Previous
Parasite
In the closing passage of The Four Agreements, Ruiz recites a prayer in which an old man gives the reader a flame that he received from his teacher’s heart. The flame represents universal love, which, for Ruiz, is the very fabric of reality. The old man explains that the flame he received from his teacher engulfed him and grew to light up everything in the universe, which enabled the old man to recognize that when he looks at something else, he is also looking at himself. In essence, the light of the flame represents the old man’s ability to see that he and everyone else are all the same thing: love. The flame thus captures what reality actually is for Ruiz: one light (or fire) that unites everything as a single embodiment of love.
Flame Quotes in The Four Agreements
The The Four Agreements quotes below all refer to the symbol of Flame. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8. Prayers
Quotes
And then the old man opens his own chest, takes out his heart with that beautiful flame inside, and he puts that flame your own heart.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Four Agreements LitChart as a printable PDF.
Flame Symbol Timeline in The Four Agreements
The timeline below shows where the symbol Flame appears in The Four Agreements. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8. Prayers
...light coming out of his head. The old man explains that his teacher took a flame from his heart and put it in the old man’s heart. The flame grew into...
(full context)
