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Animal Awareness

Posted by donnalama on April 11, 2011 at 3:38pm

I'm bringing this post over from a FB discussion. Curious what you all think. 

 

What state of Awareness do animals experience? It seems, in my observations of my own brood of 9, that they certainly have egos. Just curious how "in the moment" they are.

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  • Don Salmon May 15, 2011 at 6:46am

    hi, I just saw this - what a sweet discussion!   My wife (Jan) and I worked for several years on a book on yoga psychology, and one of the things we included was the latest scientific research on animal consciousness.  Some really amazing stuff.  There's a great study on the slime mold - really! - a one celled organism that is able to solve a maze. And bees who do the "waggle dance" - they search out food and come back to the hive and by the intensity, speed and shape of their dancing they tell the hive where the food is, how much and how far it is.  There are the crows in Japan who place nuts in traffic, wait for the cars to run over and crack the nuts then swoop down to snatch their food. Lots more, but our favorite story was about Alex, the African grey (he just passed away a year or so ago - his last words to Irene Pepperberg, his caretaker, were "Goodnight, I love you".

     

    Alex had a vocabulary of over 100 words, and had even coined a few terms - like referring to a football as a "two-corner". You could show him a set of 3 objects with different colors and shapes, made of different textures. Irene would say to him, "Which one is the green wool square?" and he could correctly identify it.

     

    Irene loved to tell the story of what happened one day, when some corporate backers were visiting to consider funding for her research. She was having Alex demonstrate how he could identify letters.  She was using those refrigerator magnets shaped like letters. She'd show him an "S" and say, "What sound does this make?" And he'd say, "SSSS".  Then, as he was conditioned to do from previous experiments, he'd say, "Wanna nut!"  

     

    Well, parrots take a long time to eat a nut, and Irene didn't want to have her corporate guys waiting for Alex to finish eating. So she'd continue, show him a K, ask what sound it makes and he'd go "Khhh.   Khhh"..... "Wanna nut!!!"   

    Each time he'd be a bit more insistent, but she'd put him off.  Finally, she asks him again, "What sound does "CH" make?"  

    And he got all squinty eyed, cocked his head, said, "CH CH CH", and practically shouted, "WANNA NUT!   Nnnnn..... Uuuuu... TTTT......!   Like he was saying, "What are you stupid?  I'm trying to tell you I want a nut!"    Irene was astonished because she had no idea he had a clue as to how to spell "nut"> 

  • donnalama April 12, 2011 at 6:10pm

    Beautiful! I love that about animals. So much to learn from them!



    Cullen Anderson said:

    I love animals. To me they are full of unconditional love.My English Bulldog is a Buddha Dog. His best friend,who is always close, is one of my cats. He is a Buddha Cat. Bring your pets up with a little love,and they return it a million fold...every day. I have also eye gazed with cows and donkeys...and elk and deer. They all return the Look of Presence. The samePresence that looks from human eyes. In many ways,my animal companions are my teachers.
  • Cullen Anderson April 12, 2011 at 7:09am
    My dog and cat love me unconditionally. They are always glad to see me when I return home. They want to be petted and show their love that way, without expecting anything in return. That is unconditional. Now if I am eating, my dog will beg for some of my food. But that is different. If I don't share my food with him, it makes no difference the next time I am away and return home. He is always glad to see me. It is ironic that God gave man the free-will-ego to think we are the pinnacle of creation. Yet the animal is Buddha, is Christ, always in accordance with the laws of nature. God has a good sense of humor. Now can we laugh at ourselves? :)
  • donnalama April 12, 2011 at 6:55am

    Cullen, but is it really unconditional love? In my observations, they certainly have a deep capacity to love, but see that they have certain expectations. My dogs anticipate certain "events" and when the event doesn't occur in the timing they'd like (like going to the barn, walks, feeding etc.), they put a lot of psychological pressure on me. i.e. following me around the house staring, chewing stuff up etc. The cats as well. Following me around at feeding time, meowing etc. 

     

    So, I've been curious what others observations are. It seems to me that all of those expectations are a play of the ego, so if they have active ego are they really coming from a place of unconditional love?

     

    Just some fun things to think about. I certainly feel my animals help me to be more present and know they are healers in ways I don't understand. 

     

    Have a great day!

    Donna

  • Cullen Anderson April 12, 2011 at 6:44am
    I love animals. To me they are full of unconditional love.My English Bulldog is a Buddha Dog. His best friend,who is always close, is one of my cats. He is a Buddha Cat. Bring your pets up with a little love,and they return it a million fold...every day. I have also eye gazed with cows and donkeys...and elk and deer. They all return the Look of Presence. The samePresence that looks from human eyes. In many ways,my animal companions are my teachers.
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