Zara Yaqob found his ethics through reason, arriving at the conclusion that love and dignity are the foundation of any serious morality. I arrived at a similar conclusion through a different route — through prayer stripped of all self-interest, through service that sought nothing in return.
What we share is the recognition that morality built on transaction is fragile. The person who is good because they fear consequences is not reliably good — they are reliably cautious. The person who serves because they expect reward is not generous — they are investing.
The examined life, in the spiritual tradition I inhabit, asks a harder question: what would you do if nothing were at stake? If there were no reward, no recognition, no karmic return, no community approval — what would you still do, simply because it is right?
Most people do not know the answer to this question because they have never been in conditions clean enough to find out. The examined life is the practice of creating those conditions artificially — through honest inventory, through the willingness to ask yourself why you are actually doing what you are doing.
The answer, arrived at honestly, is often uncomfortable and clarifying in equal measure.