by Jason Ball
30. Your next speech
Whether speaking to princes and presidents or to beggars and bloggers, use language that’s reasonable but true to who you are. Say it straight. Say it true.
31. Last one standing
Look at the court of Queen Victoria. Her husband. Her nine children. Her friends. Her ancestors. Everyone she ever met.
All dead.
Think about the deaths of others, not just individuals, whole bloodlines. Go to one of the old-world cathedrals or abbeys, you’ll see plenty of engravings that proclaim, ‘Last of his line’.
Despite all the attempts to produce heirs, someone had to be last, and another line exited this universe.
32. Nonstop fulfilment
Everything you do should contribute to a fulfilling life.
If you manage this, be happy. After all, this is something no one else can prevent.
‘But others will try to influence me,’ you might say.
They can try, but they can’t stop you living in accordance with fairness, wisdom and reason.
‘But what if they physically stop me?’ you could ask.
Maybe. But not if you roll with it and adapt your approach while still remaining true to your ultimate course.
33. Either way
Win with modesty. Lose with grace.
34. A trial separation
Have you ever seen a severed hand or foot? Or even a head? Even if you haven’t, you can probably imagine it.
Well, this is what people do to themselves when they refuse to accept reality or live in denial or selfishly stand alone. They become outcasts from the natural world (even though they were born into it). They become cut off.
But here’s a lovely thought: Even if this is you, you can still become reunited.
This makes humans pretty special in the universe. Not only are you a part of the natural world, even if you become separated, you can still find your way back.
35. It’s all natural
As part of the natural world, you have all the powers that all animals share. Just as nature absorbs all creatures into the whole, you too can absorb every hindrance and obstacle into something you can use for your own ends.
36. It’s just now
Don’t freak yourself out imagining the entirety of your life. Don’t dwell on everything that could happen, all the troubles and pain that may come your way. Instead, take each day as it comes and ask, ‘What’s so unendurable here?’
You’ll discover your answer may be a bit embarrassing.
Then remember, it’s not the weight of the future or the past that’s pressing down on you. It’s always the present that really counts.
When you look at it like this, problems become small things. In fact, when you refuse to let things get out of proportion, chances are, you’ll cope just fine.
37. Let the dead be dead
Should I stay mourning by my grandmother’s grave? If I did, would she know? And if she knew, would she be happy about it?
If she was happy, could I expect to go on living forever? Am I not destined to become old and die one day? And what would my grandmother do then? It’s all just a sackful of stench and rot.
38. Well look at that
If you’ve got a pair of functioning eyes, use them. See things for what they really are.
39. It’s in your nature
In a rational person you’ll see no natural ability that runs counter to justice. But you will find an abundance of self-control to counter empty pleasures.
40. Imaginary pain
Forget what you simply imagine to be painful and it’ll be impossible to harm you.
‘But my mind isn’t all that I am,’ you might say.
True. Then refuse to let your mind be hurt and leave the rest of your body to keep its pain to itself.
41. Impervious clarity
Anything that hinders our senses or actions is fundamentally bad for our core being.
It’s the same with the mind where anything that hinders clear thinking will be a burden on its core nature.
Apply this to your situation. Do you feel pain or pleasure? Your senses will tell you.
Have your plans been screwed over? Well, if you got all ‘I simply must have this’ about it, then sure, that sucks.
But what did you expect? You failed to see the world clearly.
If you make sure your desires are within the limits of reason, these issues will simply vanish. That’s because nothing and no one can frustrate the mind.
Not fire and fury.
Not Facebook and Twitter trolls.
In fact, nothing whatsoever.
42. Play nice with yourself
If I’ve never intentionally harmed another person, what right have I to harm myself?
43. Things I love
People like all sorts of stuff. Me? I love clarity of thought. I love standing up and being counted in this crazy world we live in. I love being able to look at the world around me, with all its faults, and view it with good spirit. I love giving everyone their fair dues.
44. Entering Now. Population: you
Luxuriate in the present. Those who chase the future forget that the people whose respect they so desire will be just the same as those they think of as arses today.
What’s more, they’ll all soon be dead anyway. So what do you care?
45. Calm like Yoda
Do what you like with me, my inner self will remain calm as long as I’m true to who I am.
Is a simple change in circumstances enough to upset me?
Will it make me hide under the blanket and gorge on ice cream?
Could anything be enough to do this?
46. Nothing’s unnatural
Nothing can happen to you that’s unnatural. Same as nothing unnatural can happen to a plant or a dog or a pebble.
So what’s there to bitch about when all these others put up with what’s natural to them? This same nature won’t hit you with anything you can’t endure.
47. Getting stuff done
If something is getting to you, the pain you’re feeling isn’t due to the thing itself, it’s down to how you perceive it.
You have the power to change this whenever you like. If the pain is inside, due to some issue with your character, then what’s stopping you from fixing it?
And if it is down to worrying about something you have to do, why not use the energy you’re wasting to simply get on with it?
‘But there’s this huge, unstoppable thing in the way!’ you cry.
OK, don’t worry then. If that’s really the case and you can’t get around it, it’s not your fault. Get on with other things.
‘But I have to get it done or life just won’t be worth living!’ you come back.
Really? Well, then you’ll be able to slip away free from worry same as anyone who has done all they can.
48. Inside your mind palace
You’ll realise just how powerful your mind is when it puts up the shutters and decides no way, no how is it going to do something (even when that decision is crazy).
So imagine what it’d be like to have that same strength as a result of deciding calmly and rationally.
Without all the usual wants and desires, the mind can be an absolute fortress. In fact, you couldn’t find a better place to protect yourself from the outside world.
If you can’t see this, you’re being dumb. And if you can see it but don’t take advantage, you really are being foolish.
49. Keep it real
Don’t blow things up beyond what your senses tell you is happening.
Say you’re told someone has been bad mouthing you. That’s it. The message doesn’t say it’s done you any harm.
Or you might see your child is ill. OK. But you don’t see that they are in any real danger.
So stick with your initial impressions. Don’t embellish them and add details that simply aren’t there. If you’re going to add anything, make it that whatever is happening is just a part of the greater way
of the universe.
50. Mother Nature is an artist
‘This milk is off.’ Then pour it down the sink.
‘There’s dog shit on the pavement.’ Then walk round it.
‘My train is late.’ Then either wait or go another way.
That’s enough. Don’t go on to whine about why these things are brought into the world.
Hearing this, any naturalist would simply laugh at you – in the same way a carpenter or shoemaker would laugh at you if you complained about the sawdust and leather offcuts in their workshops.
Of course, they’ve got somewhere to throw out their rubbish. Mother Nature, however, is stuck with it. But the beauty of the natural world is its ability to transform matter from one thing into something completely new. Ma Nature wastes nothing, recycles everything and doesn’t need a rubbish dump. She just gets on with it, in her own time, with what she has to hand.
51. The joy of wet feet
Don’t be slow to act. Don’t ramble or go off on one. Don’t vanish up yourself with introspection (or drive people nuts unburdening every emotion). And don’t live simply to work.
Just because people may attack you – verbally, physically, mentally – why should this affect your mind’s ability to remain calm, sane and fair?
You could stand in a crystal-clear mountain spring and hurl abuse at the water. But it’d still go on flowing. Say you threw mud and shit in it (please don’t). It’d soon wash away.
So how can you have your own inner mental spring? By ensuring you stay in control of your mind every second of the day, remaining compassionate, unaffected and modest.
52. Two things to understand
If you don’t understand the nature of the universe, you’ll never find your place within it. And you can’t understand the nature of the universe without understanding its purpose. Failure on both counts means you’ll never have a good answer for why you’re here.
So why worry about seeking the praise of all those who have no idea what’s going on and their place within it?
53. Just not worth it
Would you want praise from someone who’s always moaning about their life? Do you want to please someone who isn’t pleased with themselves? How can anyone be pleased with themselves when they seem to regret almost everything they do?
54. Breathe in some smarts
Just as you breathe in oxygen from the atmosphere, think with the intelligence of the natural world you’re part of. This kind of knowledge and understanding is everywhere around you, just like air.
55. You’re only hurting yourself
Doing wrong won’t harm the universe. It won’t even really harm the person on the receiving end. The real harm is to the perpetrator and they can stop it anytime they choose.
56. You are an island
What others think is no more important than their breath or flesh. No matter how much we are all fellow humans, every individual has ultimate power over themselves. If this wasn’t so, others would have control over us. And no one wants their happiness controlled by another.
57. I’ve seen the light
The sun does its whole shining thing yet doesn’t get used up (and won’t for a few billion years). And when you examine the sun’s rays, you’ll see they’ll carry on until they hit some solid object. There they stay without slipping off.
You should view thoughts in the same way. Extending off in a straight line, not expiring, not breaking up when they hit an obstacle but resting there, lighting things up for a better view.
58. Deadly afraid?
If you’re afraid of dying, you either fear losing sensation or gaining a new one.
In reality, you’ll either feel nothing (in which case, no problem) or if you feel something new, you’ll be some new creature (in which case, you didn’t really die).
59. Rubbing along
We’re all here for one another. So either teach others to be better or shut up and put up.
60. Bang, bang
A bullet heads in one direction, a thought in another. But with proper aim, even for the most complex problems, a thought heads towards its target just as directly.
61. Share your thinking
Spend time understanding how others think and let them understand how you do too.
14
The Ninth Book
‘Outside your front door, that’s the world. It’s what it is, no more, no less. It’s not self-aware, it doesn’t pass judgement on itself.’
1. All manner of sins
Acting unfairly is just plain wrong.
Any rational being will help others who deserve it and, certainly, avoid harming them.
The same goes for lying.
Everything in existence is connected to everything that’s ever existed. Truth is core to this. A lie is wrong because it is, at heart, an act of injustice. Even an unintentional lie upsets the harmony of the universe. And the more people lie, the less they’re able to tell lies from truth.
It’s also wrong to seek pleasures as if they’re good and avoid pain as if it’s evil. We see it all around us – bad people chase after pleasure and the stuff that gives them pleasure while good people suffer pain and hardship.
Besides, anyone afraid of pain is ultimately afraid of something that’ll happen to them anyway as part of the natural order of things. This is crazy. It’s the same with the fool that doesn’t hesitate to do whatever unjust thing gets them closer to the pleasures they lust after.
Ultimately, the universe is indifferent to pain and pleasure. So if we’re going to live in harmony with reality, we should be too. Agony and ecstasy. Death and life. Fame and obscurity. It’s all the same in the end.
In saying all this, I mean that step follows step, from the Big Bang to the second you read this sentence.
It’s all part of an endless chain of cause and effect. And so here we are.
2. Time to escape
Given the choice, most people would prefer to never experience lies, hypocrisy, greed and pride. But as that’s not an option, the next best thing is to push them away.
Or are you happy to go on putting up with it all?
Hasn’t experience taught you to do everything you can to escape from this plague? The damage it’s doing to your mind and inner peace is far deadlier than breathing the air of a polluted city street.
It’s not just that it harms our minds, it damages our humanity.
3. Well hello death
Don’t be afraid of death. Give it a winning smile and a cheeky wink. It’s just another essential part of nature after all. Like being young or growing old, with all its wrinkles, aches and forgetfulness.
The ultimate end is just another event along the way. If you’ve given it some thought, you won’t view death carelessly, impatiently or scornfully. Even as you await the birth of your firstborn child, you should also anticipate the moment you finally depart the world of the living.
But if you need a bit more reassurance, there’s no better comfort than to consider the world around you – the people you’ll no longer have to put up with, the crap in the attic you’ll never have to sort out.
While you should treat others fairly and respectfully in everyday life, ultimately they don’t view the world as you do. If the one thing that would have glued you to the mortal world was the desire to hang out with some kindred spirits, all the petty disputes and arguments and one-upping should make you welcome death with open arms and a cheery, ‘Let’s do this before I forget myself.’
4. Sinners
Sinners sin against themselves. But evildoers do evil to themselves by being bad.
5. Sins of omission
Evil isn’t just about what people do, it’s often what they don’t do that causes the most harm.
6. Enough already
Everything is good if you’re being objective in your thinking, unselfish in your actions and calm in your attitude no matter what’s happening.
7. Give room to rationality
Ditch the fa
ntasy. Curb your impulses. Dampen your desire. Let your mind rule.
8. Sharing is caring
Every living creature shares the same life force. All humans share the capability to be rational. And we all share this single planet, with a single sun and a single atmosphere.
9. Gravitational pull
As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
Everything has gravity. Water flows to meet more water. Gases mix and blend. (Only hard barriers or brute force can keep them apart.) Fire leaps skyward and towards anything that burns easily (and which can’t therefore resist it).
It’s the same with anyone who shares a core spirit of rational thought. They’re eager to join with other like-minded people (if anything, this pull is even stronger given their focus).
In the rest of the natural world, bees swarm, cows herd, birds flock. Likewise, rational people hang out with others in cities, coffee shops and clubs. Even in wartime, these are the ones who forge the truces.
This attraction extends all the way up to the stars whose gravitational pull draws them together over vast distances.
Of course, in these crazy times we live in, we see people forget this natural attraction. They drift apart. They disagree. But even as they do, they can never escape, the pull is too strong.
You’re more likely to find an atom not of this universe than you are to find someone totally divorced from all of humanity.
10. Give me some sugar
Everything bears fruit in its own time. It’s not just plants, reason also bears fruit, both for itself and the wider world. And man, it tastes sweet.
