The Impact of The Fifth Agreement: Truth, Virtual Truth and Agreement by Don Ruiz

In the book “Nothing But the Truth”, a young adult fiction novel written by Avi. In “Nothing But the Truth”, Philip Malloy, the main character, begins humming during the morning announcements when the National Anthem was played. Everyone thought that he was trying to create a disturbance but Philip said that he was trying to be Patriotic. A few days later, he got suspended. Philip’s story was heard from all over the country several days later. All of Philip’s friends and teachers are trying to prove him wrong and the country thanking him for something he lied about. So to avoid the mess, Philip switched to a private school. But when the Nation Anthem played there, a teacher asked him to sing but Philip said that he doesn’t know the words. Throughout the entire book, Philip was treated fairly for many reasons. First, for how Philip was

After reading this book, I do feel that some of my beliefs did change, however, not entirely because it provided me with information that can assist me

After reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz I realized I’ve been living dreams of other people in my life and not my own. It was decided early on what I should do, what’s possible and what’s not. Starting at birth we are told what to think by our parents, schools, and church. Subconsciously, we have made agreements with them to live our life according to their rules. Don Miguel believes that these agreements are self-limiting and shares four agreements that if we adapt into our lives we will reach true peace and happiness. The book made so much sense to me, but the hard part is to actually commit to living out the four agreements. In short, the four agreements are listed below:

What is reality? What is known? These questions are constantly being reviewed keeping people anxiously waiting for the real answer. The Matrix is a popular movie dealing with many philosophical ideas from, Gods, Beauty, Reality, and existence. The Matrix deals with an intelligent “computer hacker,” Neo, who questions many things such as reality as he lives two different lives day vs. night. With that being said, Neo starts to ponder how does he know what is real, true, or all knowing. As humans we face this challenge everyday, how do we actually “know?” We know because of our senses, evidence, observations, assumption, and Epistemology.

The discovery I made as a result of reading this book is that one should think about their decisions before taking action. They need to think about other people and if it will harm them or make their life easier. The main character of the book, Mia Hall, made sure no one would get harmed when she chose to stay alive after getting into a car accident and not go with her family into the afterlife. Something new I learned was to think before I do anything. People should always think before they speak or decide and they shouldn’t ignore other people's ideas. Mia takes in the ideas and concepts of her friends and family so she knows what choice to make and she doesn’t just think for herself. The theme of this book is to make the best decision when

Reading this book was eye-opening. It motivated me to seek knowledge in other areas by reading. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum encouraged me to develop my own beliefs. You can infer by the title that all Fulghum believes all you need to know is what you learned in kindergarten. This includes being nice, sharing and cleaning up after yourself. This book also forced me to think about my own life philosophies. Taking what I argued with in the book and adding my own beliefs to it allowed to expand

In the movie, truth is revealed to be reality, the world as it actually exists, or, life outside of the control of the Matrix. While Kierkegaard presents the belief that the only truth that matters is subjective, the Matrix claims that only objective truth matters (Kierkegaard). Reality is an objective subject, and the Matrix is subjective due to its existence as merely a computer system in a person’s brain. Therefore, according to the movie, truth is our objective reality. Morpheus tells Neo that reality is outside of the Matrix and claims that all those still living in the matrix are enslaved by the machines (The

The Big Four: And Others of the Peace Conference, by Robert Lansing offers a firsthand perspective on what occurred during the Peace talks following the First World War. Robert Lansing primarily concentrates on the four biggest players during the Peace talks, Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, and Vittorio E. Orlando. Lansing’s report of these four men compromised three fourths of the entire book, leaving the rest of the book to the representatives of other States, such as Eleftherios Venizelos, Emir Feisul, Louis Botha, and Ignace Jan Paderewski. One of the most significant features of this book is that it offers a different perspective of the Peace talks because it is a look at how people viewed these Statesmen and their actions at that time.

Published in 2011, The Fifth Agreement is a sequel to The Fourth Agreement, and offers another powerful agreement for changing lives. The authors Don Miguel Ruiz and his son Don Jose Ruiz inspire the readers to see the truth and to alter the message they communicate to themselves and the people around them. According to them, the fifth agreement is the pathway to complete inner peace and self-satisfaction. Whereas the first four agreements are about breaking free from thousands of agreements that create unnecessary suffering, the fifth agreement helps regain the power of authenticity, which is the true character that we are born with. These agreements are 1) be impeccable with your words, 2) don’t take anything personally, 3) don’t make assumptions, 4) always do your best, and 5) be skeptical, but learn to listen.

Don’t make assumptions is the 3rd agreement in Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements. This talks about the problem of our everyday assumptions. We believe they are the truth and could swear they are real even though we have no idea. We make assumptions about others on what they are doing and thinking and take it personally. They often end up causing problems and hurting relationships. We make assumptions more than we think, even about ourselves. On our way to class we open the door and expect to see our classroom and other students rather than a black hole. Ruiz isn’t talking about these when he says don’t make assumptions; you can expect not to fall through every door you open. He is talking about when we are texting and someone isn’t replying

A man once told me that there is no truth in this world. All the ideas such as Math, Science, Language, and even society is all made up. That the only reason two plus two equals four is based solely off of one man saying it does, and society agreeing with it blindly. But I tell you that there is no such thing as truth, but that itself is a truth.

“Do not be concerned about the future; keep your attention on today, and stay in the present moment. Just live one day at a time. Always do your best to keep these agreements, and soon it will be easy for you. Today is the beginning of a new dream.”

Chapter Five: This chapter is about about finding peace, discovering who we and The Four Immeasurable Minds. It is important to think about who we are, who we were before we were born, and before any physical existence did we exist in another form. When we practice the art of meditation one can find peace and happiness which are the key to, “measuring the fruit of practice” (Hanh, 2010, p.109). If we do not feel happiness and peace then it can mean that we are not meditating correctly.

The first issue is what actually is truth? There are many things that we perceive to be true, depending on perspective or our beliefs, which differ from one person to the next, known as

Truth can be defined as conformity to reality or actuality and in order for something to be “true” it must be public, eternal, and independent. If the “truth” does not follow these guidelines then it cannot be “true.” Obviously in contrary anything that goes against the boundaries of “truth” is inevitably false. True and false, in many cases does not seem to be a simple black and white situation, there could sometimes be no grounds to decide what is true and what is false. All truths are a matter of opinion. Truth is relative to culture, historical era, language, and society. All the truths that we know are subjective truths (i.e. mind-dependent truths) and there is nothing more to truth than what we are willing to assert as true