Sentient Beings
After sitting meditation, there are two vows we recite, one in the morning, and one in the evening, Both vow to save sentient beings.
Morning:
Vast is the robe of liberation
A formless field of benefaction
I wear the Tathagata's teaching
Saving all sentient beings
Evening:
Sentient beings are numberless
I vow to save them….
A student recently asked what does “sentient” mean, a question arising out of the above Vows. The evening Vows date back to the teaching of Hui-neng (638-713, the Sixth Patriarch) in the Platform Sutra, during the T'ang dynasty in China.
In the Platform Sutra it states: "We vow to deliver infinite number of sentient beings of our mind." "And who are these sentient beings within our mind?" According to Hui-neng, "they are the delusive mind, the deceitful mind, the evil mind, and such like minds-all these are sentient beings. Each of them has to deliver himself by means of his own essence of mind. Then the deliverance is genuine.” *
In other words every aspect of oneself, the many different aspects of the mind, are sentient beings we vow to awaken. We awaken them by becoming one with them. When angry, be angry. When disappointed, be disappointed. When joyful, be joyful.
What we don’t like about others is usually what we don’t like in ourselves. If we feel someone is hypocritical, then that is likely an aspect of ourselves we probably don’t see, or don’t want to see. Seeing the other in ourselves, that is awakening all aspects of our mind, that is saving all sentient beings. All aspects of the mind want to be awakened and expressed in a mature and healthy way.
There is an additional way the Vow manifests. If there is a piece of glass on the sidewalk, we pick it up so someone doesn’t step on it. If there is a doggie who is lost, we try to find the one who takes care of it, and so on. That manifestation and actualization arises out of our realization that we sentient beings are all connected, interconnected, and interdependent.
When we awaken the many aspects of the mind and how we perceive the other, the world, we have the opportunity to let go of firmly held ideas of the other. When we change who we are, we essentially change the world around us. Dropping our projections and judgments we save others from ourselves. That is a gift we can give family and friends. More understanding, compassion, patience, and grace naturally arises.
The study and recognition of sentient beings and consciousness dates back to the teachings of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha and are encompassed in the Buddhist teachings 2500 years ago. See, "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula, on the Five Aggregates, pp. 20-28. Early texts in the Pali Canon of that era define a sentient being (satta) as an aggregation of physical form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
Michael Pollen explores scientists’ in depth studies on the sentience and consciousness of plants in "A World Appears, A Journey into Consciousness.” He defines it as: “... characterized by the ability to sense one’s environment and respond intelligently to both positive ad negative changes with that environment….Implied here is a degree of awareness, a point of view, sensation, preferences. and some agency. But sentience lacks the more evolutionarily advanced aspects of consciousness, such as a sense of self, emotion, reasoning and the ability to reflect on one’s own thoughts - all the capabilities we associate with ‘higher’ animals like ourselves.” A World Appears, p. 13.
*The Diamond Sutra & the Sutra of Hui-neng, Translated by A. F. Price & Wong Mou-lam." p. 102
