The notes below are designed to give prospective readers an idea of what to expect from the book, and to aid in making a decision on whether to buy it.

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The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz

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Introduction​

• Be impeccable with your word: speak with integrity.  Say only what you mean.  Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip.  Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

• Do not 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.

• 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 life.

• 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 andy circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self judgemetn, self-abuse, and regret.

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General Notes

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Introduction: Everything is made of light. Everything in existence is a manifestation of the one living being we call God. Everything is God.  He saw himself in everyone, but nobody saw him as themselves. We never chose even the smallest of these agreement.  We didn’t even choose our own name.  As soon as we agree, we believe it.  This is called faith.  The reward feels good.  We keep doing what others want in order to get the reward.  Eventually we become someone that we are not.  We become a copy of Mamma’s beliefs, Daddy’s beliefs, society’s beliefs, and region’s beliefs.  True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake.  We pay thousands of times for each mistake.  We have a powerful memory.

 

Whenever we feel the emotions of anger, jealousy, envy, or hate, we experience a fire burning within us.  We are living in a dream of hell.  Because of the agreements and beliefs, we have stored in our mind, we have no eyes for this truth.  We dishonor ourselves just to please other people.  Nobody abuses us more than we abuse ourselves.  We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves.  The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse.

 

The most important agreements are the ones that you make with yourself.  Our power is used to keep the agreements that trap us in the dream of the planet.  It’s important to see that it is our agreements which rule our life.

 

Agreement #1: Be impeccable to your word.  Your word is like a sword with two edges. Your word can set you free or enslave you more than you know. The world is like a seed.  The human mind is so fertile. Impeccability means ‘without sin.’  Everything that you feel or say or believe that goes against yourself is sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. Action produces a like reaction. If I love you, then you will love me.  If I insult you, then you will insult me. Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system. Gossip is black magic at its very worst because it is pure poison.  Your opinion comes from your beliefs, your ego, and your dreams.  We can all feel right about our own point of view.  When you are impeccable with your word, you feel good; you feel happy and at peak.  I am no better than you; we are exactly the same. 

 

Agreement #2: Don’t take anything personally.  You take it personally because you agree with whatever was said.  As soon as you agree, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell.  Nothing other people do is because of you.  It is because of themselves.  If you take it personally, then you take that poison and it becomes yours. Nothing they think about me is about it, it’s really about them.  If you live without fear, then you will feel good.  When you feel good, everything around you is good. Mitote is when thousands of parts of your mind are speaking at the same time.  The mitote is why humans hardly know what they want, how they want it, or when they want it. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves.  You have to trust yourself.  Do not take anything personally.  Your anger, jealousy, an envy will disappear. You are never responsible for the actions of others.  You are only responsible for you.

 

Agreement #3: Don’t make assumptions.  The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth.  We create a lot of emotional poison just by making assumptions and taking it personally. We only see what we want to see.  We don’t perceive things the way that they are.   We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything in order to feel safe.  It is not important if the answers are correct, just that the answers make us feel safe.  The best way is to ask questions. Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.  Have the courage to ask question until you are as clear as you can be.  A white magician uses the word for creation, giving, sharing, and loving. 

 

Agreement #4: Always do your best.  No more, no less. If you try too hard to do more than your best, you will spend more energy than is needed. If you do les than your best, you subject yourself to frustration, self-judgement, guilt, and regrets. Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you’re expecting a reward.  There are many ways that we hurt ourselves and we don’t’ like who we are. Action is about living fully.  Inaction is the way that we deny life. God is life in action.  The best way to say, “I love you, God,” is to live your life doing your best.  We don’t need to know or prove anything according to the author. Everything you have ever learned, you have learned through repetition. 

 

There is no way if you are impeccable with your word, if you don’t take things personally, if you don’t make assumptions, if you always do your best, then you are going to have a beautiful life.  You are going to control you life 100%.

 

Today is the beginning of a new dream. 

 

Who stops us from being free?  We stop ourselves. Very young children are not afraid to express how they feel.  They are not afraid to love at all.  That is the deception of the normal human being.  There is no need to blame.  It is time to stop the abuse.  It is time to free yourself of the tyranny of the Judge by changing the foundation of your agreements. Most of the time, we just do things to please others, just to be accepted by others, rather than living our lives to please ourselves. 

 

There are three masteries: the mastery of Awareness (to be aware of who we really are), the mastery of

 

Transformation (knowing how to change), and the Mastery of Intent (which is also the Mastery of Love).

Every head of a parasite is one of the fears that we have.  If we want to be free, we have to destroy the parasite.  We face each of our fears, one by one.  Another approach is to the stop feeding the parasite and to refrain from emotions that come from fear. The decision to adopt the Four Agreements is a declaration of war to regain your freedom from the parasite. You go into the desert to face your daemons.  We are addicted to the way we are. Repetition makes a master. 

 

If we allow our emotions to deplete our energy, then we have no energy to live our life or to give to others. Humans are mentally sick with a disease called fear with symptoms that include anger, hate, sadness, envy, and betrayal.  If we can see our state of mind as a disease, then we can find a cure.   We can forgive those who have wronged us.  We don’t want to keep paying for injustice. Forgiveness is the only way to heal. Emotions control the behavior of the human, not he human who controls the emotions.  The warrior has control over one’s own emotions control over one’s own self.

 

The angel of death can teach us how to be truly alive, to use every moment to be happy, to do what we really enjoy doing.  If we only have week to live, then let’s enjoy life.  The angel of death can teach us to live every day as if it is the last day of our lives.  If we surrender to the angel of death, then we will be happy forever and ever.  Why? Because the angel of death takes the past away to make it possible for life to continue. 

See yourself living a new life, a new dream, a life where you don’t need to justify your existence and you are free to be who you really are.  Imagine that you have permission to be happy to really enjoy your life.  Imagine living your life without the fear of being judged by others.  Imagine living your life without judging others.  Imagine living without fear of loving and not being loved.  Image living your life without being afraid to take a risk and to explore life.  Imagine that you love yourself just the way that you are.   Only love has the ability to put you in the same state of bliss.  Life can be very easy when love is the way of your life.

 

Life can be very easy when love is your way of life. Love makes you happy.  Love in action only produces happiness.  You feel the presence of the parasite and believe it is you.  This makes it difficult to let go.   Your real name is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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