Moral Healer's Handbook: The Psychology of Spiritual Chivalry (God's Will Be Done, Vol. 2) (God's Will Be Done, Vol. 2) [Paperback]

Laleh Bakhtiar (Author)

Book Description

Series: God's Will Be Done, Vol. 2 | Publication Date: January 1, 2007

This is a self-help book on how to morally center or balance the self. Based on the diagram of the circle divided into nine equal parts which the Naqshbandi refer to as the Presence of God (wajh Allah) better known in the West as the Enneagram, the work contains the Moral Healer s dictionary of over 300 entries of virtues and vices or positive and negative moral traits with directions of how to move the self on the circle (i. e. in the Presence of God) from the negative or vices to the positive or virtues. The author shows how the traditional paradigm helps the self stay balanced, centered with the positive. Learn first hand of how to rid the self of negative traits like envy, jealousy, anger, cowardice, etc. and gain positive ones like compassion, forgiveness, resourcefulness and justice. While this volume stresses the elimination of negative traits (vices), the next volume emphasizes the assuming of positive traits (virtues).

Editorial Reviews

Review

The contemporary religious scene is characterized not only by the survival and in some cases revival of the traditions which have been the millennial gardens of wisdom, but also new so-called religious and spiritual currents usually associated with a teacher who declares his independence of any sacred tradition and presents himself ultimately as a new prophet. Of dubious pedigree and origin, many such movements claim at the same time to have received, refined and made available some of the esoteric practices and doctrines of the religious traditions, practices and doctrines which they then present independently of the framework within which they possess full meaning. Some of these techniques and practices still possess at least some efficacy even outside of the sacred cadre where they naturally belong, while others are most dangerous and only contribute to the psychological imbalance and spiritual confusion which characterizes today's world.

One such technique is meditation upon and the study of the Enneagram which is now used widely as help for psychological healing and even spiritual advancement. Made popular by some of the self-appointed gurus and teacher of the earlier part of this century and some who are still active today, it has also spread among Christians especially Catholics, millions of whom use it regularly but few have bothered to delve into the traditional origin of the Enneagram and the significant role that it has played in the traditional sacred universe.

It is the virtue of this book to have dealt for the first time with this theme and to have revealed the origin of the Enneagram as used in spiritual practice and moral healing in the Islamic tradition. The author deals in detail with the spiritual significance of the Saturn-Jupiter cycle in Islamic symbolic astrology as developed by the Sufis, especially Ibn Arabi, and the relation of this cycle to the Enneagram. She also brings other important evidence to bear upon the Islamic origin of the Enneagram as used in spiritual practice, making use of not only Sufi texts but also works of philosophical ethics such as those of Nasir al-Din Tusi.

The greatest contribution of the book, however, is to situate the use of the Enneagram within the context of the Islamic tradition of spiritual chivalry. Known as futuwwah (in Arabic) or javanmardi (in Persian), spiritual chivalry is of the utmost significance for the understanding of the spiritual life of Islam. Associated originally in the Quran with the Prophet Abraham, it is embodied in the Islamic tradition itself with Ali ibn Abi Talib, who plays such a pivotal role, as heir to the esoteric teachings of the Prophet of Islam in not only the Sufi orders but also the guilds and orders of knightly chivalry. Spiritual chivalry means a continuous spiritual warfare by means of which the soul of the human being becomes imbued with the virtues that heal the wounds of the fallen soul and prepare it for the encounter with God.

The author reintegrates the meaning and practical use of the Enneagram into the traditional Islamic framework from which it issued. She develops fully the doctrine of the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm which, in fact, makes possible the use of such a symbol and is the basis for its efficacy within a living spiritual tradition. In doing so, not only does she provide knowledge concerning the historical origin of the Enneagram as an instrument for moral and psychological healing and spiritual development, she also emphasizes in this connection, the role of moral and spiritual virtues so characteristic of spiritual chivalry, thereby refuting the claim to the possibility of the amoral use of this and other spiritual techniques and methods employed in so many nontraditional circles today.

Dr. Bakhtiar is to be congratulated in clarifying an aspect of Islamic spirituality as imbedded in spiritual chivalry and many basic metaphysical and cosmological doctrines of Islamic esotericism, as well as in bringing out the full meaning and spiritual import of the Enneagram. Her work, therefore, possesses not only a scholarly significance but also a practical one for those who are making practical use of the Enneagram and who are in quest of means to achieve moral and psychological healing. The book also conveys the very significant message that traditional techniques, doctrines and symbols, while always possessing an innate value which issues from their very nature grounded in the Truth, reveal their full meaning and efficacy only within a living spiritual universe although they can also be transmitted from one such universe to another.

We hope that the present book reaches all those who are interested seriously in the meaning of the Enneagram and who are looking for means of healing the soul outside of the ordinary channels in the modern world which has caused so many scars upon the souls of so many people at the same time that it is so bereft of the means of healing these scars because it has forgotten the basic distinction between the Spirit and the soul and the crucial fact that only the Spirit has the ability to heal the wounds of the soul in a world separated from its Divine Origin. -- Seyyed Hossein Nasr Washington, D. C., May, 1994

About the Author

Laleh Bakhtiar, Ph.D., a well-known author on Sufism, is the first person to unearth traditional psychology which had been buried in medieval philosophy. With this work she shows that traditional psychology is alive and vibrant and should be an alternative psychology to modern schools as the stress is upon morality and ethics. She is a nationally certified and licensed psychotherapist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Institute of Traditional Psychoethics and Gui (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1871031397
• ISBN-13: 978-1871031393
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars essential information on the enneagram, March 18, 2001

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cjm (pembroke pines, florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moral Healer's Handbook: The Psychology of Spiritual Chivalry (God's Will Be Done, Vol. 2) (God's Will Be Done, Vol. 2) (Paperback)

The Enneagram or Enneagon is a nine-pointed symbol currently being used as a personality system. Anyone interested in the mysterious history of the enneagram and enneagon symbol should study this book. Although not necessarily the definitive work on the subject, it does present a Naqshbandi (Designers) Sufi use of the symbol. This is important because both Gurdjieff and Oscar Ichazo, the two major channels through which the enneagram has entered the West, claimed to have studied with Sufis of this very school. In Conversations with Oscar Ichazo, Ichazo talks specifically of an encounter with the enneagon while studying with Sufis in Afghanistan. At least two separate sources claiming to be Sufi, Idries Shah and Sheikh Kabbani, assert Gurdjieff's contact with the Naqshbandi. Bakhtiar's work is scholarly and complex and not for average sensation-seekers looking for simple party games. She moves from the psychological and medical usage of the symbol to the astrological, alchemical and spiritual use. There are similarities and differences with the Ichazo and Gurdjieff traditions and the more recent developments derived therefrom, but it's up to the reader to decide what makes sense to him or her. For more info, see The People of the Secret by Ernest Scott, The Teachers of Gurdjieff by Rafael Lefort, and The Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi by Sheik Kabbani, as well, of course as the works of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Shah, Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, and Helen Palmer.These last two authors are probably the best introductions to the current Enneagram for those who know little about it. Bakhtiar's work is for those who want to know more.