Can non-human beings realize Nirvana/Heaven/Enlightenment...?

Or does this question go against what it means to be enlightened (that distinctions are an illusion in relation to the Absolute)?

I've always believed that non-human beings are just different. Their form of enlightenment could be automatic, or maybe a process of reincarnation...

Can non human beings, (clarify non-human being) question their source or their being? That would be something that might point you in a direction as to whether they can make conscious choices to evolve or not....

So being able to question one's being is necessary for enlightenment?

i guess my question is this: Why are human beings (homo sapiens) so much more intellectually superior to other species? Why does no other species come close to our mental ability?

CAN non human beings question their source or their being?

Is conscious awareness necessary to realize one is enlightened, or to be aware of the experience of enlightenment?

Why is a hammer not a screwdriver?


Define non-human beings...........

Apparently, I can't at this moment. I can't come up with anything clear. Can you?

You started this thread.... You must have had something in mind...

i came across the question while reading a course description for a class on Buddhism. It was not a question of my own, but I figured that i'd introduce it to the forum to see what you all had to say about it.

Non-human being: any other member of the animal kingdom besides the human. Chimpanzee, dolphin, elephant, giant squid, etc...

A 'Self' in Buddhist thinking consists of Form, Sensation, Perception, Will, and Awareness. It seems like individual members of other animal species have the 'ingredients' for a Self. Does this mean that they can realize Nirvana?

Nirvana is the immersion of the manifest image of self/ego into the formlessness of consciousness. The formlessness being more than emptiness or nothingness it is potential and energy that is intelligent and omnipresent. Man has the capability to realize ones self as both formless and form at the same time, and can merge the individual consciousness with the omnipresent consciousness to realize itself as One consciousness.
Form is a projected thought, congealed energy that is the creation of potential in action, also known as God.

Tho the animals are connected to this source it is only man who can make choices to evolve or devolve from form to formless or from formless into form consciously. Animals do not have an ego such as man does to take pride in him/herself or the capability to plot against his own species. They don't harbor hatred or contempt, nor do they make martyrs of themselves in the beliefs of spiritual theisms. Only man can stretch himself from the depths of stupidity and ignorance to the heights of God awareness and back again by making choices to effect these experiences.