Abstract
Human temporality is one of the most significant features of human existence. This chapter examines the concept of time and its relationship with the nature of human existence; it then goes on to explore Heidegger’s concept of authenticity in relation to the certainty of death. Given the fact that the upholding of the objective and impersonal knowledge of death, particularly the biomedical one, had hindered us from seeing death as it is, the existential significance of the subjective and experiential views of dying and death is emphasized. This chapter concludes that learning to appreciate human temporality can be understood as learning to appreciate the ultimate nature of human existence and learning to appreciate the present based on the reverence of human mortality and the right view that sees death as it really is.
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Notes
- 1.
Dasein is a term used by Heidegger (1927/2010) to refer to the peculiar human way of being—with the fundamental structure being-in-the-world—whereby one is always already existing in a world.
- 2.
Successful practitioners of Pure Land Buddhism usually know (mostly being informed by Amitabha Buddha or Guanyin bodhisattva) the exact time of their death and prepare for it in advance. At the moment of death, the dying practitioner would inform those people who are on the scene of the advent of the Three Saints of the West (Amitabha Buddha, and bodhisattvas Avalokites´vara (Guanyin) and Maha¯stha¯mapra¯pta) who are going to escort this dying person to Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land. After passing away, the facial expression of the dead practitioner is usually very peaceful, and their body remains extremely soft and flexible.
- 3.
Compiled and edited by Evans-Wentz (1927/2000), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or the After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, According to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English Rendering is one of the best-known English translations of the experiential teaching on death in Tibetan Buddhist literature.
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Chu, E.L. (2019). Learning to Appreciate Human Temporality. In: Exploring Curriculum as an Experience of Consciousness Transformation. Curriculum Studies Worldwide. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17701-0_6
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