Modern Marcus: The Eigth Book

‘Win with modesty. Lose with grace.’

1. A dose of reality

OK, reality check time.

There’s no way you can claim to have fully lived up to your potential as someone who uses reason in all things and always does the right thing. Even if we ignore childhood ignorance and those awkward years around puberty, such a claim just won’t stand up to the slightest challenge.

Your mind is likely to have been regularly confused and chances are, this will continue. Your whole life — who you are, what you do, who you hang out with — all provide ample opportunity for negative influences. This is just the way it is.

The good news is, once you wise up to this, you should no longer give an actual shit about how others see you. All you can do is try your best to be true to yourself and true to what nature would have you be from now on. Understand what this means and refuse to become distracted by all the noise around you.

Before today, all your attempts at discovering the good life are likely to have been unsuccessful. You haven’t found it in clever thinking, money, celebrity, sex, drugs or rock and roll.

So where is it? In doing the right thing.

Be hard on yourself. Don’t slack or make excuses. Determine what’s right and what’s wrong. Understand that nothing is right that doesn’t help you be fair, self-disciplined, courageous and free.

2. A quick question

Before you do anything, ask yourself: What will be the consequences of this? Is this something I’m going to regret? All too soon I’ll be dead and forgotten, but until then, is what I’m about to do right in the eyes of my fellow humans and common morality?

3. An unfair comparison?

Winston Churchill, Lenin, JFK — who are they compared to Socrates, Einstein and Stephen Hawking?

The latter looked deep into the true nature of the world. They shared a common drive, stayed true to reason. The others? Yes, they were responsible for momentous events but they were also enslaved by petty things too.

4. Throwing your toys out of the pram

Sure, you may explode in some screaming tantrum but others will simply get on with getting on.

5. Simple

Don’t worry. Seriously, don’t. Everything is bound to the laws of nature and soon enough, you’ll be a distant memory.

So focus on what you’ve got to do right now. Split reality from fantasy. Do your best. Be good. Stick to the path of an honest, just person. Be kind. That’s it.

6. The restless world

The universe is continually moving stuff around, transforming it into this and that. Change is everywhere but there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s all predictable and entirely natural.

7. Follow your path

Everyone’s core nature is content following its own path. If your nature is governed by reason, this will mean avoiding the false and fake, focusing on the common good, ignoring things that are outside your reach and rolling with the punches.

Your core nature is a part of the wider universe in the same way a leaf is part of a tree. But a leaf has no reason, feels nothing and doesn’t get upset if someone trolls it on Twitter.

Human nature, however, is part of a universal nature which is free, mindful and fair. It’s what gives us our share of time, resources and the world around us — maybe not equally from individual to individual but in the wider environment.

8. Today’s lesson

‘School’s out, I’ve nothing left to learn,’ you might say.

Well you can learn to watch against arrogance.

You can learn to rise above pleasure and pain.

You can learn not to worry whether you’re popular or well-liked.

And you can learn not to be upset by friends and foes alike (and even to care for them in spite of everything).

9. Not another word

No one should ever hear you moaning about your life (not even you).

10. FOMO

You’ll tend to regret missed opportunities.

Now, of course, anything good is useful and something people care about. But no one should regret missing out on pleasure. Pleasure in itself is neither good nor useful.

11. Probing questions

When you see anything, ask: What is this really? What’s it made of? What’s its true function? How long will it last?

12. Sleepy?

When you’re feeling sleepy and can’t be bothered, remember that doing the right thing for others is part of human nature. Sleep, however, you share with warthogs and dung beetles. Ultimately, keeping faith with your higher nature is always going to be more satisfying and fulfilling.

13. Prove it

Always test your thinking against the facts. Does it really hold up?

14 Is this person a dick?

Whenever you meet someone, immediately ask yourself, ‘What do they believe is good and evil, right and wrong?’ Because once you get that straight, you’ll never be surprised to find their actions stay true to form. They have no choice.

15. No surprises

Are you surprised that an apple tree bears apples? Then why be surprised when the wider world bears its own crop of events?

It’s like a doctor being surprised to meet a patient with a funny-looking rash.

Or a cab driver being surprised that someone might want to be driven somewhere.

16. So, you’re wrong

At the end of the day, it’s no limit to your freedom to change your mind when someone shows you that you’re wrong. After all, it’s your reason and judgement that allow you to accept that change is possible in the first place.

17. The blame game

If it’s your decision, why do it? If it’s another’s decision, who are you going to blame? God? Atoms? Either would be crazy and pointless.

If someone gets something wrong, try to correct them. If that’s not possible, correct what they did. And if you can’t do that, why bother with blame? It’s just not worth it.

18. Remains

When something dies, it doesn’t vanish from the universe. It’s still here. It just changes into its constituent atoms. The same atoms that make up everything in the universe. And you don’t hear them bitching about change.

19. What’s your role?

Everything, from bananas to baboons, exists for a reason. Even the sun has a job to do.

So why are you here? Simply for pleasure? The mere thought is pathetic.

20. Beginning, middle and end

Nature rules the beginning, middle and end of all things.

It’s like someone throwing a Frisbee. Does the disc benefit on the way up? Is it hurt by its descent? Or even as it rolls off down the beach? How does a bubble benefit from holding itself together instead of bursting?

It’s all part of the whole.

21. Take your clothes off

Get naked. Take a good look at yourself — check out the signs of age, illness, heavy nights spent partying.

Life is just as short for those who praise others as for those on the receiving end of praise. Same for those who remember others and who are themselves remembered after their time.

And even if this time is short, confined to some grotty little hellhole, the entirety of everything on Earth is just a tiny blue dot in the vastness of the universe.

22. Pay attention

Do what needs doing right now with your whole attention — whether you’re focused on an object, an activity, a principle or what someone is saying.

Of course, you’re going to be disappointed if you’d prefer to hope for goodness tomorrow rather than getting on with being good today.

23. Do or be done

If I’m going to do something, I want it to be for the good of the human race. If I’m on the receiving end, I’ll accept it as just a part of the greater tapestry of the universe.

24. Pass the soap

Think of your bath just after you’ve got out. A soup of oil, sweat and dirt. Pretty grim really. But all of life is like this, as is everything within it.

25. Extinction again

We all die.

When I pass, my children will bury me. In time, their children will bury them or see them go up in smoke. It’s always been this way.

Thousands of years of smart people, arrogant people, downright odd people — where are they now? All those geniuses, gone in a flash, some forgotten, some remembered as heroes and legends.

So think about how your wonderful, complex body will one day be broken down into its atoms and scattered. Your little life extinguished and everything that makes up your body recycled by the universe.

26. True happiness

Want to love what you do? Be true to your calling. Love others. Don’t trust your senses. Work out what’s true and false for yourself. Understand the universe as best you can.

27. Three relationships

We all have three relationships. The first is with our bodies. The second is with our fellow humans. The third is with the wider universe around us.

28. Imaginary pain

Pain can be bad for the body or bad for the mind.

If it’s the body, let it complain how it likes. If it’s the mind, well, the mind has a say in this. It can simply refuse to play and remain calm and untroubled instead.

You see, it’s ultimately up to the mind whether it is affected by every trouble, slight, desire and petty abuse that comes its way. None of this can trouble the mind without its consent.

29. Free your mind

Be free from mental turmoil by repeating to yourself, ‘It’s up to me whether I allow stupidity, anger, desire and all the rest of it in. I can see things as they really are and decide their worth.’

Remember, this ability is nature’s gift to you.

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.