。
腦科專家 Panksepp基於腦的特性，亦將人們分為七類。
四世紀的沙漠中的教父 Evagrius (345-399)提出的八類「偏情」(passions)，六世紀末額我略教宗修定為「七罪宗」，亦稱「七死罪」，都是根據人性在神修成長過程中所歸納出來的。
「自欺」? 「醒覺」
至於「九型性格」的起源不明，似乎不太重要。更重要的是對證自己的經驗，醒覺到自己是否仍在盲目地依從自己型號的「罪性與偏情」，能否看穿「自欺」的行為。如果不了解自己及他人的「死穴」，怎能有恰當的指導及成長？
第一型的追求完美，強調道德標準，恐怕是受了「超自我」(Superego) 而不是良心的驅使。
第二型的熱心助人，或許是需要他人的肯定。
第三型的多才能幹，可能是在靠成就感來建立自己的價值。
第四型的宗教熱誠或者是彌補空虛。
第五型的人經常默禱及退省，甚至隱修，可能是逃避．．．(註二)
其實每一類型的「提昇」是靠「醒覺」。意識到自己型號的「催迫」時，放鬆自己，回到現在，「活在當下」(註三)，去接受上主的恩寵，無條件的愛與肯定。
「耶穌已變成基督。」
基督徒當然是接受聖三的上主。但是相信耶穌基督，並不表示我們要經常想像身穿著白袍有鬍鬚的猶太人形像的耶穌。「耶穌已變成基督。」基督的容貌不僅是一個猶太男士，而在每一個有真愛的人身上顯示出來，充滿在整個宇宙中，若望一書亦強調「天主是愛，誰生活在愛中，就生活在天主內」。
一個針對「新紀元」的批判可能是因為「九型性格」未必提到耶穌 (註四)。人們未能明顯的肯定耶穌。為基督徒在運用「九型性格」時，應該不會有這個問題。
梁宗溢神父及鄭瑞薇修女主辦了十多年的「九型性格與靈修」課程，從未聽過有人因研讀「九型性格」而離棄基督。相信在世界各地有許多舊生會挺身見證這類課程對他們在信仰及生活上的幫助。
神的恩寵
最近幾年 Helen Palmer 幾乎在每次講座中都提到心靈的成長是神的恩寵(received grace)，我們只可「接受」。她鼓勵人們跟隨聖十字若望(註五)的空虛或黑夜神修 (拉丁名詞 VIA NEGATIVA) 及採用聖依納爵及其他的正面或想像方式 (VIA POSITIVA) 來補充。完全聞不到「重知識論」。(註六)--的味道。
至於方法則見人見智。信仰與神修，不應脫離人性的基礎。了解每人的特點才能因材施教。還記得四十多年前，在初學院，神師規定我只可跟從抽象枯燥的三點推理默想，不接受我要求採用更感性的福音想像祈禱，結果因此偏頭痛了大半年！我只希望所有開始踏上神修路途的人，能接受及運用「九型性格」的培訓，這就可少走冤枉路了。
神修進展的九級地圖
RISO/HUDSON 更詳細的提供了每一類型從不健康到健康狀態的九級地圖。要注意的是神修進展不能單靠自己的意志及目標去成長的。參加他們的課程時,才更清楚的了解:我們只能不斷「醒覺」,別的是恩寵，只能謙虛的等待及接受。
一個靠自己的意志去追求「頓悟」(Enlightenment) 的人未開始已失敗了。同樣的，追求「幸福」的人注定是失望的。「頓悟」、「幸福」僅是「忘我」、「醒覺」及「活在當下」的恩寵。
「九型性格」的鏡子
有了「九型性格」的鏡子，凡事能否先照一照？分辨一下究竟自己所作，是出於未提昇的性格型號的催迫還是上主的使命及自由的選擇？
不健康的第六型充滿怕懼，懷疑的性格，到處只看到危險、異端。
第一型太追求黑白分明，大義滅親，會無情的迫害異見人士。
第八型可能會用權力去控制，保護他人的思維及生活….
謙虛與開放的教會
廿一世紀的多元教會，不能再如歐洲中古世紀的教會，將自己狹窄的信念視作為絕對的真理，迫害異見之士。聖女貞德、「禮儀之爭」、德日進神父…都提醒我們堅持成見的危害。有幸當今教宗已公開承認教會迫害加利略 (Galileo) 的錯誤，繼承了若望教宗的開放大公精神。
經歷了這麼多的教訓，我們要避免帶衣著西方概念唯尊的眼鏡去檢討別的神修，或僅在書本的象牙塔中尋找錯誤思想。
我們應採取聖依納爵在神操開始「原則與基礎」中提出的「人對於取用這些受造物，常該看自己的宗向：它們能夠幫助多少，便取用多少；他們能夠妨礙多少，便捨去多少。」 (平常僅用兩個拉丁文字 Tantum quantum來表達 )。另外再學習聖言空虛自己降生成人的態度，投入不同的宗教、文化領域，真正的尊重及了解到基督的真理不應局限於天主教會。聖葉理諾、聖奧斯定、聖多瑪斯，那一個不是經歷了許多矛盾，終於吸收了外教的思想而發揚了教會的神學。
歸根究底，一切還是回到蘇格拉底所說的：「要認識自己。」每個人都帶著自己性格的有色眼鏡。要多些自我醒覺及尊重，少些批判，接受人有異同之別。這就是「九型性格」的正面價值觀。(註七)
(註一) 梁宗溢神父用了十多年的譯名比較準確。我們在講性格，不是人格。性格源自天生的氣質。人格卻是後天的選擇所造成。
本文包括許多專有名詞，不熟悉「九型性格」及未讀蘇先生大作的讀者，可能看不明白，特在此致歉。
(註二) 在此我必需提醒大家不要輕易的將人定型。「九型性格」是自我醒覺及神修指導的寶鑑。但常常淪為「心理遊戲」或工商界的操縱工具。每一個獨特的人僅簡化成不需進一步認識了解的一個型號！
(註三)「活在當下」是暢銷書The Power of Now的中文譯名。18 世紀的 J. de Caussade, S. J. , 神父己寫了「現刻的聖事」英譯 Sacrament of the Present Moment.
(註四) 將「九型性格」歸入「新紀元」，好像見到綠色物體就歸入樹木類，不是懷尊重的「交談」之道。
(註五) 聖十字若望(1542--1591)曾經受自己的修會拐捉入獄兩次，又多次遭受教廷審查。很多著作，都是在獄中所寫。
(註六) 「重知識論」(Gnosticism)強調人單靠知識，已可與神相通，得到救恩。另外輕視物質。相信歷來有不少人都給冤枉的扣上了這個籠統的大帽子。
(註七) 因為篇幅所限，不便在此逐條的討論蘇先生提供的資料。其中有不少是列舉誤用或出錯的個案 (英文說Arguments of Abuse) …。如有機會，希望公教報能安排一個公開的討論會。
*********************************************************************
有關筆者天主教耶穌會徐志忠神父 Rev Fr. George Zee S.J. 在九型性格方面的一些背景
徐神父於1979年第一次從加州大學查理斯．德博士 Charles T. Tart 的文章接觸到九型性格。同年徐神父參觀了奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素 Oscar Ichazo 在紐約的艾曆卡學院Arica Institute。徐神父早已在1976年修習了Arica calisthenics。徐神父自1990年開始先後四次邀請海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer到香港及星加坡授課，2006年把韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.的課程引入香港。
徐神父先後被海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer和大衛ㆍ丹尼爾斯 David Daniels，韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.，和金潔．拉佩德-伯格達 Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D.認證為合格九型性格學導師。徐神父也用了很長時間跟隨唐理查‧裏索 Don R. Riso深化學習九型性格。直到2006年)，徐神父還幾乎每年都到美國跟隨不同的老師學習，可以算得上是香港研習九型性格學接觸面最廣最深，研習時間最長的一位老師。
海倫．龐瑪 Helen Palmer是奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素 Oscar Ichazo的第二代傳人。查理斯．德博士 Charles T. Tart、韋納智 Jerome Wagner Ph.D.和唐理查‧裏索 Don R. Riso三位都是奧斯卡ㆍ英捷素的第三代傳人。
徐神父亦把國際九型性格學會 International Enneagram Association 引入到香港，成立國際九型性格學會香港分會 International Enneagram Association Hong Kong Affiliate。
有關九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰衝突的文章
由「聖神內更新團體」 主席 蘇信超先生 Sammy Sou
所寫有關九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰衝突的文章：
分辨Enneagram和 新紀元（New Age）運動的危害
分辨 Enneagram（簡短版 一 及 二）
為何教廷文件指定Enneagram九型人格出了問題 （綜合分辨 - 精要／更新版）
從教會保存純真的基督信仰角度去全面分辨一件事情 （綜合分辨 - 詳盡版）
Enneagram 與新紀元（回應徐志忠神父11月公教報文章）
由畢華神父 Fr. Mitchell Pacwa S.J.
所寫有關九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰出現衝突的文章
What Is the Problem With the Enneagram? (Paper 1)
The Enneagram (Paper 2)
Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram (an article from the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1991, page 14)
Enneagram: A Modern Myth
Enneagram: A Modern Myth 的中譯本 >> "九點陣規圖：一個現代的迷思" 在下文可以找到
是秀英姐 分辨九種人格 (Enneagram) 和新紀元（New Age）運動的危害
The Enneagram: Spirituality It Is Not
畢華神父的一本相關著作
Catholics and the New Age: How Good People Are Being Drawn into Jungian Psychology, the Enneagram, and the Age of Aquarius
關於畢華神父 Fr. Mitchell Pacwa S.J.
Father Mitchell Pacwa, S.J. - Curriculum Vitae and Publications
教會內一些反對九型性格 Enneagram 的文章或事件
A New Face in Sydney - Banning of Enneagram in a diocese in Australia (Sept 28, 2001)
A Brief Report on the Origins of the Enneagram - Draft from the U.S. bishops' Secretariat (posted October 19, 2000)
Memorandum from J. Augustine Di Noia, OP regarding: Draft of a Report on the Enneagram (July 7, 2000)
The Enneagram Theory of Personality - Why it's use is incompatible with Christianity (from the January/February 1999 issue of St. Catherine Review)
所寫有關九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰衝突的文章：
分辨Enneagram和 新紀元（New Age）運動的危害
分辨 Enneagram（簡短版 一 及 二）
為何教廷文件指定Enneagram九型人格出了問題 （綜合分辨 - 精要／更新版）
從教會保存純真的基督信仰角度去全面分辨一件事情 （綜合分辨 - 詳盡版）
Enneagram 與新紀元（回應徐志忠神父11月公教報文章）
由畢華神父 Fr. Mitchell Pacwa S.J.
所寫有關九型性格 Enneagram 和基督信仰出現衝突的文章
What Is the Problem With the Enneagram? (Paper 1)
The Enneagram (Paper 2)
Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram (an article from the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1991, page 14)
Enneagram: A Modern Myth
Enneagram: A Modern Myth 的中譯本 >> "九點陣規圖：一個現代的迷思" 在下文可以找到
是秀英姐 分辨九種人格 (Enneagram) 和新紀元（New Age）運動的危害
The Enneagram: Spirituality It Is Not
畢華神父的一本相關著作
Catholics and the New Age: How Good People Are Being Drawn into Jungian Psychology, the Enneagram, and the Age of Aquarius
關於畢華神父 Fr. Mitchell Pacwa S.J.
Father Mitchell Pacwa, S.J. - Curriculum Vitae and Publications
教會內一些反對九型性格 Enneagram 的文章或事件
A New Face in Sydney - Banning of Enneagram in a diocese in Australia (Sept 28, 2001)
A Brief Report on the Origins of the Enneagram - Draft from the U.S. bishops' Secretariat (posted October 19, 2000)
Memorandum from J. Augustine Di Noia, OP regarding: Draft of a Report on the Enneagram (July 7, 2000)
The Enneagram Theory of Personality - Why it's use is incompatible with Christianity (from the January/February 1999 issue of St. Catherine Review)
2007/05/14
5w4 或 4w5
一位大概是 5w4 或 4w5 的朋友希望我從電郵上幫助他找出骨子裡他是 5w4 或 4w5。
我婉拒了他。
這位朋友閱讀了很多九型的材料，也作了不少的反思。我跟他說，按照他目前對九型的認知，單從文字交流，再幫不了太多進一步的探索。
他可以找一些肯定自己是 4 號 或 5 號的朋友和他們正面交談分享，不單是聽他們的答案，還要觀察他們怎樣回答，外型氣質是怎樣等等。
一位 4w5 但屬自我保護子型的朋友和一個 5W4 但屬親密伴侶子型的朋友同桌而坐一定難到很多九型性格的導師। 我曾經花了近一小時的單獨面談也得向一位 5 號承認他是 8 號，而最後只有等他和他的同窗在一起的時候才可以幫助他接受他是 5 號並且找出原因。
這位朋友可以考慮另外一個方法是去參加九型性格的課程，在上座會談的環節當中感受一下不同性格類型的氣質。
面對這位朋友，我關心的反而是到了今天，他還有那些源自性格深處的催逼令他不斷跌倒！
我婉拒了他。
這位朋友閱讀了很多九型的材料，也作了不少的反思。我跟他說，按照他目前對九型的認知，單從文字交流，再幫不了太多進一步的探索。
他可以找一些肯定自己是 4 號 或 5 號的朋友和他們正面交談分享，不單是聽他們的答案，還要觀察他們怎樣回答，外型氣質是怎樣等等。
一位 4w5 但屬自我保護子型的朋友和一個 5W4 但屬親密伴侶子型的朋友同桌而坐一定難到很多九型性格的導師। 我曾經花了近一小時的單獨面談也得向一位 5 號承認他是 8 號，而最後只有等他和他的同窗在一起的時候才可以幫助他接受他是 5 號並且找出原因。
這位朋友可以考慮另外一個方法是去參加九型性格的課程，在上座會談的環節當中感受一下不同性格類型的氣質。
面對這位朋友，我關心的反而是到了今天，他還有那些源自性格深處的催逼令他不斷跌倒！
從問卷測驗去找出自己九型性格的類型,
我建議最多做九型測驗一次起兩次止。
利用九型性格測驗去尋找自己在九型性格 (是性格而不是人格) 的類型只是一個開始，有很多原因會令到測驗結果出偏，例如:
~ 成長時候環境的影響
~ 當下社會文化的影響
~ 父母的期望
~ 自己的要求
~ 長時間的習慣
~ 暫時分辨不出那些行為是源自深層性格催逼，那些是後天的經驗累積
所以，我建議大家做九型測驗最多做一次起兩次止，然後進入觀察階段。比喻說
1) 寫下自己的
三項優點 和
三項缺點
2) 留意自己對外界刺激慣常的反應是
直接的行為反應 (8, 9, 1 腹區)
較注重情感, 較多情緒的反應 (2, 3, 4 心區)，還是
腦袋先行, 思想先行 (5, 6, 7 腦區)
3) 留意自己的慣常情緒，在發怒、悲哀、喜悅和恐懼當中自己偏向那裡？
如果忿怒的情緒比較多，那你可能是 8, 9, 1 腹區 (或身體中樞) 的一份子
8 號會直接表達憤怒，多數是高強度的，除非碰到挑戰，遇強越強，否則暴發速收
9 號是 [沉睡的怒氣]，怒氣深藏在表面之下，到忍無可忍的時候就會爆發
1 號會是中等強度的發怒，但持續性強，接著是頻繁的焦躁和自我批評
如果四種情緒都明顯, 那你可能是 2, 3, 4 心區 (或內心中樞) 的一份子，這組朋友相對其他兩組情感較豐富，而
2 號會偏向多喜悅
3 號各類情緒都有，但偏向少哀傷
4 號情感最豐富，而且偏向多哀傷及憂鬱的感覺
如果恐懼的情緒比較多，那你可能是 5, 6, 7 腦區 (或頭腦中樞) 的一份子。而當恐懼出現時，他們的第一反應就是仔細分析。
5 號面對恐懼時，會先抽身，退回自己的世界裡面弄清狀況
6 號在憂慮及恐懼時，會陷入負面情境，打算逃避，又或用行動去回應憂慮和恐懼，從而掩飾內心的恐懼
7 號面對恐懼時，會很快想出各樣的點子去擺脫煩惱，樂觀地想像各種可能性. 他們的情緒是先落在恐懼，然後也出現相同比例的快樂
4) 可以多做自我觀察練習，去留意自己慣常的注意力是放在那裏？
放鬆，背靠坐好，先把注意力放在幾次深呼吸的一呼一吸後便開始留意自己慣常的注意力是放在那裏？
自己通常把注意力放在對與錯的地方上 (1 號)？ 或是
自己通常把注意力放在別人的需要上，無論是否別人先提出要求協助 (2 號)？ 或是
自己通常會注重自己的形象，自己的角色及個人成就 (3 號)？ 或是
自己通常會比較注重你所失去的多於你所擁有的 (4 號)？ 或是
自己通常會注重個人空間？需要很多私人空間 (5 號)？ 或是
自己通常會懷疑曾經作出的決定及擔心正面結果會否出現 (6 號)？ 或是
自己通常會想像很多享樂的選擇及可能性 (7 號)？ 或是
自己通常會將注意力放在誰擁有權力及會問這是否公平 (8 號)？ 或是
自己通常會因注意別人的事情而令你忘卻自己要待辦的事項 (9 號)？
這慣有的注意力如何在日常生活中表現出來？ 有無特定的情況？
是經常發生？ 或特別在受壓之下頗多發生？ 或在受壓之下經常發生？
5) 相信你身邊對你熟識的朋友給你的描述。.
而且, 在不經意, 自由自在鬆容地走路時
8, 9, 1 的朋友會被發現腹部在前
2, 3, 4 的朋友會被發現最挺胸而行，而
5, 6, 7 的朋友會被發現會頭部在前.
如果經過以上各方法都暫時找不到你的類型，又急於要一個號碼用，最好在 10 號、250、二五仔 或 十三點當中找個暫代，切記不要隨便在 1 至 9 當中找一個號碼對號入座。。
當你不能一下子找出你自己九型的型號的時候，你必定有你個人獨特的原因。在恰當的時候, 你的內心世界自然會開放。
很多時候，身邊你最喜歡或令你最討厭的人可能就是和你屬同一類型。
利用九型性格測驗去尋找自己在九型性格 (是性格而不是人格) 的類型只是一個開始，有很多原因會令到測驗結果出偏，例如:
~ 成長時候環境的影響
~ 當下社會文化的影響
~ 父母的期望
~ 自己的要求
~ 長時間的習慣
~ 暫時分辨不出那些行為是源自深層性格催逼，那些是後天的經驗累積
所以，我建議大家做九型測驗最多做一次起兩次止，然後進入觀察階段。比喻說
1) 寫下自己的
三項優點 和
三項缺點
2) 留意自己對外界刺激慣常的反應是
直接的行為反應 (8, 9, 1 腹區)
較注重情感, 較多情緒的反應 (2, 3, 4 心區)，還是
腦袋先行, 思想先行 (5, 6, 7 腦區)
3) 留意自己的慣常情緒，在發怒、悲哀、喜悅和恐懼當中自己偏向那裡？
如果忿怒的情緒比較多，那你可能是 8, 9, 1 腹區 (或身體中樞) 的一份子
8 號會直接表達憤怒，多數是高強度的，除非碰到挑戰，遇強越強，否則暴發速收
9 號是 [沉睡的怒氣]，怒氣深藏在表面之下，到忍無可忍的時候就會爆發
1 號會是中等強度的發怒，但持續性強，接著是頻繁的焦躁和自我批評
如果四種情緒都明顯, 那你可能是 2, 3, 4 心區 (或內心中樞) 的一份子，這組朋友相對其他兩組情感較豐富，而
2 號會偏向多喜悅
3 號各類情緒都有，但偏向少哀傷
4 號情感最豐富，而且偏向多哀傷及憂鬱的感覺
如果恐懼的情緒比較多，那你可能是 5, 6, 7 腦區 (或頭腦中樞) 的一份子。而當恐懼出現時，他們的第一反應就是仔細分析。
5 號面對恐懼時，會先抽身，退回自己的世界裡面弄清狀況
6 號在憂慮及恐懼時，會陷入負面情境，打算逃避，又或用行動去回應憂慮和恐懼，從而掩飾內心的恐懼
7 號面對恐懼時，會很快想出各樣的點子去擺脫煩惱，樂觀地想像各種可能性. 他們的情緒是先落在恐懼，然後也出現相同比例的快樂
4) 可以多做自我觀察練習，去留意自己慣常的注意力是放在那裏？
放鬆，背靠坐好，先把注意力放在幾次深呼吸的一呼一吸後便開始留意自己慣常的注意力是放在那裏？
自己通常把注意力放在對與錯的地方上 (1 號)？ 或是
自己通常把注意力放在別人的需要上，無論是否別人先提出要求協助 (2 號)？ 或是
自己通常會注重自己的形象，自己的角色及個人成就 (3 號)？ 或是
自己通常會比較注重你所失去的多於你所擁有的 (4 號)？ 或是
自己通常會注重個人空間？需要很多私人空間 (5 號)？ 或是
自己通常會懷疑曾經作出的決定及擔心正面結果會否出現 (6 號)？ 或是
自己通常會想像很多享樂的選擇及可能性 (7 號)？ 或是
自己通常會將注意力放在誰擁有權力及會問這是否公平 (8 號)？ 或是
自己通常會因注意別人的事情而令你忘卻自己要待辦的事項 (9 號)？
這慣有的注意力如何在日常生活中表現出來？ 有無特定的情況？
是經常發生？ 或特別在受壓之下頗多發生？ 或在受壓之下經常發生？
5) 相信你身邊對你熟識的朋友給你的描述。.
而且, 在不經意, 自由自在鬆容地走路時
8, 9, 1 的朋友會被發現腹部在前
2, 3, 4 的朋友會被發現最挺胸而行，而
5, 6, 7 的朋友會被發現會頭部在前.
如果經過以上各方法都暫時找不到你的類型，又急於要一個號碼用，最好在 10 號、250、二五仔 或 十三點當中找個暫代，切記不要隨便在 1 至 9 當中找一個號碼對號入座。。
當你不能一下子找出你自己九型的型號的時候，你必定有你個人獨特的原因。在恰當的時候, 你的內心世界自然會開放。
很多時候，身邊你最喜歡或令你最討厭的人可能就是和你屬同一類型。
2007/05/10
教練能教自己嗎?
我的教練模式，既不教導、也不演練，只是通過言語交談啟導，如今被問到教練能不能教自己，我有點兒不懂回答。
在我的教練生涯裏，曾經碰到幾次我認為是教練啟導的最高境界~[自我啟導]，就是來訪者在我很少的干預下已經可以進行自我啟導探索，找到他要找的答案。
對於自己，自問一般只能借助[吾日三省吾身]或[靜心練習]作有限的參透，有時候也會利用一些教練工具，例如：75mmX75mm告示貼，去幫助自己把情況整理一下，有條理地組織，從而對處景更加清晰。自己一個人還未曾經歷過我認為算得上是自我啟導的境界，畢竟當自己面對自己，人碰上一些核心問題的時候，很容易會逃避。最有效的我還是要找別人交談，通過與別人對話將情況外化而得以更加清晰。但跟朋友交談時，還是會逃避，跟教練交談就不一樣，起始目標清晰而且教練一般不會輕易放過我，所以我還是需要找我的教練。
在我的教練生涯裏，曾經碰到幾次我認為是教練啟導的最高境界~[自我啟導]，就是來訪者在我很少的干預下已經可以進行自我啟導探索，找到他要找的答案。
對於自己，自問一般只能借助[吾日三省吾身]或[靜心練習]作有限的參透，有時候也會利用一些教練工具，例如：75mmX75mm告示貼，去幫助自己把情況整理一下，有條理地組織，從而對處景更加清晰。自己一個人還未曾經歷過我認為算得上是自我啟導的境界，畢竟當自己面對自己，人碰上一些核心問題的時候，很容易會逃避。最有效的我還是要找別人交談，通過與別人對話將情況外化而得以更加清晰。但跟朋友交談時，還是會逃避，跟教練交談就不一樣，起始目標清晰而且教練一般不會輕易放過我，所以我還是需要找我的教練。
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