From Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram of Liberation

by Eli Jaxon-Bear

Your true nature is happiness and bliss. Ramana Maharshi Everyone wants to be happy. This is a universal component of the human condition and may seem so self-evident that it does not bear noting. So why is it that so few people are truly happy? If it is true that our nature is happiness and bliss, why has it been so rare for people to realize this? Why has it been so rare for people to live their lives in gratitude and love? There is a living intelligence in all people that seeks ultimately to discover its true identity and source. It is a fortunate and mysterious moment when the desire for happiness leads to the investigation into personal identity, also known as self-inquiry. In the light of direct self-inquiry, limitations that once seemed to define oneself are discovered to be more like transparent lines drawn on water. They exist only on the surface of consciousness in one s imagination. When these illusions of mind are clearly exposed, true limitless being reveals itself. The Enneagram has appeared in our time as an illusory medicine to cure an imaginary disease. The disease is the egoic idea of separation from God, from one s true source. The cure is to look in the wisdom mirror of the Enneagram to see past all false identification to the truth of being. Eli Jaxon-Bear presents a radically new model of the ego and the psyche. Bringing together his background in Buddhism with the Sufi work on essence, he presents a fresh approach to awakening by using the Enneagram s nine fixated structures of ego to clearly describe who you are not. You will see how habits of egoic identification continuously appear to veil the pure, pristine consciousness that you truly are. When these habits of mind are exposed, there is a clear choice to end the bondage of ego-based suffering and to realize the vast, inherent freedom of one s true nature. In this book, Eli gives us the map of the prison of mind and the keys to freedom.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Self Help, Religion

Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Veronica Sadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Unfortunately there's a bit of unevenness in describing the Enneagram types and the exemplars used. But there are some profound points and observations as well.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read more and more about the Enneagram, I realized I was no longer satisfied just reviewing my life and identifying all the aspects of my fixation in my personal history. I wanted something that would help me move beyond it. This book is the best I've found so far. It has helped me so much. The part at the end about black holes delivers on the promise of the title. It's so difficult to go against your own conditioning and experience emotions from which you have unconsciously protected yourself. I am still working with this. If you are looking to break out of the now-familiar cycles of suffering perpetuated by your fixation, I highly recommend this book.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very accessible treatment of the insights of the Enneagram makes use of the Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu traditions. The subtypes are differentiated more clearly than in other authors I have run across, which gives more breadth and variation to the forms each of the Nine Types can take. Outstanding presentation of the possibilities and potentialities awaiting anyone who is willing to seriously face one's type (or fixation) and move into and beneath it to the depths of being. Connections are apparent to this reader with the work of Marshall B. Rosenberg (Nonviolent Communication) and Wilson Van Dusen (The Natural Depth in Man). Also with Bernadette Roberts and the No-Self.

[Ettore Grillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Enneagram of Liberation by Eli Jaxon-Bear is the first book I have read in English. I read it fifteen years ago. I bought it at a satsang held by Eli Jaxon-Bear in the small town of Kisslegg in Germany.
It took some time for me to read it, because English is not my mother tongue and I didn’t even study English at school. Actually, I am self-taught in English.
Starting from The Enneagram of Liberation, I have been reading more and more books in English, and now I am an author of books written in English.
As for Eli Jaxon-Bear’s The Enneagram of Liberation, I still remember its content, even though fifteen years have gone by since I met Eli. He tried to simplify and make it easy to understand the enneagram which is an old symbol representing nine types of human characters.
Before describing the psychological types of the enneagram, the author analyzes the structure of the Ego which consists of three elements: personality, character, and essence. Personality and character can change in the course of life, but the essence doesn’t change.
It is an interesting book to know ourselves more in order to break our old patterns.
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
- A Hidden Sicilian History
- The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregr...

[Cher Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most useful book on the enneagram that I've read, and the clearest in helping me figure out what type I am. I especially like the suggestions to help us get past our fixations.

[Laura Eleonora · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

a very insightful book to the enneagram system, though I think that the descriptions of each type were a bit unequal in depth and perhaps the last part of the book was slightly underdeveloped

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think if I understood this a bit more, I would give it a higher rating. Interesting though.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best enneagram books that I've read.

Connects yoga philosophy and buddhism to the concepts....

and ultimately the importance of transcendence of one's ego structure.

[Mx Alec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as "Deep Living" I just reviewed, but helpful; doesn't sound very mystical in the tone, nice to read. It includes the instinctual variants of each type, which is good. Although, I did not manage to type myself accurately with this one...

[Jd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Healthiest view on enneagram

I’ve been reading about the enneagram for about two years now, and have read the “suggested books” on this topic. This book is the ideal for how the enneagram should be used and all other books on enneagram personality are just better ways of describing ego-fixation. Most books are good tools in understanding our character fixation, but this book is about how to transcend these aspects. Beautiful book and a wise teacher. I’m skeptical of modern day gurus, but Eli Jaxon-Bear is not that. Incredibly wise book.

[Jade Kranz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A more in-depth look at the neuroses of the 9 types of the Enneagram. Jaxon-Bear takes the high view of the system being not about personality types, but "character fixations", which is less cutesy, and (thankfully) less agreeable to the often materialistic Western approach to self-help. His conclusions on how to work with our particular fixations are a bit "cosmic". I thought this part of the book was underdeveloped and the little he did offer could have been more down-to-earth.

[Ron Wyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for those who wish to know more about their own personality

[Therese Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the Enneagram. I will refer back to it, I am sure. It is a complex subject, and reading any one book about it is just the beginning!

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on the Enneagram.

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't recommend this to enneagram beginners, but I've taken great value from it, and enjoy the more cosmic point of view.

[Hotske]

Indispensable. There are so many huge keys in this book, if one is ripe for it. I will be referencing its practical guidance in particular again and again.

[Princessjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent tool for transcending the habitual emotional patterns of your life.