Existence precedes all else. You cannot think, know, act, speak without first being an existent thing. 

Encounter is not the same as experience. Experience is about epistemology, how we know what we know. Encounter is about metaphysics, about the nature of what exists, and is a word I dislike.

Objects, regardless of them of having the capacity to experience or not, encounter. To be an object is to be in relation to other objects. To be in relation in the field of reality is to be encounter-able.

Thus, a rock and the ground upon which it sits are encountering each other. The planet Earth and the sun are similarly encountering, as are the galaxies.

By simply existing an object is already in relation to other objects and already encountering whether they know it or not, or whether their encounter is significant or obvious.