treefrog

I'm sure it depends on the animal. In fact humans think in at least two inner voices.

The ear consciousness is receptive, and the speech consciousness is active.

What I mean by this is a dog or another animal that spends a lot of time with people likely has a passive inner voice of their owner. A dog might hear an owner yell no when they go to do something the owner doesn't like, even if their owner isn't around.

Animals that are capable of speech such as a parrot, will likely have an active speech consciousness. Which is more somatic in tone.

For example, when I am in active speech consciousness I can feel my jaw and tongue muscles move. When in passive listening consciousness, my ears might move or strain to try to hear the inner speech.

With practice these somatic sensations can be decoupled from their internal sense consciousnesses. Which tends to help them quiet down and deepen meditation.

This is one of my favorite practices that's accessible for people who don't really meditate. The guided meditation is the first fifteen minutes of the video, so you don't have to listen for the whole hour to get an inkling of what I'm pointing at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OW9LNSVjPo

Also an experienced meditator.

Not everyone thinks in words. Some people think in pictures. Or in other sense consciousnesses. As an experienced cook, I can think in taste and smell without any auditory component of 'what should I put in this dish'. For example.

As for word thinking, passive thoughts are more auditory and active thoughts more somatic (throat and jaw muscles will move). These can be decoupled from the sense of I making, especially passive thoughts.

At which point you get thoughts think themselves, to quote Jack Kornfield. A sort of bubbling up of passive thoughts in voices that aren't mine.

It's likely animals that live close to people experience this. The owners voice yelling no when they do something the owner wouldn't like, even if the owner isn't around.

Anyway, trying to not think can be like holding your breath. I can do that for awhile. But it's not right effort. Letting thoughts settle, like sand in a glass of water. And letting go of the sense of I making. The mind will rest quite naturally. That's calm abiding.

In other words, it's attachment to the inner voice that's making it difficult for you to imagine that a lot of people think in pictures or other ways. And noticing this sense of attachment in your practice with the intention of letting it go, might deepen your insight into yourself and what others may or may not experience.

Edit: this listening meditation is helpful for me in letting go of attachment to the inner voice. As is annapanasati, especially the third tetrad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OW9LNSVjPo

I appreciate the heads-up. I'm actually a Buddhist, so not really looking for a new religion. I mostly admire the work TST has done for religious pluralism.

I watched Hail Satan? They went into some of the schisms in the TST, but it was framed as the chapter head not following the principles and damaging TST's overall goals (encouraging people to kill Trump). Are there other examples? I'm curious, but not curious enough to go on reddit.

There's pretty big burns in most countries. But yeah, not sure on China. Would be one of the last places I would expect to find one.

So, you're saying conscription is always wrong? I'm certainly more okay with that then the idea that the poors should die to protect countries.

I go to regionals. They're smaller, cheaper, less of a time commitment, and they help me form a sense of community in my area with like-minded people.

If you google Burning Man, your area, regional, you might be able to find something.

That's a lot of projection. You just dismissed all religion as bullshit, which is simplistic and dismissive.

I said, welp, you don't seem to be acting in good faith, so I'm not going to keep playing.

Then, you project?

We can try again, but not until you reread your comments and understand why I stopped engaging.

And the TST is also a religion.

Anyway, your 'they're all bullshit' comment makes it clear you didn't join this thread to have a good faith discussion, but rather to shit on views different from your own.

So, I'll leave you to it. Enjoy.

Buddhism isn't dogmatic about cosmology/theology, but there's a lot of it there. Most likely as a hold over from Hinduism, as teaching using the ancient Indian conventional worldview would have been a skillful means for the Buddha and his disciples.

That said, in that cosmology, the Hindu gods live in the Deva realm. Time there is much slower but they still do age (impermanence) and die, and cycle into lower realms if they don't awaken. A being can be both a Buddha and a Deva. Just as Siddhartha was a Buddha and a Human.

An example of this is Amitabha, the Buddha of the Pure Lands (a Deva realm). This is a Buddha that many east Asian Mahayana Buddhists take refuge in, as Amitabha made a vow to hold space for people to practice and achieve enlightenment.

Amitabha isn't worshiped the same way Western religions worship gods. The outward customs look similar. Offering incense and stuff like that. But the goal is gifting. It's giving something to someone you value or love, similar to taking care of the monks and nuns. And gifting is considered a spiritual practice (because it is, giving something with no strings attached or expectation of reward nurtures joy, compassion, etc.)

Amitabha doesn't get mad and kill all the firstborns if people don't give him gifts in other words. That's the difference between worship and devotion.

Reading your above comment you might like Burning Man too. The principles provide similar guidance to religion. A lot of Burners are into meditation and stuff like that. A lot of us are also into drugs, loud music that goes all night, and carnival level art spectacles. Which isn't everyone's jam, but it's a very loving community based on anarchism and making art.

And a sect of the TST was removed because they started pushing for violence. Every religion is vulnerable to corruption by people's pride and other hindrances. Buddhism is no exception. Nor is any imaginary one folks come up with in this thread.

Anyway, power corrupts. We've always known that. The 'devil' in Buddhism is the lust or will to power. Lies and manipulation are simply a tool it uses. And, like Buddha Nature, we all have it.

That's a gross over generalization. I get it, I was a militant atheist at one point in my life too and still have a lot of similar biases in my religious views.

There are sincere Christians and ones that pay lip service. Same with Buddhism. There are many Christian sects, some dogmatic, some not. Same with Buddhism.

Half the TST principles are Buddhist. Either being path factors (Right View, Right Action) or expressions of the four immeasurables (compassion, justice).

And I just watched a documentary on TST. They've had issues with members too. Militant sects forming that forgot about compassion as a principle. Etc.

Fucked up is a matter of perspective. If you're an oligarch, it's all going according to plan.