Inspiration by Don Miguel Ruiz

-- Críticas, 2/1/2003

A favorite of Oprah and the best seller lists, Miguel Ruiz's newest book, Oraciones (Prayers), hits the U.S. market in Spanish and English.

In the book of Oraciones, I propose a different relationship between humans and their Creator. In this book, I show the different ways that we can approach our Creator. For example, we can be victimized when we feel the immensity of life putting so much pressure on us that we feel we need to be rescued. On the other hand, I present a new approach to God, where we can see ourselves as equal to God, and we approach God as an equal. We can see ourselves as co-creators with our Creator. My intention is that whoever reads this book and aligns with this way of thinking can approach the Creator in a different way and instead of being victimized can take responsibility for their actions, for their beliefs, for their creation, and improve their lives 100 percent. The difference between this beautiful book of prayers and Los cuatro acuerdos (The Four Agreements) is that there I propose a new approach to life using common sense. With this book, we can go much higher into the intimate relationship with the one who created us.

There are so many things that happened during my life that really affect the way I write. There are many wonderful and great experiences that pushed me to find the right words so that I can express myself wherever I go. Being in medical school really helped me learn how to have clear thoughts, to improve my intelligence, and to find the easiest ways to communicate my work to the people around me. By going back and relearning all the old traditions that are not really that old, it affected my way of thinking, even though the ancient traditions are full of superstitious mythology. My intention was to clean the Toltec knowledge and take away the superstitions that corrupt that way of thinking, and to take the power away from the mythology so that only the true meaning of the mythology remains. The result of that is pure common sense, and we can see the truth by itself. I discovered that if we do the same with the rest of the religions around the world, the same thing happens. If we take away the superstitions and mythology from all religions, we will find that all religions are saying the same thing. During the time that my books were enjoying their success, I was traveling around the nation giving lectures to many people. I saw how my words affected so many hearts, and I saw that people were ready for the next step. Just to see their requests for more is what inspired me to keep writing and to keep creating so that I could give more of myself wherever I went.

This year has been a hard year for me. In the beginning of the year I went on a Power Journey to Teotihuacan and Oaxaca, Mexico. At the time, I knew that my life was reaching the end, and I knew that almost everything I had created was ending. I talked to my apprentices in Teotihuacan and let them know that the end of my life was very, very close. I let them know that there was no reason to feel grief or to create a great drama. At the end of February, I had a heart attack. It was a massive heart attack that kept me in the hospital for nine weeks. I was in a coma several times, and I was close to death at least three times. After that I had a miraculous recovery. Once my physical body decided to stay alive, the next challenge was to recover my health. I remember that when I awoke I couldn't move a finger. I had no muscles in my body, just the bones and skin. I had to relearn how to walk. I had to relearn how to eat. Once I was at home, all my creativity returned to me; everything that l left behind started coming back. The first thing I did was to go to my group of apprentices and present myself to them and share what I had experienced. I have been recovering for almost eight months now, and my physical body is getting stronger and stronger. I have a device in my heart that is helping my heart give energy to the rest of my body, and my mind is completely normal, like it was before the heart attack.

One of the projects that I am working on now is to finish my next book, which is about the first agreement, or what I call the Voice of Knowledge. It's about the impeccability of the word because this is what we really are, the word. This book is almost finished, and my next project is to write about my death. Before my death, I had a lot of concepts about what happens to us after we die, and it was during my death that many of the beliefs that stem from the different philosophies around the world about death were confirmed.

Editor's Note: Oraciones will be reviewed in the March/April issue of Críticas.

See news story on Don Miguel's sales to date with Amber-Allen Publishing.