The Four-Quadrant Agreements

A friend of mine has based his spritual journey and development work on something that resonates espcially well for him: the Toltec philosophy and culture. "Life is a dream," and we can lucidly influence our dream/life if we learn how, is the general premise. It is a system of ancient wisdom that has serious depth; I can hardly do it justice in a paragraph. 

Probably the highest-visbility book in the Toltec tradition is "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz, a nagual and Toltec Master. The four agreements are simple:

1) Be impeccable with your word
2) Don't take anything personally
3) Don't make assumptions
4) Always do your best

As a linguist, I find expressing any truth or goal in the negative to be counter-productive from a subconscious standpoint, thus, the word "don't" in #2 and #3 kills me. (The quickie on that is: if I tell you, "Don't think of a purple elephant," it's too late! You had to think of it to process the meaning of the sentence. If we really want to eliminate purple elephants from our mind/thoughts/reinforcement, let's think of soaring eagles.)

However, the seeds of truth and beauty in these four agreements is obvious and valuable.

In our Integral Portland group, we study Integral Theory which has the four quadrants. Hey, four agreements, four quadrants: are there, perhaps, four simple statments or agreements that I can make with myself that will keep me pure, aware, and in good integrity in all four quadrants?

I'm still thinking about this and how these would formed. I can see Miguel's agreements as being framed as:

1) what I say / do
2) what I hear / experience
3) what I am missing / assuming
4) performance comparison with what is possible & appropriate

So, with an intial quadrant overlay, we get:

1) Upper-right: exterior-individual. What I put into physical action & vibration.
2) Upper-left: interior-individual: my emotions, experience, symbols, concepts.
3) ? Lower-left: what are my cultural operating assumptions (and personal assumptions, though, so this is also upper-left).
4) ? Lower-right: my performance matched with the social collective, their standards, methods and expectations, but also having to do with my physical actions (upper right)... or is this to be a mechanism for managing internal experience as well (upper left)?

So #3 and #4 are still a bit squishy, but they do land in the zones.

So what would the domains of four pure-quadrant questions be? Hmmm.

I was in my local supermarket and saw this new kind of juice on sale: Kagome. Three brilliant colors beamed through squarish-plastic bottles: red, purple, and orange. Looking closer, I saw it was vegetable juice, mixed and ready to go. On the expensive side at $5 per 30 oz., but it was on sale 2 for 1, so I got a couple. 

The red (called Autumn Reds) is a mix of tomato, red bell pepper, beet spinach, parsley, lettuce, cabbage, apple, grape, grapefruit, and lemon juices. Just like my old juicing days! It tastes great, is good on the blood sugar (for you hypoglycemics and diabetics), and aligns with the food combining table perfectly. Great stuff!

Turns out the company, Kagome, bases their blends on color. I'm not sure of the depths there, but it sure seems to work. I've been drinking the stuff for a month now (about 8 bottles so far), and it has been consistant quality, great tasting, and all-around keen.

A bit of behind-the-scenes discovery: my girlfriend & I went to a Japanese market here in Portland (there is a really big one in Beaverton), and what did we see? A whole line of Kagome drinks, only in Japanese! I suspect the home company is in Japan and has probably been making these kinds of juices for a long while. They seem to be new on the American market, however. I'm glad they are here.

I looked into buying from the cmpany direct, to see if I could get the colors not carried at my local market (white, for one), but no dice. They don't sell to individuals. Maybe if we got a dozen people together and offered to buy five or six cases, we could get a deal and the different flavors. Which reminds me of a friend I had back in San Luis Obispo that would order Tim's Cascade potato chips by the case (before they had good distribution down there), and we could all 'chip in' (har har) for whatever we wanted. Ah, it was a good day when the five-foot high box would arrive via UPS, and we'd all show up and pick up our ten or so bags of those delicious chips. Thanks, Joe!

Whew! I just finished up a crazy packed week of no days off and lotsa work, management, craziness and cramming. As I sit here on my sunday night, contemplating and digesting everything I've learned and experienced, my mind wonders over to ways to shift the mood and the future to something more upbeat. 

I sit back, look at the huge menu of bookmarked web sites, and wonder if I should do some surfing. I think, 'ah, but if I do, I will likely run across negative news, negative stories...' As Steve Martin sang so well, "Oh death and sorrow and murder." Which is the last thing I need right now.

And then this thought comes: I wish there was a web site where I could go and know that I'd only see happy, positive stuff. (I'm sure there are some out there...). A DisneyLand stop on the Internet, "The Happiest Digital Place on Earth." I could use a break. I could use a laugh. If I could just relax into a place that I knew wouldn't tax my brain or tug on my sorrows, it'd be such a welcome place and time. Just for a little while.

So, I find the value in purity of domain: a place that is unbalanced, it is all one thing with no weight in the other. Sure, it's unbalanced. But it adds choice to our day, our week. If we feel like we need a happy boost, we can choose to immerse ourselves in moments and spaces that will support that.

I used to think that any space that doesn't hold both sides, that doesn't acknowledge multiple perspectives, that doesn't support the choice to go light or dark was of lesser value. It was unrealistic. Imbalanced. But now I am reminded that it is good to be able to have the choice to have no choices for a little while. To just let go and be, and still have the rational brain think it's safe.

Now if I could just jump the perspective and have that happen in the whole of life in a Zen kind of way... the world IS DisneyLand, oh if only I could see it...

Nameste.