Map or landscape? Discover your one true reality!

Hi! Fancy a quick game? All you need is a little curiosity.

Think of all the advice you've ever received about life. One friend swears by a sure-fire investment tip, another by spiritual retreats. You read an article online about the importance of a strict daily routine, and five minutes later you read another one encouraging you to get up at 4 a.m. and be productive. Lately, you've been getting fed up with the ‘it's all in your head’ wisdom, not to mention the advice to think positively. When people tell you to cut out the remaining carbs and use your phone less, it's driving me up the wall.

It's like everyone is giving you a hot tip for a giant board game, but every tip seems to point you in a different direction on that damn board. The end result is total chaos, and you're left with only one question: who the hell should I listen to?

What if I told you there's a solution that isn't just another tip, but an understanding of the game itself?

The map is not the landscape

Let's keep playing! Imagine you've read everything there is to know about Paris. You know the metro lines by heart, you know the Louvre's opening hours and you know where to find the best croissants. Your room is full of travel guides. But does that mean you've been there? Have you ever felt the breeze from the Seine on your face? Have you heard the street musicians playing in Montmartre?

No, right? Because knowledge and information are just a map. They can be useful, but they will never be the same as the landscape itself.

Most of the advice we get is just another, more detailed map.

Aletheosophia is not that. Aletheosophia is an encouraging wink that says, ‘Hey, how about you put down the map and step out into the real landscape?’

Stepping out into the landscape

And what is this landscape? If you've read Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now, it is the present moment. If you haven't, let me recommend the lived experience right now. The moment that is now is not a concept, but the complete lived experience of presence.

When you don't just say, ‘Hey, a smartphone,’ but let your senses take it in: the actual weight of the phone, the temperature of the material, the brightness of the screen. When you're not dwelling on the past or planning for the future, but simply being in the moment and accepting it: this is it! Because you accept that – and this is the biggest twist in the game – only the present moment exists, everything else is just a concept, good faith, and stuff like that.

Your experience in the present moment is the only truth, indeed the only reality that no one can ever take away from you, because it is the only thing that is truly and actually yours. You didn't read about it, you didn't see it in a video, you didn't hear it in a piece of advice. This is your only true reality.

Would you like to try two super-easy tracks?

It's not something mystical or unattainable. It's more like a forgotten skill. Here are two super easy tracks to get you started, right now.

The first track is called ‘Breathing Button’. Wherever you are while reading this article on your phone, press the imaginary ‘pause’ button. Just watch the air come in and go out. Don't count, don't let your breathing take control, just let your soul breathe. You've arrived, congratulations (watch your phone). Your breathing is your personal ‘back to the present’ button. You can press it anytime.

The second track should be ‘5 senses reset’. The essence of the game is the nó comment. Without labels or judgement, take a step back in your mind. You no longer see the article, nor your phone in your hand, but shapes, colours and lights. What do you hear? I have no idea, but you hear the external noise as it is. What do you feel? If you are wearing clothes, you suddenly feel the clothes on your body again. The contact of your feet with the ground, etc. That's it. Welcome back to reality instead of the cinema of your thoughts.

Aletheosophia

What? (Aletheosophia, I'll explain in a moment.)

So this was a game about experiencing, living through, or how should I put it, the truth and reality. You know what? I came up with a name for it. Aletheosophia. It means the wisdom of truth. I even formulated its main principle: ‘Only in presence is truth reality.’

Let's return to the game above for a moment. Aletheosophia is not another rule or piece of advice it's like stressing me out big time, but rather the suggestion of silence: ‘Hey, the game isn't on the board, it's inside you.’