THE LAW OF THREE (32) Welcoming Obstacles (The Enneagram)

THE LAW OF THREE (32) WELCOMING OBSTACLES (THE ENNEAGRAM)

LIKES AND DISLIKES 

"If we were deprived of like and dislike - if we had no polar nature at all - we shouldn't have anything from which to draw force. It is like the poles of a magnet. In order to get force from the poles of a magnet you have to hold yourself right in the field of action of its two poles. In the same way, in order to get force out of the dualism of our nature we have to hold ourselves in the field of it - not let ourselves be drawn to one side or the other, because this simply neutralises their polar force" J.G. Bennett

WELCOMING OBSTACLES

A wisdom teacher suggested that the game of golf was invented by someone who wanted to remind people of what life is like. "The game called golf consists in getting a little ball into a hole while at the same time overcoming all kinds of pitfalls and obstacles that prevent the ball getting into a hole too easily."

Our lives compare to a game of golf. The tensions provoked by the obstacles or hazards we encounter are part of the mechanism required to generate the energy necessary for life. Our freedom consists in the ability not to be drawn to either one side or the other of the two poles of duality (good-bad. like-dislike, pleasure-pain) and develop the capacity to bring into a conflicting situation the power of reconciliation and new direction..

TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO FORCES

Those familiar with the Enneagram* (the circle of 9 points) will note the inner triangle which is formed by the numbers 3-6-9. Numbers 3-6-9 refer to the three independent sources of energy which keep the wheel of creation "going round" (active-passive-reconciling)

Point 3 refers to the force or impulse of habit. Habit ensures repeating patterns of behaviour.

Point 6 refers to the force of the emotional pattern of responses: the likes-dislikes  If we are invited to eat something we dislike the look of, our habit, point 3,  is challenged. If we like fish and chips and our good friends prepared cooked snails our emotional mechanism, point 6, is triggered. 

Point 9 refers to the power of choice and decision. Rarely this power is acted by a conscious and independent Self.  The power of choice is normally exercised by the ego whose partiality lends its power to one of the opposing forces of duality to avoid stagnation. (see L3:5).

Only when No 9 does not allow itself to be drawn to one side or the other of our polar nature can our true will (True Self) free itself from dualistic domination and act as a true agent of reconciliation,

* Gurdjieff and Ouspensky