The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (A Toltec Wisdom Book)

by Miguel Ruiz

The truth is objective, and we call it science. Our interpretation of the truth is subjective, and we call it art. Science and art; the truth, and our interpretation of the truth.

All humans are programmed to perceive the truth, and we don’t need a language to do this. But in order to express the truth, we need to use a language, and that expression is our art. It’s no longer the truth because words are symbols, and symbols can only represent or “symbolize” the truth.

But our interpretation is a reflection of the truth, and that reflection is what we call the human mind. The human mind is nothing but a virtual reality. It isn’t real. What’s real is truth. What’s truth is truth for everyone. But the virtual reality is our personal creation; it’s our art, and it’s only “truth” for each one of us.

To be aware means to open our eyes to see the truth. When we see the truth, we see everything just as it is, not the way we believe it is, not the way we wish it to be. Awareness opens the door to millions of possibilities, and if we know that we are the artist of our own life, we can make a choice from all those possibilities.

Self-mastery is all about awareness, and it begins with self-awareness. First to be aware of what is real, and then to be aware of what is virtual, which means what we believe about what is real. With this awareness, we know that we can change what is virtual by changing what we believe. What is real we cannot change, and it doesn’t matter what we believe.

Perhaps you can see how easy it is for humans to distort what we perceive. Light reproduces a perfect image of what is real, but we distort the image by creating a story with all those symbols and opinions that we learned. We dream about it with our imagination, and by agreement we think that our dream is the absolute truth, when the real truth is that our dream is a relative truth, a reflection of the truth that is always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory.

Whatever people think of you is really about the image they have of you, and that image isn’t you.

Don’t take anything personally is a beautiful tool of interaction with your own kind, human to human. And it’s a big ticket to personal freedom because you no longer have to rule your life according to other people’s opinions. This really frees you! You can do whatever you want to do, knowing that whatever you do has nothing to do with anyone but you. The only person who needs to be concerned about the story of you is you. This awareness changes everything. Remember, awareness of the truth is the first step to self-mastery, and that is what you’re doing right now. You’re being reminded of the truth.

Remember, our dream is controlled by what we believe, and what we believe could be truth, or could be fiction. The truth leads us to our authenticity, to happiness. Lies lead us to limitations in our lives, to suffering and drama.

We keep searching for perfection, and in our search we find that everything in the universe is perfect except the humans. The sun is perfect, the stars are perfect, the planets are perfect, but when it comes to the humans, “Nobody’s perfect.” The truth is that everything in creation is perfect, including the humans.

The people in control of the media tell us what to believe, how to dress, what to eat, and they manipulate humans like puppets, which means in whatever way they want. If they want us to hate someone, they spread gossip all around, and the lies work their magic. When we stop being puppets, it’s obvious that our lives have been guided by lies and superstitions. Imagine what future humans would think of our superstitions. If they believed in the perfection of everything in creation, including every human, would we crucify them for their beliefs?

Be aware that almost everything you tell yourself is an assumption. If you’re a parent, you know how easy it is to make assumptions about your children. It’s midnight, and your daughter isn’t home yet. She went out to dance, and you thought she would be home by now. You start imagining the worst; you start making assumptions: “Oh, what if something happened to her? Maybe I should call the police.” There are so many things you can imagine, and you create a whole drama of possibilities in your head. Ten minutes later your daughter arrives home with a big smile. When the truth arrives and all the lies are dispelled, you realize that you were simply torturing yourself for nothing. Don’t make assumptions

The truth doesn’t need you to believe it; the truth simply is, and it survives whether you believe it or not. Lies need you to believe them. If you don’t believe lies, they don’t survive your skepticism, and they simply disappear.

The only truth for you is what you perceive in your world. With this awareness, there’s nothing to prove to anyone. It’s not about being right or wrong. You respect whatever somebody says because it’s another artist speaking. Respect is so important. When you learn to listen, you show respect for the other artists — you show respect for their art, for their creation.

Be skeptical, but learn to listen and then make your choices. Be responsible for every choice you make in your life. This is your life; it’s nobody else’s life, and you will find that it’s nobody else’s business what you do with your life.

Once we ingest the lie, we no longer believe that we are God, and this is when we start to search for God.

The time is coming when humans will no longer believe in lies. We begin with ourselves, but the goal is to change the entire humanity, not just our own world. But how can we change the entire humanity if we don’t change our own world first? Of course, it’s not easy to separate, because in reality we have to do both at the same time.