People are so people-ish!"  a friend once said to me.  It's a perfect phrase for venting our disappointments in other human beings without being negative or nasty.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that people simply do what they do.  They're in their own movie, and they are star, director, producer, and even key grip.  Their needs are just as important to them as yours are to you, so whatever people do really ain't about you.  We can gripe and whine about each other, or we can accept the fact that none of us are ascended masters, and we all drive each other up a wall from time to time.

Thousands of years ago, the Toltec were briefly known throughout southern Mexico as women and men of knowledge.  As a nagual (keeper of spiritual wisdom), don Miguel Ruiz, the author of the million-selling masterpieces The Four Agreements and Mastery of Love, Ruiz continues to pass on these spiritual teachings of unconditional love through his books, workshops, and trainings.

Ruiz tells us that in childhood we're programmed - or domesticated - by injured adults to fear, lie, judge, criticize, and gossip, which is damaging to all our relationships.  We are born with the truth, but as innocent children we agree to the laws that are put into our minds, and acting out these falsehoods is Ruiz's definition of being in hell.  Ruiz outlines four new agreements that we can make with ourselves which are the key to emancipation - be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best.  Easier said than done.  Ruiz continues this theme in the Mastery of Love by defining what real love is, how it leads to healthy relationships, and the importance of being unattached to outcomes.  There is also a third poetic book, Prayers: A Communion With Our Creator.

Ruiz has just published the fourth self-empowerment book in the series, The Voice of Knowledge, explaining that the "voice of knowledge" is that of our elders in childhood and it's generally a false one, making us believe that it's not okay to be who we are and that something is wrong with us.  Other spiritual teachers might call this voice ego, the defensive belief system that keeps us from being who we really are.  In Voice, Ruiz presents tools for recovering the true awareness that is buried beneath all the lies, and challenges the beliefs that we use to judge ourselves.

"Living Aware Through the Circle of Life," a workshop with don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., and don Jose Luis will be held September 24-26 at Omega ­Institute, Rhinebeck.  Tuition is $295.  (800) 944-1001.  www.eomega.org. Shelley Tatelbaum, a certified grief therapist, Toltec apprentice, and student of don Miguel Ruiz, will teach  "Living The Four Agreements," a workshop on Tuesdays, September 14, 21, 28, October 5, & 12, 7-9pm.  Tuition is $145.  (845) 471-5269.

But nobody ever said transformation is finite, even in someone like Ruiz.  In 2002, he suffered a massive heart attack and remained in a coma for nine weeks.  Throughout his experience, he was able to sustain the cognizance that he was dying and returning to the source.  Miraculously, he survived, regained an even more acute awareness of the most precious gift of all: life.  This is not Ruiz's first brush with death; he had an earlier one following a car crash.  It was that first near-death experience which brought him back to his roots - he had left the traditions of his heritage to become a surgeon.

As Ruiz emerges back into the world of teaching, he brings his new ideas to the spiritual community of the Hudson Valley.  He will teach a workshop entitled "Living Aware Through the Circle of Life" at the end of September at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck.  And for this workshop, he brings his sons along - don Jose Luis and don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., who are also following the path of the nagual and teaching in their family's lineage.  They, too, have new wisdom that they gained from their father's near-death experiences.

In the three-day Omega workshop, the family of Toltecs will discuss their awareness of the circle of life and how it can bring peace; the nature of reality; and the concept of death being a transformation, not an ending.  Through participatory experience, group discussion, and ritual, students will learn how to connect with the gift of life and open their hearts to the truth of love.

The greatest beauty of Ruiz's teachings is that they are compatible with all faiths.  It makes no difference which path you're on, because ultimately all positive paths lead to the same goal - unconditional love.