Don Miguel ruiz Well, this is the most exciting and beautiful question because love is everything that exists. I often get asked what’s the meaning of love.It’s how I call the truth. Truth and love is the same thing. The trust exists long before the creation of humanity and will exist long after the distinction of humanity. Truth is everything and love is the same thing.Love is everything. Everything is love. Humans perceive love but distort it.The way that we learn to love is the way our family and society loves

Don Miguel ruiz We learn just like everybody else to love with conditions. Our love is a conditional love, and that’s how we love everybody. It’s how everybody loves us and knows what’s the meaning of love. It’s with conditions, and because we learn to love with conditions, it is the same way that we love ourselves. We love ourselves with conditions which mean that I love you if you let me control you.If you do whatever I want you to do, then I love you. If you walk the way I want you to walk, talk the way I want you to talk, behave the way I want you to behave, then I love you. But if not, I will not love you. That means that I need to control you to love you. But this is the way that everybody also loves you. They try to control you. They try to tell you what to do, what not to do, what to say, how to behave, etc. They even have that little wall of control.The main problem is the way we love ourselves. We love ourselves with conditions.I love myself only if I become what I wish to be. The punishment for that kind of love is rejection. Know what’s the meaning of love and avoid rejection. If you cannot control me, you will reject me. And if I cannot control myself, I will reject myself and then I will carry guilt, blame, all that garbage and anger. Then, we can say that the whole problem of humanity is because we love with conditions.

Don Miguel ruiz If we understand that point, we also will understand the roots of all the constant violence, injustice, even war. That kind of love, which is not love, but the opposite is has ruled humanity for thousands and thousands of years. But the real love exists and we need to understand what’s the meaning of love. We perceive love but we distorted, and love is unconditional. It’s just the way it is. It is real and is truth.But the love that we use is the opposite. You can’t create the story of your life, the story of humanity, and the story of our personal life. This is how we rule our life because our love is conditional.

Don Miguel ruiz First of all is to understand that every single human is an artist.We all are artists, and we create. It’s what we do. We are always creating. As artists, we can master the story of our lives.

Don Miguel ruiz That story is about the main character of the story, which is why you believe you are. And you will be the main character of that story. Everything that you perceive, you believe, and everybody else’s does is about you. Understand what’s the meaning of love and self-discovery.The whole story is about you but if you can’t understand that it’s just a story. It’s only true for us and nobody else, then perhaps everything will start changing.

Don Miguel ruiz We create every secondary character of the story. The people who live in our mind, we only know what we perceive about them. But, all those secondary characters are based on characters that exist. Because it’s true that you have a mother, and father. But the ones who live in your story is just an image that you create about your father and your mother. It’s an image that you create about your beloved, your children, your friends. Everybody around you, there’s only pictures of the real one. But they are the ones who lived in your story. They are the people who populate your story and help you understand what’s the meaning of love.You don’t know anybody. You only know what you believe about others.You believe about those images that you create. It’s fascinating when we understand how we create that story, but even go a little deeper. There’s another character that we create. This character is the most important one of the story, which is the main character. In my case, is Miguel Ruiz.

Don Miguel ruiz Miguel Ruiz is the main character of my story. So, for many years, I used to believe that I am Miguel Ruiz, that Miguel Ruiz was real. But then, I discovered that it’s just my creation. It’s a character that I create with everybody else’s help.While I was going up, I care everybody else’s opinions, my parents’, my brother’s, my sister’s, my friend’s, teachers’. Everybody has an opinion about me. They want me to be the way they believe I should be. I made an agreement with all of them, with myself, and I try to please everybody else. I tried to be the way they want me to be, but it was impossible. They did not know what’s the meaning of love and how to love unconditionally.There was no way that I can be like everybody else wants me to be. They create this character who tried to adapt to every circumstance, to every event happened in life, and the name is Miguel Ruiz. But, I’m a Miguel Ruiz? No, I am not. The truth is that I have no idea what I am. I know that I create Miguel Ruiz and he’s not real but looks real, feels real.For a long time, I believe it was real until I find out that it’s not true. I found out that Miguel Ruiz, the main character of my story is just my creation. The whole story is about Miguel Ruiz, and this is the main point in this in The Toltec Art of Life and Death.

Don Miguel ruiz It’s key.When you love without conditions, you have no expectations. Whatever you do is because you wanted to, but you don’t have to. You don’t have to believe in any judgment or opinion from anybody else. Because now, you love yourself unconditionally and just love yourself just the way you are. You don’t have to be anything else but you. You don’t have to pretend to be anything. It’s okay to be you, and you find love as perfect just the way you are.Once that happens, you’ll gain all that respect above yourselves. You will respect yourself completely 100%. When you respect yourself, not just to respect everybody around you. You will understand that they also create their story. And what they know about you is only what they do believe about you. They don’t know you, and because you respect their story. They are free to be or to do whatever they wanted the world to be.Everybody around you has that love and respect for you. It’s just wonderful to live in that way.

Don Miguel ruiz The whole thing happened when I had a major heart attack. I knew that life was very short and maybe I have a few hours before I die. I was excited because I have the opportunity to share with everyone the best way to leave our physical body. There was no fear at all. Not everyone knows what’s the meaning of love.It was a very intense pain, but I was excited about the outcome. It was so perfect for me to feel that experience. As you know, when we are dying, it’s like the whole story of our life is just in front of us. You can remember everything, and it takes no time. It’s very fast.It was one moment when I went into nine weeks of coma. For nine weeks, I have that little vision, but I don’t know who she is. The whole nine weeks became 10 seconds from 1 minute, and it doesn’t matter because it’s still a whole story.

Don Miguel ruiz In that story, my mother Sarita tried to pull me back to life. She taught me what’s the meaning of love. By doing that, she went into my dream. She let me know very clearly that I have to wait to die before she dies.She did everything in her power to pull me back. Then, what I did is to say, “Okay. Well, if you want to bring me back to life, you have to gather all those great memories. And tell the truth, and in that way, perhaps you can bring life to my body. To do that, you need to face all those lies that exist in my mind,” because we can say that a lie is just a distortion of the truth.

Don Miguel ruiz Like when you see yourself in a mirror, what is you see in the mirror is exactly the opposite of the real you. Then, we perceive love the way it is but in our mind, it’s just a reflection of that love, is exactly the opposite, and it’s full of lies.In this book, I create this character that represents everything that I know, but everything that I know was focusing the main character of my story, which is Miguel Ruiz but without being Miguel Ruiz. Then, we create that secondary character which the name is Lala. Lala is everything that I know with all those lies, and this is precisely what Sarita, my mother have to face to challenge all those lies to get the truth and to redeem that great character in my story, which is my knowledge.

Don Miguel ruiz Then, the whole story is a redemption of knowledge. This means to clean up all those lies so that only the truth lives in those memories. Then, by the end in the redemption of knowledge, then they might just dissipate and go with the creator, with everything.After nine weeks of coma, I opened my eyes again. We can say it was an act of supreme love that came from my mother to me to bring me back. It’s unconditional love. But, the beautiful part is standing the direction between my mother and Lala. That also affected my mother and the belief system of my mother also. It was beautiful when finally I opened my eyes, and I see the transformation on my mother who owns that experience.

Don Miguel ruiz Well, we can say that love is the real truth. It’s the energy. We can call it God also.Every time that I say this, it’s incredibly simple. It’s nothing but matter and energy. Matter has a beginning, has an end. Energy is eternal. Energy cannot be changed and cannot be destroyed. Then, if this is we remember, then matter only can move if a force moves matter. And a movement only can be stopped if a force stops matter. But that force, which eventually is life. Then life is love or God. It’s the same thing. It’s everything that exists that is in mortal.

Don Miguel ruiz When we leave our physical body, the physical body will disappear sooner or later sometimes little by little. But, the matter will be recycled and create more matter. Well, the energy will create more matter, but this also means, what are we? Are we the matter or are we the force that moves matter?If you see your physical body made of matter, matter is made up of millions and millions of atoms and electrons. But the space in between the atoms and electrons is hundreds of times bigger than matter itself, and that is moving everything. It’s life. The size of life is immensely larger than matter. It’s that life who gives shape to that matter.It creates organs. It can provide the function to those organs. It’s just beautiful to see everything. We can see that matter reflects life. By reflected life, it creates an entire virtual reality, a whole reality, which is the mind.Then the mind is a reflection of life through matter. Matter reflects life, and creates the mind. Then the mind creates the whole story by perceiving life. This includes, perceiving love, distorting it, and giving shape to everything, and believe to have an emotional relation to everything also. It is so beautiful to see all that wonderful interaction.

Don Miguel ruiz Then, when we create that story, the evolution of that story. We can say that if we live with the story of everybody else, seven billion people’s stories is the same with my story. The only thing that changed is names, characters, the main character. But usually, the human story is very similar. Love, close bonds are matter, and all this. However, at the end, they don’t look real but is based on reality.When somebody read the story of my life, and they compare it on their own. They will see that this book is guiding them how to change the world that they create. To modify the story that they create, they need to redeem the belief system that they have. The main character of their story that the demon that exists in everybody’s mind is nothing. It is a distortion and is not even real. That can apply to everyone.When we read the book, we can be part of that book and see that story.  It is guiding us to ourselves to be authentic. It teaches us to console all those dramas into joy, into happiness, into peace until all persons know heaven, which is a heaven of love. This is the intention this beautiful book.

Don Miguel ruiz Exactly. That is the conclusion. There is no, “me” anymore. It’s just an identity.

Don Miguel ruiz It’s perfect.

Don Miguel ruiz We can say that. That’s the most beautiful part.

Don Miguel ruiz We don’t have to believe anymore and not to disagreement. Be skeptical but learn to listen. Don’t believe me. Don’t believe yourself, and don’t believe anybody else. They live in their own stories, and that’s the way it’s only true for them but not for you. You live in your own story, and that is your truth, even that is unnecessarily the truth but can get you to that truth. Because when you get the truth, you put yourself aside somewhere in between the truth and the truth.

Don Miguel ruiz Yes.My son Don Miguel Ruiz Jr., talked about The Four Agreements in his teachings. He says how people corrupted the four agreements and changed it into these four conditions, which is conditional love.I only befriend with someone that is impeccable with the world. I will not be around people who take this personally. I don’t like people who make assumptions. I don’t like people who don’t do their best.Even something as beautiful as the four agreements, we can corrupt it. We can use it against ourselves just like everybody else because we can use it to judge other people. They take over the world.

Don Miguel ruiz Well, practice makes the master.We need to practice love and the way to practice love is just to be yourself and not try to be anybody else.Love is an equilibrium between gratitude and generosity. When you practice gratitude and generosity, you see that there is love in everything around you to live this single moment. Every moment of your life is love.First, you have that gratitude just to be alive. Every time you wake up, you have so much gratitude that you live with that gratitude. Gratitude changes into generosity when you give that wherever you go. Then, you give your love everywhere. When you perceive everybody else’s, you have that gratitude for whatever anyone does for you.

Don Miguel ruiz When you practice that love, be grateful for everything and be generous with yourself. You can see that life becomes a great paradise. You can see that what is stopping that gratitude and generosity is selfishness. Selfishness is what stopping you from sharing, to keep giving, or saying thanks to them. Then, this is what I would say the limit of love is other people’s ego. Other people’s selfishness to the point that they will not understand that and you want me to judge or anything.If they are not grateful for what you do, you just don’t do it. You stop giving and sharing. Then, they are the ones who close those doors. Not you. They’ve been trying to take your generosity, but there’s nothing but selfishness. This is where you stop giving. But it’s nothing personal. It’s simple that you don’t play that game. Because you love yourself, you respect yourself, and you will not cross those lines. Also you will not allow anybody to cross those lines to you.

Don Miguel ruiz This is beautiful.Just to be alive is just great.

Don Miguel ruiz I would like to clarify that the word Toltec means artist. When I talk about Toltec wisdom, I’m talking about the wisdom of the artist, and there are 7 billion artists on this beautiful planet earth, and they’re a Toltec in their own language.When we look at what’s the meaning of love, we see that we are artists. We are Toltec. We are artists, and as an artist, we have the eye of beauty. We love to see the beauty, and with the beauty, we can create anything and practice it in any different direction of life.Whatever we do for life, we use that. We are the artists. We create, and if we combine what we create, then we can change it. We can change it because we are the artist and we create it. No one can change it but us.

Don Miguel ruiz I like everybody to understand that point. And in this book, I show how I shift my story that they can shift their own story and to be part of what I aim to everybody around the world.Please help me to change the world. By doing that, I told them to change the world, their personal world. The world that they can change and nobody else can.If you can change your own world, which you can, your personality will then change. And part of that change is part of that revolution, the revolution of love.

Don Miguel ruiz You’re very welcome. It’s my privilege to speak with you about what’s the meaning of love. Thank you.