The Buddha‘s teachings alert us to the reality of suffering in our lives, which at its deepest level consists of a gnawing sense of lack and anxiety. In order to deal with this existential uncertainty we develop various ways to try to overcome it, ignore it, or make it less painful, resulting in particular learned patterns of relating to the world and to other people. These coping patterns can be useful during the earlier part of our lives, but at some point they can turn into fixations. We know we are fixated when we find ourselves repeatedly falling into a particular “groove” of behaviour, such as perfectionism, feeling and acting victimised, frustratedly trying to change other people, living for others at the cost of our own well-being, being overly concerned with the image we are projecting, being overwhelmed by a plethora of projects to be started and finished, procrastinating, feeling unappreciated, wanting to win or succeed at all costs, etc.
This retreat will help us to analyse and explore our own and other’s conditioned behavioural patterns more deeply. We will do this by means of the Enneagram system of personality typing, which is based on the work of Gurdjieff and was popularised by the writings of Claudio Naranjo and others. This analysis will help us to understand our own and other’s world views more clearly, and this leads us towards a more compassionate way of interacting with others and towards a more accepting attitude towards ourselves.
JOHN STRYDOM is a retired clinical psychologist who has an interest in the nondualistic traditions such as Zen, Taoism and Advaita Vedanta. He has spent several periods on the staff of the Buddhist Retreat Centre near Ixopo. He recently moved from Hogsback to Emoyeni and offers workshops on relationships, emotions, addictions and the application of the nondualistic perspective to everyday living.
