The Four Agreements

68 pages • 2 hours read

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

INTRODUCTION-CHAPTER 1

Reading Check

1. What prevents the people in Ruiz’s story from understanding the man who realized that we are all connected?

2. What makes up the Book of Law?

3. Who enforces the Book of Law’s rules as adults?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In your own words, what is the domestication of humans?

2. Why is it challenging for a person to change their agreements or beliefs?

Paired Resource

The Four Agreements - Domestication Part 1 & Part 2 via TheFourAgreements YouTube

This two-part video series (10 minutes total, 4-5 minutes each) helps students to visualize the process and impact of domestication that Ruiz describes in Chapter 1.
This resource relates to the theme Self-Limiting Agreements Learned Through Human Domestication.
What agreements form the truth in your personal Book of Law? How does the world function when different people have diverging truths based on their own domestication?

CHAPTER 2

Reading Check

1. How does the author define sin?

2. Under this agreement, what is the “worst form” of words/speech?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are some benefits of being impeccable with one’s words?

2. What does Ruiz mean when he says words can be used to cast a spell?

Paired Resource

“Dr. Maya Angelou on the Power of Words”

In this 60-second video from the Oprah Winfrey Network, Maya Angelou talks about the power of words.
What connections can you make between Angelou’s ideas and Ruiz’s?

“Power of Words”

This 3-minute video from Kind Words Are Cool features interviews with children about the kinds of words they hear on a daily basis.
This resource relates to the theme The Necessity of Choice in Making and Breaking Agreements.
What are some words that have influenced you, either positively or negatively?
What is one choice you can make today to become more impeccable with your words?

CHAPTER 3

Reading Check

1. According to Ruiz, what is the ultimate act of selfishness?

2. Why shouldn’t a person believe all of their own thoughts?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why might it be helpful to not take it personally when people say good things about us?

2. In your own words, summarize the main takeaway of this chapter.

Paired Resource

“Three Questions to Help You Not Take Things Personally”

This 5-minute clip from a 2001 episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show features advice from a psychologist about how not to take things personally in an application of the Second Agreement.
How does the Second Agreement help you to better practice the First Agreement: be impeccable with your words?

CHAPTER 4

Reading Check

1. What are some powerful ways to avoid making assumptions?

2. Why are people afraid to be themselves?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does making assumptions negatively impact relationships?

2. How does making assumptions negatively impact our relationship to ourselves?

CHAPTER 5

Reading Check

1. According to Ruiz, what is one way we can show love or appreciation to God?

2. What makes the Four Agreements easier to integrate?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does doing your best free you from the Book of Law?

2. Why does Ruiz encourage people to become “warriors” and defend the Four Agreements in their own lives?

CHAPTER 6

Reading Check

1. According to Ruiz, What is the definition of true freedom?

2. What keeps people from that freedom?

3. How do people control the dream of their lives?

4. According to Ruiz, what emotion is causing humans to be “mentally sick”?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the difference between “a warrior” and “a victim”?

2. What do the Four Agreements have to do with the Art of Transformation?

Paired Resource

“How do I develop the discipline to apply The Four Agreements?”

In this 3-paragraph article, Don Miguel Ruiz expands on what it takes to consistently apply The Four Agreements.
This resource relates to the theme The Necessity of Choice in Making and Breaking Agreements.
Which agreement would you hope to have the most success with?

CHAPTER 7

Reading Check

1. What is the key to creating a dream of heaven instead of hell?

2. According to Ruiz, why didn’t people understand Jesus’s message?

3. Ruiz closes out the text with two prayers. What are they for?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Ruiz propose are some keys to create heaven on Earth at the individual level?

Recommended Next Reads

The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery by Don Miguel Ruiz

In this follow-up to The Four Agreements, Ruiz goes deeper into the Four Agreements and adds an Agreement and tips for mastering Self and getting closer to living a fulfilling and happy life aligned with Divine Love.
Shared themes include The Necessity of Choice in Making and Breaking Agreements and Living in a State of Unconditional Love.
Shared topics include living a fulfilling life and overcoming personal limitations.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Clear’s text expands on previous research about habits and provides tips for making and breaking new habits. In his final pages, he suggests his tips and best practices might be applicable to changing one’s mindset.
Shared themes include The Necessity of Choice in Making and Breaking Agreements.
Shared topics include choice and awareness.
Atomic Habits on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

INTRODUCTION-CHAPTER 1

Reading Check

1. Smoky mirrors, the illusion, the dream of life. They had been domesticated. (Introduction)

2. Agreements, or beliefs about right and wrong that a person has gained from their society, culture, religion, and/or family (Chapter 1)

3. As adults, The Judge, the voice of an individual’s inner critic, enforces the rules. (Chapter 1)

Short Answer

1. Student answers will vary based on their understanding of the text. However, students should generally discuss being raised in a culture, society, or family with set rules and beliefs about how the world works. Those ideas are reinforced during childhood via a system of punishment and reward. (Chapter 1)

2. There’s a built-in system of fear, judgment, and shame, both from the person’s inner voice and fear of what others might say or think. Also, agreements have been in place since childhood. The passage of time makes those beliefs stronger and more difficult to break. (Chapter 1)

CHAPTER 2

Reading Check

1. Speaking or acting in a way that undermines the self (Chapter 2)

2. Gossip (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. Student answers will be some variation of the following: You start to become immune to the dream. You don’t believe what people tell you about yourself. You become more loving and kind in your thoughts and actions. (Chapter 2)

2. Our words, the things we say to ourselves and others, have an impact on our reality. We can influence how a person sees themself, which influences how they navigate their lives, the choices they make, the things they believe, etc. (Chapter 2)

CHAPTER 3

Reading Check

1. Taking things personally, or believing what others say or do is about you (Chapter 3)

2. The mind lives in multiple dimensions and can talk to itself. Many of our thoughts come from fear-based agreements and the dream of life we were domesticated into during childhood. (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Even those words are a reflection of the other person’s internal world—their dream, their perceptions, their agreements, their values, and how they feel about themselves. (Chapter 3)

2. Student answers will vary but will be some reiteration of “most things are not about you.” (Chapter 3)

CHAPTER 4

Reading Check

1. Ask questions; communicate desires and expectations clearly. Ask questions even when you think you understand—assuming you understand is an assumption that can also lead to trouble. (Chapter 4)

2. They assume other people will judge them as harshly as they judge themselves. (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. When people assume the person they are with sees life or the relationship the same way they do, they fail to communicate. This failure causes strife. (Chapter 4)

2. People can overestimate or underestimate themselves without taking the proper time to reflect on whether they are making false assumptions about themselves. (Chapter 4)

CHAPTER 5

Reading Check

1. Stay present, let go of past mistakes, and do our best (Chapter 5)

2. Repetition, practice, making them a habit. (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. When perfection is no longer the bar for success, the Judge cannot make us feel bad for falling short of perfection. (Chapter 5)

2. Integrating the Four Agreements can be difficult, hence the need to be warriors. There are a lot of internal and external obstacles: the Judge, other people’s opinions and assumptions, etc. (Chapter 5)

CHAPTER 6

Reading Check

1. The freedom to be oneself (Chapter 6)

2. The Book, the Judge, and the Victim or domestication (Chapter 6)

3. By making choices, being aware of the consequences and being aware of those consequences (both positive and negative) (Chapter 6)

4. Fear, or a fear-based view of the world (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. A victim accepts the dream and domestication. They are aware of it, but they also blame others for the discomfort and anger they feel with their lives. They repress themselves and their feelings out of fear. A warrior fights back against the externally imposed belief system of the dream. They don’t always win, but they keep trying. They take control of their lives. The warrior refrains, or waits, until the right moment to express themselves impeccably. (Chapter 6)

2. They can serve as new agreements that a person can use to replace their old, fear-based agreements. (Chapter 6)

CHAPTER 7

Reading Check

1. Changing your mind, controlling your emotions, and using your imagination (Chapter 7)

2. They didn’t feel the love and peace he talked about: They didn’t understand that love is a choice. (Chapter 7)

3. Love and freedom (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. Keys include believing it is possible, being a warrior against domestication, imagining a different way to live, and making choices in support of the new dream. (Chapter 7)