For all cultures meaning of life or lack thereof, is in death.  However the way various cultures perceive meaning in death varies greatly. The variety in perception of death can be deduced from the direct comparison of religious beliefs and practices in various cultures. The rituals and beliefs about death are strongly influenced by cultural values. For example, in rural Japan at death a person is believed to become a spirit as well as a Buddha. After death the goal of an individual spirit is to reunite with the spirit of the deity worshiped by his family (who is a form Buddha). In the process of this transition Buddhist priests perform various rituals meant to cleanse the spirit from pollution thus making his unification with divine faster. From examining Japan death ritual, we can induce Japanese people values and perceptions of life/death meaning. Like other collectivistic countries Japan value strongly intrapersonal relationships, and ancestral continuity. Subsequently Japanese perceive their deaths as unification of their ancestral divinity. 
Conversely, Japanese society disvalues individuality, and both, the body and spirit, of a deceased individual are considered polluted. Consequently, the important role of a rural Japanese family in the death of a relative becomes prompt disposal of the deceased person body and ceremonial arrangement of intensive spiritual cleansing. Only when physical reminiscences of individuality are deposed at a distant burial, and spiritual reminiscences of individuality are cleaned through Buddhist rituals, the spirit of the deceased can merge into the guardian God of the household, and become one element of it. 
It is important to mention that the process of death ceremony of a particular family member is finalized in 33 to 50 years. Before that time there is a transition between the spirit of the deceased into the spirit of ancestor, and only after years the spirit of an ancestor becomes divine. Before the transition of the spirit of an ancestor into the deity, the family held a remembrance for the deceased, while afterwards, the memory of the deceased falls into obscurity. 
The longing for unification with the divine, after ones death, is not common only in collectivistic countries like Japan, but in the Western countries as well. We can observe this in a Bill Moyer’s video “On Our Own Terms”, where a physician who is diagnosed with cancer and given a short life expectancy, searches for life/death meaning. Despite of his profound knowledge of medicine, and in particularly, of his expertise in death and dying processes, the physician refuses to seek (probably futile) treatment. Instead he marries his girlfriend and tries to spend his remaining days seeking a meaning in his life.
 In his search for meaning, the physician tries performing some novel rituals, like playing flute with his friends in the midst of a blustery field. Although not knowing the meaning of his ritual, the physician feels peace and connection with nature and his love ones. This tendency to seek intimate connection with love once, nature or divine has indeed a strong influence in both East and West.
Another remarkable characteristics of the physician, is that as his condition worsen and pain becomes more excruciating, he stops taking pain medication. He justifies his refusal to continue taking medication by saying that they dull his mind, and making him unable to reflect upon the meaning of his life/death. Although this act is irrational for lower order animals, which are solely driven by a cruder form of physiological hedonism, it does make a sense for humans, whose need for cognitive/spiritual hedonism (achieving an internal congruity within themselves by finding, or at least searching, for the meaning in their life) outweighs significantly the physiological hedonism (avoiding pain through narcotic medications.) at least on their bed-death. The physician stopped taking pain medications because he was failing in despair as his mind was constantly fuzzy, in a surreal dream-state, and he was unable to analyze his life clearly. The cancer inflicted physician as disease on physical level but as a illness on cognitive/spiritual level. Keyes the distinction between disease and illness clear in his article “Interpretive Basis of Depression”: 
Cancer as illness, is should be noted is not the same as cancer-as-disease, even for oncologists; cancer-as-illness evokes a set of powerful images about one’s self and one’s relationships to others which may have little to do with the physical experience that has been diagnosed as cancer-as-disease (cf. Sontag 1979)
While pain medication were capable in alleviating cancer-as-disease (on physiological level), they were incapable in alleviating cancer-as-illness (on cognitive/spiritual level). Only a clear realization and/or of ones life/death meaning, internally, or through the help of friends, relatives,  psychotherapists and clergymen is cable to alleviate cancer-as-illness.  For most dying patients alleviation of their illness is far more important than alleviation of their disease. 

In rural japan, where the individual is thought of as a member of a household and of a community, at death a person becomes a spirit (karni) as well as a Buddha (hotoke).
Funerals are performed by Buddhist priests, but death ritual also involves pre-Buddhist ideas of pollution and ritual. A long transition stage allows the spirit to progress from an individual’s spirit to one element in the household deity. Death ritual thereby reinforces the notion of spirit collectivity (Plath 1964; Smith 1974).
Death begins a three-stage process of transforming the deceased into a part of the spirit collectivity. At death the body may be cremated or buried; urban Japanese inevitably cremate. In either case, bodily death pollutes the spirit (shirei) as well as the

While abrahamic-judeo-christina fundamentalists are 

convinced of preservation of ther consciousness after the death and its transfer to heaven or hell, firm atheists are convinced of the 

end of thier conscious with the end of thier biological existence. While for fundamntalist life is a mere examination of faith and/or 

acts by the God, for atheist it is opportunity to enjoy, live a legacy and prepare for eternal nonexistence. Neither firm religious 

fundamentalists nor firm atheists however can hinestly know what is the meaning of thier life meaning. The meaning of thier life 

meaing remains,and shall remain, a mystery. No fundamentalist knows what the meaing of praising the Lord and preparation for 

eternal existence , in fact no fundamentalist can comprahend the concept of eternal existence. In the same time no firm atheist can 

know the meaing of enjoyment and preparation for eternal inexistence, in fact no atheist can comprahend the concept of eternal 

inexistence. As the result we can conclude that the latent meaning of once life is to ponder over the once life meaing.  Franco 

remakerd in his book "Man Searched for Meaing", that Meaing, not sex or agression, is the drive of anyone. However "meaing of 

life" is linked to infinity, and like infinity, it can't be comprahended. "Meaing of life" is and shall remaing a mystery, and all relgiions 

and phlosophical movements who attempt to address answer the ultimate meaing of life inevitablity fall, similarly like mathematicians 

who try to imagine a large number, lets say "a google" to attribute to infinity will fail, by a simple adding a "one" to that "google". 

Only admiting that the ultimate meaing of life is a mystery, is an intelectually honest way to deal with the problem.

"

Death is perceived by various people differently. For some death is an end of existence of their consciousness, for others death is the beginning period of transcendence of their consciousness into the “ultimate reality”. Recently the developments in biology, psychology and medicine seem to show that consciousness is purely biological and it ceases to exist after death. Despite this, 
This ñanctional perspective on religion gave Durkheim a way of discussing the place
of religion in modern society. Religion is no longer a satisfactory cognitive solution to
the “problem of meaning, in which science is now the master. But religion continues to
be symbolically important: cult and faith are essential to any society’s social solidarity, including our own.

1.	At the root of any religion is an experience that is accepted as a direct, unmediated encounter with the sacred, however the sacred may be understood.  While such encounters of the sacred may show similar characteristics in different societies, thse experiences are always given significance in religious terms which are particular to a given society.  Compare and contrast the following religious experiences:
--the ecstatic experiences of the “serpent handlers” of Scrabble Creek as described by Gerrard and depicted in the film “Holy Ghost People.”
--the Shamanic healing among Cuna Indians described by Levi-Strauss in “Effectiveness of Symbols.”
--Navajo sand-painting rituals as described by Bowen (Ch 11) (also mentioned in the Geertz article)

From the dawn of civilization humans seek the interaction with the sacred. The sacred can be perceived in various visual and non-visual objects (icons, idols, amulets, totems,), foods (Eucharist) places (Mecca, Jerusalem), buildings (Churches, monasteries) people (saints, gurus, shamans), spirits (Holy Ghost), 
books (Bible, Koran, Torah)  etc… Likewise the experiencing of sacred can be significantly enhanced by common worship, mystical rituals and predefined prayers and mantas.
The religious tradition of Serpent handlers of Scrabble Creek church shows the potency of a charismatic common worshiping. The religious rituals at Scrabble Creek Church are very spontaneous and emotional, though followed in a fairly organized sequence. During the worship the participants try to experience the Holy Ghost by giving themselves completely to their emotions and feelings. The submission of reason to emotions manifest itself thorough spontaneous movements and spontaneous vocalization of sound or gossolsia (labeled among believers as “speaking in [unknown] tongues”). In rare occasions, like in that of Scribble Creek church the fervent longing to experience divine manifest itself in dangerous activities, such as serpents handling.  Despite (or perhaps because) the fundamental human instinct that induce a strong fear response to mere seeing a poisonous snake, moreover handling it, the Scribble Creek participants were unwaivered from their determination to handle snakes (and thus compel to the word of the Bible). However not solely  the strong religious convictions, but the communality of their experience prepared them to handle poisonous snakes. The participants of Scribble Creek church would probably not be able to perform their dangerous rituals alone, or if they would, they would be dismissed by the rest of society (including their family) as mad.
In contrast to Scribble Creek participants, Shamanic healing rituals among Cuna Indians are performed in privacy. 
Like Cuna Indians shamans, practicers of  Navajo religion place a great emphasis on language in their rituals. They are striving to experience devine through the rechantations and repetition of sets of words. In contrast to Cuna Indians shamans though, there is no that emphasis on magic.