Of the Four Agreements

It happened not too long ago that I was sitting with my friend J at the cafe downstairs from my apartment.  We were having breakfast and discussing Toltec wisdom.  There was a book I had read a few months ago called The Four Agreements.  She asked me for the list of the Four Agreements again, I had given it to her verbally a few days ago.  This time I wrote it down for her.  One of the items of the list read "Don't Take Things Personally", it seemed a rather commonly held notion.  But yet very, very few practice it regularly.  5 minutes later J's boss showed up with some people and they sat down at the table within earshot of ours.  They started speaking in Chinese, and I noticed J's expression turn dark.  "She's not supposed to be doing that, she tells us not to do that and she's doing it herself.  I don't like being lied to."  She explained that it is against company policy to provide work services independently.  I reminded her of the list I had given her and pointed out the item about taking things personally.  “How often do we speak truthfully to each other?  Very little of what we express is actually what is real, a lot of it is just automated response to a given situation, or an exaggeration of a fact.  Especially if it is a personal statement about ourselves, the majority of us would prefer not to reveal anything intimate about ourselves, we rather cover it up.  We can’t even be honest with our OWN selves, how do you expect us to be truthful with each other?”  She mulled over this briefly then slowly nodded in agreement.