by Jill V. Mangino: As a world-renowned spiritual teacher, what Are you the most proud of?
Don Miguel Ruiz: I am grateful for the 30 years of my work and the way it has influenced humanity, especially all the books that became international bestsellers and were translated into 37 different languages, which means they have gone all around the world.
JVM: Of all the international, bestselling books you have written, do you have a favorite?
DMR: All my book are my favorites. However, I really like Prayers: A Communion with Our Creator because it leads me step by step through the most important relationship, which is with myself. I am the love of my life, the marriage between my mind and my body.
JVM: How do you pray? Is there A secret to praying?
DMR: Every prayer is an agreement with yourself. The mind is asking the real you, which is life, to guide your decisions for every single choice that you make. My personal prayer is simply my joy to be alive, and to live in gratitude and generosity. For me personally, I don’t pray using words – it is just with my intent. Why do I need to pray with “words,” to something external, when I know what I want? For many years, I used to pray as an act of power, but that was before I had 100% faith in myself.
JVM: Do you have a daily ritual or practice?
DMR: I live every day full of gratitude for the body in which I live, treating it with great love and respect. It allows me to enjoy life, experiencing everything that I perceive, exploring the events that hook my attention, modifying what I can change, and letting go of whatever I cannot.
JVM: Can you tell me about your latest project, The Agreements for Life?
DMR: It is a program to help people become more and more authentic. I created the program because most people say The Five Agreements are very simple, but difficult to apply. So The Agreements for Life takes everyone step by step to their own authenticity. It consists of 30 short videos, with a prayer and homework assignments.
JVM: How do you define “Authentic”?
DMR: Everything that is true is authentic. When we were born, we did not have knowledge. As soon as we have language, we learn to describe everything through that language and we learn to be like our family, our parents, those at school, etc. Society teaches us conditional love; i.e., “I love you if you are the way I want you to be.”
Then we love ourselves with conditions. We need opinions, we need approval, we create an image of ourselves that is not what we are. This how we lose our authenticity and create masks – how we become “domesticated.”
To be authentic is to stop pretending to be what think you are, because you are not. Practice makes the Master. You can reconcile what you are and what you want to be. The Agreements for Life takes you through practices to help you discover the authenticity you were born with and reclaim the unconditional love expressed through you as life.
JVM: Is this like unity consciousness?
DMR: Unity Consciousness is the experience of the 7 billion plus people on the planet being moved by the same force, which is God. It is the awareness to see what we really are: One Living Being. However, this is a truth that really can’t be explained with words; the minute you say it, it is no longer truth. If you hold a beautiful flower in your hand, you can write a whole book about it. However, you are still just you perceiving and experiencing it from your own point of view.
JVM: What makes you happy?
DMR: What makes me the happiest are the times I get together with my family, those times when I am with my children, grandchildren, my brothers and sisters and my very close friends, as well as when I am with my extended family in each one of my lectures and power journeys. My greatest joy is just to be alive!
