Book 46 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title - Words Matter - White Magic vs. Black Magic

Book - The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz with Janet Mills

Book Description: The Four Agreements takes inspiration from a set of spiritual beliefs held by the ancient Toltec people to help readers transform their lives into a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. According to the author, everything a person does is based on agreements they have made with themselves, with others, with God, and with life itself. n these agreements, people may tell themselves who they are, how to behave, what is possible, and what is impossible. Some agreements that individuals create may not cause issues, but there are certain agreements that come from a place of fear and have the power to deplete one's emotional energy as well as diminish the self-worth of a person. The book states that these self-limiting agreements are what creates needless suffering

My Reflection: The first agreement, of the 4 agreements, is to always remember to be impeccable with your words. EVERYTHING in this world starts with words. It is one thing to have thougths or ideas in your mind. For all we know, every living being in this world has thoughts and ideas in their minds. Maybe my dog is the most brilliant being the world will never know? That's because my dog can't take her thoughts and turn them into words, form language, and communicate an idea to something else.

We can! That is what makes us so special. Somehow, we were endowed with this magical ability of consciousness which allows us to think of abstract things and invent new concepts with our imagination. Just that unique skill alone would be incredibly special for most any species. Humans took it a step further when we figured out how to get the thoughts out of our minds and into someone else's through our words. The rest is history once we started to understand each other's ideas and could work together on bringing them to life.

Words are how ideas spread. Words are the start of culture. Words can change the world.

Words can be used to send humans to the moon or to wage war and kill each other. This is why the first agreement is so important, we have always remember to be impeccable with our words. That is our duty. We have to always remember that words have importance and to be respectful of their power.

Words are in a lot of ways just like magic. They can invent things and bring ideas to life out of thin are just by bringing them into the world through our language. The author says that words can be used for good in what he calls "White Magic", or they can be used to hurt in what he calls "Black Magic". I'm going to do my best to always practice "White Magic" and use my words for good for the rest of my days. This is my duty as a human entrusted with this awesome power.

Question: How can you use your words to promote more good in this world?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - The Four Agreements

YOML Bookstore - The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills