Living the virtues of the soul is expressing the highest values of our being. Do you know what yours are? Embodying spiritual virtues and values does not require joining a religion. Let’s find out how to do it.
Learning to express these virtues begins with understanding what they are. Then we can learn how to cultivate them. In this article, we discuss how to do this. We’ll show how the Enneagram can help us identify and incorporate them into our lives.
The spirit or soul is that aspect of our consciousness and awareness that exists beyond the body. The virtues are the highest positive moral values of the personality. These are reflected in varying degrees depending on the health of your mental state. The healthier your mind, the more you will reflect positive thinking.
The Essence of Spiritual Qualities
The “essence” of something refers to its fundamental nature. These are its core attributes. The essence is the defining characteristic that remains constant even if other aspects change. Our spiritual nature has a set of defining qualities.
The defining qualities of the soul are consciousness, identity, and awareness. It is often seen as the immaterial essence that animates and defines a being’s true self. Every personality type displays unique variations and combinations of these elements. We’ll talk about these characteristics later on. [1]
What it Means to Live the Virtues
To “live these virtues” means making them a part of your life. If you value honesty, you naturally strive to be truthful in all your actions. A healthy lifestyle includes positive traits that promote health and harmony. [2]
Living these virtues gives you a clear purpose and meaningful goals. In short, it means integrating the essence of spiritual qualities into your life. And this makes them an essential part of who you are.
Living the virtues of the soul is about connection with the essential qualities of our psyche. They are principles that guide our judgments and decisions. We can look at them from different perspectives to get a better understanding of how they work.
Categorizing Spiritual Virtues and Values
Tapping into the essence of spiritual qualities transforms us. They help shape a positive, healthy mindset. Living the virtues of the soul is often a goal for many spiritual traditions. You find this concept in Indigenous cultures and religions, in present-day philosophy.
Some believe these virtues come from a higher power. Others see them as programming or scripts that are hard-coded in our subconscious and linked to our personality and instincts. They do not need to be learned, but revealed and empowered.
Spiritual traditions identify and categorize them. Embodying spiritual virtues in these systems is often a goal and a sign of a healthy lifestyle. Virtues guide actions, thoughts, and feelings. They enable us to live in harmony with others and the environment.
What are the virtues of the spirit in a practical sense? They are the highest values of the human spirit. You know instinctively what they are when you see them in action. They are Gratitude, Love, Appreciation, Serenity, Joyfulness, Happiness, Thankfulness, Blissfulness, and Mindfulness. With these tools, we can conquer ourselves … And so then… the world does not need to be conquered. — Guru Tua
The Virtues of Christianity
Organized religion boasts a hierarchy of traits they call virtues. Yet, these qualities are subjective personal attributes, not the virtues of the soul or spirit. [3] We don’t want you to get sidetracked by their version of these gifts. Let’s look at how they differ.
Christianity has seven spiritual virtues and values. They are antidotes for the seven deadly sins. There are four cardinal and three theological virtues. The cardinal virtues come from Ambrose, a 4th-century Catholic. These theological virtues come from their holy text, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
The cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. To this, you add three theological virtues. Living the virtues of the spirit in Christianity means mimicking character traits that lead to good behavior.
Embodying spiritual virtues and values in Christianity is about maintaining good membership status. Membership involves accepting statements of faith. It also includes financial support, penance, sacrifice, and suffering. They give us a way to buy our way out of the consequences of our sinful nature. All it takes is giving them monetary offerings they call indulgences. The prize is a place in heaven. But if you don’t make restitution for your sin, then you are doomed to an eternity in hell. It is a money-making scheme that plays on our fears instead of nurturing our divine nature.
So, what are spiritual values in Western religion? They are tools used to create cash flow, relabeled to sound spiritual. The key difference is this: the essence of spiritual qualities is part of our being. They are inner qualities we already have. All we need to do is cultivate a healthy mindset to reveal them. Religious virtues are about moral rules based on fear, myths, and superstitions.
Living the Virtues of the Soul
What we are talking about differs entirely from the doctrine of Western theology. We are referring to the higher values of the psychic structure within our personality and instincts. They are a part of our DNA that we can experience and express in thought and action. These elements are the noble qualities of our souls. They have nothing to do with religion; it is all about consciousness and awareness.
Living the virtues of the soul is part of our nature. When we live the virtues, we are well-adjusted and healthy human beings. These gifts are the legacy of our ancestors.
Again, you cannot learn them from reading a book. You can’t wish or pray them into being. Nor can you pay for them. They are not antidotes to appease an imaginary friend. Instead, these are elements of your psyche that you learn to access, experience, and put into action.
Tools For Embodying Spiritual Virtues
We find and open these gifts by learning to look within. This requires inner work tools we call spiritual technologies, which reveal the higher virtues of your soul.
Spiritual Technologies
Spiritual technologies are tools for exploring consciousness. They result from generations of research by cultures around the world. These processes stand up to the test of science. They are repeatable and measurable. Everyone who can follow a process can use these tools. We call the practice of these processes spiritual exploration. You can list these tools in several ways. Some fall into more than one group. We like this simple method of grouping.
Critical Thinking
The first group includes several analytical tools to enhance critical thinking. Many people don’t equate analytical thinking with the virtues of the soul. However, these tools help us understand our psyche. They help us spot harmful thoughts and values. Then, we can remove and swap them for healthier ones.
The Enneagram is the first tool of our blended learning process. [4] The Enneagram provides insight into the mechanisms of ego, personality, and instinct. Logical reasoning, spotting logical fallacies, and spiritual axioms. These are the three primary tools of logical reasoning. Thinking critically helps you to avoid common mistakes when assessing information.
Next, a research tool we call Comparative Analysis. With this process, we can explore and compare belief systems. It is a structured process of comparative religious studies. Together, these analytical tools give a solid foundation of common-sense thinking. They sharpen your ability to discern facts from fiction.
Seated and Moving Meditation
Seated meditation is the heart of many spiritual practices, which include a wide range of techniques. It starts with Beginning Meditation and Mindfulness Meditation. It also has more advanced forms like Japa meditation (TM) and the Siddhis of Patanjali.
Moving meditation is another foundational element that strengthens the mind-body connection. Moving meditation is also key to our health and wellness. This progression includes several methods of energy collection. Here we teach forest bathing, Qigong, and Tai Chi. It also includes contemporary grounding processes, like tree grounding and sun gazing practices.
Awareness Expansion Tools
Awareness expansion tools include methods like the spiritual journal and automatic writing. Other essential tools include the lucid dreaming method and the shamanic journey. There are also techniques for third-eye awakening and soul memory awareness.
Healing Practices
Natural Healing practices are the last group, which includes Pe Jet, Reiki, and Shiatsu. Self-care is an important element of this group. It is vital for normalizing our inner work and maintaining our health and wellness.
Summary of Spiritual Technologies
These tools help us reveal and remove any roadblocks to accessing the virtues of the spirit. They connect us with the essence of spiritual qualities, promoting a healthy mindset. These tools cultivate spiritual virtues and values without the need for religious dogma.
How the Virtues Relate to the Enneagram
Each personality type has default elements or components. The Enneagram uses a questionnaire to determine personality and instinctual types. However, the Enneagram goes beyond just identifying the elements of the psyche. It is a holistic system that enables us to explore the psyche and repair harmful thought scripts.
Integration is a well-known concept in Enneagram teachings. [3] To become more integrated means becoming whole. Embodying spiritual virtues changes your thinking. We can reach these higher virtues by removing roadblocks in our minds. Integration gives us more choices, so we aren’t stuck with the default personality type.
It’s not just a mood or attitude change. It’s a fundamental shift due to new connections in the brain. When we make fundamental changes in thinking, we change the structure of the brain.
The Enneagram explains some of the doorways to access these virtues. That’s good news. No matter your primary personality type, there is a doorway to these higher ideals. These have nothing to do with the religious concepts of virtues or sin.
The Path of Integration
One process for accessing these virtues is through conscious integration. To do this, we move past our default personality type toward the one that provides integration. It isn’t always easy; the ego resists this because, as we integrate, the ego has less control.
Our personality has three key elements. It includes our primary type and the two related to integration and disintegration. The basic triad becomes a corridor between all three points. As we become more integrated, we can assess the strengths of the other types.
As we integrate, it is easier for us to see the thought triggers that prompt integration or disintegration. We learn that these triggers can cause us to traverse in either direction rather quickly. The more we integrate, the more control we have over this thinking process.
We should not discount the point of disintegration. The “point of disintegration” is actually the second doorway to virtues. Understanding emotions like anger allows us to feel more in control during stress.
One way to understand how our personality types are linked is by using the Enneagram diagram. Below is the Enneagram showing the direction of integration for the nine types. We’ll explain how each type corresponds with each virtue.
The arrows illustrate how “type one” connects to “type seven.” Also, type one’s disintegration moves toward type four. All types are expressed in this diagram. When you learn your default type, you will know these points as well.
The Enneagram: Doorway to Spiritual Virtues and Values
The movement between integration and disintegration pathways provides the first doorway. This is a conscious inward journey. One of the best tools to assist in this process is the repeating question exercise. With this method, you discover the thinking processes and values that are boundaries to your integration.
How does living the virtues of the spirit relate to our personalities? Each personality type possesses the full range of healthy and unhealthy aspects. Virtues are at the healthy end of this continuum. They are the highest values possible for each of the nine basic personality types.
Each type has its path and its own set of challenges. Presence is the common element that helps all personality types move toward integration. Presence enables the real you to show up. To do serious inner work, we must be present.
Each type has a core or psychological virtue [5] and a spiritual virtue that complements it:
Type One – The Reformer
Core Virtue: Integrity. Living in alignment with a moral compass, Ones exemplify principled clarity. Healthy Ones are not rooted in rigidity but are guided by wisdom and compassion.
Spiritual Virtue: Mindfulness. Through nonjudgmental awareness and presence, they learn to act with intention. It brings their values to life in grounded, purposeful ways. Mindfulness allows the “virtues of the spirit” to direct the mind’s activities. It is observation without judgment. It combines thought and action with a positive purpose.
Type Two – The Helper
Core Virtue: Empathy. Twos give freely from a place of inner wholeness, offering genuine care without the need to be needed.
Spiritual Virtue: Love. This expands into the experience of Oneness. It is divine empathy that embraces all beings with a deep connection. Love is the sublime virtue of connection. It promotes caring and empathy for everyone and all things.
Type Three – The Achiever
Core Virtue: Authenticity. To move beyond performance, Threes must align with their true, authentic values.
Spiritual Virtue: Happiness. A meaningful, playful joy arises when striving is rooted in sincerity rather than public image. Happiness is our natural state of being. It is living with a sense of meaning and deep satisfaction. This virtue results from living with a sense of playful purpose.
Type Four – The Individualist
Core Virtue: Balance. Fours develop emotional balance that allows for deep feelings without becoming overwhelmed.
Spiritual Virtue: Acceptance. They find peace by embracing their uniqueness, including their flaws, as essential parts of their identity. Acceptance enables a greater understanding of self. It helps us see and understand the qualities we possess. It is similar in effect to thankfulness and gratitude, but different in focus. This virtue enables us to accept our flaws as unique expressions.
Type Five – The Investigator
Core Virtue: Clarity. When Fives open up and share insights freely, the mind becomes a source of illumination rather than a prison.
Spiritual Virtue: Blissfulness. In transcending ego and internal noise, they experience quiet awareness that heals and connects. Blissfulness is a virtue we equate with transcendent silence. We associate a state of awareness with the absence of internal dialogue. Bliss is pure awareness without the roadblock of the ego. It is a place of healing that facilitates the flow of energy.
Type Six – The Loyalist
Core Virtue: Courage. Sixes find grounded strength in trusting themselves and life, even amid fear and uncertainty.
Spiritual Virtue: Thankfulness. By recognizing the fragility of life, type six can recognize what they have to be thankful for. This enables them to transform anxiety into appreciation and resilience. Thankfulness is an awareness of the fragile nature of life on this planet. This virtue helps us overcome our existential fears.
Type Seven – The Enthusiast
Core Virtue: Joyful Presence. Sevens thrive not through escape but by embracing the richness of the present with openness and vitality.
Spiritual Virtue: Gratitude. Their perspective shifts to see the value and lesson in every experience, deepening joy and grounding their spirit. Gratitude is a virtue of perspective. It helps us see and appreciate value. It allows us to see our situation in a way that shows us the lesson we would otherwise miss. On the list of spiritual virtues, it is the most noticeable and actionable.
Type Eight – The Challenger
Core Virtue: Mercy. Eights lead with power softened by being vulnerable. They channel their intensity into justice and care.
Spiritual Virtue: Serenity. Through inner stillness and trust, they learn to release control and embody peace alongside strength. Serenity is the inner peace and balanced state, a quiet place amidst the activity. It is the quality that helps us balance the mind’s intuitive and analytical aspects.
Type Nine – The Peacemaker
Core Virtue: Harmony. Nines find their voice and center, integrating all parts of themselves to create genuine peace within and around them.
Spiritual Virtue: Joyfulness. This deep, gentle well-being arises when we are fully present. It is not from avoidance, but from connection to life that we find joy. Joyfulness is a positive state of well-being, which is our original state of innocence. It does not rely on external conditions.
Summary of Enneagram Typologies
Each personality type has its own ways of cultivating spiritual virtues. The triads above are the starting place. We have access to all nine personality traits and all nine virtues of the soul. Personality and instinct are necessary mechanisms that connect our consciousness to our bodies.
Our natural urge to seek the unknown drives our journey and expands our awareness. You do this as you create a path of your own. Mythologies are signposts that show us we can do it. They point the way, but we all have different lives. We must find our way. Ask yourself. What are spiritual virtues, and how do they influence my thinking and values?
Final Thoughts
Your path is unique. Don’t get distracted or sidetracked by religious dogma. Use spiritual tools to help you gain and keep a healthy mindset. Living the virtues of the spirit is a process of growth. We each possess these gifts. The essence of spiritual qualities and their benefits is within reach.
References
- Modern theories in philosophy and religion. Archive.org.
- Virtues in Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion/Spirituality. SpringerLink.
- Seven Virtues | Definition, Christianity, List, & Facts, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types. Goodreads.com.
- Virtues in Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion/Spirituality. SpringerLink.