Those of you close to me know how much I love Don’s books and how much I harp on about them. Don is definitely one of my favourite authors. I knew when I downloaded this book that I would enjoy it! Here is the ‘back of the book’:
Ruiz refers to the forbidden tree of knowledge, likening the abandonment of the true self to the fall from heaven. This fall, he says, occurred because of the loss of "the impeccability of the word," that simple yet potent prescription for countering the judgmental inner "Voice of Knowledge." Adhering to "the word" - saying only what one means, refusing to speak against one's self - allows anyone to quiet those inner tyrannical thoughts so that we can become aware of our Voice of Integrity. Knowledge then becomes an ally, and life becomes an expression of the authentic self.
The forbidden tree of knowledge and the fall from heaven is referring to the legend of The Garden of Eden. It is a great story full of symbolism and it is very interesting to read Don’s interpretation of it. He talks about the two trees in the garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. The apples from the Tree of Life are full of love, truth and emotion. The apples on the Tree of Knowledge were full of words and knowledge tainted with lies. The snake in the tree of knowledge (who is the fallen angel) seduced us with his stories contaminated with lies, to eat from his tree.
“When someone tells us a lie and we believe it, that lie takes root in our mind. There it can grow big and strong just like a tree.”
The problem with eating from this tree is that we're told what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly and then there is us in the middle trying to judge what is what. Now each of us has our own personal tree of knowledge in our head from what we have been taught as we have grown up. We all grow up with different meanings of what is right and what is wrong. You may have grown up with a family who steals and uses force to get what they want. To you that is right because that is all you know. You may have grown up in a family that keeps emotions bottled up and to express emotions is a weakness. To you that would be right because that is all you know. So what is right to one person may not be right to another.
“Knowledge goes into our mind and reproduces a structure inside our head, which is everything that we know. With all that knowledge in our head, we only perceive what we believe; we only perceive our own knowledge. And what is it that we know? Mostly lies.”
Don says that we are born perfect. Instead of words we think with our emotions (the purest way to think, emotions don’t lie) because we do not know words or have a concept of language we use emotions as our guide. But then we learn to talk and words tend to take precedence over our emotions which should not happen. Words are limited and can never explain the full extent of how we feel and are always left open to misinterpretation. We should use words to help us communicate to one another but not to replace emotions. Instead of a constant stream of words filling our head we should be examining our emotions because the words about next weeks episode of GLEE might be bouncing around in our head but it is not more important than right here right now. Our emotions tell us how we feel in the now.
To be honest the beginning of the book sat a little uncomfortably with me at first because he uses words that we usually liken to a positive, in a negative way. If you talk to me and ask me what my favourite things are I always say one of them is the quest for knowledge. I just love knowledge and learning. But in the book the word knowledge is cast in a negative light. He also uses the word ‘lies’ a fair amount in the beginning and that word just makes me feel uncomfortable full stop. But it really is a means to and end and I can think of no other way of telling the story. He is honest and to the point and the words he uses evoke an emotional response (they did in me anyway) which also helped me understand the point. He also talks about the ‘voice of knowledge’ which also sat a little weirdly with me. He says when we learn to talk we learn that it is not necessarily ok to be ourselves. We cannot say this or do that. We have all these rules and regulations in regards to behaviour that we must to adhere to. We see our parents act in certain ways that we copy. When our parents put themselves down or lie or bitch about another person we learn to do the same. Children do as their parents do not as they say (so so so so true!). It is all well and good to tell a child not to lie but when there is a knock at the door and you tell them to say that you’re not there, that is a lie. It might be a white lie but it’s still a lie. Children are always listening and watching and they are little sponges that absorb everything. Hence Don informs you in the book that you gain all this knowledge through observing the behaviour of those around you and then the ‘voice of knowledge’ starts in your head. This voice is constantly judging and self-deprecating. Im not sure if I am overly sensitive to the statement ‘voices in your head’ but naturally, on closer examination, there is no other way to put it and all the while you are reading you really do find yourself agreeing and inserting your own experiences into his stories.
So after all of my complaining about the beginning and how the certain wording of stories didn’t sit too well with me at the start but were actually a means to an end, the rest of the book was a lot more to my taste. It was back to being positive and upbeat. It talks about love and the wonder of it and you should not just think that a love for a single person is the strongest form of love. Your love for life should be just as important! Come from a place of love always and you will find yourself so much more at ease, I love that. Here are some of my absolute favourite quotes from the book.
“When you have the courage to open your heart completely to love, a miracle happens. You start perceiving the reflection of your love in everything. Then eating, walking, talking, singing, dancing, showering, working, playing- everything you do becomes a ritual of love. When everything becomes a ritual of love you are no longer thinking; you are feeling and enjoying life. “
“Love and respect are what we should also teach our children, but the only way to teach them love and respect is to love and respect ourselves. There is no other way. Again, we can only give what we have, not what we don’t have.”
"Just to breathe is enough to always be happy, to always be in love."
I know I have said so much about this book that you might think you don’t need to read it, but trust me, I haven’t even scraped the surface. It is an amazing book and a must read for anyone on a path to a better life! I give this book 5 stars because the information is invaluable and I will definitely read it again! I hope you enjoyed my review!
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