Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Four Agreements, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Judgment and Fear
Beliefs, Agreements, and Transformative Happiness
Human Perception, Reality, and Universal Love
Childhood, Adulthood, and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Ruiz instructs you to forget everything you’ve ever learned. Your new dream starts here. You have the power to change right now. Use your imagination and see love pouring out of the trees, sky, light, and other humans, even when they are in a bad mood. Imagine yourself living a new life in which you are completely free to be your true self and are allowed to be happy. Living this way, you have no conflict with others, no fear of expressing yourself or being judged, and no need to control anybody else. Love yourself, including your body and your emotions just the way they are right now. Living like this is “a state of bliss.” Even if you feel the parasite inside you, you can still choose to live in heaven or hell. Ruiz chooses heaven and asks what your choice is.
Ruiz is essentially asking the reader to acknowledge that reality—including everything in the universe—is an expression of the universal love that connects everything. Asking the reader to imagine this helps them to visualize the reality that they’re unable to see. When a person recognizes this truth, they can live in a “state of bliss.” Once again, Ruiz reinforces the idea that a person has the power to choose a different belief system centered on expressing love instead of fear.
Themes
