The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

This book is incredible. The lessons are non-denominational, and they are laid out in a way just about anyone can understand, based on the simplicity of his teaching style. I wasn't a huge "self-help" guy, and this really isn't a self-help book, but it definitely allows you to try a different way of behavior in life that just makes you feel good about everything, from yourself, to your friends and family, to your work. It is an easy read, and you will feel almost energized after reading it, if you actually try out the suggestions even for one day.

It is a great book that I bought twice, and suggested to at least 3 different people by now.

Let me first start off by saying I have not read the book, but have seen the four agreements in reviews here as well as on a video. I am, however, commenting on what I understand to be the basic premise of this book (based on various extensive reviews here and elsewhere), and on the source of this premise. The 4 agreements, I have to say, are reasonable, even pretty good (as another reviewer has pointed out, they are: Be Impeccable With Your Words; Don't Take Anything Personally; Don't Make Assumptions; Always Do Your Best). However, don't you people feel that these are almost secondary good traits for humans to have, and that some more fundamental and important good traits are missing from this list? Missing from this list are the much more important virtues of the golden rule (do unto others as you would want others to do unto you), doing not harm, being compassionate, just, fair and kind, and helping people whenever you have the ability. And I started to wonder, why is the author espousing these secondary virtues only in this book, why are the aforementioned primary virtues missing, and what is this so-called Toltec wisdom. So I looked up info about the Toltecs on the web, and was aghast. The Toltec civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization the preceded the Mayan and Aztec that, while having built some impressive pyramids, performed horrific human sacrifices in which the beating heart was cut out of the sacrificial victim (for the record, even the Aztecs and Mayans had similarly barbaric, cruel and evil practices). So no wonder that these people did not espouse any of the primary human virtues that I have mentioned above. No wonder compassion and humane behavior was (apparently) not part of their cultural lexicon. Thank God that these cruel, evil and dark civilizations were destroyed by the Spaniards (who of course, had their own brand of cruelty and evil in the form of the Inquisition, but it was on a lower scale of bloodiness and cruelty, I think, than those of the Mesoamerican civilizations), though it took too much time for this to happen.

And it is the "wisdom" of these people that the author Don Miguel Ruiz is espousing??!! How amazingly hollow and misguided (if not downright manipulative and dishonest) of him! And how stupid, moronic and gullible of all of you fair readers who have praised this book not to realize this. Even if you did not know of the Toltecs or were too lazy to look up their civilization on the web, at least the espousing of only secondary virtues and the complete lack of primary ones of humane behavior should have clued you all to the possibility that something is amiss. But no, you swallow this book hook, line and sinker with nary a critical or analytical thought. There is indeed much to despair about the human race (though of course we have spiritually evolved a great deal since those cruel ancient times--which btw are not limited to Mesoamerican civilizations, though they were probably the worst offenders in this regard).

Finally, I am not a right-wing nut and I am not a Christian (though I think Jesus Christ's original teachings were good, beautiful and humane, as I also think were Lord Krishna's teachings codified in the Gita, and were Buddha's teachings). Nor am I against new age wisdom (in fact, I agree with many of new age wisdom, especially those emanating from Hinduism and Buddhism). So those of you who may be ready to pounce on me and brand me as a right-wing religious nut, give it a rest. Instead try to logically and spiritually understand my serious misgivings about this book that I have described above.

Thanks for your excellent service re: this product. It was a birthday gift to my sister who lives in another state, and she let me know that she recieved the product by her birthday, and when she began to listen to the product it was in great shape. I really apprecitate the speed and reliablity to that you put into your customer service.

A great compostion of spiritual concepts,combined with a captivating narrative by Peter Coyote.Magnificent piece of work,thoroughly enjoyed it.Thank you!

It could just be the sophomoric writing style, but I didn't find anything remarkable in this book. There's nothing that I particularly DISagree with, but there's certainly nothing unique and profound. This was a waste of my time and money.