don Miguel Ruiz’s four agreements provide a path for deepening into the simple life that is clear, uncluttered and transformational. On the road of life’s journey these are simple tenants of being in the world that can be life changing and enhancing when expressed in each moment. There is ease and comfort here. Remembering.
Ruiz creates an invitation of exploration. What could living this life road look like? Feel like? Although simple, these four agreements require a constancy and attention. Truth in action. Awareness.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
Simple.
Life changing.
I believe the first tenant, “be impeccable with your word”, means not just spoken words but thoughts too… keeping it true and right in thought and word – impeccable. A tenant to aspire to.
Ruiz’s little book, The Four Agreements, explains the tenants further, but each person can evaluate the truths hidden within each one for themselves. There’s a tiny pocket version too – perfect to slip in your purse or backpack.
I love that this Ancient Toltec wisdom is still with us in 2014 and can be slipped into a backpack in tiny book form….. continuing to help us become wise, wild and free!
“Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use your power of your word in the direction of truth and love.”
“Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally… Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves.”
“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don’t understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions.”
“Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next.”
“To be Toltec is a way of life. It is a way of life where there are no leaders and no followers, where you have your own truth and live your own truth. A Toltec becomes wise, becomes wild, and becomes free again.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
“Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.”
r; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”
