Humankind versus animals

To be in the here an now, does not mean that you become an animal.
Even if you read a book, you have to do it here and now.You have to concentrate.

Man are aware of the future and the past, but animals are not. So we are also aware of our death and of the end of our solar system and so on. Perhaps that is too much knowledge.
When an animal has died, other animals does not seem to understand what has happened. And perhaps that makes there lives easier.

But living a mindful life does not mean that you forget about death, you just stop speculate and worry about it. Instead you try to make every moment meaningful. Even if you just wash the dishes you can do it in a meaningful way, by being aware of every moment...

In that way you can never get bored, and you can live a simple life and be pleased anyway.

But some animals seem to have crossed the border to abstract thinking - and they show us that, in fact, we all are animals and that the differences between, for instance man and gorillas, can be very small - The gorilla Koko learned how to use signs that deaf people use, and could then communicate with us.

On Youtube there is a film about Koko - here is the last part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Gd_XziUV8

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