Don Miguel Ruiz

His work is best-received among members of the New Thought movement that focuses on ancient teachings as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Ruiz is listed as one of the Watkins 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2018. Some have associated Ruiz's work with Carlos Castaneda, author of The Teachings of Don Juan.

Fluent in Spanish and English, he often lectures and leads retreats in the United States. In February 2002, Ruiz suffered a near-fatal heart attack. The damage from the heart attack and subsequent coma left him with a heart functioning at only 16% of capacity and in constant pain. He claims to have handed over an Eagle-Knight lineage to his son Don José Ruiz. On October 9, 2010, Ruiz underwent a heart transplant at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was at a retreat at the Lotus Ranch in Wimberley, Texas when he was notified that a heart was available, and had chartered a plane to get back to Los Angeles.

In 2000, Don Miguel Ruiz published The Four Agreements Companion Book.

The Four Agreements, published in 1997; was a New York Times bestseller for more than a decade. Other books have followed: The Mastery of Love, The Voice of Knowledge, The Circle of Fire, The Four Agreements Companion Book and The Fifth Agreement, a collaboration with his son Don José. All of his books are international bestsellers. His The Toltec Art of Life and Death was published in late 2015.

His most famous book, The Four Agreements, was published in 1997 and has sold around 8.2 million copies in the U.S. and has been translated into 46 languages. The book advocates personal freedom from beliefs and agreements that we have made with ourselves and others that are creating limitation and unhappiness in our lives. It was featured on the Oprah television show. The Four Agreements are:

Miguel Ángel Ruiz Macías (born August 27, 1952), better known as Don Miguel Ruiz, is a Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts.