This came up in a brief exchange today about me placing this monkey figure next to the Buddha statue.
Monkeys are Buddhas too.
To them, their world is happening within and as what they are.
Whether they notice or not, they are oneness.
And that’s the case for any being who “has” consciousness, and – in other words – to themselves are consciousness. They are consciousness that has a being connected with it. The world to them happens within and as what they are. They are oneness. They are capacity for the world as it appears to them.
As usual, there is more to say about this.
Yes, this is an assumption. I don’t know for certain that this is the case for any being that “has” consciousness. But it does seem that way for any human who explores this, for instance, guided by structured inquiry like the Big Mind process or the Headless experiments. And it’s a good guess this is the case for all beings who has consciousness and thus are this consciousness in their own experience. It’s difficult to imagine it’s any other way.
Also, while monkeys very likely have – or ARE – Buddha-nature, it doesn’t mean they are conscious of it. They function from biological and cultural conditioning and the conditioning of their personal experience. And while they are Buddha-nature, they likely don’t consciously notice it or live from it. They are Buddhas without knowing it.
And most importantly, how does the initial reminder work on me? How does it change how I relate to other beings?