“Book Review: Sacred Life”

A dynamic spiritual perspective on accepting the things we cannot control

Sacred Life: Healing from the virus in consciousness by Bedri Cag Cetin, Ph.D. is a triple-thread self-help spirituality book. It combines intuitive insight into spiritual practices that readers can enact in their daily lives while also discussing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on mental health—and it’s all through the structure of a personal autobiography. We witness the ways in which the author fails, succeeds, and tries again to embody his beliefs and to propel himself toward a more fulfilled & accepting consciousness.

Contending with a number of topics on spirituality, this book perhaps gives the most attention to the decision of acting through your Ego or your Inner Guide. Since he offers a fresh perspective on different terms, he offers a glossary at the opening of the book, establishing what it is he means by terms like Ego, Inner Guide, Truth, and more.

From Cetin’s perspective, a person who chooses conflict over peace acts with Ego, while those who act by the Inner Guide trust that they have no control and instead choose peace over conflict. The autobiographical aspect of this book allows us to see the impact of the author’s choice of Ego or Inner Guide in real time. He must surrender to Truth, forgive those who have wronged him, and allow peace to be his sort of guiding light.

But it’s not easy to do this, even for the bright spiritual mind who pens the book.

We follow Bedri as he struggles with his decisions and even as he nears a breaking point during the COVID-19 pandemic, where his struggles with OCD and panic attacks create a hostile and uncomfortable man who can’t see any light at the end of any tunnel. This structure of the autobiography infused with spiritual teachings offers readers a strong option for absorbing the material with a whole heart and a sound mind.

Sacred Life is a self-help book with a good heart and plenty of thought-provoking concepts. For those who want to come to terms with their Truth & recognize their role in everyday peace, this book’s really going to give you something to write home about. I was thrilled with the direct conversation the author has with us relating to our lack of control and our ability to stay on top of it.

While there’s a really great conversation going on in Sacred Life, there are just a few too many things that don’t sit right with me. First, exaggerated language really hurts the effectiveness of some of the major points, like when we are told that “miraculous help always comes in the most challenging times.” With language like “always,” and later “all” and “every,” this book attempts to be a guide for all, but in doing so, silences those whose struggles and sufferings are no simple feat to “transform all misfortunes and suffering in your life into miracles and joy.”

Also, I’m afraid that the language surrounding the pandemic could be leading some readers in a direction I don’t want them to go in. Using words like “illusion” and “an outward projection” to describe the pandemic—even if it is more of a thought exercise than a call to dispel scientific truth—still feels like the wrong direction to take.

Overall, this book has a lot of great things going for it. Author Bedri Cag Cetin cuts to the core with spiritual practices that you can use to lighten your life in just a few chapters. It isn’t perfect, but for those searching for intuitive and fresh takes on leading a life of inner peace, you may have just found what you’re looking for in Sacred Life.

Genre: Nonfiction / Spirituality

Print Length: 260 pages

ISBN: 979-8584936259

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