The Enneagram of the Virtues Advanced Program

Module 1: Transforming the Practical & Instinctual
Opening the Higher Mind Through the 3 Centers

Most of us have rigid ideas about who we are. Yet, through what the Buddhists call “the right view,” you can find a path to your soul’s development, and in this first module, you’ll discover the deeper perspectives of the Enneagram, which will give you a more expanded view of yourself.

You’ll explore the 3 Centers of the Enneagram (Heart, Head and Body) and their role in the transformational process. Russ Hudson will show you how the centers work together either to create egoic patterns, and illuminate the natural state of relatedness that opens you to experience a deeper, richer sense of your humanity.

Understanding the practical realities of life and the ways you may unconsciously navigate them opens the door to nondual states of awareness.

Module 2: Creating Balance & Foundations for Authentic Inner Work Through the Instincts
Working With the Self Preservation, Sexual (Attraction) & Social Drives

The three basic Instincts as described in Enneagram theory and in Fourth Way teachings are nature’s intelligence acting through us. When these instinctual drives combine with your primary Enneagram pattern, it produces a primary “subtype,” with a particular set of behaviors.

First, though, it’s important to recognize the Instincts as specific energies and sensations in the body. In this module, you’ll explore sense of all three drives and how they manifest in particular behaviors in your daily life. While one of these drives may be more prominent than, all three are operating in you in some way.

A big part of inner work is learning to recognize the deeply ingrained habits in relation to your instinctual drives — and to acknowledge the areas of life you’ve unwittingly neglected.

As you develop awareness and more balance among the Instincts, you create a stable platform for opening to the deeper mysteries of your heart and mind. From this foundation, you can more easily integrate these expansive, spiritual experiences into daily life.

Module 3: The Holy Ideas
Nondual Perspectives for Transforming Habitual Mental Patterns

Engaging in the nitty-gritty work being present to your instincts and the entrenched habits around them, reveals an important truth: Your are more than your patterns.

Here, a peaceful spaciousness opens up, giving you more freedom from which you can actually shift more behaviors. The pivot of this balancing act is of course the heart, and the transformation of the reactive, suffering heart to the qualities of the Virtues.

This module will focus on the transformation of mind — from inner chatter boxes and dull states of consciousness, to bright, peaceful and spacious qualities of direct knowing.

These qualities are referred to as the Holy Ideas, nine perspectives or vantage points of nondual awareness or of the Higher Intellectual Center, George Gurdjieff’s term for the Illumined Mind.

The Holy Ideas aren’t to be strived for; nor is their a finish line in this process. Yet, as you bring more presence to the habitual patterns of your thoughts and perceptions, alternative views of reality can empower you to open to a much broader range of understanding and response, softening rigid ego patterns, without rejecting them.

Module 4: An Overview of Method
Bringing the Liberation of Mind From the Holy Ideas to Transform Your Instinctual Life – A Time for Dialogue & Reflection

This module will take you well beyond fixed concepts of yourself. You’ll explore the incredible range of human experience — from deep suffering and desperate egoic-grasping to sublime states of freedom and illumination.

Accepting and presencing the full range of your humanity is the fastest path of development. The transformation from the suffering and reactivity of the Passions to the alchemical gold of the Virtues is the pivot of this process.

It would seem at first that the world of the Instincts and the broad freedom of the nondual states of awareness could not possibly be related. And you might be tempted to just leave the messiness of the instinctual world behind for the wild blue yonder of your unconditioned consciousness. Or, you may view this “nondual stuff” as too abstract or woo-woo, and what you want are tools to help you deal with the challenges of your work and relationships.

Actually, spiritual traditions have grappled with this paradox of human nature since the beginnings of culture, and have attempted to handle it in different ways.

The Christian mystery has at its core this understanding — the Divine made human and personal. The ancient Egyptians talked about the struggle between Horus (Christ Consciousness) and Set (Unbridled Instinct) and the necessity of their resolution.

Qabalistic teachings illustrate this paradox in Divine marriage between Keter and Shekinah (or Malkuth). And the Taoists saw the role of the true human being as the place of heaven and earth coming together. And on and on.

So at its profoundest level, the Enneagram is about this mystical marriage — the coming together of the Divine and the Earthly in your own heart.

Module 5: Point Eight
Working With Lust, Innocence & the 3 Instincts

The Point Eight is not just a kind of person, but an overall principle of life and a quality of presence. In this module, you’ll explore the particular Passion of Point Eight — Lust, perhaps most easily understood as a tendency to excess and over-effort — and how it expresses itself through the three Instincts of Self-preservation, Sexual (Attraction) and Social.

For people with a dominant Eight pattern, this module will help pinpoint areas of focus, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies.

Regardless of your dominant type, you’ll discover the value of being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of Lust — which is the key to transmuting it into the Virtue of Innocence — a powerful open-heartedness.

This process is aided by seeing how certain tendencies in how you relate to the Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. By approaching the patterns from both directions — from the heart and from the Instincts, the process becomes easier and more powerful.

Module 6: Point Eight Continued
Holy Truth – The Effect of Truth & Immediacy on Our Consciousness

The Holy Ideas open you up not only your thinking, but your perceptions of reality. They uproot many of your automatic assumptions, and while they might seem strange at first, they’re ways of looking at things you’ve likely experienced many times. The Holy Ideas correspond to seeing the world more in the way even high school science reveals, which is quite unlike the “common sense” reality we muddle along in most of the time.

The more you’re touched by the Holy Ideas, the more the limited nature of your thinking, or Fixation, is revealed. In this module, you’ll explore the effect of the “living truth” upon your thinking.

As you discover how to be more present to your thoughts and feelings, what effect does the living truth of the moment have upon your thoughts and perceptions? How does this affect your heart?

As Truth liberates you from old views of yourself and of reality, it’s easier to engage new behaviors that support authentic balance and the fuller expression of your gifts.

Module 7: Point Nine
Working With Sloth, Engagement & the 3 Instincts

In this module, you’ll look at underlying architecture of Point Nine, both for people with a dominant Nine pattern, and for the Nine in all of us. You’ll look at how the particular Passion of Point Nine — Sloth (or Inertia), often seen as a tendency to disengage one’s full attention and awareness from the particulars of the moment, expresses itself through the Self-preservation, Sexual or Attraction energy and Social Instincts.

For people with a dominant Nine pattern, this will help pinpoint areas that need more of your time and kindness and attention, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies.

You’ll then look at how being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of Sloth begins to alchemically transform it into the Virtue of Engagement — a robust, powerful devotion to the present moment — choosing to be fully here with all of your capacities and qualities.

This heart process is aided by seeing how your unconscious habits with the three Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. You’ll look at how these seemingly diverse processes are all really part of one harmonious unfolding of consciousness.

Module 8: Point Nine Continued
Holy Love – Perceiving the Underlying Holding of Reality

In this module, you’ll look at the nature of Holy Love — the sense that all that you are is held in presence, and all that exists is also held in presence. As you notice this, your nervous system naturally relaxes and you’re able to let go of many defenses and old ideas. What effect does the perception of the holding quality of presence have upon your thinking?

Love here does not mean romantic love or attachment. It is more the perception that there is something kind and benevolent at the heart of reality, but not in the way your ego might usually imagine such things. What happens in your experience when you feel the holding quality of life? What happens when you really take in the stars at night?

As you discover how to be more present to your thoughts and feelings, what effect does the holding of those very same thoughts and feelings have upon your experience of reality?

How does this affect your heart? As Holy Love liberates you from old views of yourself and of reality, it’s easier and easier to relax past the places where you could not yield or shift your habits. You can engage new behaviors that support your true purpose in this world.

Module 9: Point One
Working With Resentment, Serenity & the 3 Instincts

In this module, you’ll look at the particularities of Point One, both for people with a dominant One pattern, and for the One in all of us. You’ll explore the Passion of Point One — Angry Resentment. This Fixation often shows up as exasperation and frustration when the the self or the world keep failing an ideal.

You’ll explore how the Passion of the One expresses itself through the three Instincts. What is Resentment in Self-preservation? What is Resentment in Sexual or Attraction energy? What is Resentment in Social Instinct?

For people with a dominant One pattern, this module can help to bring attention to areas that need more of your time and focus, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies.

You’ll then look at how being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of this Angry Resentment can transform it into the Virtue of Serenity — which allows you to respond with full-heartedness, rather than reacting, to difficult or unpleasant situations.

This heart process is aided by seeing how your unconscious habits with the three Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. You’ll look at how these seemingly diverse processes can work together seamlessly as part of your natural development.

Module 10: Point One Continued
Holy Perfection – Perceiving the Sacred Throughout Our Lives

In this module, you’ll explore the nondual experience described as Holy Perfection — the sense that any moment you’re truly awake in reveals an underlying goodness even when difficult things are happening. In this state of presence, your natural impulse is to align yourself with this goodness and resonate deeply with the sacredness of the moment.

Perfection isn’t a static and stable condition or the absence of problems. Rather,
It describes the presence-based perception of the natural order and goodness and its unfolding in the world.

As you discover how to be more present to your thoughts and feelings, how does being in touch with the implicit goodness and intelligence of the moment affect your thinking and relationships? Do you treat yourself and others differently as a result? How does this affect your heart?

As Holy Perfection liberates you from old views of yourself and reality, it’s easier to trust the unfolding of life and let go trying to control your experience. You become a vehicle for or an ambassador of the Sacred in your life.

Module 11: Point Two
Working With Pride, Humility & the 3 Instincts

In this module, you’ll look at the opportunities and challenges of Point Two, both for people with a dominant Two pattern, and for the Two in all of us. You’ll explore the Passion of Point Two — Pride, often seen as a denial of personal needs and vulnerabilities, and a tendency to project those needs onto others and how it expresses itself through the three Instincts. What is Pride in Self-preservation? What is Pride in Sexual or Attraction energy?

What is Pride in Social Instinct? For people with a dominant Two pattern, this can help to pinpoint areas that need more of your time and focus, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies.

You’ll then look at how being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of Pride begins to alchemically transform it into the Virtue of Humility — a heart that embraces without shame your human frailties, needs and limitations.

This heart process is aided by seeing how your unconscious habits with the three Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. You’ll look at how these seemingly diverse processes can work together as a unified flow of your natural development.

Module 12: Point Two Continued
Holy Freedom & Holy Will – Perceiving the Source of Goodness & True Help

In this module, you’ll explore the nondual states of consciousness related to Point Two. In this case, two names are provided to highlight different aspects of this element of consciousness: Holy Freedom and Holy Will.

Here, through practice and presence, you come to realize that your separate self is not the source of bringing good things to the world — that at most, you’re an expression of a flow of benevolence that is already here as an aspect of presence.

And far from being a defeat or a humiliation, it’s experienced as a great freedom because you’re no longer compelled by notions of what you believe you need to be or do in order to be loveable. You know that you’re loved, or more precisely, that you’re an expression of love — and so is everyone else.

You can then explore how this sense of the benevolent flow and what is traditionally called Divine Will affect your thinking. The quality of freedom here is not a freedom from responsibilities in life, but from the internal structures that constrict your awareness of ourselves, and particularly from your deeply ingrained beliefs about relationships, and what you think they are going to do for us. This is quite different from how your ego might usually imagine such things.

As you discover how to be more present to your thoughts and feelings, what effect does this perception of Divine Will have upon your relationships and your sense of yourself?

As Holy Freedom liberates you from old views of yourself and reality, it’s easier to trust and enjoy each moment of relating with others. You start to let go of the ways in which you use relationships to prop up certain ideas about yourself, and instead enjoy and cherish each moment of relatedness.

Module 13: Point Three
Working With Vanity, Authenticity & the 3 Instincts

In this module, you’ll explore the journey of Point Three, both for people with a dominant Three pattern, and for the Three in all of us. You’ll contemplate the Passion of Point Three — Vanity, which can be understood as the ego’s desperate need to feel like it’s valuable and the source of what is good in your life.

You’ll also discover how this Passion expresses itself through the three Instincts. What is Vanity in Self-preservation? What is Vanity in Sexual or Attraction energy? What is Vanity in Social Instinct?

For people with a dominant Three pattern, this can help to pinpoint areas that need more of your time and focus, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies. You’ll then look at how being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of Vanity begins to alchemically transform it into the Virtue of Authenticity — a beautiful capacity to stay congruent with the heart’s deepest knowing, and to stay true to what you love the most.

This heart process is aided by seeing how your unconscious habits with the three Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. You’ll look at how these seemingly diverse processes can work together as an effortless flow of presence functioning through you in life.

Module 14: Point Three Continued
Holy Hope, Holy Harmony & Holy Law – Perceiving the Source of Real Action

In this module, you’ll explore the nondual states of consciousness related to Point Three, and how they relate to working and functioning as human beings in the world. In Point Two, you saw two names for the Higher Mind perspective.

But with Point Three there are three names: Holy Hope, Holy Harmony and Holy Law, which are all different ways of looking at the mystery of doing and functioning. The punchline here is strange at first: there is no separate doer, therefore the idea of you that you’re identified with has never done anything! That can sound absurd until you consider how in the most sublime moments of your work, when you’re relaxed and totally enjoying what you’re doing, you experience everything as a kind of flow. In such moments you’re both the singer and the song and the audience listening — and you don’t care who gets the credit.

The experience of this flow reunites you with living reality and floods your awareness with a sense of fulfilment and meaning. These tend to be some of the best moments of your lives. You start to understand that it’s presence/consciousness which is functioning and you have the joy of being the means for that to occur.

You’ll then explore how this sense of being part of the functioning of everything affects your thinking. As you discover how to be more present to your thoughts and feelings what, effect does this perception relaxing into the flow of functioning have upon your relationships, and on your sense of ourselves? Do you treat yourself and others differently as a result? How does this affect your heart?

As Holy Hope liberates you from old views of yourself and reality, it’s easier and easier to approach whatever tasks life demands of you with a sense of meaning and appreciation. You can enjoy your gifts and capacities and the joy of using them in service to others and to life.

Module 15: Point Four
Working With Envy, Equanimity & the 3 Instincts

In this module, you’ll explore the gifts and challenges in the journey of Point Four, both for people with a dominant Four pattern, and for the Four in all of us. You’ll contemplate the Passion of Point Four — Envy, which can be understood as a chronic disappointment with self and with life, as well as how this Passion expresses itself through the three Instincts. What is Envy in Self-preservation? What is Envy in Sexual or Attraction energy? What is Envy in Social Instinct?

For people with a dominant Four pattern, this can help to illuminate areas of your life that need more of your time and dedication, while those who have other dominant patterns will still recognize some of these tendencies. You’ll then look at how being compassionately present with the underlying hurt and pain at the core of Envy begins to alchemically transform it into the Virtue of Equanimity — a capacity to stay fully present with the full range of human emotions and experiences without rejecting or avoiding those emotions, and also without getting attached to them.

This heart process is aided by seeing how your unconscious habits with the three Instincts keep steering you away from the transformative process and maintain business as usual with your ego patterns. You’ll look at how these seemingly diverse processes can work together as an effortless flow of presence functioning through you in life.