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.
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 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.
ACTION - REACTION
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.
ATTACH - DETACH
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.
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