Vision Quest

By Michelle Herrera Mulligan -- Críticas, 1/1/2005

Don Miguel Ruiz does not believe he is an exceptional man. He’s sold more than four million copies of his titles in English and almost 200,000 of the Spanish-language translations in the United States. Los cuatro acuerdos (The Four Agreements) has sold over 120, 000 copies alone. He believes these sales will grow exponentially through the years. Yet, when asked how he’s achieved this success, Ruiz seems to feel that talent has nothing to do with it.

Ruiz’s millions of fans around the world might disagree. The author has enjoyed an almost cultish following from his best-selling titles The Four Agreements (Los cuatro acuerdos), The Mastery of Love (La maestría del amor), The Four Agreements Companion Book (El cuaderno de los cuatro acuerdos), and Prayers, A Communion with Our Creator (Oraciones con nuestro creador) since the first one was released by Amber-Allen Publishing in 1997. They’ve been translated into eight languages, and sales are booming abroad as well.

According to Ruiz, the wisdom he imparts in his books is based on ancient knowledge we all possess, something he takes no credit for. “I teach from the [Mexican] Toltec tradition, which hopes to take people on a journey into themselves,” says Ruiz. “I wanted to make The Four Agreements simple and short, and use language anyone could understand.”

The combination of mythology, common sense, and profound musings make Ruiz, who was raised in rural Mexico, a modern-day Carlos Castañeda. Ruiz’s precise, minimalist approach is his most impressive tool. He asks his readers to make the following agreements with themselves: Be Impeccable with Your Word, Don’t Take Things Personally, Never Make Assumptions, and Always Do Your Best. These agreements are the basis of his philosophy, and they aim directly at our modern lives. Ruiz uses ordinary examples to penetrate our daily vanities, awarding us an opportunity to access the truths we harbor in some secret part of ourselves.

“The Toltecs believe that every human is an artist, and the art we create is our lives,” says Ruiz. He hopes to help people tap into that art in his latest installment, La voz del conocimiento (The Voice of Knowledge), which addresses how humans allow society’s value systems and their own fears to pollute their goals. Amber-Allen will publish an initial 10,000 copies of La voz this April, alongside the long-awaited Spanish audiobook version of Los cuatro acuerdos.

Ruiz’s own goals didn’t necessarily include being a writer when he left his job as a doctor in Tijuana. In 1987, he moved to San Diego, Calif. and worked with his mother, a curandera, in spiritual healing and teaching. Part of that teaching included taking students on “power journeys” to ancient sites around the world.

Janet Mills, the president of Amber- Allen, a publishing house that specializes in personal growth (she also publishes Deepak Chopra), met Ruiz when a friend recommended one of the author’s power journeys to Mexico. Although Ruiz was relatively unknown at the time, Mills came back certain his lectures would make a great book. “Most books submitted to us are by people who are still struggling with a certain technique, who haven’t yet found peace in their lives,” says Mills, who has co-written several of Ruiz’s books. “It’s rare to find someone who has mastered an approach, who really walks the walk. When you talk to Don Miguel, you notice right away that his perspective is completely distinct. He’s truly living in a different place.”

And that’s a place that countless celebrities want to reside. In May of 1999, Oprah Winfrey had Ellen DeGeneres on her show, and she asked the comedian how she dealt with losing her sitcom. DeGeneres asked Winfrey if she had heard of The Four Agreements. The rest was history for Ruiz. Oprah made him a superstar when she had him on her “favorite things” program in October of 2000. Winfrey found the book’s advice on not taking things personally helped her deal with the tabloids’ relentless cracks at her life. She and her staff bought copies for their friends, and Winfrey recommended the book in her magazine. Actor Peter Coyote also raised Ruiz’s profile by declaring on New Age mainstay New Dimensions radio that Ruiz’s work had transformed him. Coyote narrated The Four Agreements audiobook.

But Ruiz wouldn’t have been able to share his teachings without his own dramatic transformation. Late one evening in the 1970s, Ruiz feel asleep at the wheel while driving in Mexico. He awoke suddenly, right as the car crashed into a wall of concrete. Ruiz remembers that he was not in his body as he watched himself pull his two friends out of the car. “I knew in that moment that I was more than my physical body,” says Ruiz. “I asked myself, if I’m more than this, what am I?” A period of deep introspection led him to study ancient wisdom with his mother and to complete an apprenticeship with a shaman in the Mexican desert. Then he decided his call was to teach the Toltec tradition.

About 20 years later, Ruiz’s beliefs were put further to the test. In February 2002, he suffered a near-fatal heart attack. His weakened state led him to halt his extensive public speaking and lecturing, passing the torch to his son, José Luis Ruiz.

“After my heart attack, I had to relearn everything,” says Ruiz. “My physical body is weaker, and I’m moving toward more personal creation, through painting, art, and personal expression.”

Ruiz does plan at least one more book in the series, which he calls “a psychology book, the biggest, most difficult in the series.” He says it will serve as a textbook for people in powerful positions and who they are in relationship to others. “I will attempt to hone in on what humans truly are.”

Despite the eternal conflicts that seem to consistently plague world politics, Ruiz believes the essence of humanity is reaching a higher place.

“Humanity is coming closer to the truth. Seven hundred years ago, women accused of being witches were burned at the stake. The world has changed. We are still evolving.”