[263] oneself in the being [Sein] of the being [Seienden] thus revealed: to exist. Anticipation shows itself as the possibility of understanding one's ownmost and extreme potentiality-of-being, that is, as the possibility of authentic existence. Its ontological constitution must be made visible by setting forth the concrete structure of anticipation of death. How is the phenomenal definition of this structure to be accomplished? Evidently by defining the characteristics of anticipatory disclosure which must belong to it so that it can become the pure understanding of the ownmost, nonrelational, insuperable, certain, and, as such, indefinite possibility. We must remember that understanding does not primarily mean staring at a meaning, but understanding oneself in the potentiality-of-being that reveals itself in the project.17
Death is the ownmost possibility of Dasein. Being toward it discloses to Dasein its ownmost potentiality-of-being in which it is concerned about the being of Dasein absolutely. Here it can become evident to Dasein that in the eminent possibility of itself it remains torn away from the they, that is, anticipation can always already have torn itself away from the they. The understanding of this "ability," however, first reveals its factical lostness in the everydayness of the they-self.
The ownmost possibility is nonrelational. Anticipation lets _Dasein understand that it has to take over solely from itself the potentiality-of-being in which it is concerned absolutely about its ownmost being. Death does not just "belong" in an undifferentiated way to one's own Dasein, but it lays claim on it as something individual. The nonrelational character of death, understood in anticipation, individualizes Dasein down to itself. This individualizing is a way in which the "there" is disclosed for existence. It reveals the fact that any being-together-with what is taken care of and any being-with others fails when one's ownmost potentiality-of-being is at stake. Dasein can authentically be itself only when it makes this possible of its own accord. But if taking care and being concerned fail us, this does not, however, mean at all that these modes of Dasein have been cut off from its authentic being a self. As essential structures of the constitution of Dasein they also belong to the condition of the possibility of existence in general. Dasein is authentically itself only insofar as it projects itself, as being-together with things taken care of and concernful being-with ..., primarily upon its ownmost potentiality-of-being, rather than upon the [264] possibility of the they-self. Anticipation of its nonrelational possibility forces the being that anticipates into the possibility of taking over its ownmost being from itself of its own accord.
The ownmost, nonrelational possibility is insuperable. Being toward this possibility lets Dasein understand that the most extreme possibility
17. Cf. § 31.