Modern Buddhism stresses the importance of death awareness, yet negates the whole idea of death with a belief in literal reincarnation. This conveniently takes all the punch out of death, making the Buddhist meditation on death useless.
The power of the idea of death shouldn't reside in its power over life, but in how it can impel us to discover the illusoriness of life. Death awareness achieves nothing if all it inspires us to consider is the possibility of life after death, or the temporary nature of life.