Humanity should respect animals.

[Tenet Nosce]

Exactly! But do they really have "quite a bit of work to do?" I mean, any more than people who feel compassion for other humans but not animals?

Yes, I would still say they do have "quite a bit of work to do" but not necessarily any more than anybody else in particular. Making comparisons of that sort is fruitless.

But I would assume- generally speaking- that those who are close to completion of lessons on compassion would feel compassion for just about everything... other humans, animals, plants, rocks, the Creator, and of course, the self.

We've just ascertained that it can happen in either order...so is one order inherently better than the other?

No. For the same reason that a 6D wanderer isn't better than a 4D wanderer. They're just different paths, and ultimately all paths must be walked.

I actually felt compassion for animals before I did humans. My earliest memories of compassion were for the kittens my dad killed...then for the chickens, pigeons and ducks my dad killed...he made me help.

So as a child, it felt like your dad was forcing you to do it. But we know that you probably programmed this experience pre-incarnatively, and your father was just carrying out your wishes at the time. Or do you have a different view of this?

Also, if you were feeling compassion for those animals at that age, then I think it's safe to say that was -not- your lesson. Perhaps the experience was meant to help you remember your mission? But as far as lessons go, I would assume there was some remediation of love or faith intended.

Very often the catalyst for emotional pain, whether it be the death of the physical complex of one other-self which is loved or some other seeming loss, will simply result in the opposite, in a bitterness, an impatience, a souring. This is catalyst which has gone awry. In these cases, then, there will be additional catalyst provided to offer the unmanifested self further opportunities for discovering the self as all-sufficient Creator containing all that there is and full of joy.

Even the most unhappy of experiences, shall we say, which seem to occur in the Catalyst of the adept, seen from the viewpoint of the spirit, may, with the discrimination possible in shadow, be worked with until light equaling the light of brightest noon descends upon the adept and positive or service-to-others illumination has occurred. The service-to-self adept will satisfy itself with the shadows and, grasping the light of day, will toss back the head in grim laughter, preferring the darkness.

But beyond these generalities, I of course wouldn't be able to discern any details. What is your insight on these experiences?

I'll never forget those headless chickens flopping around...nor their eyes still blinking in shock and awareness that they'd just been beheaded.

Do you really think those chickens were aware they had been beheaded?!
As in... they consciously contemplated their own beheaded state?

And he said "They're dead but they don't know they're dead."

What didn't know it was dead?

Gosh! What a confusing response to hear from your dad! My understanding has always been that the Life (spirit) that inhabits the form (body) is eternal. Therefore, the experience of "death" is the separation of the life from the form. Ultimately, nothing is lost.

It is to be kept in the forefront of the faculties of intelligence that there is one creation in which there is no loss.

All is well. Nothing is lost. Go forth rejoicing in the love and the light, the peace and the power of the One Infinite Creator.

I remember finding a baby bird and wanting to save it...what child doesn't have that memory? That was compassion.

Ah, but we all have a propensity to project our own experience onto others. I don't think it is fair to generalize to all children. If we all popped out of the womb fully compassionate beings... then there would be no teach/learning of compassion necessary. We would already know!

That being said- it wouldn't surprise me at all if many children nowadays felt that level of compassion for baby birds, since we are approaching the end of the cycle. You were probably a bit ahead of the times.

Even though I was committing an act of mercy, it apparently didn't know that, and fought hard to live. It had to have been about a minute but seemed like many minutes before I finally succeeded in snuffing out its life. Then its lifeless eyes stared back at me, stricken, and, I imagined, betrayed.

I dunno if we can say for sure. All forms seek to preserve their own existence.. that is true. But self-preservation is a function of the form. The Life inhabiting the form has a different view... it understands that in order to evolve, it must periodically leave its form and seek a new one.

The intelligent energy that was inhabiting the lizard-body probably understood that its form had become irreparable. I'm sure it forgave you almost immediately! But have you forgiven yourself?

It's a mystery, no doubt. I couldn't even imagine beginning to penetrate it to any significant degree. That sounds like 7D lessons to me.

I had no compassion for bugs. I hated them because they made my life miserable. But I had plenty of opportunities to feel compassion for animals...don't all children? Other than helping my dad butcher chickens, were my interactions with animals any different from those of other children?

Oh, yes. It could be very different. For example, I have a friend who is an American living in Peru with a Peruvian wife from the rainforest. They have a daughter together, who lives in the city, but occasionally goes back with her mom to visit family in the rainforest.

Apparently, my friend's daughter- at the age of 3- while visiting her family in the rainforest, decided she was hungry and so she went out back, grabbed a chicken, and killed it by snapping its neck. Then she casually walked back into the kitchen with it and offered it to her relatives to cook! Needless to say, everybody was shocked by her behavior.

Feeling compassion for animals came naturally to me. Humans, however, were a different story. Humans mistreated me. I don't remember the first time I felt compassion for a human. Probably around age 13 or so, when friends discovered I was a good listener and started telling me their problems.

Sorry to hear you were so mistreated. I mistreated others as a kid... nothing terribly cruel, mostly unkind words and things like that. Much later on, I finally realized why I did this.

I was never prone to be cruel to animals as many children are. Although one time I trapped a daddy longlegs underneath a clear plastic cup, and watched as it got baked by the sun. I felt bad about that for a really long time afterwards.

By the time I fully awakened at age 21, compassion flowed readily. I saw, and still don't see, any distinction between animal and human, when it comes to compassion. It just is.

Well "they" say that our level of development around age 21 is a match to whatever we have previously attained in previous incarnations. But gosh- you were "fully awakened" at age 21? As in... you have not awakened further since then?

But I can understand why some people might have an easier time feeling compassion for animals than for humans. They've been hurt by humans, and haven't yet learned that not all humans hurt others.

That's true. Conversely, a person raised around many housepets and farm animals might not fully understand that not all animals are kind to each other, or to humans.

That probably was a poor choice of words. Maybe...extremist? Fanatic? Crazy? Not saying they are any of those things...just saying that society tends to label them as such, because their views are considered backwards.

Hmm. Again, I don't know. These days, society tends to use words in a willy-nilly fashion- assigning whatever definition they like to them, and even changing the definition of words mid-argument when it suits their purpose! When people use words in this fashion- it's a wonder that anything useful gets communicated at all!

According to my understanding, the terms zealot, fanatic, and extremist are closely related. But not exactly the same. They sort of build upon one another.

A zealot is one who believes that their belief system is the "One True Way" and who never questions the basic premises of their own thinking.

A fanatic is one who seeks to impose that belief system onto others. Often times, this is connected to the idea of "salvation" in the sense that there is something "evil" lurking out in the world that others need to be saved from... therefore the fanatic sees themselves as a "savior" of others even as they seek to restrict their free will.

An extremist is typically one who would use hateful and violent methods to impose their belief system onto others. Like suicide bombers. But in a more subtle sense, it could refer to those who use devious political tactics to impose their belief system onto others using laws, regulations, and other restrictions of liberty.

Then I wouldn't be a very good vegetarian now would I?

Depends on what your personal goals might be. Occasionally it is good to push one's boundaries and do something very "unusual" for oneself, just for the sake of the experience.

Now that might be a very good example of to the extent necessary.

I'm kind of surprised that topic doesn't have its own thread already! As you know, my take is that part of the genetic tinkering that went on in our past artificially increased the extent to which meat-eating was necessary for certain subpopulations.