The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom a Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz (1997, Paperback)

Don Miguel Ruiz is gently direct and plain-spoken in this remarkable and penetrating book. I found each chapter to be a "mirror" for me to see and understand my personal weaknesses and how my agreement with my faulty emotional programming causes much of the absence of peace in my daily life.
If one only focused on the Second Agreement--Don't Take Anything Personally, what a difference it would make in how we preceive and treat others regardless of their behavior toward us. The other three agreements are just as enlightening and vital to understand and apply in our lives.
Don Miguel Ruiz defines, expands and illustrates clearly to us the spiritual meaning of the universal and fundamental law of LOVE--love toward self, fellow man and the Creator of the Universe.
As an avid reader of self-help and spiritual enlightenment books, I have a growing collection of fine authors on these subjects. But I found The Four Agreements to be the most succinct and easy to understand book about inviting peace of mind into my life that I have ever read.
This book is a quick read with only 138 pages. But it is a book you will highlight, write in and read many times over, as I am doing.

The Four Agreements:
1)Be Impeccable with your words.
2)Don't Take anything Personal
3)Don't make Assumptions
4)Always do your Best.
In the world of Personal Development you will learn very fast that the life I am living at this very moment is a direct result of the words i say to myself and others. Before my words are spoken they start with my thinking. And believe me if one is able to change their thinking they can certainly change their results they are seeing in their lives. I do agree with the author in this book about being impeccable with your words. Our words have the ability to speak some positive things into existence and change lives for the better or destroy lives with gossip and inaccurate information.
The second agreement, Don't take anything personal is also I very accurate. When I examined my own life and saw how I had taken things personal on numerous occasions and made a mistake in judgement. The correct thing to do when you make a mistake in judgement is to admit you were wrong, promptly admit it and move on.
The third agreement is not to make assumptions. This is probably the one agreement that I am always breaking the most because of not being impeccable with my words an not being patient with self and others. When I make an assumption I am not basing my decision on the truth , but on lack of information and lack communication to those things and people around me.
The last point is to do your very best. In closing the author summed this whole process up by saying: "We will not always be impeccable with every word ,but, do your very best.We will still take things personal from time to time , try not to and do your very best.We will make assumptions from time to time do your very best and try not to. If we do our very best things things usually work out for the best.
In closing this book is very accurate on the Four Agreements. It gives you great food for thought and it can also help you improve personally. If you read this short but very powerful book you will all be the better for it.
Great Job!!!

This is another "self help" book among thousands and offers a simple message on how to be a happier person with a more open mind about life. I was concerned at first that my religious beliefs were under attack until I determined that they could be harmonious. This book is a simple, fast, and worthwhile read; the four agreements offered deal with agreements with yourself and are based on Toltec Wisdom. I found that I needed to learn more about the Toltec philosophy that is not well documented until recent times. A good additional resource to compliment don Miquel Ruiz, was wrtten by one of his apprentices, Sheri Rosenthal,and endorsed by Mr. Ruiz, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom"- on sale through Amazon.com, by the way.

The first time I encountered this book, I flipped through it over lunch, and dismissed it. Yeah, sure, I 'agree', but it's all so simple. Then, a friend I greatly admire and respect for her wisdom said "Did you see this GREAT book?

That's when I figured out that I had quite obviously missed something. What I missed is that these four agreements only seem simple: they're not. Sure, they're easy to intellectually understand, but as a spiritual practice, in daily application--- you really wouldn't need to seek any further.

I could probably work on "Don't take things personally" for years. There are three more agreements, and I don't seem to be able to remember what all four are at any given time. It's not so simple as I first thought.

This book may be full of profound insight, but what is best about it is how it leads you to discover your own insights from trying to put the concepts into practice in daily life. Those are things that don't fit between the covers of the book; they are what makes it 'yours'.

I've often recommended this book to people I know who are in faltering relationships--- even though and because it's not a typical 'relationship' book. Even if the relationship fails, the person who attempts to apply the concepts, will come through any struggles enriched, with a new ability to see things from a different perspective.

The author's grandfather imparted some wonderful pieces of how to live life from his own Toltec wisdom. With each new simple "agreement," one can begin to see how they can change how they live and be more of "who they really are." As a psychotherapist, I often recommend this book for couples to read together outloud. Taking the small book, in about 15 minute pieces, offers the opportunity for unique dialog about life between them. Don Ruiz has other wonderful books out, but I recommend this as a starting point!
Holly Klein LSCSW/LCSW