TY for the kind words...
And yours were just as eloquent!

When I wrote that, there were no posts in this tribe (which I found fairly odd), so I had to put something to get folks talking!

(Unfortunately, I think it had the opposite effect until you responded... ;)

So, about the differences between those aware of who/what they are and those who are not... How do we reconcile the purpose of those who recognize we are all I AM with those who are not?

Why do some of us who understand this fact seek to attain equillibrium by awakening others, even though we know in our hearts that they will awaken in their own time?

If that was directed at me, I apologize in the delay of responding - duties have kept me from Tribe of late.
But in case it was directed at me, I'll go ahead and answer, since I don't know when I'll be able to "swing back" by again...

>>>Can i presume that you're a vegetarian/vegan?<<<

You may, but presumptions are dangerous tools of the mind... (some might even call them weapons)
Honestly, no, I am not a vegetarian or vegan.

I know this seems like an inherent contradiction to the compassionate awareness of all life, so this will take some explaination. I offer this not as a value judgement or as an "excuse" to justify my behavior - I feel my behavior doesn't require any excuse. I am a lifeform same as any other... (For me, there is a time and a place for everything, and passing judgement on any life is something I will reserve for long after I have departed this plane)

I actually truly love all the animal spirits... but in the same sense, I love all the plant spirits as well. To me, there is a pattern to life which is far more beautiful than anything mortal minds could design. And in it's infinate wisdom, it created a balance of all forces. I am but one small sliver of it's essence, same as every other life, but in life, there are rules for material survival.

And here's the honest truth of it; if our ancestors (who were just as spiritual as we were) hadn't have eaten meat, we wouldn't have had developed the mental capacity to be carrying on this level of discussion (this isn't just my perspective; it's a deitary science thing - there are compounds in animal tissues that proved pivotal to mental evolution; namely the caloric levels which were required to power such over-developed brains) - this is why predators in nature generally end up smarter than their prey... If they aren't, they starve.

The fact that the consciousness that directs life gave us two sets of teeth for different types foods essentially means that it wanted us to partake of both if we were to choose to survive and evolve.

In my being is the eternal archetype of The Hunter (which functions very similarly to the native american way of hunting - in which the spirit of the animal is honored for it's sacrifice to allow our continued survival - however, I extend this to plants as well; when harvesting, it is only right to thank the spirit of the plant in the same way).

To me, selecting one type of food or another is an act of Spiritual Judgement - saying that this type of life is more important than another... And I just can't, won't, and don't do that.
It is a simple fact of life that in order to maintain my life, SOMETHING has to die... same as every other human being and animal.

I actually love animals more than most humans, spiritually speaking - their simplicity allows them to achieve a harmony with the natural order of life far better than most humans, which makes them nearer to my heart...

Am I sad when one dies? Of course I am! ALL life is sacred to me.

What I am disgusted by is the industrialization of food production - it separates us from our place in this world to go to a supermarket and buy our food. If you wish to eat plants, you grow them (or find them if you're on the move). If you eat meat - you hunt it.

And don't mistake what I am calling hunting with the sadistic "sport" that most people engage in these days with guns - I mean pitting your wits, skills, and instincts against the creature's and using (at the most) a bow and arrow.

There is a sacred, spiritual duty that the hunter observes - it is their duty to get a "clean kill" (where the animal dies as quickly as possible so as to not prolong it's suffering) - and this goes a step further when the hunter joins his prey in the last moments of life and serves as it's "witness" and guide of it's spirit into the afterlife, where it may choose to wander the "Eternal Spirit Lands" where there is no hunting or continue on it's soul's path before becoming another life on Earth.

Life is alot more complex, beautiful, and majestic than people in the modern world make it out to be - so separated are we from our natural life, that so many find it easy to take and take without giving back and returning to the world that which was taken, and it has become second nature for many to over-intellectualize life and place it in categories and place their values and judgements on it.

Plants feel the ending of their life, same as animals do - it is only in humanity's comfort with heirarchical models of thinking that we can "logocally separate" the two, and justify whichever actions are taken. It is simply easier for many to ignore the sufferings from plants because their psychic signature is so much more "faint" (I would say "sublime") than animals. It's harder for our natural empathy to detect signatures of a "longer temporal wavelength".

Plus, many plants make this justification easier, because many make a "conscious" offering of portions of their life directly (fruits, beens, grains, etc.), which is intended to be a be a co-operative arrangement between the plant and those who feed from it - what the plant is "saying" is; "Here, take this, but please don't take my life - in return for you spreading this seed, we can see many more of my kind and we may both rejoice in abundance and share in life"...

To me, that's a very "enlightened" expression for such a "simple" organism like a plant... But what do you expect from a consciousness that takes so long to explain itself? But in our modern world, where do most of those seeds end up? (most likely in a municipal waste facility or a septic tank - they are not returned to the environment; in essence, most of us have "renigged" on our end of the deal [and many of them feel quite smart for having figured out how to do all this, no less])

We are trapped within our temporal thinking, and seek to only understand that which can only be understood in the context of a single lifespan... Whereas a tree... Trees have some of the longest lifespans of any living organism on Earth...

(I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a proud card-carrying tree hugger! ;) You can quite literally FEEL their wisdom energy (They are among the only special plants to have co-developed a nautrally harmonious relationship with the element of fire)... But I'm digressing into a tangent.

So, does that explain why I am not a vegetarian/vegan? I hope so - I'm not sure if I can explain it too much better than that without going all metaphysical in explaining the hows and whys of why life works the way it does, and I honestly don't have the time for THAT deep of a discussion right now... LOL! ;)

Much love to you, and every other lifeform!