Most of us have heard the Socrates quotation “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well we have learned the hard way that neither is the Over-Examined life too hot either.  Living a balanced life however, is the best way of all.  Going about seeking balance has it’s own challenges that can only be overcome with Clarity of Mind.  In my experience, the best way to attain this is be associating with individuals and groups of people that have this in spades.  It isn’t even necessary for them to be people in the same fields of study and/or endeavor.  Neither do they need to be in agreement when their fields overlap, or even to agree with your own beliefs and perspectives.

If you take a look at the bottom of the sidebar of this page you will find the RSS feed to the TED YouTube channel.  TED is a group of 1,000 people that are invited each year to a summit where they speak on their own arenas of interest.  The best minds of the world from Tony Robbins to Stephen Hawking and from Rick Warren to Dan Dennett each speaker is an able speaker with an amazing mind.

If you want to stretch your mind and achieve clarity, you can do no better than to listen to these speakers.  Each segment is about 20 minutes long, and whether you agree or strongly oppose what is being said, I guarantee you will be benefited by the time you spend listening to these well thought out presentations.

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The book is said to be taken from ancient Toltec teachings, and does indeed have some interesting archival information on Toltec legend and how it leads into the main body of the work, which is made up of the Four Agreements themselves.

This part of the book is simple, straightforward and accessible without being tedious.  This may be why it is such a small volume, but don’t be fooled it is packed with useful and usable insights and teachings.  The Four Agreements are:

1.  Be Impeccable With Your Word. This may not sound like ground breaking stuff, until you consider what is meant by this.  Ruiz stresses the vital import of being impeccable with your word to yourself. It is made quite clear however that this is not just self serving but beneficial to society as a whole.  Seeking to do no harm by your words or actions so that your own path is not hindered is a vital aspect of the first agreement.

2.  Do Not Take Anything Personally. A very difficult agreement for many to keep if you consider the animosity between people as a matter of course, but quite simple in application.  Once you understand that people are reacting to their own internal dialog (or dream as Ruiz teaches us) it becomes much easier to separate the words and actions of others from ourselves.  This agreement brought to mind the NLP thought: Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources available to them.

3.  Do Not Make Assumptions. Closely related in some ways to the second agreement, this deals with our tendency to not take into account that there is almost always more to any situation than we are aware of.  Acknowledging that we are not omniscient removes so much emotional detritus from our lives that this agreement alone will relieve a huge amount of stress from our lives.

4.  Always Do Your Best. The part of this that makes it such a vital agreement is understanding that your best will be a dynamic thing.  Your best will be better at some times than it will at others, and you must accept this!  If you always to the best you can in that moment then you can be at peace with the results, knowing that your effort held all you could do with the knowledge and resources at your disposal.  Notice the synergy with the previous two agreements?

An important aspect here is that these four agreements are ones that you are making with yourself.  As such they require the cooperation of no other individuals, and are therefore adoptable by any one that chooses to do so.  They are meant to replace agreements you have already made with yourself: agreements that are destructive to yourself on almost every level.

Integrate these four positive and constructive agreements with a life lived in the ever unfolding present moment and it will add joy to your life, and even more importantly remove pain and stress from your life nearly effortlessly.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom,

A Toltec Wisdom Book

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You see it in the news, in politics, in discussions about religion, in the wars being waged across the globe, and on the streets of our cities, in the business world…

Just about everywhere. It is so pervasive that it makes people more than a little obsessive about their belief systems. It causes people to get so entrenched in dogma and their own rigid and frequently narrow viewpoints, that the actuality of life in this universe gets missed in the hysteria.

Having said that, you may be surprised that I do believe that this struggle is being waged, and is at a crucial point as we speak…

The only way to understand the nature of this struggle however, is to understand what actually is Good and what actually is Evil. And the shocking thing is that to understand the nature of this struggle and really take part in the most important issue facing mankind today is to put most of your own personal belief structure aside!

Huh?!

The fact of the matter is that the real nature of this battle is tied directly tho the greatest Good in the Universe: Awareness or Consciousness, Presence in the Moment, and Connection to the Universe and it’s Creator.

Which means that the greatest Evil is being Unaware or Unconscious, Living Oblivious to the Present, and being Isolated from the Universe.

As you can see, this means that most of what people are centered on, and spend their lives and energies fighting about and either for or against, is immaterial to the real battle being waged. And this is the misdirection that goes on each and every day, not only robbing people of the happiness they could be experiencing in their lives individually, but also halts the progress of humankind as they seek to progress as a race.

No, I am not oblivious to the issues facing the world, creation as a whole, and humankind today. I just see these issues as all related to this far greater issue, and subservient to it…

The only hope we really have of overcoming war, hunger, poverty, disease and the host of other ills running rampant across the globe has no political, activist or military solution. So how can these be addressed? For that matter can they be addressed?

The only way they can or will be addressed is when the rising tide of Conscious, Aware and Connected individuals sweep away the inert masses of the inert population that have bought into the old and established ideas about what is necessarily Good or Evil by nature.

Let’s be clear! I am not advocating or predicting a military action or violence against those choosing not to align themselves with my own view of what constitutes Good and Evil. When I say that the inert masses will be swept away, what I mean is that their inertia, their lack of Awareness, Consciousness and Connection will be swept away and mankind will flourish as a result.

The battle will be won by Good without a doubt. It is only a matter of time. Why?

Because the most powerful force in the Universe can only be accessed through connection with the Universe and it’s Creator. Becoming Aware. Becoming Conscious. Becoming Connected with the very source of dynamic energy is the quickest avenue to a better life for each of us as individuals, and for humankind as a whole.

Thanks for listening…

Jim

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