If you cannot love your partner the way she is, someone else can love her just as she is. Don’t waste your time, and don’t waste your partner’s time. This is respect.” Love has no expectations. Fear is full of expectations. With fear we do things because we expect that we have to, and we expect that others are going to do the same. That is why fear hurts and love doesn't hurt.

If you take your happiness and put it in someone's hands, sooner or later,s he is giong to break it. If you give your happiness to someone else, she can always take it away. Then if happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love, you are responsible for your happiness. We can never make anyone responsible for our own happiness, [...] p53 At this point I realized that he is either an Atheist, or believes in an unformed God that is simply the spirit of life within each of us. He does not believe there is any right or wrong…it is all perception. To me it slapped our Founding Fathers in the face - “We hold these truths to be self evident.” Don Miguel Ruiz would argue that they are only self-evident because we are all in the same dream, they are self-evident because we have convinced ourselves they are true.When you are aware that everyone around you has emotional wounds with emotional poison, you can easily understand the relationship of humans in what the Toltecs call the dream of hell. From the Toltec perspective, everything we believe about ourselves, and everything we know about our world, is a dream". You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you remember what they did to you." Segundo: no creer en mí misma (no se refiere a la capacidad, sino a las creencias/programaciones, sentido de lo bueno o malo)

However, I found the book difficult at times because it frequently seemed to fall into the realm of over simplification. Perhaps non western based concepts of 'enlightenment' are supposed to be by nature - simple - and I am missing the point? But I'm not entirely convinced of this. I agree that Western thought is often too focused on having, taking and receiving, rather than giving as a source of joy and happiness - and I agree that something needs to change, that happiness shouldn't be about having and taking. However I also find the idea that you should be overflowing with love for everything and everyone around you all the time, unrealistic. I think that while trying to be more accepting in our daily lives would probably be of benefit to ourselves and others I also feel there are times when anger, sadness and negative feelings are justifiable and sometimes cannot be avoided. In The Mastery of Love, don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships. Using insightful stories to bring his message to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom and joy that are our birthright, and restore the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships. The Mastery of Love includes: Injustices continue to appear throughout our lives. They come from our siblings, our school, and society. With each injustice we experience, resent compounds. With continuous resentment amidst, day by day, we lose the ability to forgive. These injustices teach us to believe that we are not safe to be who we really are. To be who we really are attracts punishment. Thus, we pretend and practice what we are not. This book has a lot of good information in it, and while I think it's information that we all know deep down, sometimes you need someone to plainly say it (or write it) to remind you. At least that is how it was in my case. If you look at any religious description of hell, it is the same as human society, the way we dream. Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends.”

What makes you happy is love coming out of you. And if you are generous with your love, everyone is going to love you. You are never going to be alone if you are generous.” You are complete. When love comes out of you, you are not searching for love because you are afraid to be alone. When you have all that love for yourself, you can be alone, and there’s no problem. You are happy to be alone, and to share is also fun.”

In The Mastery of Love, don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships. Using insightful stories to bring his message to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom and joy that are our birthright, and restore the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships.The happiest moments in our lives are when we are playing just like children, singing and dancing, exploring and creating just for fun.” 7. These words remind us of the overflowing love available in our hearts: You are going to be [...] right [...] if she loves you just the way you are and she doesn't want to change you. She doesn't have to be responsible for you; she can trust that you are going to be what you claim you are, what you project you are. She can be as honest as possible and project to you what she is. p77 This book really speaks towards the way society can implant negative thoughts on us, and how we can be raised to believe them. We are all born innocent and full of love, and somewhere along the way we learn how to be distrustful, and how to be hurt, and to be hurtful in return. Our parents learned this while they grew, and they (along with the rest of society) then teach it to us as we grow up, and the cycle continues ever onward. Personally, I would hope that I have the strength to stop that cycle, and leave my children full of love and respect. Third concept: I'm so sorry to inform you you've been infected with an undignoused disease. Yes, ladies & gentlemen, this has progressed to you're being infected with a mental disease. Let's recap not only are you causing your fantasy dream world to be hell you're now diseased.