don Jose Ruiz: The ancestral knowledge of power animals
(OMTimes) don Jose Ruiz has dedicated his life to sharing the ancient Toltec wisdom by translating it into practical, everyday life concepts that promote transformation through truth, love, and common sense. don Jose Ruiz has now collaborated with his father don Miguel Ruiz on The Fifth Agreement which offers a fresh perspective on the Four Agreements and a powerful new agreement for transforming our lives into our personal heaven. His latest work is Shamanic Power Animals.
An Interview with don Jose Ruiz: the ancestral knowledge of power animals
don Jose Ruiz was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and was raised in Tijuana, Mexico. When he was 21, he came to live in the U.S. with his father, don Miguel Ruiz. From an incredibly young age, don Jose was guided by many teachers present in his life, including his mother and father, grandmother Sarita, and several other Naguals. Through masterful guidance by his teachers and amazing life experiences with precision synchronicity, Jose came to ‘silent knowledge’; he witnessed the World as it is, without any story. In his early twenties, don Jose lost his eyesight. In his process of surrendering, he discovered the value of learning to listen. To listen to his inner wisdom and integrity and to see different perspectives while knowing nothing is personal. As a result, he had a renewed love and gratitude for life ~ and he found acceptance, happiness, and abundance; he found bliss. He grasped a true understanding of faith, love, gratitude, and humility. Through his surrender and faith, in concert with modern medicine, Jose recovered his eyesight.
OMTimes: Why Power Animals? Tell us a bit of your Book, the spiritual messages of Nature’s kingdom, and the inspiration behind its creation.
don Jose Ruiz: Power animals are very important in the Toltec tradition. I dedicate my books to them because they are artists that need to be acknowledged. We get inspiration from them. They inspire us to create our inner art. Sometimes people can get inspired by songs or someone else’s art, but the animal kingdom, Nature’s kingdom, is one of the most powerful ways to become inspired. It’s the purest there is. There is no agenda. No knowledge corrupts the animal’s mind, and they are just pure. They see life for what it is. So I get inspired by the animal kingdom and the creation they make, they remind me that I might be human, but I am an animal too. I’m a domesticated animal. I have all It knowledge inside my head, and I also created and allowed a parasite to share my mind space. That parasite takes the inspiration out of me because I use it against myself. And when I look at animals and notice they just love, it inspires me to be the same. If they do something out of instinct, they do not punish themselves. They don’t feel guilt or shame like we humans do.
So in It Book, I give gratitude for the animal kingdom’s messages that remind me of who and what I am.
I’m an animal with instincts, love, tenderness, and the ability to survive anything that comes my way. In my personal dream, I used the rattlesnake as an example to control my emotional poison. When the rattlesnake is young, he cannot control his poison. He bites and fights from fear, but when he matures, he learns to control its poison, and that’s where I am now trying to control my “poison.” The second power animal that I have is the bat. The bat leaps and sees through sound and vibration. There was a point in my life where blindness occurred from an illness, and I temporarily lost my vision. Although losing my sight showed me that I could not see myself, to begin with, it taught me to feel my vibration and guide and trust myself.
I learned to live in the dark, the uncomfortable, to trust myself, that I was my light. The third power animal that I resonate with is the Jaguar. It is very special to me because it takes care of the jungle. My mind is my jungle. It is where my Jaguar lives. The Jaguar stalks lives and protects. It is how I have learned to “roam” now in my mind, like a jaguar. Power animals are the biggest reflection of divinity for the Toltecs. The shamanic path is to live our lives in the service of love. Power animals are great teachers to teach It to us.
OMTimes: In your book, you say the animals can be healers. Can you explain a little about that?
don Jose Ruiz: I truly believe that animals can be healers. I have an example of that. I shared about the point in my life that I went blind. I lost my sight for over three weeks. It is when I got the inspiration I call the “healing medicine” from the bat. The bat can listen to sound and vibration to guide itself, trusting its instinct to navigate. The teaching of the bat helped me when I was temporarily blind. First, I experienced the parasite in my mind, what is happening, the worry, and resistance. Then, I see my loved ones, especially my mother, feeling sorry for me, feeling bad. She was hurting herself with my blindness.
I attempted to comfort my mother, saying, “it’s okay, mother.” As I comforted her pain, I began feeling my vibration saying, “it IS okay,” and that I do not want It message of negativity and pain. I became aware that these things happening with my blindness and the sadness around me made me a victim. I noticed things I never saw before, I did not see clearly, but I could see myself clearer now, even more so than when I had my site. The darkness allowed me to hear myself, hear my vibration, and I can honor that. The bat became my medicine because Its spirit animal began guiding me. I used the gift of the bat to begin to expand on my hearing power and my power of feeling. I began to trust in these senses. In Its vibration, I even changed the way that I dream.
I saw what I could not see awake, in my sleep and dreams. I was not focused on what my eyes were telling me or were seeing. I started to focus on that it is not about seeing anymore. It is about feeling and hearing my experiences. If you do not want to see the truth in your life, you become like when the bat gets scared. It will start crashing against walls, looking for an escape. The times when I begin feeling It way like I have no freedom, I begin to panic. It is the moment I begin focusing on my breathing to calm myself, not to lose myself in reaction or panic, but to find trust in my sound and in my vibration to guide me out of that room or situation. I am so grateful that I learned these lessons when I was blind. When I got my eyesight back, I kept these lessons with me. It is something that the bat taught me, to have the awareness and gratitude to see not with eyes but feel the vibrational emotions, to let them guide you.
The way you are now, you are not guided by lies but by your truth. That is my healing medicine from the bat. It came when I needed it and taught me self-trust.
OMTimes: What is the role that The Dreamtime plays in understanding the Nagual Non-Human Behavior?
don Jose Ruiz: I always dream that I am walking with my puppy Yogi. No matter where I am in the dream when I look down, he is always there, he looks at me, and I remember that in Dreamtime, I have an ally. The behavior that my physical body has nothing to do with my dreaming mind. It is just an open perception that it is feeling. It begins to translate to me, and It is when my mind gets creative when listening to what the body is telling me. When you begin focusing your attention, when you sleep in your physical body, you notice that there is no physical body. There is just a memory. When you wake up and take the first breath of being awake, that is the energy of the night you are feeling. That is the gift that I experience personally in dream time. In dream time, you can experience the feeling as if you are a part of your physical body and life.
I wake up knowing that I am life, that my puppy and I are alive because I am life. But this body, along with my dog, helps me translate what I have in my heart and my human mind. I am made to create. Humans, we are creating the dream. Whatever our belief system is, we create a dream that will affect the planet and the animals. We are co-creating with one another. When we get out of the way of It, we stop being cancer on It earth. What do I mean by that? Well, cancer is anything that hurts the physical body. And the physical body is our self.
We begin hurting the planet. We hurt Nature. We, in turn, hurt ourselves. When we hurt ourselves, we become irritated, full of poison. We will say negative or hurtful things. That is why, for me, the dream time has taught me that I am like the body of my little puppy, that I am an animal. But I am also an energy, a Nagual energy that steps into It animal. And for the longest time, The animal ran free, guided primarily by the parasite in my mind. But the moment that my Spirit woke up in dream time and woke up in my life, that is when I was truly awake, feeling that energy from both places. I know that all the Toltec books that my family has written come from It perspective. The energy being put into words that are being read.
When the book is done, my father likes to say, “it’s sleeping,” but when someone picks it up, that is when the dream begins. It begins with having an awareness of intent, of integrity, and integrity is our intent. That intent is the energy of our nonhuman Nagual energy. It is just a force that’s here to create. The animal is here to contribute. For instance, take the bees. The bees cultivate honey. If there are no bees in the World, we humans will not live that long. We need them for pollination. We, humans, have an important part to contribute to It planet. When we are responsible for the Organism, planet, animals, ourselves, we can see why we are here in life because we are bonded together. Some people wake up, and some people do not. When you wake up consciously, you cannot go back to sleep. Your Spirit has awoken to the truth. The service begins because nagualism is a service of creativity. The beautiful thing is that we are the living light and a network of energy that exists in everything.
OMTimes: How can we make a significant connection with our power animals?
don Jose Ruiz: We can make significant connections with our power animal by being honest with ourselves. When we are honest with ourselves, we have self-trust, power, and nothing to hide. When we are not pretending to be anything but ourselves or lying to ourselves, our inner animal can feel that, and it responds and connects. You begin connecting with the power animal inside you—it is the way. And guess who the power animal is your physical body. When your physical body feels that it can trust what your mind is telling it, you begin to surrender. You begin to become present. Living It way, you are putting your intention into the World and setting up a path for yourself. Its connection to your power animal will guide your path against temptation. Temptation against all the stories we tell ourselves to hold us back from our authentic self, all the excuses we tell ourselves to hurt ourselves in our life. When we are connected to our power animal, we stand in truth and no longer ignore our trauma or pain. We feel our power. We have self-respect. In these moment’s we are connecting to our true higher self, our power animal. When we open our eyes and take a look around in our everyday lives, there might be a hummingbird or another little animal in our presence. You might feel a connection, and that’s because it’s honoring you. It can feel that you took your power back, that you’re ready to guide yourself just like they do.
OMTimes: In your book, you talk about the different power animals and their teachings, characteristics, and different gifts. Have you had one that presented a challenge for you in a personal way? Will you share a little about that?
don Jose Ruiz: One of the more challenging power animals for me -of all the animals- was the Scorpion. I did not want to take responsibility for my inner Scorpion or the teachings of scorpion medicine. Why? Because the Scorpion has a tail with a stinger that stings poison. One day, I could not avoid It power animal anymore when my grandmother, in teaching, says, “it’s time for you to control the scorpion in your head.” I ask her, “what do you mean, grandmother?” She continues to say that we all live with a scorpion in our heads. Imagine that you are the Scorpion, sticking yourself with your stinger. For over 20 years, if I am honest, I had difficulty controlling my “stinger” I always used the word against myself with poison, stinging myself repeatedly. Until I began walking the path and living the fifth agreement of being skeptical but learning to listen, did I truly understand what my grandma was trying to teach me that day? Learning to be skeptical of my poison, self-judgment, excuses for not being happy, using all my poison to create a personal hell and not a paradise for me, I had to stop myself. That moment of clarity, I saw my thoughts being like a scorpion. I tell you, brothers and sisters, to control my emotional poison was a big challenge. The biggest challenge was living the second Toltec agreement, do not take things personally. You were learning to be honest about it, honoring the inner Scorpion, honoring my mind, and going into training. In the Toltec training, as I mentioned earlier, there is nothing left to learn but only to unlearn what takes our inspiration away. Taking my inspiration away was the misuse of my word against myself that became like a scorpion stinging me with my stinger.
The biggest challenge was learning to control my mind or stinger. I was tired of living that way. I took the responsibility to see what I was doing to myself. I realized that no matter what awareness you have, you always must be truthful and work on yourself. It was a beautiful thing that I encountered in my life, not to hurt myself with my mind. The Scorpion, like that of the snake, has poison. I must learn to control my poisonous thoughts and opinions with myself and all the judgments I was using against myself. This knowledge, my grandma said, was the awareness of the Scorpion that has helped me see myself. That was what hepped to stop corrupting my dream. I realized that the word is powerful. You can destroy with it or build with it. I decided to build a beautiful new dream, and I control my poison. That dream has only grown with love more ever since.
OMTimes: Would you define yourself as a Spiritual Animal Activist or more of a Toltec Zen Warrior (or both)?
don Jose Ruiz: I consider myself both a spiritual animal activist and a Toltec Zen warrior, a person who lives and strives to live peacefully with everything and everyone around him. When we live in peace, we do not see a separation between humans, animals, trees, or oceans because everything is sacred. The whole World becomes our temple, not just the physical temples like the ancient pyramids, cathedrals, or places like spiritual centers. Everything becomes our home, including our physical body. I will stand up for the rights and welfare of any animal in need. This month is my sixth year choosing to become a vegan. I made It a choice to honor animals. I believe they deserve a chance to live. I have not been healthy mentally and physically for a long time. Living It way has given me awareness in life and has woken up my Spirit to feel the trees around me, feel the animals now spiritually, and feel connected to everything.
I am here to also to stand up and fight for humans who are suffering from the parasite in their minds. Some are trapped in their heads like prisoners. I am here to help ease the suffering of whatever trauma or circumstance that caused them to become prisoners to their parasite. Suppose people who live with the hurt of racism or are racists, people who live in darkness, people who live with anger, trauma, or anyone who needs awareness and love. I understand that people get to these places because they are hurt. Life has disappointed them. It hurt, pain or trauma has them domesticated, and It is all they know now. But, behind every human, there is that love. I know that humans need help. They need help to open their hearts. A big eye-opener for me has been reflecting on Machismo. I think of it as a dream of suppression, and that image has become poison on It planet. All It dream does is hurt our Divine Mother Planet Earth because it is about illusionary power, greed, suppression, and anger. The real riches in life are love and working on how to live our authentic selves.
The dream of love has no price or time limit. No one can stop it. No one can buy it. Even the richest person in the world can have it for free. Creating a personal Heaven is the real wealth in a person’s life, what excites them, what motivates, what inspires them, that is the real gift of life. There are so many others like us wanting a better world. I can tell you a way to make a difference is to speak up. There is power in that; there is change. So many people do not dare to speak up, and by speaking up, change is possible. Heaven does not need Heaven. Who needs Heaven? Hell does. Toltec means artists, artists of the Spirit, so when we wake up with It medicine, we are here to share with whoever comes in our path. We don’t discriminate because we see people like love.
When I was conflicted with myself, I still remember being in an abusive relationship and hurting myself with my parasite. I remember Michael Beckwith seeing me suffering and with such love him coming to me and saying, “I see you; I see you, I see you” I closed my eyes, and I felt his love. We need to aim for these moments and show everybody to love or be there when someone needs it. We need to be messengers of love versus spreaders of hate. Now, when we are activists or messengers of love, we come with the flag of love, peace, and respect, not the flag of war, anger, and hate. Some people do things without knowing what they are doing. Something happened in their path that they are acting It way, they will quickly hold judgments, quick to divide each other and living It way, the World will never change. That is why it is important to free ourselves from the things that no longer serve us, walk in Our life, seeing the animal kingdom -It includes us humans- and saying, how can we help our planet, each other, and our home. It is when we get creative in our hearts and become the artist of the Spirit. The biggest challenge is how we can fix ourselves? When we find peace within and work on our life, we will project it wherever we go. The Point of Presence is a point of divine love. From this point of view, we can see that we are lovers of life, reminding everyone around us that life is a beautiful dream and it’s time to stop making it a nightmare.
OMTimes: Do you hold a Mystical / Cultural Vision for our World? What would you like to see manifested in our collective reality now?
don Jose Ruiz: I do have a mystical and cultural wish for our World. If I could manifest something for It World, it would be to eliminate the dream of Machismo in humankind. It is the Machismo dream that suppresses the World. One example is that of hunting down animals, just for a sport of blood or for money. Some call it is hunting for sport too, but it is not a sport. Many psychologists say that the first thing about becoming a serial killer is that you begin hurting defenseless animals. How can one feel good about taking an innocent life? That is why I say to everybody that Machismo in our egos is a poison on It earth. In the Toltec tradition, the power is in our mind, to see that It Nightmare of hunting is a reality based on the addiction of suffering. As young boys, we are taught the Machismo world what it takes to “be a real man,” but it is a lie. It’s not a real man to hurt others. It is a predator of suffering who imposes suffering on others. It is someone who does not live with the heart open. It is where people numb themselves again, again and again. Whether with drugs, food, alcohol, just numbing the pain, and they continue doing cruelty. They do not have awareness because “if you do bad, you feel bad” Isn’t it true? So, they don’t want to see the suffering they are causing is doing. It makes people unaware of feelings. It is the addiction of suffering that is hurting the planet. When we wake up from It Nightmare, and we start to see people around us living It way, we don’t judge them, we don’t put them down, we just don’t understand that way of life, it’s based on suffering and lies, and when you are awake, you can see it. It is a nightmare. It is hell. When we have a profound awakening, we have the message of Heaven of kindness, peacefulness, gratitude, respect. We become defenders of animals and humankind. We become a defender for all. When we take our mask off, we know that we are just It lifeforce of our energy. I put it in my heart and intended that everyone speak kindness and love to end It Nightmare. It Nightmare that is hurting the animal kingdom, our planet, and the dream of humanity. That is my contribution to the World to bring such awareness for the Nightmare to end.
OMTimes: We know you are an animal lover, and you run a shelter/rescue place for animals. Will you share a little about that?
don Jose Ruiz: I am an animal lover, and every time the family goes to Teotihuacan for our events or a visit, my friend Natalie helps dogs and puppies there. We call them “cases,” and these cases usually find us. Teotihuacan is a town outside of Mexico City, where the ancient pyramids are. It is a poor working-class town, and many strays live on the streets. We do everything we can to help get them neutered, find homes, or get them healthy. We work with a veterinarian that helps us, and he also helps the community there. We raise money before, after, and even during our events to get them vaccinated, attend to medical needs, and, most importantly, find loving homes. Its dream of helping and starting “Teo Paws” began with a sick puppy, followed by a teaching moment and lesson.
A puppy was crying in pain in an abandoned lot near the hotel where the event was being held. I did not see him myself, but the puppy was crying in pain, and people from our group saw it by walking right past it. Natalie saw that he was crying and attempted to help him but did not know what to do. She came to me crying during a break of our evening class, unable to shake the feeling of that little soul out there suffering. I said, okay, let us help It puppy. I remember getting my jacket after my lecture was over and headed to the puppy. When I got there, I did not know if it was his body or something else giving him pain. He just laid there motionless, crying. His mom was there, looking panicked, pacing the lot with worry along with the rest of her puppy litter. I took my jacket off and wrapped the puppy in it, and it was like his mother knew I was there to help her puppy. I first took him to the hotel lobby and asked the people working there for help. Everybody told me, “well, it’s late, it is 10 o’clock, everything is closed.” So, I moved to plan B and asked for a Taxi to take me to Mexico City, but then fate stepped in, and our friend who owns the taxi service said one of his clients owed him a favor and that he was a veterinarian in town. At 11 p.m., we called in that favor, and he opened the door and took the puppy in. He said from the looks of it.
The puppy looked to be poisoned. His worst case was that he would have brain damage and would need to be put to sleep. We started to prepare ourselves for the worse but still wanted to try to save his life. The next day we returned, and we could hear the puppy barking, barking, and barking from his cage. We immediately thought It means he is getting better! After a week of care, he was moving around and himself again. A little wild street puppy made it! On the last night of the event, we asked for donations to help with the costs of his care. We shared the story of the puppy, and people started to raise their hands and share that they saw It puppy but didn’t dare to do anything about it. One story after another, all the same, they walked by and ignored The animal in need. I saw the lesson in It puppy’s story.
How many times in our lives have we seen a “hurting puppy or someone in need” and just walked on by?
Now, what if we look at it from its angle? It is not a puppy or someone in need, but it’s our physical body. How many times have we ignored ourselves when in pain? When are we hurting for things that we want to do but do not do? Day after day, we are sabotaging, hurting ourselves, crying for help inside? How many times do we ignore it in our life? The puppy gave us the most powerful lesson. It is time to stop ignoring our pain. We do not have any more time to ignore our suffering.
The first puppy got saved, but we have to date saved about 50 or more! We have helped so many go to new homes. Some have even made it to America for adoption. We have participants who take them. The beautiful thing is that it brought awareness to the people of Teo too, the people in the village see us helping, thinking here are these people coming from far away and helping our dogs, it is time to stand up and help them too. The guards at the Pyramids are looking after puppies, contacting the vet when we are gone.
So, It has become a whole new dream in itself. We named our organization “helping Teotihuacan paws” or, for short, “Teo Paws” because you know these dogs are the guardians of the pyramid. It’s time to give back. The last time I left Teotihuacan to make a journey in India, I came across a charity there. When I went to see my friend in the vegan restaurant, they met and asked me to please join them. So I sit down and guess what they were talking about? An Indian eternal charity where they were helping dogs, get neutered, get them off the street, find them new homes, and give these dogs a new life. I felt like we had an ambassador meeting! There is magic in teaching and showing compassion, kindness, and respect that every creature deserves the right to live with respect.
OMTimes: Please tell us how It came to be and what our readers can support your Cause.
don Jose Ruiz: In the last question, I shared how Teo Paws came to be. It started because I acted when I needed to. The more we help people or animals, the more we help life. Whether it is Nature, the little animals, children, men, women, communities, villages, we can help. If readers are inspired to help us change in Teotihuacán, they can help us by visiting our website www.Miguelruiz.com under my name. You can see the link to Teo paws. It doesn’t have to be Teo Paws, and there are so many places in our communities where we can help. We have the medicine and cure for spreading love. We carry it inside our hearts. Spreading that medicine sharing love and gratitude it’s a beautiful thing! Like the Book Christopher Reeves wrote, he shared Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “If I do good, I feel good.”
Imagine how good it feels to save a life, to support life? Our bodies become full of gratitude when we’re doing good in It life. This type of energy just raises us. Imagine if everyone started collecting donations or spreading love from where they are at The very moment. We have seen that when we set an intention for good, it falls into place. Everything will work out because the divine mother is planning everything, putting the right people in our paths to help us make change happen. It’s bigger than us. It is precisely what the power animal book is all about. It’s about honoring life. When you begin honoring your life, you start honoring the lives of others, even the tiny insects. I’m so grateful for asking how to help the little animals through Teo Paws because we all work for the same boss. Our mission is to spread kindness with gratitude and love.
Shamanic Power Animals: Embracing the Teachings of Our Non-Human Friends, by don Jose Ruiz, is available now
Source: OMTimes
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