Animals

taiyaki

I'd like to keep this thread/threat open to go where it needs to. Animal(s) is a pretty wide topic.

What are your opinions on animals?
Are we animals?
To eat an animal or not?
Got beef with animals?
Can animals have feelings or thoughts?
I recall hearing stories about animals hanging out at monasteries.
Do animals have buddha nature?
How do animals relate to karma? Can they become humans? Or is that to regress Lol.
Is it okay to have animals as pets?
Is it okay to feed animals?
Is it okay to hunt?
Do animals scare you?
Were you raised with monkeys and if so do you act differently?
If human exist in nature without any interaction would they just become an animal?
What the hell is an animal?
Are animals purely instinctual?
Are we animals and is our ego a biological necessity to survive?
Do dogs just use us because we have food in our hands?
Are the plants using us to travel the world?
Are plants animals?
Do animals talk to each other? and if so what do you think they say?
Do animals hate humans. The wild ones. And are the ones that are close to humans no considered animals anymore.
Do those animals that are close to us like dogs and cats learn things from us?
What if the human race is wiped out and those dogs and cats have to learn to fend for themselves. Are they screwed?
ETC



I used to have an intense fear of dogs. I've been working on it throughout the years by hanging out with dogs.
I still don't understand dogs Lol. I do like cats though. they meow and jump really high.



this video blows my mind every time.

federica

The video doesn't tell the whole story.
The lion behaves this way with all humans it comes into contact with.

The lion was taken from the two guys in the video to be rehabilitated to living back in the wild.
But the lion always had contact with human beings, and developed affection for all his keepers and minders. Here, he is reunited with his two original owners, who had bought him from a pet shop in London, when it was once trendy to own exotic pets, but he grew big, unmanageable and unpredictable.
Living in a small two-bedroom bedsit in the centre of london is scarcely the best way to bring up a lion.

His complete return to the wild was unstable, and risky. He therefore had the luxury of the protection of the Born Free Foundation, established by George Adamson, with Bill Travers and Virginia Mckenna, the two stars who portrayed George and Joy Adamson, the couple who raised Elsa the lioness.

Your questions:

"What are your opinions on animals?"
They're inhabitants of the same planet we are.

"Are we animals?"
yes.

"To eat an animal or not?"
Yes. They do, so I'm just fitting the stereotype. Let's not argue vegetarianism here, ok?

"Got beef with animals?"
Got pork, got lamb, got mutton and got chicken too..

"Can animals have feelings or thoughts?"
yes and yes. Definitely.

"I recall hearing stories about animals hanging out at monasteries.
Do animals have buddha nature?"
No; we don't, why should they?

"How do animals relate to karma? Can they become humans? Or is that to regress Lol."
I have no idea. have you?
What a pointless question. What does it matter?

"Is it okay to have animals as pets? "
Yes.

"Is it okay to feed animals?"
I would say it's essential.

"Is it okay to hunt?"
I don't personally. That's up to the hunters' conscience. But Uk hunters are less conscientious than say, French hunters.

"Do animals scare you?"
No, not at all. In fact, I bet I scare them more.

"Were you raised with monkeys and if so do you act differently?"
Oh good grief....Next....

"If human exist in nature without any interaction would they just become an animal?"
Not sure, but there have been storied (real life ones) of humans raised with and by animals, and they've been entirely identical to the animals which raised them. I'm thinking of the wolf children.

"What the hell is an animal?"
Look in the mirror. Sorted.

"Are animals purely instinctual?"
Do you mean, do animals rely on instinct alone? no.

"Are we animals and is our ego a biological necessity to survive?"
Yes, and no.

"Do dogs just use us because we have food in our hands?"
No. It's more the other way around. We use dogs, that is....

"Are the plants using us to travel the world?"
No.

"Are plants animals?"
No.

"Do animals talk to each other? and if so what do you think they say?"
It depends what you mean by 'talk'. Animals have a language within their species, but they don't discuss the merits of living in or under trees, for example. However, they do have a highly-evolved means of communication.

"Do animals hate humans".
No

"The wild ones".
No. They are wary of humans, but fear is different to hate.

"And are the ones that are close to humans no considered animals anymore."
....What....?
Where did you dig these questions up? jeesh....!

"Do those animals that are close to us like dogs and cats learn things from us?"
Yes. Time we appreciated the fact that we could learn a whole lot more from them.

"What if the human race is wiped out and those dogs and cats have to learn to fend for themselves. Are they screwed?"
No. They're a lot better equipped to survive than we are. Many dogs and cats become feral. they cope just fine.

We'd be screwed without them.

I'm a Dog behaviourist by the way. Like Cesar Millan.
Only much, much better.

ownerof1000oddsocks

T
I'm a Dog behaviourist by the way.
Only much, much better.

My Shih Tzu is lazy- what can I do about this oh great one?

federica

That tells me a lot.
If you really need advice, PM me. I'm absolutely completely happy to help. Only, I'm not about to derail the thread and hijack it.....

taiyaki

do it!

MindGate

My cat attacks people for no reason. It seems to like me, my mom, my dad, my girlfriend, but hisses and claws anybody else without reason. They'll just be sitting watching TV and it'll come over and jump on them and attack them. I think she's bi-polar or something. Not sure you could help me with this, Fed, though.

(Just decided I'd throw this in since Taiyaki said its okay to hijack this thread. )

Mountains

Are we animals?

As we are neither vegetable nor mineral, it seems intuitively obvious to me that we're animals. Is this seriously in question outside the "Christian" right wing?

Mountains

My cat attacks people for no reason.

Not true. Animals don't attack for no reason. You're a human (presumably) and thus cannot be inside the mind of a cat, so you can't possibly know why a cat does anything it does. But I assure you, there *is* a reason for it.

MindGate

Not true. Animals don't attack for no reason. You're a human (presumably) and thus cannot be inside the mind of a cat, so you can't possibly know why a cat does anything it does. But I assure you, there *is* a reason for it.

Well, Mountains, when people say stuff like "no reason," they typically mean "no obvious reason." Of course theres a reason for everything. It could be bored, or hate kids because of when it was a kitten, or it could be possessed. What I was saying though is that it isn't provoked, so theres no obvious reason as to why is does it.

federica

do it!

 

Nope. Not even by request. 

zenff

“Do animals have buddha nature?”

There’s little point in arguing over it, but I think Nagarjuna said something like this:
Because all phenomena are empty they are manifestations of Nirvana.
(Sorry, I’m too lazy to look up a relevant quote in his stanza’s)

All phenomena are it.

The question is: are humans the only sentient beings capable of realizing their Buddha nature?
And is that so because they are the only thing around which is capable of self-delusion in the first place?

taiyaki

“Do animals have buddha nature?”

There’s little point in arguing over it, but I think Nagarjuna said something like this:
Because all phenomena are empty they are manifestations of Nirvana.
(Sorry, I’m too lazy to look up a relevant quote in his stanza’s)

All phenomena are it.

The question is: are humans the only sentient beings capable of realizing their Buddha nature?
And is that so because they are the only thing around which is capable of self-delusion in the first place?

Good question! I have no idea what the answer is though lol.

[DeletedUser]

Animals include human, but human is more developed because of the civilized brain. However, most human brain tends to be dissatisfied and unloving as compared to animals because of desire, according to the sutra. Animals other than human are basically the result of past life karmic, and as a result, animals don't prey on unnecessarily because of greed etc

sndymorn

Since Federica will not , on principle, address and instruct on the subject of a cat which attacks , seemingly without provocation, I will.

First of all, the cat definitely has anger issues; no, maybe it thinks it sees an offending movement on the unwitting, soon to be attacked, person and seeks to end the movement; or ,better yet, in a past life, the attacked person had caused offense to the cat's past incarnation (perhaps the cat was a tree which had been whittled upon over many generations and , the names engraved were likewise engraved upon the subconcsiousness of this now feline form. And now the engravers appear one by one in the cat's house for their comeuppance!

Enough of that.

Keep squirt bottles at hand and instruct your guests on their use.
This will not stop the cat but is a lot of fun and the effing cat deserves what he (or she) gets.

P.S. I have a cat which has behavior issues. I treat him like a grumpy potentate.

sndymorn

My cat attacks people for no reason. It seems to like me, my mom, my dad, my girlfriend, but hisses and claws anybody else without reason. They'll just be sitting watching TV and it'll come over and jump on them and attack them. I think she's bi-polar or something. Not sure you could help me with this, Fed, though.

(Just decided I'd throw this in since Taiyaki said its okay to hijack this thread. )

Sorry, I am following Mindgates lead

Cloud

There's only sight, sound, taste, touch, smell and thought (including feelings, perceptions, thoughts, awareness of all these phenomena). The awareness that is staring out at you from an animal's eyes is the same as yours. It may not be able to think on the same level, but it can experience the same things. It can feel pain, hunger, desire for sex and the like.

If there is capacity for thought, even rudimentary, there is capacity for wrong thought. For attachment. There's no animals and humans, or humans as animals, there is only mind and form.