BEYOND THE GRAVE: EMBRACING MORTALITY IN THE LIGHT OF ZEN BUDDHISM

This study employed content analysis and is qualitative in nature The approaches to literature that were used in the study are Formalistic Approach utilized in identifying the elements of Zen Buddhism found in each death poem and Psychological Approach under Sigmund Freud's Theory of The Psyche, The Conscious and The Unconscious Mind, utilized in identifying the psyche of the personas in the death poems and the reflection of the persona's 'new of death towards the author. The results of this study show that Me death poems were written not only as a farewell message but as sod of a memoir of its poets, as they look back and remember living their lives. It is found out that the elements of Zen Buddhism were incorporated in the poets works to reflect then own views about death in acconlance to their own faith and beliefs. The death poems may be wntten in different ways and its content described differently but what was common to them all was the message they carry, that life and death, as a natural process should never be taken negatively but rather accepted