The Four Agreements is a very peculiar book. It's more of a teaching book than a story book. There isn't a main character and there really is no set story to follow. It is a book of teachings and things to follow life by. There are a couple of characters or ideas in the intro and following chapters but then it goes into the teachings.
The novel starts off by Ruiz writing about his ackowledgments and stating all the people that helped guide him through his life like his parents, sons, and the people who helped him make the book happen. At the end of the acknoledgments is all the people who helped in his teachings, and it's a big list.
Then the intro starts off by Ruiz narrarating from this point on. He starts by talking about the Toltec which, as he describes as, "known throughout southern Mexico as 'women and men of knowledge.'" (The Four Agreements, pg. xiii, line 1-3) According to the story, The Toltec were beings located in Mexico that basically knew everything and knew the key to personal freedom, forgiveness, and love. They wanted to share this information and pass it on for generations but feared that man would misuse it or use it for personal gain. To shield against this, it was locked away from the overall people, and secretly passed down through generations of Naguals. Naguals are described as the masters of the Toltec society. The Toltec knew that one day the knowledge of them would be released again to the public when they knew they could handle it. Now don Miguel Ruiz, a Nagual from the Eagle Night generation wrote their knowledge in this book.
The first prechapter starts talking about the intro to the Toltec knowledge. It gets very metaphorical in this chapter as it describes that "Three thousand years ago, there was a human just like you and me who lived near a city surrounded by mountains."(The Four Agreements, page xv, line 1-3) He describes that this man slept in a cave one day and woke up to look at the stars. Then he felt himself realize that he is the light from the stars. Then he just kept studying what this all means. He said that we are all a manifestation of all these stars and everything in-between. I think that in this chapter, this man could be Jesus Christ because he is described as have been revived in the cave into a different person. Similar compared to Jesus' resurrection in the cave he was put into. I thought that this was interesting because this book has a lot of religion incorperated in it in the ideas of God and everything so it could be possible that this man really is Jesus. later in the chapter, it explains how he tried to spread his knowledge on how he saw himself in everybody but they couldn't understand any of what he was saying. He uses an analogy to describe how everybody is a mirror but you can't see each other because there is a thick smoke in-between each mirror. This smoke is called "the dream of the planet", the next chapter in the story.
I won't go too detailed as to what comes next in the few chapters to come but to summarize. Basically Ruiz describes how we are all trained to be ourselves based on what our parents tell us to do. What our parents trained us to be is being ourselves. Then it explains that you must unconform to these agreements that you have made about yourself and find new ones to take their place that are all about love, freedom, and happiness. These agreements are many, but the rest of the book explains the four main agreements. From here on there is no more story to tell, just leesons to learn about these four agreements. The four agreements are simply; be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. They go into greater detail in the book itself but they speak for themselves on what they mean on first guess.
The novel starts off by Ruiz writing about his ackowledgments and stating all the people that helped guide him through his life like his parents, sons, and the people who helped him make the book happen. At the end of the acknoledgments is all the people who helped in his teachings, and it's a big list.
Then the intro starts off by Ruiz narrarating from this point on. He starts by talking about the Toltec which, as he describes as, "known throughout southern Mexico as 'women and men of knowledge.'" (The Four Agreements, pg. xiii, line 1-3) According to the story, The Toltec were beings located in Mexico that basically knew everything and knew the key to personal freedom, forgiveness, and love. They wanted to share this information and pass it on for generations but feared that man would misuse it or use it for personal gain. To shield against this, it was locked away from the overall people, and secretly passed down through generations of Naguals. Naguals are described as the masters of the Toltec society. The Toltec knew that one day the knowledge of them would be released again to the public when they knew they could handle it. Now don Miguel Ruiz, a Nagual from the Eagle Night generation wrote their knowledge in this book.
The first prechapter starts talking about the intro to the Toltec knowledge. It gets very metaphorical in this chapter as it describes that "Three thousand years ago, there was a human just like you and me who lived near a city surrounded by mountains."(The Four Agreements, page xv, line 1-3) He describes that this man slept in a cave one day and woke up to look at the stars. Then he felt himself realize that he is the light from the stars. Then he just kept studying what this all means. He said that we are all a manifestation of all these stars and everything in-between. I think that in this chapter, this man could be Jesus Christ because he is described as have been revived in the cave into a different person. Similar compared to Jesus' resurrection in the cave he was put into. I thought that this was interesting because this book has a lot of religion incorperated in it in the ideas of God and everything so it could be possible that this man really is Jesus. later in the chapter, it explains how he tried to spread his knowledge on how he saw himself in everybody but they couldn't understand any of what he was saying. He uses an analogy to describe how everybody is a mirror but you can't see each other because there is a thick smoke in-between each mirror. This smoke is called "the dream of the planet", the next chapter in the story.
I won't go too detailed as to what comes next in the few chapters to come but to summarize. Basically Ruiz describes how we are all trained to be ourselves based on what our parents tell us to do. What our parents trained us to be is being ourselves. Then it explains that you must unconform to these agreements that you have made about yourself and find new ones to take their place that are all about love, freedom, and happiness. These agreements are many, but the rest of the book explains the four main agreements. From here on there is no more story to tell, just leesons to learn about these four agreements. The four agreements are simply; be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. They go into greater detail in the book itself but they speak for themselves on what they mean on first guess.