In the best selling book The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. Adopting and committing to these agreements is simple. Actually living and keeping these four agreements can be one of the hardest things you will ever do. It can also be one of he most life changing things you will ever do.

As you practice living these four practices your life will dramatically change. In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you will lapse countless times. With practice these agreements become integrated into your being and every area of your life and become easy habits to keep.

The Four Agreements are:

1.) Be Impeccable with your Word:
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2.) Don’t Take Anything Personally
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.

3.) Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4.) Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

We can change our thoughts and become spiritual warriors...more now than ever we must!

Peace

I like his works. Haven't grabbed the Fifth Agreement, though.

Thank you Ladylid. I've printed these off so I can have them handy and try to live by..

Kendra..I also love his work, and all of the Toltec wisdom. As you are also a Shamanis I can understand your appreciation.

The fifth agreement is simply.."Be Skeptical"

Man..get the book. DON Miguel Ruiz is a wise man indeed. I have his books and also I have them on CD, sometimes I read, sometimes I listen. Either way, I have to constantly put the knowledge in my mind...as stated, easy to apply, just as easy to forget.

Isn't 'spiritual warrior' a contradiction in fact ... ? Or an oxymoron ... ?

No, there is no contradiction there at all. However I can appreciate how you would think so...

Not at all. A person still has to fight for what they want, but it's not materialistically based.

"A means to an end".....sheds an entirely different light when it is a spiritual fight and the being or becoming a spiritual warrior.

So ... does 'the end justifies the means' become the operative philosophy, then ... ? Or 'by any means necessary' ... ?

I suppose since we all have the freedom to choose what works for us.
I would hope that a spiritual warrior who is fighting the good fight would use kindness, caring and integrity in their choices.

The pagan motto..."do as you will, harm no one" comes to mind.

Me thinks my definition of fight and your definition of fight are very different in this case.

I am glad Skeptical came last.

To be skeptical of our own lies and be in truth at all times. Then we can begin to listen with the heart — the heart and common sense. It’s a big opportunity for one to become both his own teacher and his own apprentice.

The result of practicing the fifth agreement is the complete acceptance of yourself just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else just the way they are. The reward is your eternal happiness. The fifth agreement is made with words, of course, but its meaning and intent is beyond the words. The fifth agreement is ultimately about seeing your whole reality with the eyes of truth, without words.

Ahhhh.
You do nice work :-)

I bow to you skydancing

If I tried that, I would fall over.

I'll help ya up sister

Besides..YOU shouldn't be bowing to anyone, they shall bow to you!!!

i read the "4 agreements" every day
and try to practice them the best i can,
im not perfect but my understanding and life in general has changed..(for the good)..........LOVE THIS BOOK......
wish it was required reading in schools...

Seems we almost have to read it, hear it each day to get it so embedded in our mind to NEVER forget....the domestication done to us to prevent doing it to others.

Should be required reading...too many would be upset over the message. It does specifically mention all the lies put in our minds by parents, religious leaders and teachers....maybe would piss off the teachers. lol

I have all his books on CD...I MADE my boys sit and listen in little increments at a time. Rarely do I make my boys do anything...this was important enough for them to know. Since they wouldn't read..I made them sit and listen. May be one of the best things I ever did for them.

Possibly they will give their children the freedom I was not able to give them many years ago...I lacked the knowledge back then.

If you want a real challenge, try reading the AA Blue Book and look up The Twelve Steps. It was written for alcoholics, but the twelve steps will give you a real thrill in human awareness. Here are the basic principles: (you can substitute the word alcohol with other words in #1.)
Twelve Steps
These are the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:[10]

1.We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2.Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3.Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11.Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12.Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Nice to see you Judy

I have been a supporter to many... the 12 steps is a great and challenging life style to follow also..I am sure. Only as a bystander, personally I have never read it..

I suppose one would need some definition for themselves of what 'god' or their 'higher power' would be. I've seen some struggle because of that part alone.