New Agreements for Living: Interview with Don Miguel Ruiz Jr
“Forgiveness is the action of accepting and letting go”
SS: Can you briefly explain The Five Levels of Attachment?
MRJ: To me The Five Levels of Attachment is an instrument for transformation, it basically allows us to understand where we’re at. You can say that it allows us to reestablish unconditional love with ourselves as we recognize how attached we are towards unconditional love. I like to raise this question to myself: “Do I control knowledge, or is knowledge controlling me?” So I will present each level as with that answer.
Level 1: Authentic Self – I am a living being regardless of what I know. I give life to this body and I give life to my belief system. But regardless of what I believe, I am alive.
Level 2: Preference – I use knowledge as the instrument to go in the preference of my life which is the direction I am. I am still aware that I am life, I am the authentic self but because of that I can go in any direction in life. I mean to express my preference and I will use knowledge to go in that direction to manifest it as the instrument. I use it by attaching to knowledge in that moment and detaching when I am done. Basically I can engage in the moment and when the moment is done, I let go because I never lost awareness of self.
Level 3: Identity – I use knowledge to give me a basis of who I am and I use knowledge to reflect my truth. Basically in the direction of my preference and where I want to go in life with my passions, I will name myself. I can name myself a pianist, I can call myself a musician or I can call myself a Toltec. When I give myself a definition it allows me, based on knowledge, to understand myself. Life is now attached to a definition.
