Thanks so much for a really great, and again, insightful response. I agree with all you say, even that trees are, in a slow way, conscious. And, on some amazing level, even stones are life, though not volitional, I've yet to see one run across the street.

I am also with Nagarjuna that the ultimate truth is Emptiness, that emptiness that is pure potential, that was never created, and will never perish, the ground of being of everything.