Existential Attitude: Fear of conflict
Instinctual Perception: Valid/invalid
Body association: Nervous system
Living Question: “Where am I?”
Reason: Empathetic
Ego: Practical
Instinct: Adaptation
Psychic Poison: Deceit
Super Form: Spirit
The Adaptation Instinct is related to the Cognitive System and manifests the instinctual inclination to know and work with our environment, either natural or human, to obtain the means for our survival. This Instinct is based upon a discriminative mind that tends to adapt its natural and cultural environment to the purpose of its own survival or whatever means survival for this intellectual persona or ego.
The Existential Attitude of the Adaptation Instinct is the fear of conflict, and this is the origin of our lower existential fear and stress. The higher side is the existential search for true Knowledge or Gnosis, where we find the State of 'Mind–only,' transforming the lower attitudes of fear and stress.
The Adaptation Instinct triad is composed of the numbers 5, 6 and 7, and this Instinct is preoccupied with adapting to the environment and doing what is necessary to control it. It is known as the Doing Group. This Instinct is interested in true Knowledge or Gnosis and Divine Providence manifested in the world. The problems of the Adaptation Instinct are metaphysical and concerned with Ultimate Reality.
The intellectual Adaptation Instinct perceives its own intellectual reality in terms of truth and falsity or right and wrong.
The third instinct is the syntony instinct, and it is the psychic manifestation of the central nervous system. We have to know where we are in order to function. If you do not know where you are, at this moment, you cannot reason. It is impossible to reason. You have to know where you are before reason can begin to reason.[1]
The syntony instinct asks the living question, 'where am I?' We have to determine our position in space because we need to have planned movements in order to move with the security of knowing where we are going and what to expect when we get there. The Unity that tells us how to live and die and reincarnate is the Eleusinian interpretation of the Mystery of Demeter.[1]
The living question of the syntony instinct, 'where am I?', is manifested as empathetical reason. This reason is manifested as empathy. Empathy is to be alike, to become alike. Sympathy is one of the principles of empathetical reason. Empathetical reason then, is putting ourselves in the place of another. This gives us a different understanding, which nothing else can give. In another sense, empathetical reason gives to the syntony instinct the ‘what to do.' This is how we match reality. Empathetical reason corresponds to the will of doing, and is manifested as the syntony instinct. Nothing is done without the bridge of empathy which lets you move. It is like going someplace unknown. It gets dark, and you cannot move because you lose empathy with the environment.[1]
This basic need of orientation is the foundation of our sense of working and doing, and it gives us the direction of how we should conduct ourselves in order to succeed in nature as well as in our society by adapting ourselves to nature and society and by using them for our basic purpose of survival[2]
The third ego is the practical-ego, and it is the expression of empathetical reason. This ego wants to do things. The practical-ego doesn't want to listen to what the other egos are saying. He considers it nonsense because he wants to do things. But that is impossible because his function will be disturbed by the other two egos.[1]
Adaptation develops into what is known in the Arica Integral System as the "Practical Ego" that has the know–how to survive. It is the mental Center whose basic outcomes are thoughts and mind constructs.[2]
The Adaptation Instinct is blurred by the couple of swollen pride (yang) and morbid thirst (yin).[2]
This ego may develop into the psychic poison of deceit, more specifically self-deceit in the sense of delusions and worries in terms of how to do things. Deceit is then broken down into three other poisons: confusion, which becomes Ego-Stinginess (Over-Observer); deceit, which becomes Ego-Cowardice (Over-Adventurer); and mythomania, which becomes Ego-Planning (Over-Idealist).[2]
The third triad, the Doing Group, is based upon the Super Form of Universal Divine Wisdom, which is studied from the point of view of metaphysics, where point 5, Divine Omniscience, is the action (proceeding); point 7, Divine Wisdom, is the reaction (returning); and point 6, Divine Strength, is the result (sustaining).
The Enneagram of the Fixations of the Existential Mind (Sphere 15) is composed of the three triads of the Being, Living and Doing Groups that are suspended from the three Instincts, which are the functions of their corresponding triad. The Doing Group corresponds to the Adaptation Instinct—how we adapt ourselves to the environment and, further on by way of working with utensils and technology, how we have come to adapt the environment to our own needs of survival. The Conservation Instinct is concerned with being and 'existence in itself.' The Relation Instinct is concerned with living in a community, and for this purpose our ability to communicate and interrelate with other human beings is essential in order to make our survival possible. The Adaptation Instinct is concerned with doing and the knowledge of how to actually do something in the sense of adapting that something to our own purposes.
Thus, the Doing Group is the constant general awareness of how to survive through adaptation. The Ego–Fixations connected to the Doing Group are the Observer (point 5), which is the point of action (proceeding); the Idealist (point 7), which is the reaction (returning) point; and the Adventurer (point 6), which is the result (sustaining). In the corresponding Enneagram of the Divine Forms of the Creative Mind (Sphere 7), the Doing Group is composed of Divine Omniscience (point 5) which is the action (proceeding) point; Divine Wisdom (point 7) which is the reaction (returning) point; and Divine Strength (point 6) which is the result (sustaining). Each triad is concerned with one of three main realms of the philosophical investigation that answer the three fundamental questions of "What is being?" or the questions of ontology; "What is the Good Man?" or the questions of ethics; and "What is the Universal Spirit?" or the questions of metaphysics.
Thus, specifically, the triad of the Doing Group is suspended from the Super Form of the Universal Spirit which becomes the function of the triad of the Doing Group. This Super Form of the Universal Spirit can also be said to be the Ultimate Goal of survival through the Adaptation In-stinct into the Divine Forms of faith and immortality, as the supreme sense of survival. Thus, the metaphysical questions about Supreme Knowledge or Omniscience (point 5), perfect Wisdom (point 7), and total faith or Strength (point 6) support us to persevere in spiritual practices or direct Work with the Divine. Again, we have to see that the Super Forms generate the super energy necessary for being the function of the given triad. Thus, the realm of the Super Form of Being is energized by the Super Form of Divine Compassion. The Super Form of the Divine Good Man promotes the energy of Divine Hope, and the Super Form of Universal Spirit produces the energy of Divine Faith. The three Super Forms, when seen as a trinity, reflect the trinitarian structure of the Godhead. This is to say that these Super Forms are the core of the theological understanding of the Enneagram of the Nine Divine Forms.