The Human Who Knows God: An Ethical Existence Meditation on Carl Jung and the Room of Conscience

Soyo Existence Ethics Essay (Existence itself is ethics)

The Weight of a Collapsing Humanity

When I first heard Carl Jung’s final confession, my entire being trembled. On his tombstone are engraved the words: “Whether invoked or not, God will be present.” And in his final interview, Jung said, “I do not believe in Him, I know Him.” Before this one sentence, I was breathless. A lifetime of philosophy, psychology, and theology could converge into this single moment of revelation. It was not a mere declaration of faith; it was a philosophical completion of the relationship between God and human existence.

Within that statement lay both the greatness and unbearable weight of human existence, the pressure of truth itself. To “believe” presupposes God as external, and to “know” affirms His indwelling presence. This is not religion; it is the self-realization of existence itself.

The Confusion of Faith and the Fading of Humanity

Humanity often falls deeper into confusion within the very word “faith.” To believe seems like conviction, yet hidden beneath are doubt, anxiety, and lack. We are beings who cannot even fully trust ourselves. When we say, “God is lost,” it is not that God has left us; rather, our inner center has collapsed. That center is free will. When free will is wounded and dulled by relationships, human beings drift away from themselves. This is alienation of existence - the deepest illness of the modern age.

The Room of Conscience – Where God and Humanity Meet

Through the years, I came to understand that solitude is never loneliness. It is the sacred time of entering the room of conscience, the only sanctuary where a human meets the root of his existence. The room is silent. There are no spectators, no applause, and no judgment, only my conscience and the God who formed it. In that room, one can finally know, not merely believe, that God exists and that one’s being was shaped by His breath.

But today’s humanity fears this room. Why? Because there are no others there. In a world that defines itself through validation, comparison, and applause, the solitary room feels like a state of isolation. Yet the truth is the opposite. That room is not isolation, but the restoration of freedom, the only doorway through which God and man meet again.

The Wandering of the Flameless

The greatest human fear is not death. It is the inability to light the flame within the room of conscience. If that flame goes out, one becomes a wandering soul, seeking rooms that belong to others, searching for meaning in relationships, defining the self through the gaze of others, and mortgaging one’s existence to their approval.

Such a life is never free. Free will becomes corrupted into indulgence, and the path toward truth is obscured by desire. To live only for recognition is not love; it is a beggary of the soul before the world.

The Place of God, the Place of Flame

The place of God is not far away. It is within the room of conscience. There, we can feel, think, confess, and weep before Him. There, we awaken to guilt, learn love, and realize forgiveness. When the flame in that room burns, its light becomes the ethics of existence. Its radiance flows like a river of life, a river that never runs dry. Those who return to this room often live the ethics of conscience itself, and in doing so, experience the eternal nature of life.

Carl Jung’s Philosophical Testament

Carl Jung said, “I do not believe in Him, I know Him,” is more than psychological insight. It unites the languages of philosophy and theology. Through the concept of the unconscious, Jung sought the divine image within humanity. His words affirm the same truth that Soyo's Existence Ethics bears witness to:

"God dwells within the human being. Man does not simply believe in Him; he already knows Him." That one sentence was a warning bell to a humanity that has forgotten the breath of God within itself. Jung experienced God. His silence was already a dialogue with the Divine. He was not merely a psychologist; he was a philosopher who had seen God.

Return to the Room of Conscience

What humanity needs today is not a new religion, nor a more sophisticated philosophy. What we need is the courage to return to our own room of conscience. Light the flame in that room. That flame is the breath of God, the ethics of human existence. A civilization that loses that room loses itself. But the one who finds it again carries a flame of truth that no darkness can extinguish. Carl Jung saw that flame. And I, Soyo, live to bear witness to its meaning.

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo's Existence Ethics, Author of The Silence of Being, The Flame of Truth

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