The Enneagram, James Twyman & Byron Katie

The realization is dawning on me that hosting the "Together in Spirit" radio show is as much about the all pervasive guru teaching me as it is about presenting the wisdom of my amazing guests to the listening audience. Each week I seem to come away with something that changes the way I approach my practice or that gives me new insight into what I am already doing.

The recent sequence of shows has been especially instructive. One week I spoke with James Twyman and came away with renewed clarity that it is only the switch from ego-perception to divine-perception that can ever free us from our habitual creation of a world that seems filled with suffering. Trying to train the ego to create an experience of heaven on earth is like trying to train a tree to fly.

The next week I had two Enneagram experts come on and they affirmed that the ego creates what they call stories, and that I also think of as filters, to interpret the world it sees and that it is these filters that distort our understanding of reality and cause us to live some distance from our true selves. (Different people have different habitual filters, which the enneagram describes classified into 9 personality types.) Once again, it is the ego causing us to experience samsara instead of nirvana, not any quality in our external situation, and its key role is distorting perception so that we perceive and interpret according to its beliefs instead of having a direct experience of reality and getting to learn from that.

Now, as I prepare for the appearance of Byron Katie on the show this coming Tuesday, this understanding gathers still more power over my perception. Each time I have a guest coming on I spend a considerable amount of time familiarizing myself with their work. I have been reading both of Katie's books and have listened to recordings of her workshops, as well as trying the process called "The Work" on myself. I not only had some valuable and freeing realizations as a result of this, I also have experienced a shift in my perception.

I could go back through experiences with guests from previous weeks also. I have learned from each of them. I highlight these last three simply because it is now that I feel the full momentum of this process shifting my actual state of daily perception. I have long been exposed to the ideas I relate above, but for the last couple of days I have truly felt an identity of "true self" as myself, while witnessing the filter of ego as it functions without any aggression towards it, but also without being taken in by its stories.

I also have lived within this experiential reality before, but this is the first time it feels integrated within the development of a deeper state of understanding. All other times it seemed more like a gift of grace -- one that suddenly descended upon me without any rhyme or reason and that left, whether after a day, a week or a month, with just as much mystery.

Doing this show, which I first embarked upon as a way of gifting others, has become a huge blessing in my life. Of course, that should be expected. What we give to others is what we gift to ourselves. Just nice to have it confirmed once again -- and nice to share it as a reminder to you as well.

I just hope the show's sponsor is equally pleased with how things are going. This season ends on May 9 with my interview of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, head of the Shambhala buddhist lineage and publisher of the Shambhala Sun magazine. I'm not sure where things will be headed by then.

Giving the Self Away

My interview with Tulku Thubten Rinpoche a few days ago has settled into my consciousness as a newfound resolve to spend some time each day intentionally moving through the world with a mind focused primarily towards fulfilling the needs of others.

I tend to naturally be a pretty generous person, but I realized that that is only relative. Relative to the outrageous levels of selfishness that characterize our society, I'm pretty generous and thoughtful. However, relative to Tulku Thubten Rinpoche, I've got a lot of room for improvement.

As Rinpoche said on the show, the true measure of genuine spiritual accomplishment is guaged by loving-kindness. And I am not just playing at a game called "spiritual practice." My aim is to truly achieve awakening within this lifetime so that I may offer the greatest help to beings that is possible with this lifetime.

What I love about Tulku Thubten Rinpoche, and other great teachers who embody both high intelligence/ scholarly knowledge and loving-kindness is that they provide an example of what is possible. It is so easy to rest on one's laurels after just a little spiritual accomplishment if we do not have those models for what is possible.

Another wonderful benefit of spending a few hours a day intentionally prowling the world with an eye out for what might benefit others and a willingness to fulfill those needs as best one can, is that it provides a powerful tool for self-transcendence. While you are thinking of them, you aren't mulling over yourself at that moment. What a needed break, huh?

One of the things I love so much about interviewing people of significant spiritual accomplishment is that it allows me to not only be a student of these great "world-lovers" but that is also allows me to model spiritual study, contemplation and application for others. I realize one thing I have always been exceptionally good at is learning, really taking in and applying knowledge, and that not everyone knows how to do that. So if I can help someone develop that skill, wow, what a great joy that would be.

I hope you've been listening to the shows, and that you have been receiving some benefit. Next week, James Twyman. Looking forward to it.