WHAT IS LIFE FORCE?

We do not know what exactly transforms matter into a living organism.

An Ancient Chinese thought belief is Qi (or Chi) – a vital force part of any living entity. The wiki entry states:

Believers of qi describe it as a vital force, the flow of which must be unimpeded for health. Qi is a pseudoscientific, unverified concept, which has never been directly observed, and is unrelated to the concept of energy used in science (vital energy itself being an abandoned scientific notion).

Another term used in “Vitalism”, quoting from wiki:

Vitalism is the belief that “living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things”.

Further the wiki entry says:

Where vitalism explicitly invokes a vital principle, that element is often referred to as the “vital spark”, “energy” or “élan vital”, which some equate with the soul.

Let us jump to “élan vital” wiki entry which says:

Élan vital is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book Creative Evolution, in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner. Élan vital was translated in the English edition as “vital impetus”, but is usually translated by his detractors as “vital force”. It is a hypothetical explanation for evolution and development of organisms, which Bergson linked closely with consciousness – the intuitive perception of experience and the flow of inner time.

Few excerpts from “Life” wiki entry”

There is currently no consensus regarding the definition of life. One popular definition is that organisms are open systems that maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, have a life cycle, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, reproduce and evolve. Other definitions sometimes include non-cellular life forms such as viruses and viroids.

Abiogenesis is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but a gradual process of increasing complexity.

In the past, there have been many attempts to define what is meant by “life” through obsolete concepts such as odic force, hylomorphism, spontaneous generation and vitalism, that have now been disproved by biological discoveries.

A Buddhist view is “Dependent origination” as introduced in the wiki entry “Vijñāna” – a word in Sanskrit or viññāṇa (Pāli), translated as “consciousness,” “life force,” “mind,” or “discernment”:

Consciousness (viññāṇa) is the third of the traditionally enumerated Twelve Causes (nidāna) of Dependent Origination (Pali: paṭiccasamuppāda; Skt.: pratītyasamutConsciousness (viññāṇa) is the third of the traditionally enumerated Twelve Causes (nidāna) of Dependent Origination (Pali: paṭiccasamuppāda; Skt.: pratītyasamutpāda). Within the context of Dependent Origination, different canonical discourses represent different aspects of consciousness. The following aspects are traditionally highlighted:

– consciousness is conditioned by mental fabrications (saṅkhāra);
– consciousness and the mind-body (nāmarūpa) are interdependent; and,
– consciousness acts as a “life force” by which there is a continuity across rebirths.