The four agreements cover. (Scan: fbt)
A bit of exoticism and important thoughts
What is philosophy? The doctrine of wisdom. She works about what we could realize, ethics and being. As a European I know names like Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, Aristoteles, Adorno/Horkheimer and many more. There are huge bookshelf’s with serious, important thoughts, based on scientific methods. And there are tons of popular books who deal with life help, esoteric and lots of other things. And nevertheless there are the Jewish Torah, the Christian Bible and the Islamic Koran.
The authors ask – some of them answers – all the same questions: What is a senseful life? How can I live together with other people?
Don Miguel Ruiz ans his book “The four agreements” , a Toltec wisdom book, is a part of this world. He builds with four quotes a kind of house to live in (or with):
– Be impeccable with your word
– Don’t take anything personally
– Don’t make assumptions
– Always do your best
It seems to be simple, but it is not. Ruiz is dealing with some more words: Love, God, poison, the inner judge – and more. This sounds familiar from a lot of books of that kind. So would it be appropriate to put the book down? No, not really. First of all, the 140 pages are easy to understand for a non-native English speaker. The most important argument for reading this book: Ruiz speaks from a different perspective, he refers to the wisdom of the Toltecs, women and men, living in Mexico thousand of years ago. This is a kind of exoticism, which awakens the interests of many readers.
The four agreements are reminiscent of the ten Christian commandments, which provide a similar „basis for life“. Each one is extremely challenging – for example to take an experience NOT personally. But on the other hand: Ruiz transmits, if I live these four agreements, my life would be full of love and happiness – forever. With all respect: This is wrong. It is like taking a medicine for good life or hit on a switch and all injustice and violence disappear. The common life experience says: This doesn’t normally happen. Life is a process, we reach ever again the same point in our life, we make a lot of mistakes twice or more. The Christian Bible calls it sin. Ruiz‘ philosophy is an example for positivism, because he hides the failure. And failure, if I am not wrong, is a chance to learn, right?
Nevertheless: Some of Ruiz’ thoughts are obviously right (but not new). He shows, that we were domesticated by our parents, what to do or not. He talks a lot about the inner judge, we all have (implemented by our parents). He shows, how important it is to get rid of it. He preaches, that there is no alternative to be the human I want to be (and not what other’s expect). We can listen to such thought’s at every corner, but they are important.
Read that book. Use a pen to make notes and underline important points. It might not change Your life, but it gives a lot help to think about it.