Right now, I'm working on the "don't take anything personally" agreement from the book "The Four Agreements." I had read that before in "Journey to Ixtlan" by Carlos Casteneda. I've read that book a number of times, at one point, reading it at least every year. It's amazing the depth that work like that can reveal over time. When I first read the book in my early 20's I thought I really got it - but then I was pretty full of myself then! (lol - I prefer to call it youthfull exhuberance!)

Something as simple as "don't take anything personally" can take years to accept and understand, not to mention learn to practice. It's an idea that isn't unique to the Toltec Indian Tribe, in fact, I saw an example in a stress management article - Q-tip - Quit taking it personally. (Maybe they stole the idea, who knows.) Regardless of the origin of the idea, the truth of it continues to help me get past many annoyances and false agreements.

I had forgotten to practice this agreement of not taking things personally, so now I'm working on doing my best (another agreement) to practice this. I've seen a big difference already. It's hard, though, since my pain and fear are such familier friends - letting them go seems so logical and resonable - but they are attachments, and I cling to my favorites with determination.

I love the similarities between cultures - especially ones that try to find the core Truths - Buddhism, the Tao, Native paths, the words of Jesus (strip the cultural religious history and bad translations away, and I see a remarkable mystic understanding of the Way and the Word), the Hawaiian Kahunas, and many more. I'm collecting my thoughts on some paths that I'm reading right now for here, as well as journally my experiences with practicing these ideas.