Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul Quotes

“All meaningful change requires a genuine surrender. Yet, to surrender does not simply mean to give up; more to give up one’s usual self and allow something other to enter and redeem the lesser sense of self. In surrendering, we fall to the bottom of our arguments and seek to touch the origin of our lives again. Only then can we see as we were meant to see, from the depth of the psyche where the genius resides, where the seeds of wisdom and purpose were planted before we were born.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“A true pilgrimage requires letting go of the very things most people try to hold onto. In seeking after what the soul desires, we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“There is a greater will, a greater need and purpose hidden within each life, and there is an inner law that knows best how each must live and that is worth stealing for; it’s worth dying for, and worth living for as well.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Set within the seed of the soul is not jut a fleeting image or a vague pattern but a lifelong story enfolded within, waiting to be cracked open and lived all the way out.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“The wound in one person can become the door through which everyone can find the center of life again.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“A certain kind of courage is required to follow what truly calls to us; why else would so many choose to live within false certainties and pretensions of security? If genuine treasures were easy to find this world would be a different place. If the path of dreams were easy to walk or predictable to follow many more would go that route. The truth is that most prefer the safer paths in life even if they know that their souls are called another way.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“When a situation feels like a matter of life and death the deep self is close at hand and it already carries inner medicine and its own life remedy.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Each soul lives on the verge of remembering the forgotten agreement and original dream that it carries; yet each moment can be another point when the dream of life becomes lost again. Each meaningful step we take on the path of life involves some tension between the needs of the common world and the dreams of the soul. This inherent tension can stop us in our tracks, yet can also be the source of vital energy needed for the soul to grow. Each time we remember a piece of why we came to life we pull the seeds of eternity farther into the world of time. The inner seed keeps trying to sprout, but often our fate must place us in a crossroads or nail us to a cross before we pay proper attention to it.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“At critical moments the veil between the little-self and the deep self thins and a meaningful self-adjustment becomes possible. If a person does not become paralyzed with fear or frozen in hatred, the wise self hidden within will rise to the occasion.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Amidst the rush and confusion of modern life something old and wise is trying to catch up with us. Whereas simple knowledge tends to divide things, genuine wisdom tends to make meaningful unity possible.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Every mistake is a new style.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“The problem in most situations is not a lack of calling; but a fear of responding to the call.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“In seeking after what the soul desires we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“The divine is at the edge of our awareness and vision, but it is also within us as the first seeker found when all seemed lost completely. In order to find the dream of life again, we must first find the way that the dream exists within our own souls. We may be daunted by the surfacing of all the dilemmas and trouble of this troubled world, but the deep self and soul within us already knows how we are intended to swim in the blessed turmoil of the waters of life. For humans exist to bring meaning to the surface of life and awareness to the dream of existence.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“One of the open secrets of life on earth is that the answer to life’s burning question has been inscribed in one’s soul all along. The soul is a kind of ancient vessel that holds the exact knowledge we seek and need to find our way in life. Each life is a pilgrimage intended to arrive at the center of the pilgrim’s soul. From that vantage point, the issue is not whether we managed to choose the right god or the only way to live righteously; such notions fail to recognize the inborn intimacy each soul already has with the divine.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“What good is a dream that doesn’t test the mettle of the dreamer? What good is a path that doesn’t carry us to the edge of our capacity and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“We are wrapped around a mystery to which we were drawn before we were born.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“In the end, as at the beginning, the divine turns out to be most interested in the unique life of the individual soul. That’s what was meant by the old idea that “inside people is where god learns.” This is not a religious notion, but more of a spiritual insight. For this conversation god is simply the shortest way to refer to the divine. When a unique life becomes fully livedeveryone involved learns something and it becomes clear that god was involved all along.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Wisdom can reveal the light hidden in dark times; but it requires that we face the darkness in ourselves. People may desire pearls of wisdom, yet most are unwilling to descend to the depths where the pearls wait to be found. Wisdom involves a necessary descent into the depths of life, for that alone can produce ‘lived knowledge’ and a unified vision.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Searching outside oneself for what can only be found within can lead to a life lived in the wrong direction and sacrifices made for the wrong reasons. People can wind up alienated from themselves even if they achieve lofty goals set by others.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Everyone experiences pain and most suffer from patterns that continue to make life miserable unless something or someone intervenes. The pain we feel comes from the cross-wise energies that keep curving back and cancelling the wise self and the good word that wait to be expressed from within us. Persistent pain is usually the indication that we have become trapped in a life too small for our true nature. That is the usual human fate and the common predicament where the little-self obscures the greater nature behind it. Until people realize what harms them and limits them from within, they are unlikely to call out for someone to help stop the pain. The remedy may be nearby, but until the pain becomes unbearable most remain caught in the agony of one form or another of self-inflicted wounds. As Rumi said, 'The cure for the pain is in the pain.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Destiny is purpose seen from the other end of life.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“The old stories must be learned anew, studied again within the context of a world at odds with itself and only able to be redeemed by the brush of the wing of the great bird of spirit.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“Myths remind us of the symbolic presence within all the lost-and-found adventures that alone can give life meaning. Losing touch with the world of myth means losing the sense that life is deeply meaningful, full of meanings trying to be revealed at each twist and turn in the ongoing drama.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“What good is a path that doesn’t carry us to the edge of our capacity and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul

“A society that fails to water the life-seeds of its members may be capable of instructing its citizens, but will be incapable of truly educating its children or wholly embracing its youth.”
― Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul