Buddhism-as-a-meaning-system for coping with late-life stress: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Religion is increasingly conceptualized as a meaning system for adjustment and coping. Most of the conceptualizations are grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition. They may thus not be applicable to Buddhism, which provides a distinct tenor of meaning for coping. This article seeks to construct a conceptual framework of Buddhism-as-a-meaning-system for coping with late-life stress.

Method: Literature review and conceptualization were employed.

Results: Under this framework, Buddhism functions as a meaning system involving existential meaning, cognitive meaning, and behavioral meaning.

Conclusion: There is reason to believe that this framework promises to offer a holistic conceptual map of Buddhist coping in late life. Thus, it could serve as a guide for further empirical and theoretical exploration in the uncharted terrains of Buddhist coping in old age. In addition, gerontological practitioners could use this framework as a frame of reference when working with elderly Buddhist clients who are in stressful circumstances.

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhism
• meaning system
• coping
• aging
• conceptual framework

Acknowledgments

Many ideas for this article were developed during my PhD study at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I would like to express my deepest gratitude to NUS for providing me with a research scholarship. I also gratefully acknowledge the invaluable advice from Dr Alexander Lee, Dr Kalyani K. Mehta, and Dr Thang Leng Leng, which has directly or indirectly contributed to the development of this article. Last but not least, special thanks go to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments and advice on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.