Motto
Body and spirit had never blended;
Never in physical action had I found the chilling satisfaction of words.
Never in words had I experienced the hot darkness of action.
Somewhere there must be a higher principle which reconciles art and action.
That principle, it occurred to me, was death.
The vast upper atmosphere where there is no oxygen is surrounded with death.
To survive in this atmosphere, man, like an actor, must wear a mask.
Flying at forty five thousand feet,
the silver phallus of the fuselage floated in sunlight.
My mind was at ease, my thought process lively;
No movement, no sound, no memories.
The closed cockpit and outer space
were like the spirit and body of the same being.
Here I saw the outcome of my final action.
In this stillness was a beauty beyond words:
No more body or spirit,
pen or sword,
male or female.
Then I saw a giant circle coiled around the earth,
a ring that resolved all contradictions,
a ring vaster than death,
more fragrant than any scent I have ever known.
Here was the moment I had always been seeking.
Yukio Mishima, Sun and Steel (1968)