What's Your Blind Spot? Meditation & the Enneagram with Susan Piver & Acharya Emily Bower

Using the Enneagram system, we will identify our habitual patterns, and make friends with our strengths and weaknesses.

We all have personal difficulties that we tend to run into over and over again. Do you ever wonder if there is something you are doing—or not doing—that causes the pattern to repeat? What are we blind to about our own personality and style of relating with others?

In this retreat, we will take a non-judgmental look at the habitual tendencies that block us—not only on our spiritual path, but in our everyday relationships. Working with the ground of basic goodness in ourselves and others, we will study the Enneagram system of nine fundamental types and practice meditation in order to make friends with both our strengths and weaknesses.

What Is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is an expression of nine fundamental ways that attention and energy are organized. Each of the nine ways describes a habitual pattern of relating to the world that can keep us stuck. Through learning about our type, we can learn to make better use of our strengths to communicate and act in the world in the most effective and beneficial way possible.

The weekend will include

• Guided instruction in the Buddhist traditions of sitting and walking meditation
• Traditional Buddhist contemplation techniques
• Presentations on the nine Enneagram types
• Exercises for discovering your own type
• Small groups discussion for exploring the types in depth.


Susan will also be teaching A Meditation Retreat for Writers April 14 – 18 and co-teaching Healthy Body, Happy Mind August 7 – 10.

Susan Piver is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Hard Questions: 100 Essential Questions to Ask Before You Say “I Do.” She is also the author of The Hard Questions For An Authentic Life: 100 Essential Questions For Designing Your Life From The Inside Out, and The Hard Questions for Adult Children and Their Aging Parents, all published by Putnam. Her latest book, How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life, explores incorporating spiritual practice and study into everyday life.

Susan has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1995. A graduate of Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary, she has been authorized as a meditation instructor. Susan teaches workshops on meditation, inner growth and creativity.

Acharya Emily Bower has studied closely with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche since 1991 and served as his editor for projects such as Turning the Mind into an Ally, along with many poems and practice texts. She is both a professional book editor with Shambhala Publications and senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage.

Extend Your Stay. We are offering a 25% housing discount for additional nights. Come early and relax before your program starts or stay an extra day or more after this program to savor your retreat experience.

Please arrive between 2 and 5pm on Friday, April 18. Program ends with lunch at 12:30pm on Sunday, April 20. View Detailed Program Information.