The Virtues

I have spoken in earlier posts about the Passion of the Types - the Passion being an emotional coping mechanism that the ego comes up with to deal with the loss of contact with our true essential self. We all lose contact with our essential self to some degree and the Passion is the particular way in which we cope with the feelings of loss, hurt and shame that that engenders.

The Passion can be an effective coping mechanism for these feelings but it does not lead us to what we are looking for - in fact it leads us away from it - but we are misled into thinking that it does.

The Virtues of the Types can be seen as the antidote to the Passion. If we can transform the Passion we restore the Virtue. How do we transform the Passion? By firstly becoming aware of it. By becoming aware of it we start to develop an understanding of how it operates in us and with that understanding we can consciously work with it. In so doing we move towards the Virtue of the Type and so restore it.

We can see therefore that it is important for our development to have an understanding of the Virtue of our Type and its relationship to the Passion. It is important to note that we do not try to be virtuous. It is not an aim. Rather it is that in working to develop ourselves and in transforming the particular Passion of our Type, the Virtue of our Type naturally arises in us. We find ourselves behaving differently as the Virtue is restored.

In the coming posts I will talk about the Virtue of each Type and how it relates to the Passion of the Type..