The Unfolding Nature of Being
Taking a look at Christopher Alexander's work through the lens of the Enneagram.
To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name. Christopher Alexander in “The Timeless Way of Building”
Architect and design philosopher Christopher Alexander (1936-2022) has received much attention lately in the Liminal Web from leaders like Bonitta Roy and Rufus Pollock. His work on quality aligns with what the philosophers behind David J. Temple have recently called value. According to Alexander, our external environment (human-made structures, for example) reflects and informs our inner worlds. He suggests that if we want to live well, we must reconnect spirit with matter through conscious awareness by cultivating attunement to a quality that is difficult to name and can only be described.
Upon examining the features Alexander outlines to point to this notion of quality, I am struck by how similar they are to those from the Enneagram that correspond to aspects of being. While the terms, quality, value, and being, describe the universal phenomenon, the Enneagram is a helpful tool for understanding how it operates, and more importantly, how we can bring the best versions of ourselves into alignment with the inherent limitations of our environment necessary for a sustainable future.
According to the teachings of the Enneagram, our personality is constructed around a particular aspect of being, which, through the illusion of separateness, becomes distorted by the ego. By cultivating awareness or presence, we can fully embody and express our unique expression of being while beneficially impacting our surroundings, including communities of which we are a part. Alexander refers to this process as The Timeless Way, with Quality seemingly serving as fuel and driving force.
There is a timeless way of building.
It is a thousand years old and at the same today as it always has been.
The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form, as the trees and the hills, and as our faces are.
And there is no other way in which a building or a town which lives can possibly be made.
This does not mean that all ways of making buildings are identical. It means that at the core of all successful acts of building and at the core of all successful processes of growth, even though there are a million different versions of these acts and processes, there is one fundamental invariant feature, which is responsible for their success. Although this way has taken on a thousand different forms at different times, in different places, still, there is an unavoidable, invariant core to all of them.
That fundamental feature of relatedness is Quality, so Quality must be real.
We have been taught that there is no objective difference between good buildings and bad, good towns and bad.
The fact is that the difference between a good building and a bad building, between a good town and a bad town, is an objective matter. It is the difference between health and sickness, wholeness and dividedness, self-maintenance and self-destruction. In a world which is healthy, whole, alive, and self-maintaining, people themselves can be alive and self-creating. In a world which is unwholesome and self-destroying, people cannot be alive: they will inevitably themselves be self-destroying, and miserable.
But it is easy to understand why people believe so firmly that there is no single, solid basis for the difference between good building and bad.
It happens because the single central quality which makes the difference cannot be named.
If Quality cannot be reducible, how do we cohere around this universal phenomenon for the sake of our common good?
Below a list of the features that Alexander says point to Quality. These concepts describe the field of Quality1, rather than Quality itself because Quality is not one thing but a living process from which reality unfolds.
As a Gestalt-trained psychotherapist, I am familiar with the concept of “the field” from which our experiences or “figures” emerge.
And as a student of the Enneagram, I am also struck by how the terms Alexander uses to describe Quality correspond to the nine facets of Being as elaborated by the Enneagram.
What makes the Enneagram compelling is that it reveals how each aspect works together to create a complete sense of Being, itself. It doesn’t just describe being; it shows how Being functions within, between, and among us.
Let’s continue to examine how this process operates by looking at Alexander’s core premises through the lens of the Enneagram framework.
ALIVE (Point 8 - Aliveness, Life Force, Immediacy)
The word we most often talk use to talk about the quality without a name is the word 'alive.'
There is a sense in which the distinction between something alive and something lifeless is much more general and far more profound, than the distinction between living things and non-living things, or between life and death. Things which are living may be lifeless; nonliving things may be alive. A man who is walking and talking can be alive; or he can be lifeless. Beethoven's last quartets are alive; so are the waves at the ocean shore; so is a candle flame; a tiger may be more alive, because more in turn with its inner forces, than a man.
A well-made fire is alive. There is a world of difference between a fire which is a pile of burning logs, and a fire which is made by someone who really understands a fire. He places each log exactly to make air between...
In the Enneagram Aliveness ('I am here') connects us with the Truth of ourselves and the situation we are in. Those who overly identify with point 8 tend to react to Life primarily with Lust (forcing to find Aliveness) and Rebellion against poor authority figures. Presencing brings Innocence (openness or receptivity).
An Invitation2 to Awareness: “How much energy do I need to get this task done?”
WHOLE (Point 9: Unity, Being, Peace)
A thing is whole according to how free it is of inner contradictions.
In the Enneagram Unity ('I am present') brings Reunion to ourselves. Those who overly identify with point 9 tend to react to Life primarily with Sloth (merging to find Peace). Presencing brings Engagement (wakefulness or participation).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I going along to get along?”
COMFORTABLE (Point 2: Care, Love)
The word comfortable is more profound than people usually realize. The mystery of genuine comfort gets far the beyond simple idea that the word first seems to mean. Places which are comfortable are comfortable because they have no inner contradictions, because there is no little restlessness disturbing them.
Imagine yourself on a winter afternoon with a pot of tea, a book, a reading light, and two or three huge pillows to lean back against. Now make yourself comfortable. Not in some way which can show to other people, and say how much you like it. I mean so that you really like it, for yourself.
In the Enneagram True Love is communing with everything, which is considered Responsiveness. Those who overly identify with point 2 tend to react to Life primarily with Pride (not including oneself in their helping to find Personal Love). Presencing brings Humility (the ability to hold the tenderness of being a human being, including myself).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I ‘leaning’ into others?”
FREE (Point 7: Optimal Possibility)
The quality without a name is never calculated, never perfect, that subtle balance of forces only happen when the ideas and images are left behind, and created with abandon.
In the Enneagram Possibility brings us the knowing we are in the Perfect Moment. Those who overly identify with Point 7 tend to react to Life primarily with Gluttony (craving to find satisfaction). Presencing brings Sobriety (recognition that I've landed in the real experience, no more or no less, to savior this moment and to receive the goodness inherent in this moment).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I restlessly imagining that the ‘grass is greener” over there?”
EXACT (Point 1: Balance)
The word exact helps to counterbalance the impression of other words like comfortable and free. These words suggest that the quality without a name is somehow inexact. And it is true that it is loose and fluid and relaxed. But is is never inexact. The forces in a situation are real forces. There is no getting round them. If the adaptation to the forces is not perfectly exact, there can be no comfort, and no freedom, because the small forces which have been left out will always work to make the system fail.
In the Enneagram Balance brings us into contact with the intelligent Order of everything. Those who overly identify with point 1 tend to react to Life primarily with Anger (reforming in order to find Perfection/Goodness). Presencing brings Serenity (wise action or responsiveness rather than reactivity to reality).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I tensing and becoming rigid?”
EGOLESS (Point 3: Authenticity)
When a place is lifeless or unreal, there is almost always a mastermind behind it. It is so filled with the will of its maker that there is no room for its own nature.
Think, by contrast, of the decoration on an old bench - small hearts carved in it; simple holes, cut out while it was being put together - these can be egoless.
They are not carved according to some plan. They are carefree, carved into it, wherever there seems to be a gap. It is not in the least contrived; there is not effort in the decoration; it does not seek to express the personality of the man who carved it. It is so natural, that it almost seems as though the bench itself cried out for it: and the carver simply did what was required.
In the Enneagram True Value is feeling the preciousness of our life which brings meaning and Purpose. Those who overly identify with point 3 tend to react to Life primarily with Vanity (striving to find Personal Value). Presencing brings Authenticity (the ability to be who we really are and relax into life as we are).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I ‘pushing on’ in order to prove myself and not disappoint others?”
ETERNAL (Point 4: Origin, Mystery)
All things and places which have the quality without a name, reach into the realm of the eternal.
Some are eternal in almost a literal sense: they are so strong, so balanced, so strongly self-maintaining, that they are not easily disturbed, almost imperishable. Others reach the quality for no more than an instant, and then fall back into the lesser state, where inner contradictions rule.
The word eternal describes both. For the instant that they have this quality, they reach into the realm of eternal truth.
It hints to a religious quality. The hint is accurate. And yet it makes it seem as though the quality which that panda has is a mysterious one. It is not mysterious. It is above all ordinary. What makes it eternal is its ordinariness.
In the Enneagram True Significance is the feeling that we are the Beloved and the Beloved is in all of us or feeling that when all identities dissolve all that is left is the creative Life Force or Depth and the Mystery itself. Those who overly identify with point 4 tend to react to Life primarily with Envy (suffering on account of being human to find personal significance). Presencing brings Equanimity (the ability to hold the vast ocean of experience).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I creating a mood?”
LUMINOUS GROUND (Point 5: Clarity)
The luminous ground3 is not merely a metaphor for spiritual or emotional light. It refers to a reality that shines through everything when we are able to see things in their deepest, most harmonious state. This ground is the source of all wholeness and beauty, something beyond individual perception, yet intimately present in the world. It is the origin of the quality that gives rise to life and allows the structures we build and inhabit to come alive with meaning.
In the Enneagram Clarity is the capacity to see, feel, and sense what is true and what is not true. Those who overly identify with point 5 tend to react to life primarily with Avarice (detaching to figure things out). Presencing brings Non Attachment (the recognition if I am going to lose everything, what matters to me most? Or of impermanence that opens floodgates to kindness and compassion).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I disconnecting with Life?”
THE GLORIOUS 'I' (Point 6: Inner Guidance)
An understanding of a new relatedness will arrive, I believe, the more we come to recognize that entity which I call the self or I, lying within matter, lying within ourselves, lying, above all in the special relatedness between ourselves and living structure. It will arrive, because the existence of this entity I call the 'I' can be confirmed by experience and it will - I believe - one day become a part of physics, part of our understanding of the the material universe, which reunites self and matter, ourselves with the world.
In the Enneagram Inner Guidance connects us to the Ground of all Being and allows us to Trust that we know how to respond to a situation. Those who overly identify with point 6 tend to react to Life primarily with Doubt (angsting as a frantic search for support). Presencing brings Courage (the recognition that this moment is really in the hands of fate and I am willing to be what is needed).
An Invitation to Awareness: “Am I over thinking, over analyzing, and over planning?”
Quality transcends any single name…because the field of Being is composed of many different qualities that work together to give reality its form.
Each of us embodies an aspect of the Whole considered as a valuable and unique way of being. Our ego narrows the field to help us hone in on what is relevant to navigate our surroundings properly, or else we become completely overwhelmed and ineffective. However, in doing so, the ego also distorts these essential qualities.
This is where a map like the Enneagram can help. By locating the ‘box’ we tend to put ourselves in, we can chart our way out and align ourselves with what Life asks of us. In this way, we live in harmony with Life, rather than against it as is our usual tendency.
We cultivate our fullest expression of Being by:
Not only developing clear thinking, but also good contact with our environment and ourselves through full energy in our bodies and mobility or our ability to move between the two in a productive way.
Learning to relax our boundaries and allow life to affect us. Then we enter into a reality that is both all our own and shared by everyone else.
And finally, shifting our concern from “Am I of value?” to “What do I value?”
Then Life just is and so are we!
In First Principles and First Values (2024), David J. Temple uses the term value to describe this field, though I have the impression we are pointing to the same process, “a field of Value (Quality and Being) in which all life participates.”
These questions were inspired by my teacher, Russ Hudson in his audiobook: The Enneagram: Nine Gateways to Presence (2021). He calls them “Wake Up Calls.”
Luminous Ground is the title of the fourth essay by Christopher Alexander in a series called The Nature of Order.
What an awesome article Claudia :)
I’m a big fan of the enneagram as well and truly appreciate the insights and association you make with Alexander’s work. thanks for the motivation to look into his material since suffice to say, my interest has been peaked!