Intelligence in Camels

I'm often asked if camels are smart, or how intelligent are they? I frequently hear something like, "are camels as intelligent as horses?", or "are they as smart as dogs?"

There are so many scientific studies, magazine articles, TV shows and books published on the relative intelligence of animals that are, mostly, very limited in their scope.

A large percentage of such research and reporting compares the intelligence of one species over another, almost always comparing a dog, a parrot, or a horse to a human. The basic thought is that if an animal is kind of like a human, displays any kind of intelligence or behaviour that seems close to that of humans, then in that species we can acknowledge some kind of superior intelligence.

But if a modern, civilized, human being entered the world of the baboon, or the sloth, or the lion... in that world he would display an extremely low level of intelligence. If such a human entered the world of a primitive tribal culture and had to fend for himself there he, or she, would like-wise be shown to be a complete idiot.

Reverse these positions and you would see the baboon as the un-intelligent one in the human landscape as well as when compared to the human mind.

So, how intelligent is a camel? For what it is intended a camel is exceedingly more intelligent than a human. And a tree, or a tick, is vastly more intelligent in it's world than a camel could ever hope to be. And so it goes...

Comparing the intelligences of other beings to our own intelligence serves, really, to impress upon ourselves how little we know, and how humble we are.

When the mind winds down, and comparisons dissolve, the intelligence of the heart, and of the "feeling life" becomes revealed as the constant, unifying and equalizing 'knowledge'.

Adi Da Samraj: At heart, all are One.

At heart, a human being is not the slightest bit different from the reptiles, the birds, the former dinosaurs, the elephants, the plants, the trees, the wind, the sky, the microbes.

Apart from their function in conditionality, all beings are the same.

Human beings are not uniquely to be...