The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for the Modern World (Toltec Mastery Series)

by Miguel Ruiz Jr.

With awareness, we can regain the power to make our own decisions.

Our point of view creates our reality. When we are stuck in our beliefs, our reality becomes rigid, stagnant, and oppressive. We become bound to our attachments because we have lost our ability to recognize that we have a choice to be free of them.

Self-judgment resides where self-acceptance wishes to be. Our attachment to these negative beliefs and self-judgments can become so normal that we don't even recognize them as condemnations anymore; we accept them as a part of who we are. But at a very basic level, our self-judgments are all consequences of what we believe about ourselves at our core—whether we accept or reject ourselves. Of all the beliefs to detach from, this is the most important one: Let go of the attachment that you must obtain some image of perfection in order to be happy.

This is what freedom is: the ability to enjoy and be exactly who you are without suppressing yourself in the form of judgment.

I might know you for years, but I will never know what it feels like to be you.

You are the only one who is with you for your entire life.

Respect for the manifestation of our loved ones' own individual dreams, whether or not we agree with their choices, is always present at this level of attachment.

Only unhappiness stems from the judge and victim mentality.

if someone says to you, “I'm not attracted to you,” you have a choice about what to do with that knowledge. You can accept the truth without the narrator and realize that it has nothing to do with you and has everything to do with that person and his or her particular taste. The news is still hard to hear, but it is simple, and it ends there.

you have let go of the past by recognizing that the only thing that exists is this present moment.

When we are aware that our assumptions are not necessarily truth but simply possibilities, little discipline is required to not act on them.

Your attachment to a belief cuts off your ability to see beyond that one possibility.

We are the ones responsible for ourselves and our reality.