本研究旨在探討文化的的對立面向--「涵育」（Cultus）的性質。我們假設文化是一個明顯的意義對世界顯化的系統，通常透過公開的符意的連結，使得文化意義得以自外於個體而獲得保存，但是對文化心理學研究言之，最重要的問題則在於個體如何參與文化，但是個體的具現經驗並不反映文化也不在於文化符碼的內化，而是在於個體與文化之間的介面，在這介面裡，個體生產著隨個體處境變化的涵育而非系統性的文化。為了探討這個假設，本研究將處於面對生死處境的癌症病人與其照顧者所遭遇的情況當作具體狀況，透過他們對面臨死亡處境的不同狀況：（1）瞬間感受到死亡的之切近性（以CS護士的經驗為例）；（2）走到癌症的邊緣又走回來（以KA為例）、以及（3）接近死亡的終點，又活過來（以MG師姐為例），說明他們在這些「墜落」經驗裡所感受的經驗性質，以四種面向來說明涵育與文化的分野：（一）二律背反的緊張（paradoxical tension）；（二）顯義的過程（signifying process）；（三）他人與自我的臨現（presence of self and other）；（四）主要的存在模式（primary mode of being）。經分析發現：具有涵育性質的墜落經驗，其與文化價值的二律背反緊張度愈高，其顯義過程愈見隱晦，主要的存在模式保持在知覺而非識覺層面，臨現感也愈為真摯。這個結果我們以為涵育與文化的分殊在於意識狀態的差異，文化由人類的「造作意識」（making consciousness）所生產，而涵育則由「啟明意識」（revealing consciousness）所啟動，兩者的差異主要有個共同基底來操作，兩者的背反乃在於存在方式的運動方向，涵育朝內運動，主要在圓滿個體的存育，文化是朝外的運動，主要在於造就世界。

Dying in Chinese culture is a process of Cultus, that is, individuals who participate in the process of dying, whether he is the person who is dying or the person who is the carer, co-construct an embodied phenomenon within the cultural system, by which individuals first enact a discursive plot to make the meaning of the dying process well formed, and then manifest the temporally meaningful insights. But Nevertheless, this manifestation can'not be organized in text form to beas a manufactured as a and well well-defined 'culture form', rather it only embodies the situatedness of dying in the Chinese mind. In this study, staff and terminally ill patients and the staffs in a palliative ward and cancer patients in a Buddhist temple were interviewed,, and their narrative data were reframed by phenomenological reduction, and inquiry into the grounds of their speaking. The authors set up 4 four sub-processes to explore the meaning of cultus in contrast to culture: signifying process, paradoxical tension, primary mode of being and presence of self and others. The major findings are (1) By power searching of their falling experiences, there are some revealing moments make them get into a situatedness of unconcealment, we are able to specify the grounds that support such revealing moments become possible; (2) There are paradoxical tensions between the unconcealed cultus and cultural values in general. The ground for the tensions is supposed to be the antinomy of two modes of consciousness, one of which is the 'making' consciousness, that is the mind of 'production' and 'reproduction', which tends to make things happen in such ways that would help the dying person returning to Home in the Heaven or Home. While this making consciousness empties the substantial sense of a visible Tao (whether it is liberation or salvation), the revealing consciousness, the another mode of consciousness, leads to an existential re-grounding by falling into the abyss (knowing death first then to live), and by livinge on inner temporality. (3) The cultus of living andad dying shows the continuous interaction between visible cultural forms and the invisible embodied experiences.