I do not believe Our Savior could say that peace is something that belongs to Buddhism, or to another religion or to another way of life, or to man himself. We are in constant war as a State, as a Society, and as men, or we would not be such. But there is always something more, something better, which makes its way through the creeping suffering in the night before death.
Tibetan Buddhists traditionally did not bury their dead, but instead practiced “corpse exposure” in the mountains. This practice, called “sky burial” or “celestial burial”, was a very common form of body disposal in Tibet. After death, the body was taken to a mountain and left exposed to the natural elements and vultures. This method of disposing of the body was considered an act of compassion, returning the body to nature and animals. Or the corpses were crushed like Bari-style octopuses on the rock and then the detached parts were thrown down the slopes to feed the birds and other animals. Conceiving death and peace are only mental abstractions, labyrinths. People should put up with more cognitive dissonance like this to improve themselves. He should turn the dead end of his own life and that of others into a labyrinth. I don’t think there is a more dead-end situation in Italy than the one into which Mr. Massimo Bossetti fell.
I didn’t learn about the limited bibliography on this case until finally, after my book was published. I confess that immediately after deciding to start writing this book, I had a strong second thought, and I believe that once I decided to really start that second thought was the real push to build the “labyrinth”. The book represents a sort of adventure, a literal challenge, even medieval, or even more remote. And this has been acknowledged on more than one occasion. Not only. The book is another manual, an instruction manual for political use to, through the entire feedback of the narrative, do justice on the Justice invoked by respect for the Code of Law and Honour.
The book also offers an intricate journey into the miserable human condition, already skilfully described in the works of William Shakespeare, or in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but which this time frees itself and wriggles into a real plot that has laid the foundations for the perception we have of others according to the most squalid and petty of conventions, beliefs and suggestions. There will be no shortage of references to writers such as, among many, Dick, Orwell, Huxley, the keys to the visionary genius that can allow us to understand beyond the nature of the social reality that strips us also of the nature of our reality both for those human beings who refuse to living in a society in which everyone stops caring about each other is for those who accept this sadistic and sad condition not dissimilar to how a believer can conceive his own idea of hell.
In the end, my wish is for the reader to get lost in the labyrinth and come out before realizing that the labyrinth itself is the key to understanding one’s existence and the world around him. In this journey through pages full of reflections and narratives, the reader is invited to explore not only the dark folds of human justice and iniquity, but also to discover the light that can emerge from confrontation with one’s own shadows. Just as Our Savior brought peace among men, a concept as abstract as it is fundamental, this book aspires to be a lighthouse in the darkness, a guide to navigate the internal and social storms that besiege us. Peace, in this context, becomes not only an ideal to be pursued but a possible reality, a ground on which to build a more conscious and compassionate existence. And perhaps, just as the corpses exposed on the Tibetan mountains offer nourishment to vultures, so the cognitive dissonances and challenges of life can transform into nourishment for the soul, allowing us to grow and improve. The labyrinth, with all its blind streets and intricate paths, becomes a metaphor for an inner journey which, if faced with courage, can lead us to discover peace and harmony within ourselves and in the world around us.
I thank the lawyer Claudio Salvagni who put up with me for several weeks but let’s hope it was worth it.
