Conclusion
William LaFleur has argued that, in existential matters, efforts to solve one problem often generate others: doctrines of karma and rebirth, which premodern Japanese found cognitively satisfying, were also existentially disturbing and prompted strategies for escaping karmic suffering in the six paths, such as aspirations for birth in a pure land. But birth in a pure land required that one die with a focused mind, which in turn encouraged the emergence of deathbed practices and the role of the ritual attendant, ratcheting up the level of anxiety with each new interpretive turn. Despite the fears it generated, people embraced the ideal of dying with “right thoughts” because it made death meaningful. As with our contemporary notions of “death with dignity,” the odds against achieving it did not discourage its pursuit. Especially in a context where fulfillment of the religious life takes place at death, people wanted to die well.