I should start off by stating my background. I am an undergrad student of philosophy and linguistics, a branch of the humanities. I also deeply love this series of books because of its obviousness and simplicity. It has personally helped me triumph over many, many challenges. This is why I decided to write a review here.
There is a huge tradition of skepticism in linguistics, especially about how language is used in various cultures to create belief systems. A belief system is basically a set of instructions inside your brain based on language. These instructions help you navigate the stressful world around you so you can survive. We are psychologically wired to think our belief systems are accurate and experience deep stress if we find them to be inaccurate.
The trouble is, our belief systems are ALWAYS inaccurate. Yes, I used the word "always" for a reason.
Without going deeply into the study of philosophy and linguistics, I will give you an overview here:
Philosophy - When you study philosophy, you study belief systems about how the world works and explore important questions like "is there a God?" or "What is consciousness." You may not be surprised to find out that philosophy majors have not come up with answers to these questions because there is always a case where we are going to be wrong or have a counter argument. Much of the study of philosophy is the collection of vocabulary words to describe beliefs. They even have a mathematical component called propositional logic, where one takes sentences and reduces them to symbols and creates "proofs" but even prop-logic is under fire from academics for its complete inability to predict anything. In other words, it isn't the answer either.
Linguistics - When you study words and language, you realize that all our beliefs are based on language and this language can never "touch reality" in that language is just an arbitrary description of reality, posing as real. I believe Miguel Ruiz must have taken a linguistics course as well--as his first agreement attests to the power of language. The four agreements pulls heavily from Saussure and Derrida. Both Saussure and Derrida (and many, many others) did work on how we form ideas in our heads based on language. The gist is this: we have something called a "symbol" in our brain which is composed of two parts: the word and the visual representation of the object (look up semiotics for further detail). These symbols are in our mind and work together to form meaning, then belief. The unfortunate thing is that they are entirely made up. It isn't real. Our ideas of it aren't real.
If you really want a deeper understanding on how linguistics has saturated our belief systems I recommend reading some of their academic essays or get Rivkin and Ryan's literary theory books. They are excellent and will take you further down the rabbit hole. Most of the essays are dense but worth the effort!
To simplify: scientists and academics in the millions have tried and tried and tried to find "the true belief" for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years and we have not yet arrived at any truth. Because of domestication, we think other people have it, but they don't! "Truth" is defined as that which has the most predictive power. So far, mathematics, geometry, and physics has the most predictive power. Our belief systems simply do not.
So any beliefs about yourself can be true and they can also be false. We can't know. So why not pick something positive? If no one knows anything, then how can you even know anything?
But you don't need to study this yourself. All you have to do is think back to your past self, let's say ten years ago. Did that person have a belief system that you now consider to be faulty? How is that possible? What about your future self? Will that person believe you have a faulty belief system? Probably! How is this possible? How can you be SO WRONG? Is it because you "haven't learned?" I highly doubt it!
But we have to be right! We ARE RIGHT! At least we think we might be . . . maybe?
The need to be right is so ingrained within us that we create a huge drama when someone contradicts our beliefs. We end relationships over it! We storm out! We write angry twitter updates.
HOW THIS BOOK HAS PERSONALLY HELPED ME:
- No one person's opinion will ever again have the power to limit what I can do, even if this person is an authority figure
- No one group's opinion will ever again have the power to limit what I can do
- No one has a clear idea of who or what I am, not even me!
- When people talk, they are telling stories. I don't have to argue. I don't have to fight. I simply have to listen. WOW!
- I cannot comprehend another person's dream. I can't mind read. I can't assume. I know nothing of their inner workings.
- Even scary, aggressive people are just telling stories.
- I no longer have to feel ashamed about who I am or what I've done or where I'm going. It's not my job to assign a story to my life, or a judgment.
- I no longer have to pretend to be something or hustle to gain love. I just need to love who is willing to love back. It's so simple.
- I take all gurus, religions, indictments and gossip with quite a high level of benevolent skepticism, which allows me to be free from the fear that goes along with these stories.
- I don't take myself as seriously as I used to.
Probably the most valuable of all . . .
- I have a deep compassion for all people. We are all just stuck here together, trying our hardest and doing our best. I don't have to hate someone because their best wasn't up to some story I tell myself. I don't' have to insist they believe in my story. I can just smile and listen and do what I can.
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Become a Better You
What can we do to improve ourselves as humans? There are thousands of recipes for self- improvement and no end to the number of books written on the subject. One book that is simpler and easier to understand that others is The Four Agreements, a philosophical/self- help book that aims to make you a better person.Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, this book outlines four broad, simple goals that will help each one of us gain more freedom over our lives and improve as people. The four truths are: Being impeccable with your word; not taking things personally; not making assumptions; and always doing your best. The first one, about being true/impeccable to your words, forms the groundwork for the other truths.This book’s greatest strength is its simplicity. It doesn’t get bogged down in philosophical lingo and this fact makes it a good choice for those who appreciate philosophy, but who get tired of philosophical books that require a bachelor’s degree and access to a dictionary to understand. The book is a quick read and the way it is written, anyone can directly grasp its key points.The Four Agreements and its advice are things that have been said in one form or another by other philosophy books and/or self- help books. The message can get a little repetitive as you read, but I didn’t mind because I feel like this is the type of general advice that needs to be drilled into your head. The more you hear it, the more it will hopefully ring true and the more likely you will be to take action.I read this book in a single sitting, while I was on an airplane flying home from vacation. I agreed with and liked what I read and immediately started to think about my own life and how well I am living up to these four agreements. I would rate myself around eighty; meaning, I feel that I am following these words of wisdom about 80 percent of the time. There is still room for improvement, but I feel like I am ahead of most people.If I had any issue with this book, it is that it does tend to speak in absolutist terms more than I would prefer. It seems to think that everyone is going to be better off and see improvement if they follow this advice, no exceptions. This, of course, is not the case. Will most humans improve their lives and freedom if they follow what this book says? Yes, absolutely. But there will always be exceptions to the rule.Self- improvement is a huge industry and books like The Four Agreements are useful for those who want to live a better, happier, more fulfilling life and need general guidance to reach their goals. This book is about as straightforward as you can get and the ease of reading and no- nonsense approach is just what humanity needs to work out our problems and be all we can be.
