There’s No Such Thing as Reward and Punishment

Just human terms.
Fabricated concepts. At best — a partial interpretation of the world of appearances.

The Dog Question

I thought about this and suddenly remembered something: the matter of the trained dog.
Doesn’t the very act of dog training point to the existence of some cosmic law of reward and punishment — something akin to mathematical truth?

And the answer is — I don’t know.

I don’t know if a dog, who does what he’s told to do (even if it makes no sense) just to get a treat, is truly operating from the human notion of reward and punishment.

What I Do Know

What I do know is this:
When my dog detects an intruder, he charges with all his might, risking himself to protect the house.
He doesn’t run away.
He doesn’t leave me alone.

That’s a law of nature — one which human beings, somehow, managed to distort.