Ancient Toltec: Four Agreements — Book on Wisdom by Don Miguel Ruiz

Living is easy with Eyes closed — John Lennon

Don Miguel shares the four most important perspectives of the Toltec lineage. Yeah. Does it ring a bell? What is Toltec? I too came across this for the very first time I picked up this book. Well, let me give you some details about ‘Toltec’.

Toltec civilization

Toltec is a very ancient civilization which flourished in early Mexico around 700 AD. They were in the era of Mesoamerica who built a very impressive capital Tollan. They were known to be one of the most advanced and greatest civilizations. Most of the information about this era is from the Aztecs’ who recorded the wisdom of these mystical people when they colonized Tollan. This civilization bears unmistaken similarities to Mayan city. Mayans who were noted for who developed one of the most sophisticated and highly developed writing systems in the pre-Columbian Americas.

Background of Tollan

They were the warrior race who ironically also embraced seeking wisdom and believed in setting themselves free. They created a secret society dedicated to the ‘way of life’ — offering complete freedom, who they called “Ancient Ones’. These were the people who were indigenous to the race, who taught and preached spirituality and arts. The apprentices who carried forward the belief systems were called ‘men and women of knowledge’ who came together as masters (naguals) in the city known as the place — “Man Becomes God”.

Way of life

They believed spirituality has a unique path for each one of us which can assist us to find the inner truth and help adopt a new way of living — a life free of limitations. The Ancient Ones realized that minds perspective of reality causes all the sufferings and limitations in a human being. The naguals concealed the ancestral wisdom for an everlasting time for the fear of misuse and conquest from the West by Europeans. The veiled wisdom was passed on the lineage through generations of naguals who knew that a day will come when they need to uncover the esoteric Toltec wisdom to the world. The author Don Miguel is a nagual from Eagle Knight Lineage who was ushered to share the ancient teachings with us in the modern world.

I suppose, now you have got the background and the theme of the book. Let me quickly jump into Four agreements the ‘Ancient Ones’ preached about.

4 Agreements

This book is about the beliefs of the ‘Ancient Ones’ community who believed life is an endless dream — a world of illusion which is just like a smoky mirror that doesn’t allow us to see who we really are! The quality of the dream purely depends on whether your mind or soul is controlling your life. Smoke in between us keeps us from knowing what we are.

Miguel talks about four agreements we need to live by to achieve the life free of limitations, make profound changes to your life, help you re-create your life — where you find yourself and learn how to be happy at all times in life no matter what life has to throw at you. The four agreements are based on mastery of intent, spirit, love, and gratitude, which will lead you to achieve mastery of life.

1. Be impeccable with your word — This is the first agreement to be free and happy. Use words to transcend your level of existence — start using words in the right way, the correct way, positive way. It is very powerful. Use words to share love, share the magic and share kindness. Start with yourself — say affirmations aloud, about how much you love yourself and use words to break yourself out of the older ideas to spread negativity or gossip about others. Use your words wisely to spread truth and love.

2. Don’t take anything personally — if you learn to abide by this agreement you can travel the world with an open heart and no one can hurt you. You will overcome the fear of being or feeling rejected or dejected, no guilt or self-judgment. Once you understand that you are responsible only for your actions and never for others, you can hardly be hurt by others remarks and judgments. What others say and do is their projection of hurt and suffering, we need to drill that into our conscious minds. Then, you can choose to follow your heart with inner peace and bliss and nothing will affect you.

If you manage to practice the first two agreements you break the 75% of your sufferings which is making you feel like you are trapped in hell.

3. Don’t make assumptions — Each one of us has a tendency to make assumptions about everything that others are doing and thinking. Problem with this is we believe it to be the truth, which in turn creates emotional poison with our words. Instead, find the courage to ask questions and clearly express what you want. Transform yourself from black magician to white magician who makes space for what you really need because your spirit flows easily through you by using words to create goodness and positivity instead of poison created by assumptions.

4. Always do your best — It is the action of the first three agreements. Doing your best always helps you live life intensely. You will be good to others, be productive and always be giving yourself for others. It is important to do your best without expecting any reward, and do it because you enjoy it and you love doing what you are doing. You were born with the right to be happy. You don’t need to prove anything to anybody. You are alive and enjoy the life you have, that’s all matters. This agreement will allow you to avoid regret, self-abuse, and self-judgment.

This is clearly a book on guiding one to gain wisdom & self-help to illuminate one’s self-awareness. I read this book twice before I wrote this review. Once to just understand what this is about and once to enjoy the writing style. The book is written in a very convincing manner and keeps the reader engaged throughout the book. The whole premise of this book was very fascinating to me. I was intrigued by how the whole idea where life is a living dream and the analogy used that we see a smoky image of yourselves in the mirror and how this whole concept is dated back to 9th-10th century. Despite this, I feel if the writer also mentioned how these agreements can be imbibed into our daily lives, it would serve more benefits and help one break out of thoughts which serve no purpose. While reading this book, it made me wonder and reflect on what we do in our day to day lives and how we can engage in conscious talking and thinking to spread positivity and love. Must read for people who are want to improve the quality of living and thinking.

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