The Ethics of Existence: Life, Death, Love, and the Gate of Eternity

Soyo's Ethics of Existence in Contemplation

The Impossible Justification of Murder

Murder is humanity's worst act, unjustifiable under any circumstances. It is not merely the taking of a life. Murder is a fundamental destruction that violates the very dignity of existence itself, akin to pointing a gun at the heart of God.

Human desire manifests as crystallized emotion, and when this emotion runs wild, humanity teeters like an acrobat on a perilous tightrope. Becoming an acrobat of emotion, humanity is swept away by an unconscious force beyond its own control. In that moment, it loses its conscience and betrays the ethics of existence.

Yet human existence is never a disposable commodity. Under no circumstances can it be traded. Life is a debt that cannot be paid off. When someone's life is destroyed, the blood debt does not vanish. It is transferred into the lifelong suffering that the survivors must bear in their place. This is the brutal truth of murder.

Existence is an object of love

Every human being must be treated solely as an object of love.

The value of a single life cannot be measured by mere social function or productivity. Within that one life lies the sacrifice of the Creator, and history has borne witness to this truth.

Philosophers and theologians, poets and thinkers spent their entire lives questioning the origin of human existence before passing away. The questions they explored at the cost of their lives was:

“Why does man exist?”

“Where does existence come from, and where does it go?”

We know the records of countless intellects who sacrificed their lives before these questions. How, then, can a human being point a gun at another human being? Existence itself is already noble. The act of destroying that nobility is a betrayal of one's own origin.

Amidst such contradictory and ignorant currents of emotion, the world has left traces of blood throughout history. Yet even within those traces, life always cries out, “I am an object of love.”

Life is not mine

My life is not mine. This is not confined to religious doctrine alone. It is a universal truth about human existence.

Because life is not mine, I cannot treat it carelessly.

Life is given by the breath of God, and its very existence already testifies to the Creator's breath. Therefore, the destruction of life is not merely a crime; it is the root of evil, pointing a gun at the heart of God.

There is only one way to suppress this root of evil: for human beings to live out the ethics of conscience. A person without conscience reduces life to a mere means, but a person with conscience bears witness to life as the light of eternity.

Death, the Gate of Rest and Eternity

We often describe death as “life falling asleep.”

Yet the moment the heart stops beating is not mere extinction.

Death is the tranquil time when the journey lived ethically on this earth finally finds rest.

Death is the moment when one stands before God, bearing the ethics of a turbulent life, and finds rest. Within it lie fear and sorrow, yet on a deeper level, it hides the noble moment of laying down the time of suffering.

Death is both sorrow and blessing for human existence. Death is not the end of suffering, but the beginning that opens the door to eternity.

The Meaning of the Name Soyo

Knowing this moment of truth, I chose “Soyo” as my pen name. Just as Zhuangzi's “Soyoyoo” is not merely the story of a man's wife dying, the name Soyo contains the eternal peace seen through death.

Death is not disconnection, but a movement toward rest and eternity.

Through death, humans learn inner ethical wisdom.

This wisdom is not knowledge gained from books, but a truth attained only through lived experience.

Life: The First Classroom

Life is the first classroom that reveals the nobility of human existence.

Death is the final lesson in that classroom and the door opening to eternity.

In this classroom of life, humans learn. What love is, what tears are, what pain is. And finally, they realize: the essence of existence is ethics, and that ethics is perfected on the path toward eternity.

Beginning with the impossibility of justifying murder, this journey reinterprets life as an object of love and death as the gate to eternity. It is the central confession of the existential ethics of Soyo. This philosophy does not view death as fear, but elevates existence to a noble ethics, and sees life not as a mere moment, but as the prelude to eternity.

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo Existential Ethics. The Silence of Existence, The Flame of Truth, Author

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