Learning to die in order to learn to live

Faced with the mystery of death, human beings have always wondered about the meaning of their lives. What meaning does life take on in the face of death that seemingly annuls everything? In the course of human history, philosophy and religions have proposed multiple and very different answers, both in terms of content and outlook. Perhaps to answer this fundamental question, we are referred back to ourselves, to the original fact that our existence is made up of awareness and responsibility: awareness of our fragile condition as beings with an end and the responsibility of being unique and unrepeatable. Awareness that our existence is limited helps to give it meaning, not to take it away. Being aware of death and being able to somehow ‘anticipate’ it with the imagination allows one to live one's existence authentically. As the philosopher and psychiatrist V. Frankl suggested: ‘Let us ask ourselves what would happen if our earthly adventure were not determined in time, but were infinite. If we were immortal in this world, we would have every good reason to postpone our every act'. In this sense, our very responsibility for life would be diminished. Faced with an infinite existence, all our plans would fail. Ancient wisdom teaches us that the remembrance of death, of our precious finiteness, can, paradoxically, push us to seek the meaning of our lives and lead us to fully and responsibly realise who we are. The meeting will be theoretical and experiential; reflections will be offered to understand how it is precisely death that gives meaning to our lives, together with meditative techniques, visualisations and breath awareness practices.
With Chiara Simoncini, homeopathic doctor, and Patrizia Liva, religious and Thanatologist, from the voluntary organisation TuttoèVita, founded by Guidalberto Bormolini.