Four Agreements Audio Book Guide

Part of the journey through the Four Agreements includes listening to the audio book of Don Miguel Ruiz’s masterpiece.  Each segment is about 10 minutes long, so it won’t require much demand on your time.

Part 1 begins with the framework for the Four Agreements.  Please listen and then take 24 hours to think about what you have heard and your perceptions of his introduction.

Part 2 we discuss the domestication of humans and our belief system.  Take 10 minutes to listen, then give yourself 24 hours to process and record your thoughts.

Part 3 is a big one! Ruiz gives us the framework for the personal and global hell that we have created through fear and self-abuse. It make take you a couple of times to listen and really sit with the contents. You may also feel hopeless by the time you reach the end of this section of the audio book. Trust that all is not hopeless, but pulling away the mask of illusion is always painful. It feels like a betrayal of sorts and can be challenging to accept. If you accept that this is where we are, then it makes it so much easier to clearly see where you need to go. Give this one some time, and know that we are headed out of hell, my friends!

Part 4 covers the dream state.  We each have the power to create a new dream, a new state of mind. It will require ALOT of work!  But, there is so much beauty you have to gain. It is important to understand how much control you have over the agreements you retain and which ones you disregard. In order to do this, Ruiz gives us the four agreements to help undo all other agreements that are fear based and create new agreements based on love. The most important is Agreement Number One.

Part 5 dives deeper into the First Agreement, we explore ways that we get hooked into beliefs and agreements just through words that are spoken to us and spoken by us.  Ruiz also breaks down what it really means to sin….and it ain’t what the Catholic Church would like for you to believe!  He also talks about how much power words have in creating spells on our psyches.  This agreement teaches us how to conserve your energy, rather than wasting so much time misusing your words, in order to be set FREE.  Listen and then give yourself 24 hours to process and record your thoughts.

Part 6 There’s a reason why I don’t read beauty magazines, read tabloids, or watch much television – especially “entertainment TV”….Gossip. Gossip=Poison. Have you thought about the gossip you also tell about yourself? Adopting the first agreement allows us to cleanse ourselves of this poison….we make our minds fertile for LOVE!

Part 7 gets into the Second Agreement – one of the most challenging for many of us (myself included).  I think Ruiz starts out this section making a very profound statement about WHY we take things personally, and confronts the ego head on, but I will let you listen and let me know what reaction you have to this section. I think this agreement is worthy of quite a bit of discussion, so if you have something to share, I think it would be helpful for all of us to read and discuss.

Part 8 We often wonder why people lie to us and are deeply wounded when they do. We cause ourselves needless suffering by constantly believing that everything people do is somehow about us. This leads us immediately into the third agreement: Don’t Make Assumptions, as I have found the second and third agreement are closely tied to one another. We generally take things personally because we made an assumption about what someone said or did. By breaking these agreements, we can free ourselves from the suffering these habits cause.

Part 9 How many assumptions do you make in a day?  Do you know?  I am not sure that I know how many I make.  Even though I have been working on implementing the Third Agreement into my daily life for a few years now, I can honestly agree with Ruiz, in Part 9, when he says that “they happen so fast that…we make assumptions unconsciously all of the time”. 

Part 10 “Doing your best means taking action because you love it,” Ruiz starts out by saying in Part 10, “not because you expect a reward.” We all do this, most notably at work, especially if our job is not our first choice for ‘what we wanted to be when we grew up’. As householders, we are obligated by work in order to afford things like a home and food.  Many people end up hating themselves for what they believe was “settling” for a job, or a life, that we didn’t necessarily dream of.  It doesn’t have to be that way.