Life and death

I am going to express my presentation from following three aspects. They are:

Life and death in myths

Life and death for the ancients

Life and death around us

一Life and death in myths

Gods and goddesses associated with death take many different forms, depending on the specific culture and religion being referenced.

1: Osiris (Egyptian): In Egyptian myth, Osiris is usually identified as the god of the Afterlife, the underworld, the dead and the flooding of the Nile.

Appearance and story:Osiris is shown in the form of a mummified pharaoh木乃伊法老. He wears a white crown with feathers on the side, has class beard, he is partially mummy-wrapped at the legs and hold a symbolic crook曲把拐杖and flail连枷; As you can see, Osiris has green skin, symbolizing rebirth.

In the myth, Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth because Osiris was pharaoh, which Seth wanted to be. Osiris was killed when Seth tricked him into getting into a box, then pouring lead onto the box to seal it so Osiris could not get out of it. However, his wife Isis brought Osiris back to life for one night. He defeated Seth and became the pharaoh.

Osiris' duty

One of his duties as Lord of the Dead was to do the very last judgment

of the Dead, and after that to protect people from the dangers of the Underworld.

2 MengPo (Chinese):Mengpo is one of the Chinese gods who are related to death and life. Her job is making sure that souls about to be reincarnated (rebirth) do not recall their previous time on earth. She brews a special herbal tea of forgetfulness, which is given to each soul before they return to the mortal realm.

This goddess appears as an old woman, it is said that MengPo was born in Han dynasty. When she was a child, she began to recite Confucianism classics and Buddhist scriptures. Actually, she was pretty beautiful. When she was alive, she had never recalled the past, and never thought about the future, just get urged people not to kill animals, to be vegetarian. Until eighty-one years old, she was still virgin. Later, grandma mengpo went into a nunnery. In those days, there were people who knew past lives and they were tend to disclose the secret of life and death. Therefore, MengPo was assigned to be a goddess and help souls about to be reincarnated forget their previous time on earth. Various myths and legends related to death are also very interesting. Here, I just can pick up a little to share with you.

二Life and death for the ancients

Let’s move on to the next part.Some people said that:

The most penetrating and fundamental paradox in lifetime is:

Mortal people yearn for immortal lifetimes. People yearning for immortal lifetime are mortal. Life and death is an eternal topic, life and death are twins. Life is fortuitous, death is inevitable. We are all here for a spell, we are all mortal. Our lifetime listens to nature. Let us appreciate a piece of video together. It is from a movie Final Destination.（44m）

From a certain respect, and to some extent, maybe we can say. Death is a kind of inescapable design though causes of death in humans are various, such as senescence, suicide, homicide, natural disasters, wars and so on. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day.

Facing the Final Destination, what are the people’s attitudes and opinions? Here, let us learn about several ancient sages.

老子Lao Zi : The spirit is eternal although the human body will die. The most wisdom man do not care about life or death.

孔子: Confucius: Unknown is life, how can you understand death. zhuangzi：I did not want to be born, but I was born suddenly.

I look forward to living forever, but the time of death is coming suddenly. He proposed: do not be joyful for being born, do not have aversion to death.

There is a well—known story. When Zhuangzi's wife died and Hui Shi came to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi squatting with his knees out, drumming on a pan and singing. Hui Shi said angrily: ''You lived with her, she raised your children, and you grew old together. Not weeping when she died would have been bad enough. Aren't you going too far by drumming on a pan and singing?”

"No," Zhuangzi said, "at first when she died, how could I have escaped

feeling the loss? Then I looked back to the beginning before she had life. Not only before she had life but before she had form. Not only before she had form, but before she had vital energy. In this confused amorphous realm, something changed and vital energy appeared, when the vital energy was changed, form appeared; with changes in form, life began. Now there is another change bringing death. This is like the progression of the four seasons of spring and fall, winter and summer. Here she was lying down to sleep in a huge room and I followed her sobbing and wailing. When I realized my actions showed I hadn't understood destiny, I stopped." In simple words, Zhuangzi believed a man has “ no life” before being born; death is just only back to “no life”. So, it is not need to feeling sad.

The next story is about Socrates.

Socrates：Soul is immortal, death is another richer life.

Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock. A historian Xenophon and Plato agree that Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. One of his choices to stay is that: He believed such a flight would indicate a fear of death, which he believed no true philosopher has.

Socrates speaks his last words to his follower Crito: "Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." Asclepius

was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates' last words meant that death is the cure—and freedom, of the soul from the body.

Death is to human being what extinction is to light. We cried when we were born, the others cry when we leave. The eastern sages and western philosopher seem to overcome life and death. Facing death, they are so brave, so calm. But, we are ordinary people. For us, fear is as eternal as death. Most people among us would be frightened at the thought of death.

三life and death around us

And next, let us move on to another part: life and death around us. “When a person reaches the moment to think about life and death, it is possible for him to experience the rebirth of spirit.”These words are from a young professor who named YuJuan. She also said: “keeping living is the kingly way.”YuJuan, an outstanding 33--year old professor of FuDan University, she is a doctor and once studied abroad. Unfortunately, three months after working, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and it is too late to have a surgery. Her son is just only two years old. To her and her family, this is right a bolt from the blue. Because of the cancer, yujuan have been thinking about the meaning of life, and written lots of essays on her blog. She said: At the critical point of life and death, you will find it is pageant that doing much extra work, giving yourself lots of

pressure. Owning a big apartment, an luxury car, all are cloud drift. Please share more time companying your kids, taking care of your parents, do not exchange bigger apartment with your life. Living with your beloved people, it is warm even just only in a small room.”

Actually, Life is a precious gift.However,if there is one thing we can be certain of in life, it's that eventually we will die.

When are we going to die? H ere’s an interesting internet game ‘Death Clock’ that hel ps you predict the time of death. To view your Death Clock, simply complete the fields in the form ,the website lets you input your age, gender, weight and whether you smoke or not and then click the “Check Your Death Clock”button.Death clock can ‘calculate’ how long you will live. You can get the result, your personal day of death is…and the clock begins to countdown the time for you second by second, which will make you feel anxious. You can try. Just put “the death clock” in Google, you can find the website. Interestingly, Death Clock also runs obituaries of celebrities who are still alive. One of the most popular is for pop star Britney Spears.

There is a Warning: Please do not take this website seriously. The site states that: “The clock is not scientific. This is just a game.”Even you input the same figures several times, the results are different.

Some people think the game is a friendly reminder that life is slipping away second by second, reminds you just how short life is. We are supposed to try our best to raise health awareness, and live a healthy life.

There are some questions:What is your opinion about life and death? What kind of life do you think is meaningful?

What is the most important thing if death is coming?

Having no standard answers to these questions. I believe something in our life is destiny, we all have the ability to live better, we are all here just for a spell, take all the laughs you can.