Living and dying

Our debate today is Living and Dying.
Probably the most important topics that present its self in our lives and which so little thought is given by the practitioners. Taken for granted, we assume the one and ignore the other.
From the moment of individual creation we are a marvellous example of evolution as egg and sperm begin the process of cell division and organ growth. We enter the various stages of our development from embryo to baby, to child to teenager and onwards. At about 21 we stop growing, we stop the general development of our bodies and we begin the long slow process of dying. The replacement of our cells slow down and we go into decline, our organs now fully developed are free to function for as long as they can but will no longer be significantly redeveloped and renewed. The fact is, we are dying from the moment of conception and yet we seek to ignore the relevance of being dead.
Given that our lives, three score years and ten are not even worth a second on the galaxial scale of time and the fact that we often quote time and distance in billions of years, its surprising that we don't reflect more often on the short time scale we have, especially since we promote ourselves, and our importance as a species.
The fact of dying is brushed under the proverbial carpet until we reach a certain age and then, like staring down the barrel of a gun, the the reality hits us.
Of course Religion comes to our aid as a palliative in that the concept of God and a life after death allows the faithful to believe that "it" is taken care of through ascendancy to heaven or paradise and so long as we follow the particular teachings, we are assured of life beyond death. This of course is comforting since it suggests that death is no more than a continuance of life but with a 5 star booking.
The Buddhists take a more pragmatic view. They believe that it is in "your hands" that death can be handled and understood as a process of life and that only by the continuous paring down of our fundamental self, in analysis and reanalysis can we prepare ourselves for death, not as an end but as a rebirth.
There is of course a theme running through all of this. It is the unpalatable fact that death is for all of us and until we die we do not know.