Life

Life: that property or quality of plants and animals that distinguishes them from inorganic matter or dead organisms; specif., the cellular biochemical activity or processes of an organism, characterized by the ingestion of nutrients, the storage and use of energy, the excretion of wastes, growth, reproduction, etc.
Death:the act or fact of dying; permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant
Life defined in the Encarta Dictionary the quality that makes living animals and plants different from dead organisms and inorganic matter. Its functions include the ability to take in food, adapt to the environment, grow, and reproduce.


Technical Life: 1.  (understanding), when we say “life” we mean understanding, and when we say “understanding” we mean affinity, reality & communication.  To understand all would be to live at the highest level of potential action & ability. Because life is understanding it attempts to understand.  When it faces the incomprehensible it feels balked & baffled. Life is a game consisting of freedom, barriers & purposes; that which is posing & solving problems. 

Posts on Life & Death from all religions/paths in this thread. Discussions in the Forum

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Buddhism
You might consider things like old age and death as negative,
unwanted, and simply try to forget about them. But eventually those
things will come anyway.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Attention is living; inattention is dying.
The attentive never stop; the inattentive are dead already.
- Dhammapada 21, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

This body, bhikkhus, is perishable, consciousness is of a
nature to dissolve, and all objects of clinging are impermanent,
suffering and subject to change.
- Itivuttaka

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
- Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C

There is nothing whatsoever that transmigrates from this world to
another world. There is (only) the appearance of the fruit of karma,
because of the non-deficiency of causes and conditions. It is, monks,
like the reflection of a face seen in a well-polished mirror. No face
transmigrates into the mirror, but there is the appearance of a face
because of the non-deficiency of causes and conditions. Thus, there is
nothing departed from this world nor arisen elsewhere. There is (only)
the appearance of the fruit of karma, because of the non-deficiency of
causes and conditions.
- Salistamba Sutra

Re: Life

Buddhism
Recollection Of Death Brings Peace



“ettha pare mayaü yamàmase na ca vijànanti
tattha

ye ca vijànanti tato medhagà sammanti.



ettha: in this place; pare: those others;
mayaü: we; yamàmase:

die; na vijànanti: do not know; tattha: here; ye ca: Buddhist
Quote

some; vijànanti: know (it); tato: due to that (awareness);

medhagà: conflicts and disputes; sammanti: subside.



English Translation Buddhist
quote Dhamma

Most of us are't willing to face the reality of impermanence and
death.

That's because we forget that our lives are transitory, Buddhist
Quote

that we quarrel with each other, as if we are going to live for
ever.

But, if we face the fact of death, our quarrels will come to an
end.

We will then realize the folly of fighting when we ourselves are
doomed to die. Excited by emotions our thought being clouded, we
cannot see the truth about life.

When we see the truth, however, our thoughts become free of

emotions.”
http://www.maithri.com/links/morebooks/p2.htm

Re: Life

Buddhism

“In horror of death, I took to the mountains - again and again I
meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, capturing the
fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of
death is over and done.” - Milarepa

Re: Life

Hinduism

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya

Re: Life

Science of Mind / Religious Science


Life -


The animating Principle of Being … that Inner Something that makes everything live.  Life and Power are necessary attributes of a Limitless Being, and go hand in hand to complete a Perfect Being.  Life is That Which Lives, and Power is the Energy with which it operates.  Considering Life and Power as a combined unity of Causation, we see that they constitute the underlying basis of all manifestation, visible and invisible.  In the objective world, Life is the Power that binds everything together.  It appears that Life manifests on different levels.  In the mineral world, it seems to be unconscious, yet chemical affinity is a manifestation of Life, as the attraction of Itself to Itself.  In plant life, It manifests as a power to express in one spot, but without volition to move about.  This does not indicate that Spirit is limited, but merely one of the ways that It works.  In the animal world, we see different degrees of Life's manifestation, from the first cell life up to man.  For instance, a dog is more intelligent than a fish, yet each has the power to move about.  In man, Life expresses in terms of Volition and Self-Will; It is manifesting at the level of Self-Consciousness.  While the Spirit, of Itself, must always know Itself, we are perfectly justified in saying that It manifests on different levels, proving It is limitless.  If It had to manifest on one level only, then It would be limited.  When Spirit manifests in a purely mechanical way, we say It is Unconscious Life; when It manifests in the animal world, we speak of it as Simple Consciousness; when It manifests in and through man, we say that It is in a Self-Conscious State.  As this Self-Conscious State of man's mentality reaches a larger world of realization, and comprehends something of Its Unity with the Whole, we say that It is in a Cosmic State.  Thus we know of four different levels upon which Spirit manifests: Unconscious State, Simple Consciousness, Self-Consciousness, and Cosmic Consciousness.  All are but different ways through which the One Power operates.  Life, then, is that quality of Being, running through all, which enable anything to be what It is.

Death -


“God is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for in His sight, all are alive.”  The Spirit is both birthless and deathless.  The Principle of Life cannot know death.  The experience of dying is but the laying off of an old garment, and the donning of a new one.  “There are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial, there is a material body and a spiritual body.”  This spiritual body is the resurrection body.

(Source - Textbook Glossary,  The Science of Mind - A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life by Earnest Holmes)

Re: Life

Taoism


[1]
The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.

(Source - Verse 7 of the tao te ching - A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell)

[2]
Heaven is ancient
Earth is long-lasting
Why is this so? -
          Because they have no claims to life
By having no claims to life
          they cannot be claimed by death

(Source - Verse 7 of the Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star)

[3]
Everything which endures can
only do so because Eternal
Consciousness gives it sentience.

(Source - Verse 7 - The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure) 

Re: Life

Unitarian Universalist


We are droplets of ocean water born of evaporation from the ocean by the sun and
when we die we are rain being absorbed back into the ocean.

Life has no desires for itself but only for the creatures and manifestations
which it supports. Humankind, as one manifestation of this life, seeks awareness
and understanding of the source of its being, and in gaining this awareness and
understanding if filled with gratitude, respect, and compassion for the
interdependent web of all existence. Humans come to realize that, in spite of the myth, they are not here to dominate
nature, but rather to understand that humans are part of nature, and as such, in
one form or another, will not die.

(Source - blog titled UU A Way Of Life posted by David G Markham on May 9, 2009)