Customer Reviews

Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

5 star:		(261)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

THE FOUR AGREEMENTS (see also Section 11) by don Miguel
Ruiz is a short yet powerful book that contains useful advice
about how to recognize self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and
create needless suffering . . . based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the
agreements seem to be so basic to apply--but in reality they
are much more difficult to implement.

Nevertheless, I still find myself thinking about them and how
to relate what they say to my daily life . . . should you want
to join me in the task, consider how you can:

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.

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 endless suffering.

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.

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.

Also, I very much liked this one other passage:
Making assumptions in our relationships is really asking for problems.
Often we make the assumption that our partners know what we
think and that we don't have to say what we want. We assume they
are going to do what we want, because they know us so well. If
they don't do what we assume they should do, we feel so hurt and
say, "You should have known."

I enjoyed the book, but it was very repetitive and a little simplistic. Lots nifty ideas with a few interesting metaphors and insights... The book doesn't provide many revelations (if any). It mostly serves to re-enforce what we already know is right and true. We've all heard a million versions of the ideas delivered in this book. Stuff like:

"Say what you mean. Mean what you say"
"Assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME"

You get the idea... Read this book as a reminder. Read it to gain an alternate perspective. I would recommend it to anyone who is on a path to self-discovery. Remedial or not, the toltec perspective referenced in this book is a valuable one...

One thing I've noticed about most of the negative reviews. They all seem a little bit angry. Perhaps too angry to be receptive to a book with such a positive spin...

Where to begin? I was recommended this book by a friend. She is very sweet, but I know she has some rather curious ideas about a lot of things, and upon hearing the cheesy title of the book she talked so warmly about it was with great reluctance I made a mumbling promise to at least give it a try.

I was expecting 150 pages of simplistic New Age mumbo-jumbo, and simplistic New Age-mumbo jumbo is what I got. Chock-full of false dichotomies, logical contradictions and non sequiturs, this book of "ancient wisdom" provides recipes for anything from A Good Life ™ to World Peace ™. All you need to do is to follow the four principles of Miguel the Great and everything will somehow magically work out.

Whereas most of what Ruiz says is just silly, some of it really makes my blood boil. I particularly take offence at principle number two ("don't take anything personally"), which, if you read between the lines, in essence preaches extreme arrogance, turning a deaf ear towards all opinion and criticism, and the sacrifice of love for happiness. This is probably not the conscious intent of the author, but rather he just hasn't followed his lines of reasoning to their logical conclusions. At page 93 he says (freely translated - I read this book in Swedish): "We don't need to know or prove anything. [...] You don't need knowledge or grand philosophical schemes." Well, as a salesman of snake oil of the worst kind, I'm sure you don't, Mr Ruiz, but the rest of us might be interested in at least thinking things through!

To be fair, some of his ideas are not all bad. But then they are not very useful either. How many times haven't we, for example, heard "always do your best" (principle number four)? I'm not sure doing everything in your might to adhere to that is any more realistic than slavishly following the advice of other truistic bumper sticker messages. And I'm not sure it will do you any more good either.

"If we compare [modern society] with the description of hell provided by world religions, we find that they are identical." (p. 28.) While this sentence is a prime example of the bold assertions with no backing whatsoever that plagues many pages of this book, I think most people who are reading this review can agree that life isn't always rosy, and I know we would all like to know how to make it so. But if you really think you'll find it neatly summarized in four sentences on sale for $10.36, then gawd help you.

By implementing the four agreements into my daily life I have been transformed. I took back my power by being able to 'see' other peoples parasite when it was exposed to me. I have been handling every situation in my life now with one of the agreements. I also recommend reading Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life by JoAnna Carey.

Buy this small book and get an invaluable information. Only four agreements that make you a better person and make you take four steps to live the best life.
First one is 'Be impeccable with your words',we do sometimes or often hurt people with our words and others hurt us never thinking of consequences. Read the book and follow the advice it will make you and world around better.
Second 'Don't take anything personally' that is gem. Some people make our 'bad days'because of their own problems, the book teaches you how to be immune to all that.
Third 'Never make assumptions' - just ask questions, don't waste your valuable energy.
The fourth ... 'Always do your best' - always do your best!

As usual, I used the Amazon customer reviews to help me decide whether to buy this book.

This is the first time that I found those reviews to be sooooo far off target!

This book is such a disappointment. OK, there are 4 interesting & true messages - read the table of contents and save your money. You won't get much more out of buying the book and reading all of the author's bla bla bla.

The prose really made me think that the author had just sat down and wrote the book in one sitting; or maybe just spoke it into his dictaphone in one day and had his secretary type it up.

There is nothing new or earth-shattering here. I would certainly not dare to call it a "self help" book.

Save your money & buy something else.

I was very disappointed after reading this book. I guess I was expecting something different or unique. The Four Agreements are nothing new, especially if you've read any other self-help book.

The writing style is simplistic and very, very repetitive. I give it one star, because the book helped me fall asleep each night...which is something I've been having trouble with lately.

Yawn!

Many of us have searched for years for answers to basic questions about why we are here in this life and how should we conduct ourselves. Miguel Ruiz presents the most direct, simple, and yet profound answers to these questions. Thank you Miguel Ruiz. He has shown me that I can look within, using what he calls "the second attention," to find my own personal truth. His description of how we are "domesticated" into the Dream of the Planet, and the path to take to free ourselves from being controlled in our lives by that old dream, has freed me to live a much more authentic life.

Miguel Ruiz presents the most direct, simple, and yet profound answers to basic questions about why we are here in this life and how should we conduct ourselves. He has shown me that I can look within to find my own personal truth. The very best thing about these teachings are the straightforward tools that Miguel Ruiz gives us to change our old belief systems and agreements. I have used them, and they work! I got this book as an addition to "Can We Live 150" by M. Tombak - another powerful book about living simple, healthy and happy life. Both books has freed me to live a much more authentic and healthy life. I have read those two books many times an have given them to many friends, as I believe that both physical and mental health are the best gifts you can offer to anyone.

This is a beautifully written book coming from the sincere and simple yet profound wisdom that will help many people if applied. I found this to be among the few books I have purchased where the solutions for humanity are filled with compassion, inspiration and expansive wisdom as well as compassion.