My Good Friend the Rattlesnake: Stories of Loss, Truth, and Transformation

by Jose Ruiz

A personal and candid account, “My Good Friend the Rattlesnake” describes don Jose’s journey of self-discovery and transformation. As a teenager, don Jose became lost in the misery of drug addiction and spiraled into a pattern of self- destruction until the death of a dear friend woke him to the reality of his bad choices.
In a series of personal anecdotes, don Jose shares lessons learned from his painful experiences, gleaning from the wisdom of his father and from the traditions of swamis and shamans, and offers insights on how to discover your true and unique purpose in life.

Genres: Spirituality

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2014

About the author

Don Jose Ruiz, son of Miguel Ruiz and brother of Miguel Ruiz Jr, was born in Mexico but moved to the USA when he was 21.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz, Don Jose's father, many years ago, and enjoyed it, so I was interested to read a book written by his son. This book has short stories and poems that deal with such topics as forgiveness, awareness, peace, action, detachment, judgment, respect, love, gratitude, honesty, discipline, transformation and much more!!

Mr. Ruiz is open in his past issues with drugs and alcohol and living on the wild side for a time. He tells stories that help explain what caused him to change and the lessons he's learned throughout his life. My favorite story was "The Four Keys of Transformation." He shares the four keys and tells a story that illustrates how applying them could work in a real life situation. I also liked "Welcoming Home the Love of My Life" which is a story where he was temporarily blind for a week. He needed to rely on his other senses to learn what was going on around him and felt love, truth and understanding in a way he never had before.

I don't agree with all the conclusions that Mr. Ruiz came to but I enjoyed reading his perspective on various topics. This is a thought provoking and interesting read!

I received a copy of this to review. My opinion is 100% my own.

Mel's Shelves

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for reflective thinking. I saw him speak, and bought the book.

Favorite line - "I...remind myself that I am still alive and that I have each day to make my life one that I can be proud of. Each day is an opportunity to explore my truth and become the person I would truly love to spend the rest of my life with "

[Paula C]

Libro con grandes enseñanzas

[liserie chanswife · Rating 1 out of 5]

1

[Diana Lorena SRP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los libros son mi hogar, porque cuando encuentras dentro de las historias de otros, tus propias palabras, tus propios pensamientos y tus propias creencias, se siente como volver a casa.

Este libro me lo prestó una amiga muy querida esta semana, e inicialmente no comprendí por qué. Es un libro muy de su estilo y tradición espiritual, que no son precisamente los mismos míos.

Pero las enseñanzas llegan de cualquier sitio y en este lectura encontré, sorprendida, muchos aspectos de mi ser, que me hicieron sonreír mucho mientras los leía, y que me motivan a seguir en el camino en el que estoy.

Este libro narra historias de la vida del autor, mezcladas con componentes de la tradición tolteca, y otras como la hindú.

[Laura Witt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but the many spelling errors in the kindle edition made my head spin. Common errors, like mistaking "loose" for "lose" and using "lead" as a past tense instead of "led" made me feel like I was reading something really deep and wonderful that had been written by a middle schooler. I loved The 5th Agreement, so I was hoping for better, but there are a few choice nuggets in there as well. A couple of the poems were lovely.

[Sylvette Laguerre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro para pensar y reflexionar. Del hijo del autor de los 4 acuerdos te recuerda que es lo importante de la vida y como poco a poco olvidamos que en lo simple, radica la belleza de la vida. Me encanto entender la analogía de la serpiente.
Un libro fácil de leer.

[Zuzka · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

[Siham Akachoud]

One of my favourite books, I adore how the writer mixed poetry and novel.
All I can say is this book is a masterpiece,
I recommend it dearly.

[Brittany S Tummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful

Powerful. There are so many truths of life in this book and it comes from references of the author's actual life. Will reread at some point again.

[Debbie Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit difficult to read....

[Eridani · Rating 3 out of 5]

*2.5

[Ya Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really personal and honest. I enjoyed the stories and there are many rituals that can help integrate the different parts of ourselves.

Sweet and short.

[Hawraki · Rating 3 out of 5]

أجد صعوبة في تقييم الكتب التي يتحدث فيها الأشخاص عن أنفسهم، لكني استمتعت حتما بالاستماع إلى هذا الكتاب، خاصة الجزء الأول منه.

[Read It · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read book. Seems like instead of learning his lessons, he kept making the same mistakes over and over and not learning from them. good book, we all have demons and snakes to overcome and karma to burn. Either way, a nice read of a person who made many mistakes and keeps doing them and asking to be saved. Sounds a lot like me. I need to learn from my mistakes and be saved also. and I am working on it.

[Liesl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I got to see Don Jose Ruiz lecture about his book. He is very charismatic. My favorite analogy I took away from the book is that people are like rattlesnakes. When we are young and we hurt, we release the maximum amount of poison towards others and ourselves. As we mature we learn to control the amount of anger we give off.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

don Jose Ruiz is proving to be every bit as influential as his father. This was a great read about the ups and downs that naturally occur to each of us as individuals, and proof that we can move above and beyond our own egos to live a fulfilled life of love, joy and happiness.

[BlackbirdFrenzy Meagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty simplistic, a few good ideas but a lot of it just plays off his father's work. I was def dissapointed.

[N Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightfully compassionate communication.