by Don Miguel Ruiz & Don Jose Ruiz – $24.95

The Fifth Agreement is a follow up to an earlier book titled ‘The Four Agreements’. The first four agreements are all simple and yet profound words of advice about how to live ones life. For example, one of the agreements is ‘don’t make assumptions’! Imagine if we all could do that?!

This new book covers each of the agreements in ‘The Four Agreements’ but adds a completely new agreement. ‘The Fifth Agreement’, as a whole, deepens our awareness of the teaching of the Toltec Tribe, American Indian people who lived in Mexico before the Aztec peoples.

The fifth agreement – ‘be skeptical, but learn to listen’ – is really about seeing and accepting reality, without words and without judgment. The aim of practicing all five of the agreements is the complete acceptance of yourself, just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else, just the way they are. The authors believe each person to be perfect as they are in every moment.

The authors, a father and son, say that the reward of practicing the five agreements is eternal happiness. Miguel and Jose Ruiz give examples of and encouragement for the changes that can be made in our lives by following these agreements. We are reminded that the greatest gift we can give ourselves is the freedom to be who we really are!

While this book is of particular appeal to readers who have read previous works of Ruiz, it is suitable for anyone wanting to live in happiness with themselves and others.