The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (A Toltec Wisdom Book)

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To reclaim our freedom, the Toltec say, we must replace judgment with acceptance. In other words, we must stop demanding everyone be “better” and just love them as they are. To love ourselves as we are, and experience the world as it is. In short, the second stage of Toltec enlightenment involves learning to accept what’s already here instead of focusing on how flawed it all is. And it's the same with your partner's half. Your partner has a certain amount of garbage. Knowing your partner has garbage, you allow her to deal with her own garbage. You are going to love her and accept her with all of her garbage. You are going to respect her garbage. You are not in a relationship to clean your partner's garbage; she is going to clean her own. Doing your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are tired as opposed to well rested. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret. The Fifth Agreement – BE SKEPTICAL, BUT LEARN TO LISTEN 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. The Third Agreement – DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

Don Miguel Ruiz is a Mexican writer, who is categorized as a spiritualist and a shaman. He was born on August 27, 1952, in a large family – being the youngest of 13 children. Doing your best is about trusting in yourself and trusting in creation, the force of life. You set a goal and go for it 100 percent without any attachment to attaining it. Growing up doesn’t mean stop exploring, and taking a defensive stance. It’s needless to say that often things flow in a predictable direction. Next, you need to have the awareness that the voice of the storyteller in your head is not necessarily your voice. The book promotes a simple way of living, yet filled with happiness, wisdom, and power; power upon our thoughts, our actions, our words.

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Common sense is wisdom, and wisdom is different from knowledge. You are wise when you no longer act against yourself. You are wise when you live in harmony with yourself, with your own kind, with all of creation. However, this doesn't mean that reality doesn't exist. There's no doubting reality. Certain things are real, and certain symbols are real. Nonetheless, how we perceive these things is what truly matters, and this is where self-mastery comes into play. The Power of Self-Mastery and Doubt Be impeccable with your words - be kind and speak only what you truly believe. Spread joy and happiness. One thing is for sure, The Fifth Agreement same as the Four Agreements doesn’t provide any misleading information. It’s all in there!!

Often, people don’t use system two at all: Unless they make an intentional effort to be open-minded, they go with their first impulse and leave it at that. Even those who make the effort are still missing a lot—they only see what you show them and they may not eliminate all their assumptions, biases, and filters. Take the perspectives of others with a grain of salt. Step 3: Don’t Guess People’s Intentions They only run around carelessly with a pure, innocent and simple intention to quench their thirst for entertainment. We seek to fulfill our needs and instincts, simply because it makes us happy. Don’t believe yourself or anybody else unconditionally. Use the power of doubt to question everything you hear: Is it really the truth? Listen to the intent behind the words and you will understand the real message.I can’t dive deeper into all of them here, but I’d like to share the Ruizs’ reasoning behind where our need for new agreements with ourselves comes from. This’ll also help us understand the first one. Here are my 3 takeaways from The Fifth Agreement: This is a wonderful book. Although there is some repeat of information from Ruiz's book "The Four Agreements," there is also a lot of new and very insightful content. As such, I highly recommend The Fifth Agreement as a spiritual growth resource. Here's one of my favorite passages: We ended up being taught both at school and home – how to behave like adults. In reality, they or in some case “we” are the ones who misbehave.

The Voice of Knowledge (2004) [ edit ] Once I interpret, qualify, or judge what I perceive, it is no longer real; it is a virtual world. This is what the Toltec call dreaming. So it's always a good idea to harness the power of doubt. We need to be critical and skeptical when new symbols come along. We need to remember that just because something is glittering, it may not be gold. I like the idea of each of us as artists creating our world, and recognize that we all have unique perspectives that differ more than we might think from those of others. Heaven turns out to be a dream of lies that we create. The argument appears to be that if we are cognizant that our self-created reality is a lie, then we are still a master of truth because we don't believe our lie or anyone else's. To be aware is to see what is truth, to see everything the way it is, not the way we want it to be to justify what we already believe. The mastery of awareness is the first mastery of the Toltec, and we can also call it the mastery of truth. First you need to be aware that the voice in your head is always telling you a story. You are dreaming all the time. It is true that you perceive, but the way the storyteller justifies, explains, and makes assumptions about what you perceive is not the truth; it's just a story. All artists live in their own dream, in their own world. In that world, whatever they perceive is truth for them, and it could be that it’s absolutely true for the artists who are expressing their story, but it’s not truth for you. The only truth for you is what you perceive in your world. With this awareness, there’s nothing to prove to anyone. It’s not about being right or wrong. You respect whatever somebody says because respect is so important. When you learn to listen, you show respect for other artists, you show respect for their art, for their creation.By the time we grow up, our faith is already invested in so many lies that we hardly have any power left to create the dream we want to create." I like that they remind us that even though the past is over, as a species we tend to punish ourselves for years with guilt, etc. from actions long gone. I also like this line: Perhaps your perception of right and wrong comes from a religious belief? If this is the case, what's the reason you belong to a particular religion? Is it because you grew up with this faith? Perhaps you were introduced to religion later on in life? Maybe you gave up your faith? Whatever the case, your religious views are part of the reality that you've created for yourself. And this is where things become complicated. If you talk to most people about their religion, they will all argue that theirs is the "correct" one. Who is right? What is the truth? I enjoyed reading the book, and I resonate with his way of seeing the world in many aspects. I recommend reading it with an open mind.