"…the future of the Teachings of the enneagram should be to provide an Integral Method for humankind to reach its highest potential for the benefit of all."
—Oscar Ichazo

Ichazo, the originator of the modern enneagram movement, proposes two main objectives—to know our pivotal ego–structure, the Fixation, and to engage in a process of self–observation. Without these points of reference, we have no way to use the enneagram for its maximum benefit beyond our ego–process into a Self–realized State.

Ichazo explains that the Fixations have to be used as a starting point of self–analysis. Studying and employing the Fixations frees our point of view by giving us objectivity about our own subjective reality, as well as that of others.

In Chapter 2 of Enneagram Knowledge, Ichazo's address to the 2007 Enneagram Congress traces the enneagram back to Pythagoras, showing that the scientific system found throughout all Greek philosophy, disclosed in astronomy, astrology and music, gave reference to the diagram itself, but no philosophical knowledge was attached to its nine points.

"The most important question for our time is 'How do we become a united humanity?' which in Integral Philosophy we call our goal of 'Humanity–One.' This is the only real goal the enneagram Teachings can have and the only question that needs to be addressed as a matter of human survival, dignity and happiness."
—Oscar Ichazo