Sunday, May 06, 2007

The Second Agreement


Whatever happens around you, don't take things personal....

Personal importance, or taking things personal, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about "me."....

Nothing other people say or do is because of you. It is because of themselves....

When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world....

Others are going to have their own opinions according to their belief system, so nothing they think about me is really about me, but it is about them.....

But it is not what I saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself....

You get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me.....

If you live without fear, if you love, there is no place for any of these emotions. If you don't feel any of these emotions, it is logical that you will feel good.....

Even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily true; therefore, you don't need to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally....

We have a choice whether or not to believe the voices we hear within our own minds, just as we have a choice of what to believe and agree with in the dream of the planet...

Your anger, jealousy, and envy will disappear, and even your sadness will simple disappear if you don't take things personally.....

If you can make this second agreement a habit, you will find that nothing can put you back into hell...

Taken from The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz, pp 47-61
This is so very true for me. The whole principal makes a lot of sense. I have struggled so much with boundaries that I have taken things personally that had nothing to do with me. I have also spent a lot of time impossing my dream on other people. It is time to realize that I am not the center of the universe, that my Higher Power is and so long as I follow that power's will for me and stay true to myself I have nothing to fear. Not an easy task, as I have failed at it miserably at times, but for today it is what I will strive to accomplish.

10 comments:

Judith said...

The really difficult thing about this for me is when things are said and done to me that are meant for me to be taken personally. Otherwise, I don't really get offended easily. It's just those people whose intent is to hurt me that I have a hard time brushing off. It is true that I am allowing them to touch my wounds or even create new ones.

I hope you are doing better.

Best wishes,
Judith

Sober Steve said...

Dropping in to say peace. hope all is well you TodAAy. thank-you for sharing

peace
Steve

Tabitha.Montgomery said...

not taking my own thoughts and feelings personally some days is a really good bell ringer for me Rex!
I am so glad I came by to read this before I wrote my new post today...it helped put a new outlook on my day ahead..thank you.
I have missed you too..didn't think to look for you up your *** though..lol..well ..next time I will know where to find you ..lol
love Tab xo

Anonymous said...

First of all, sorry I have been a rotten blogger friend. I love your blog and haven't made it here in a minute. I will do so from here on in.
Secondly, I LOVE Don Miguel Ruiz. Do you plan to post on all four agreements daily? Awesome post, Rex. I need to get out this book for a review again. I do it from time to time and your post gave me a good reminder to do so.

Have you also tackled The Mastery of Love yet?

Much peace and LOVE to you,
Scout

Nael C. Robes said...

I love that picture. It took me a good sponsor and a lot of talking to see how egocentric it is to take things as personally as I frequently do.

dAAve said...

my dog ate my homework

butterflygirl said...

Hi Rex! Great post.

ArahMan7 said...

Great quotes. Gonna paste one or two on my blog, as a reminder.

Thank you, Rex.

Pammie said...

I love this. I have a dear friend who died in the program who spent the last 2 years of her life...engrossed in the 4 Agreements. We who loved her....were better off for knowing her.

lushgurl said...

Hey, ya mean it's NOT all about ME?
I needed to be remonde that not all of the world revolves around me- I forget that sometimes! Thanks!
Love ya Rexie!