Humanity should respect animals.

[Shin'Ar]

Precisely. Therefore, if one is concerned about the ecosystem and the planetary health, they could always start by attending to their own.

And THIS thinking of self is exactly what I attempt to address in my longer post and where we will tend to disagree, and where those who believe they are offering compassion, like Monica and others here, who's hearts are in the right place, but who's understandings are lacking.

I am more in line with what you profess here, but I think that you are still not in full understanding of self and other as you attempt to discern this dilemma.

The problem is how does a world of advanced technologies and lifestyles of luxury and greed revert to the natural ways of their ancestors, considered by most to be more primitive.

By using technology to support natural law, rather than to abrogate it.

But still, I would assume we don't want animals running in the streets, or wild plant life taking over our homes and gardens.

And I agree that there is much that we could be doing differently that would be of great benefit to harmony and balance. But as you note, there are some things we will not concede over self.

The missing ingredient in the recipe for harmony between The Self and the other is understanding of this truth of self.

Which is why Ancient Wisdom has always cried out, "Know Thyself."

It was never meant to be a cry to seek self gratification or to assume a temporary incarnation as one's true identity.
What you think is self is actually The Other

So then, would you say there is a real distinction between "self" and "other"? If so- what did the Creator/Self create The Other from?

Absolutely TN,

The One Consciousness alone ceased to exist when It chose to fragment and evolve into awareness and sharing of awareness with other than Itself. What was born in that instance of thought was duality and sacrifice of Self for Other.

The energy or force involved in that process of being and becoming, is the same force by which All exists; the Thought process of The One. And in it's omnipotent authority, however one chooses to acknowledge It, old man in the sky or Photonic Vibration from the Void, IT has designed and established this process in a nature and manifestation of duality which is seen in every aspect of creation and which dances within the form of every creation.

We see It every time we close our eyes. That tiny glimpse of bright light that seems to drift just out of sight, ever elusive and avoiding our every attempt to make it still so we can observe it and define it.

The Mystery; the Other.

The Sacred Eye of The Ancients where Two become One, where One becomes All.

That very questions which haunts each and every fragment of experience as it asks itself why the other does not conform.

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I don't think we should 'auto-respect' at all. We have Free Will afterall. One of the reasons we are in the game is to realize our Unity, and if what one may perceive as 'negative limitations' are placed on such creatures as Catalyst, than so be it. We all have made the decisions to play the part we have. Those who have incarnated as the starving children in 3rd world countries will find they have done so out of Love, in that they will experience such temporarily so that the collective would awaken and realize this isn't the way. Same principle.

This isn't to state I'm 'for' cruelty. Merely that in certain situations were it not for the circumstance in the first place, one may not 'awaken' to 'better' ways. It is the Infinity of creation playing out, and no choices or realities are 'right' or 'wrong'. All is One.

But choices which cause The Other to suffer are wrong, if not only because we ARE the Other.

Just because we must be conscious of the Design and Process does not mean that our choices and decisions do not have consequences and affect both that which we become as well as that which our whole becomes.

We are accountable for both our state of being as the fragment as well as our state of being as the All.

And that is not how we define right and wrong individually, but how the process of being evolves into either a dark entity void of love and light intent of self alone, which no longer even exists and is an illusion/delusion, or a light being of compassion for The Other.