The Ethics of Love and the Flower of Being

Soyo's Existence Ethics, Chapter 31 (Existence itself is Ethics)

The Allegory of the Flower and Love – Seeing as Awakening to Being

A flower is most beautiful when it is beheld. The moment it is plucked and held in the hand, its life vanishes. Human love is the same. Love is not an act or emotion; it lies in the depth of the gaze that perceives being. Whenever I look at a flower, I remember my mother and grandmother. They never tried to possess me. They simply looked, waited, and believed. Within that warm gaze, I was born as a human being. From them I learned, without words, that "to behold is to give life." This is what Soyo's Existence Ethics calls the Ethics of Love, the love that gives life to being.

The Essence of Love Is Being, Not Action

People often say that love is about doing something, helping, giving, and embracing. They believe love exists in acts of kindness. Yet true love is alive even when it does nothing. Love simply is. It is the moment when one being meets another through the eyes. In that moment, love transcends language and action; it becomes an ethical state of being itself.

Soyo's Existence Ethics declares:

"Love is not an act, but the light of being. When that light illuminates another being, ethics is born."

If we truly love someone, we must not try to change them; instead, we must simply behold them. The warmth of that gaze awakens the inner self. That gaze is the way God looks upon us.

The Love of Possession and the Love of Beholding

Possessive love is anxious, clinging, and fearing loss. When it cannot possess, it suffers. Such love steals the other's freedom. In contrast, the love of beholding is serene. It waits, it is filled with silence, and it affirms the other's existence without restraint. This love allows life to remain alive; it does not suffocate being. When love sheds its desire for possession, it begins to resemble divine love. God does not possess humanity. God simply beholds. In that divine gaze, humanity exists freely, and within that freedom, truth blossoms. Thus, love is an ethical act of being that mirrors the gaze of God.

The Foundation of Life and the Root of Love

"The foundation of life and death lies here." This sentence is one of the central axioms of Soyo's Existence Ethics. A flower loses its life the moment it is plucked, yet when it is simply beheld, it lives long within human memory. So it is with people. Those who are remembered, those who live in the gentle gaze of another's heart, continue to exist beyond physical death. Love is the conduit that sustains this vitality. When love beholds being, that being is proven alive. Therefore, love is not merely an emotion but an ethical energy that sustains the life of existence.

Soyo's Axiom – The Beholding of Love

"A flower is beautiful when beheld. When plucked or possessed, it soon dies. Human love must be the same. True love simply beholds. The essence of life and death lies here. Love is not about doing. One must love beautifully simply by being."

This axiom elevates the concept of love to the highest stage of ontological ethics. Through the definition "Love is Beholding," Soyo's Philosophy defines love not as an action or duty, but as a state of being in a divine order. Within this axiom, human love and divine love intersect. When the desire to possess fades, love attains its eternal nature. Love then becomes not a feeling, but a testimony of being.

The Completion of Philosophy – Existence Converging in the Ethics of Love

After thousands of years of philosophy analyzing, deconstructing, and doubting human existence and language, philosophy must now return to the place of love. Even if philosophy pursues truth, without love, that pursuit loses life. When ethics is separated from love, humanity becomes an ethical machine. However, when love is combined with ethics, the human being reaches their most mature form of existence.

Soyo's Existence Ethics proclaims the final sentence of philosophy:

"When philosophy deconstructs humanity, love restores it. Existence is perfected as ethics within the warmth of love."

The Love of Existence Is the Breath of God

Love is the highest form of ethics because it is identical to the breath of God. After creating humankind, God did not coerce or possess. He simply allowed existence to unfold, permitting it to bloom beautifully on its own. This is the ethics of divine love, and the ultimate definition of Soyo's Existence Ethics. Human beings must emulate that love: Do not pluck the flower, simply behold it. That is love modeled after the Creator's heart.

Soyo's Axiom

"Love is Beholding. In beholding, existence comes alive. A love that cannot behold is a dead emotion. When love revives existence, ethics is fulfilled."

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo Existence Ethics. Author of The Silence of Being and The Flame of Truth

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