[NO RECORDING]
The great spiritual traditions, philosophy, and science all share a deep understanding that the human mind is both marvelous and susceptible to illusion. Recognizing this, all three cultivate and employ practices, tools, and methods intended to help us avoid a variety of hidden processes which get in the way of clear, accurate, and receptive understanding. The Enneagram is one such tool. By revealing often unconscious patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior, it helps us see ourselves and others more objectively, and be in the world more as it actually is rather than as it seems.
At the same time, we must remember that elucidation of the Enneagram and its applications is a work in progress. As such, our understanding of both the teachings and our experiences working with them are subject to the innate fallibilities of the human mind. As a community of seekers we should care deeply about how well we actually know what we believe we know about the Enneagram, both for the sake of the body of Enneagram wisdom itself, and how it is perceived and received by others. In Enneagram circles, this is seen as the work of the “head center” and it is important for all nine personality types if we wish to be truly whole.
Drawing from their personal and professional backgrounds, Russ Hudson, Mario Sikora, and Jack Killen will explore this matter in depth. Through conversations with each other and with the audience, they will explore the value, importance, and proper place of spiritual, philosophical, and scientific perspectives and methods of discernment to our work on the paths of self-development and spiritual growth. Further, the presenters will show how the head center’s capacities can deepen and expand through practices, just as in the belly center and the heart center, and that such capacities are vital for any authentic spiritual journey, and for the creation of lives and organizations that serve our most heartfelt sense of purpose.
The session will include group exercises as attendees have conversations with each other about how to integrate new ideas and develop this aspect of the work of perceiving reality clearly, and freeing ourselves from the traps of the human mind.
About the Presenters
Russ Hudson is one of the principal scholars and innovative thinkers in the Enneagram world today. He is the co-Founder of The Enneagram Institute and has been teaching the E.I. Trainings and workshops since 1991. He is also a Founder and former Vice-President of the International Enneagram Association, and the co-author with Don Riso of The Wisdom Of The Enneagram, Personality Types (Revised Edition), and several other books. He holds a degree in East Asian Studies from Columbia University in New York, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Jack Killen, M.D. retired from a 32 year career in clinical research at the National Institutes of Health. He is certified as an Enneagram teacher in the Narrative Tradition, and has studied with many other Enneagram teachers. He has particular interests in the intersections of science and the Enneagram.
Mario Sikora is an executive coach who advises leaders in multinational organizations. Mario is co-author of “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change” and author of many articles on personality and leadership, performance improvement, and teambuilding. Mario was 2011-2012 president of the board of directors of the IEA.
Russ Hudson
Jack Killen
Mario Sikora
2016
2016 IEA Global Conference
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
