The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is one of my favorite books. I'm currently reading its companion book, Using the Four Agreements to Master the Dream of Your Life. Toltec Wisdom has much to tell us about the steps we must take in order to claim greater courage, integrity, and empowerment for ourselves, and it offers some great ideas about how to create the mental framework we need to face judgment, difficulty, and other growth opportunities.
The Four Agreements are:
1. Be Impeccable with Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your own life.
4. Always do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
These agreements are relatively easy to accept at face value, but it's challenging to make them a matter of conscious practice. I find myself digging through the office to find a hard copy of the book at least once every six weeks or so because I inevitably forget not to make an assumption or to be impeccable with my word, etc. and I need to be reminded that there is a better way.
In the companion book, Don Miguel Ruiz says, "The Four Agreements slowly free the faith that is trapped inside your belief system. Little by little, you recover your integrity, and the real you starts to awaken."
I appreciate the way in which he gives faith a life of its own, apart from beliefs. Beliefs might complement our faith or provide evidence that it exists, but simply having beliefs does not necessarily mean we have faith. Faith is something that rises up out of the experience we gain during the process of discovering truth. Faith may include beliefs, but only after they have been tested. At any rate, it's important to know that faith is still very much alive underneath the clutter, and that we only need to further awaken to it.
I love books that are this liberating.
The Four Agreements are:
1. Be Impeccable with Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your own life.
4. Always do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
These agreements are relatively easy to accept at face value, but it's challenging to make them a matter of conscious practice. I find myself digging through the office to find a hard copy of the book at least once every six weeks or so because I inevitably forget not to make an assumption or to be impeccable with my word, etc. and I need to be reminded that there is a better way.
In the companion book, Don Miguel Ruiz says, "The Four Agreements slowly free the faith that is trapped inside your belief system. Little by little, you recover your integrity, and the real you starts to awaken."
I appreciate the way in which he gives faith a life of its own, apart from beliefs. Beliefs might complement our faith or provide evidence that it exists, but simply having beliefs does not necessarily mean we have faith. Faith is something that rises up out of the experience we gain during the process of discovering truth. Faith may include beliefs, but only after they have been tested. At any rate, it's important to know that faith is still very much alive underneath the clutter, and that we only need to further awaken to it.
I love books that are this liberating.
posted by Jen Austin at 1:21 PM
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