I just finished reading The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book was the right book for me right now. It seemed to bring together so many thoughts and little nuggets of inner knowing that I’ve had in my head for the past while and wrapped them up in a succinct way. I get so excited when someone is able to verbalize my thoughts.
First, I’ve been having thoughts about all of the “supposed to’s” in life. You’re supposed to get married, you’re supposed to get a job, you’re supposed to have kids (hah). I was bothered by the “supposed to’s” because I couldn’t figure out who decided that we were “supposed to” in the first place? Or even the “not supposed to’s”. You’re not supposed to say certain things, you’re not supposed to make other people feel uncomfortable, you’re not supposed to live for yourself. I told myself that I wanted to take supposed to out of my vocabulary. If that was a reason I was doing something (or not doing something), it would need to be questioned. I was no longer satisfied enforcing arbitrary rules at work or in society or in my personal life.
In The Four Agreements, the author discusses four new agreements you make with yourself in order to find personal freedom, peace, and happiness. He states that we have all be domesticated since birth, and have bought in to agreements that our parents, ancestors, and society have placed on us. People living long before us made rules on how to behave and how to fulfill roles within our family and in our society… a notion that seems so simple, yet I could never put it into words. Some of the rules/agreements we follow are beneficial or at least harmless, but there are others that cause us to suffer. Some of these agreements cause us to split ourselves into two: a judge and a victim. We punish ourselves as well dwell in the suffering of that punishment. The four agreements the author discusses help to replace some of those old thought patterns and reduce the suffering, lift the restrictions we place upon ourselves, and live more freely.
The other thought I have been having is about God or the universe or Spirit or the Creator… there are many different names in different cultures, but many of them describe God as a type of energy. Thinking about God as energy and remembering bits from Sunday School and church, I’ve had phrases in my head. “God is love”. “God is everywhere”. “God is within each of us”. In Luke 17:21, Jesus says “the kingdom of God is within you”. In my newer readings and teachings, there are similar phrases, like “we are all divine beings” or talking about connecting with our higher self.
For me, the author put all of these concepts together when he said that heaven was possible here on earth. Heaven was love. Love is the energy that connects us all, humans, animals, plants, the earth… everything. Love is like a flame around our hearts that grows and grows and purifies what it touches. And everything I was ever taught as a Christian said that God is love. And as one of my favorite songs from that time in my life states, “it only takes a spark to get a fire going and soon all in its light can warm up by its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it.”
We have so many different words that mean the same thing, yet concepts can be so difficult to convey from one person to the next. It is entirely possible to me that people are agreeing about basic principles, yet arguing and fighting over semantics and preconceived notions. We have no way of knowing if we are interpreting information the same way, just like we will never know if what I perceive as purple is the same thing you perceive as purple.
Anyway. This is why I love learning about cultures and ideologies and theologies. Humans are so connected. We pride ourselves in being so different and unique, I think we sometimes forget to celebrate what brings us together.
Much love to you all.
Lunar Lilies 