Ever Wondered What It’s Like To Be a Dog?

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a dog? Obviously, you wouldn’t be thinking in English. You would probably have a different experience of smell, time, direction. You would view humans in a way that I would assume is fundamentally different from how we view one another.

But there would still be an entity, a consciousness, awareness, that is similar, perhaps exactly like, what we experience as humans. This awareness views the world, experiences life, feels things, remembers things, etc, through the lens of that animal’s brain and body. That living ‘ness’ is pure awareness, but it can never experience the world without the lens. That lens is required for experience. 

Similarly, every one of us experiences life through the lens of our body and brain. Through our experiences, memories, our understanding of the world. But we are all exactly the same, before that lens. The part of us that experiences, that awareness, is the same. It is pure, creative life. 

What makes us unique is the lens of our thinking. And while we can’t get totally beyond our thinking, we can start to see it for what it is, and to be a bit less persuaded by the compelling illusion of reality.

And, perhaps more importantly, we can start to see how everyone lives inside their own version of reality, created by their own thinking, and we can relate to, and love, the being behind the thinking. 

Seeing this, experiencing this, is a new level of relating. And I’m not just talking about remembering that others are innocent, limited by their own thinking, but seeing that you are, too.