And Then There Were FiveAn interview with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Fifth Agreementby Linda M. Potter
In 1997, the international bestselling book, The Four Agreements, taught us all to be impeccable with our words, not to take anything personally, not to make assumptions and always do our best. The book’s success introduced millions of people to the ways of the Toltec native Mexican tribe and catapulted its author, a gentle, soft-spoken nagual (shaman/teacher) in this ancient wisdom tradition into the media spotlight.
In The Four Agreements, author don Miguel Ruiz tells us that the esoteric wisdom of the Toltecs can be traced back thousands of years to southern Mexico. He characterizes the Toltecs as a society of spiritual scientists and artists who came together to “explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones.” The cornerstone of Toltec teachings, he says, is the belief that life is nothing but a dream, an illusion created by us through our beliefs.
Now, 12 years after The Four Agreements was first introduced, don Miguel, in collaboration with his son, don Jose, has added a The Fifth Agreement to his Toltec teachings. I had an opportunity to speak with this father/son duo about the new book and their spiritual journeys.
LP: Don Miguel, you were raised in a family of teachers and healers. What was the most important thing you learned growing up?
MR: I was born into a family who had those traditions. My Mother was a curandera [healer], my grandfather was a nagual [shaman] and on and on. I learned that everything is possible; nothing is impossible.
LP: Why do you think we are here and what is our purpose?
MR: Our purpose here is just to enjoy life and to be happy. That is the mission of every human. It is important to let people know they could be really happy if they wanted to.
LP: We talk about changing the world for the better. What do you feel needs to change the most?
MR: I ask people everywhere to help me change the world. When I say that, I mean the world we humans create in our own minds. The world that we create with our beliefs can take us into the worst nightmare with a lot of drama, or it can take us into what I call heaven on earth. We cannot change the world if we do not change ourselves first.
The conversation turned to the new book, The Fifth Agreement. Don Miguel suggested that I speak to don Jose.
LP: Don Jose, tell me about this much-anticipated sequel to The Four Agreements.
JR: The Fifth Agreement is based on all my father’s teachings. He did a course called “Angel Training” which is about training the mind. It is about bringing awareness to the dream that is your life. All of life is a dream. The world is a mirror that reflects back to us what we believe. We create our beliefs and the mirror of God reflects them back to us. You can make the decision to become a master of your own awareness and direct your own attention [to what is being reflected back to you] and discover what you believe. That’s when we begin to be skeptical of our own lies. That’s what the fifth agreement is — to be skeptical of our own lies and be in truth at all times. It’s a big opportunity for one to become both his own teacher and his own apprentice.
LP: In order to stop telling ourselves lies, we really need to examine some unpleasant things about ourselves, don’t we?
JR: When you have awareness and enlightenment, you see all the negativity in life and you see it because you now can do something about it. When we meditate, when we close our eyes, we enter our mind and that’s where dreams are born. When we open our eyes, that is when we can begin to take action. The real healer is the one who can cure himself of his own lies.
We can put all our faith into a person who died many years ago that we didn’t even meet, and put him on our altar. Or we can take a picture of ourselves and place it on the altar. When we do that, we are respecting that we don’t have to go outside of ourselves to look for the perfection to know what we already know. When we have respect for ourselves, everything becomes possible.
LP: How does that come about?
JR: We find out that whatever we believe in is just a story and everybody is living in their own story. We have a great opportunity to change the story and stop being a victim. In our tradition, the ancestors say that [taking on the role of victim] offers “minimal potential” to become a nagual. And I believe that the truth is that everyone has the potential to be a nagual.
LP: When you say everyone can be a nagual, do you mean we can all become masters?
JR: Nagual, master, shaman, — whatever you want to call it. All those names are just names for angels. Angels are messengers. There comes a point in our dreams where we ask the question — what kind of messengers are we? The answer is in the way we live our life. All men or women who serve truth are angels. It doesn’t matter if they’ve studied for 20 years or if they’ve just awakened. It doesn’t matter if they’ve studied at all.
Don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose will be making a rare appearance in St Louis Thursday, April 8 at 7:00 pm at 560 Music Hall - 560 Trinity Ave., Delmar Loop in University City. Tickets ($40 general admission) are available online at www.BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling (970) 443-0732.