New Agreements for Living: Interview with Don Miguel Ruiz Sr

We use this to create a masterpiece of art which is the story of our life, because we created this story through knowledge. These stories create what we believe is ‘truth’, which is not true at all. It is a distortion of the truth because the truth doesn’t really exist. We perceive the truth and all the knowledge that we receive from our parents, teachers, television, media etc. and we create a whole story in what we believe is truth. This is also the reason why we always believe that we’re right and everybody else is wrong. Seven billion people are wrong!

If we understand what we are talking about right now, we will also understand what domestication is. Our brain is prepared to repeat what we perceive and this is how we create the need to learn. In this way we create an entire language, the language that we speak and every single word of the language is only true because we agree with the meaning of that word. And this becomes the story of our life.

People with authority over us can really influence our beliefs.  The way that we learn is the same way that we teach a dog, by punishment and reward. If a child is doing something that we want them to do we give a gift, we reward them. If they do something we don’t like we punish them. In a certain moment we learn through punishment and reward and very soon we are afraid not to get a reward and to get punished. This process is that strong that at a certain point in our lives we no longer need anybody else to domesticate us, because now we domesticate ourselves. We give ourselves the punishment and reward and we practice and practice for so long that it becomes automatic, it becomes a habit.