When a captive lion steps out of his cage, he comes into a wider world than the lion who has known only the wilds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds for him - the world of the cage, and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people. He eats them. Yet he is not satisfied, for there is no third world that is neither the world of the cage nor the world outside the cage.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of freedom and the limitations of perspective.
Yukio Mishima's quote illustrates that while escaping physical confinement may grant a person a world of new experiences, true fulfillment often lies beyond the binary choices of captivity and freedom. The 'captive lion' symbolizes those who, despite gaining freedom, find themselves unfulfilled because they lack a deeper understanding or a third perspective that transcends their initial limitations, highlighting the complexity of freedom and satisfaction.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming adversity and finding true freedom in life.
What I wanted was to die among strangers, untroubled, beneath a cloudless sky. And yet my desire differed from the sentiments of that ancient Greek who wanted to die under the brilliant sun. What I wanted was some natural, spontaneous suicide. I wanted a death like that of a fox, not yet well versed in cunning, that walks carelessly along a mountain path and is shot by a hunter because of its own stupidity.
a samurai is a total human being, whereas a man who is completely absorbed in his technical skill has degenerated into a ‘function’, one cog in a machine.
…the samurai ethic is a political science of the heart, designed to control such discouragement and fatigue in order to avoid showing them to others. It was thought more important to look healthy than to be healthy, and more important to seem bold and daring than to be so. This view of morality, since it is physiologically based on the special vanity peculiar to men, is perhaps the supreme male view of morality.
Young people get the foolish idea that what is new for them must be new for everybody else too. No matter how unconventional they get, they're just repeating what others before them have done.
Is there not a sort of remorse that precedes sin? Was it remorse at the very fact that I existed?
Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result
Everything great and intelligent is in the minority
I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.
Guilt is only another way of avoiding informed action.
Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.
In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.
There is no accomplishment so easy to acquire as politeness and none more profitable.
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