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On the limits of human will and experience

The greatest danger we are facing now is not a virus, but the demons that humanity has inside – hatred, greed and ignorance. (Quoted from the preface of Harari’s Pandemic)

In contrast, in order to encourage a way of life that generates compassion, generosity and wisdom (prajna, transcendental wisdom), I chose to examine the life of Tomoatsu Godai.

With the completion of the film, I remembered Mishima Yukio, who committed suicide on November 25, 1970. This was when I was 24 years old. I could not understand why a rich and famous celebrity would commit suicide..

Speaking of movies, director Yoshida Daihachi depicted the horrors of global warming based on Mishima’s “A Beautiful Star”. He sees the energy problem as a struggle between regions and at the same time as an inter-generational problem with a time conflict.

Why does Mishima’s suicide and his film strike our hearts? Mr. Yoshida said, “That’s because Mishima doesn’t look away from the meaninglessness of human life and hangs on to its meaninglessness. “

Shoko Katsura said, “We don’t shrink from meaninglessness because we can’t find it; we act because it is meaningless. In that moment, beauty stands up. In today’s society, meaningfulness is a problem, and people try to cut it off and discard it in favour of efficiency, but Mishima knew that if you get right down to it, you will alienate people. But he knew that if he got to the bottom of it, he would alienate people. (quoted in the Culture column of October 22, 2020)

Could Mishima have killed himself for nothing? Knowing that modern society prioritizes efficiency in everything and simply decides between right and wrong without any standard of value, he felt alienated and self-judged?

Mishima must have thought that his way of life was to present the ideal of Japan, knowing that he knew that the defects of other people were also inherent in himself.

On the other hand, Haruma Miura said in front of the Esashi Oiwake Monument in Hokkaido, “I’ve had enough. I am happy. I’m happy.” And he rang the bell loudly.

And in the fall of 2019,Miura met Tomoatsu Godai and felt his consciousness changing and wondered how he could contribute to society.

It is difficult to interpret the two men’s suicide as meaningless.

God and the Buddha have long said since ancient times that life, human life, is meaningless. It is also said that God is inherent in human beings. It is said that both the intrinsic nature of God and the teachings of God and Buddha are hypotheses invented by man.

Either way, to know God requires a great deal of practice and study. It is difficult to be aware of life and death in this world.

A person can only die once.

We should not believe that human’s will and experience are the supreme source of (life’s) meaning.

November 7, 2020

Minoru Hirota, Chairman of Tomoatsu Godai Film Production Committee