01/12/2023
Do you control knowledge, or does knowledge control you?
When knowledge controls me, it means I'm completely conditioned and domesticated by the environment that surrounds me, the family, the culture, to saying yes or no to what they want me to do.
Which means the work of art I'm creating is not my work of art. It's someone else's work of art. Someone else's point of view. Someone else's expectation. Someone else's prejudice. Someone else's projection of how I'm supposed to be.
You can say that the main problem that the Four Agreements, and every single one of our books, deals with is domestication. Which is a system of reward and punishment by which we model the behavior of an individual. Where, if you live up to the expectation, you're worthy of our reward. And if you fall short of it, you're worthy of the punishment.
Since we're emotional beings, that reward feels like acceptance, which feels like love. And the punishment feels like rejection and a lack of love.
It's the way we've learned to love conditionally... "I love you *if*."
But if you begin to regain control of your "yes" and your "no"... regain control of your intent, your impeccability of your word, or your impeccability of yourself, your impeccability of your intent... then it goes back to "I control knowledge." And knowledge is the instrument by which I inform my choices, and I'm the one making that choice.
You can say it's me creating the work of art that is my life, by my choice.
-Don Miguel Ruiz Jr
