Time(lessness): Buddhist perspectives and end-of-life

Abstract  The perception of time shifts as patients enter hospice care. As a complex, socially determined construct, time plays a significant role in end-of-life care. Drawing on Buddhist and Western perspectives, conceptualizations of linear and cyclical time are discussed alongside notions of time as interplay of embodied experience and concept. Buddhist understandings of self as patterns of relating and the theory of 'dependent origination' are introduced. Implications for understanding death, dying and end-of-life care within these differing perspectives are considered. These explorations contribute to the growing dialogue in nursing between Buddhist and Western traditions.