生命的本质是有灵性的反物质结构，要使生命有活力，有表现，这个反物质结构必须要借助能量，装载在具体的物质结构中。从这个意义上我们来看生命的特征。

   The essence of LIFE is a nonmaterial structure with spirituality. To make LIFE dynamic and expressive, its nonmaterial essence must be imbedded within a specific material structure with the help of energy. We will regard the features of LIFE in this sense.

   生命有八大特征（就地球上看到的生命而言）：有形状、有意识、有灵性、有活力、有诞生、有新陈代谢、有死亡、有转化。

   There are eight features of LIVES on Earth; they have:

   1. Form

   2. Consciousness

   3. Spirituality

   4. Vitality

   5. Birth

   6. Metabolism

   7. Death

   8. Transformation

   能符合以上八大特征的，就是生命，不符合以上八大特征的就不是生命。

   Those things which have these eight features are LIVES; those that do not, are not.

   我们试举一些例子来分析。

   Let us consider some examples.

   人是生命。

   People are LIVES because:

   有形象：能看得见、摸得着、能占据空间；

   1.They have forms which are visible, touchable, and occupy space.

   有意识：对于客观物质世界的变化有反应、通过眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意的感知、感觉上升到思维领域，进而形成思想，并以自己的思想指导自己的言行。

   2.They have consciousness and are able to respond to changes in their objective material worlds and form ideas by perceiving messages from their eyes, ears, noses, tongues, and bodies, and transforming them into thoughts that guide their words and deeds.

   有灵性：灵魂只是灵性的基础，人对未来美好生活的向往憧憬、对上帝的敬畏、对神佛的敬拜、对大自然的热爱、对人类的无私奉献等等是人的灵性的表现。

   3.They have spirituality and souls are only its foundations, things such as their yearning for better futures, revering the Greatest Creator, worshiping gods and Buddha, loving nature, and selfless devotion to humanity are expressions of people’s spirituality.

   有活力：能行走坐卧、能劳动创造。

   4. They have vitality so they can move, walk, sit, lie, work, and create.

   有诞生：不论是从母亲子宫中生出来，还是“克隆”出来，总有个开始。

   5. They experience birth, whether from their mother’s womb or even by being cloned, they have beginnings.

   有新陈代谢：人从诞生，成长为少年、青年、壮年、老年，就标志着人有新陈代谢。

   6. They have metabolisms which are illustrated by their processes of birth, childhood, young adulthood, middle-agedness, and old age.

   有死亡：没有永垂千古、万寿无疆的人，人都有一个结局——死亡。

   7. They die: nobody lives forever and everyone has the same ending - death.

   有转化：从物质不灭定律讲，人的肉体是吸收了能量的结果，人死后，肉体被微生物吸收后转化成了其它能量；从灵体不灭角度讲，人的灵体是一个反物质信息结构，人死后，这个反物质信息结构进入了横向时间领域，在另一时空中又开始了新一轮生命的循环。

   8. They transform: According to the principle of the conservation of matter, human bodies absorb energy as they grow through life, but their flesh is absorbed by microbes after they die and is converted into other energy. From the perspective of eternal spiritual bodies, human spiritual entities are nonmaterial informational structures, and after they die, they enter into the horizontal time domain and begin new rounds of a LIFE cycle in another space-time dimension

   人是生命，对此，想必没有什么人会提出异议。

   Nobody would deny that people are LIVES,

   那么家畜、野生动物包括飞鸟鱼类呢？

   but what about livestock, wild animals, flying birds, and even fish?

   它们都是生命，都有意识，这是不言而喻的，惟有动物的灵性和转化有些人持怀疑态度，其实，只要稍加观察，就知道动物是有灵性的，狗猫都会“撒娇”，鹦鹉会“学舌”，马不“乱伦”，海豚与人“玩耍”等等表现就是动物有灵性的标志。此外，有关动物报恩的故事、马戏团里动物们的“绝招”，动物求偶时千奇百怪的“献殷勤”方式，一些动物为了不使种族灭绝而表现出的“高尚”自我牺牲精神等等，都说明动物有灵性。至于动物死后生命的转化，只有在神话和小说中有记述和描写，从科学的角度人类尚不了解，这表明科学尚未到达这个领域，人类的思维还未达到这个认识水平。

   Needless to say, they are all LIFE and have consciousnesses. Some may have doubts concerning their spirituality and transformations, but in fact, you can find that animals have spirituality if you observe and pay close attention to them. For example, dogs and cats like to win attention; parrots often imitate sounds; horses do not commit incest; dolphins play with people. All these phenomena prove the spirituality of animals. In addition, there are stories of animals showing gratitude, the tricks of circus animals, the strange attention-getting courtship rituals of animals, the noble, self-sacrificial spirit showed by some animals to avoid species-extermination, and many others, all indicate that animals have spirituality. As for the transformations of animals after death, they only appear in the narrations and descriptions of myths and fictional stories. Humans still do not understand them from the perspective of science, which shows that science has not yet developed to a sufficient level and that human thoughts have not reached the level of such understanding.

   现在地球上为什么动物越来越少，而人越来越多了呢？

   Why are there fewer and fewer animals and more and more people on the earth now?

   实际上，大多数动物都转化成了人。我们从人类的习性上分析就会发现，有些人天生非常残忍，因为他们是从狼虎豹等动物转化而来的；有些人生性非常胆小怕事，因为他们是从小鹿小羚羊转化而来的；有些人天性倔强，但又忠诚可靠，因为他们是从牛羊等家畜转化来的；有些人天生狡诈，因为他们是从狐狸转化来的；有些人生性机灵，善于见风驶舵、察言观色、投人所好，原因他们是从狗转化来的、、、、、、

   In fact, most animals transform into people. By analyzing people’s habits, we find that some people are naturally cruel because they have transformed from tigers, wolves, leopards, and other carnivores, some are timid because they have transformed from small herbivorous prey species, some are naturally stubborn but loyal and reliable because they have transformed from cattle, sheep, and other livestock, some are born cunning because they have transformed from foxes, some are born clever, good at temporizing, and flattering, because they have transformed from domestic dogs、、.

   那么昆虫和微生物呢？当然也是生命。

   Then, what about the insects and microorganisms (henceforth called microbes)? Of course, they are LIVES, too.

   关于昆虫的灵性，请阅读法国著名昆虫学家亨利.法布尔写的《昆虫记》，这个10卷本，400余万字的专著对许多昆虫的灵性有惟妙惟肖、栩栩如生的描写。实际上，只要我们细心观察蜣螂（屎壳郎）把粪制造成球形往“家”里搬运的情形，蚂蚁和蜜蜂配合默契的团队精神，苍蝇做爱时的动作和技巧等就不难知道昆虫是有灵性的动物。

   About the spirituality of insects, please read “The Entomological Memories”, written by the famous French entomologist, Henri Fabre. This ten-volume, four-hundred-million word monograph is filled with lively, vivid descriptions about the spirituality of many insects. In fact, if we observe carefully, dung beetles shaping manure into balls to carry home, the tacit teamwork of ants and bees, and the movements and skills of flies mating, we find that insects certainly have spirituality.

   至于昆虫和微生物死后的转化，这是另一个空间（世界）的事，昆虫和微生物虽然与人类息息相关，但它们的生命与人类的生命性质不同，相互没有转化，也就是说，人不会成为昆虫和微生物，微生物和昆虫也转化不成人。

   As for the transformations of insects and microbes after death, they all belong to another space (world). Though insects and microbes are closely related to people, the nature of their LIVES is extremely different from ours. There are no transformations between them and us, that is, people will not become insects or microbes nor vice versa.

   我们现在来看看植物有没有灵性。

   Now let us consider whether plants have spirituality or not.

   首先我信手拈来网络上登载的一篇文章中的几个事例，

   I will start by referring to some instances from an article on the web.

   “天台山，南华寺有一种叫“细叶紫薇”的植物，当人们抚摩它时，它的枝叶会摆动不止。“含羞草”只要一触动它，它的叶子就马上收拢起来。还有一种植物叫“风流草”，有风吹动时，它的小叶子会不停地翩翩起舞。”