The Buddhist practice of mindfulness of death (maraṇasati) from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics

Abstract

As an important method of spiritual practice, Buddhist mindfulness of death (maraṇasati) is significant not merely as a reflection upon the concept of death, but in that it influences the agent's practice through the awareness of death and promotes the cultivation of character. Adopting the perspective of practical philosophy and focusing on the question of how death enters the agent's practice and influences the formation of virtue, this paper examines the different paths taken by Aristotle's theory of tragedy and the Buddhist method of mindfulness of death. Through an analysis of the Nicomachean Ethics, the Poetics, and the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness-of-death practice, it is concluded that death itself does not directly generate virtue; its practical significance lies not in the fact of being the end of life, but in that it reveals the finitude of the agent's existence. Aristotelian tragedy provokes practical reflection by having one witness the fate of others, whereas Buddhist mindfulness of death advances the reorientation of practice through contemplation of one's own impermanence; though their paths differ, both jointly reveal the possible mechanism by which the awareness of death enters the agent's practice. This paper summarizes this mechanism as "finite practice", and on this basis explains how death can be transformed from a mere fact of existence into a crucial juncture for the agent's practice and the formation of virtue.