May/June 2004 Featured Stories
The Voice of Knowledge
A new Toltec Wisdom Book

by Don Miguel Ruiz

Adapted from Chapter 5, "The Storyteller "

Don Miguel Ruiz

That night in the desert is what I call my return to common sense. I had been living in a story of my own creation my entire life without even noticing it! Once I had this awareness, I started to question everything in my story. Is it true that I am what I believe I am? Is what I believe about everybody else true? I reviewed the story of my life, and I didn’t like all of the drama that I had created. I wanted to reinvent myself.

The first step was to take away from my story what I felt was not true, and to find out what was true. I discovered that what I call the frame of the dream is true because our Creator creates the frame, and it’s the same for everybody. Our agreements about what to call the objects in the frame are also true because this is how we describe our virtual reality. The letter A is an A because we say so and we agree. The word dog describes a type of animal that we agree to call a dog.

Knowledge used in this way is just a tool for communication. But almost everything that is abstract is a lie: what is right or wrong, what is good or bad, what is beautiful or ugly. I discovered that more than 90 percent of the concepts I had stored in my mind were based on lies, especially the concepts I believed about myself: I can do this; I cannot do that. I am this way; I will never be that way. The problem is not really knowledge; the problem is what contaminates knowledge — and that is the lie.

Before I was born in this physical body, a whole society of storytellers was already here. The story was ongoing, and from their story I learned how to create my own. Of course I believed what the storytellers told me. Why would I not believe them? They filled me with knowledge, and I used that knowledge to copy their style and create my art in a similar way.

I continued to study the story of my life, and what I discovered is that everything in my story is about me. But what I believe about me is not true — it’s a story; it’s just an image based on what I agree to believe about myself. I project my image to other people in society, and other people perceive that projection, modify it, and react to me according to their stories.

For years I thought that I knew myself until I discovered that it was not the truth. I only knew what I believed about myself. Then I discovered that I am not what I believe I am! And it was very interesting, and also very frightening, when I discovered that I really don’t know anybody, and they don’t know me either.

Once I discovered that people are creating and living in their own story, how could I judge them any longer? How could I take anything personally when I know that I am only a secondary character in their story? And whatever people say about me is just a projection of their image of me. It has nothing to do with me.

Life in this physical body is very short, even if we live to be one hundred years old. When I discovered this, I decided not to waste my time creating conflict, mainly with the people I love. I want to enjoy them, and I do that by loving them for who they are, not for what they believe.

I also respect myself, and I don’t allow anybody to write my story. My story is my responsibility; it’s my creation. I am the artist, and I respect my own art. I can compare my art with other people’s art, but I make my own choices, and I take responsibility for my creation. There is only one way to change our story, and that is by changing what we believe about ourselves.

As artists with our own style, we have the right to distort our story, and this is the best we can do anyway. That distortion is our point of view, and for us it has meaning. We project our story, and by seeing the distortion, we can sometimes return to our own truth. Then who says that the distortion of our story is not art? It is art, and it is beautiful.

Humans are the storytellers of God. We are like God’s journalists trying to explain whatever happens around us. We are constantly exchanging information and modifying our story. This is how the dream of humanity evolves.

Many times we don’t see our own creation; we don’t see our own lies. But sometimes in the reflection of somebody else, we can see our own magnificence. By experiencing the love of another person, we can see how great we are. From one artist to another artist, we might see that it’s possible to improve our own art.

Once we have the awareness to see our own story, we discover there is another way of creating the main character. Without awareness, there is nothing we can do, because the story is so powerful that the story writes itself. We create the story, we give our personal power to the story, and then the story is living our lives. But with awareness, we recover the control of our story. That is the good news. If we don’t like our story, we are the authors; we can change it.