A comic that has been banned for more than 40 years tells you what it means to be a human being

1. An animation for adults

"Asura" is a Japanese animated film released in 2012. It tells the story of a group of devastated people in Kyoto that have experienced natural and man-made disasters. The story of people trying to survive.

At the end of the Heian period (mid-15th century), Kyoto was reduced to a wasteland due to floods, droughts, famines and civil strife - the Onin Rebellion. Starving people are everywhere, the land is bare for thousands of miles, and there is no human habitation. It is like hell.

The protagonist Asura was born in this background. There is no joy in the birth of Asura, only cruelty. There is an air of despair hanging over the entire film.

At the beginning of the film, Asura's mother drags her frail body, so hungry that only her ribs are left, and her round and protruding belly is particularly eye-catching. In a ruined temple, Asura came to the world.

The mother gave the only clothes she had to Asura, wielded an ax and drove away the hungry wolves that rushed into the temple. Looking at Asura sucking breast milk, she showed her maternal love for the first time. Then shed tears.

My mother was so hungry that her eyes glowed red when she looked at the rotting corpses on the ground. One day, she was lying in a ruined temple, pinching Asura's face, shouting "meat", and lost her mind. Mother, lift the Asura high and throw him into the fire.

Asura's cry awakened the mother, and she realized what she had done, and the mother ran away. A heavy rain extinguished everyone who was burning with humanity, and Asura survived. From then on, he lived a life of eating the weak, drinking blood, and hunting all living creatures, including his own kind.

Asura has only instinct, and has grown fangs and claws. He always holds the ax his mother used to drive away the hungry wolves in his hand.

2. Asura transformed from a beast into a human

A heavy rain saved Asura, but also left him struggling in the endless hell.

Eight years later, Asura grew up among the dead, eating with wild beasts, dragging a long ax, and killing humans in order to survive.

He cannot speak and has no human emotions. Even more immoral, he is more like a beast in human form than a human being. He gnaws raw animal meat directly and eats directly with his mouth, just like what other normal children would say: he looks like a dog.

The encounter with the great monk is the starting point for Asura to transform into a human being.

The great monk said with compassion, kill for self-protection, otherwise you will not go down, but only those who depend on each other are called people

The great monk clasped his hands and said, anger, lamentation, hurt , killing, you carry the flames of pain. Ashura, from today on, this is your name.

The great monk cooked something for Asura to eat and taught him to recite: Namo Amitabha. Tell Asura, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the meaning now, just keep chanting and transform into a human being.

Asura gradually came to his senses, threw away his sharp, murderous ax, and walked alone. The atmosphere of the film gradually becomes brighter.

Asura entered the village and killed the only son of the land security guard. He was chased by the land security guard. The tall land security guard rode a tall horse. Asura was forced to the edge of the cliff with his bare hands and fell into Mass graves.

He hunted geckos, chased away the crows who wanted to eat him, dragged his broken and deformed hands and fractured legs, crawled towards the sun, crawled out of the bones, and was rescued by Ruoxia by the stream. He was held in Ruoxia's arms, as if he was still the newborn baby in his mother's arms.

The great monk is Asura’s guide on his way to adulthood, and the beautiful and kind-hearted Ruoxia is another mentor. Because of Ruoxia, Asura experienced love, hate, anger, and ignorance as a human being, experienced caring and letting go, and moved towards a comprehensive awakening.

After Asura was rescued, he told Ruoxia his name and recited "Namo Amitabha" to the rice balls given by Ruoxia; Ruoxia placed Asura in an idle waterwheel house and delivered meals regularly. Teach him to speak and read, teach him to recognize his eyes and ears, and teach him to eat mushrooms with chopsticks.

In this water room, I heard Asura’s laughter for the first time, a human-like laughter.

Asura has developed a deep attachment to Ruoxia. When Ruoxia works, Asura always hides in trees or corners where no villager can see him, watching Ruoxia silently.

Asura took Ruoxia to the top of the mountain, and held Ruoxia's hand and fell asleep. This was the safest place for Asura, just like the safest hiding place for wild beasts. Asura softened this place The sunset was shared with Ruoxia.

Asura's hungry animal nature is sleeping, and his human nature is awakening. After learning to flutter butterflies, I will miss Ruoxia in loneliness. The whole person is no longer like a tight string, exuding a soothing and sad atmosphere.

Love makes people put down their weapons and defenses, and makes them dull. Asura was tamed by Ruoxia. He was like a dog, watching over Ruoxia every day. He is just a part of Ruoxia's life, and Ruoxia is everything to him, the weight of his life that he cannot bear.

Ruoxia fell in love with Qilang (a retail slave) and gradually alienated Asura. Asura was sitting on a tree waiting for Ruoxia on a rainy night. He was overjoyed. When he saw Ruoxia coming in the rain, he rushed back to the waterwheel house, only to find that it was just a bubble. There was only a pot left by Ruoxia in the house. , an empty bowl.

Asura shed tears for the first time. No matter how many times he faced life and death, this beast never shed a tear, even showing sadness. Love makes people painful.

In fact, Ruoxia really came in the rain to meet his lover at night. Asura swung his ax and injured Qilang, but Ruoxia angrily yelled "beast" and "get out!".

The heavy rain that night caused a flood and submerged the village. Life, which had been gradually improving, suddenly returned to hell, for everyone in the village and for Asura.

Asura pinched the neck of the mother monkey who was caressing her baby, and shouted: It would be better not to be born! It would be better not to be born! I want to kill you for being born in such a place of so much suffering. I hate it! A place like this, born in such a place of great suffering!

The great monk cut off his hand as a gift for Asura's adulthood. Asura couldn't bear it and ran away, and the great monk shed tears.

The great monk said: Eat it, eat it from my hand. I am the same, no one wants to eat human flesh, but everyone is possessed by demons and exposes their animal nature, so they must fight against the beast in their hearts, not hating others, but hating themselves. Hate the beast in your heart. This is your gift of becoming human.

3. Asura transformed from human to Buddha

Floods destroyed the crops, and there was no food in the village. Tragedies of selling daughters and cannibalism began. Qilang kept helping Ruoxia, but Qilang couldn't take care of himself, and Ruoxia finally died of hunger.

Asura killed the local protector's horse, cut off a neat piece of horse meat, put it in a bowl and gave it to Ruoxia. Ruoxia overcame his desire to eat meat and thought it was human flesh, so he refused to eat it and eventually starved to death.

Ruoxia: Father, haven’t you always taught me that people who eat people are worse than dogs.

Asura: There is no way. In order to survive, it is a matter of course. It is already very painful. If you don’t eat, it will be even more painful!

If Xia’s father ate Asura’s flesh, he brought the Dibao people to him. The Dibao said that as long as he took Asura’s head, he would be rewarded with rice for a year. That night, fire spread across the land, dyeing the mountains red.

Asura was forced into a dead end, and the villagers at both ends of a broken bridge caught fire and burned the broken bridge. Asura ran hard and faced the fire dragon resolutely.

Later heavy snow covered everything. Qilang pulled Ruoxia's body and met Asura head-on. Asura walked forward silently with tears in his eyes. At this moment, Asura became a Buddha.

After Asura grew up, he entered Buddhism, shaved his head, and carved a wooden statue of Bodhisattva with a peaceful face.

4. What is a human being?

There are many works in literature that talk about famine, war and natural disasters.

For example, in Hayao Miyazaki's "Grave of the Fireflies", the two brothers and sisters who depended on each other escaped the war, but they could not escape death.

For example, in Feng Xiaogang's "1942", he was happy because he sold his daughter, but in the blink of an eye his old boss slapped him, his family was gone, and he finally gave up on escaping and decided to die closer to home.

For example, in Mo Yan's "Big Breasts and Wide Buttocks", the mung beans vomited by the mother, and the sister who uses her body for food.

When people are in extreme environments, their nature will be stimulated and they will do things that are intolerable under normal circumstances, which will reveal the so-called ugliness of human nature. All this is instinct, the instinct of survival. However, can this instinct become an excuse for human beings to self-exile?

People exchange children for food, people eat people, there are only a few words in the history books. In reality, it can make you tremble just by seeing these four words.

What is a human being?

The great monk said: It is true that humans all have animal nature, but they are obviously different from other beasts. That is the heart. People have a heart, and the more beastly things a person does, the more painful his heart becomes. What you just said about suffering is the proof of it.

People are the side that struggles with the beast in their hearts.

5. People who are awakening are the most painful.

People in the film are divided into three categories. One type is the villagers who have not yet awakened, including Dibao and Qilang; the other type is the great monk and Ruoxia who have already awakened; and the rest are the Asuras who are gradually awakening.

The villagers seem to be normal people, but that is just because their animal nature has not been stimulated. A person who has not fought against animal nature cannot be called an awakened person.

Due to natural disasters and lack of food, the villagers began to sell their daughters, eat each other, and fight for a little water source; for a year's food, the whole village hunted down the eight-year-old Asura and killed them one by one. His eyes were red, like the incarnations of countless hellish Asuras. Completely abandoning the reserve of human beings, this is a sign of their uncivilization.

The Dibao is basically the ruler in the village. His bestiality manifests itself in disregarding human life and enslaving others because of his status and power. He has no compassion for the working people at the bottom. He is a leader with a clear conscience.

There are too few strokes about Shichiro. I don’t know if he also participated in the pursuit of Asura. I won’t discuss it too much here. He is a kind person, but there is no guarantee that he can defeat the beast.

The great monk and Ruoxia are fully awakened people. They have principles that they can adhere to and stick to consistently, and they have something they want to protect, even if they lose their lives for it. They are self-righteous and willing to die as martyrs.

Under such extreme circumstances, the great monk insisted on redeeming and influencing others, and even cut off one of his hands to "dedicate it to the Buddha." He is the representative of the Buddha in the world, and has been looking at this with compassion. The miserable state of the world, walking through it to achieve redemption.

The great monk said: These are troubled times, with wars raging and people dying of hunger everywhere. How can we survive in this scorched land? I couldn’t answer, I was just fulfilling my duties and going all the way.

If the hero can finally overcome his animal desires and choose death, he will be a respectable person. It was she who made Asura believe that this world is not completely hopeless. She is the author's last hope left to the world.

Ruoxia said: Asura, if I eat it, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life. I don’t want to suffer for the rest of my life.

I don’t know if Ruoxia is like other villagers in the end, Asura will go to the other extreme: completely disappointed with the world and become a complete beast.

Asuras are people who gradually awaken. He was born, transformed into a beast, transformed into a human, and finally became a Buddha. He suffered a lot along the way. At a young age, in order to survive, he turned into a beast; at a young age, he hated being born as a human being; at a young age, although he regretted being born in this world, he still fought hard and lived tenaciously.

He completed the struggle between the human and beast in his heart, accepted his true self, including his previous sins, and reached a state of long-term inner peace and joy, which I call: becoming a Buddha.

Regardless of whether you have attained the Tao or become a Buddha, you will ultimately be able to adjust your thoughts to yourself, achieve long-term inner peace and joy, and achieve inner peace that is not imprisoned by external things. Asura, finally looked at the Bodhisattva in his hand, like a Buddha looking at the world.

Asura became a Buddha and experienced endless pain, struggle, confusion, and running hard. Just like you and me who are struggling in the secular world, we have to go through floods, fires, and reach the desperate situation of being surrounded and blocked. Survival from desperate situation.

Asura is you and me.

6. The Beauty of Life

The great monk said: Asura, I have benefited a lot from you. That is the nature of human beings who cannot live without killing. Eat seafood, eat wild life, old friends survive. Even if you are burdened with sin, you should not let down the life given by God and try to live on. The world is beautiful because of this.

No matter what the earth has experienced, it will always regain its vitality and thrive. At the beginning of the film, the city experienced war and devastation, but at the end of the film, it has a completely new look. It's the same with us humans. Even though we are suffering deeply, even if we are burdened with sin, we must still live well.