Insights

Steps to Truth

It is our pleasure to welcome Mitra Politi, author of Insights: Steps to Truth, as our featured author for January. Mitra, an author, teacher and spiritual guide with over 20 years of experience, has written this book as a guide to expanding consciousness – a poetic pathway to discovering our infinite inner wisdom. In his book, inspired by his own journey of self-inquiry, healing and inner rediscovery, Mitra shares the insights he found along the way.  

Interact with Mitra on our forum here. 


 

“That which I have seen, I cannot describe

That which I have experienced, I cannot express

I can only live the footprint of the experience”

– Mitra Politi. “Insights: Steps to Truth”

Photo By Mitra Politi

Consciousness is the Nameless Intelligence of Life

Consciousness is a universal phenomenon that exists at the heart of humanity. For generations upon generation, humanity has given birth to different types of spiritual practices, religions, ceremonies, rituals and dogmas. What compels the human heart to create all of these practices? All religious and spiritual practices have their source in the direct, individual experience of the human spirit and the Great Spirit of all.

Once an individual has had a direct experience of consciousness – the original design of life – there will naturally follow an attempt to create a practice or ritual that can offer a dependable map to guide oneself and others to experience that expansion of consciousness. This is the experience of unity between ourselves and creation – the ultimate meeting between the divinity within us, and the divinity around us. The indigenous Taitas (shamans) of Colombia refer to the experience of this meeting point as a “celestial drunkenness.” All Spiritual practices ultimately seek to create a pathway for this experience of communion.

Mystics have always had to face the challenge of describing the indescribable. How can one describe something that cannot be measured? That can only be lived as a direct experience? Sometimes, the mystic can only point out what it is not in order to help their disciples come closer to discovering what it is. Sometimes the mystic will only point out again and again to that space of consciousness within oneself. Either way, the challenge of defining a reliable path to direct experience is always there.

My recent book “Insights: Steps to Truth” was written as an attempt to bridge that impossible divide – to use language, which is basically limited, to evoke a meeting with the infinite. Using simple and direct poetry and prose, and touching on universal themes of human experience, I tried to stimulate and inspire the reader to tap into the direct experience of expanded consciousness; to leave footprints for the reader to follow – steps to guide them to a glimpse of the meeting point between the divinity within us and the divinity all around us.

Though words cannot describe it, I can say that consciousness is the nameless intelligence of life.

What is the importance of sharing and exploring consciousness?

The inborn desire to share tools and practices which guide us to the experience of consciousness – the unspoken intelligence of life – is the main pillar for the evolution of humanity. This longing is embedded into the design of our DNA. The nameless intelligence of life is subtle if we don’t engage with it. Humanity has a tendency to overlook this intelligence or to be distracted by day to day maintenance and survival. Nonetheless, the intelligence of consciousness is the prime catalyst for evolution on all levels of being – from technological development to emotional maturation. It guides us along the different avenues of how we relate to ourselves, to each other, and how we relate to life itself. It is the golden thread that connects humanity through time.

By overlooking that design, woven into our DNA, we are overlooking our true nature. Just like the plants, we are designed to grow towards the light – to nourish ourselves and to nourish and enhance all of life that surrounds us. In responding to and interacting with the unseen intelligence of life; in our willingness to grow in relationship with this intelligence of life, we are not only feeding ourselves but also nourishing our surroundings and humanity. If we don’t explore our true nature, we will miss one of the most important ingredients of life. If we tap into it, and don’t share it with others, the evolution of humanity will slow down, and possibly our own self destruction will accelerate.

Ancient cultures understood this, and they always placed the exploration and the study of consciousness as the central pillar of their cultures. Ancient societies knew that their evolution was given birth to in their ability to interact with the unseen intelligence. They used different practices like rituals, meditation, prayer and plant medicines in order to study that intelligence and to grow with it.

In our modern age the importance of exploring and to studying the intelligence of consciousness has been moved aside to the periphery of our society. Often it has only been explored when we come into crisis – whether it is a personal or collective crisis – which leads us to try and reach an understanding, to dig deep within and look to the beyond for solutions and support.

“Engaging with the infinite inside me

Is to touch the entire universe”

– Mitra Politi, “Insights: Steps to Truth”

Photo by Orion Ashel

Consciousness and the Path of Awakening

In spirituality, we often hear the term “awakening” or “the path of awakening.” What is it that we are awakening from? And how do we increase or evoke our own awakening, personally and collectively? What role does engaging with our own divine intelligence – which is consciousness – truly play?

When we engage with or relate to anything in our environment, we will naturally come to know it and understand it better. Within that process of engaging and relating, we are in some way studying and learning about that which we are relating to. At the same time, that which we are engaging with will also influence us. The ways in which we perceive and relate to ourselves as well as the ways in which we relate to our surroundings will naturally begin to shift. Engaging with anything in life will inevitably bring us more knowledge, and that knowledge will change us – our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

This is true in the relationship between two people as well as in the relationship between humans and nature. As we deepen our level of engagement within the relationship, the more we will be influenced by that relationship and all that we learn about ourselves and the other in the act of relating. I often say that “God is a relationship” – the more we engage with the unseen intelligence within us, the greater our relationship with God will be. The sacredness of life will become more substantial; it will become more potent, familiar and real to us. If we don’t engage with the unseen intelligence, if we don’t create space to have a dialogue with it, our senses will not be able to find or experience it. Without a direct experience, it is easy to dismiss and deny the existence of this beautiful mystery within us and in all that surrounds us – the magic in life.

It is a simple mathematical formula – The more that we engage with our consciousness, the more that we will be exposed to the process of self transformation. The direct experience of unlimited consciousness will create stimulation for us to overcome our own limitations. The process of transformation is an inevitable outcome of an encounter with the mystery. At the core of this transformation, is the evolution of the psychological “I am”, the personality and ego.

This evolutionary transformation becomes more and more spontaneous – there is no need for us to try and manipulate it or direct it into specific territories of our lives where we desire to change or evolve. Within the spontaneity of this process, there is a point in which the momentum that we gather will have a domino effect on all areas of our lives. The pieces of our false identity will simply shed away, like old leaves falling from the tree. From here, new life begins to emerge – fresh, new buds begin to grow on the tree. The Awakening process is in motion.

“The slightest movement towards consciousness

Can reveal the wholeness within me

A deep rest within the inner void

Can expose the whole

Which has never moved

Which has never disappeared

That can never cease

Allow your self to rest into your wholeness

It will reveal itself to you in all its glory

The gift of wholeness

The gift of inner silence

Contains within it all the treasures of Creation”

– Mitra Politi, “Insights: Steps to Truth”

The dead leaves that are shed from the tree in this process, are the conditions we place on ourselves and the world, old beliefs systems and all the emotions that we have pushed down and held in over the course of our lives; they are the stories that we have developed around these feelings, conditions and beliefs. The awakening process often forces us to pass through the pain and the unwillingness to let go of the old that we are so identified with. This familiar old pain has a strong grip on us – a grip that has been established throughout our lives, the lives of our ancestors, and sometimes over lifetimes.

The process of shedding the old can lead us into spiritual crisis. This happens when the momentum of our dialogue with the unseen intelligence is already in motion, but we are not ready to surrender fully to it. The experience of a spiritual crisis ultimately serves to support us in redefining our own strength, enabling us to go deeper into the dialogue with the unseen intelligence. When we resist this process, we will end up using all of our energy and resources to try to maintain the false security of the old. This is one of the main reasons why so few humans are going all the way with the awakening process. It takes great courage, faith and surrender to transform out of what we have known. The intelligence of life guides us to let go of all of the false constructs we have gathered along the way; it brings us back to the beginning of The Origin of who we truly are.

That reality of truth – the original memory of who and what we truly are – cannot sustain our illusions, false ideas and beliefs about the essence of what we are, or what the essence of this creation truly is. This is a price that the spiritual seeker will have to pay in order to get the key to the mystery of being. We are spiritual beings – passing through the human experience. Often, in new age spirituality, the teachings will seduce the seeker with the blissful side of the awakening process, without knowing or wanting to reveal the full picture. As long as the New Age spirituality tries to avoid the Spiritual crisis, it is also avoiding the maturity that goes hand-in-hand with this process. The process of awakening is the process of finding the way back home; It is finding the way back to The Origin that we came from.

“A long lasting misunderstanding

Comes to a boiling point

Between me and myself

Between myself and the Creator

How to deal with all the inner forces

That cause pain and suffering?

I must not run from them

But absorb them and let them pass through me

And allow myself to pass through them

A process of crystallization

“Summoning them as one who belongs directly to God

To sit with them and discover

The true nature of their strength”

– Mitra Politi, “Insights: Steps to Truth”

Three Prevalent Elements of the Spiritual Path

In my spiritual journey I have encountered many different spiritual and religious practices, methods and traditions for healing and evolution. For any person that chooses to commit to the spiritual path – whether they have inherited a spiritual practice, or whether they are newly embarking on the spiritual path – there is a golden thread that connects all of these practices and philosophies. From my own experience in different traditions, I have identified common elements on the path of spirituality and divided this understanding into three foundations for self evolution and the spiritual path. These three elements I have encountered again and again in different variations and different practices:

1. Self investigation and self reflection.

2. Spiritual longing or the longing of the heart to reconnect to the unseen intelligence.

3. Meditation and Prayer and Rituals

– Meditation is meeting creation within us.

– Prayer and Rituals are to communicate directly with the creator and creation.

1. Self Investigation and Self Reflection

“A true moment of understanding

Is when understanding

Echoes deeply into one’s being

From that depth something grows –

An integrated way of being

A correct expression of understanding

Endless possibilities

Endless love

Endless light”

– Mitra Politi. “Insights: Steps to Truth”

Self investigation and self reflection serve to help us review and discover what is beyond the personality. We have an inborn need to reflect on the situations we find ourselves in, and about what our actions and reactions in any given moment reveal to us about ourselves. This self reflection helps us to know and recognize what there is beyond the surface. Every religion or spiritual practice has developed different sets of guidelines or values to do that self investigation. It is by sitting in front of the inner mirror – by stimulating and growing our capacity to reflect on our inner world – that we will be able to take responsibility for ourselves in this life. Naturally, there are many different techniques or practices – some are more structured than others, and each person will perceive and commit to the practice in their own unique way. However, in the essence of it, if we want to evolve we cannot avoid that investigation and self reflection. Within this investigation, we will also encounter the divine particle within ourselves, and we will start to recognize more clearly what lies beyond the personality – beyond the psychological “I am”.

2. Spiritual longing or the longing of the heart to reconnect to the unseen intelligence

“I thank you God for putting me in this place

I had so much expectation

For a spiritual awakening

I forgot my origin, my longing for a blue sky

For a forgotten earth filled with flowers

The earth within me sprouting seeds

That shall bear fruit

How to seek an answer?

How to reach the place where the solution is revealed?

The longing for what is real

For the Divine

Blows into the wind

To Spirit it shall return”

– Mitra Politi. “Insights: Steps to Truth”

The desire to follow the spiritual path springs from a longing or an inspiration to come into unity – to discover harmony. This longing will ignite these inner forces into action and lead us to a meeting point between ourselves and the creator and creation. That longing and inspiration will serve as an inner map or a tool of motivation to guide us to be able to dive deeper into the spiritual path and the process of self evolution.

3. Meditation, Prayer and Rituals

Prayer is talking to God

Meditation is listening to God

***

“In the depths of all living things

There is a current

A flow of deep silence

Meditation is the technique

Of listening to your being

And merging with the deepest sound of your soul

The sound of silence”

– Mitra Politi. “Insights: Steps to Truth”

Prayer and meditation reveal the meeting point between ourselves and the unseen intelligence and the unity between these two. Meditation, prayer and all the different ceremonies and rituals in their essence aim to bring us to the meeting point between the individual and the source of all that is – within us and all around us.

We use meditation or the ritual of prayer as a practice or a set up that will support us to encounter the meeting point between ourselves and the source. When this magical meeting point happens, it gives birth to that which the heart has been longing for. The side effects of that meeting point attract harmony, inner peace, contentment, joy and a deep sense of connection between creation, the creator and oneself. The more we manage to tap into and experience glimpses of unity, the more the awakening process is in motion. In Zen Buddhism, these glimpses of unity are called Satori.

The turning points for my own engagement with the unseen intelligence

As a young man in my early 20’s, I decided to travel to India for an extended period. It was the first time that I left my homeland and saw a different country. I felt confident to travel independently, certain that I knew myself and was ready for the adventure. I didn’t realize how powerful it would be for a young man to leave his familiar environment and stability. To leave all that was reassuring for me and my understanding of who I am and my belief system and how I perceived myself.

As my travels in India — the land of mysticism and spirituality — progressed, I engaged with a new culture, a culture that is full of beauty but that was also full of contradictions to my belief system and the way that I understood humanity. My psychological “I am” was so challenged on one hand, and on the other hand, I was very drawn to the experience of freedom and the process of shedding what was disturbing me from experiencing that freedom. Over time, without me even noticing it, I discovered a lot of moments of great expansion and spiritual experiences. At the same time my confidence in knowing “this is who I am” started to fall apart. It came to the point, after a year of traveling, that I felt that I didn’t have so much grip on my identity — I was relating to my experience mostly on the level of my being. That experience became very confusing to me and the peak of that confusion came after I had to go back to my homeland. There I realized how big the gap was between the person that had left and the person that came back. I was looking for ways to understand and to ground my experiences.

In that time I started to go deeper into meditation and the philosophies of the Far East and to learn different healing modalities, Chinese Medicine was the main modality, it gave me a very clear science to understand our energetic map and very efficient ways to heal oneself. This was my initiation into healing, meditation, and self inquiry that later on gave birth to the wisdom and insights that are being shared in the book.

What led me to write “Insights: Steps to Truth”

The reason that the book came into being, was out of a crisis that I experienced in my marriage, which ended in a very challenging way. This created a ripple effect in my life, affecting not only my emotional safety but also challenging all that I had thus far understood and cultivated on my spiritual journey. It started a deep process of finding and re-defining. What is it in me that cannot be taken away? That which is beyond the circumstances — which is the center of my being. It sent me on a self-healing journey to reconnect to the essence of who I am even more strongly than before.

As part of that practice of redefining and finding what cannot be taken away from me, I would sit and write down phrases of guidance and insights for myself. I wrote to have a sharp tool to reflect and to remind myself of truth. Everything that I knew was being thrown into the fire, and what came out of it was a more crystalized knowing of what cannot be touched by change: the essence of my being.

After a year of writing, I sat down to reread the writing I had done in my notebook and discovered it to be full of teachings and powerful insights. These insights had nourished me and guided me through my dark night of the soul. I realized that my words could offer great benefit to others, and I was inspired to share this writing with others in the form of a book.

Insights

Steps to Truth

For over 20 years Author and Spiritual Guide Mitra Politi has been the under-the-radar intuitive healer, and trusted teacher for fellow spiritual luminaries seeking a direct, personal connection to spirit. Mitra is the Spiritual Director for Rhythmia Life Enhancement Center, the acclaimed transformational retreat center in Costa Rica, as well as a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Certified Acupuncturist, and practitioner of indigenous Colombian healing alongside Taita Juanito Chindoy Chindoy.

Michael Beckwith, Jack Canfield, Kimberly Carter Gamble, Foster Gamble, Anita Moorjani are friends and contemporaries who have lauded his first book “Insights: Steps to Truth,” a book of prose wisdom garnered from his 25 years in meditation and spiritual contemplation. Mitra was featured in the recent documentaries “Thrive II” and “The Medicine” (both out Fall 2020). Mitra regards himself as both a Teacher and a lifelong Student in “The Art of Life” and offers online and in person courses in this area. Mitra also offers transformational workshops, and private coaching for entrepreneurs and CEOs interested in bringing a spiritual and holistic focus to their work in the world. A generous friend and guide to many, Mitra brings commitment, passion, clarity, intuition and humor to every endeavor. Visit insights-thebook.com.

2 thoughts on “Insights: Steps to Truth”

  1. Gene Hines says:

    Awesome expression of some profound topics which connect with everything I have learned from my days in the Seminary,
    a traumatic experience at ten yrs of age being hit by a truck and unconscious for 33 hrs, an LSD experience in my twenties, and my experience from the work I have done with The Joseph Campbell Foundation which led me to the work of Alan Watts and Stan Grof and his Holotropic Breath Work, and of course doing yoga for many years. Thank you.

  2. Marie Cyril says:

    Marie Cyril. I m so happy I read this testimony. I just have the same experiment 3 day ago , your testimony make me understand better . Thank you ?

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