The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (Toltec Wisdom) Paperback – November 1, 2011

You should read the fourth agreement first. I think these books actually put life into perspective. No everything is that serious or as it seems to be. But books hit people differently, so I would say to read it to see how you take it. Great book, and I definitely do recommend it to everyone.

Another work of art by the author. After reading the Four Agreements, I could not pass on this book, which definitely did not disappoint.

This book has literally changed my life and perspective. I am a more calm and authentic person after reading the Four Agreements and then now the Fifth Agreement.

This book was a great add-on to the four agreements. I love the concluding pages and how the author has brought us in tune with our mission. If we focus on a different agreement each week, very soon all the five agreements will become our lifestyle and will need no effort.

The second book in this series that I have read. This book, inspired by the wisdom of the Toltec People of southern Mexico,known as "men and women of knowledge" a society to explore the spiritual knowledge of ancient peoples.The authors, Don Miguel Ruiz and his son Don Jose are descendants of the Toltec and have devoted their lives to imparting the teachings and wisdom of their ancestors to the modern world, where we have all, unconsciously, become "Domesticated;" that is, we live our lives based on symbols that we have been taught and have then used as our belief system to live our lives. Unfortunately our belief systems are untrue, they are just made up, passed on from generation to generation. In his first book, Don Miguel introduced 4 agreements that we could make with ourselves that, if we could live by them, would release us from this domestication to live a life of truth, releasing us from the symbols that ruled our lives. The 5th agreement took the original 4 agreements to another level that provided an additional level of wisdom that would make following this path easier to do.This book is a brilliant in its analysis of how we live a life based on lies and in a sub conscious state of unawareness, and challenging in offering us a radical, yet intuitively obvious way to change our lives to a life based on what is true, understanding that the life story we create for ourselves will, to a great extent, become self fulfilling. So why not create a happy and prosperous story rather than a sad story based on lack. Doing this knowingly and understanding that everybody else is living a story they have made up (Unconsciously) and treating what they say and do accordingly, will help us to live a happier more fulfilling life.This book is capable, over time, of changing the future of humanity in a most positive way.Congratulations to Don Miguel and Don Jose for having the courage and the vision to present this to the world.:Lets hope that in time, humanity can grasp the wisdom and leave the lies and illusions of our current virtual realty behind us.

After reading the Four Agreements, I was pretty excited to read The Fifth Agreement. I was a little disappointed, though, because a lot of the content rehashed the first four agreements, and not very much of the book was dedicated to the fifth agreement. However, it was helpful to review the first four agreements and see how the fifth agreement fit into the picture.The book is split into two parts:1. The Power of Symbols2. The Power of DoubtThe five agreements are:1. Be impeccable with your word.2. Don't take anything personally.3. Don't make assumptions.4. Always do your best.5. Be skeptical but learn to listen.The authors talk about how everything we know is expressed in our understanding of the meaning of symbols. This meaning does not necessarily represent what is true about something but rather what we believe about something.The whole process of self-mastery starts with self-awareness. You can't fix something that you aren't aware of or don't realize could be a problem. To truly master ourselves, we need to realize that we may believe in things that are not true. We need to question everything and try to get to the true meaning of things.Some quotes I've highlighted in the book that I want to spend more time thinking about include:• "You sacrificed your personal freedom to live according to somebody else's point of view."• "The result of practicing the fifth agreement is the complete acceptance of yourself just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else just the way they are."• "…every word in our mind has a meaning, but not because it's real, not because it's truth. It's just an agreement with ourselves and with everybody else who learns the same symbology."• "The truth is that all of our knowledge, 100 percent of it, is nothing more than symbolism or words that we invent for the need to understand and express what we perceive."• "The truth leads to self-mastery, to a life that's very easy; our distortion of the truth often leads to needless conflict and human suffering. Awareness makes all the difference."• "The mastery of the human mind requires complete control of the attention—the way we interpret and react to information we perceive from inside us and outside of us."• "Be skeptical is masterful because it uses the power of doubt to discern the truth."• "Use the power of doubt to challenge every message that you deliver to yourself."I'm nowhere near the point of mastering any of the five agreements, but having an awareness of them is helping me to be more conscientious of my thoughts and is helping me question some of my own beliefs and my self-doubt. I hope to continue working on these agreements, growing as a person, and improving my life by applying them.

Excellent author. Timely delivery.

Loved it