The Enneagram and the Three Instincts
Your instinctual nature is extremely powerful in your decision-making processes, lifestyle choices, and orientation to day-to-day reality. But it is often given little emphasis in many spiritual paths. In fact, the Instincts are often treated as an inherent problem - a distortion to be eliminated. This is understandable since this part of your nature is usually little interested in our spiritual or psychological development.
Yet without a clear and viable relationship with this aspect of your soul, it is extremely difficult to maintain an integrated approach to your path. In essence, the Instincts reflect the way you are hardwired by your Instinctual preferences, which when misunderstood, leads you into repetitive patterns of suffering that undo your best efforts to thrive and self- actualize.
he Enneagram deals very directly with this aspect of your Self through teachings about the Three Instincts: Self-Preservation, Sexual (Attraction), and Social (Adaptation). Seminal ideas about the three Instincts go back at least as far as Gurdjieff's teachings about the Centers and have equivalents in other spiritual traditions. In recent years, many Enneagram students have discovered the transformative power of seeing how their instinctual bias operates in combination with their dominant Enneagram type. Learning how their type plays itself out through one of these Instincts can be as exciting and as liberating as when we first learn about the Enneagram.
In this retreat, you will first clarify and deepen your understanding of the Instincts, seeing them at work in your personal experience. You will also examine how your particular instinctual "stack," the way you prioritize your basic human needs and values -- your dominant, middle and blind-spot instinct - is the pattern that most keeps you locked in the repetitive habits of your personality. (One of the quickest ways to unlock the Passion and Fixation of your type is to understand and work on the imbalance, or 'blind-spot' in your Instincts.) Recognizing the way you give energy to certain needs while neglecting others brings balance and helps you integrate the deeper experiences of Essence and Being that you may have had. Without such Inner Work, even profound experiences of Spirit and Oneness cannot affect your life the way they could.
The retreat will employ personal teaching by Michael Naylor, experiential dyads and triads, meditation, movement work, and music to help you recognize the ways that these patterns express themselves in tyour life. We will also explore concrete ways in which you can bring greater balance in your approach to your instinctual life. Our approach is relaxed and conversational, with an emphasis on the development of your capacity to remain in Presence.
| REGISTRATION | |||
| Register Online | Secure Online Form | Cancellation | Details |
| Phone | 800.553.8235 or 518.692.8023 |
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| DATES | |||
| Begins | Friday, September 28,
2012 Dinner 7:00 p.m. |
Ends | Sunday, September 30, 2012 Lunch 12:30 p.m. |
| ACCOMMODATIONS (Includes any program fees) | |||
| Guest House Semi-Private | $495 | Camping | $295 |
| Guest House Quad | $445 | Commuter | $275 |
| Garden Cabin | $395 | ||
| Private rooms may be available for semi-private rate plus an extra $100/night. Please call to check availability. | |||
| SERVICES | |||
| Massage | Available | Energy Healing | Available |
| Services by appointment. Availability may vary depending on practitioner's schedule. | |||
| AMENITIES | |||
| Hot Tub | Available | Library | Available |
| Sauna | Varies | Video Library | Available |
