NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.
Think of a problem in your life that has caused you to worry or suffer. Imagine that you can view your life through the lens of a magical camera. When you zoom in, you see and feel every detail and facet of your life; anything that touches your life comes into focus with the frame of the viewfinder.
Imagine that you can also zoom out whenever you choose in order to see the larger picture of your life. In the zoom-out mode, your focus is no longer on all the details. The first thing you see is the house you live in from hundreds of feet above the ground. In the zoom-out mode, you observe ever-widening panoramic views of first the city where you live, then the country, then the continent, until suddenly you are staring at the earth from outer space.
Pause for a moment to consider your life from this perspective. Your life and all your troubles are a tiny speck on the face of the earth. All your dreams, all your desires, all your hopes and fears are there in that speck on earth. You are there in the midst of billions of people just like you who share similar emotions and dreams Stay in the zoom-out mode, and continue your journey into outer space until you can see all the planets in our solar system. Keep going farther and farther until the entire Milky Way is visible from light-years away.
Who are you? What are you? Where is your place in this vast universe? Why do humans suffer over so many small things when there is a universe of beauty and wonder to behold? When we consider the span of eternity, and the entire history of humanity, our life is over in a mere fraction of time. How will we choose to spend it? What will we invest our energy in?
Keep zooming out until you detach completely from your problem and can see that it is insignificant in the greater scheme of Life. Remind yourself that every problem carries the seeds of opportunity to learn, to love, to grow in awareness, and simply be happy to be alive.
Zoom out and keep going farther and farther into space until the cord that keeps you attached to your fears finally snaps. As soon as you detach from the fear, you detach from the problem, you detach from the outcome, and you are free. You are floating effortlessly in the stream of Life. When you have no fear, you have no resistance. And when you have no resistance, the solution to your problem is there in the Light, and it comes to you. The solution to every problem of humanity is in the light.
You are alive, you are free, and you are powerful. You are not a victim of your beliefs, your desires, your society, or your circumstance. You are an active participant in the art of dreaming.
To Master Transformation is to Master the Art of Dreaming…
By using the Four Agreements in our own life, we modify our personal dream, and soon our new dream will modify the outside dream. There is no need to actively try to modify the outside dream. This happens naturally as a result of our own transformation. Deciding to focus on our own freedom isn’t selfish; it is the greatest gift we can give to humanity.
Just imagine living in a society where the Four Agreements were a habit for everybody, where this habit was the way they expressed life. Imagine living in a society where everybody practiced love until they mastered love. It will happen; it is just a matter of time. There is already a new dream in this world that is ready to be dreamed by humans. The sun has already changed; the light has changed. We just need humans to dream the new dream.
Mastering The Art of Dreaming:
Using your will and attention for the second time (the first time our attention was hooked by other people who taught us how to dream). In the dream of the second attention, you choose to believe what you want to believe, and that includes believing in yourself.
Using the Four Agreements to change your actions-reactions. Every choice you make has a consequence or result. When you change the action, you change the result, and you change the dream of your life.
Using attach-detach to surrender to the angel of death. The angel of death can teach you to live in the present moment instead of the past or the future. When your attention is in the present moment, you enjoy life more intensely because you are fully alive.
THE SECOND ATTENTION
In the dream of the second attention, we live in the same world, but with a difference. We control our attention from the inside, escape the dream of the planet, and create a brand new dream: our personal dream of heaven on earth.
In the dream of the second attention, we find out that we are responsible for our choices. What we agree to believe is our own choice, not the choice of the images we think we are, not the choice from our ego who pretends to know everything, but a choice from our own integrity. In the new dream, we only put our faith in agreements that support Life, which add to our joy, to our happiness, to our freedom.
We don’t need to escape from life; we don’t need to deny our own nature. What we need is complete awareness and self-acceptance. We need to learn to make our own choices and finally control our will from the inside.
Tools for Transformation
1. INTENTION
2. ATTENTION
3. ACTION
4. REPETITION
ACTION - REACTION
Dream masters create a masterpiece of life; they control the dream by making choices.
Every action has a reaction, and for all of our life we repeat our actions and suffer the same reactions. Perhaps we cannot see the choices or the actions when we make them, but we are always going to see the reaction, the result of what we do.
The only way to change your life is to change the choices, to change the actions. If there is something in your life that you don’t like, first you have to be aware that it is the result of something that you do. Once you find out what action you took, the next step is to forgive the reaction and change the choice, change the action, and see what the reaction is. If you don’t like the result again, you change it again and again until you have the result you want.
You cannot control what is going to happen around you, but you can certainly control your own reaction. If you can learn to change your own reactions, then you can change your habits and routines, change the program, and change your life. Your reaction is the clue to having a wonderful life.
Tools for Transformation
1. AWARENESS OF THE REACTION
2. FOCUSED ATTENTION TO IDENTIFY THE ACTION THAT CAME BEFORE THE REACTION
3. NOTICE WHICH OF THE FOUR AGREEMENTS WERE BROKEN
4.APPLY THE FOUR AGREEMENTS
ATTACH - DETACH
Toltec mythology tells us that the angel of death is always beside us, ready to take everything away from us. Nothing is ours to keep, including our physical body. Knowing this, we surrender to the angel of death and accept the transformation of Life.
What the Toltec call “ surrendering to the angel of death” can also be called “detachment.” Detachment doesn’t mean that we stop loving someone or something; it only means we accept that there is nothing we can do to stop the transformation of Life. Detachment is so powerful because when we learn to detach, we respect the forces of nature, which means we also respect the changes in our own life.
We can detach from agreements and beliefs that limit the expression of our creativity and our love. This frees our energy to create a new dream. And what we create is a masterpiece of art: our own life.
Tools for Transformation
1. Notice attachments to moments, people, objects and especially your beliefs.
2. If you enjoy the attachment then enjoy it as fully and intensely as you can in every moment
3. Be willing to detach and fully let go of moments, people, and objects when they pass.
4. Practice detaching from any belief and knowledge that goes against you or anyone else
Our Closing Meditation:
Imagine how your life would be if today was the day of your last judgement; if after today, you no longer judged yourself, and you no longer judged other people.
Imagine if the voice of knowledge in your head no longer talked to you; if that voice in your head left you alone, and you only followed your heart.
Imagine if the voice of knowledge was silent because you don’t need to think about what you know; you don’t need to learn to be what you are.
Imagine if you could express what you are with joy instead of judgement.
What does it feel like? Capture the feeling and remember the feeling.
This is the beginning of a new dream.
Dear wise women, if you made it this far, congratulations! I captured and summarized a lot of information here (I became so enraptured, I couldn’t seem to stop)! I hope that you are all able to gleam some gems that feel reachable for you. As you go forward, and as we go forward together, I invite you to remember Don Miguel’s words:
Information is merely the seed in your mind. What will really make the difference is action. If you practice the Four Agreements, you will master the Four Agreements. Eventually, after many repetitions, these agreements will become a habit, and you will see how your life is transformed.
With tremendous excitement for the possibilities…
xoxo
Patti