and My Term Paper about the Book "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz...
https://theshiftnetwork.com/
Steven foresees a Major Upgrade to American Democracy. Trump is Exposing the "Horror Show" of Obsolete Ideas of a Time Long Ago. "Father Knows Best" is a nostalgic and quaint TV Show but not relevant today. By Outraging the vast majority of the people, Trump is Motivating us En Masse to build a Better World. We can Guide Humanity to the Next Level... Liberty, Equality, Justice for all... "We the People" can trigger Global Awakening... Equal Opportunity... Blending the Wisdom in the Capitalist System with the Wisdom of the Democratic Socialist System. The Best of Different Approaches. Learn from other people's examples... Finland's Education System. Scandinavian Ecological Theories... Really... "Raking the Forests" (removing fuel - dead trees) to prevent wildfires.
Spiritual Practitioners often refuse to participate in Politics. Denying the Nation of their Wisdom... That allows low level humans to be the winners by DEFAULT. Those of us who are Interested in Doing Good often decline Power Trips.
Ironically, the TERM "Do Gooders" was written by People in order to Ridicule Morality so that no one will notice that They themselves are in favor of EVIL as a way of life.
"Conservatives" often promote any idea that they are Paid to promote by the Corporate-Corporate Welfare State. The Government provide Subsidies to fund certain businesses... Like OIL, Plastic, and Nuclear Power. That's Corporate Welfare!
It's the West Coast's JOB to pioneer IDEAS... We are all the children of people who got in wagons and left the East Coast and the Mid West and so... The Pioneer Spirit is Still Alive and That's Why Silicon Valley is on the West Coast and Seattle has Microsoft, Amazon and Costco employee owned store... The exact opposite of WALMART.
The Shift Network is Gridwork of Light Connecting and Interlinking Awakening People - America 7.0 - An accelerator to move the Human Race a Giant Leap Forward. Esalon Intitute Ideas at a Lower Cost and Bigger audience using The Internet. Big Sur for People all over the world. End the War Games and rehire those people in useful tasks. Survival of the Species is our Goal.
A little child will lead us... Greta Thurnberg... poster child of Climate Change Defiance... When we burn fossil fuel, we are killing that little Scandinavian Girl. The Shift Network's Goal Influencing 100 Million People in the next five years. One Candle Flame can Light a Million other Candles. You have Your Candle, I Have Mine. Becoming Evolutionary Agents for Humanity. We are all here to grow and expand to Higher Levels of Consciousness and become Visionaries...
He Cites Heidi Harmon the Mayor of San Luis Obispo... She could be Crucial in Training those Cal Poly Students in Appropriate Technology...
and Terri Andersen the Mayor of Nevada city.
They are Smart Organic Enlightened Leaders... Outrageous Feminists.
David Gershon - Cool Block Initiative - bringing neighborhoods together to fight climate change.
https://coolblock.org/welcome
Tree Sisters Organization - Fusing Tree Planting and Women's Empowerment. https://www.treesisters.org/
Log Cabin Republicans - Gays http://www.logcabin.org/
The Aware Show with Lisa Garr. https://theawareshow.com/
~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~
Great Book: Sacred America, Sacred World by Steven Dinan Interviewed on The Aware Show with Lisa Garr... E Plurbus Unum... Out of Many One...
https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-America-World-Fulfilling-Mission/dp/1571747443
Trump is bringing us all together to fight his obsolete ideas. Since we have been shocked AWAKE due to his obvious insanity, we can come together to move THE ENTIRE WORLD FORWARD. GEE, maybe we ought to be Activists and Write, Talk, Sing, Paint and Dance in favor of Good and Opposed to Evil. https://theawareshow.com/
Shift Network. He is an Esalon Institute Alumni - Big Sur Retreat Hot Tub. https://theshiftnetwork.com/
Evolutionary Growth of humanity to the Next Level... Share the Wisdom. Global Awakening is Real and Happening Now.
BOOK REVIEW:
Infused with visionary power, Sacred America, Sacred World is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views.
Filled with practical ideas and innovative strategies honed from the author’s work with over 1000 luminaries via his company, The Shift Network, Sacred America, Sacred World rings with a can-do entrepreneurial spirit and explains how America can lead the world toward peace, sustainability, health, and prosperity. This vision of the future weaves the best of today’s emergent spirituality with seasoned political wisdom, demonstrating ways America can grow beyond its current stagnation and political gridlock to become a world leader in peace and progress.
Published to coincide with the party conventions and presidential debates, this book will promote a return to the sacred principles cherished by America's forefathers in order to create a “transpartisan,” non-ideological, pragmatic approach to social reform. This uplifting discussion explores evolutions in political leadership, environmental concerns, and economic reformation.
It is time to forge a bold new image of America’s future. Here is a road map for getting there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I feel very Patriotic towards California but not much towards the USA... At least half of the country would be better if they were a Different Country. Idaho, Utah, Texas, the Midwest and the South are a financial drain on the USA... Let those states secede and stop holding us back. GTFO!
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/07/great-book-americas-bogus-wars-since.html
confusion in his reasoning and future books would be of bad quality. Keeping his mind focused on waking up from the Dream World allows clear thinking and writing.
3. Don't make assumptions.
Working from incomplete information and jumping to conclusions can
cause disaster in your life. Do research and find out enough accurate facts before making a decision. Remember that people might be lying to you and factor in bias when researching. A common error is to assume that other people know what you know. People often refer to a concept called "common knowledge". There is no such thing. We all have had different life experiences and learned different lessons. We actually live in completely different worlds because of the way we were raised. The parents, school and church that brainwashed me had different agendas than the ones that brainwashed you. Since we describe our world using the words taught us by our elders, our entire view of the planet is filtered by their beliefs. We are so used to our own view of the world that it issurprising to find out that other people have never even heard of ideas that we regard as standard. A simple solution to the problem of assumptions is to speak accurately and tell the other person
exactly what you think. Then, check to see if they understood. If you assume that they understand and it turns out later that they did not, everyone suffers. Furthermore, ask them to speak accurately
and check to see if you have grasped the concepts they are explaining. Ask questions until both of you understand the subject. Communication breakdown is further degraded by the fact that many people do not speak the same language. This problem is improving as the internet spreads
worldwide and exposes vast quantities of people to English. The majority of the content on the internet is written in English and people worldwide are realizing that in order to use the power of the computer it is important to learn to read English. People that cannot read English find that the vast majority of the web pages are useless. Of course, it is possible to publish your ideas in any language but the audience is limited if you select to use non-English language. As time goes on we will find that an increasing number of people will be bi-lingual.
4. Always do your best.
Sometimes, your best may not be very good at all. If you are in bad health or confused by intoxication or distracted by gossip and lies you may make bad decisions and take bad actions. Accept this fact as an unchangeable part of history and try again. It is a very efficient way to live. All the time spent punishing yourself for past mistakes is saved and can be put to better use. It may be difficult to even remember what the four agreements are. Try again. Locate a copy of the book and reread it. Copy the words and put them on a card to keep in your wallet. You are trying to
overcome the brainwashing of a lifetime. Every time you use one of the four agreements it becomes easier to do it again. Don Miguel Ruiz says that there is not an infinite space in your mind for storing agreements. If you put a good agreement in the same space as a bad one the bad one dies. He says that the agreements we made without our knowledge have taken a life of their own and live as a parakite in our mind. We become self-domesticating animals. Our elders have brainwashed us so completely that we voluntarily brainwash ourself. We create an internal "Judge" and "Jury" to review our own actions and convict ourselves when we do not live up to impossible standards. Suppose you failed in an endeavor, the Judge and Jury would punish yourself for failure. A Toltec Warrior would simply realize that he had done his best, shrug off the defeat and go to battle again tomorrow.
Steven foresees a Major Upgrade to American Democracy. Trump is Exposing the "Horror Show" of Obsolete Ideas of a Time Long Ago. "Father Knows Best" is a nostalgic and quaint TV Show but not relevant today. By Outraging the vast majority of the people, Trump is Motivating us En Masse to build a Better World. We can Guide Humanity to the Next Level... Liberty, Equality, Justice for all... "We the People" can trigger Global Awakening... Equal Opportunity... Blending the Wisdom in the Capitalist System with the Wisdom of the Democratic Socialist System. The Best of Different Approaches. Learn from other people's examples... Finland's Education System. Scandinavian Ecological Theories... Really... "Raking the Forests" (removing fuel - dead trees) to prevent wildfires.
Spiritual Practitioners often refuse to participate in Politics. Denying the Nation of their Wisdom... That allows low level humans to be the winners by DEFAULT. Those of us who are Interested in Doing Good often decline Power Trips.
Ironically, the TERM "Do Gooders" was written by People in order to Ridicule Morality so that no one will notice that They themselves are in favor of EVIL as a way of life.
"Conservatives" often promote any idea that they are Paid to promote by the Corporate-Corporate Welfare State. The Government provide Subsidies to fund certain businesses... Like OIL, Plastic, and Nuclear Power. That's Corporate Welfare!
It's the West Coast's JOB to pioneer IDEAS... We are all the children of people who got in wagons and left the East Coast and the Mid West and so... The Pioneer Spirit is Still Alive and That's Why Silicon Valley is on the West Coast and Seattle has Microsoft, Amazon and Costco employee owned store... The exact opposite of WALMART.
The Shift Network is Gridwork of Light Connecting and Interlinking Awakening People - America 7.0 - An accelerator to move the Human Race a Giant Leap Forward. Esalon Intitute Ideas at a Lower Cost and Bigger audience using The Internet. Big Sur for People all over the world. End the War Games and rehire those people in useful tasks. Survival of the Species is our Goal.
A little child will lead us... Greta Thurnberg... poster child of Climate Change Defiance... When we burn fossil fuel, we are killing that little Scandinavian Girl. The Shift Network's Goal Influencing 100 Million People in the next five years. One Candle Flame can Light a Million other Candles. You have Your Candle, I Have Mine. Becoming Evolutionary Agents for Humanity. We are all here to grow and expand to Higher Levels of Consciousness and become Visionaries...
He Cites Heidi Harmon the Mayor of San Luis Obispo... She could be Crucial in Training those Cal Poly Students in Appropriate Technology...
and Terri Andersen the Mayor of Nevada city.
They are Smart Organic Enlightened Leaders... Outrageous Feminists.
David Gershon - Cool Block Initiative - bringing neighborhoods together to fight climate change.
https://coolblock.org/welcome
Tree Sisters Organization - Fusing Tree Planting and Women's Empowerment. https://www.treesisters.org/
Log Cabin Republicans - Gays http://www.logcabin.org/
The Aware Show with Lisa Garr. https://theawareshow.com/
~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~
Great Book: Sacred America, Sacred World by Steven Dinan Interviewed on The Aware Show with Lisa Garr... E Plurbus Unum... Out of Many One...
https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-America-World-Fulfilling-Mission/dp/1571747443
Trump is bringing us all together to fight his obsolete ideas. Since we have been shocked AWAKE due to his obvious insanity, we can come together to move THE ENTIRE WORLD FORWARD. GEE, maybe we ought to be Activists and Write, Talk, Sing, Paint and Dance in favor of Good and Opposed to Evil. https://theawareshow.com/
Shift Network. He is an Esalon Institute Alumni - Big Sur Retreat Hot Tub. https://theshiftnetwork.com/
Evolutionary Growth of humanity to the Next Level... Share the Wisdom. Global Awakening is Real and Happening Now.
BOOK REVIEW:
Infused with visionary power, Sacred America, Sacred World is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views.
Filled with practical ideas and innovative strategies honed from the author’s work with over 1000 luminaries via his company, The Shift Network, Sacred America, Sacred World rings with a can-do entrepreneurial spirit and explains how America can lead the world toward peace, sustainability, health, and prosperity. This vision of the future weaves the best of today’s emergent spirituality with seasoned political wisdom, demonstrating ways America can grow beyond its current stagnation and political gridlock to become a world leader in peace and progress.
Published to coincide with the party conventions and presidential debates, this book will promote a return to the sacred principles cherished by America's forefathers in order to create a “transpartisan,” non-ideological, pragmatic approach to social reform. This uplifting discussion explores evolutions in political leadership, environmental concerns, and economic reformation.
It is time to forge a bold new image of America’s future. Here is a road map for getting there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I feel very Patriotic towards California but not much towards the USA... At least half of the country would be better if they were a Different Country. Idaho, Utah, Texas, the Midwest and the South are a financial drain on the USA... Let those states secede and stop holding us back. GTFO!
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/07/great-book-americas-bogus-wars-since.html
My New Book: AMERICA'S BOGUS WARS [Since 1945, The Pentagon Has Never Defended The Country, Not Even Once] by Gregory Vanderlaan
Chapter Zero. Ever since VJ Day (Victory in Japan), All of Our Wars have been Marketing Tools to Sell Weapons for the Military Industrial Complex. One time there was a Need to Defend the Country and The Military Failed Completely. Civilians took down the Airplane in Pennsylvania on 9/11/2001. Frankly Speaking, Can't We Buy Total Failure at a Lower Price?
If you want to contribute Knowledge or Opinions to my BOOK email me at gregvan@yahoo.com I really want to hear from Veterans and Defense Contractors... You may be quoted or remain anonymous... Have fun! I might be entirely wrong about the facts and conclusions of this Book. I would want to know what to improve... BEFORE PUBLICATION.
Think this through with me...
READ MORE:
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/07/great-book-americas-bogus-wars-since.html
If you want to contribute Knowledge or Opinions to my BOOK email me at gregvan@yahoo.com I really want to hear from Veterans and Defense Contractors... You may be quoted or remain anonymous... Have fun! I might be entirely wrong about the facts and conclusions of this Book. I would want to know what to improve... BEFORE PUBLICATION.
Think this through with me...
READ MORE:
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/07/great-book-americas-bogus-wars-since.html
 |
| Digital Whammy Bar for Electric Guitar - moving the time knob changes pitch of the echoes... |
 |
Peyote Button Eyes - Tribute to Don Miguel Ruiz and His Book The Four AgreementsGreat Books: "The Exception to The Rulers" by Amy and David Goodman... "Will" by G. Gordon Liddy... "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz... https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/great-books-exception-to-rulers-by-amy.html |
Great Book: "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz
My Final Paper: Philosophy Class at the College of the Redwoods...
Don Miguel Ruiz is a Toltec Brujo from Mexico. A Brujo is an Indian that works as a Doctor/Priest/Teacher. Don Miguel is part of a line of Brujos that stretch back to the dawn of humankind. His sons carry on his work. He is also an AMA licensed M.D.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
Starting at birth we are told what to think by our parents, schools and church. These people give us free advice to help them live out their dreams. Their advice may not be in our best interests. By telling us what to think they mold what our reality looks and feels like. Even though we do not know it, we have made agreements with them to live our life according to their rules. Don Miguel Ruiz calls this "The Domestication of Humans". Like we have domesticated horses and bent them to serve our purposes, humans have been enslaved. The first step in breaking free of the bondage that our elders have placed us in is to realize that we are slaves. Then we may reject the agreements that were made without our knowledge and write our own. These new ways of viewing reality can be to our benefit.
Instead of living our lives helping someone else accomplish their goals, we can work to help ourselves realize our own goals. We can stop living the life of a slave and be free. The people that have been programming our minds are not necessarily evil. They themselves have been programmed by their own parents, school and church and do not realize that they are carrying out the wishes of their elders. The Toltec Warrior's goal in life is to wake up and see the world as it is. We are all living in a dream world that is not of our own making. They are engaged in a battle for their
own minds.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
Do not lie. Do not gossip. Choose what you say carefully and if you
make promises, carry them out with action. If you break your promise or make a bad decision, admit your error. Words are extremely powerful. They can motivate people to take action. A powerful speech can convince a country to go to war. Even if the speech is based on lies, millions of people can be fooled into taking mistaken action. In recent history, our 'resident Bush gave a State of the Union speech and sent our nation to war with Iraq. The US Senate's 9/11 commission has shown that the basic reason for attacking Iraq was totally false. Whether he lied intentionally or was fooled by his advisors does not change the damage done to both Iraq and America. A lesson to be learned from his mistake is to be impeccable with your words. Check to see if what you say are facts are actually true. Making up falsehoods about other people can be fatal. Repeating falsehoods told to you by other people can be equally fatal. Don Miguel Ruiz says that gossip and words used with evil intent is black magic.
2. Don't take anything personally.
He recommends that you be skeptical about what other people say. They might be telling falsehoods. If you believe them then you may be fooled into taking action that is wrong. You have a responsibility to reject lies told to you. In order for a lie to be successful, two people have to work together. Both the teller of the lie and the believer of the lie must agree that falsehood is true. In our modern world, where we are bombarded by advertising, it is a required survival skill to reject lies. The goal of advertising is to make a profit for the company paying for the advertisement. Marketing people are trying to make themselves happy. They are not trying to make you happy. If you were completely satisfied, you would not come back and try to buy happiness later. Skillful marketing people promise that buying their product will bring happiness but intentionally make sure that there will always be an unsatisfied desire. We should always consider what the other person is going thru when evaluating their statements.
For example: A person may scold us unmercifully for a trivial error in behavior. If they make our "crime against humanity" seem to be extremely significant, it may be because they are going thru a crisis of their own that has nothing at all to do with you. It could be that the speaker attacking you has stopped taking their psychiatric medicine and is hallucinating. This is not an uncommon event. It could be that they have learned thru a lifetime of pretending that every silly challenge is a major crisis that "freaking out" is an efficient skill for getting their way. I have been fooled by "drama queens". The first time you witness them having a major crisis most people are sympathetic and help. After repeatedly seeing them do their act, most people are no longer fooled. The master of the "drama queen act" does their performance for new audiences in order to reap maximum benefit. We should also consider the source when dealing with other people's actions. Let us suppose that you have been arrested for smoking marijuana. It would be useless to blame the policeman for locking you up in a cage. He has voluntarily selected to make a career out of enforcing questionable laws. Whether his behavior is morally right or wrong is not significant. He has a gun and the legal right to use it. From a practical point of view, might makes right. Even when a person is doing you harm, don't take it personally because there is no advantage to doing so. Spending your psychological energy hating the policeman will poison your own mind. Put your effort into actions that will have effect. A little
prevention could have saved you a lot of trouble. Making the effort to check for dangerous people in the immediate vicinity before you light up a joint is essential to staying out of jail. Just like looking both ways before you cross the street will prevent injury due to being run over by a car, remembering to never break the law when a policeman is around will prevent handcuffs. If you choose to live a life of crime, take precautions! Realize that you have made yourself a convenient target. He would probably arrest anyone that was smoking a reefer in his presence. It was not a personal attack. His job review counts how many arrests and convictions he makes. His paycheck depends upon proving to his boss that he is doing his job. Feeding his children and providing shelter for them depends upon a steady stream of criminals. Even when people are praising us, don't take it personally. People often say "Don Miguel, you write such wonderful books". By taking this personally, he would start writing with the goal of getting praise from fans. This goal would causeMy Final Paper: Philosophy Class at the College of the Redwoods...
Don Miguel Ruiz is a Toltec Brujo from Mexico. A Brujo is an Indian that works as a Doctor/Priest/Teacher. Don Miguel is part of a line of Brujos that stretch back to the dawn of humankind. His sons carry on his work. He is also an AMA licensed M.D.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
Starting at birth we are told what to think by our parents, schools and church. These people give us free advice to help them live out their dreams. Their advice may not be in our best interests. By telling us what to think they mold what our reality looks and feels like. Even though we do not know it, we have made agreements with them to live our life according to their rules. Don Miguel Ruiz calls this "The Domestication of Humans". Like we have domesticated horses and bent them to serve our purposes, humans have been enslaved. The first step in breaking free of the bondage that our elders have placed us in is to realize that we are slaves. Then we may reject the agreements that were made without our knowledge and write our own. These new ways of viewing reality can be to our benefit.
Instead of living our lives helping someone else accomplish their goals, we can work to help ourselves realize our own goals. We can stop living the life of a slave and be free. The people that have been programming our minds are not necessarily evil. They themselves have been programmed by their own parents, school and church and do not realize that they are carrying out the wishes of their elders. The Toltec Warrior's goal in life is to wake up and see the world as it is. We are all living in a dream world that is not of our own making. They are engaged in a battle for their
own minds.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
Do not lie. Do not gossip. Choose what you say carefully and if you
make promises, carry them out with action. If you break your promise or make a bad decision, admit your error. Words are extremely powerful. They can motivate people to take action. A powerful speech can convince a country to go to war. Even if the speech is based on lies, millions of people can be fooled into taking mistaken action. In recent history, our 'resident Bush gave a State of the Union speech and sent our nation to war with Iraq. The US Senate's 9/11 commission has shown that the basic reason for attacking Iraq was totally false. Whether he lied intentionally or was fooled by his advisors does not change the damage done to both Iraq and America. A lesson to be learned from his mistake is to be impeccable with your words. Check to see if what you say are facts are actually true. Making up falsehoods about other people can be fatal. Repeating falsehoods told to you by other people can be equally fatal. Don Miguel Ruiz says that gossip and words used with evil intent is black magic.
2. Don't take anything personally.
He recommends that you be skeptical about what other people say. They might be telling falsehoods. If you believe them then you may be fooled into taking action that is wrong. You have a responsibility to reject lies told to you. In order for a lie to be successful, two people have to work together. Both the teller of the lie and the believer of the lie must agree that falsehood is true. In our modern world, where we are bombarded by advertising, it is a required survival skill to reject lies. The goal of advertising is to make a profit for the company paying for the advertisement. Marketing people are trying to make themselves happy. They are not trying to make you happy. If you were completely satisfied, you would not come back and try to buy happiness later. Skillful marketing people promise that buying their product will bring happiness but intentionally make sure that there will always be an unsatisfied desire. We should always consider what the other person is going thru when evaluating their statements.
For example: A person may scold us unmercifully for a trivial error in behavior. If they make our "crime against humanity" seem to be extremely significant, it may be because they are going thru a crisis of their own that has nothing at all to do with you. It could be that the speaker attacking you has stopped taking their psychiatric medicine and is hallucinating. This is not an uncommon event. It could be that they have learned thru a lifetime of pretending that every silly challenge is a major crisis that "freaking out" is an efficient skill for getting their way. I have been fooled by "drama queens". The first time you witness them having a major crisis most people are sympathetic and help. After repeatedly seeing them do their act, most people are no longer fooled. The master of the "drama queen act" does their performance for new audiences in order to reap maximum benefit. We should also consider the source when dealing with other people's actions. Let us suppose that you have been arrested for smoking marijuana. It would be useless to blame the policeman for locking you up in a cage. He has voluntarily selected to make a career out of enforcing questionable laws. Whether his behavior is morally right or wrong is not significant. He has a gun and the legal right to use it. From a practical point of view, might makes right. Even when a person is doing you harm, don't take it personally because there is no advantage to doing so. Spending your psychological energy hating the policeman will poison your own mind. Put your effort into actions that will have effect. A little
confusion in his reasoning and future books would be of bad quality. Keeping his mind focused on waking up from the Dream World allows clear thinking and writing.
3. Don't make assumptions.
Working from incomplete information and jumping to conclusions can
cause disaster in your life. Do research and find out enough accurate facts before making a decision. Remember that people might be lying to you and factor in bias when researching. A common error is to assume that other people know what you know. People often refer to a concept called "common knowledge". There is no such thing. We all have had different life experiences and learned different lessons. We actually live in completely different worlds because of the way we were raised. The parents, school and church that brainwashed me had different agendas than the ones that brainwashed you. Since we describe our world using the words taught us by our elders, our entire view of the planet is filtered by their beliefs. We are so used to our own view of the world that it is
exactly what you think. Then, check to see if they understood. If you assume that they understand and it turns out later that they did not, everyone suffers. Furthermore, ask them to speak accurately
and check to see if you have grasped the concepts they are explaining. Ask questions until both of you understand the subject. Communication breakdown is further degraded by the fact that many people do not speak the same language. This problem is improving as the internet spreads
worldwide and exposes vast quantities of people to English. The majority of the content on the internet is written in English and people worldwide are realizing that in order to use the power of the computer it is important to learn to read English. People that cannot read English find that the vast majority of the web pages are useless. Of course, it is possible to publish your ideas in any language but the audience is limited if you select to use non-English language. As time goes on we will find that an increasing number of people will be bi-lingual.
4. Always do your best.
Sometimes, your best may not be very good at all. If you are in bad health or confused by intoxication or distracted by gossip and lies you may make bad decisions and take bad actions. Accept this fact as an unchangeable part of history and try again. It is a very efficient way to live. All the time spent punishing yourself for past mistakes is saved and can be put to better use. It may be difficult to even remember what the four agreements are. Try again. Locate a copy of the book and reread it. Copy the words and put them on a card to keep in your wallet. You are trying to
overcome the brainwashing of a lifetime. Every time you use one of the four agreements it becomes easier to do it again. Don Miguel Ruiz says that there is not an infinite space in your mind for storing agreements. If you put a good agreement in the same space as a bad one the bad one dies. He says that the agreements we made without our knowledge have taken a life of their own and live as a parakite in our mind. We become self-domesticating animals. Our elders have brainwashed us so completely that we voluntarily brainwash ourself. We create an internal "Judge" and "Jury" to review our own actions and convict ourselves when we do not live up to impossible standards. Suppose you failed in an endeavor, the Judge and Jury would punish yourself for failure. A Toltec Warrior would simply realize that he had done his best, shrug off the defeat and go to battle again tomorrow.
I was first introduced to this book by a friend in Chico. He could not afford the price of purchasing this book. What he did was to go to Wal-Mart and read a chapter and then leave. He went for weeks reading and rereading this book. This is a clear example of doing your best. He could not organize his life well enough to get the extra ten dollars to purchase the book but found a way to get the information for free. I feel that this philosophy is a great way to live life. Each step builds upon the last. Just realizing that we have been domesticated is a great leap forward. If all we can do at this time is understand that we have been brainwashed by our elders and that they did it to accomplish their own goals, that is the best we can do today. Tomorrow we can understand this basic idea and be
impeccable with our word. By doing these two things, we can gradually kill the paracite that lives in our mind. With our new found power, it might be possible to take three steps and then four steps and then five steps. As a child, we had no choice about what agreements to make but we are adults now. We can voluntarily discard agreements that are not in our best interest. We can intentionally select to make Don Miguel's agreements or we can write our own. His agreements seem to make sense but we should be skeptical. Using his own concepts to judge the validity of his book is the best path to follow. I question his motivations before agreeing to accept his agreements. Is his main goal to sell books and make a pile of money? Does he wish to create a cult of brainwashed robot followers to do his bidding? Has his ego been so corrupted by praise that he has forgotten to not take things personally in his own life? In my humble opinion, I feel that he is living an impeccable life and is being
true to the disciplines of a Toltec Warrior. Of course, I may be wrong. I have only read this one book and his recent work may be poor quality. I've never met the man and know nothing about his personal life. However, this one book is of such high quality that if we ignore everything else he has done we will have a valid plan for life. The entire book can be reduced to a bumper sticker slogan.
THINK FOR YOURSELF AND QUESTION REALITY.
What would you do if your doctor told you that you had one week to live? Some people would spend that week bemoaning the fact and crying
"poor, poor, pitiful me". A Totlec Warrior would make the best of the time left. There would not be time enough to have arguments with people and spread gossip. Why bother with hatred? There is only a week to live and important tasks need to be done! Writing that love song for your wife would be very high priority. Calling your Mom and Dad and thanking them for giving birth to you would be important. Well, your doctor called and he has bad news. The only question is that he is not exactly
sure about the time frame. He says that it could be one week or it could be one day or it could be 80 years. He is not exactly sure about when it will happen but he is certain that you are going to die. Mexican celebrate El Dia de los Muertes to remind themselves that the future is uncertain and the end is always near. Putting your priorities in sensible order is essential to living life to the fullest. We all want to be happy. If we live our lives working to accomplish someone else's goals it is unlikely that we will be happy. We should reject their goals and create our own. We have the freedom to choose. We have the freedom to reject the reality taught to us by our parents, schools and church.
We can intentionally create our own reality by voluntarily selecting what agreements to make.
Don Miguel Ruiz selected to make the four agreements explained in this paper but you have the freedom to write your own. Why not live in a wonderful world?
A little historical background: Thousands of years ago, the Toltec were known thoroughout southern Mexico as "women and men of knowledge".
Anthropologists have spoken of the Toltec as a nation or a race, but, in fact, the Toltec were scientists and artists who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones. They came together as masters (naguals) and students at Teotihuacan, the ancient city of pyramids outside of Mexico city know as the place where "Man becomes God". In the United States, most people's knowledge of Mexican Indian culture was found in the books by Carlos Castaneda. He describes the teachings of Don Juan Mateus. Juan used native plants to awaken interest in spirituality in his students. After the student has been forced to acknowledge that there may be something totally outside their normal view of reality, the plants become unnecessary to the teaching. Carlos's first book gained public attention by his vivid descriptions of Psilocybin mushroom intoxication. His next ten books focus on the sober
experiences he had without the mushrooms. The stories aroused controversy because they described events that are clearly impossible (in the belief system of rational western culture). Critics argue about whether to put his books in the Anthropology section of the library or the fiction section. They do open the door to questions that lay outside of mainstream American thinking and for that we can only be grateful.
His books also inspired the rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac to write the song "Hypnotized". Part of Bob Welch's lyrics state:
They say there's a place down in Mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine And he never will
Now you know it's a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right
'Cause what matters most if the feeling
You get when you're hypnotized
Seems like a dream
They got me hypnotized
His opinion is that no matter where you place the Carlos Castaneda's books in the library, The important thing is to read them with an open mind and get the feeling. Many of the basic ideas of Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Juan Mateus are similar. They appear to be derived from the same ancient wisdom. I recommend that after you read The Four Agreements you start reading the Casteneda books to help gain background knowledge. They both stress the idea that everything you take for granted about reality might be false. They both recommend that you question your fundamental assumptions and intentionally choose to create your own world. A world that is designed to accomplish your goals, not the goals of others.
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