ABSTRACT
The border of death is one of the most obvious limitations of human existence. A fulfilled life lived or not, it is unavoidable that human existence ends, at least in a biological sense. All spiritual traditions try to address the inevitability of dying and death by offering perspectives that reach beyond the obvious end of one’s physical life. Dying not only means saying farewell, but at the same time “the dying process is approached as a moment of transformation and opportunity for growth” (Cattoi & Moreman 2015, 2). Traditions offer practices to prepare for this transformation and beliefs that impart meaning to the process of dying. Death is a motor for practices of spirituality and a source of symbolic meaning, often in the sense of a hereafter. The “contrast experience” (Schillebeeckx 1993) of the end of worldly life offers a glimpse of the mystery of life, death, and a possible afterlife.
