The first of the Four Agreements is to be impeccable with your word. But what does that mean?
In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz states:
Impeccability means “without sin,” where pecatus is Latin for “sin” and “im-” is a prefix which means “without.” “Religions talk about sin and sinners, but let’s understand what it really means to sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself…From this point of view the whole concept of sin changes from something moral or religious to something commonsense. Sin begins with rejection of yourself.” (pg. 31)
I freakin’ love this definition of sin. I first came upon a similar definition when reading a book by Rabbi David Aaron. In fact, other lessons of don Miguel Ruiz remind me of those of Rabbi David Aaron, in that they are intuitive and focus on our very own lives as carrying divinity, as opposed to stretching outside ourselves to reach G-d—which is the message I feel I was taught in the many religious studies classes throughout my upbringing.
Mindful Nuggets 