The other day I was wondering about the animal world and how they perceive their lives.Specifically I was wondering if they require or have constructed ways of "measuring" their days in which thay move through. What I mean to say is that we as humans think of our yesterdays,what we had or had not done, our futures,our plans hopes and wishes and our present here and now moments, where ideally it would be to our greatest advantage to be living in.We also have created a 365 day calender and a 24 hour way of measuring time.
Now getting back to our four-legged and many feathered friends, I was struck by the knowing that they really seem to have no requirements or necessity for these measurements.I wondered if a cat regretted the mouse or bird that he didn't catch the day before.Did he think."Oh I'm too tired right now ,so I'll lick my fur and clean myself tomorrow", and in his mind he looks forward to doing a good spring cleaning on himself in the morning? Have you ever seen a cat procrastinating? Does he even think of the concept of a morning or anything coming at all?
When a dog learns a new trick taught by the owner and then the next day remembers how to do it,does he necessarily perceive that he learned it yesterday ,our human word for a time before?Does he perceive that from the moment he learned it to the moment he recreated it, that it is just an un-measured,unbroken passage of time from one present moment to another distant segment of that same moment, which we humans, in our separitist fashion choose to call the "next day"?
Just the thought of how life would be without our "necessary" measurements, how truly in the moment could we now be living.If we just didn't find the need to break things apart and section them out, when really all what life is,is the here and now.No yesterdays or tomorrows.Would we have regrets of the past or fears about the future?
I think this is what the ancient Mayans speak of when they say living in "no time".It's a time when we will, if we so choose to, to live in the time of nature and the animals and to remember that we are the two-legged animals,Our only challenge is that we have let our"logic" get out of hand and in the way of natural perceptions and acknowledgement of the natural cycles of things.
In metaphysical writings it is stated that thepast. present and future are all happening at the same time, because the past and future are all just segments of the present.No division, no separation.
To end my wandering wonder, I was thinking that my cat Simba must experience his life as one long, endless and unbroken day which turns into a night,and which then turns into day and on and on.He probably doesn't have any thought of a day and night, but he just knows that the sun feels warm onhis body and when darkness comes, the world opens up for him as he stalks and plays under the light of the moon.Peace.