Does any one have a perfect defenition to difine this concept called life?
I think: Life includes everything, is one substance and it moves. It’s not matter or consciousness but a third synthesis.
Mumble grumble… I’m working on it, OK!
Or maybe you are looking for this: dieoff.org/page150.htm
Johan
perhaps we shouldnt view life as a singular thing. it is in fact the name we give to all our experiences, which may be unconnected. life may be a mere abstract concept, like a summersault is really just a collection of movements etc, and only exists metaphysically`…
however i prefer to think that life, and summersaults, are real in the sense that there is a purpose and idea behind them.
What is life? What is the real purpose of life???
To me, life is an illusion. Why I say so? Because, Nothing is permanent and everything is changing and nothing stay forever. Life is an illusion, so nothing to gain as well as nothing to lose, just do what you want to do in life. That’s simple.
While, about the real purpose of life, I think we all need to give a deep thought into it and life is not just about alive but death. We need to think about that. We need to be in control of life whether we are alive or dead. Things may be fated to us, but we are in control because we are the only one to make a decision in life, a decision will change your whole life.
You are most welcome to give any comments or opinions here. Thanks.
joseph_jialiang stated:
You suggest that life is just an illusion? I may be misunderstanding your definition of illusion, but I can’t understand how you have come to such a conclusion. If life is an illusion, does this mean that we have yet to see beyond reality? (kinda like the Matrix movie) If you know that life is an illusion, you must have seen beyond it. Otherwise you are the same as me who can only attest for the reality that I see. I do know that I am real because I think individually as myself. This is not an illusion. My life is real. If it is not, then how might you prove it to me?
to answer Michael Angelo’s question:
Life? All I know is that I am alive and that the many things that surround me are alive. I also know that they will die as will I. Therefore, I would define life as a finite existence possessed by a singular form of being.
To me this is both wrong and dangerous. The fact that we may have an illusoric understanding of the life’s rules and patterns does not mean that we can do anything we like without acting wrong. Nothing is permanent, but changes follow patterns. You can act wrong by not following those patterns. So you are not actually free to do as you wish; you can’t walk to the moon. If you try to do this you will experience a negative result. If you walk agains other patterns in life you will also experience negative result, but the result may not always show up imediately; it depend on what you do.
Subjectivists always have the argument: I can’t understand the rules so there are no rules.
Johan
i agree that life is an illusion actually. just imagine for a second that we happened to stumble upon some form of “entitity” in the universe that is intelligent, yet is totally opposite of everything we know of as “alive”. would we have to say that it is not a form of “life”? what we call life is pretty much a certain set of chemical reactions… and the areas where we say what IS life and IS NOT life gets VERY VERY blurry to the point where i dont think there can be a definate answer. and if there is no definate answer (which i think is the case) then its arbitrary… and if its arbitrary then i think we can jsut throw the whole concept out the window.
Perhaps, and this is only a small suggestion, life gets its value and meaning only in the face of death. In order to embrace life and live fully, I think it is important to be aware of the temporality of our existence, and the fact that it can be taken away not just eventually, but at any moment.
I wonder if the first question was conserning the substance of life or the meaning of life? Maybe both.
Johan
Life is love.
Life is freedom.
If life is so real to you, can you please name me 10 items or things that you will own it forever?
Can you please give me one example or person or thing that you love the most and appreciate the most that will always be with you?
Can you tell me one thing in life that will not change?
Can you tell me anything on earth that will not spoilt?
Can you tell me that you will not change the feeling towards the one you loved?
If changes follow patterns, so can you predict what thing will happen to you later today by following what had happened to you yesterday?
Life is an illusion. This saying is for you to look through life and the truth of life. This saying is dangerous if you think negatively. For instance, since life is an illusion, you can just doing anything without any moral etnic or any rational consideration or you can just doing nothing and waste your life? Life is so much like bubbles and indeed an illusion! Again, I am not trying to convert you or change your mind or brainwash you, I just wish that all of you can know the truth of life and live the real life.
I can own nothing forever b/c I will die. What does this have to do with anything?
No. b/c I will die.
Yes. Death.
hmm . . . What do you mean? Do you mean spoil as in eventually change for the worse? I don’t understand this one, but I guess that you want me to say “no” b/c everything that has life will eventually die.
No. and again, b/c I will die.
All of your questions just make me see how real life really is when contrasted with death. Death only makes life seem more real. So, I guess that you are in agreement with me? 
If you tell me that life is an illusion then you must also mean that death is an illusion. Right? Well, then prove it.
You still have yet to answer my questions. The burden of proof is on you.
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If life is an illusion, does this mean that we have yet to see beyond reality?
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My life is real. If it is not, then how might you prove it to me?
(btw, the only way to answer #2 is to show me the other side of the illusion. If “what I think is reality” is really an illusion, you must show me the “REAL” reality. See what I mean?)
I guess everything will eventualy get to a point where it simply can’t ignore God anymore.
Life is really not an illusion; it’s how we look at the reality that create the illusion; our subjective standpoint. Someone else can not show you this, it’s something each individual have to develop by meditation. The subjective logic can not describe this reality because it’s a change in consciousness and requires a shift in the logic. I’m not able to make a good model for myself, less able to make a model that someone else can understand. If you are not able to meditate several hours per day you might want to try some psychoactive herbs that disconnect your subjective logic and connect to the source. Before you do this you will think that what I’m saying is nonsense. Some people call this consciousness God, and many people that get glimpses reach for dogmatic explanations, mostly in their culture’s religion. The effect is very much like what the movie matrix describes very well. You will however not see a new reality, the difference is how you observe the current reality. All current logic will suddenly transform to a small toolbox that you can close and put away along with your so called personality.
I know that the above statement is not someting that a filosifical mind should say if it should gain respect among other filosofical minds, but the good thing with internet is that I can say what I want without loosing my job. In my opinion: any philosofical model that have more then one ingredience can not describe the reality. The reality is so simple; it’s like a dream. What is the dream made of? It’s just one (1) substance. If you call this one substance God then I’m with you. If life is consousness and only one substance you can call it whatever you like; you can call it matter.
Johan
There are things that
I can see, but you can’t;
I had experienced, but you haven’t;
I know, but you don’t know yet;
I feel, but you don’t;
How can I show my life to prove to you that I am right? Since you live your life so real, then be what you are! Giving you an answer means nothing to me because that’s my truth and may not be yours. You need to experience it yourself before it become your own wisdom. Yes, I can’t show it to you now why life is an illusion and beyond reality, just like I can’t prove to you now where is God, unless you feel God! You are smart, one day in the future, when the moment comes, then you will know why life is an illusion.
Yeah, if I tell you that there is life after death, you believe it? How can I show to you? Don’t worry, everyone will experience that one day in the future, sooner or later! Whether you believe or not, doesn’t mean anything to me. I never believe in things but I experienced it.
Thanks for all the opinions and your well writen message.
I really appreciated it!
Good luck!
To joseph_jialiang:
That’s very well and I can respect this as an answer. You have seen the other side but I must sadly say that I have not. You can’t prove it to me and that’s fine too, but I have no reason to believe you until I have seen it for myself. Know what I mean? Wish that we could all be as enlightened as you are. Well, until then, I’ll be here on earth thinking that I am just a chunk of propagated matter. I sure do wish that I had this sixth sense that everybody else seems to have. 
(… or might this sixth sense just be emotion?)
Thanks for your thoughts though Joseph. I enjoyed your perspective.
To Johan:
Sure I almost completely agree with you. Life is not evidently an illusion. Although it could be, but there is no way that we could possibly know that it is an illusion. That is unless you are like joseph and have a sixth sense. Perception is subjective though, reality is not. Don’t get these confused. What do you mean by psychoactive herbs? (LSD, Marijuana, Mescaline, etc.) If this is what you mean, I don’t agree. Psychadelics only possess the ability to change cognition, or how your brain translates your body’s perception. Know what I mean? So what you perceive does not change but the way your brain translates it does.
Through all of this reality does not change. That’s why we call it reality because it is real, everything else is either not real or illusion.
Psychedelics can give you the same effect as years of meditation have but it’s just a shortcut and you will not integrate the experience that well. To most people it just become a shocking scaring experience to se their personality for what it is. Psychedelics like LSD or Psilocybin separate the personality/ego from your consciousness, like meditation. But it’s possible that you have had different experiences. I think it’s best not to take this discussion any further because those substances are illegal today. When I experienced the effects of Psilocybin the substance was legal. There are other legal substances today that have the same effects but this is not from personal experience. I also want to mention that I have meditated for many years and before i tried Psychedelics and therefore I can say that the effect was the same.
Yes; I agree with this.
Yes; reality will not change but the symbols will get a new meaning, and a individual will relate differently to them.
Johan
joseph_jialiang:
Very platonic. But… what do you mean about illusion? Something that isn’t real?
joseph_jialiang:
You’re contradicting yourself. How can you have control of your life when you are dead? Death is the end of life, even if you believe in an after life, you can’t say you will definitely be able to have any control of it, you can’t say that there IS, for sure, an after life. Again, fate means we haven’t got control of you actions, because everything is already planned for us. That is what fate means. So… how can we change something that is definitely going to happen? You may think you are changing, but actually your are just following you fate.
That means that any decisions made were made by fate, in which case, you are unable to change life.
Skeptic:
Some greek philosophers came to the same conclusion. Reality is something unchangeable, otherwise, it can’t be real. However they believed in the absolute. So all movements and everything we see is not real because it’s transitory.
I, myself, think that this is rubbish, but most religious people think like that. For me, ‘absolute’ only exists as an alcoholic drink.
Skeptic:
If you consider the cave theory… you might not see the reality. What you feel and see might not be the whole truth, therefore, not the reality. But if you are considering ‘life’ as existence, that you are real as an existing being, then yeah. As long as you interact, as long as you are part for something else than only yourself… you do exist, thus your life is real.
Evolving Rose:
Sartre said that an event is only an event when it has an end. The same with life. If you never die, then life is cease to be, existence is nothing, for it would have no end, therefore, no meaning.
h2o
Goethe is not right, I am afraid. If he was using ‘ignore’ to refer to those who don’t believe in God, then is totally pointless, as they don’t believe in devil. If you do believe in God, then you can’t ignore him, as he would be everywhere.
Life doesn’t depend on God’s existence. You can’t prove he exists, but we are here anyway.
At last…
Michael Angelo:
You can’t define life… yet… you might be able to suggest some definitions… but still it wouldn’t be the whole concept of it.
Oh really… So there is no free will… There is no choice, no good or bad, no Heaven or Hell, no point at all… I think this was in Stephen Hawking’s mind when he wondered ‘Why did the Universe bother to exist?’ Existence MUST have a point. So many choices without any finality? I would say not.
The simple ending of an event is an event And so is the ending of the ending of the event. And so on. The event never ends, unless events don’t necessarily have to end. I know, my logics sucks, but try to get the point here.
I think he was using ‘ignore’ with the meaning of neglecting the existence of God (possibility of God would be improper said, because He is beyond possibility. And He exists, even if people don’t believe in Him). Well, if a man doesn’t believe in God, yes, maybe he doesn;t believe in the devil, either. But Goethe uses ‘the devil’ here to show the temptations, the chains of carnal desire.
Oh yes, life does depend on God’s existence. He created it. If you looked a little better, you would see more than enogh proof of His existence. Ok, maybe not everybody believes in free will, but they all must feel this attraction to sin. And doesn’t slavery involve freedom? Because this is what slavery is, isn’t it, a perverted form of freedom. Doesn’t then ‘the devil’ involve God?
Cle,
Not to knock on you too much, but you did not come to any conclusions of your own. You just said that everyone else is wrong . Your only conclusion was that life is undefinable, yet it is very definable. Life is anything that has a birth or a beginning. There you go, a very simply put definition.
Some greek philosophers? Hmmm, seems a little inadequate. How about everyone who has looked up the word reality in the dicitionary. Reality has nothing to do with perception because everyone has a different perception. Reality is anything that is real. (hence the root word) Just because you don’t believe something to be real does not make it not real. By definition reality is an absolute, but I guess you can always change the definition.
To h2o:
There is no proof for God that is not also a proof for Atheism. (btw, I finally got to reading through all of your material, and I will get you a response today. Good stuff but it is very clearly biased, although it makes itself out to look objective.)