ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the extent to which the philosophical point of view of Ende's texts challenges a normative western perception of the relation between time, life, and death by examining the spiritual quests of the main characters, quests that highlight ideas about experience and impermanence reflecting Zen perspectives on life and death. In Zen article "Momo, Dogen, and the Commodification of Time", philosophy and literature scholars Linda Goodhew and David Loy discuss the "deep resonances between Ende's view of time in Momo and the Buddhist perspective on time. The narratives highlight that impermanence is the nature of everything that exists in the way that Zen philosophy maintains, a key idea especially applicable to words and storytelling. At the end of The Neverending Story, AURYN, the symbol representing non-linear life, transforms from an amulet into a huge portal in an immeasurable vaulted building.
