Books on the Enneagram are popular. The nine types system for understanding human behavior and personality has proven useful for millions of people since it was first used about seventy-five years ago. Many of the other books have been written by Christian teachers and writers.
This first weaving of the enneagram (the author does not capitalize the noun) with Buddhism is intriguing in how it connects the two. Piver summarizes, “Of all the things I have studied and tried, the enneagram stands alone as a fully formed system that integrates seamlessly with the Buddhist path. I have found no conflict. I’ve found the opposite: that the enneagram offers unparalleled support for each phase of the Buddhist path.”
In the end, however, this book is not that different from others on how to use the enneagram because the core of it is still nine chapters, one for each enneagram type. But that’s okay. That’s what readers want and need. These are followed by a short chapter, “How to Type Yourself.” Piver does it all very well.
Her Buddhist practice and learning has been primarily in Tibetan lineages. She refers to this many times, and for anyone with a Buddhist practice, who has also heard that this thing called the enneagram might help understand themselves and others, this is probably the right book for them. See the excerpt accompanying this review for an example of an application of how to put the enneagram to use in a Buddhist life. Tibetan connections then come full circle at the end, in an appendix devoted to “The Bodhisattvas of the Enneagram.” The Buddhism is much lighter throughout the chapters on the types.
