Before CNN star Anthony Bourdain killed himself earlier this month, he apparently participated in an ancient death ritual during his show’s season finale, which aired two weeks before he died.

The finale episode followed Anthony and his friend, director Darren Aronofsky, across Bhutan in South Asia as they ate with traditional yak herders in the Himalayas. One man explained the country’s religion, Bhutanese Buddhism, as something meant to remind people “time and again, not to take things too seriously. This is, in fact, an illusion.”

Then, Anthony said, “Life is but a dream. It is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes a day.”

Darren later wrote an article for CNN, saying, “It seems ironic now that on our last day of shooting we performed a Bhutanese death ritual. We debated the fate of the country, the fate of the world. He was perplexed as to how mankind’s endless hunger to consume could be curtailed.”