Beverley, 'Sentient' is of course a general English word, not a Buddhist-specific word, so you'd only have to look it up in a dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online defines 'sentient as:
1: responsive to or conscious of sense impressions <sentient beings> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sentient <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sentient> You might read some Buddhist texts that say something alike 'all sentient beings have Buddha Nature'. Buddha Nature is just another term for awareness, and the only way we humans have of being aware is through sensual experience. But it is an awareness BEFORE our discriminating mind starts post-processing these pure sensory experiences by filtering, augmenting, categorizing, judging and (most critically) separting them into subject/object. Like: 'I see the flower, but the flower is not me - I am separate from the flower. I am 'in here' and it is 'out there'. Instead of just referring to awareness as Buddha Nature, our discriminating mind has even split our awareness up into 5 categories: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. Please note (especially all you Theravada afficionadoes out there) that 'sentient' does NOT mean 'having cognitive ability'. The awareness of Buddha Nature can only be realized through sentient abilities, not cognitive abilities. IMO - Bill! --- In [email protected], Beverley Huish <beverley.huish@...> wrote: > > Hi, > > I keep coming across references to 'sentient beings'. How does Buddhism define > a sentient being? > > :-) > > Beverley. >
