Enneagram Type 1

ABOVE THE LEVEL OF PERSONALITY

Above the level of personality, the Enneagram is a map of nine Points, nine “fields of awareness”, or nine essential qualities. The essence “above” each type tells us the quality to which the person is born sensitive.

Essence of Type One – Goodness, Perfection

Imagine that we each come from one of nine lands, the land where the essential quality to which we are sensitive reigns supreme. For Ones this land is one of goodness or perfection.

Type One is called the “Reformer”. In their souls, Ones are sensitive to goodness and the perfection of the universe. Above all they want to live in a land of goodness, where things are right and there is no evil or fault.

To enter One Land, imagine a Garden of Eden where every being is naturally good; where there is a perfect system at work, there is nothing wrong and goodness reigns. Your soul knows that you too are part of this perfect design and goodness.

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To understand the experience of Ones in the world, imagine the “fall” from this Garden of goodness and perfection, the impact of encountering evil or badness everywhere, of being born into a world where things are not right, people do wrong and horrible harm is caused by all this misguided behavior. For type One, expulsion from Paradise feels like being cast into a world of sin and error.

Understanding The Essence of Perfection

Understanding the quality of essential goodness and perfection that is inherent to the universe is a spiritual challenge for all of us. As humans we experience life as imperfect, there is so much pain and suffering all around. We have trouble thinking of goodness without also thinking of badness, and perfection sounds like a concept or ideal that doesn’t exist.

Yet we are tuned into perfection in many ways beyond the thinking mind. We listen to a perfect piece of music, and it vibrates through us, it makes us feel sorrow or joy. We say it is sublime. This is closer to understanding the essence of perfection.

“God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world.”
— Robert Browning

When we are very present, we may sense this perfection- nothing is wrong and there is nothing to fix. Eckhart Tolle and others teach that when we are fully present in the moment, we can realize that there is “no problem”. This is because our thoughts create the judgement, resistance, worries about the future and complaints about the past that make us feel something is wrong. Of course, challenges and difficulties exist in life that must be faced, but in the present moment, we can accept “what is” without arguing with reality in our heads.

From the highest viewpoint we can see that it makes no sense to say that there is something wrong with reality- how could we improve on a universe with more than a hundred billion galaxies? There is a perfection and rightness to the way things are that makes human judgement irrelevant- do you think gravity is good or bad?

Reflecting on the design of the universe and nature helps us sense into perfection beyond our usual understanding. Gazing at the stars we know we are not in charge of much. We certainly can’t “fix” reality. There is a design and vastness we simply recognize. Looking at a flower closely we see nature’s perfect design. 

Consider this mind-blowing explanation of the pattern of The Fibonacci sequence, also called the Golden Ratio, a repeating pattern in nature, math, art and music.

The Fibonacci sequence is one of the most famous formulas in mathematics. Each number in the sequence is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. So, the sequence goes: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on. It’s been called “nature’s secret code,” and “nature’s universal rule.” Just take a look at the pattern it creates and you can instantly recognize how this sequence works in nature like an underlying universal grid. A perfect example of this is the nautilus shell, whose chambers adhere to the Fibonacci sequence’s logarithmic spiral almost perfectly. This famous pattern shows up everywhere in nature including flowers, pinecones, hurricanes, and even huge spiral galaxies in space.

Jonathan Cleveland, clevelanddesign.com

  • The nautilus shell is in the Fibonacci sequence- how amazing that a creature grows its shell in this sequence.

  • The sunflower is another example- the pattern the seeds form is in the Fibonacci sequence. Pinecones, ferns, cacti and other plants also grow in this sequence.

  • The Fibonacci Sequence exists in nature on all scales from the smallest cell to the vastness of space. The Milky Way and other galaxies are shaped in the Fibonacci sequence, and some scientists propose that the planets, moons, asteroids and rings in space are distributed according to the Fibonacci Sequence, or Golden Ratio.

Reflecting on these spiral patterns as “nature’s secret code” and an “underlying universal grid”, we may begin to appreciate the essence of perfection.

This is the essence that Ones are sensitive to- they sense there is a perfection and “rightness” in the world and that we can rest in this goodness. There is nothing we humans need to fix or correct. There is a hidden design operating on a scale we can’t fathom, and it is a good design. The essence of One is calling us to surrender or relax our efforts to control because there is a mysterious perfection we can rely on.