27. Perfection, sum, time & space, art

In the earlier two chapters, I presented sets of concepts that illustrate the so-called thinking methods. These thinking methods help me to describe auxiliary reference points of our psyche.

These sets of concepts that I presented earlier are as follows:

— the lower-right corner of the Mandala of Characters:

impression, magic, skepticism, hope, alchemy, influence

— the upper-left corner of the Mandala of Characters:

attention, attitude, trust, belief, focus, persuasion

— the lower-left corner of the Mandala of Characters:

light, knowledge, here & now, difference, consistency

In this chapter, I will continue to present thinking methods, and I will go to the auxiliary point in the upper-right corner. There we can find:
— the adaptive-defensive mechanism, which is—Judging,
— and so-called classical Element quality—moist-wet.

Besides, we also have here the concept that relates to thinking methods. This concept is:
— art.

While developing the Mandala of Characters, I added more concepts to the concept of “art”. All in all, the set of concepts related to this place of the Mandala look as follows:

perfection, sum, time & space, art

So, below I will describe the above concepts.

PERFECTION

The idea of adding the word “perfection” to this place of the Mandala of Characters came from the Enneagram. In this place, we can find the type of character—Moist Air. This type is similar to the Type 1 in the Enneagram. One of the popular names of this type is—the Perfectionist. I found this name of Type 1 in Helen Palmer’s book titled “The Enneagram”.

On the Mandala of Characters, the Enneagramic Type 1 (namely, the Perfectionist), is in the place where there is type—Moist Air.

The word “perfection” also fits here as the opposition to the word “difference”, which we can find on the other side of the Mandala.

Why is perfection the opposite of difference?

For example, because a perfectionist is someone who is a “sum” of some abilities, talents, skill, qualities, etc. This sum of high skills, qualities, and features means that the perfectionist cannot be subtracted of anything. While subtracting is a difference.

Perfection, therefore, as a sum of various skills and talents, is the opposite of the difference. It is because the difference is distinguishing of some features, attributes, trait, qualities, etc.

It is interesting because it turns out that, for example, a perfect person is the opposite of a distinguished person. Because the distinguished person prefers to be unique and one of a kind.

At first glance, it would seem that there is not much difference between the perfectionist and someone distinguished. However, there is a significant difference between them. That is, the perfectionist sums up various features and tries to give an impression of a satisfied person. It means the person who is without any faults, the person who is full of values, virtues, advantages, pluses, qualities, strengths, etc.

In turn, the distinguished person distinguishes a characteristic feature or features, on which he tries to focus his and other’s attention. And in this way, he wants to become someone special, unique, unusual, etc.

Therefore, the perfectionist sums up (or summarizes), and the distinguished person differentiates (or distinguishes).

SUM

Above I wrote that:

• Perfectionist—sums up (or summarizes, resumes, tantalizes, figures up),
• and the distinguished person differs (or distinguishes, differentiates, favors, stands out, etc.).

In the previous chapter—“26. Light, knowledge, here & now, difference, consistency”, I have already added the word “difference” on the opposite side of the Mandala of Characters. It means, in the place where, among others, there is:
— adaptive-defensive mechanism—Perceiving,
— and so-called quality of classical Element—dry.

During the development of the Mandala of Characters, long time I thought that:

• the term “sum” (or sum up, summarize, etc.), refers to the character type—Moist Air.
• and the concept of “difference” (or distinguish, differentiate, etc.), refers to the type of character—Dry Earth.

Later, however, I came to a conclusion that:

• “difference”—applies to the entire area, where it is, among others—“Perceiving” and “dry”. That is, the reference point in the lower-left corner of the Mandala);
• “sum”—applies to the entire area, where it is, among others—“Judging” and “moist-wet”. That is, the reference point in the upper-right corner of the Mandala).

“Sum”, I think, does not only concerns perfectionism but also applies to two concepts that are also in this place of the Mandala. It means, “sum” also applies to “art”.

Art, among others, is a summation of various skills, styles, techniques, trends, currents, movements, etc. Therefore, the skillful, revealing, and innovative sum up helps in creating works of art.

ART

Above, I have just mentioned the concept of “art”. This concept was included in the Mandala of Characters thanks to the Lionel Snell’s thoughts (he also used these pseudonyms: Ramsey Dukes, Lemuel Johnston, and others). I wrote about it in the chapter—“23. Belief and magic, knowledge and art”.

Lionel Snell, in his considerations, highlighted the so-called thinking methods. One of these thinking methods is—artistic thinking. For simplicity, I used the term “art” instead of “artistic thinking”.

In general, the thinking methods mentioned by Lionel Snell inspired me to many considerations, thanks to which I placed on the Mandala of Characters, some concepts, and phrases. I describe these concepts and phrases in this chapter and in the previous three chapters.

TIME AND SPACE

The word “time” refers mainly to the types of characters: Moist Air and Wet Water.

Moist Air and Wet Water are types that in their Conscious State often are able to manage and organize their time very well. Often it looks like planning and organizing it is a natural process for them. Usually, people from these types do not realize that this ability is more developed in them than in others. It seems for them that others should have the same skills in this area. For this reason, many representatives of these types, again and again, experience various frustrations associated with it. They blame others that they are so unorganized, and they do not understand why others do not understand the importance of proper organization.

Of course, not all representatives of these types, without exception, are always organized, punctual, and they do everything on time. My point is that they have natural abilities, and whether these abilities are developed by them or not, it depends on each one of them separately.

So, these types are able to apply the following principle in their lives:
—“think, plan, do”.

This principle requires that we have to deal with time properly, and we have to have the right approach to it, for example, by the fact that we have to plan something, what we will do in the future.

During planning the future, it is also worth remembering the past. Remembering the past can help us to avoid making the same mistakes as before. We can use experiences of the past to improve planning and doing something better and faster than before.

The word “space” relates to the word “time” because time exists in some space. In space, we can move from one place to another. Or somewhere in the space, we are doing something. However, regardless of what we do in space, always during doing something time goes by.

Time and space are considered and studied by people in various ways for a very long time. We have even terms “space-time” or “time-space” which are well-known from using them in physics and literature.

These terms can also be distinguished. It means we can consider:

• Space-time—as three dimensions of space and one time:
  —tree dimensions of space are horizontal, vertical and depth,
  —and one dimension of time is a one continuous time flow.
• Time-Space—as three dimensions of time and one space:
  —three dimensions of time are past, present, and future,
  —and one dimension of space, that is, the place where we are at the moment.

However, regardless of how we describe time and space and how we deal with them, they are actually inseparable pair. And generally speaking, we live in time and space.

Time and space also match to this place of Mandala, because on the other side we can find a phrase—“here and now”. In this way, it is visible the opposition or polarity. It means, “time and space” and “here and now”. Thanks to this, we can see which types focus more on “here and now”, and which types concentrate more on “time and space”.

And this is a brief description of the concepts and phrases related to the thinking methods that guide us at this point. That is, the point located in the upper-right corner of the Mandala of Characters. In sum, the set of these concepts and phrases is as follows:

perfection, sum, time & space, art

Let us put the above set of concepts and phrases on the diagram of auxiliary points of our psyche.

In this chapter, I finish describing the thinking methods that I described in this and three previous chapters. To describe these thinking methods, I used sets of concepts and phrases. As we can see in the diagram above, these sets of concepts and phrases are as follows:

— the lower-right corner of the Mandala of Characters:

impression, magic, skepticism, hope, alchemy, influence

— the upper-left corner of the Mandala of Characters:

attention, attitude, trust, belief, focus, persuasion

— the lower-left corner of the Mandala of Characters:

light, knowledge, here & now, difference, consistency

— the upper-right corner of the Mandala of Characters:

perfection, sum, time & space, art

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