TLDR: Nearly 15 years after the global success of the Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz and his son don Jose Ruiz introduce the Fifth Agreement alongside teacher Aaron Landman. Where the Four Agreements taught practitioners to stop believing lies, the Fifth Agreement—"Be Skeptical, But Learn to Listen"—extends this work by teaching how to distinguish truth from illusion. This framework invites seekers to question the conditioned voice of the mind while developing trust in an inner, quieter knowing. The new Five Agreements program draws on decades of family wisdom and is now available as a comprehensive online course designed to help dissolve limiting beliefs, reclaim personal power through language, and free the dreaming mind from illusion.
What Are the Four Agreements and Why Does the Fifth Matter?
The Four Agreements, introduced by don Miguel Ruiz in his bestselling book, form the foundation of a practical spiritual framework centered on personal freedom and authentic expression. As don Jose Ruiz and don Miguel Ruiz reflect in this announcement, the teachings have gained tremendous recognition globally over nearly 15 years. The Four Agreements are: be impeccable with your word, don't make assumptions, don't take anything personally, and always do your best.
However, these four alone address the external behaviors and mental habits that keep people trapped in limiting patterns. The Fifth Agreement serves a different function—it addresses the underlying capacity to perceive clearly. While the first four teach what to do and what not to do, the Fifth teaches how to know. The Fifth Agreement, "Be Skeptical, But Learn to Listen," creates space for practitioners to move beyond illusion and access what the Ruiz family calls "deep inner knowing."
How Does Skepticism Lead to Truth Rather Than Cynicism?
The Fifth Agreement's central instruction—to be skeptical but learn to listen—contains a paradox that many seekers initially miss. Skepticism, in common use, often implies doubt, dismissal, or cynicism. Yet in the context of the Five Agreements, skepticism serves a liberating function. It is the practice of questioning the automatic beliefs generated by the conditioned mind.
Don Miguel Ruiz teaches that the human mind operates largely on programming acquired from family, culture, and society. This programming forms what the Ruiz family calls "the dream"—a largely unconscious filter through which we interpret reality. Most people live inside this dream without questioning it. They believe what their mind tells them as if it were absolute truth. Skepticism, in this framework, means developing the capacity to step back and ask: Is this thought actually true? Or is it merely a belief I inherited?
Listening, conversely, refers to tuning into a quieter, deeper inner voice—what spiritual traditions sometimes call intuition, inner knowing, or the true self. This voice is not the chattering, judge-mental, assumption-making voice of conditioned thought. It is closer to silence than to noise. Learning to listen means developing sensitivity to this subtler signal beneath the loud overlay of mental commentary. The combination of skepticism toward the mind's programming and listening to inner knowing creates a path toward clarity that is neither naive belief nor harsh cynicism.
What Is the Connection Between Word, Belief, and Personal Power?
A central teaching woven through all five agreements is the power of the word. Don Miguel Ruiz teaches that language shapes reality at the deepest level. When practitioners are invited to "be impeccable with your word," they are learning to use language—both spoken and internal—as a tool of creation rather than destruction. Words carry energy. They either affirm life or diminish it.
The connection deepens when combined with the Fifth Agreement. If the mind is full of lies, then the words produced from that mind will perpetuate illusion. Being impeccable with your word while still trapped in the mind's illusions means being perfectly articulate while communicating falsehoods. The Fifth Agreement cuts to the root: to speak truth, one must first perceive truth. To reclaim the power of your word, you must first learn to listen—to distinguish between the voice of conditioning and the voice of authentic knowing.
This is why the Ruiz family describes the Five Agreements program as a way to "reclaim the power of your word." Without the Fifth Agreement's capacity to question and listen, practitioners may remain caught in a loop of carefully stated but ultimately illusory agreements with themselves and others. The Fifth Agreement provides the perceptual foundation upon which impeccable speech can actually rest.
What Does It Mean to "Free Your Dreaming Mind"?
In Ruiz family teachings, the mind creates a "dream"—a model or interpretation of reality that feels solid and real but is actually constructed from beliefs, assumptions, and conditioned patterns. Most people spend their entire lives inside this dream, never questioning whether it corresponds to reality. This dream is not inherently bad, but it is limiting. It restricts possibility, enforces old patterns, and creates suffering.
To "free your dreaming mind" means to recognize that the dream is a dream and to gain agency within it. Instead of being unconsciously run by inherited patterns, a person can consciously choose what they believe, what they assume, and how they interpret experience. The Fifth Agreement is essential to this freedom because it teaches the practice of questioning: How do I know this is true? Who taught me to believe this? Is there another way to see this situation?
This questioning is not nihilistic. It does not conclude that nothing is true. Rather, it clears away the false certainties so that authentic knowing can emerge. The dreaming mind becomes free not by being destroyed but by becoming conscious—aware that it is dreaming and capable of choosing its dream rather than being unconsciously enslaved to an inherited one.
How Does This Program Build on the Ruiz Family Legacy?
Don Miguel Ruiz has spent decades teaching these principles through books, workshops, and personal transmission. His son don Jose Ruiz has continued and deepened this work, bringing his own experience and modern perspective to the ancient wisdom that forms the foundation. Aaron Landman joins them as a teacher who has integrated these principles into his own practice and can bring additional clarity and accessibility to contemporary students.
The new Five Agreements online course represents a deliberate choice to make these teachings available in a format that reaches beyond those who can attend in-person gatherings. The global recognition of the Four Agreements over the past 15 years has created both opportunity and responsibility—opportunity to reach more people, and responsibility to transmit the teachings with integrity. The involvement of don Jose Ruiz alongside don Miguel Ruiz ensures that the teachings remain rooted in family knowledge while evolving to meet current needs.
The program's stated goals—to dissolve limiting beliefs, reclaim the power of your word, and free the dreaming mind—reflect the practical, life-centered focus that has always distinguished Ruiz family teachings from purely abstract philosophy. These are not intellectual puzzles to be solved but living practices to be embodied, practiced, and integrated into daily life.
What Is the Practical Application of These Five Principles?
The Five Agreements function as an integrated system, not five independent ideas. Don Jose and don Miguel Ruiz remind students in their announcement of all five:
- Be impeccable with your word. Use language to affirm truth and respect, not to lie, gossip, or diminish yourself or others.
- Be skeptical, but learn to listen. Question the conditioned mind's assumptions while developing sensitivity to inner knowing.
- Don't make assumptions. Ask for clarity rather than filling gaps with invented narratives.
- Always do your best. Give your full effort in each moment, without self-judgment or perfectionism.
- Don't take anything personally, especially yourself. Recognize that others' actions and words arise from their own dream, and that your worth is not dependent on external validation.
In practice, these work together. When you question your assumptions (Third Agreement), you create space to listen (Fifth Agreement). When you listen deeply, you have material to be impeccable about (First Agreement). When you act from this clearer place without attachment to outcome (Fourth Agreement), you remain unshaken by others' reactions (Second Agreement).
Where to Go From Here
The Five Agreements program is now open for enrollment. Don Miguel Ruiz, don Jose Ruiz, and Aaron Landman invite practitioners—whether new to these teachings or longtime students—to engage with the full framework. The course is designed for those who want to move beyond intellectual understanding into embodied practice, who are ready to question the beliefs that have shaped their lives, and who are willing to listen for a deeper truth beneath the noise of conditioning. For more information and to enroll, visit the course website linked in the program announcement.
