By, Charlie Siegel, author of Awakening the Inner Light: To walk the path of the soul
“The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.”
– Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
So, what does it mean to have a piece of this mirror?
Why, to have a soul, my friend.
Do we all have a piece? And why only a piece of the mirror?
We absolutely do, as we are each an expression of, and a piece of the Universe itself. And to have a piece of it, that means you also have to have the whole. “In your soul, you carry a part of Heaven itself. Not a branch on a plant, but a plant in a branch. A branch that is removed and planted in healthy soil will grow as a plant just the same. And thus, you carry Heaven in your heart.”
A myriad of cultures and spiritual expressions share the idea that a great Light lives within us. It is these teachings which gave rise to the title of my new book, Awakening the Inner Light. My book is designed to bring forth the inherent goodness and immutable awesomeness that is YOU – and to help flowers bloom in the saddest parts of you. (The above quote, about carrying Heaven within your heart, is from a personal favorite of all my work, “When Life Brings Me to My Knees” on page 412.)
Regarding the presence of a soul that is within us, we can see that around the world, it is recognized, mentioned and upheld. The ancient practice of Shingon Buddhism teaches of the Buddha that lives within all of us, just waiting to be realized. Traditional Lakota culture teaches of Mitákuye Oyás’i?, that we are all related, all interconnected, all one family, in life and in spirit. Japanese Shintoism teaches that all things have an energy, an essence…a soul. Spiritualism teaches that our soul lives on after this life ends, and can share signs and communicate with loved ones through messages, love, and guidance to the living. As Jesus said regarding his disciples in John 17:16, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” And as is written in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Many practices around the world still share this same idea that we exist beyond this physical realm – that we are truly eternal souls made of Light, incarnate temporarily in this body. Within us lives a piece of the Great Light that is far more than us, that is beyond us, but that is also a part of us. For how could we exist without being at least in part composed of the Greatness that is in all things?
But should it then be said that our bodies and minds are “less than”? That some ethereal soul directs us, and is beyond us? Why become what we are as humans, when we could be what we truly are as souls?
For, to be human is to experience. To play out this great drama of life, painted out on the canvas of reality, with free will as your paintbrush. Here, we weep at the loss of those around us, when they pass on into the spirit world. In spirit, it is said, they stand and watch with joy for the coming introduction of a soul to the mortal world, born as a new child. For the immortal you lives within your heart, guiding the exterior you (your body and mind), on a path of growth through time.
If we choose to look at the teachings of all of these cultures and come to decide that we do indeed house a soul within us that is the true us, it does not diminish our physical form – it enlivens it. Your soul chose this, when it existed before this time. Your physical form, however, is temporary, and only here for this particular “mission”, if you will. (To look at things from a spy movie’s perspective for a moment, haha.)
The character in the spy movie still exists to play out a story in another movie after they finish this particular mission, and the end credits roll. But that single mission they carried out still matters to the arc of the character’s development as a whole. This mission is your life, and your soul continues to carry on before and after this life. Your soul is affected and influenced by your decisions in this life, but your soul also affects this life – bringing forth your soul’s true qualities like a seed from Heaven blooming into what it is destined to become, if you allow it the space to do so. Just listen to the voice within your heart.
So how does this connect to the thing with the mirror? Only a fragment of a mirror?
Why, that is the best part! To see yourself as a shard of something greater is to start to understand your purpose in this life, from your own perspective.
If you break apart light itself into rays of colors, you will take white (the White Light of the Universe, if you will) and separate it, like shards of a mirror, into millions upon billions of fractal pieces of light, each containing within them a seed of Heaven, but each independent at the same time.
These tiny spheres of light that are our souls can go running off across the cosmos, like kids set out to play on the jungle gym at recess. But when their parents call them back (the Great Light of the Universe seeking to reunite with them) they come running back, sweaty and smiling from their game, to embrace their parents with love. This is us, and our souls, incarnate for a time, and eventually remembering we are a part of the Great Light of the Universe.
And so I find that if we remember this Oneness now, if we Awaken the Inner Light while living our lives here on Earth to their fullest and most divinely guided ways possible, we can begin to live our lives in healthier, happier and more joyful ways. To see things from a soul’s perspective is a true blessing I have found in my life, in growing up in a spiritual household, thanks to my family, and to my mom for creating a spiritual class center and store to help people (more on this in the Author’s Introduction to my book).
Awakening the Inner Light: To walk the path of the soul is full of over 150 original inspiring poems and short stories, each paired with a soothing, full color fine art nature photograph I took in the USA, Iceland, or Japan. It is designed to help when life’s path becomes difficult, and it feels like your heart has been tread upon. It is here to renew your inner strength; to help flowers bloom in the saddest parts of you. It can be read from front to back, or simply opened to a page and enjoyed at random.
It’s fun and easy to read, both entertaining and enticing in its way. With each poem and short story standing alone from the rest (with its paired photo to meditate upon and enjoy), it can be read from front to back, or simply opened to a page and enjoyed at random. In its pages, I hope you seek and find the strength of your own soul.
As you read, I invite you to find that it is not really this book that is offering you advice, but yourself. May the words written so painstakingly here give you the keys to open the doors within, to access the Inner Light you can find within your heart, and let it shine forth.
Once we walk the paths that lead to those doors within us and decide to open them, I hope we all find that the doors we open were never really closed. As Rumi said, “You consider yourself to be the problem; but you are the solution. You think you are the lock; in fact you are the key.” May we all remember that as the owner of the house that is our psyche, you have every right to keep the doors open to love, Light and inner truth as long as you’d like.
NY Times Bestselling Author Dr. Bernie Siegel (the paternal grandfather and previous co-author of Charlie Siegel) shares about Awakening the Inner Light, “What Charlie has put in his book is the truth and I can’t stop being stimulated by it. Charlie is speaking the truth about what makes a difference in people’s lives. They start doing what is their authentic choice and not what is imposed upon them by others. They change their body chemistry when they do that and become their own authentic self; no longer living a life imposed upon them. What Charlie has put together are the essential healing ingredients we all need to be aware of and practice. Charlie has always been ahead of his time with his awareness and inner wisdom, and his desire to share them with others and help them to thrive is the kind of person he is.”
Sample poems from Awakening the Inner Light: To walk the path of the soul:
Kids in the Rain
“I do not engage with demons,” I said,
Looking inward, finally facing my fears.
For I had finally come to realize
With the assuredness of a deep, inward breath,
That those so-called inner demons
Were not the mighty monsters I had believed them to be.
Like unplugging the electrical cord
Of a malfunctioning appliance,
I had taken away their power
By defining them as something else.
They were just children caught out in the rain.
Unruly,
Incapable of full, complete, mature thought,
Desiring what was often not best for them.
Like kids chasing an ice cream truck
When they knew it would give them too much sugar.
And artificial colorings – those things can be bad for you.
Kids who should’ve come inside long ago,
Dried off and gotten warm and comfortable beside the fire.
Remembering they are loved,
And they have a home,
And someone who cares for them deeply.
But instead, I let them stay out in the rain
And play until their clothes got drenched.
So then they had done what they wanted,
But then they were mad at me about it.
And I wouldn’t have it any longer.
So I rerouted the ideas that told me
That inner demons tried to control me.
I changed my ways of thinking
And it brought me around to see,
A little self love is all I need to be free.
A change in my ways of thinking,
A change in my habits towards myself.
More time in out of the rain,
More love for my overworked brain.
More time by the fire
With a warm cup of tea.
A little less pressure,
And let’s see what I could be.
And so the kids came in from the storm,
Drenched and cold to the bone,
But I got them towels and a funny movie
And set them down to see,
Life isn’t so bad after all for me.
I changed my ways of thinking
And the kids didn’t have claws or monstrous faces,
Or bad desires to try and harm me.
They were just kids – goofy and loud and obnoxious
But pure and innocent and in need of a little guidance.
The more I fought them,
Putting the cookie jar just out of reach
But in their line of sight
Where they would get mad at me,
The more they yelled and threw tantrums,
Bothered that they couldn’t be in charge of me.
So I cleaned out the cookie jar
And said let’s go get pizza.
It’s time to disempower the demons with love.
Show yourself a little care and see,
Everybody needs a little care nowadays;
Even the kids who got caught out in the rain.
Faces in the Trees
Faces in the trees
They watch me moving amongst the leaves
And they ask me why I carry this bundle around with me.
To them, I appear like they do,
Covered in a storm of whipping leaves.
Golden yellows and autumnal oranges
Shifting and moving amongst the dancing wind.
But my bundles are still. Kept quiet inside my heart.
“You have to let the wind touch it,”
They whisper to my listening ears as my feet wander the paths,
Formed by the sunken trunks of their ancestors,
Given back to become the earth itself.
“You must let it go into the wind and see what happens.”
But my bundle remains tight
While I see their branches shifting with every passing breath.
The leaves appear like flamenco dancers amidst a twirl,
Trusting wholeheartedly that when they let go,
Someone will catch them.
But their partner’s dance is too wild, too erratic in the fray.
Already, the wind is gone and the leaf comes tumbling down.
But that is not a problem.
For the tree realizes that the leaf was never the real thing anyway.
The tree is what is still upright.
Its leaves were but temporary emotions, objects,
Playthings to release to the autumn wind when the time came.
And they too, will become nourishment for the things to come.
“Let your burdens go in the wind,”
They say again, and I give it a try.
Softly, slowly, I open a little corner of the container in my heart
And let the wind pluck one leaf forth.
Before I close it, though, I see the beauty
With which the leaves shower to the ground.
I can be part of that, I realize.
My leaves can help create that beauty.
So, I unshutter the box.
I unstopper the drain.
I release it all in one great gust and before I know it,
I am atop the tallest mountain in all the region,
My leaves fluttering out over the wilds to decompose
And land among the apple trees, the maples,
The redwoods, the children.
For these problems I bore today will bear fruit.
These issues now dancing joyously over the hills and valleys
On their descent will be called my teachers
When the time comes to explain, to share, to remember.
For these leaves I carried were mine all my own,
But in letting them go,
I receive a new level of understanding.
********
Charlie Siegel can be reached by email at , on his fine art photography website www.NaturePhotobySC.com , and on social media (Facebook.com/AuthorCharlieSiegel & Facebook.com/NaturePhotobySC , or Instagram @AuthorCharlieSiegel and @NaturePhotobySC ). You can also check out his mother’s spiritual store and class center Wisdom of the Ages that he manages alongside her, www.WisdomoftheAges.biz
All 4 of Charlie’s books are available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Charlie-Siegel/author/B07171TGQQ , or by contacting him directly for autographed copies