Presence and Self-Forgetting

May 6–7, 2006
Minneapolis, MN
Two-day workshop with Helen Palmer
For registration information, call Anne Muree at 952-933-1320.

Please see current schedule for other Enneagram workshops in the Narrative Tradition. 

About Spiritual Presence

Even a glimpse of the greater realities portrayed by sacred tradition opens us to the possibility of being present to the ground from which essential qualities of spirit emerge. Presence is our living connection, our vital link to the dimensions from which all that is visible in the ordinary world emanates. It is a collected awareness without time or form, without discursive thinking, concepts or imagery. We typically lose Presence through the activities of type, but when awareness relaxes from its ordinary habits, a non-thinking but thoroughly knowable Presence remains.

Presence and self-forgetting

Each type is characterized by a placement of attention that acts as a barrier to presence. Likewise, our inborn orientations to self-preservation, social and one-to-one relating are driven by an attentional bias that opposes presence in three specific ways. These pervasive habits constantly reinforce the narrow perspective of type, because the bias is embedded in our thinking.

We hear about placement of attention on basic panels: Twos attend to other’s needs but not to their own, Fours to what seems to be missing but not to what they have, Fives to potential intrusion, while neglecting the safety that lies within, and so forth. Yet how we pay attention doesn’t come up much on panels because it entails acute observation of our own conditioned awareness. The utter believability of our subjective point of view isn’t just about what we pay attention to, it also resides in how we apprehend the focal issues that drive us and what we consistently omit.

This highly interactive workshop examines the placements of attention that oppose presence in nine different ways. Through brief panels, dyad exercises and breakout type groups, you will determine your subtype via its attentional focus, recognize how your subtype placement of attention affects current relationships, and learn how to shift that focus to foster more open communication with other subtypes.

Exercises throughout are structured to compare the conditioned awareness of type with the reference point of inner presence. These attention practices form a bridge between the personal world of type and the greater realities portrayed by sacred tradition. They lie at the heart of self-remembering.

Psychological-Spiritual Curriculum overview

Other topics:

Type and False Identity
Projection
Spiritual Antidotes
Virtues of the Heart
Retrieving the Holy Ideas
A Spiritual Strategy for People in Relationships
Type and Intuition
The Enneagram for Counselors, Spiritual Directors and People Working with Others

Trifold School current offerings

San Francisco Bay Area workshops and classes