ABSTRACT
Beginning with the life story of the Buddha, the problem of death has figured prominently in the Buddhist tradition. In the narrative of his life, his first vision of a corpse proved instrumental in motivating him to pursue a religious path. Indeed, even a critical part of the Buddha’s awakening concerns the truths of old age and death, which are presented as the culminating events of an existence characterized by craving, attachment, and suffering, and which even under the most ideal circumstances remains tinged by a subtle form of suffering. To lead a good life – a meaningful life – from a Buddhist perspective, then, one must not only understand and be reconciled with death, but must also take it into one’s daily meditations.
