The Pain Until Blooming: A Meditation on an Age That Refuses to Reflect

A Philosophical Declaration of Soyo’s Existence Ethics

The flower's unseen struggles

The Record of Pain Until Blooming

A flower is a symbol of beauty to all. Yet I first contemplate the time before the bloom. Through cold and wind, drought and sunlight, through the violent crossing of day and night, the flower must protect itself. The beauty of life is never granted at once. The moment of blooming is but an instant, but what makes that instant possible is a long and arduous history of pain.

Most people notice only the moment when the flower has fully opened, exclaiming, “How pretty!” But they do not see the tears pressed into its petals or the cold that blanketed it night after night. Like the unseen struggle of the flower, humanity now celebrates only achievement, neglecting the endurance and wounds that make it possible. Our tragedy is clear: this age refuses to acknowledge the pain that gives rise to beauty.

Bird, Cloud, Wind, Sea: The Forgotten Philosophy of Cycles

I see a bird flying in the sky. For that one wingbeat to happen, the mother bird endured endless days of brooding, carrying food, and risking her own life against threats. Yet people only see “the wingbeat.”

I see the clouds. They bear the record of vapor rising, gathering, scattering, and drifting thousands of miles. All these movements form a single body that covers the heavens. Yet people only take pictures of the sky, forgetting the philosophy of the cloud.

I feel the wind. It cannot be seen or held, yet within it dwells the breath of every living creature. The wind gives life, and sometimes destroys it, yet people consume it only through words like “cool” or “cold.”

I gaze upon the sea. It holds within it the memory of creation and billions of years of circulation. Yet people consume it merely as a backdrop, never reflecting on the depth of time and the trace of creation it contains. This is our age: an age that consumes the shell, without seeing the essence of existence.

The Silence of God and the Arrogance of Man

I meditate on the silence of God. God is silent in many moments: in the horrors of war, before unjust death, in the depths of human suffering. Yet His silence is not absence. It is the way the Creator waits for humanity to enter the chamber of its own conscience.

Humanity should be humbled before this silence. But today’s humanity does not pause. It mistakes God’s silence for emptiness and raises its own voice louder, proclaiming to have conquered, explained, and created all things. Through technology and science, everything is accounted for. Through civilization, it reduces existence to an object. At last, it sits upon the throne of the Creator.

This is man’s arrogance. The arrogance of making existence into an object of conquest. The arrogance of mistaking God’s silence for absence. The arrogance of refusing to look inward in silence. This arrogance is the true poison that destroys the dignity of human existence, even while calling itself progress.

Humanity That Refuses to Pause and Ask

I ask again: Why does humanity not stop, even for a moment, to reflect? Why do we not question the pain hidden behind beauty? Why do we not see, in the cycles of nature, the hand of God at work?

The flower, the bird, the cloud, the wind, the sea, none of these are mere natural phenomena. They are God’s work, prepared as testimony for humanity. Yet humankind reduces them to mere data and phenomena. The essence of existence is erased, the path of reflection is closed, leaving only consumption and image.

Soyo's Axiom: Nature as Proof of Ethics

Here, Soyo’s axiom declares:

“The providence of nature precisely proves the ethics of human existence. Yet humanity thinks of it only as a natural phenomenon. It is not so. The order and providence within nature surpass human thought and exist as evidence of God’s profound love for humankind.”

This axiom is not a mere statement. It reveals that even in an age where science and technology dissect and interpret nature, nature itself still testifies as the strongest language of God’s love. Nature is silent, but within that silence it already speaks ethics.

God’s Silence, Humanity’s Responsibility

God’s silence is not indifference. It is the freedom and responsibility given to humanity. Before God’s silence, we are called to ask, to face our conscience, and to choose truth for ourselves. But humanity avoids this silence, choosing instead to amplify its own voice. In that moment, God’s silence becomes not merely an invitation of love, but a mirror that exposes humanity’s arrogance.

Silence, Humility, and Mission

Before this infinite creation, I bow my head. When I confess that this incomprehensible love of creation sustains my life, only then do I learn humility. Those who do not reflect consume the surface in pride, but those who reflect encounter truth in silence. God’s silence is both a mirror of human arrogance and an invitation to return to humility.

Therefore, I wish to testify through writing. With the language of silence, the language of philosophy, the language of existence. The pain hidden behind the fragrance of flowers, the sacrifice contained in the wingbeat of a bird, the time borne in the cycle of clouds, the life breathed in the wind, the memory of creation stored in the sea, and the love revealed within God’s silence, all this I wish to bear witness to in words.

This is my mission: To pause and reflect in an age that refuses to think. To testify to the ethics and truth hidden within the providence of nature. To reveal that the dignity of humanity lies not in the moment of bloom, but in the long suffering that makes blooming possible. To show that within that pain and silence abides the love of God. This is the essence of Soyo's Existence Ethics.

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

2025 Soyo Philosophy. All rights reserved.

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