Author Conversation: Rev Nhien Vuong and The Enneagram of the Soul(Episode 5)
Charlotte talks to author Rev. Nhien Vuong about her new book, The Enneagram of the Soul: A 40-Day Spiritual Companion for the 9 Types.
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Why It Matters: Every spiritual journey is an act of trust-a step into the unknown, with the belief that something meaningful will emerge. In this episode, I talk with Reverend Nhien Vuong about how embracing our wholeness, practicing compassion, and returning to our true selves can offer freedom and possibility in our creative and spiritual lives.
One thing I’ve learned from Reverend Nhien is that transformation isn’t about perfection-it’s about presence. It’s about showing up as we are, letting go of striving, and trusting that even the smallest act of self-compassion can open us to deeper belonging and connection.
>>> This episode is a conversation with Reverend Nhien Vuong, author of The Enneagram of the Soul: A 40 Day Spiritual Companion for the Nine Types. We explore how reading and writing foster belonging, why contemplation is essential for awakening, and how the Enneagram can be a map for returning to our innate wholeness.
>>> We talk about how to release old patterns, accept ourselves and others with compassion, and move beyond the boxes of personality. Reverend Nhien shares her journey of writing as an act of surrender, the power of community in spiritual growth, and the importance of practices that nurture both individual and collective healing.
>>> I also invite you to reflect on your journey toward wholeness. Where do you notice resistance or striving? What practices help you return to compassion for yourself and others? Take a few moments to write about a time you felt truly connected to yourself, to others, or to something greater, and notice how that experience continues to shape who you are becoming.
Thank you for joining us as we explore the sacredness of compassion, the freedom found in presence, and the invitation to begin again-together.
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About Rev. Nhien:
Rev. Nhien Vuong, JD, MDiv, is international speaker, writer, retreat leader, and spiritual mentor to individuals and communities of diverse faith backgrounds around the world. An ordained interspiritual Unity minister, internationally accredited Enneagram professional with distinction and Certified Enneagram practitioner, Nhien holds a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, a Masters of Divinity from Unity Institute & Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of California Irvine. A published poet and writer, Nhien is the author of The Enneagram of the Soul: A 40-Day Spiritual Companion for the 9 Types and the founder of Evolving Enneagram, an interspiritual hub for individuals seeking Enneagram-informed contemplation and transformation as a way of life. She regularly offers scholarships for Evolving Enneagram’s many transformational programs and donates her time to various nonprofits and the incarcerated. Her extensive experience in pastoral care, community building, and conflict resolution help to foster a world where everyone belongs.
Episode Transcript:
Charlotte Donlon (00:00):
Welcome to All of This and More. I'm so excited to be with Reverend Nhien Vuong today to discuss a little bit about her reading and writing life and her new book, The Enneagram of the Soul: A 40 Day Spiritual Companion for the Nine Types. Reverend Nhien, can you tell us a little bit about yourself first before we get going for any listeners who or people who are watching it who aren't familiar with you or your work.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (00:29):
Yes, great to see you, Charlotte. So I am an Ordained Unity Minister, which means I'm also Interspiritual, so I come from that perspective. So really broad, more like spiritually open perspective. And I am also the founder of Evolving Enneagram, which is this interspiritual hub oriented around compassion, contemplation, and the Enneagram. So transformation as a way of life using the Enneagram as a map of consciousness, a map of awakening.
Charlotte Donlon (01:05):
Wonderful. I'm so glad to see you. We met last year for an Enneagram for Creativity gathering that I hosted, and you were featured during, and I was telling you earlier before I pressed record, that you have helped me embrace the Enneagram more than anyone. I've been very resistant to it, and your approach to it has really helped me receive so many good things from the Enneagram, other things people have said and written about it, and now your book, which I'm really thankful for. But before we talk about your book, I'd love to ask a few questions about your reading and writing life. And my first question is, how do writing and reading help you belong to yourself, others, and the world?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (01:47):
What a great question. So writing, journaling in particular, definitely. It's like, I didn't know I knew it until I wrote it. So, journaling does that for me to really what is my truth right now in a way where I feel like my everyday mind, as much as I believe that I just don't see until I've written it down. So, that's the writing piece for me, and I'll add that when it comes to writing, I do write articles. I've historically written articles for magazines and such. I have this love-hate relationship with the process. I was like, oh my God, this is hard. And then there are days where it's flow easy. And so that's an interesting part of my journey, too, because in those moments when the writing is hard, I can feel that parallel in, oh, I'm not surrendered enough. That, oh, it's because I'm trying. And really it brings me home to myself to that part of me that trust that I am enough. So what is here is worthy. And then that efforting that makes it all scrunchy hard doesn't happen. So that's the writing piece of it.
The reading piece of it. My God, when I was a child, I felt, I believed I was the loneliest person in the entire world, sincerely. And the problem was my parents were so strict that I wasn't, I couldn't go make friends. I wasn't allowed to do regular things. So it wasn't like I could check that with other people to find, “are you lonely too?” I didn't have anyone to check with. I had a big family, lots of siblings, but I was totally the black sheep. But my grandpa worked at the local library, and so I went there and got books taller than me.
(03:43):
I'm not very tall, so maybe that's not that tall. And through books, these are my friends, there are people who think like me. And so that was really the beginning of reading as an opening to belonging in a larger world that was beyond the scope of my family's belief system. And what I thought was like, this is the world. If this is the world, I don't belong here. Yeah. And then I'll say that that's definitely moved. I mean, in some ways my book is also a gift of helping people to feel a sense of innate belonging, not earned belonging, not conforming to belong. But part of the very thing I needed to hear, which is you just inherently intrinsically belong for being you. Yeah. So, my journey of belonging in reading now has really expanded in that I don't have to read ideas that are similar to my own. Whereas in the beginning it's almost like, oh yes, this is resonant because it's like me. And now, as the belonging becomes more sort of innate, then the additional ideas are more like, whoa, this difference is actually valuable. Your difference gets to belong in my life. And it's not only resonant with similarity. Yeah.
Charlotte Donlon (05:01):
Okay. I love that distinction so much, and it helps me feel less alone in the world. So, thank you for putting words around it. That's wonderful. And thanks for sharing a little bit about your relationship with reading and writing. Another question I have is, what are some of your comfort reads that you return to again and again?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (05:22):
Oh, wow. A Course In Miracles is this wisdom book that for some reason there's something about this book. I mean, it basically says everything is love and there is really no opposite. It's like the opposite of love is fear, but there really is no opposite. And I think that steeping in that sense of non-duality of just everything is love at the core of it, reminds me of that when things seem in my worldly perception, very opposite. It's like through the eyes of faith. There's something about the way that book teaches a non-dual perspective that has always resonated with me. It's funny because there are other people who are like, oh my God, I can't read that book. It's kind of heady and it's this and that. And I was like, no, this book sings to me. So that is one of them. Yeah.
Charlotte Donlon (06:15):
Wonderful. I'll have to read some. Maybe in small doses. It sounds like if it's one of those big heady books,
Rev. Nhien Vuong (06:22):
It's heady.
Charlotte Donlon (06:23):
So your book on this day that we're recording, I want to say it came out last week.
Rev. Nhien Vuong:
Exactly. Is that right? A week ago, yes.
Charlotte Donlon:
Okay. So it's been kind of crazy for you probably. Are there any TV shows, films, music, other types of art or pop culture that you've turned to receive nourishment or that you turn to forget about book launch? Things outside my book on us,
Rev. Nhien Vuong (06:56):
A part of me was like, no, but honestly, okay. I don't know that I wanted to admit this publicly, but The Wheel of Time is based is a Netflix show that is based on, it's like fantasy slash sci-fi. So, I think most people who know me were like, you read sci-fi fantasy books? I read this series of books when I was young, and it's now a show. And so it's interesting that this is my little indulgence on the side to forget everything, not have to reply to Instagram story reshares or whatever it is that everyone's doing with my book. And yes, and I do love it because it is another world. And I love everything that is Hero's Journey epic in its nature. And so these things tend to be that. And so I shows like that.
Charlotte Donlon (07:54):
Okay, wonderful. Thanks for admitting it. I love your honesty. You could have lied.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (08:02):
It's a lot. I'm not turning to anything particularly depthful and philosophical.
Charlotte Donlon (08:07):
Well, I've been watching, I think the last time I kind of binged something when I was trying to escape life, it was Meghan Markle New what's her lifestyle show? That's kind of like Martha Stewart ish deal. And I watched all of them within a couple of days, and it was oddly comforting. I won't do half the things she does in the series, but a few of them I want to do. And I've made the pasta from the first episode 15 times since I watched it. And I'm not someone who keeps up with the gossip. I don't know anything about the royal family, but I watched this show, and I'm like, I'll take it, whatever. It gave me some kind of calming escapism. That was perfect. So there's my confession.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (08:52):
Yeah, well, I'll add that. Okay. She was in that show Suits, which is funny. And I actually did binge that. I am a former attorney before I became a minister. I graduated from Stanford Law School and practiced law for eight years. And so it's funny, I normally can't watch attorney shows. I was like, this is so wrong. You can't do this in court. But it's funny. So I don't know about the Royal family, but I know her through that show. So yes, it is. It's nice to have these sort of breaks, if you will. Yeah, and it's someone else's creativity that created these shows as well, right?
Charlotte Donlon (09:26):
Definitely, definitely. And now, and if I start Suits, which my son loves, he's like, mom, you've got to watch suits. I will now connect it with you and my son and it will help me know you a little bit more. And Megan Markle. Okay.
So what types of external and internal resistance have you experienced while working on larger projects? Say the book that just came out last week, and how did you respond? Do you have an example that you can share about that?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (09:59):
Resistance? Yeah. Well, I'm definitely one of those who will clean the house instead of writing. That's really clear to me that I'm like, oh my God, the house has to be in complete order. And so I kind of know that, but it's almost like a dog circling before he sits down on the rug. I was like, let's just give myself that and then now I can sit down and everything. But I could feel that, yes, I think, okay.
So that's the outer behavior. And I even understand it from an Enneagram framework. I identify as a type three, and it's, again, it's embarrassing, but this is how we begin to heal when we recognize how much my sense of worth will habitually drop to being related to outcomes, what I accomplish in the world. So I really realized that the bulk of my resistance in writing the book was this, oh my God, but what if it sucks?
What if it sucks? So failure and really doing my inner work to release this idea that my worth is attached to it and to really believe that. I had to talk to myself. If you are called spiritually to write this book, you are in your way. You are in the way of good happening. You're in the way of what needs to happen. So if you simply open to what you're spiritually called to write and not worry if that's going to be well received or do well in the world, then you are being a vessel of spirit rather than an agent of ego trying to earn its way in the world. So that was a deep conversation I had. So, the coming to terms with at least the outer notion of failure. There's an inner notion of following calling that is deeper and stronger, but that work had to be done. I realized, I was like, I can't write, and I felt frozen for a time, and I realized I'm like, I'm so scared to put it down in writing for people to critique and negatively critique, and I can't be there to defend my work. That's the other piece about producing writing. I could blurt something out, you can respond, and I can explain it away. But in a book, you sit with whatever they interpret and then the possibility of a negative and even what you did. So letting go of control in that regard too was part of my inner work that enabled me to write.
Charlotte Donlon (12:45):
Well, thank you for sharing some details about that process. I know a lot of my listeners are writers or artists in other mediums and forms, and I know many people will relate to what you just described and will be very thankful that they're not alone. Again, none of us are alone in this creative work.
And since we've heard a little bit about your book in the process, I'd love to go on and transition into more questions specifically about your book. So, for those who aren't familiar with your book, what are three things you want them to know about it?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (13:23):
One thing I want them to know is that in the deepest respect, I feel like the book is a love letter. The book is a way of sending my care out into the world for people who are struggling to really know their sense of wholeness or oneness with life. And so we talk about belonging like that unity with life. And so it's a way of saying, “Hey, me too, and here are some things that helped me.” So really that's the spirit of the book to really say, “Hey, I'm journeying with you.” In fact, I mentioned the term anam cara in the book, which is one of my favorite terms that comes from the Celtic tradition, John O'Donohue, which means soul friend. So that's one piece. It's not a from on, high, I am a minister and I shall teach you, but here I am, let's walk together, let's companion each other. And so you don't feel alone. I felt alone just reading books. So that's one thing.
Another thing is that contemplation saved my life. The inner journey, the journey of letting go of the noise of the world, the chatter, even the chatter in my own mind to drop down into the center. And so there are nine practices I offer, but you can't make people do the practices, but this is my gift. This is so important that the benefit of the book doesn't come without the engagement of the practices offered there. So that's I think number two.
And then number three, people have met the Enneagram, and maybe this is similar to your experience, Charlotte, which is they've met it through people trying to put 'em in a box. I was like, you must be this or that. And they're like, I'm this dynamic whole. And so this is not about putting people in boxes. In fact, I quote Russ Hudson, I'd say the preeminent scholar of the Enneagram today to say the Enneagram is about not about putting you into a box, but about helping you to see the box in which you already live, but don't even realize you live. This transparent belief system that actually can keep you limited because you think this is the world when it's only your Enneagram type lens. So it's helping you to break free from the box of personality that you live in, but don't even see. So I think those are the three things. Yeah,
Charlotte Donlon (16:00):
That's a really great, I'm glad I asked this question. That's a great answer. And having read your book, I validate all three of those things. I definitely felt your kind of pastoral accompaniment as I was reading it and your presence in a way that was gentle and encouraging while also full of wisdom and truth. And, I also, I tell people that contemplative spirituality saved me. So maybe that's one reason I like you is that we have that vibe of it's not just this thing I do, it's this thing that has saved me and I think continues to help me inhabit the world and myself in ways that lead to wholeness. So yeah, what a lovely way to describe your book. And if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you order it and read it and engage with it. Yeah.
So another thing I'm interested in is you've done a lot of work, you've done a lot of inner work over several years with the Enneagram. What did you discover through writing the book that you hadn't noticed before? Or what kind of a new lesson?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (17:21):
What did I discover in writing the book? I think I discovered that I was companioned—in both the spiritual sense and the worldly sense. Again, as someone who, so even though I kind of started to overcome the sense of aloneness, they're still in the types three structure, the sense of I do it myself, I do it myself. And I didn't write this book myself. I wrote it with the lives of the people around me. I wrote it with encouragement from my, I call it congregants. I mean, I don't have a formal ministry, but my community members, their encouragement, their feedback, one of them, her name's Maka, helped me edit the book. That journey, I was like, I was gifted with the thing that I was gifting as well. And that's so precious because a lot of times we give and we give away. The giving from the overflow is a different place. And so the process of it was so communal. So that was really powerful. And then of course the sense of as I released ego over and over again, the sense of, oh, it's given to me. And those days, I'm sure you know, as a writer, the days when the flow is like this is from somewhere else. The ease and flow of this is gifted, right? So I got to feel that as well. The giftedness. Yeah, the grace of it.
Charlotte Donlon (19:10):
That's lovely. And I love that alongside what you mentioned earlier about the fear of critique and overcoming that resistance, the resistance question earlier. That answer with this answer really I can see how they weave together and maybe are generative in a way. Like this relationship between the two of that letting go of control about what others might think or whether or not it's perfect and the gift, the idea of gift and being gifted and being accompanied by spirit and people and new ideas. Wonderful.
So I have a couple more questions, but I want to dive into some of the readings. I have a few prompts, and I would love for you to read portions of your book. The first one is something from the book that represents, at least in part, the mind, body and soul space that you're inhabiting right now. And this isn't everything about you, but it's true to some degree.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (20:20):
Yes. And this is very alive because I picked it out five minutes ago right before our call. And so we were just also, is it okay to say we were just talking about aging and yes, we need to get my readers out. So, this one actually is connected to the class I taught this weekend for people to facilitate book journeys with my book. And so I flipped open to this page. This is one of the longer excerpts I'll be reading just by the way, but it's from page 40 of the book it's called We Enter Our.
And then the quote I open with is from hin the Buddhist monk who wrote, “to be is to inter be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to be with every other thing. The sheet of paper is because everything else is.” Imagine a world in which we all treat ourselves in one another as equally worthy.
We are not only self-compassionate, but compassionate toward all of life. Our loving kindness encompasses the whole of existence, not because a spiritual teacher or text says we should, but because love is what we truly are. I believe that it is possible to co-create such a world. Moreover, the Enneagram can be a core component in helping each of us to realize that we enter our. Thus to love our neighbor is to love our expanded selfhood, the greater of who or what we are in truth. One major challenge we face on this journey of realizing our unity and oneness is that particularly in the Western hemisphere, the self-help industry overplays the rugged individualistic paradigm. The same can be said of the term self care, which became a mainstream mantra in the 2010. In 2010, and has since been described as the gentler cousin of the highly disciplined self-help ideal.
(22:27):
Both concepts have the same flaw. They focus only on improving and nurturing you with no mention of how your individual healing and wholeness are inextricably joined with the healing of the larger community and vice versa. (Just two more paragraphs.) To be clear, focusing on individual healing isn't bad or wrong. In fact, it is an essential step to the journey of awakening. It reflects an important shift from outer-directed seeking to a more inner-directed quest for fulfillment. A seeking that is designed not to idolize our personality, the part of us that believes it's separate. But to point us toward our soul, which radiates our unique expression of oneness from the inside out. Very often a primary barrier to this process is confusing, navel gazing and ego obsession with a deeper journey described earlier in the Enneagram primer, the daring adventure of leaving the fixation of our point on the enneagram’s rim and venturing into the fuller circle of our wholeness.
(23:28):
(And this is the last paragraph.) Wholeness I maintain is not individual, but neither is it anti individual. It seems that as we travel to our depths, we arrive at a place within ourselves that is awake not only to our individual wholeness, but also to our fundamental unity and interconnectedness with all of life. Our movement toward an all-inclusive compassion and active care for the earth and other beings is a natural expression of remembering who we are. The shift between I and we is less bridging a chasm between self and other and more like performing an ancient dance around a sacred fire, a dance in which we sometimes link arms and sometimes let go. But we can never dance our way outside the Enneagram circle of wholeness.
Charlotte Donlon (24:27):
Beautiful. And I will say, I have your book right here. That's one of the pages or one of the sections that I dog-eared. And it was so good to read something new. A lot of my frustration with books about spirituality or, I'm a Christian in the Christian faith, is like I want more things that are new, at least new to me, woven with someone's expertise and with their journey and what they've received that only they can offer. And I felt like this chapter was one of many in this book that was very clearly that. So thank you. And do you have any thoughts on that? That idea?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (25:19):
No, I'm just gushing is really that it felt you just said, I mean, my heart just whew. Because I feel like there is this blend of lived experience of that truth with, of course. I was a philosophy major in undergrad, so this is something I've been grappling with. But I so appreciate what you shared because it felt like there was an acknowledgement within it of just exactly what I said. There's a uniqueness that comes through each of us. There's a facet of the oneness that if we are to truly live our lives and embody our own being, that all of us are capable of expressing that uniqueness, something new in the world.
Charlotte Donlon (26:06):
Yes. And it's one reason why when I have clients or writers who say, “I just don't know if my voice matters. I want to write about this topic that so many other people have already written about.” And I'm like, “no, please write it and give me something new. Engage with what's come before you and then give us something new.” And I haven't read a ton of Enneagram books, but I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things about the Enneagram, and that's another reason I love your voice and approach is it's very fresh and real. It's like fresh and real and true. So thank you. And yeah, I'm fangirling at this point, but that's fine.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (26:46):
I really appreciate it. I mean, you know as an author, how much blood and sweat— can you see the blood on the pages? It's like we cleaned it up, but it's there. And so to feel it received is such a supreme gift. To feel it received in such a precious way is a true gift. So thank you.
Charlotte Donlon (27:06):
Well, you're welcome. So I'd love to hear more from your book. What are a couple of paragraphs or more, however many paragraphs you want to read, that you wrote because you needed to read them?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (27:19):
Oh, okay. So I think, okay, I pulled this up and let's see where I want to start. There.
Stubborn as the ego is stubborn, as the ego is, many of us do not start this inner quest for wholeness until we have emotionally and often physically exhausted ourselves pursuing all other avenues until we finally come to learn, for example, that for each of our types, no amount of perfecting or correcting (Enneagram one), supporting or seducing (Enneagram two), accomplishing or image crafting (Enneagram three), dramatizing or fantasizing (Enneagram four), researching or compartmentalizing (Enneagram five), worrying or preparing (Enneagram six), ideating or pleasure seeking (Enneagram seven), challenging or protecting (Enneagram eight), or accommodating or self numbing, (Enneagram nine) can ever get us the experience of divine perfection (Enneagram one), unconditional love (Enneagram two), intrinsic worth (Enneagram three), authentic connection (Enneagram four), compassionate wisdom (Enneagram five), steadfast faith (Enneagram six), deep satisfaction (Enneagram seven), playful innocence (Enneagram eight), or blissful union (Enneagram nine). According to the wisdom teachings of a course in miracles, when we are looking through the eyes of the self that believes it is separate from spirit, we seek and do not find. This is because what we seek already belongs to us in truth because it is not out there as painful as the disillusionment can be from our worldly striving, it is eventually replaced by a sense of fulfillment from the inside out. Everything we need is already here.
Charlotte Donlon (29:56):
Amen. Also a dog, your section in my copy and feel like that one is one of the ones that many readers are going to do the bigger dog year so they can find it quickly on those days when something's off. Let me go here and let me just, people who know they're type more confidently than I do may only read theirs, but I read the whole list and I'm like, all of these apply, unfortunately.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (30:29):
I feel you. That's exactly, yes. Yes. Oh, and I forgot to say that was a part of, in writing this book, or when I minister to people, a lot of devotionals are only for one Enneagram type. They're only for one number. But people were telling me by reading others, their empathy and compassion increased. It's like the honoring and the seeing of our shared suffering in nine different ways and then sometimes all nine ways in one person, but our shared humanity within that, those.Oh yes, as you said, yes, I'll seek it this way. It doesn't work. I'll get that. I'll try for that one. And they just stop. Just stop. It says, just stop and rest. Inside you will find it right. Stop that striving right in the outer world.
Charlotte Donlon (31:19):
And I love that point about having empathy for others and more understanding of others. And kind of like in my tradition when I'm doing morning prayer from the book of Common Prayer and there's a psalm that I like it, but it just doesn't apply to me in the moment. And I read it and I kind of sit with it and I read it for others. Someone somewhere needs the psalm today, or I kind of imagine someone who I want to pray it for. Even some of the mean Psalms, I have people in my mind as I'm praying those. People, I don't like, people who might be leading this country. So I do love that piece of the Enneagram. If it's not something that applies to me, it applies to someone. And if we're all connected and my wholeness is dependent on your wholeness, it matters.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (32:12):
Yeah. That's such a beautiful approach to your prayer life. And it is, I mean, resonant with it is how a lot of times people turn to how can this help me or making it about me? And in some ways, not making it, I mean enough to honor yourself. But when we're so like, oh, this doesn't apply to me, just this notion that I can gift it because the world has suffering in it. And so much of what, I mean, my particular take is that it's people who are hurting, who hurt others with a deep, deep, profound hurt in that belief in separation: I'm not enough in some way that I have to amass so much more money that I have to amass so much more power, so much more fame, so much more financial security, whatever it is, more than you really honestly need because it's trying to satisfy that egoic striving. But from a sense of lack, and that is the lack that I have so much compassion for in others. That I don't see evil out there so much as I see pain, I see people suffering expressed in ways that cause others suffering. Yeah,
Charlotte Donlon (33:24):
That's a great point because I, like many others, who want to be loving individuals, and I have trouble loving certain people or thinking about what it means to love certain people. And I think I need to kind of think about my relationship with evil and pain and how I perceive those and respond to those. So, thank you. Thank you for that, for applying this to me directly without meaning to. I appreciate it.
So, I have one more prompt for a reading from your book, an excerpt that you wish people who love you would read and reread regularly.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (34:07):
Yeah. What's interesting, this is the hardest one to pick. And then I sort of had to reread your questions to people who love me. So it's like, oh, I wish they knew this about me. Versus I was kind of thinking, what would I like to gift people I love? So I wavered on this. So one thing I would say is I recommend people just open the book to any random page, if you will. That's always what I recommend. But I thought that this particular prayer, the prayer for type one would be a gift I'd want for those who love me. And it's one I personally identified with because I actually thought I was a type one for many years rather than the three that I properly am. But so I'll read the prayer for type one, and perhaps if folks are listening, if there's an opportunity to close your eyes or set aside what you're doing, you can receive this and maybe this is appropriate for all of us during this time in our nation, understanding that there's a difference. I was just teaching someone that she's like, “acceptance, spiritual acceptance can be a bad thing. We don't want to accept people doing harm to each other.” But I was like, I think there's a difference between spiritual acceptance and acquiescence. So I want to make that distinction because it's important. This doesn't mean we don't stand up for what we believe in, but somehow by accepting is, which is the title of this prayer, we're actually more equipped to skillfully deal with what's out there.
Prayer for Type One: Accepting what is. I release my role as judge and jury. I release my conviction that my way is the only right way and that my truth is the ultimate truth. I relax my attention on inner and outer error. I relax my grip on the need for inner and outer order. When my worldly eyes simply cannot see it, I invite my inner eye of faith to allow me to feel it. I open my heart to be cleared of unforgiveness. I open my heart to experience the perfection of this moment. There is beauty and wholeness in this glorious creation, both within me and all around me. I welcome forgiveness into my heart. I welcome wisdom into my heart. I welcome compassion into my heart. I welcome acceptance into my heart. Not as an act of resignation, but in the spirit of faith I stand down. Setting aside my need to be right, I approach the steady altar of my faith. I kneel before a higher truth. I open my arms wide. I accept the invisible wholeness in all that is right here and right now, I rest on holy ground. And so it is. Amen.
Charlotte Donlon (37:32):
Amen. Thank you. What a lovely prayer. I do love all the prayers. The structure of the book is really interesting. It's very readable, and it's like a feast that's before you and you get to go and choose what you want for that day or hour or 40 days of each of the, is it activations? There are so many ways to use the book, which I really appreciate it, and I love the prayer. So thank you for reading that prayer. I need it. I need it often.
What were your hopes for this book, and how have they already been fulfilled or not?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (38:17):
I've got to tell you a part of why I said yes to this podcast. You asked the best questions. You really… So my hopes for this book are big. So, again, this is where I was like, my stomach's actually tightening as I… Do I dare to speak the truth of what I hope? I hope this book goes international. I hope this book in its spirit of this is a global movement of awakening. So my hope is that it's translated. Over this weekend, folks were saying, is it going to be translated into Spanish? And it's like, this is my dream. That would be nice. And so my hope is that it finds people everywhere and enables us to find across religious divides, across national divides. That it's like, oh, we're more alike than we are unalike. So that is my big hope, that it goes around the world.
And how has this been realized? I mean, it's only been a week since this book has been out, and I do feel gifted that what I consider are the master Enneagram teachers of the world have written endorsements for the book. So, that is beyond my wildest dreams. Some people who I've never even taken classes with, they just know about my work and trust me enough through that. Not because I'm a student of theirs, and so therefore they want to mentor and help. So, beyond my wildest dreams, that's already happened even before the book's released. I got to tell you, I had this inspiration to say, you know what? This book is made to be used in community, so why don't I do a little book certification training to help people, guide people through the book and help them lead contemplative Enneagram book journeys. Not where everybody's talking over each other and such, but with contemplative practice and all the things. And I really thought, okay, if five people come, then they will spread the good word. And we had 50 people sign up for this. Not all were live. Like 40 something were live and others will watch the video. And from different phases, United Methodist pastor, a Buddhist practitioner, these people came. That was just this weekend. So I'm a little exhausted today, just like. But it was profound, and it felt at the end, a movement was birthed. It felt like that through these amazing people. So yeah.
Charlotte Donlon (41:08):
That's amazing. Congratulations. What a beautiful picture of your community. People who trust you and want to not only receive good things from you, but help others receive good things from you too. And that's just wonderful. Lovely. And may your book be translated in all the languages and sold in all the countries. I mean, I do believe it's one of those books that if that happened, I think the world would be a better place. There's so much goodness here that I hope people put themselves in the way of.
Yeah. So is there anything else that you would like to share that you want people to know before we close?
Rev. Nhien Vuong (41:58):
If it's not already obvious, the thing that I always say and always practice is I hope that if you've been listening today, that whatever you receive as insight or areas of growth that you receive with compassion for yourself. That just like that, sometimes people are like, oh, I could do that more. I could do… Well, how about enough right now that whatever you've done, whoever you are. Maybe you're an author and you're writer, you're like, she's finished her book and I'm just starting my book and I was starting my book at one point. But just to know that we've all been part of this process, and I hope you feel that sense of being just enough who you are, where you are right now. That's what I want to say.
Charlotte Donlon (42:44):
Thank you. What good words to close with. It's so good to see you. And I'll have more information about the book and your website and links and all the things in the show notes at all of the Send more.com. And thanks to everyone for listening and watching.
Rev. Nhien Vuong (43:01):
Yeah, thank you.