Mike,
I have a feeling that animals don't have the sense that they have a "self".
Thus, for them, there is nothing to surmount, nor to transcend, because a self
is not in fact a part of their psyche.
I say "in fact", but that is part of my assertion (it would be hard to test or
to prove).
We only gauge that Humans have a "self" because they say they do, or they say
that they feel that they do (they never prove it to us); and, by personal
introspection.
However, after (our) sufficient personal introspection, we find no self, but
find a nature which had merely been covered, for long, by illusory mental
activity and our holding of images or sensations before the mind, like a
screen, via "thoughts" that we could not let go of, for various and multiple
reasons.
The fact that Humans *can* slough off the sense of a sense and return to their
original nature is a good escape hatch, but one that animals do not need.
Animal don't need the medicine, because they were never ill.
To me, it seems that animals very gracefully accept the way that they must live:
It seems that Humans make themselves take it on the chin,
While animals live in utter Grace.
Human beings labor to regain their Original Face,
While even Dung Beetles have a shit-eatin' grin!
--Joe
> uerusuboyo@... wrote:
>
> Bill!,<br/><br/>Like I said in another post, it's not a question of being
> superior to animals (good or bad), but that we have the potential to
> transcend the self and realise our true nature - true peace and happiness
> that comes with a cessation of suffering. No other animal that we know of can
> do that. It's not because we're chosen or have been singled out, but because
> evolution has gone that way for us (whether that's a natural consequence of
> life and evolution, I don't know). Spiders and foxes blindly follow their
> instincts with no ability for introspection/empathy towards others in regard
> of their actions. Are you seriously saying that unwaveringly following their
> nature is more exalted than our ability to do those things?? You and Merle
> can bemoan the fact you weren't born as ants or fruit-bats, but I'll rejoice
> in my humanity and "strive" to reach our highest potential.
------------------------------------
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