Hung, Chun-Yang See all items with this value

2002

Master of Arts in Religious Studies

Lancaster, Lewis R.

An-Hue, Thich

Locke, Kenneth A.

This study was conducted to explore the tales of mortality that were told by the Buddha. The 82 tales of death were, therefore, found and selected from Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka as the primary source of this research. The findings of these tales have offered various issues associated with death; those issues range from subjects (such as types, main objects, and main focuses of the tales) to themes of the tales (such as main participants, voices of the participants, emotions of grief, facts of life, Dharma practices). On the other hand, dating analyses of the 82 tales also serve as an indispensable part of this research due to the importance of the translation years of the tales. The translation years indicated in what background those tales were brought back to China from India and in what social contents the tales were translated. Mainly, this study has found that as understanding mortality is inevitable in life, the Buddha told people to pay a great attention to it. Furthermore, in order to cope with mortality, the Buddha had offered various Dharma practices to those who were confronted with the issue of death.

Tripitaka See all items with this value

Death See all items with this value

Buddhist literature See all items with this value

University of the West