Name: The Four Agreements
Rating: 3.965976331360947 (338 reviews)
ISBN: 9781878424310

Miguel Ruiz

Identifies four self-limiting beliefs that impede one's experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz

Greg Talbot

Wonder this planet long enough, you'll start to think about our problematic relationship to the world. Call it sin, call it attachment, call it domestication, call it unfree...you look into the mirror and wonder if you are living an authentic life. The idea that resonated me from the "Four Agreements" was the idea of consent. Ruiz poses four rules for personal integrity:Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best. Ironing these out, they do seem not only like sage advice...but a way to respond to the world that can bring out someone's best. The idea of consent, that we are only bound to what we agree to, is a very empowering idea, and I don't think I've ever thought about problems in that way. We may have implict bias or genetic predispositions..but if you have faith in human beings, you have to have some faith in choice, in the ability for people to decide to be one way, or another. These four agreements presented here, are binds we can make to ourself, and take power back. Not all of the book worked for me though. Ruiz's idea that the inexperienced and undeveloped are more happy because they are not "domesticated". Reminded me a lot of Rousseau's idea that the young are free and are chained through societial obligations. I think a lot of adults would opt for the "joy" from preservation under suffering, than a "happiness" from limited life unpleasentness. Also, the book is a guide to "personal freedom", but where is the talk of community? Does the book ever very from an "I" perspective. There is no talk of a church, a sangha, a gathering, and I think because of that we lose that transcending perspective to see ourselves as more than our own animal spirit. Many find this book of Toltec wisdom to be a firehose of inspiration...i'm somewhere in the middle. Overall, I agree with challenging limiting beliefs that we give to ourselves. Because life is mechancial when we define ourselves as a fixed being. There are other paths, generally ecunmenical, that speak to me and my background more. Teachings from "When Things Fall Apart" by Pema Chodron or "The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton have lit my fuse, and perhaps hit me when I was younger in ways that other inspiration books will not. Still I stay open. I hope to spend a little more time reflecting on these agreements, and keep the inner space listening.

Kinanti Desyanandini

A lovely, simple book on a few principles to live a life with more personal freedom - quite accurate as per title. 

Simple concepts, but effective to implement (just hard work). 

Miguel has a gentle writing style, which makes the book easy to read. 

Raquel Rademeyer

Simple concepts, but effective to implement (just hard work). 

Miguel has a gentle writing style, which makes the book easy to read. 

four agreements.

Elyse 

The Four Agreements, " now printed in Spanish, promotes a powerful code of conduct based on ancient Toltec wisdom. Two-color throughout.

Una Guia Practica para la Libertad Personal

Los Cuatro Acuerdos

Paoovi

Un libro que propicia la introspección de una forma en la que sutilmente va dejando aprendizajes en cuanto a la relación con los otros. Lo he leído más de tres veces en distintas etapas de mi vida e incluso escuchado en audiolibro antes de dormir y es sanador.

Kevin Wammer

A very short book, so a very short review: It's a good book, nothing groundbreakingly new, but well presented. I had never heard of the Toltecs before, and I'd like to dig deeper into this culture.

Chris Farrell 

This book was a little hard to get into at first, because, it requires a bit of perspective change too really understand what he is driving at. Once I did that, the book had a lot to say in such a few number of pages. I will be contemplating it long after I finished read it.

Molly Bridge

Meagan Fischer 

Absolutely terrible book. Nonsensical, inconsistent, does not define terms in any practical way. Someone on here named Holly gave an excellent breakdown of why this book is so incredibly stupid, starting with the fact that this author is NOT "impeccable with his word" despite telling others they should be. I will try to link that review later as it reflects most of my criticisms and this book isn't worth me re-typing them up.

Asher Black

Earthshaking book. Distills in a book you can read in one standing a lifetime of possibility.

The four principles that are great to stick by. Short read and definitely a re-read! 

The Four Agreements A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

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