A philosophy for life

1. Live life according to nature.
2. Live life according to reason.
3. Understand what is good, bad and what does not matter.
4. See isolation as the opportunity for self-improvement; every moment as a moment to expand your mind and evolve, as is your nature.
5. Apply reason to every possible circumstance – a transaction of goods and services, a moral decision – and take a meaningful outcome.
6. The less you control, the freer you become. The liberated man is the man freed of all encumbancies, material and emotional.
7. Understand your place in nature. You are but one part of an unfathomably huge organism that is the universe; and you yourself are an organism made of an unfathomably huge number of other organisms. You cannot control the things in the universe, in nature; but you can control how you act upon them. And how you act, if you act with reason, can make you a better person.
8. Consider the men that have died with great wealth, but are lacking in true happiness. They might think they have wealth before them, but in their heart, they are far poorer than a joyful bum.
9. If you cannot control it, then it does not matter – be indifferent to the indifferent things in life. You gain things, you lose things, circumstances change. Life is fickle, but with reason you can learn to ride circumstance to your better nature. Make the most of circumstance.
10. Your senses act on impulse; your mind acts on reason. Use your mind at every point.
11. Even when you are gone, you will still be a continual part of nature.
12. To be happy, all you need is a well-reasoned mind.
13. Remember: possessions have no memory. When you lose them they do not pity their lost owner, or any of their owners. They do not try to find you when you misplace them. Anything above self-sustainance is mere luxury, and wasteful. To be self-sufficient is to act in accordance with nature. Have doubt on the artificial world – of materials, of presumed ethics, of pleasures. Seek your life through nature, and real value, and joy, will come automatically.
14. Reason all possibilities: drink if you are thirsty, eat if you are hungry, buy things if you need them. But understand, a human only needs these few things to survive. Your mind may always be hungry for more – knowledge is a good thing. But only commit action to something if it benefits your body and mind. Excess, although pleasurable, is not beneficial: in the long – term, it can shorten your life. Money is only good if it is necessary to the functioning of your body and mind. But money is also the path to excess and wastefulness. Waste should be your enemy – avoid it at every turn. Be content to live by your needs, not your desires. You live for reason, and reason should be your guide.
15. Have you ever seen the look on someone’s face when they are eating or drinking? All expression is lost; what they are doing becomes an act of instinct, without thought or emotion. People think that pleasure is meant to be gained from sustainance, but it is merely an act of nature – pleasure is incidental. And when people gorge themselves on food and drink, the supposed pleasureable act is lost to their face – so why do it at all?
16. Being indifferent does not mean not caring; it means not worrying or letting things out of your hands overly concern or distract you. Wealth is preferable to poverty, and good health is better than illness – but these things are constantly changing in nature. If you are fortunate to have wealth then do not squander it on useless things, but put it to good reason. But, conversely, do not complain when wealth deserts you – your wealth is only temporary. You will die one day, but your wealth and possesions can be used by anyone and outlive you. Do not let the indifferent rule your life – for your life will also become indifferent; a non-entity to history, quickly forgotten, and wasted. Put your life not to indifferent matters, but to reason. Put your life to good use, for your life is less than the blink of an eye to the constant stream of time. Perform good actions, not for the sake of your reputation or vanity, but because good actions would be returned onto you – bad actions would have precisely the same effect. If you dislike people, people will dislike you back. A person that commits bad acts, even when they have good fortune, always lives in fear – a good person always lives with a clear conscience.
17. People sweat, worry and crave for artificial and unnecessary desires of their own making. In an office job, it is impossible to avoid the nature of “office politics”: the constant power play between workers as they each try to get one better than the other. It’s corrosive and damaging – and for what? A little more money, to buy a better car or a bigger house, or an expensive sofa.  Why can’t these people just be happy with their natural faculties and needs? The things they become so corrosive over, begin to corrode their own natural freedoms, so that they feel unable to live without these pointless and irrelevant things. Then they die, with all these things around them, trophies of their “success”, thinking they were “winners”, when deep down they know they are unhappy. Why? Because natural needs are limited to nature, but artificial needs are infinite.
18. Always test yourself and question the way of the world. Only by testing will you find the path to true knowledge and the ultimate truth. Complacency of knowledge and the truth leads to ignorance. Ignorance should be your enemy if you are to find the path to true reason. Never accept a view unless it is vindicated by true reason and meaning.
19. Look around and consider the people you see. As long as their is greed in the world, suffering exists elsewhere: this state is against nature, for greed is not a natural act, and it goes against the principle of reason. This state becomes even more unnecessary and evil when you consider the levels of hardship that must exist in order to support the levels of greed. You can therefore imply that nature could easily provide for the human condition, were people able to exist on reason. For all the greed would be gone, and all needs would be satisfied.
20. Understand that gold is worthless, success is vanity – distrust your senses and instincts.