A sudden shock: Taro Okamoto’s words
I was absentmindedly watching YouTube when I stumbled upon an AI-generated video recreating the words of Taro Okamoto, the artist famous for The Tower of the Sun and the catchphrase “Art is an explosion.”
Hearing it, I felt as if someone had grabbed me by the collar.
“Throw away social constraints.
This obsession that you must be happy—discard it.
Burn your life. Place yourself in situations that border on danger.
Live in the joy of burning itself.
So that when you die, you can say: I lived!
That is the true fulfillment of life.”
This was the gist of his words in the video. And when I heard it, I thought—“This is like the Asura realm in Buddhist cosmology, a world of endless struggle and combat.” Yet at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of admiration.
The allure of “Burn your life”
There is undeniable power in his cry, Burn your life! It explodes against the social atmosphere that whispers: “Be quiet, follow the rules, and blend in.”
Inside me too, there is—just a little—the impulse to live like fireworks: to flare up brightly, to burn out quickly. Perhaps this is nothing more than my bonpu (an ordinary foolish being in Shin Buddhist thought) clinging to life and desiring to plunge into joy.
Bound by Amida Buddha
But as someone who has studied Jōdo Shinshū (Shin Buddhism), I cannot help but think: Human beings cannot truly become such fireballs.
As individuals, we are powerless before reality. The only thing left is to entrust ourselves to the compassion of Amida Buddha, expressed in the chant Namu Amida Butsu (“I take refuge in Amida Buddha”), and to be released from our own strength.
I know that I cannot burn my life like Okamoto did. In fact, I know that even this very impulse will eventually prove futile. And perhaps for that reason, I can say that I am bound by the Buddha.
This inner conflict is the very mark of a bonpu
Yet being bound is not necessarily suffering. If life is like bungee-jumping, then the Buddha’s embrace—or even ordinary social norms—are like the safety cord.
Okamoto’s destructive cry, the Buddha’s peaceful embrace… In the end, I can only say: both are true. My admiration for Okamoto and the bonds of Buddhism wrestle within me.
This torn heart is the very shape of a bonpu. Even while carrying the impulses of the Asura realm, I am still embraced by Amida’s salvation. That is the only place I find my sense of truly living.
In conclusion
Okamoto shouts: “Burn your life!”
The Buddha assures: “Even if you burn yourself out, even if you do not, you are embraced and saved just as you are.”
I am a bonpu caught between these two voices. As for “the fulfillment of life”—I cannot say I have found a single, final answer. For now, I live within the contradiction, carrying it with me through my wandering.
日本語版note：修羅の火花とほとけさまの縛り ― 岡本太郎先生の言葉に触れて
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