Don Miguel Ruiz shot to fame after the success of his first book, “The Four Agreements,” in which he shared the wisdom of the Toltecs, who inhabited his native Mexico during pre-Columbian times.The book was a best seller, with an impressive 4.5 million copies sold since its 1997 publication. He went on to write a few more books, until 2002, when he had a massive heart attack followed by nine weeks in a coma.

It was at that point that Don José Ruiz, his son, decided to learn the ways of his father, and studied his message and wisdom for a year and a half.

Seven years and countless lectures later, they’ve published “The Fifth Agreement” (Amber Allen, $19.95), a followup to “Four.”

“This is not new information; this is thousands of years old,” says Don Miguel, 58, who explains that he did not include the final agreement in the original book because “[readers] could hardly handle the four agreements.”

In their new book, father and son explain that the Toltecs were “women and men of knowledge,” artists and scientists who “conserved spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones.”

The agreements, which were passed down for centuries, are based on the premise that we create the life we live and the stories that fill it, and only we can set ourselves free and live the life we truly want by finding our authentic self.

The first four agreements are: be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions and always do your best.

“It’s all common sense,” says Don Miguel. “The first time you read ‘The Four Agreements’ you’ll think this is typical, but when you apply and if you read it six months later, it’ll be a very different book,” not because the book has changed, but because the reader has.

The fifth agreement as a concept is very simple: Be skeptical, but learn to listen. In other words, don’t accept what you hear as the ultimate truth.

“Learn to listen from your heart, don’t listen to opinions and judgment,” explains Don José, 32.

Don José grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, where “peer pressure … is very strong, and you rebel, and children are blinded by pressure, and life starts training them.”

He says that in the Latino world, young males are often expected to just “be a man” and thus subjected to a world of suffering.

The idea of taking control of your fate has proven itself quite attractive, given the number of self-help books published in the U.S. alone.

The message is often the same — “take control of your life” — but the Ruizes think their book is different because “it comes directly from human integrity, from what we [Toltecs] really are. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, when you read [the book], you know it’s absolutely the truth.”

“The Four Agreements” has been published in nearly three dozen languages. “The Fifth” will be published in Spanish in September.

Don Miguel has recovered completely from his heart attack and remains optimistic.

“I live life intensely and enjoy every single moment,” he said. “Life keeps going, and we keep going with it.”