Mike, Of course animals know things we don't, millions of things. How could anyone think otherwise?
Edgar On Jun 25, 2013, at 1:22 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Joe, > > Those examples are still man's projections of spirituality onto those > animals. Note that they are all artefacts created by man (including the > statue of the dog in Tokyo). It could also be easily argued that animals > might be able to have spiritual experiences as their brain structure is > similar to ours. But the difference is that we have taken those experiences > and live a life revolved around them (A spiritual path or religious system). > Animals have not. Whether this is because 'they know something we don't' is a > possible explanation, but I suspect not. > > Mike > > > Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad > > From: Joe <[email protected]>; > To: <[email protected]>; > Subject: Re: [Zen] rise above > Sent: Tue, Jun 25, 2013 5:01:18 PM > > > Mike, > > In some cultures, animals are considered gods. > > (I look in my cats' eyes, and wish they could tell me something of their > spirituality). > > I don't rule-out that they have some such. I just don't clearly recognize it. > > Our spirituality is clear to us. But how would we communicate our > spirituality to a Moose? If we're so spiritual, you'd think we could. > > A wild Goose may be on to something we know nothing about. > > In Egypt, Bastet is a gorgeous god in cat form. Pharaohs kept a bevy of cats. > > (Spiritual) martial art forms mimic animal movements; Edgar gets down on all > fours for certain exercises; Ancient religions thought highly enough of > animals to offer them to their human gods in sacrifice; Some people bowed to > an image of a golden calf, with horns. Some Christians in USA worship snakes > (or use them in their services). > > People of the past may have known about animal spirituality. Have we lost > this knowledge, AND lost the sense with which to detect it? Yes. And we can, > and do regain it. But things then may not seem exactly to us as they seemed > to the ancients. > > ...Just talking a little here about animals and spirituality, ours, and > "theirs". Not meaning to say much; and, succeeding! > > Best, > > --Joe > > > uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > > > Merle, Don't just say it. Give me one example of another species that has a > > developed spiritual path that results in it not causing suffering to any > > other creature. If you want to argue that Man is unique in this regard BUT > > it is not relevant to other animals (something like Bill!'s point), then > > that's fine. But that man has a highly developed sense of the spiritual > > *is* undeniably unique to us. > > >
