The Mastery of Love: Miguel Ruiz. A Toltec wisdom book review

Today, we are starting a new category of posts on the Empowerment Coaching Krakow blog. We will regularly publish reviews of valuable books. These are books worth reading at least once and often worth returning to discover new insights.

These books moved us or inspired us to make significant changes. They contain valuable knowledge and practical personal development tips that lead to a better, fulfilled life.

We start our series with Don Miguel Ruiz's New York Times bestseller.

The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship, A Toltec Wisdom book by Don Miguel Ruiz, with Janet Mills.

The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills (the founder and president of Amber-Allen Publishing) reveals the secrets of conscious personal development as well as guides on building honest relationships with ourselves and others.

A renowned author, Dan Millman, formulates the following foreword to the ebook:

In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.”

Drawing on the wisdom of the Toltecs, Miguel Ruiz shows us how to apply this knowledge in our daily lives. The author teaches us how to heal emotional wounds using the example of skin disease. Just like the infected skin, our emotional body is full of wounds, and these wounds are infected with emotional poison.

From the Toltec perspective, everything we believe about ourselves and everything we know about our world is a dream. Using the metaphor of hell, the author shows how we create our own suffering and explains why many people don't love or don't have love:

"Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends. There are humans versus humans in a jungle of predators; humans full of judgment, full of blame, full of guilt, full of emotional poison — envy, anger, hate, sadness, suffering. We create all these little demons in our mind because we have learned to dream of hell in our own life."

He clarifies how to build happiness first in ourselves so that we can open up to mature and conscious relationships. In a very accessible way, he shows us how to throw off masks and heal our emotions. Don Miguel also explains how to forgive and accept ourselves and others. He proves that each of us has the power to direct our lives and that happiness does not come from outside - its source is within ourselves.

To master a relationship is, therefore, about action, practicing love, and giving love freely. Read this book to explore the practical guidance on how to create a collective dream full of love and to fulfill your personal dream.

"Only by loving and accepting yourself as you are can you truly exist and express your personality. It would be best if you did not pretend to be someone else. If you pretend to be someone you are not you will always fail."

The author also shows how to avoid common ways of thinking and acting that distance us from the happiness and joy in life. Using insightful stories, Ruiz explains how to restore the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships.

The Mastery of Love includes, among many others, the answers to the following questions:

• Why do "domestication" and the "image of perfection" lead to self-rejection?

  
  

• How does the war of control slowly destroy most relationships?

  
  

• Why do we hunt for love in others, and how do we capture the love inside us?

  
  

• How to forgive ourselves and others?

"Happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love. When you are aware that no one else can make you happy, and that happiness is the result of your love, this becomes the greatest mastery of the Toltec: the Mastery of Love."

If we accept and love ourselves, we are no longer looking for another person to make us happy.

Who is this book primarily for?

I recommend the book to all who want to understand their relationship with themselves and others. I recommend it to people encountering challenging relationships. Especially those going through a breakup and those who want to write a new chapter in their life after a breakup. I recommend it to all those for whom personal development is important. If self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-confidence are important to you, capture Ruiz's book! It shows how to be happy and accept yourself as you are.

What are the main advantages of this book?

This self-help book is written in clear, simple, and understandable language. Reading it is a real pleasure. The text is intertwined with short, inspiring, golden thoughts highlighted in a frame. This allows reflection and a moment of attachment. The booklet is small. You can take it with you in a backpack or a handbag. You can use it whenever you need to stop in the rush of thoughts to look for inspiration or return to important content.

The reviewer's opinion about the book "The Mastery of Love".

I am grateful I came across this position. This happened at a time when I was working on building my self-awareness. I analyzed my behavior and the attitudes of loved ones, trying to understand these behaviors and the mechanisms that govern them. This book has significantly changed my life and self-perception, and it helps me build more mature relationships. It showed me a new perspective, encouraged me to change my thinking about myself and my partner, and gave me a sense of release and happiness.

I will quote two golden thoughts that have stayed with me:

"Happiness never comes from outside".

and

"There are two halves in every relationship. Of those two halves, you're only responsible for your half. You're not responsible for the other half."

I keep this great book in my library and refer to it often.

This text also inspired and opened a new perspective for one of my clients, with whom I worked in the coaching process. One of the areas of work was building lasting relationships with others.

While reading, open your heart, and this will help you to capture the image of love that Don Miguel Ruiz depicts.

Evaluation of the book "The Mastery of Love" on a scale of 1-10.

I rate the book a 10 and consider it one of my favorite books. It opened my eyes to many aspects of my life. It made my life more mature and fuller. I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are looking for love, sometimes too blindly.

A few words about Miguel Ruiz and his co-author.

Don Miguel Ruiz was born in Mexico on August 27, 1952, into a family of Mexican healers. The family expected Miguel to explore the centuries-old healing tradition of the family and the spiritual knowledge of the Toltecs. Still, he chose a medical college and soon became a doctor. The event that could have cost him his life completely changed him. Falling asleep at the wheel, an accident, leaving the body ...

Deeply moved by this experience, he undertook intensive practices to understand its essence. He devoted himself to studying ancient knowledge and then passed on the teachings of the ancient Toltecs to representatives of the Western world. Miguel Ruiz is today one of the most devoted propagators of Toltec knowledge and wisdom.

Who were the Toltecs? According to anthropologists, they are ancient people living in what is now south-central Mexico. The word Toltec itself means "artist, master", but in the circles that cultivate the teachings described today, it is assumed that the field of this artistic activity was life. Toltec knowledge is supposed to help shape lives and make them a work of art.

Miguel Ruiz is a spiritual guide and the author of the world's best-selling books on self-development. He has written six books: "The Four Agreements Companion Book", "The Fifth Agreement" (co-authored with his son José Ruiz), "The Voice of Knowledge”, “The Circle of Fire”, "Three Questions", and the position discussed today. Together, these positions form the "Toltec Wisdom Series". They have sold over 15 million copies in the United States and have been published in 52 languages worldwide. Don Miguel was named one of the Watkins 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2018.

Janet Mills is the founder of Amber-Allen Publishing and co-author of the entire series. She is also the creator of “The Four Agreements for a Better Life” online course, editor of Deepak Chopra’s bestselling title, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and publisher of the world-renowned “Seth Books” by Jane Roberts.

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The author of the review is Agnieszka Kucza, Coach and Mentor at Empowerment Coaching Krakow.

Agnieszka works with clients in the fields of life coaching, career coaching, managerial coaching, and mentoring. Her extensive professional experience in the areas of Purchase-to-Pay, Financial Projects, transformation, and the LEAN methodology allows her to understand the needs of business clients.

Knowing the operational realities of smaller and larger companies, Agnieszka also understands what their employees struggle with.

See also:

• "The One Thing" book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

• "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson

• Marilee Adams's "Change Your Questions Change Your Life."