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 Don Miguel Ruiz: I always begin with a prayer. Please
close your eyes and be as comfortable as possible. I want you to use your
imagination so we can dream together. I want you to imagine that everything
that exists is the result of magic, and about magic, and that you have the
power to control the magic. I want you to imagine that your power has no
limits and that everything is possible for you. I want you to imagine that
you have power over the dreams and that everything is a beautiful dream.
A dream of love. A dream of life. I want you to imagine that you can fulfill
any dream that you want and make it come true. I want you to imagine that
you have the courage to speak your truth wherever you go, and share yourself
with no fear. I want you to imagine that you no longer have the need to
live your life by pleasing other people's point of view or that you are
afraid of rejection. I want you to imagine that your life can be so wonderful
and so beautiful. I want you to imagine that you live your life in love,
with self respect and honor, and that you will be appreciated wherever you
go. I want you to imagine that you are no longer searching for perfection
because everything is perfect. I want you to imagine that you're not searching
for God anymore because you know that He is with you all the time. I want
you to imagine that you are not afraid to die anymore. I want you to imagine
that you can walk around the world with the heart completely open-and that
you're not afraid to love anymore-- that you love yourself so much that
you no longer need to go begging for love, because you're not afraid to
be alone. I want you to imagine that life is perfect just the way it is.
Our Father, Mother, God ?? we are here with you once again to show our gratitude,
our love, and respect for all your creations. To let you know that we really
enjoy our lives that are passing for us and that we love and respect you.
That from now on, we are going to live our life in a completely different
way. Thank you, God, for helping us to manifest a beautiful life and to
share a love with each other.
Now I want you to open your eyes. All the work I do is based on imagination.
What I did in this meditation with your imagination is to share with you
the way I dream my own life. It is my choice to dream not because it's real
or not real, but because it's what makes my heart sing and be happy. I choose
to build the dream of my life with love and to share my dream. What is important
for me is to be that way because that's the way I really am. All the drama
in your life, all the comedy in your life, all the love in your life, all
those disappointments, the good parts, the bad parts - all of that is nothing
but a dream. And it's wonderful to know that since it is a dream, you can
start taking charge of how to dream your life. It's not about believing
or not believing. It's about what it is. You dream your life according to
what you believe. We can say that we perceive the same things, but we analyze
everything completely different. We take it in a different point of view
but it's just a dream. The way you dream your life, you create all those
images about yourself and about everything -- all those images about how
everything should be: how the government should be, how religion should
be. You create a whole mythology -- heroes and villains. That mythology
is just your belief and it's not even real or true. But it's what rules
your life and the whole society -- the whole humanity. But it's just a dream.
And by being a dream master, we change as fast as the dream changes. And
we adapt to the dream instead of resisting the dream and guide the dream
in whatever direction we want to.
I want to share with you the three rules that I have in order to accept
an apprentice. Rule Number 1: Don't believe me. I don't want you to believe
me but I want you to listen and make choices-- your choices. If what I say,
doesn't work for you, leave it. But if it works for you and that's what
you want, then make it yours. Rule Number 2: Don't believe yourself. Why?
Because most of your belief system is a lie -- it's not true. And by believing
yourself, you create all the limitations that don't allow you to be what
you really are. Don't believe yourself. Listen to what you say, listen to
what you think, listen to what you believe. And when you listen, open your
ears, open your mind, open your intelligence and make choices. Rule 3 is,
don't believe anybody else. Don't believe them at all. Open your ears and
your mind; listen and make choices.
If you just follow these three simple rules, you can go anywhere in the
world and still protect the dream of heaven in your mind. You have to be
aware of what it is that you believe. You have to listen to that voice and
make choices. But just because you hear an inner voice, does that means
it's true? No. Don't believe it. Follow your heart. You can understand.
And you can make choices.
What I'm giving to you right now is the first half of the mastery of transformation
which is the destruction of an old dream or belief system -- a whole belief
system that creates a nightmare in every person's life. It is a nightmare
that makes humans into slaves and puppets of that dream. It is a dream that
makes you believe that you're just a human and that you're not perfect.
But you're much more than a human. There's all that possibility-- all that
world of magic and power that is limited by your own beliefs, by your own
life, by the way you lie to yourself. If we change that, there's nothing
else that can limit us. Everything is possible, including for you to be
always happy and always in love.
Once you break all those beliefs: you don't believe me, you don't believe
yourself, you don't believe anybody else, it begins to look like chaos.
Why? Because the reason we need to believe is in order to feel faith. You
feel that your whole system is cracking, so you no longer are safe. Well,
that's when the mastery of transformation comes in. The second half of the
mastery of transformation is the re?creation of a dream.
And that's what the four agreements are about. My next book is going to
be about the first half of mastery of transformation. It's already on the
way. But the four agreements are the way to re?create the dream. And the
result is what we call the mastery of love, which is the way to live your
life. It's what I was describing to you in the opening meditation and a
way of being, in your own way, with your integrity, just the way you are.
You'll learn the power journey.
You're living in my dream when we're on power journeys -- in a dream that
is completely love. And you see the possibility to live your life always
in that way. You want another possibility ?? by knowing your own way. But
you need to do your work to change your beliefs and your ways. You need
to become the dream artist. It's the supreme art that all humans have. Your
whole life is just a masterpiece of art, good or bad ?- it doesn't matter.
But when you have the awareness and power, you are definitely going to make
different choices. Having that power is what we call free will. If you make
a choice -- really free will, you're never going to choose anger, jealousy,
emotional pain, suffering. You choose that way of dreaming because you have
no choice. If you have a choice, you are going to be always happy, always
in love. Do we have any questions?
Audience: What do you mean by "not believing
in yourself"?
Don't believe yourself. Let's see why you don't believe yourself. You know,
all the lies need your attention. They need you to believe in them in order
to survive. If you don't believe yourself, guess what's going to survive?
The truth. Only the truth survives. Because the truth doesn't need you to
believe it. It is lies that need to be believed. You don't need to believe
in God.
All humans become the slaves of knowledge. But when you no longer believe,
knowledge is a tool for communication. You have the power over knowledge
-- you know it's not true but you use it to communicate. It's part of your
magic and power. For example, I'm using language or concepts, which is knowledge,
to communicate with you. Believe it or not, we can really communicate. But
if knowledge enslaves you, I will speak what I know, and you will speak
what you know, but we will hardly communicate at all. You will try to impose
your truth. I will try to impose my truth. And it's no longer fun.
All that is knowledge playing with us. But don't believe it. You know what
you want. And you trust more and more and more in what you want. You will
say no when you want to say no, or yes when you want to say yes. And you
take complete responsibility for that. Isn't that wonderful? Yes.
Audience: What are the four agreements?
Number one is impeccability of the word which means that you never are going
to use the word against yourself. You never go against yourself. Don't make
assumptions because the way we learn to dream the dream is based on assumptions.
That's how we create all those big dramas. By not creating assumptions,
we avoid all those lies -- we uncover part of our integrity. Another one
is: Don't take anything personally. If you don't take anything personally,
you will not be offended wherever you go. Because the truth is that whatever
people do or don't do, it's not because of you. And the most important one
is: Always do your best. For sure, you always can do your best. And your
best changes all the time. It's not your best when you're sleepy, tired,
sick -- it's when you are awake or fresh. But by doing always your best,
you're always going to be content with yourself.
Audience: When I do something, no matter
how well I do it, I never feel that I do my best. What does it mean to do
your best?
Okay. You never feel that you do your best because you have an image of
yourself concerning what needs to be perfect. And that image that you have
about being perfect is not true. It's one of the biggest lies that you have
in your life. Then, in that way of judgment or point of view, you can never
do your best. But it's only your point of view. It's not true that you didn't
do your best.
You need to see that perhaps the belief about being perfect is not real.
That fear of imperfection comes from the fear of not being good enough-because
of not being accepted by whoever trained or taught you. But perhaps what
I am saying right now could be the key for you to change your whole life.
You open your mind and you listen. And if you don't believe them when they
say, "Oh, no, you're not good enough," perhaps you will have a
new opportunity in your life. And if you made the choice to do your best
and believe it -- that is your best. You have the power to make the choice.
Audience: How do I reclaim my free will?
That's a good question. You rebel. That means war, but it's an inner war,
and that's why we call ourselves warriors. The war is to recall your free
will. You reclaim it by challenging fear, anger, jealousy -- whatever makes
you suffer. It's a complete rebellion. It doesn't mean you are going to
win or lose -- who knows? But you try. Many people don't even try. But at
least you try and want to be a warrior.
I just deliver a message. That's all I do. And that message is that you
can control your dreams. The only truth is that you can be happy. You can
have a wonderful life. You can be free to make your own choices. You can
live in harmony with God right now.
I choose my own beliefs and I live my life by choosing those beliefs. And
if at a certain moment, my life is not working well, I change the belief
and my whole life changes again. And if it doesn't work, I can change again
and again and again. Hey, what else are we going to do here? We have a mind,
we can learn to dream. Why not dream the best way possible? And our life
is so wonderful if you have the courage to live your life, to be yourself.
Hey, why not? Why not?
Audience: What is rebelling?
It's not accepting. You don't give up. You say, "I don't have to suffer."
It doesn't mean that you deny that you're suffering. What it means is that
you find another way of being, another way of believing. After rebellion,
when you change your life, the last step is surrendering. You surrender
to the fact that everything is perfect, that everything is wonderful, that
this is when you'll really change your beliefs. It's a great question. Thank
you, all of you, for giving me the opportunity to share my love with you
once again.
 The Four Agreements:
A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
By Don Miguel Ruiz
$12.95. 138 pp. paper. ISBN
1878424319.
Amber-Allen Publishing
Drawing from ancient Toltec teachings, Don Miguel
Ruiz explains how we learn to live within a distorted, self limiting belief-vision
that rules our relationships with others, society and ourselves, creating
frustration, unhappiness and an inability to love. Ruiz, who has a persuasive
ability to untangle complex concepts, characterizes these beliefs as "dreams"
which have the power to rule our lives. Ruiz shows how we can change our
lives by understanding the untruthfulness of our "dreams" and
learning to change them by applying the "four agreements," leading
to a total self-transformation. The book's clear and powerful concepts are
stepping stones that can both open one's awareness and provide a well-grounded
pathway toward freedom, true happiness and love.
Also, please see Beyond Fear by Mary Carrol Nelson. This book
represents the teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz as recorded by Mary Carrol Nelson.
 The Mastery of Love:
A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship
By Don Miguel Ruiz
$14.00. 224 pp. Paper. ISBN
187424424.
Amber-Allen Publishing
Don Miguel Ruiz has dedicated his life to sharing his knowledge of the teachings
of the ancient Toltec. In that tradition, three fundamental masteries guide
us to our true nature, which is happiness, freedom, and love. They are:
Mastery of Awareness, Mastery of Transformation and Mastery of Love.
In his first book, The Four Agreements, he teaches us about
part of the Mastery of Transformation, the re-creation of the "dream."
Don Miguel Ruiz explains how we learn to live within a distorted, self-limiting
belief-vision that rules our relationships with others, society and ourselves,
creating frustration, unhappiness and an inability to love. He characterizes
these beliefs as "dreams" which have the power to rule our lives.
Ruiz shows how we can change our lives by understanding the untruthfulness
of our "dreams" and learning to change them through the application
of the "four agreements," leading to a total self-transformation.
In his second book, he takes up the Mastery of Love, which
is the result of the first two masteries, Mastery of Awareness and Mastery
of Transformation. In The Mastery of Love, don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the
fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering
and drama in our relationships. Using insightful stories to bring his message
to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom
and joy that are our birthright, and restore the spirit of playfulness that
is vital to loving relationships. When we master Awareness, Transformation,
and Love, we reclaim our divinity and become one with God.
A Toltec is an artist
of Love,
an artist of the Spirit,
someone who is creating every moment,
every second, the most beautiful art --
the Art of Dreaming.
Life is nothing but
a dream,
and if we are artists,
then we can create our life with Love,
and our dream becomes
a masterpiece of art.
Don Miguel Ruiz |
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