Buddhist Insights into Life and Death: Overcoming Death Anxiety

Death anxiety devastates emotional well-being and may produce suicidal ideations, thus lowering life satisfaction. Although much literature suggests that religion reduces this fear, their direct correlation remains controversial. The present case study investigates how a Buddhist perceives life and death, and how she copes with death anxiety through Buddhist teachings and practices. Using multiple first-hand sources, it analyses data through an interpretative phenomenological analysis. It also adopts peer analysis to increase academic rigour, attaining an inter-rater reliability of 93%. Findings reveal that the law of dependent origination, karma, cause-and-effect, and the cycle of life and re-birth expound on the phenomenal reality, giving hope, and producing peace when facing death. Despite the fact that a single case does not aim at generalisation, research outcomes shed light on helping professionals who equip themselves with a wider range of worldviews and life views in order to enhance their professional skills.