Vielen vielen Dank, einfach phänomenal, genial, es macht mir einen Riesenspaß zuzuhören. Ich kenne niemand, der so gut erklärt wie du ... du triffst für mich immer exakt den Punkt. 💙
Love Peter. But, how do we know other animals don't think about the past, or even the future? Animals suffer depression and fear and memory of other past experiences, not unlike humans do. Animals anticipate the arrival of their human partner returning home, and memory of other future experiences, not unlike humans do. There is only one consciousness regardless of it's temporary, different, physical limitations. Consciousness knows. Just sayin.😊
I think you're right, in asserting that (some) animals think, in your examples. In addition, some primates also clearly plan in abstract fashion (they can paint things in artwork for example). Presumably many sentient beings have a mental activity, thoughts, in some way. And clearly emotions. These are natural elements of evolution, reasonably. Yet I think Peter here alludes to the matter of degree that this mind activity has. He says for example dogs go back to being 'happy' most -90%- of the time. (That some dogs may be depressed means they may be statistical outliers to other dogs, just as some people are with depressive rumination of the past). It seems humans have their attention -focussed awareness-on memories of the past or some construct of a future time, most of the time, rather than a dogs say 10% of the time. Clearly the human ability to construct and plan mentally has had benefits in terms of evolution, however it seems humans are also aware of being aware. Unique? I dont know, maybe whales or orang utans too? And maybe this also will have a part in evolution of humans.
_ Re: animals thinking etc.: There have been studies that showed definite thinking situations and memory of sorts. However, some specific distinctions have been noted ... _ There does not appear to be the equivalent of a possessive ego function, and self identification in the sense that we see it functioning in the human realm _ Thinking and memory in the animal kingdom appears to be more of a reflexive function, mainly for survival needs _ Domesticated animals seem to be affected by the human environment and associated conditioning factors so that the animals appear to display human type responses in terms of feelings, memory, etc. - however, this cannot be proven to be equivalent to human thinking and behaviour, only similar in nature _ In regards to humans, it is the attachment to concepts of ownership, family and self-image that appear to be the main source of human psychological problems and related suffering. _ In the animal kingdom, the animal psychology, if we can use such terminology at all (psychology originates from psyche = soul - a religious concept already fraught with potential fears), the animal psychology appears to be that the animal "is what it is" and functions according to the instinctive survival programming (perhaps at the DNA level). The elements of self-image, such as rich, poor, strong, weak, healthy, sick seem not to be relevant in an animal's being. It simply is what it is, and anything beyond that is a characterization provided by the conditioning and limitations of human intellect as it attempts to cast the universe in a human image and likeness. _ To me this appears to be reasonable - I will look at others' views.
Pausing to notice within happens naturally to practicing meditators - they do it whenever it occurs to them to do so - does this noticing and pausing happen by choice or volition though?
No! ;-) Words are by nature dualistic - we just have to live with that, in order to communicate - or rather indicate - experiences that are beyond words. The words are a rough description of the territory, which we may then explore for "ourselves", i.e. using our own awareness of what works.
Words and languages have a limit, let's say the human body and it's activities, words can't put it all together, how the bones form, the eyes function, the intestines, the ear, the hair, kidney, lungs heart, and to make it even more mysterious, how a sperm and egg forms to bring all these into a being or creature. It's beyond words. 🙂
Vielen vielen Dank, einfach phänomenal, genial, es macht mir einen Riesenspaß zuzuhören. Ich kenne niemand, der so gut erklärt wie du ... du triffst für mich immer exakt den Punkt. 💙
peace be still still peace be still! i love to pause and enjoy now moment. thanks for sharing.
namaste,
great statement & so true. peace
Love Peter. But, how do we know other animals don't think about the past, or even the future? Animals suffer depression and fear and memory of other past experiences, not unlike humans do. Animals anticipate the arrival of their human partner returning home, and memory of other future experiences, not unlike humans do. There is only one consciousness regardless of it's temporary, different, physical limitations. Consciousness knows. Just sayin.😊
I think you're right, in asserting that (some) animals think, in your examples. In addition, some primates also clearly plan in abstract fashion (they can paint things in artwork for example). Presumably many sentient beings have a mental activity, thoughts, in some way. And clearly emotions. These are natural elements of evolution, reasonably. Yet I think Peter here alludes to the matter of degree that this mind activity has. He says for example dogs go back to being 'happy' most -90%- of the time. (That some dogs may be depressed means they may be statistical outliers to other dogs, just as some people are with depressive rumination of the past). It seems humans have their attention -focussed awareness-on memories of the past or some construct of a future time, most of the time, rather than a dogs say 10% of the time. Clearly the human ability to construct and plan mentally has had benefits in terms of evolution, however it seems humans are also aware of being aware. Unique? I dont know, maybe whales or orang utans too? And maybe this also will have a part in evolution of humans.
_ Re: animals thinking etc.: There have been studies that showed definite thinking situations and memory of sorts. However, some specific distinctions have been noted ...
_ There does not appear to be the equivalent of a possessive ego function, and self identification in the sense that we see it functioning in the human realm
_ Thinking and memory in the animal kingdom appears to be more of a reflexive function, mainly for survival needs
_ Domesticated animals seem to be affected by the human environment and associated conditioning factors so that the animals appear to display human type responses in terms of feelings, memory, etc. - however, this cannot be proven to be equivalent to human thinking and behaviour, only similar in nature
_ In regards to humans, it is the attachment to concepts of ownership, family and self-image that appear to be the main source of human psychological problems and related suffering.
_ In the animal kingdom, the animal psychology, if we can use such terminology at all (psychology originates from psyche = soul - a religious concept already fraught with potential fears), the animal psychology appears to be that the animal "is what it is" and functions according to the instinctive survival programming (perhaps at the DNA level). The elements of self-image, such as rich, poor, strong, weak, healthy, sick seem not to be relevant in an animal's being. It simply is what it is, and anything beyond that is a characterization provided by the conditioning and limitations of human intellect as it attempts to cast the universe in a human image and likeness.
_ To me this appears to be reasonable - I will look at others' views.
Pausing to notice within happens naturally to practicing meditators - they do it whenever it occurs to them to do so - does this noticing and pausing happen by choice or volition though?
Peter Yorke effort volition
It's all about Paws.
And yet he continues to say, "that, to me", "how do we...", etc., etc., so it all ends up being so deeply silly, no?
No! ;-) Words are by nature dualistic - we just have to live with that, in order to communicate - or rather indicate - experiences that are beyond words. The words are a rough description of the territory, which we may then explore for "ourselves", i.e. using our own awareness of what works.
Words and languages have a limit, let's say the human body and it's activities, words can't put it all together, how the bones form, the eyes function, the intestines, the ear, the hair, kidney, lungs heart, and to make it even more mysterious, how a sperm and egg forms to bring all these into a being or creature. It's beyond words.
🙂