Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of healers and raised in rural Mexico by a curandera (healer) mother and nagual (shaman) grandfather. The family anticipated don Miguel would embrace their centuries old legacy of healing and teaching and as a nagual, carry forward the esoteric Toltec knowledge. Instead, distracted by modern life, don Miguel chose to attend medical school and later teach and practice as a surgeon.
Don Miguel began teaching in the United States, with his mother, the Curandera, Sarita in 1987. He taught small groups of people in a small room in Logan Heights, CA. Working with Sarita, he first began with healing practices. As his knowledge of English grew, he realized that he preferred to share his lineage through oral tradition, rather than a healing tradition.
Don Miguel's students grew in numbers and his mythologies and guidance grew with them. He appeared in lectures in Santa Fe, NM, Los Angeles, CA, Sacramento, CA, Santa Rosa, CA and in many other locales. He began to share the wisdom that resulted in the creation of The Four Agreements®, when he witnessed his various students struggling to quiet their minds. Don Miguel created a specific series of practical tools, that when used by anyone, can result in consistent and long-term personal transformation. The author of The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz, is a surgeon who returned to his heritage as a Toltec shaman after a near-death experience. Seeking meaning in his life, he turned to ancient wisdom for how to live in harmony with oneself and with others. The result of his study was The Four Agreements. When I first started reading the four agreements’s thought just another philosophy book trying to get recognition in the world, but Miguel Ruiz idea in this book has allowed me to see the world differently. In the beginning of the book the writer talks of our life being just a dream of the humans before us. Which made me think if this was