to be ethical is to love

Those who have love, in their hearts, are ethical. There is no need to seek a logical concept for ethics, because it is only possible when we think of others aside from ourselves. The path towards ethics is rich in challenges. To tread this path, it is not enough to have good intentions, goodwill and persistence are essential. It is necessary to have the right sentiments or all efforts are in vain. There is much to be said about ethics, but just the ethics of words is meaningless.

Ethics is an affirmation of action and not of words. It is a human possibility: where one is recognized as being important and, at the same time, where there is the realization of self-recognition. To recognize someone as important is to attribute value. This is possible when we perceive that other people, as we, have fears, anxieties, necessities, aspirations and hope; when we identify, in other words, feelings similar to ours in others. Instantly, we discover other people as equal. We become conscious that these people are close to us, because we identify limitations and potentials similar to ours. When we are able to see this clearly, in turn, we see ourselves in others.

There is a lot more to being ethical than to just say you are. To synthesize, what it means to have a rigorous ethical behavior, we need only to say “to be ethical is to love”. Nobody becomes ethical by following codes, manuals or prescriptions. These may even be reflexes of ethics, but never the cause for it. Love is the cause; uninterested, pure, penitent, generous, loyal and kind. Simply love!

No amount of training can confer to one the title of “ethical”. Not that, and neither thousands of studies, diplomas, courses or any other type of recognition can confer “ethical”. Those who do not understand ethics as being love, will never understand ethics at all. We can realize it as the “science of goodwill”, as long as we understand and feel what that is. To have “goodwill” is to do that what you desire. Nevertheless, to do what you desire, it is necessary to know essentially, what you desire. Moreover, that our desires are fair and correct, we need to love.

However, before we start using “love” as a justification for disastrous attitudes, it is necessary to understand its nature. And that requires a lot of discipline and seriousness. Love is not a game. We may feel it as something pleasurable and light, for the sake of fun, but it is the one, that chooses and manipulates us and not the contrary. We owe it reverence, dedication and honesty. Love is the one that dictates the rules. Because it is gentle, we need to learn being gentle; being pure, it is fundamental that we are also; and being loyal, without loyalty we cannot attain love, and because it is perennial and tranquil, tranquility and patience is what it asks of us. Without that, love is not possible.

“Agere sequitur esse” (acting follows being)... our acts will only be loving if we manifest in them the essence of what we are. And that essence is love. Without it, it is impossible to act correctly. And if there is no correct action, there is no good action. And without good actions, there is no ethics. Tolstoy said... “Do not do anything contrary to love”.

The wisdom in most of the traditional religions tells us that “those that truly love are not capable of hurting another person” and “common sense” also tells us the same. Those that have discovered love become incapable of being aggressive to another person. And those that do not use of violence or wish to cause harm to others, but, to the contrary, want to aid them in whatever way possible, is, definitely considered an ethical individual. For someone like that, each instant is the right instant to give love.

Ethics is the synthesis of all virtues applied to practical life. It is only meaningful, when, experienced and “irradiated”. Ethics corresponds to the human capacity in acting in conformity with superior values. It is in contrast what reveals, from actions, the best of us humans. Excessive theoreticals of ethics, may all together depreciate completely its more meaningful sense: being happy making others happy, minimizing other people’s suffering and aiding people in overcoming their transitional difficulties. Immanuel Kant preferred to build a practical argument about ethics, realized from effective human actions. The bases for ethics are one of practice. The Kantian categorical imperative is a way to filter practical actions.

Once certain specialists conclude their explanations on ethics, it is no longer possible to identify what the question really was, this due, to the complexity, the strangeness and the confusion that is the answer”. But none of this is necessary, because the real sense of ethics is inside us. It is, the inclination we have towards the “good”. When we allow it to manifest and regenerate, that it spread its wings and fly freely, we realize the supreme purpose of our existence; sustainable happiness, based on inner peace, in the conscience of our own responsibilities and in the love we give to others. We now can abandon, the old idea of “success” based on our own images, name, fame, reputation, second intentions, and other social and psychological crutches.

Ethics is the consequence of the peace and love we give to each person we meet. Love is light, as is ethics "illuminati”, its source is love. If we were to manifest all the potential love we have, we would be gods and goddesses. Observe... what we mean to say when we compliment others is that we care about them and about their happiness. When we touch them, we desire to hug them, when we kiss them, we desire to kiss them... our wishes are really to take them in our arms, through the paths of life. We want to express that we love them. We just do not do it any better because we are fearful of assuming the feeling, that is, what makes us who we are intimately. But because love is our most profound nature, there is no point in fleeing from it. We will only be completely happy when we express it in its entirety. How? By being useful; comprehending, blessing, forgiving and loving radically all living things.

There are those that say that humanity has never been this way. That we are products of past generations that we will always repeat the same errors we have made in the past, and that we do not walk forward. It is only that way, if you believe in it, that way! There have been people that have been live expressions of love. Well known people and anonymous ones. Therefore, we also have the chance to be that way. Delusions only mine illusions, not the dreams. We can, live with a tranquil and conscious mind, without all the dazzling and hallucinations that get confused with happiness, have dreams of peace and love, and work for our realization. If our hearts are well intentioned, nobody can break it. We can, as of now, offer tranquility, gentleness and kindness to all people in our paths. We can make a difference! If the majority has not acted like that before, and does not act like that still, it is not of any importance. We can be, ourselves, the point of change! And, if nobody cares about how we act, it is of no importance either. We should only worry about cultivating, love and respect in our hearts. Love is the biggest divine patrimony, we carry in ourselves, and there is no fleeing from it, as it is our perennial trait. When we feel, profoundly, the ocean of love inside us, there is no doubt or fear, and so, ethics becomes a living reality in us and in others around us.

None of this is ingenuous. Silly is to think that vanity and astuteness can actually conquer something worthwhile. What good is it to condemn your heart to paralysis? What can you accomplish by despising virtue? To conduct your life with high moral values is a sign of prudence and not of ridicule, as how it is imagined by some sick intellects, perverted in the care of their own interests and poisoned by their own excessive self love. Lost in the labyrinth of themselves, they do not even suspect that it is love that feeds their hearts.

If we consider philosophy as the science of love and wisdom, its best practical translation is ethics. Those who love are quick to feel its effects. Those that conduct themselves ethically have, in their own manners, its largest retribution. Those that inspire the world with their ethical attitudes are also, the first ones to be enlightened. To be ethical is to love.