According to Osho, the difference between a living person and a corpse is consciousness—the flame of awareness. The body, chemistry and mechanics may look similar, but in the living there is witnessing presence, sensitivity, love and response; in the corpse only structure remains. Life is not mere biology; it is alertness, breath suffused with awareness, a dancing energy.
A living person has awareness—the inner light that feels and responds—while a corpse is just the body without that light.