I've never seen an animal that didn't think. Yes, they most certainly think, they store up memories and learn from them, and they dream. They also sometimes demonstrate quite a sense of humour and play tricks on others for their own amusement.

What I was suggesting, though, is that people burden themselves with a great deal of unnecessary, absolutely pointless, and often very negative thinking of a type animals don't waste their time on. People don't just consider probable futures of a practical nature, like the cat that waits outside the mousehole, having previously realized that the mouse may again emerge from the hole.

No, people worry about all kinds of totally hypothetical and imaginary stuff that they make up all the time in their own minds, stuff that no cat would ever bother to manufacture. They are tortured by all kinds of self-criticism or issues with others that they run around and around in their minds over and over again. Their minds almost never shut up, except when they are asleep or heavily drunk, stoned, or having sex...that means they are usually at the mercy of a constantly chattering mind that won't stop. And that's what I regard as the primary difference between humans and animals. Humans have a mind that won't shut up, and it tends to make them crazy at times. I've seen some very extreme examples of this, people who never have a waking moment of peace, entirely because of their overactive mind.

If any of you here have studied Eastern spiritual disciplines and meditation, then you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, perhaps you won't. The whole purpose of meditation is to quiet down and hopefully silence the chattering mind while you are fully awake and aware. If you succeed in doing so, it's very beneficial to your state of mind and your bodily health, because it calms your whole system. It brings a feeling of inner peace.

It doesn't mean you're unconscious. It's a state of heightened consciousness, because your mind is not saying anything at all, it's just quietly resting and listening. It's heightened attentiveness to everything other than your inner chatter. Imagine how much better you could hear someone else, for example, if you weren't so busy formulating the next thing you're going to say (and that's what most people do in a conversation, they focus mainly on the next thing they are going to say...meaning they barely listen to other people at all).

I've seen animals at absolute rest...while fully awake...but at absolute rest. They do that naturally. They remain very still when they do that, and without restlessness. Most modern humans hardly ever do it, because they're at the mercy of a constantly chattering mind.

I think we could learn a great deal from the animals when it comes to that. I think they're better at it than we are.