Don Miguel Ruiz - Living a Life of Awareness

Copyright 2013

by don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

All quotes from don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose Ruiz are from the books, The Four Agreements and The Fifth Agreement, published by Amber-Allen Publishing.

Cover design by Adrian Morgan

Cover painting by Nicholas Wilton

Interior design by Jane Hagaman

Hierophant Publishing

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www.hierophantpublishing.com

If you are unable to order this book from your local bookseller, you may order directly from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013950710

ISBN 978-1-938289-23-1

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper in the United States

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To all whom I love.

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

DR. SEUSS

I believe the whole point of inner work is to enjoy life. For me, this means accepting myself for who I am unconditionally. When life is moving along effortlessly, my unconditional love for myself allows me to enjoy every moment of life in abundance. When life gets difficult, I don't just weather the obstacles; I greet the ups and downs of life's journey with unconditional love for myself and the people in my life by understanding that I am only truly alive in the present moment. As long as there is life, everything is possible.

Truth is the moment when unconditional love blossoms in our hearts. The expression I am worthy of my own love despite this hardship is the seed that brings light into the darkest moment of our lives. Our conscious relationship with ourselves allows us to decide what is true for us in each moment.

The present, right now, is the only opportunity we have to make change. The past no longer exists. The decisions and choices we've made have brought us here, and they cannot be changed. We can think of all the what ifs, should bes, and could haves, but that won't change a thing. Likewise, the future does not exist. The consequences of the actions we take today will not come about for some time, meaning our future is completely wide open; anything can happen. The only thing we are able to control is this very moment, right now, where our choices and decisions make an impact upon our present.

Ask yourself: Am I making these moment-to-moment choices and decisions with awareness? Am I accepting myself unconditionally in the moment? Am I controlling my yeses and nos? Can I see the possible consequences of the choices I make? If my decisions are automatic, am I aware that I have a choice between a self-projected illusion and the truth presented in a moment of clarity?

In the novel The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, the delusional Don Quixote has a moment of clarity in which he sees a group of windmills in the distance as they truly arenot evil giants, but simply windmills. In that moment he can choose another path. But because Don Quixote prefers his illusions over the truth, he concocts a story to justify his continuous belief in the illusion.

This choice between truth and illusion doesn't occur only in novels. It presents itself continuously throughout life, moment by moment. In moments of clarity, every single one of us consciously expresses our choice. We can choose to continue to believe in giants, or we can see the windmills for what they are.

When we choose to believe in illusion over the truth, we lose sight of our Authentic Self. The illusion acts as a filter on all the information we perceive, and the decisions we make in the moment and the actions we take may not necessarily be true to us. On the other hand, if we are aware of and honor our truth, our choice will reflect that truth. At that instant, if we are willing to accept the truth, we have the opportunity for unconditional love. We know that our life is worth more than an idea.

Choosing to see things as they really are, and not just as we wish they would be, takes courage. It requires taking our ego, our judgments and preferences, out of the picture and accepting things as they are. The choice between illusion and truth is the same as choosing between conditional love and unconditional love. Conditional love is easier to give, in many ways. Conditions give us a way in and a way out; but it is ultimately untrue. Unconditional love, on the other hand, is more challenging but ultimately True with a capital T.

It is a matter of rejecting oneself or accepting oneself. If we see giants in the windmills, then like Don Quixote, the illusion is chosen. Maintaining the illusion then reigns supreme, trumping self and truth in the process. But if we choose to see the windmills, then we have accepted our truth unconditionally. This is the choice we make every moment of our lives.

If we see perfection through the eyes of our internal judge, who is always pushing us to adhere to some ideology or belief system, then perfection is conditional and based on illusion. We create and maintain illusions through our agreements, or the process of saying yes to certain ideas and no to others. For example, an agreement is formed every time we say something such as, I will be happy when I lose some weight/have the perfect relationship/have X amount of money in the bank, and so on. Through our agreements we put this idea of perfection on a pedestal, not realizing that it's an illusion.

Once we have created this imaginary image of how we are supposed to be, we then judge ourselves for not living up to it. We look in the mirror and berate ourselves for our shortcomings. Then we do the same to everyone we know. We punish ourselves to shape us and motivate us to be perfect, because that is what we have learned through our domestication. We use the reward of acceptance for living up to an expectation.

Domestication, the system of reward and punishment, works like this: Every time you get something right, you get a reward that makes you happy. Punishment comes when you do something wrong. While how we are domesticated differs based on our family and our culture, the outcome is always the same: self-judgment and conditional love.

For example, let's imagine that as a child you were told that not eating everything on your plate was wrong, or even a sin. As an adult, if you do not finish a plate of food, your internal voice of self-judgment will come back loudly, and you will eat to avoid guilt rather than to satisfy hunger. There is no one to blame for this; it is the current human condition that has existed for generations. The point is to become free of it through awareness.

Perfection through the eyes of unconditional love is being aware that the only truth is this very moment, now. Everything that exists right now is perfect simply because it exists, because it is alive. Life is a masterpiece of art that is constantly transforming and evolving. Therefore, what is truth at this very moment can and likely will change. If it is something negative, we have the capacity to change it if we so desire, although it is not a condition of our self-acceptance. In accepting ourselves unconditionally, we accept our good qualities as well as the flawsit is all valid and perfect.