불교의 臨終觀과 葬禮儀式 연구

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In dealing with issues of life and death, we understand that all life forms are, without fail, connected to death, and since through death, the value of life can shine more, we give a meaning of life in reality through our new understanding about death, thus most religions provide us with the path that can help us avoid fear and pain of death.

The core of views on death in Buddhism is samsara, the cyclic existence (輪廻思想). In views of samara in Buddhism, the characteristic view of afterlife is that depending on one’s karma in his previous life, an afterlife continues through various stages of life in the future generation. It means death is a gate to the cyclic existence and a beginning of a new life.

A ceremony of death in Buddhism refers to a formulated procedure with propriety during which mourners face a person’s death and the family of the dead observes procedures in connection with the burial or cremation during the period of mourning. Generally a ceremony of life and death deals with the existence after death but includes a ceremony on the premise of death. Therefore, to examine a series of ceremonies systemized for a death will be a basic job in understanding Buddhistic life and death. This study has as an objective to seek ways, based on the meaning of life and death (生死觀) and studies of life ethics (生命思想), for the general public to establish and distribute ceremonies of life and death in modern Buddhism; through understanding life and death, and through life in preparation of death, they will in the future contribute to promoting Buddhist teaching and mission activity; to examine funeral ceremonies of Buddhism and establish the Buddhist funeral ceremony as an alternative to existing funeral ceremonies, deemed formal and ineffective socially or personally, and seek ways to establish the Buddhist funeral ceremony among the general public.