What happens when we live?

[uqlfy]

With all the intrest in dying and what happens afterward, I thought it relevant to ask what happens after we are born?

What is "life". Is life a path carved in stone? Or is it fluid a
river always changing course? What does it mean to "be alive"? Is
living simply breathing and eating? Is being self aware needed to be
alive?

Was terry schiavo "alive"? How about a tree? Whats the difference between alive and dead?

[Creeping Death]

Everything that can grow and evolve is alive (not only phisiclly) to me. A thought or a plant is as much alive as a person.

Dont think that that terri girl was alive. She had no means to survive at all, except for being fed by others.

[Nicaine]

Originally Posted by uqlfy

*With all the intrest in dying and what happens afterward, I thought it relevant to ask what happens after we are born?
*What is "life". Is life a path carved in stone? Or is it fluid a
river always changing course? What does it mean to "be alive"? Is
living simply breathing and eating? Is being self aware needed to be
alive?
* Was terry schiavo "alive"? How about a tree? Whats the difference between alive and dead?

Interesting questions. Important ones too.

You could try contemplating "Who/what am I?" This has worked for some people and resulted in enlightenment.

[unico_walker]

So? same thing with a baby, and to a certain degree a large portion of society.



She was alive, just severely brain damaged. Was it worth it to keep her alive? depends on your point of view.



I'd define life as organic cells capable of division.

[Hyperreal]

I suppose human existence is characterized by (among other things):


Free will
Dynamic, neverending change, but with constant identity
Time
Individuality
Referentiality/ intentionality of thoughts

[devil]

do you think that a consciousness can exist without a body? I suppose
this is close to: do you believe in a soul / spirit. I am not sure how
my soul would be like without access to my memories and personality
(which have been shown to exist in certain parts of the physical brain)
unless perhaps there's a backup in the soul.

[hedonaut]

Consciousness can exist without a body, it just has no thoughts (no hardware, i.e. brain, to produce them), no sensations (no hardware, i.e. nervous system to produce sensation), and time moves infinitely fast.


When you are HEAVILY doses on sedatives or anesthetics it might be similar to this state. We call it unconsciousness or death, but really, the consciousness is still there, just without thought, sensation, or time.


Who is to say that we won't "wake" up in the "future", reborn in a new body, old body recreated. The exact SAME consciousness, but without memory of what passed before (for memory resides within the nerves of the brain that decayed).


As for your question: Life is what the universe does when it isn't "doing" what we call death. All things are cyclical. You want proof? Look around you. Everything occurs in waves, opposites combine to form unity and the universe complicates itself fractally.


Have a good time !

[billyloner]

good question. i think there was a similar discussion about the existence of the soul in another thread, was pretty interesting. search for "daffodil" and you should find it


as for life, well, i think its hard to define. however i do think we on this planet are pretty naieve when it comes to defining it. for instance, at school we get taught that life must obey the 6 criteria (or something) such as respiration, reproduction, etc. at least i was taught that. but i think thats a pretty narrowminded way of looking at it. life on our planet may well follow all the criteria, but we havent even explored the other planets in our solar system yet, let alone other solar systems, and who knows what we'll find out there?


i once heard an old (athiest) man discussin creation and the universe and stuff with this young christian on a train, and he suggested that the universe itself may be alive. which would result in everything in it being alive. unfortunately, we have no real way of knowing what the universe is.


as for whether life is a fluid river or a path carved in stone, i think i would have to choose the former. maybe thats just becasue i find it too difficult to accept im not acting with free will. whatever, it just seems implausible to me.

[daeron]

what a strange coincidence!I havent visited this part of the forum for a while,and this is the first thread i visited....okkkaaay then:





I think its not really a question about life itself as a continuous sequence of moments,i think the real question behind it all is our inability to accept and grasp life,as a concept.we are monkeys with a supercomputers, and we use it for cracking nuts.I dont want to become repetitive so if youre interested look up “daffodil”.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


As for the answer to the question of life-it cant be described with metaphors, yes they sound nice,smart and posh but they are not the answer.The answer to the question is,and you will not like it:<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">LIFE IS.[/B]


thats all.And why?Because we are yet to learn to use our brain&bodies.Most of the people cant even accept the fact that life is almost a entropic improbability.But we are here,we exist and we cant accept the fact that we are just simple very inefficient transient thermodynamic machines.and life is just an another word without meaning,a tool which is used to describe that wonderful sequence of moments from our ignition to our shutdown.

[Nicaine]

Originally Posted by uqlfy

*With all the intrest in dying and what happens afterward, I thought it relevant to ask what happens after we are born? What is "life". Is life a path carved in stone? Or is it fluid a river always changing course?

Neither. Both the notions of fate and free will have got to be false, because they depend on one another. You couldn't even conceptualize free will without the idea of fate, and vice-versa.

Same with life and death, two sides of the same coin. No such concept as death without the idea of life, and no idea of what life is without a notion of death. They totally depend on each other, can't stand by themselves and thus neither can really exist!

Endless life without death wouldn't be called "life" or thought of as "life." There would be just one nameless state. Life and death as we know them are inextricably tied together -- in a sense, the are the same exact thing.

Thus... to be afraid of death is to fear life, and vice versa. Freedom from fear of life means no fear of death.Edited by: Nicaine

[Solidly-here]

If we're born, this is it.


In the religious world, this life is only part of the whole picture. A Higher Power has placed me here, in this body, to prepare myself for the next life (the Afterlife). I have some lessons to learn ... to un-learn myself from the baser forces of this earth (e.g., to be kind, to see things in a positive manner, to feel the presence of the "other" world ... maybe even become a Martyr ... whatever my lessons are).


So, after birth I am supposed to stumble around, getting lost over and over, while learning to understand this world (and my place in it). Some people (spiritual types) are actually looking to see what lessons they are supposed to learn. Others (the not-spiritual types) may spend their entire life not knowing that there is any more to this life than meets the eye.


After I am born, there are some things I need to do: Breathe, have my heart beat, drink fluids, eat food, live in a place that keeps out the inclement weather.


Then there are the rest of the things: Find love (or, at least like), find something to do with my time (work, pleasure, sleep), procreate offspring...


The good news is: I have free will. I can do (or not do) pretty much whatever I want. My life is mine to play with.


So, what happens after being born is, whatever my parents want to do (until I am 2 or 3), whatever I can convince my parents to allow me to do (from 4 to 16, or so), and whatever I, myself, want to do (from 16 to the birth of my offspring, or at least until I get married), and then, whatever I can get away with doing.


This life ... this world ... is whatever I want it to be. It can be a prison (then suicide would be a promotion). It can be a workplace (the 9 to 5 grind). It can be a learning place (school, college, paying attention to what is happening). It can be a playground (and it is for me), where I can be a 7-year-old at heart, forever.


It's funny. Here is one world, but 6 billion different views of what it is. Whose view is RIGHT? Maybe everyone's.

[Chaote]

Originally Posted by Hyperreal

I suppose human existence is characterized by (among other things):


Free willDynamic, neverending change, but with constant identityTimeIndividualityReferentiality/ intentionality of thoughts

I dont think time matters because it is amn made it is abstract, does time matter to a homeless person, to an indian 10000's of years ago, no not really it only matters if you have some where to be or something to do