Foreword

 

The Enneagram leads us home to the vastness of our heart, the clarity of our mind, and the groundness of our belly. We start not even knowing the sadness of the loss of ourselves, stumbling through our lives like a person half-asleep wandering in a fog. The Enneagram is like a trumpet, cutting through the fog, beckoning us to follow its call to a place that we don’t even remember leaving. The call feels somehow strangely familiar, somehow nostalgic, somehow magical. Heeding its call, we begin to witness The Mystery.

Jim Zamiska

Both as individuals and as a society, we tend to repeat the same unfulfilling patterns...over and over and over again. Scan a history book—or review your own life history as objectively as you can—and you’ll see that this is true. If we just keep making the same mistakes, what’s the point of it all? Why can’t we change our lives so that we experience more joy, more love, and more fulfillment?

Most of us certainly have tried. Whether you’ve been drawn to alternative therapies and New Age interests or to the more traditional route of counseling, support groups, and self-help books, you probably feel that you’re still pretty much in the same place you were when you started. The answer, however, cannot be found by doing—the answer lies in understanding.

“How,” you may ask, “can I achieve true understanding?” It does not require years of therapy, attending a weekend seminar, or even doing exercises from a book. Simply recognizing and accepting yourself for who you are, as you are, will enable you to experience the joy, love, and fulfillment that is your birthright.

But simple isn’t always easy. In early childhood most of us developed a belief that we were lacking in some way that we weren’t good enough to deserve love for just being ourselves. We lost our sense of connection with Source. To compensate, we developed behavior patterns and defense mechanisms to protect ourselves and gain love and approval. The Enneagram, an ancient system of personality typing, is a valuable tool to help us identify our patterns and understand why we do what we do.

In What’s the Point? we use the Enneagram (along with the insights and knowledge we’ve acquired in more than ten years of working with this system and over twenty five years working with psychology) to assist you in achieving self-understanding and self-acceptance.

The road to joyful living is a choice we all make and a road we travel with everyone else even though the journey may seem lonely at times.

 The Enneagram liberates by freeing one from judgment toward others. Rather than seeing another as being odd or annoying, they are seen as possessing unique individual traits that are just another color in the rainbow of life. On the other hand, it is easier to understand why the personal chemistry between oneself and another works so magnificently. The result is that it is much easier to be harmonious with one’s friends and genuinely interested in those with whom one has less in common.

The Enneagram opens the door to the truth that we are one.

Tom Benson

Justin E. Tomasino Jr. PhD

Inga W. Tomasino