What are the three masteries as defined by don Miguel Ruiz, and why did he setup his teaching this way?
I’ve studied Toltec wisdom for the past 25 years almost, and one of the most powerful things about the Toltec path is how effective it is at helping people transform their lives. I’ve also studied Buddhism and Hinduism, and having spent decades attempting to “wake up “using simple meditation practices, I’ve recently realized that my early years following the Toltec path were much more transformative for me than the decades spent doing Buddhist meditation practices, and more or less finding very little about my life changed.
Some might argue that with Buddhism, the goal is not to change your life, but to fully accept your life as it is. But I think there’s a bit of disingenuousness to that statement, because while a lot of Buddhist followers will protest that they are indifferent to how the external aspect of their lives are going, in reality, they most likely got into Buddhism because they wanted something in their life to change.
So let’s get into the masteries themselves, and we’ll figure out why the Toltec path is so transformative.
1. The Mastery of Awareness
“The first mastery, the Mastery of Awareness, is the first step toward personal freedom because we cannot be free if we don’t know what we are, where we are, or what kind of freedom we are looking for. In this mastery, we become aware of the fog that is in our mind. We become aware that we are dreaming all the time, and that everybody else is dreaming. The Mastery of Awareness can also be called the Mastery of Truth.” ~ don Miguel Ruiz
Do we like the life we’re living? If so, we should keep doing and thinking exactly what we have been up to this point. If we want aspects of our lives to change, then we first need to be aware of the unconscious habits that are depleting our vital life force energy each moment.
“But why should i desire to change my life? Desire only leads to suffering. No, instead, I will simply accept everything in my life as it is, fully and completely.” To do this is ultimate awakening and power: it is the Tao. But it is also very hard for most of us to do right out of the gate. It is like doing calculus when you haven’t even completed algebra.
We think the thought: I will accept all things in my life, fully and completely, like the gurus of old. Yet an hour later, we find ourselves huddled in the corner in fear of a terrible future or a shameful past we can’t stop thinking about. Because our vital energy is not accessible to us to fully accept all yet.
This is why I believe Miguel taught in the 3 masteries, each one increasing your personal power a little bit more than the previous.
2. Mastery of Transformation
“The second Toltec mastery, the Mastery of Transformation, shows us how to change the dream of our life. The goal of the second mastery is to put order into the chaos of all of the voices inside our mind — to face our fears, to transform our fears, and to get results. The result we want is the freedom to live our own life instead of the life of our belief system. The Mastery of Transformation is achieved by changing our agreements and reprogramming our own mind in our own way. The Four Agreements are a summary of the Mastery of Transformation” ~don Miguel Ruiz
3. Mastery of Love
“The result of the first two masteries is the Mastery of Love or Intent. From the Toltec point of view, love or intent is that part of life that makes the transformation of energy possible. It is Life itself; it is unconditional love. Everything is made with love because everything comes from God or Life. When we master love, we master the dream of our life, and when all three masteries are accomplished, we reclaim our divinity and become one with God. Then every action we take is an expression of the One Being. This is the goal of the Toltec.” ~don Miguel Ruiz
