This episode focuses on how two systems of thought view death: Ernest Becker’s Denial of Death and Zen Buddhism. Ernest Becker was an anthropologist most famous for his Pulitzer-prize winning 1973 book, Denial of Death, where he synthesizes psychology, philosophy and spirituality in a compelling effort to show that much of human behavior is motivated by an unconsicous fear of death. Zen is a school of Buddhism that originated in China in the 5th or 6th century; it can be roughly approximated as a fusion of the Indian Mahayana Buddhist school and Chinese Taoist philosophy.

My guest is Busshin Nash, novice Zen priest and resident monastic at Peace House in Cambridge. He leads many kinds of meditation as part of his ministry, one of them being on death itself. We begin by discussing Becker’s ideas and how they relate to Buddhism, before examining how death is treated in Zen.