Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of healers, and raised in rural Mexico by a curandera (healer) mother and
a nagual (shaman) grandfather. The family anticipated that Miguel would embrace their centuries-old legacy of healing
and teaching, and carry forward the esoteric Toltec knowledge. Instead, distracted by modern life, Miguel chose
to attend medical school and become a surgeon.
A near-death experience changed his life. Late one night in the early 1970s, he awoke suddenly, having fallen asleep
at the wheel of his car. At that instant the car careened into a wall of concrete. Don Miguel remembers that he
was not in his physical body as he pulled his two friends to safety.
Stunned by this experience, he began an intensive practice of self-inquiry. He devoted himself to the mastery of
the ancient ancestral wisdom, studying earnestly with his mother, and completing an apprenticeship with a powerful
shaman in the Mexican desert. His grandfather, who had since passed on, continued to teach him in his dreams.
In the tradition of the Toltec, a nagual guides an individual to personal freedom. Don Miguel Ruiz, a nagual from
the Eagle Knight lineage, is dedicated to sharing his knowledge of the teachings of the ancient Toltec. For more
than a decade, he has worked to impart this wisdom to his students through lectures, workshops, and journeys to
sacred sites around the world.
Preface
Introduction
Three Masteries, Four Agreements
The word is like a seed, and the human mind is so fertile, but only for those kinds of seeds it is prepared for.
The first time you read The Four Agreements, some part of you knows that you have heard these concepts before or
have experienced them in your life, though perhaps not as simply.
In reading The Four Agreements you discover that humans create thousands of agreements based mainly on making assumptions
and taking everything personally, and by doing this, we are using the power of our word against ourselves. We are
using all the power of our creation to create a dream that sets us up to suffer for the rest of our lives.
The Four Agreements are a tool for transformation, leading you to stop judging, mainly yourself, and to start practicing
another way of life. They lead you to stop the guilt, the shame, and the self-rejection; they help you break the
agreements that limit the expression of your creativity, and replace them with new agreements that facilitate the
expression of your love.
With The Four Agreements, my intention was to create a messenger that can enter the imagination of readers and
change their point of view. If you have practiced these agreements, you already know what they can do. They have
the capacity to go directly into your belief system, into those thousands of agreements you made with yourself,
and create a doubt. And just like magic, because they are magic, the Four Agreements slowly free the faith that
is trapped inside your belief system. Little by little, you recover your integrity, and the real you starts to
awaken.
The Four Agreements are like a map that tells you all the different ways to reach your destination. Their simplicity
is what makes them so easy to use in so many directions. But the map is just one half. You are the other half.
In any relationship, there are two halves. The book, the messenger, is one half of the relationship, but you are
the other half, and that is the beauty of this relationship: your half.
If you have a goal and you use the messenger as your guide, you are going to reach your goal. With The Four Agreements,
you can learn how to heal your emotional body. You can use it to change your belief system and create a brand new
belief system. You can use it to heal your marriage, your relationships with your friends, and your relationships
at work, and to improve your life in every way. But first, because it�s a map, you have to start with awareness
of where you are and where you want to be.
Thousands of years ago the Toltec created three masteries to guide us out of suffering and return us to our true
nature: happiness, freedom, and love. The Toltec encouraged us to see ourselves with truth, and they created a
mastery just for awareness. The first mastery, the Mastery of Awareness, is the first step toward personal freedom,
because we cannot be free if we don�t know what we are, where we are, or what kind of freedom we are looking for.
In this mastery, we become aware of the fog that is in our mind. We become aware that we are dreaming all the time,
and that everybody else is dreaming. The Mastery of Awareness can also be called the Mastery of Truth.
The second Toltec mastery, the Mastery of Transformation, shows us how to change the dream of our life. The goal
of the second mastery is to put order into the chaos of the mitote � into all of the voices inside our mind � to
face our fears, to transform our fears, and to get results. The result we want is the freedom to live our own life
instead of the life of the Parasite or the belief system. The Mastery of Transformation is achieved by changing
our agreements and reprogramming our own mind in our own way. The Four Agreements are a summary of the Mastery
of Transformation.
The result of the first two masteries is a mind that is Parasite-free, and that is the third mastery, the Mastery
of Love, or the Mastery of Intent. From the Toltec point of view, love or intent is that part of life that makes
the transformation of energy possible. It is Life itself; it is unconditional love. Everything is made with love
because everything comes from God or Life. When we master love, we master the dream of our life, and when all three
masteries are accomplished, we reclaim our divinity and become one with God. Then every action we take is an expression
of the One Being. This is the goal of the Toltec.
For those of you who want to explore the third mastery, I have written a book called The Mastery of Love, which
shows you what a dream based on love looks like. The Mastery of Love is the result of the first two masteries,
and it offers a better way of living our life with love. But for now, the third mastery is not what we will focus
on. The first two masteries are the subject of this book.
In the first part of this companion book, before we talk about applying the Four Agreements, the emphasis is on
awareness. What do we want to be aware of
In Part One, we focus on three things:
1. Human suffering begins with domestication. When we are children, other people hook our attention and teach us
to dream the way the society dreams. This is how our attention is used for the first time to create the first dream
of our life.
2. Humans are creators, but our power of creation is invested in our beliefs. The power of our word, which is the
same as our intent, our will, our faith, and our love, is trapped inside a rigid structure of beliefs. This leaves
us with little power to change our dream.
3. The function of the human mind is to dream, but we have learned to dream without awareness. Once we are aware
that we are dreaming, we awake from the dream and recover our power to change the dream whenever we choose. When
we discover that we have the power to create a dream of heaven, we want to change our dream, and the Four Agreements
are the perfect tool for that.
In Part Two of this companion book, we explore several ways to master the art of dreaming:
4. Using your will and attention for the second time. In the dream of the second attention, you choose to believe
what you want to believe, and that includes believing in yourself.
5. Using the Four Agreements to change your actions�reactions. Every choice you make has a consequence or result.
When you change the action, you change the result, and you change the dream of your life.
6. Using attach�detach to surrender to the angel of death. The angel of death can teach you to live in the present
moment instead of the past or the future. When your attention is in the present moment, you enjoy life more intensely
because you are fully alive.
This companion book will give you more information about the first two masteries, but information is not enough.
Information is merely the seed in your mind. What will really make the difference is action.
If you practice the Four Agreements, you will master the Four Agreements. Eventually, after many repetitions, these
agreements will become a habit, and you will see how your life is transformed.
There is a beautiful story about Jesus telling his disciples that his words are like seeds and he sends his seeds
everywhere. Some seeds land on rock and never grow. Some seeds go into land that is fertile on the surface, but
hard underneath; these seeds start sprouting, but soon die. Then there are the seeds that go into land that is
very fertile, and they grow strong and become big trees. And you will know the tree by its fruit.
I love that metaphor. It is wonderful to see how many people who have practiced the Four Agreements have already
grown into trees that bear fruit.
Just imagine if you could live in a society where the Four Agreements were a habit for everybody, where this habit
was the way they expressed life. Imagine living in a society where everybody practiced love until they mastered
love. It will happen; it is just a matter of time. There is already a new dream in this world that is ready to
be dreamed by humans, Parasite-free. The sun has already changed; the light has changed. We just need humans to
dream the new dream.
By using the Four Agreements in our own life, we modify our personal dream, and soon our new dream will modify
the outside dream. There is no need to actively try to modify the outside dream. This happens naturally as a result
of our own transformation.
Deciding to focus on our own freedom isn�t selfish; it is the greatest gift we can give to humanity.
Summary
The Four Agreements introduced a simple, but powerful code of conduct for attaining personal freedom and true
happiness. Now The Four Agreements Companion Book takes you even further along the journey to recover the awareness
and wisdom of your authentic self. This companion book is a must-read not only for those who enjoyed don Miguel�s
first book, but for anyone who is ready to leave suffering behind, and to master the art of living in our natural
state: happiness.
In this book, you will find:
How to break the domestication that keeps you enslaved by fear
Keys to recover your will, your faith, and the power of your word
Practice ideas to help you become the master of your own life
A dialogue with don Miguel about living the Four Agreements
Success stories from people who have used the Four Agreements
Table of Contents
Introduction: Three Masteries, Four Agreements Part One: Mastering Awareness
1. Domestication
Human suffering begins with domestication.
2. The Power of the Word
Humans are creators, but our power of creation is invested in our beliefs.
3. Dreaming
The function of the human mind is to dream, but we have learned to dream without awareness.
Part Two: Mastering Transformation
4. The Second Attention
Using your will and attention for the second time.
5. Action�Reaction
Using the Four Agreements to change your actions�reactions.
6. Attach�Detach
Surrendering to the angel of death.
Part Three: Living the Four Agreements
7. A Dialogue with don Miguel
8. True Stories of Awareness and Transformation
9. Attach�Detach
